Showing posts with label jaz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jaz. Show all posts
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Tonight: Crows & Jays Album Release Show


Batavian Americana... Bataviana band, Crows & Jays, are celebrating their first full-length album Indian Falls with local folky guest Sonny Baker and Nashville's roots-rock band Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (presumably borrowed from the Incredible String Band's third album of the same title). The show is at Babeville tonight at 8, with tickets at $5.


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buffaBLOG's Best of 2013: Staff Picks - Favorite Albums Part 2



Steve Gordon

 Connan Mockasin - Caramel
New Zealand's Connan Mockasin is what would happen if you made circa-1997 Radiohead drop acid with Syd Barrett and Ariel Pink. Bizarre and haunted, jazzy and demented, lo-fi bedroom space rock. Fill that bedroom with some baby-making, and you have his 2013 album, Caramel; all the aforementioned artists, with a little bit of Brothers Johnson on top. “Lysergic Sex Funk” is how a friend once described it, and I can't beat that. “I'm the Man, That Will Find You” is a standout track.

Travis Kowalski

Mayor Hawthorne - Where Does This Door Go
Where Does This Door Go is an album deeply focused on delivering modernized retro-soul vibes and contemporary hip-hop party jams that are predominantly inspired from Mayer Hawthorne’s previous DJ career. What makes this album stand out this year is how with three albums now under his belt, he still continues to progressively evolve as an artist by using heavier experimental instrumentals while also staying true to his disc jockey roots with his omnipresent neo-soul beats. Above all the other tracks on this album, his collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on “Crime” emerged to be among one of my favorites this year. The great thing about this song is that it doesn’t over complicate itself and brings out an infectious chorus with slick pop/hip-hop rhythms to give it that cool edge. 



Jaz Frazier

 The Malones - The Malones
If there is any one album that I abused, it’s easily the Malones’ self-titled album. This album got me through my day, through my night, and through mornings when I was pushing through an unforgiving hangover. It certainly helped that the shows these guys [Steven Floyd, Elliott Douglas, and Brandon Schlia] performances were EXPLOSIVE. If during their set you were too winded to shout the lyrics anymore or too achy to troll the floor, the crowd would carry you, in addition to an energetic Douglas hopping into the audience making them all go ballistic. The live performances were transmitted so well into their recorded work, making this my most-loved album of the year.

Jessica Brant

 Lorde - Pure Heroine
This saucy songstress from down under struck a chord with me--and everyone else--when "Royals," a nod to, and dodge from, all things ostentatious hit the radio waves. She left the world asking, "Who on God's earth is this beautiful soul with golden brown tendrils, doe-like eyes and the voice of an ethereal fairy?" And then we all found out it was a 17-year-old high school kid singing us to shame. Each listen is like opening a scrapbook from high school days past, complete with sloppy prom pictures, gushy love letters, and torn-up concert tickets...Oh, to be seventeen again. Most notably described as the reigning queen of "confessional bedroom pop," Lorde compiles an impressive track list filled with silky harmonies and free-spirited hip hop and electronic beats. Feel the power in her gloriously arranged "Glory and Gore," and the bubbly dance rhythms of "Tennis Court." This girl can brag all she wants; she is the true queen bee, taking pop where it needs to be. Lorde is now, and Lorde is the future.


Michael Torsell

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
This really was Vampire Weekend's year. While I am still changing my mind over my best track of the year (I picked Vampire Weekend but now I think that honor belongs to "Play by Play" by Autre Ne Veut), I have been pretty sure about this choice despite my best attempts at second guessing myself. Modern Vampires of the City is an accomplished modern pop album with no weaknesses. It is a rare flawless feat of clever songwriting and memorable lyrics and it is my album of the year. 



Mac McGuire

 Local Natives - Hummingbird
Man this was difficult. Last year, all I did was bitch that there were so few good albums released. This year, all I did was bitch that there was TOO MUCH good music to pick from. I bitch a lot. My selection for album of the year could have been one of many albums: Okkervil River's nostalgic shout out to the 80s in The Silver Gymnasium, Yo La Tengo's best album in years in Fade, The Men slowly becoming The Band on New Moon, or probably a half dozen others. You get the idea. 2013 was a damn good year in music.

