The Waiting Room's spring schedule continues to flesh out as the venue, along with Alt Buffalo, announced a date with Chicago buzz garage act, The Orwells, on Wednesday, April 23rd. Being presented as a part of the radio station's "You Saw Them First" series, the barely out of high school act has been getting some serious burn over the past year on Sirius XMU radio, as well as a Letterman approved performance of their first single, "Who Needs You," this past January on The Late Show. 

Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 7th, at 12pm, for the LOW price of $1.07 (yep). Don't wait to long as prices will sky rocket to $5 on the night of.

Cheap Time burns out of Nashville, snarling through head thrashing punk with a sharp glam edge. While the music contains an element of 80’s glam rock, their sound isn’t overly polished, and maintains the mud and grit of a garage act. They’ve toured with legends such as Social Distortion and Mudhoney, incurring both adulation and wrath from crowds just as punk music should. Aside from founder Jeffrey Novak, Cheap Time's line-up is ever changeable, which results in a continuous evolution of tone.

The thundering sounds of old-school punks and Mohawk Place veterans Wolf Tickets will accompany them at the Waiting Room tonight, joined by the get-up-freakout rock of The Telltale Signs, and the shimmering lo-fi Fictitious Ray. 

That's $10 at the Waiting Room around 7PM and it's all ages, so bring your kids. 
 

Alvin Risk was one of the first producers signed to OWSLA, the high-profile record label started by Skrillex, in addition to releases with Steve Aoki's Dim Mak Records and also London-based Ministry of Sound. A prominently known dubstep producer and DJ, he also carries out his vocal talents as a singer. If you don't have plans for Valentine's Day, After Dark Entertainment is bringing him through for a show at The Waiting Room on Feb. 14.

MellowHigh, an extension of Odd Future's MellowHype (Left Brain and Hodgy Beats), will take over the Waiting Room tonight, on tour for their self-titled debut album MellowHigh.

Read my exclusive buffaBLOG interview here, and peak inside the mind of the MellowHigh fellas, the wolfs from the gang: Hodgy Beats, Left Brain and Domo Genesis. Here are some quote snippets from the interview.

Left Brain on why he loves music: "Because, it makes me move, my body. I want to move my body. I don't know anything else, I want to move my body. It's a source of energy. When music turns on, people start moving. When you turn the light on, the fucking room is bright. It's like a source of energy. And I like it."

Domo on the OFWGKTA bond: "These are just my friends. These really are my friends, you know what I'm saying? Before we did music or anything we were all just hanging out, so it didn't really mean much more than just a normal friendship. These are the things we do. When it comes to money and distribution and stuff like that, we're gonna do it all fair and easy because these are my homies. We have stuff, but we all come together. And be like, 'yo, you guys are tripping.' We're homies and we're gonna stay that way."

Hodgy on MellowHigh: "There's like a chemistry or something in the air, and it just worked out. We all know each other."

Their story says it all, need I say more?



After Dark Entertainment presents the event. Opening the night will be performances from two local acts: Network and Koolie High.

Network, comprised by Derek Sullivan and Quinton Brock, set themselves apart by bringing an electronic instrumental vibe to their tunes. The duo has opened for names like Pusha T and Wale. Their EP Wake Up was released on Oct. 31 this year, and is available for pure listening and free download on their Bandcamp page.


Gaines and ToneyBoi lead the KooLiE HiGH gang. While youthful high schoolers they signed to Nickel City Records. Since, the "Krew" has grown, and includes Skateboard MctwistUp, Mr. H-n-F, XtraFresh, M.A.R., TeaPot, Alize' and more. Their motto is to "Live Life Be KooL," cooling out and twisting up. Verses and beats of theirs can be found scattered on SoundCloud, YouTube and one of my all-time favorite go-to websites, DatPiff.

