#8.  Canary Girls - "Laser Prom"

One of the blog's favorite new bands of the year, Canary Girls' debut album, Everything is Changing, gave Buffalo a much welcome shot of nostalgia (think M83's John Hughes lovin Saturdays=Youth), and no more so than in the electro pop ballad "Laser Prom."  Led by front man Bill Eager's soaring vocals and heavy synths, the tune was tailor made for one of those couples-only, hand in hand skates at the local roller rink on a Saturday night.  Despite the clear 80's influences, the song gives off a timeless feeling, turning "1982" into a state of mind.




#7.  Space Wolves - "All the Talk"

This lo fi two piece came out of nowhere this fall, releasing two stellar albums of jangle pop, Space Wolves and Space Wolves II, within a month of each other.  On the more fully fleshed out II, "All the Talk" immediately grabbed our attention.  Sounding like a perfect little slice of 90's college rock, the Pavement esque number featured the duo's laid back vocals, a crunchy opening riff,  and swirling melodies.  The pair should easily be able to carry this momentum in 2013 with another album in the works and the (hopeful) live performance debut.





#6. Damian - "Soul Night" 

Damian's title track off the full-length album Soul Night, another one of Steak and Cake's great releases in 2012, is an ode to The Elmwood Lounge's bi-monthly retro soul night. Call it mumblecore or just plain indie rock, Damian's "Soul Night" holds a special place for anyone that has had a blast dancing carefree to carefully selected Handsome Dan cuts. We at buffaBLOG agree Damian, we can only dance if our rock and roll is played by weirdos. 




#5. Floyd & the Nicknames - "Surf Music"

Having played the blog's first birthday party back in March of 2011 with his three piece garage punk band Arctic Death, Steven Floyd has always been one of our favorite guitar players in Buffalo.  This past summer, Floyd released his music, his latest musical project through Steak and Cake, under the moniker of Floyd & the Nicknames.  "Surf Music," the stand out track from the short EP ten million seventy one thousand nine hundred and ninety, kicks off with a rockabilly-like guitar lick taken right out of the South and dropped down on to Allen Street.  Floyd's nasally, Jay Reatard like vocals front the stripped down Stokes like tune.




#4. Aircraft - "Exist"

If there was an award for Buffalo Rookie Band of the Year, Aircraft would have it in the bag.  In addition to landing some clutch opening slots for Cavemen, Thee Oh Sees, and Ty Segall, the Buffalo four piece psych rockers released a great 4 track demo, giving everyone a look at what the promising band may be capable of when their proper full length drops next year.  On the frantic rocker, "Exist," the band gives a nod to the early days of British Psychedelia, with singer Justin John Smith's howl leading the track while being backed by one of Buffalo's best rhythm sections in James Warren and Ian Be.  Plus, anything with a great horn section is good in my book.

  



#3. Anthony DelPlato - "The Arrival"

It's rare that a local album resonates with the listener as much as Anthony DelPlato's intimate storytelling EP, 8 Old Vines. Released via Steak and Cake Records, 8 Old Vines is a tale of road tripping along backroads of upstate New York to visit a girlfriend. Self-recorded in DelPlato's home studio, "The Arrival" is a beautifully layered third track on the album that channels the great 90s emo bands (Appleseed Cast, Mineral). DelPlato is the total package. He is a wonderful story teller, a talented multiinstrumentalist, and has the ability to reach through the speakers and get to your heart. You can't help but feel the emotion. 




#2. Sonny Baker - "Cripple Fantastic"

If you've paid attention to the Buffalo music scene at all for the past seven years, then you know who Sonny Baker is. When other teenagers were going to prom and getting their drivers licenses, Baker was on opening slots for Nietzsche's lineups. After years of performing drums and guitar with various acts (Wooden Waves, A Hotel Nourishing, Lazlo Hollyfeld), Baker finally found time focus on his solo work with Steak and Cake's Brandon Schlia. Baker's first track off of the album Here Are Those Freaks You've Been Asking For, "Cripple Fantastic," is a crescendoing indie rock number that leads into haunting, Jim James-y vocals  It's absolutely amazing.  Promise you'll never leave, Sonny?