 So why Local Natives' Hummingbird? I don't even like the band that much. Their debut album, Gorilla Manor, was alright. Fun, sunny harmonies. Some nice percussion and jagged guitar work. But at the end of the day, I thought I heard it all before. I never thought that band had this album in them. The production skills of Aaron Dessner (The National) hang heavy as tight compositions and layers of emotion are found on every track. Plus, the band has the luxury of having two of the best singers in music today, Kelcey Ayer and Taylor Rice, as co-frontmen, and Hummingbird gives each the chance to shine on their own, from Ayer's devastating ode to his passed mother on "Columbia" and the stirring "Heavy Feet" to Rice's uplifting "Ceilings." Throw in some of the best drum work this side of the Walkmen, and you not only have my most pleasant surprise of 2013, but also my favorite album.



If you missed Part 1, click here.
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BeeAy Rocks Huge Beats


19-year-old BeeAy helms from this here Buffalo city with a presence and message refreshing for today's youngins drowning in bullshit interests like "stacking cheese" and "bitches and violence". Personally, I think BeeAy spits it best in the title track (hear below) to his new EP, Point of View.

For lack of better words to describe this rapper's style, he has the occasional lilt of Lil' Wayne, but that's not to say that his mouth is rotting and his message is shithouse. It's smooth and confident, backed behind some MF Doomy, Mos Def, East Coast, and (somehow) Southern influenced tracks. 

All rolled into one, he mixes modern and classic, young yet refined, chill and hyped sounds. An eclectic blend palatable when fallen upon any ear.




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Tonight: Del Paxton CD Release


The Shit Mansion at 100 Plymouth has the goods when it comes to Buffalo's own Del Paxton's album Worst. Summer. Ever. The well-worn angst in the songs is quite lovable and some of the most tasteful emo you'll probably ever hear, with a tendency to conjure fond adolescent memories.

The kids (Left to right: Zack Fatale, Greg McClure, and Dylan England) will be at the Mansion August 22nd [TONIGHT!] at 9PM for a free show and some completely buyable CDs.

Submit to Del Paxton.





~ Photo by CG Photography
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Bad People: Not Too Bad


Yeah, that's some homeless dude [or just a krustie], wringing the blood from a box of free kittens. I think that's off Connecticut Street somewhere. That's tight. What's tighter is the music behind this wonderous eyesore. 

Quite simply, this is a nasty, classic punk band perfect for:

  • Driving in stop and go traffic
  • Biking whilst drunk
  • Skipping responsibilities 
  • Painting the town red
  • Showing off your superb taste in music
If you like it hard, fast, and messy, then you are qualified to take interest in Bad People, or overstuffed Manwiches. And while you're doing that 'taking interest' thing, go to fucking Black Dots and get their vinyl, Pearls Before Swine. The dude behind the counter knows what's up.




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Potty Mouth: Don't Call Them Riot Grrrlz


The sheer percentage of guys to girls in the music world is staggering. What we indie kids need is some bad bitches to tell everyone what's what, and thanks to Northampton, MA's Potty Mouth, we girls have someone to look up to. Blending sounds of the late '80s and early '90s with post-punk and suck-my-vag music types, Potty Mouth marches forth with distorted and surfy guitars, a bored to yelping vocal team, and a skippy drum kit. This outfit is comprised of Abby [lead vocals and rhythm guitar], Ally [bass], Phoebe [lead guitar], and Victoria [drums]. Now listening to their recent releases, I am saddened to have missed them at The Glitterbox, especially after being updated by Josh Smith, the owner of Black Dots Records of their show. The poster looked like this.

Joining Potty Mouth were Buffalonian bands like fellow post-punk female group, Cross Stitch, and stoopid beach rock boy band Space Wolves. Just kidding, Space Wolves -- my femininity seized the best of me. You guys are great. Never met you, but I'm sure you're just as nice as you sound.

Closing statement: Potty Mouth is filthily tasteful and tastefully filthy.

Check Potty Mouth out at pottymouth.bandcamp.com
For Cross Stitch: crossstitch.bandcamp.com
And for Space Wolves: space-wolves.bandcamp.com





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