Ok, so technically the song and video came out on Monday, but I finally stopped shaking with excitement over it to have steady enough fingers to type about it today. Mind you, it's not the best thing I've heard this week, but it is my most anticipated. The first teaser from the Broken Ankles EP that drops next week, this track will hold you over until April 8th when the full-length video and album are released.

Full disclosure: I'm borderline obsessed with Girl Talk. Haters gon hate, but I think his baggy sweats/no shirt/dope hat and/or headband steez at shows is superfly. The Pittsburgh native has been churning out mixtapes for years, sampling everyone from Jay-Z to Bruce Springsteen on well-produced and well-acclaimed albums that are the lazy man's dj at parties. Too lazy to make a playlist? No worries, because Gregg Gillis has you covered.

Freeway, *not* to be confused with "Freeway" Rick Ross, though both copped their name from the same famed drug trafficker, hits hard on this track, and his chain game is, shall we say, brilliant. The Roc-a-Fella affiliated rapper, who caught my ear guesting on slept-on Kanye track "Two Words" from Ye's debut album, College Dropout, is known for his gritty delivery over even grittier beats, and while this style doesn't necessarily mesh with GT's seamlessly sampled sound, on this track it works.

Multiple mixtape maker Waka Flocka brings his usual flair to the track, and while he isn't featured heavily, his combo of thick braids and thicker video hoes makes up for his short verse.

The video itself, directed by Allen Cordell, is a teaser for the full-length vid, and is a kung fu/fight club hybrid that features GT and Freeway ripping limbs off the people unlucky enough to cross their paths while swagging their way through the city.

Cordell, who also directed videos for Cloud Nothings (who are coming to Buffalo this Friday y'all!) captured the self-proclaimed "anti-hater" message that GT and Freeway are trying to convey in the most over-the-top and almost campy way possible...if you had told me that classic low-budget horror flick turned Spider-Man franchise ruiner Sam Raimi decided to direct a bloody funny music video, I would have believed you.

Demos are always an interesting entity. A demo is its own animal, and can do one of three things: it can represent your band perfectly, it can misrepresent you entirely, or it can over represent you in a way that you will never be able deliver on. 

With that being said, rust belters, The Tracks have just released their demo, minimally titled Spring 2014 Demos. The demo consist of two tracks, “Laurel Go Marching” and “My Friend,” and the two songs could not be further apart. “Laurel Go Marching” consist of ghostly guitars, over dubs and layers galore, synthesizers, percussion, and just production in general. Then there’s “My Friend,” which makes you feel like you’re stuck in some late 80’s high school tragedy movie starring Christian Slater. The common attribute that both songs share are manipulated audio, causing both music and vocals to fade in and out as well as change in pitch and tone. The words I would use to describe this demo would be “an interesting entity,” besides I would never judge a band solely on their demo, that would be like voting for a politician based on promises.

So a few things happened this weekend. Louis CK hosted Saturday Night Live and Major League Baseball started its new season, but more importantly, the Buffalo band Sexist released two new songs. 

The all-girl trio, Sexist, released “Product” a raw fifty three second teaser of a song, as well as “Bad Feelings.” Comprised of Natalie (bass/vocals) Jamie (guitar/vocals) and Gabby (drums/vocals), Sexist brings, for a lack of a better term, the riot girrrl theme to Buffalo. Both “Product” and “Bad Feelings” scream Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, or pretty much anything Kathleen Hanna has ever touched. “Bad Feelings” is equal parts punk rock and 60’s pop, full of hooks and class accompanied by vocal harmonies. 

Sexist has been together for nearly two years and will be releasing their demo on cassette this Record Store Day (April 19th), in addition to an in-store set at Spiral Scratch. 

Over the last couple years, a few surf-rock bands have been sprouting up in Buffalo, most notably Space Wolves and Aaron & the Burrs. Yesterday, Gumwads, a new local surf-punk trio, released their raucous, debut single "Gimmie Every Inch." This is a fun and messy song. Captain Geech & the Shrimp Shack Shooters it is not. The single, along with the change of pace B-side "I'm Sick of Musicians," was recorded by Mr. Ski-Mask and can be downloaded over at Gumwads' bandcamp page. Don't be surprised to hear this blaring through the Pink's speakers at last call one of these nights. In the mean time, listen to "Gimmie Every Inch" below.

Since being featured on one of our Album of the Week features last year, Humble Braggers have been quietly working on their live set. They've also been hard at work on some new material. The Say EP was released today and features three new songs that show that the Braggers have been working hard at honing their reverb-soaked indie rock.

I'd like to call these songs "sharper" than their last release, but that wouldn't be the right word... In fact, they specialize in swirly songs whose instruments seem to decay for days. The EP puts a spotlight on prominent bass, ambient guitars, and foggy synths. There is a distinct 80s vibe to some of these songs (most notably, the cover of Tears for Fears "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), but on songs like "Hold On, We're Going Home," the Braggers nail it with catchy, contemporary guitar lines.  Have a listen below.

There's something about Buffalo music that seems to be catching fire lately. With several of our "local" bands now approaching national status, American Low is poised to be Buffalo's newest export. Recorded at our very own Quiet Country Audio, the band brings to mind an American version of the Arctic Monkeys with just the right touch of Everclear, Eve 6, or *insert your favorite 1990s pop rock band here.*

The four-piece recently gave us a sneak peek of their upcoming material with "Back Door," a throwback to the underrated simplicity of nineties alternative rock... That is, of course, mixed with all the glorious, gritty guitar tones of a modern-era buzz band, a sharp black wardrobe, and an impressive pedigree of Buffalo-based musicians. Check out the video below.

