buffaBLOG - The Buffalo music blog: Lady Gaga

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first niagara center, just announced, Lady Gaga, mac — 0 comments

Just Announced: Lady Gaga

The First Niagara Center is all of the sudden the hub in Buffalo from some of music's heavy hitters, between late 2013's Drake show and the upcoming Jay Z and Justin Timberlake shows early this year. Add Lady Gaga to that list now. The mega pop singer has announced the very-likely-to-be over the top tour, titled "ArtRave: The ARTPOP Ball," and the tour include a stop at the First Niagara Center on Monday, July 7th. She will be on tour to support her underwhelming ARTPOP album. While prices are not yet available, tickets go on sale this Monday, January 13th, at 10am through all Live Nation outlets.

Album review, artpop, Lady Gaga, travis — 0 comments

Album Review: Lady Gaga - ARTPOP

In the interest of fairness, I should let you know that a lot of people think Lady Gaga’s new album, ARTPOP, is really good. Even if you remove her obviously diehard “little monster” fans and the listeners who just ride and die for anything with her name on it, there’s an irrefutable appreciation for this release. Other people however have been absolutely craving and fixated on the possibility for the all-caps version of ARTPOP to fail miserably. While I’m sure there’s savvy listeners heavily invested in Gaga’s music and willing to point out some purely fascinating moments within the album, what I’ve spent my time listening to is an album pinballing from “alright” to “okay” to “decent.”

This an album again inspired excessively by her perceptions of fame and if the ambiguity of the title ARTPOP doesn’t spell that out for you (as it doesn’t for me), Gaga prefers to say, “My artpop could mean anything.” Certainly the shifts in tone and perspective across the collection songs add something to the Gaga experience, but proves to be less of a spell binding fusion of “art” and “pop” and more of a boring, unnecessary combination.

Such is presented within the hiccuping beats and fake British accent of “Swine,” whose chorus also falters on both creativity and catchiness with such lyrics as “You’re just a pig inside a human body. Squealer, squealer, squeal out, you’re so disgusting!” Put the production of “Swine” and her vocals together and everything becomes dull, colorless, and lifeless — as if it were a motionless field of grass photographed in gray-scale — and no amount of vocal acrobatics can combat that.

Well, maybe a few can: the belting on “Venus” saves the choppy production techniques from an all out blunder of a song; perfectly overlapping vocals on “Sexxx Dreams” keep the song alive, yet still seems more of a tongue-in-cheek album filler; and finally, “Donatella” has its vocal peaks that unfortunately get clouded by scratching electronic pulses midway through the choruses. Even when Gaga’s voice is at its best in these songs, they still feel hollow and strained, with all of the lyrics referencing some sort of sexual experience or fantasy. The lyrical content isn’t necessarily the bad part of these tracks either; it’s how the expensive workmanship and fine-tuning were still able to leave distasteful voids within the songs.

Oddly enough, one of the strongest tracks on ARTPOP, “Do What U Want,” has Gaga singing her same old self-dependent messages, however, she eerily sounds submissive when singing “You can’t have my heart. And you won’t use my mind but do what you want with my body,” instead of defiant. Unlike some of the previous songs suffering from a discord between production and vocals, this one matches harmoniously with the velvety smooth voice of R&B superstar R. Kelly gracing the track. Another stand out is the club mixed power ballad “Gypsy,” which shines from Gaga bellowing about standing up for what you want and trusting your natural instincts.

When I first heard “Applause,” I was hoping it was just a bad choice for a single. Sure it was entertaining to a degree and the chorus was completely sing along and radio-friendly, but it was nowhere close to the standards of her previous songs “Bad Romance” or “Poker Face.” After listening to the full album, it seems fitting that this was the lead track as the other ones don’t measure up to single status, although “Applause” barely manages to grip the title itself.

No matter how many look-at-me-tactics Lady Gaga implores, sometimes the best way to be cutting edge is to tone it down and stick to the basics. Many of the songs are a failure by design, mostly suffering from Gaga’s excessive obsession with out of the box creativity leading to overwhelmingly complex production techniques that kill any chance the songs had at being euphonious. But the flamboyancy comes with the territory and even though ARTPOP is a bit of a flop, Gaga will surely return with another radio hit sometime in the future.

Grade: C-

Black Flag, Blood Orange, bright eyes, cut copy, dropkick murphys, eminem, Lady Gaga, listener's digest, M.I.A., month, mtorsell, new albums, new music, november, preview, sapphire slows, thee oh sees, Wooden Shjips — 0 comments

Listener's Digest Presents: Upcoming Albums - November Edition

Is the year slowing down? When I looked at what was coming out this month, I started to realize that the new release stream is lightening as the year winds to a close. Soon, we will be reading a seemingly endless string of year end reviews (none of which matter by the way but ours, ours is the only one you should read, we have a lot of opinions and you need to see that we are generally right, me especially, I am the most right here) and we will not see much new music until 2014. So, what is in store for this last major month for new music in 2013?

November 5

Black Flag - What The...: Old dudes who should have retired awhile ago would like to desecreate anything you might have held sacred.

Bright Eyes - A Christmas Album: A limited charity release from a number of years ago, Bright Eyes is apparently opening your holiday season up early. Like really early. Fun fact, you know how you always gave your mom or dad Christmas albums because that was what they liked...well kids can do that with Bright Eyes now, because we are all old, painfully old (the writer is 6 months away from his 30th birthday, not sure he is doing well with this fact).

Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2: Oh dear lord, the first one of these came out when I was a freshman in high school. The cruel march of time marches on (he might need to talk through this, if you see the writer, tell him it will be ok).