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All is a Los Angeles based collective of 20-somethings who have made music their hustle with a focus on friendship, many of them often with a blunt in hand. Crafted by rapper and multi-talented artist Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future is a growing organism; there is no definitive line for the crew's success and exploration. "It's been alive for like, 17 years," said OF member Hodgy Beats. "Tyler made it up when he was five, and it became official around high school." MellowHype is a duo project started by members Left Brain and Hodgy Beats. Domo Genesis joined the mix, and on Oct. 31, they released their debut album as MellowHigh.

Domo Genesis

"We made a couple songs, just me, Hodgy and Left on them. We were like, yo these are sick ... everybody else agreed," Domo said. "We had a little home studio so we started hanging out more, said you know what, we should just do a project, and started fucking with it." The self-titled album MellowHigh was supposed to be released as a mixtape, but turned album after receiving positive feedback, according to Domo.

"Well, I got trouble on my mind but no emotions on my sleeve,  

I heard that love'll get you killed, so who gone show some love for me?

Fucking never need it, push against the grain until my fingers bleeding. 

Smoking weed and tweaking trying to figure out a deeper meaning." 

He said the song is nearly two years old, the second oldest track on the album, next to "Nobody." He said this was a track to show the complexity of their writing. "It's something that we made, and we liked. We gotta put this on something and we finally had an album to drop it."

Mixing personal and business has every potential to backfire, but the crew seems to have it figured out. "These are just my friends. These really are my friends, you know what I'm saying?" Domo said. "Before we did music or anything we were all just hanging out, so it didn't really mean much more than just a normal friendship. These are the things we do. When it comes to money and distribution and stuff like that, we're gonna do it all fair and easy because these are my homies." When tensity comes in, they remember their bond. "We have stuff," he said. "But we all come together. And be like, 'yo, you guys are tripping.' We're homies and we're gonna stay that way."

The interview with Domo, Hodgy Beats and Left Brain clearly shows they take their business serious, but with trolls, jokes and sincere conversation, it's undeniable these guys know how to be good friends and live lightly. The phone was then passed to Hodgy, who proceeded to tell me I sounded like I like Sour Patch Kids. "I love Sour Patch Kids," I said. "You must be cool," he responded. After he asked me about which was my favorite color (I said green) he said "Aight, yeah the green and red are the best kind."

Hodgy Beats

One of the first members, from Trenton, N.J. and only 23 years old, I asked Hodgy if he ever saw himself getting to this level of fame. "Shit, I don't know what level of fame or anything I'm on. I try to keep it as normal as possible."

"There's like a chemistry or something in the air, and it just worked out. We all know each other," Hodgy said, and that he's excited to see what comes next for MellowHigh and the rest of the Wolf Gang. "I think me and Tyler are gonna work together a little bit more ... see what comes from that. Everybody works together, it's just hard to find time nowadays because people are busy."

As I heard him tell someone passing out food on the bus "the no tomato's is mine," I asked him what it's like being on tour. "It's awesome. There's not that many people at all. All the attention is on MellowHigh." For this tour, the select city's promoters arrange for the show openers. "Mhm, we have them niggas do it," Hodgy said. For future record tours, they plan on picking their own.

"Why do you love music?"
"I think it's because I've been around it for so long. My dad used to make music, some members in my family used to sing. So it's what I've gravitated towards," Hodgy said.

Odd Future has become much more than just music. In addition to record releases, cities have been hit with Odd Future Sweatshop pop-up stores, the crew gets weird in their show Loiter Squad on Adult Swim, has been featured at The Berrics for the entertaining Text Yoself Beefo Yo Wreck Yoself, ghost ride the whip for the Bay Area influenced "Hyphy" video, and apparently has an upcoming film release in the works, and that's just scratching the surface of their grind.


With a voice deeper than hell, Left Brain spoke to me last. He was playing Call of Duty: Ghosts as we talked about how he came into OF.

"Well, I had no friends," he said, as either Domo or Hodgy laughed in the background. "And we just became friends, since like, 2006."

Since the album dropped, he said he's not sure how the sales are but that the tour is doing pretty well. The best show, in his opinion, was the first show in Dallas, Texas. "There was a lot of people, it was a sold out show. It was turnt up, I was really surprised because the album wasn't out when we went and did that show ... and people still came out."