Last November, we stumbled across Buffalo space-pop act Spirit Choir, who had just released a self titled debut EP of post rock and ghostly pop via bandcamp. The act's latest release, a split single called "Hypnotized/We Disintegrate," continues to see the project expand on its dreamy sounds.The single's back half is a spooky cut Hospice era Antlers. Check it out below.

A couple weeks ago, we shared the debut track from The Lindbergh Babies, a new project from former members of Girlpope. Today, the duo released another track, the nervy "Little Volcanoes." The song reminds me a bit of Thom Yorke's solo work on The Eraser, or Radiohead at their more experimental on Amnesiac or King of Limbs. The song gets surprisingly beat heavy and dark at the end, so stick with it. Keep an eye out next month for the debut LP from this intriguing new project.

The latest music from Animal Collective’s Avey Tare is probably the most straight forward music he has put out to date, though terms like “straight forward” have always been relative when applied to the music he makes. It’s still eons from anything considered “common” these days.

Dave Portner is now living in California and is about to put out Enter the Slasher House with former Dirty Projectors member Angel Deradoorian and ex-Ponytail drummer Jeremy Hyman, under the name Slasher Flicks. The music for the group’s album, due in April, was recorded live using little overdubs. There’s Scooby-Doo/Saturday evening cartoon vibes all over “Little Fang,” a song that fellow Paw Tracks artists Dent May or Ariel Pink could have easily recorded, but thrown off just enough with Portner singing like he’s experiencing a full on sugar high at a carnival or a disco. A song like this could also easily fit in with Lindsey Buckingham’s cast-off 1984 solo album Go Insane.

It’s interesting to hear Portner sing over rhythms that are not his own or fellow band mate’s Panda Bear. Hyman’s got a pretty straight forward kick going and instead of swaths of reverb and layers upon layers of sound, you can tell apart and count on one hand the number of tracks on this song.

If his 2010 solo album Down There was about hiding in the fog and being stuck in a rut, then this song is about going out, having a good time and taking off the masks, or putting them on. Cheers.


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Conor Oberst, barely in his mid-30s, has led many musical lives. We’ve had almost 20 years worth of material from the Nebraskan wonderkid who used to frenetically strum his guitar and sing his lines in the form of a panic attack. With Bright Eyes having possibly put out it’s last album in 2011 (Oberst says he can’t listen to material from that era anymore), we’re being treated to a solo album, recorded in Nashville with Jonathan Wilson, who did stuff for Dawes.

“Hundreds of Ways” sounds more like Paul Simon hunkering down to make some country music, though dominated by the wordplay of Conor Oberst. There’s the knobby basslines and horns as Oberst sings, “there are hundreds of ways to get through the day.” It’s an uplifting song, one that might turn off anyone who is used to the red-wine-and-cigarette-smoke depression of his early 00s material, but for Oberst it’s new territory.

The musicianship is top notch (Dawes will be backing him for a tour starting in the spring). I really liked People’s Key and even his Mystic Valley Band stuff, which this resembles. Here’s hoping this isn’t Oberst starting to drift off into Dylan’s New Morning phase.

Buffalo's Unwelcome Guests are prepping the release of the Jonn Angelo produced Wavering, set to drop earlier next month, and the band just premiered the album's opening track, "Aerostatic," on its bandcamp page yesterday. After a slow start to the year in Buffalo music, at least compared to last year, the crunchy, dive bar ready "Aerostatic" already feels like one of the better songs of 2014 here in the city. We have been hard to find comparisons to the band's sound here at the buffaBLOG offices, with bands like the Buzzcocks, the Hold Steady, Gin Blossoms, the Replacements, and even fellow Buffalo act Failures' Union all thrown in the mix, but we still can't decide. Maybe you can. Anyways, Wavering is set to drop on March 11th. You may listen to "Aerostatic" below.

Monday afternoon, The Lindbergh Babies, a new group composed of former Girlpope battery Mark Norris and Brandon Delmont, took to social media and shared its debut single "Only In A Dream (You Set The Scenery)." The track may come as a bit of a left turn for the former Mohawk Place, power pop legends, as the two travel down a much less crunchy path for soft synths, dreamy effects, and floating vocals. The song sounds like it could fit nicely on to the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots record, or even on Beck's Sea Change if the troubadour went for a spacier sound on his recordings. You can find the song on the dream pop duo's forthcoming LP, due out sometime this year (I would think). Listen to "Only In A Dream (You Set The Scenery)" below.

In some strange twist of fate, Buffalo's Inquiring Mind has discovered a way to mix Pavement and Lorde into some sort of ultra-hip, "Royals"-esque hybrid. The title of their song is "The Only Way," and the instrumentals have that out-of-tune slacker vibe without the out-of-tune ramblings of a frontman like Stephen Malkmus. In fact, frontwoman Jaz Frazier is quite the talented singer. If you don't believe me, feel free to listen below, or better yet, stop by the Steak & Cake 3 Year Anniversary show on February 15 - Inquiring Mind will be performing.  

Brat'ya, one of the side projects from Smart House and Automap member Alek Ogadzhanov, released a new song via the act's soundcloud page yesterday. As you may remember, Ogadzhanov was the brains behind our #3 Buffalo track of 2013, "Car Ride." "Maps," his latest, is a very driving cut of  80s synth's mixed with experimental percussion, and fans of Metronomy would be wise to check out. We are still trying to figure out the difference between all of Ogadzhanov's projects here at the blog, but in the mean time, check out "Maps" below.