#1. The Tins - "Please Be Kind" 

If you are just scoping out this post to get a feel for what is coming out of Buffalo, please look back at all of the previous nineteen artists. Buffalo's music scene is diverse, motivated, and growing. With that said, The Tins' "Please Be Kind" is buffaBLOG's favorite track of 2012. This synth driven indie-pop trio has been around since 2008, playing everywhere from Mr. Goodbar to Austin's Beauty Bar. The single, "Please Be Kind," from the band's first full-length album, Life's A Gas, is perfect. The driving beat, funky bass lines, and keyboardist Mike Santillo's wistful pleas make the track extremely MTVU friendly. If we want an outsider to hear one song from Buffalo this year, this would be it. So, yeah, here's the best track in Buffalo in 2012. 




We could not be more proud of the scene in Buffalo and we at buffaBLOG are excited for 2013. It will only get better. 

Last night, Frankie Rose and the band played at our very own Soundlab, courtesy of Supernaut Productions, to showcase her most recent album, Interstellar.

Canary Girls, a local band kick started the evening with electro-indie tunes, accompanied for the first time with a new band member, Bernice Radle, a keyboardist who in addition complemented the band's original set with smooth backing harmony.  They filled the space of Soundlab with bright melodies and pulsing rhythms that bounced of each other with precision and high energy.

Frankie Rose and the band took the stage shortly after the Canary Girls were finished with their set- Rose's band included a drummer, bassist, keyboardist and a guitarist, though Frankie herself worked a guitar as well.

The highlight of their set proved to be the acapella-like excursion that Frankie and the accompanying back-up vocalist traversed (the one on the keyboard), the two voices blended together seamlessly, filling the venue with an infectious wave of vocal reverie reminiscent of Cocteau Twins. Frankie ended the set-list with Interstellar's second to last song on "Moon In My Mind", a slower piece fueled by a moody, tugging bassline. It was an appropriate song to end with as it characterized the demeanor Rose's music exuded- an ode to 80s synth dream-pop, but perhaps with a more ominously sinister edge; think of a witch's cabin in a fairy-tale setting.

Tonight, the Slumberland signed artist Frankie Rose will be performing at Soundlab. Rose has formerly played in groups The Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls, but tonight she will be delivering some highly anticipated solo-tunes from her latest album Interstellar - airy vocals and dream-pop instrumentals that bring forth to mind acts diverse as Cocteau Twins and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

If you are a lover of lofty synth sounds and fluttering vocals with a danceable touch, this show should be on your radar for tonight, especially since the local group Canary Girls are opening. Tickets are $10 pre-sale and doors open at 8PM.  We'll see you there.

Victory for Poland:  Victory for Poland were the winners of the Music is Art Battle of the Bands.  For a band whose members are still in high school, their sound and influences are surprisingly mature...  Think Modest Mouse or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  A young band of talented multi-instrumentalists is something everyone can get into - they'll be playing from 12:45 - 1:00 on Stage #3.

Tonight, head down to The Tralf to catch another night of the Betterdays Festival, which features some of Buffalo's best local music. For those of you who went to Day 1, you have already purchased your pass for tonight, so what reason do you have to miss another evening of great music, featuring Aircraft, Eppo, Love Scenes, Armageddon Party, All of Them Witches and Canary Girls? If you have not already purchased a pass, they are $10 and will also get you into tomorrow night's show. So, take the opportunity tonight and see all of the bands this blog has been writing about this year and then come back tomorrow for even more. That way, we can feel like we contribute to the greater good. I mean we do, but it is nice to be reminded.

Betterdays Festival Day 2
The Tralf Music Hall
7pm doors/8pm show
$10 for all three days

After a busy spring, releasing their debut album and playing a marathon of shows in the Buffalo area, Canary Girls took the summer off. Vacation is over, however, and tonight marks their return to the stage at Duke's, supposedly armed with new material. Sharing the bill will be On Beta, another Buffalo act that released one of the better albums of this past year. They will be joined by Great Deceivers, a band making their stop in Buffalo all they way from Orlando, Florida.  This is one of the more solid bills Duke's has put together for their ongoing Vertigo Night series, and should serve as good counter programming to the mashup shenanigans happening across town. Doors are at 10, and as always, Dante Valour will be spinning your favorites all night. If you get lucky maybe he'll let you touch his sideburns.