Left Brain

I asked him if he ever saw himself getting to their current level.
"Yeah, I did. Yeah I did. I know who I am. I know, who I am. People know who I am. We were on this level at first, then we bumped up to the next level. Now we've got our album. It's just levels. You can't really go down in the levels. You go down, you're moving backwards."

Left Brain had an unmovable certainty with his words. "We just wanted to know, to be out here in the industry a little bit. We got our own label, we our own bosses, so tryna get out in the industry, and just fucking take over. There's a lot of names that's hot right now, they're not bosses though. They're just working under people and shit. We doing our own thing, working your own business, tryna establish our own business, make our own money."

"Slow motion's better than no motion," he said.

"Why do you love music?"
"Because, it makes me move, my body. I want to move my body. I don't know anything else, I want to move my body. It's a source of energy. When music turns on, people start moving. When you turn the light on, the fucking room is bright. It's like a source of energy. And I like it."

I heard one of the guys yell in the background "I'm going in on this burrito" and Left Brain abruptly hung up after trolling that they were headed to Nevada and said "What is there to do out there in Reno, Nevada. I hope something out here is fun, we've never been out here. Pretty random."

MellowHigh will make a tour stop in Buffalo at The Waiting Room on Saturday, Dec. 7 presented by After Dark Entertainment. Odd Future was here last September and Tyler, The Creator soon followed in March. "Buffalo, N.Y.? Yeah I was there, it was so cold," Hodgy said. "As long as I'm not freezing my ass off, we're gonna have a great show."

Domo, Hodgy and Left Brain: if you thought that was cold, get ready for a December night in Buffalo.

After calamitous weather struck down their show two weeks ago, we get another crack at seeing Kingston Ontario's The Tragically Hip at Buffalo's Outer Harbor tonight. Smooshed together with the previously scheduled Lowest of the Low and Flogging Molly show, this mini festival thang with the Hip now headlining ought to be interesting not only from a musical and logistical perspective, but also in terms of being a possible vision of things to come for the Outer Harbor. Yes, it is a pain in the ass getting in and out of there, but if there's a big bill and I'm going to be there for a bunch of hours, I'm kind of cool with it... especially if it's for a day long festival ala the Grove Festival originally scheduled for Niagara-On-The-Lake (but now in Toronto). The lots open at 4, gates open at 5, and the show starts at 6:45.

Since forming in 2007, Boston Funk/R&B band Bad Rabbits , drawing from influences like Sly and the Family Stone as well as punk legends Bad Brains, have been building a reputation as a powerful band with a soulful intensity. Their fun and infectious sound is a throwback to the New Jack Swing era of R&B that, combined with the presence and soul of frontman Dua Boakye, makes for an energetic live performance reminding fans how great it is to see a band let loose and enjoy themselves on stage.

After spending time as the backing band for hip-hop legend Slick Rick, the band recorded their debut LP, American Love, with Oakland hip-hop producer B.Lewis. The album was self released back in May to favorable reviews from publications like Pitchfork, In Your Speakers, and Sputnik Music.

Tonight the band will be performing at The Waiting Room with support from Denver band Air Dubai, who, while upholding a strong pop sensibility, combine elements of electronic, hip-hop, soul, and rock for a sound that is nearly impossible to categorize. Also opening are local hip hop group and Nickel City Records affiliate Natural Ingredients. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online or at the door. Doors open at 7pm. Check out Bad Rabbits video for "Can't Fool Me" below for a taste of what these guys are all about.

Buffalo's been down with the Tragically Hip for a long time, and the Hip in turn have graced us with some amazing shows at a variety of venues throughout Western New York. UB, the Aud, Darien Lake, Audio Magic Studios, HSBC Arena, the Town Ballroom, Artpark, and Canalside, the Hip are always up for new spaces to play, and this July they'll be adding the Outer Harbor to that list. Funtime Productions and After Dark Entertainment will be bringing the pride of Kingston Ontario back to Buffalo's waterfront after a two year absence July 19, this time at the new venue located on the site of the old Pier nightclub, with Grace Potter & The Nocturnals opening the show. Tickets are $50, go on sale Friday April 12, and are available thru Ticketmaster and at the Town Ballroom and After Dark Entertainment box offices.