Cut Copy - Free Your Mind: The Australian electronic group is back with one of the year's most danceable albums. Early singles have been a solid indication that the group has built upon their previous two albums, bringing them together into an excellent release. Check back on Wednesday for our review.

Dropkick Murphy's - Signed and Sealed in Blood (Box Set): If you need a gift for your friend with questionable taste in hats and/or beer, here ya go.

M.I.A. - Matangi: After a number of delays and label disputes, M.I.A. has returned with her fourth album. While her "rebel" status is starting to seem increasingly contrived, early buzz has been positive even if she seems to have cribbed the first single and video from things Azelia Banks did a year or two ago.

Sapphire Slows - Allegoria: Japanese artist, Sapphire Slows, is releasing her second album through LA's Not Not Fun label. The first single, "Animal Dreams," sounds similar to labelmates, Maria Minerva and LA Vampires. Textured electronic melodies haunted by vocals perfect for wandering around during the longer and longer nighttime.

November 12

Lady Gaga - Artpop: Seriously?

deadmau5 - We Are Friends Vol. 2: New music from that guy in the big helmet. Might appeal to you if you are currently rolling.

Wooden Shjips - Back to Land: Spaced out psych from the San Francisco group, a few whose members were behind last year's heavily underrated Moon Duo record. The title track is fantastic and will satisfy fans of groups like The Fresh & Onlys.

November 18

Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe: Dev Hynes has gone through a number of metamorphosis over the course of his career. Once Lightspeed Champion, the artist has reinvented himself as a pop music wunderkind, producing awesome tracks for Solange Knowles and Skye Ferreira. The first single, "Chamakay," may have been one of the year's best songs period. Hopefully this album lives up to its lofty promise.

November 26

Thee Oh Sees - Singles Collection, Volume 3: Just in time for Thanksgiving, Thee Oh Sees release another collection of music. At this point, I fully trust everything this groups does so I am just going to say it will be awesome and will totally scare your relatives. Play it while the pie is served.

Bruno mars, daft punk, john, kanye west, katy perry, Lady Gaga, miley cyrus, mtv, one direction, robin thicke, video music awards, vmas — 0 comments

Scattered Thoughts On The VMAs

Lady Gaga's disembodied head sings a song, and it's time for the party to begin.

All award shows are basically about the spectacle more than the awards, but that's never more true than with the MTV Video Music Awards. No one remembers who won anything at the 2003 VMAs, but everyone remembers Madonna kissing Britney. This show is just about watching famous people do crazy shit. And the 2013 edition did not disappoint.

First off, let's talk about the absolute trainwreck that was Miley Cyrus. She awkwardly twerked, and super-awkwardly pretended to masturbate with a foam finger. It was at this point that Robin Thicke came out and sang a snippet of "Blurred Lines." Once this happened, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar came out, but it was far too late to salvage the performance. Miley's failed attempt at both singing and dancing were so pathetic that she retroactively let Britney Spears circa 2007 off the hook.

I love that the NSYNC reunion lasted for about 30 seconds of what was primarily a tribute to Justin Timberlake's solo career. It's his world, and those other four gentleman are simply squirrels trying to get a nut. It was nice of JT to give them a shout out in his acceptance speech though.

I could have used a bit more crazy from Kanye. His performance of "Blood On The Leaves" was suitably intense, but I missed the special effects that marked his performance of "New Slaves" on SNL a few months back.

What made less sense, Shailene Woodley introducing Miley Cyrus, or Jared Leto introducing Kanye? I'll go with Leto, because I honestly can figure out what the hell he was even doing there.

Last night was a rather depressing reminder of how irrelevant rock is to mainstream music right now. I'm pretty sure the only guitars of the night were provided by Bruno Mars backup band. Apparently, when neither The Black Keys or the Foo Fighters make an album, that means rock is invisible.

How about that Bruno Mars light show, eh? Has he been hanging out with Wayne Coyne lately? I dug his new single, too.

Daft Punk were only on to present? Super lame. They should have picked Colbert instead.

Can we all agree that Kevin Hart talking about Lady Gaga's ass was just funny? Please?

One Direction did not have the best song of the summer by any stretch of the imagination. But they do have the most rabid fanbase, so this was to be expected.

What was with the one dude in One Direction wearing a Joy Division t-shirt? Like he has anything to be gloomy about it....

That Katy Perry finale was beyond cheesy. Not as bad as Miley, but still. Can the dudes in Survivor sue her? God I hope so.

Why did MTV insist calling "Roar" her "biggest hit ever?" It hasn't been out long enough to really be a hit yet. Plus, "I Kissed A Girl" and "California Gurls" were both way bigger. I guess they just figure that repeating something enough times will make it true.

Another fine mess, MTV! Can't wait for next year.

Jamey Rodemeyer, kathryn, Lady Gaga — 0 comments

Lady Gaga pays tribute to Williamsville teen

This past Saturday, the Mother Monster herself performed a tribute to the bullied Williamsville teen, Jamey Rodemeyer, who took his own life last week. Lady Gaga was performing a one hour long set at the iHeartRadio music festival taking place at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas. She sat down at her motorcycle inspired piano and said, "I don't know if any of you know this, but we lost a little monster this week... I know its a downer, but sometimes the right thing is more important than the music isn't it." Gaga continued with an acoustic rendition of "Hair", a song about identity being one of the only things you have in school. The tribute has received national attention, reaching all major news outlets around the world. Watch the clip below to see Gaga's tribute, live from Las Vegas.