If you don't jam this while reading this post, you're doing it wrong.

Okay, we've really beat you over the head with this one.  Today is our first ever Beach Party at Sunset Bay Beach Club.  There will be live music all day starting at Noon for a measly $5.  Drink specials include a free drink with admission, as well as 2 for 1 drinks from 2-4pm.  In case you haven't heard the bands, check out the Artist Spotlights we've been doing on them all week:

12pm - Handsome Dan
1pm - AUTOPUNCH
2pm - Aircraft
3pm - The Tins
4pm - Canary Girls
5pm - Nelson-Type

It took a lot of backstabbing, blackmail, and prostitution to get this party off the ground... as well as favors from old friends and hard work from the people who make the wheels of this music scene turn.  I've met a lot of intelligent individuals while writing for this blog, and they do it tirelessly for no personal gain.  One of the perks is we get to throw parties with our favorite bands.  So put on your mankini and join us for some fun in the sun. We only get to enjoy it for a short time a year, like egg nog.

I don't know what to say about Canary Girls that this BLOG hasn't said already; we've covered them so often in the few months since they formed, that I half expect them to file an Order of Protection. But there's good reason for this: THEY ARE GOOD. Usually, we proffer perfunctory posts on just about anyone around town, trying to bolster the scene and get more people out of their homes and into venues, but when a group is really, really good, we'll hammer it into your head that you need to get the F out of your house and check them out. And there may be no better reason to get the F out of your house this weekend than to check them out at our Beach Party, where they'll be sharing the stage with The Tins, Aircraft, Nelson-Type, AUTOPUNCH, and DJ Handsome Dan. It's on Saturday at Sunset Bay, just a short drive south of Buffalo, and $5 gets you in.

Regarding Canary Girls, suffice it so say: "They Sound 80s." And that's not meant to be as dismissive as it may seem; I mean it in a good way. Check out our review of their debut album, or listen to it here:

Sunday’s performance by Porcelain Raft at The Ninth Ward was, in an eye-opening sort of way, paradoxical. It felt like the most intelligent, expanding, artistic, and enveloping concert that nobody knew about. As far as timing goes, I realize that the tail end of the Allentown Art Festival was largely to blame for the disappointing turnout. That isn’t to say it wasn’t incredible for those who were there, which it absolutely was; it’s taken me four days to process all the intricacies, perceptions, and complexities of the music, and it’s massive effect on me. I know that that sounds excessive, but live music can and should do such things to the human psyche; we should often be mesmerized by what a couple of folks can do with a few guitars, keyboards, and drums, both during a performance, and in it’s afterglow. It’s hard to compare live shows (especially this year) insofar as it’s largely an experiential endeavor (although I hope I’m not the only one who was blown away), the planets aligned for me on Sunday night, and I am confident in saying that it was the best show I’ve been to so far this year. And even though the attendance was sparse, the upside was that it resulted in the show becoming that much more cherished.

Tonight, the Tins will (finally!) be releasing their debut album, Life's a Gas, at Nietzsches. After a year of recording and raising money through a Kickstarter campaign the group is ready to prove to the world that hard work does indeed pay off AND that the Tins are easily one of the best bands going. The bill also includes a host of Buffablog faves including Early Attic, Bryan Johnson and Family and Canary Girls. No other show quite displays the level of awesomeness going on in our fair town right now so make sure you don't miss this one. Jams start at 10pm.

The Canary Girls debut album Everything Is Changing arrived in my inbox at an ideal time last week. The sun was out, the sky was blue, flowers were budding, it was hot, summer hot thanks to global warming, and listening to Everything Is Changing clicked immediately with the sunny, joyous Buffalo that we enjoyed for that crazy week. To the outsider Buffalo is a "winter city," but it's inhabitants know that Buffalo is really a summer city... because we know how to truly enjoy it, and this tour de force debut from Canary Girls channels that vibe.


