This week we have been previewing the five great acts we have in store for our fourth birthday bash this Saturday at DBGB’s. Third on the lineup is Alex Berkley & the Atlanta Falcons. You may have seen Berkley’s solo workings before, singing songs about Dawson’s Creek or Star Trek on an acoustic guitar any given Monday night in the heart of Allen, but this Saturday’s performance will be different. Berkley is set to be backed by his newly reformed backing band, the Atlanta Falcons, consisting of Sonny Baker (Lazlo Hollyfeld, Wooden Waves, A Hotel Nourishing), Billy Fulton (Wooden Waves, Ay Karou) and Colin Griffin (Bear Exchange). 

Berkley’s songwriting style is quirky yet sincere, comparable to Jeff Mangum/Neutral Milk Hotel or the Mountains Goats. The band is set to perform numerous blasts from the past, including songs off Lists and Listlessness, Berkley’s 2008 debut full-length that was retroactively declared buffaBLOG’s top local album of 2008.

Music kicks off at 10pm sharp with a cover of $5.

As much as we here at buffaBLOG love to write about bands from the Queen City; every once in a while we do take time out of our hectic schedules from dropping obscure references, and shotgunning PBR’s to talk about bands from Rochester. Today is one of those days, and Harmonica Lewinski is one of those bands. Chocked full of fuzz, distortion, ghostly guitar riffs, and echoed vocals, Lewinski’s latest release, Twerk Jerky, is a must have for any garage band enthusiast. They manage to channel Link Wray and the Sonics with true garage-punk elements. Afterall, how can you not love a band with members who go by handles like Captain Trash, Wild Hanes Stains Richards, Hooter McTooter, The Musical Linn Linn, Harold "Docks" (raw dawg n' it) Jenkins, and Dirty Sanchez? Then again what would you expect from a band who met “in the basement of a gay club, in Rochester, NY loaded with pussy, ass, drugs and alcohol?” This is according to bassist Jeremiah Richards (who we can assume is also Wild Hanes Stains Richards).  

The garage punk band from Rochester with the clever name will be playing buffaBLOG’s 4th Birthday Party at Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar on Saturday, March 29th. Richards commented on the show saying, “We’re excited to play in Buffalo for the first time at the buffaBLOG birthday party! I guess we’re a party band so maybe that's why they asked us. It's at DBGB's, that's all we know.”  Also on the bill will be Mr. Boneless, Alex Berkley & The Atlanta Falcons, Real People, and Chauncey Tails. Show starts at 10pm. $5 at the door. 

For me, no bands sums up the promise of Buffalo's music scene and Buffalo itself more than Forealists. This Prince and The Revolution meets Passion Pit party/space/electronic funk outfit featuring Rocco DellaNeve, Kevin Urso, Beat Masta Wes, Deshawn "D-Ray" Jackson, and bass queen Zuri Appleby is the sound of past and the future going off simultaneously creating something that's still unfolding before our eyes. The last time I saw them, they'd turned the back room at Duke's into a fantastical dance party freak out that was uplifting, a sensory overload, and completely irresistible. They called for fancy dress and their devoted and growing flock obliged, a lot of people came together and got down, and for a city ridden with barriers and nonsense, it was beautiful... and funky as hell. Forealists are a special band. buffaBLOG is honored to have their next thang be our Holiday Party, and I for one cannot wait.

It's that time of year again!  We buffaBLOGGERS will be hosting our annual Holiday Party at DBGB's this Saturday, December 21st. Of course, we have invited some of our favorite local acts to help us celebrate how great of a year 2013 was for music.  The anthemic Marine Biologist will be opening our party this year - they specialize in atmospheric, post-rock songs like "Allegro," which landed very high in our Best Songs of 2013 list. According to their bandcamp page, their latest batch of songs aims to take the focus off of traditional song structures and overblown instrumentals to focus on the bare bones of what makes music interesting in the first place...  In essence, it's bound to be a magical experience, especially as we introduce the rest of the artists throughout the week.  We'll see you Saturday at 10:00!

Mass Appeal 2013 is finally upon us tomorrow night, and here at buffaBLOG we are super stoked to be presenting the after-party to the main event, Heavy Rotation: a buffaBLOG Dance Party. This week, we have been previewing all the DJ acts we will be showcasing, and last but not least, is "Your Boy" MEDISON! DJ Medison has had a big impact on Electronic Dance Music and dance parties in Buffalo since first moving here. Co-founder of the Queen City Cartel, Medison, aka Steve Rittner, has always been willing to push the boundaries, and not allow his Buffalo compatriots to become complacent. From his experiences in Orlando and NYC, he has been extremely helpful in the growth of the music and fashion scene in Buffalo in his own unique way, and it is fitting that he be the selector (DJ) for MASS APPEAL 2013, the quintessential Buffalo event that highlights the relationship between music and fashion. 

Always keenly dressed, Steve brings cool with him wherever he goes, and when on the decks the party gets real. He will be spinning his mix of Dance and House music before, during, and especially after the event tomorrow night. When Heavy Rotation starts at approximately 9:45 you can catch Medison in the main room from 10:45 until Midnight! $5 at the door.