"Waves and Stations" kicks things off with a perfect statement of what Canary Girls are all about: sunny, anthemic 80's style electronica; tasteful grooves, a powerful chorus, and the soaring Northern soul vocal styings of Bill Eager. Big without being cheesy, Eager's voice carries the entire album on it's back, and he is up to the challenge. Nowhere is that more apparent than "Laser Prom,"  an unabashed ode to the 80's that conjures Spandau Ballet and M83 while confidently acknowledging the bands inspirations. It's a song that could have collapsed into a complete mess of retro excess, but it doesn't.




Canary Girls also show exceptional deftness with the power ballad throughout Everything Is Changing. "Orange" could easily have been on the Top Gun soundtrack, while the smoldering "Night Court" channels the neon drenched streets downtown. If there's a theme to this album, it'd have to be yearning. The album is drenched in yearning, and it works. It's also another example of why real drums and electronica go together perfectly, because Josh Kwoka's drums are absolutely pivotal to Canary Girls' big sound.


The album closes with a brilliant one-two punch with the unadulterated power pop of "Scene Of The Accident" and chilled out yet passionate "Vancouver." "Scene Of The Accident" features Eager walking a true high wire- that driving, insistent backbeat and spiraling chorus could have been real trouble, but Canary Girls pull it off thanks to Bill Eager landing that airplane and the band's tasteful reserve that keeps them from going overboard. "Vancouver" is an album closer in the classic mold- the omega to "Waves and Stations" alpha, a re-statement of what the album is all about that also eases the listener back into the real world while giving them something that will make them come back for more. Everything is Changing is a triumphant debut album from Canary Girls, and definitely an early entry for my Albums of the Summer. Download it from the band here, or listen to it via Soundcloud below.


Grade: B+

9. Mirroring: Foreign Body


8. The Men: Open Your Heart
Brooklyn Punk-rockers The Men are following up last year’s LP Leave Home with the riff-laden new LP Open Your Heart. From the title of the title track "Open Your Heart" one might assume that the group might be deviating from their heavy, Ramone's influenced, non-trendy punk sound, but only slightly. The four-piece group still sound like they recorded this in 1975, but the attitude of the music is positively 2012. The LP is set for release on March 6, you can preorder it on their website for $15 vinyl, $12 CD. They have also set a tour date to play The Bug Jar in Rochester on March 23.


7. Late Night Tales: Belle and Sebastian
If you're unfamiliar with the Late Night Tales series, let me first inform you, out of the 25 tracks on this collection, only one song is by Belle and Sebastian...and it's a cover of "Crash" by The Primitives. Late Night Tales is a series where a renowned musical group or musician compiles what they think would be the best "late night" selection. So while this isn't exactly a release of new songs, it is still jam packed with some killer tunes by the likes of Broadcast, Gold Panda, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Toro y Moi. This 2 CD compilation will be out March 26. For more information and a track listing visit the Belle and Sebastians website.




6.  s / s / s: Beak & Claw
Comprised of indie-folker Sufjan Stevens, rapper Serengeti, and electro-pop artist Son Lux, it is not hard to figure out how s / s / s conjured up this clever name for their new collaborative project. While their new EP is only four songs, make no mistake, these three artists have shown their capabilities in compacting complex sounds and concepts in each of their own previous albums. While no tracks from the EP have been released yet, the short collection of songs is said to be jam packed with fuzzy bass, adventorous vocals, and Sufjan auto-tuned. Beak & Claw comes out March 20, and can be preordered on Insound’s website. Listen to the 2009 track "You Are The Blood" which Sufjan and Serengeti first joined forces on.


5. Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself


4. Tanlines: Mixed Emotions
The Brooklyn electro-pop duo are releasing their debut full-length, Mixed Emotions, on March 20 after having previously released two acclaimed EPs in 2010. The first single off the album "Brothers" is catchy and danceable. This LP is sure to be a hit that will last throughout the summer months. You can pre-order it on vinyl or CD on Matador's website.



3. Daniel Rossen: Silent Mile/Golden Hour


2. The Shins: Port of Morrow


1. Poor Moon: Illusion