This Saturday (November 23^rd) buffaBLOG will be curating the official after party for the 2013's Mass Appeal in the Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center(1685 Elmwood Avenue) . buffaBLOG has put in a lot of effort, handpicking a mix of DJs that we think are capable of making you dance, even if you think you are too cool to.  We are very excited to introduce a Crushes DJ set in Buffalo, For those unfamiliar, Crushes is the meeting of two minds, David Lee Rad and Laura “LuLu” Robinson, that results in a relentless four-to-the-floor mega-shaking super party.  Along with three other very talented DJ acts (Buddy Budinski of CULTR CLUB, ABCDJ, and Medison), Crushes will without a doubt bring the party. I’ll see you on the dance floor. I’ll be the guy going unreasonably HAM. 

Our spotlight series for this year's Camp Bisco continues with Vacationer. The Philadelphia based four piece has the beach ready, summer vibe you'd expect from a band named Vacationer. Kenny Vasoli has a breathy vocal delivery that floats over light synths and island instrumentals like breeze over sand. Mac mentioned that the vocals reminded him a bit of Grizzly Bear and I agree, I also think the band would make a great co-bill with Dent May. Camp Bisco is heavy on the electronic side, but bands like Vacationer serve as a welcome detox from all the button pushing. If button pushing is your thing though, the band boasts some impressive remixes on their Good As New EP from the likes of Geographer and Data Romance. Every year I discover a hidden treasure in the lineup where I'd least expect it and Vacationer very well may be that band.

We're now less than two months away from the 12th incarnation of Camp Bisco. While much has been written of this year's headliners (full lineup here), we'll be spending the time from now until July 11th highlighting some of the up and comers on the bill. If you weren't worried about scheduling conflicts before, be prepared to face some tough choices.

With all the hemming and hawing over the new Daft Punk album, it seems only appropriate that we kick things off with a disco act. Chicago based producer Pete Dougherty, a.k.a. Moon Boots, has spent the past few years pumping out upbeat disco jams for Dallas based blog turned House label French Express (yes, that Dallas). His career received a recent boost after his remix of Bondax's "Gold" was featured on The Magician's Magic Tape Thirty. His approach is very mature, like the slick soundtrack to a suit & tie nightclub you shouldn't be allowed in, yet fun enough to remain unpretentious. Check out his newly released single "Love Strong" below, and be sure to catch his set at this year's Camp. Suit & tie not required.

Lesionread is a Buffalo electronic group, led by Shawn Lewis, that wants to succeed! So bad! Every reverberated beat cries for attention: please-please; please-please; please-please. I'm projecting the Lesionread Facebook profile—where the most obvious cute, banal pleas to friendly listeners resound—onto the music a bit, but something within it says it, too. I like attention, so I think understand this kind of music. It's a little obnoxious, but it's also refreshing and gritty. It's music for people who harp because they're genuinely interested in stuff. It's music for inventive, hyper kids, for newly radicalized readers, short-distance travelers, and forgetful lovers. Distracted by its own sound, it manages to get inside your head like good pop music, but is undeniably anti-social.

The wacky explosions of dislodged, swimmy beats sound like they were extracted and recorded from old public television shows or beat speakers. A very young man's lyric is strewn throughout many of the tracks, but it's angry, and drops into dark, ever-deepening pits where it usually breaks a leg.

Lesionread reminds me of Gang Gang Dance when they were weird in a break-out, we-don't-give-a-fucking-shit stage of music-making. The more I listen, the more I like it. So much so that I feel comfortable likening it to Thom Yorke's work. Of course you can't seriously compare anything to Radiohead or Animal Collective, so I'll just say this: for a low-fi, misunderstood, alternative psych project, the music is incredibly rad and oddly relatable. 

Around the time of the reunification of Germany, law enforcement was uncertain and vacant warehouses were aplenty. This was the setting that truly influenced and inspired Sascha Ring, otherwise known as Berlin's electronic musician Apparat. He exemplifies a potent form of merging cultures, as East and West came together and the overflow of cultural attributes blended. It was a time of raw new-found exploration and in the air was an irresistible sense of curiosity.

Apparat is a prime example of how environmental influences truly seep into the artistic culture of a scene. With industrial inspiration and an intense vibe, the heavier influences are noticeable on his tracks. Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) is an often overlooked and beautiful genre. With Apparat's minimal distortions, a galactic flow, and lyrics that reach great poetic depths, he has developed a sound that appeals to the deep thinker; it's soothing meanwhile intellectually satisfying.

"Back in the days, those DJs played all types of music at these parties but for me, it always, it had to be something raw, and uhm, yeah, equally fucked up," said Ring during an interview for Bloc Festival. A wonderfully produced interview, he expands on how the darkness of industrial Germany enticed him into this type of sound.


His story is exhilrating and thought provoking. Since the laws at the time were relatively vague, Apparat became deeply enveloped into the scene. It's a story of an aspiring musician during a time when records were difficult to find. He built himself by seeking the crevices of his world for anything to satisfy his dedication to music.
Apparat has put out six albums, one a project album under the name Moderat co-produced with Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary of Modeselektor. If you're a Breaking Bad freak, you'll recognize his song "Goodbye" as Gus enters the hospital right before the jaw-dropping finale scene of the fourth season, pun intended. His most recent album release, The Devil's Walk, is beautifully symphonic and exploitative - it is organized chaos that seems to have every intention to release your inner demons.

"I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to sound but I also think that it is always really important to have some chaotic elements in the music," said Ring.