And for a special treat, here's a clip from the Hip's set at the old Southtowns FYE in 2007, in between their two sold out shows at the Town Ballroom.

In case you haven't heard, Darwin Deez (the NYC based project of Darwin Smith and friends) will be playing at Soundlab tonight courtesy of After Dark Entertainment. Deez has been making a name for himself for catchy guitar licks and "lyrical wizardry" and at around 8PM the full group will be showcasing their most recent and self-produced album, Songs for Imaginative People. As NME describes "There’s still a sense, at its heart, of a warm, yet slightly neurotic overthinker, sat at a mixing desk in his bedroom, possibly in his big white underpants, and just going wherever the spirit takes him." Joining them tonight will be Caged Animals and Nelson-Type, you can check the event page here. Doors open at 7PM and tickets are $12 at the door. See you there!

Electronic music innovators and world-leading DJs RICHIE HAWTIN and LOCO DICE are launching a music and technology tour of Canadian and U.S. colleges, taking the history and the future of the platform to the very people who could well be the next generation of producers, DJs, technology
innovators or simply advocates of the sound that is sweeping the continent after 20 years of trying.

The tour, entitled CNTRL: BEYOND EDM - ELECTRONIC & TECHNO(LOGY) BASED MUSIC, will be a groundbreaking North American college tour combining educational daytime lectures on music technology presented by DUPSPOT in some of the leading universities and colleges, followed by an evening of electronic music with RICHIE HAWTIN, LOCO DICE, EAN GOLDEN from DJ TechTools and their touring guest DJ's.

Ever find yourself listening to "The Weight" by The Band when subliminally in the back of your mind you hear the familiar shouts of Young Joc saying "anywhere ya meet me, guaranteed it's goin' down."  Girl Talk tends to have that effect.

Under Illegal Art Record label, mash-up artist Greg Gills, better known by his moniker Girl Talk, will be taking the stage tonight at the Buffalo Outer Harbor.  If you have no knowledge of his work and can't quite grasp the immensity of his jam-packed sampled catalog, his newest album All Day has 372 samples in a matter of 71 minutes.  Yeah, 372 song samples in nearly an hour.  Multi-genre and impeccably cut and blended, his tracks have a way of satisfying everyone's taste buds all the while keeping you bumpin' and grinding.  

"Livetronica dubcore" will be heard from Rochester group RootsCollider and Buffalo electronic duo Love Scenes will be opening as well.  

Supernaut, Funtime, AfterDark and MNM Presents
Girl Talk
Tonight - August 23, 2012
Buffalo Outer Harbor (325 Fuhrmann Boulevard, Buffalo, 14203)
gates at 7 pm
all ages

Check out the event page on Facebook for more information.

@girltalk
Girl Talk on Facebook

Here's a video to take a peek at what you'll be getting into.

We first had a chance to get to know local act Brother Keep back in November.  They were in the middle of prepping the release of their debut LP Patchwork Walls, an album of anthemic indie rock led by vocalist Nick Sessana, which can streamed and purchased over at their bandcamp page.  The band has just entered the beginning stages of recording their follow up EP to Patchwork Walls, which will hopefully see a release sometime later this year.  In the mean time, the band has been busy playing live, most recently opening for Porcelain Raft with the Canary Girls at the Ninth Ward.  The band will also be a part of After Dark and buffaBLOG's Block Party featuring headliner Milo Greene on Wednesday, August 1st.  Check out the video below of Brother Keep testing out a heavy yet melodic new tune, "Festival", a couple months back at Mohawk Place.

Tonight at Town Ballroom, you'll surely find me with tears of joy in my eyes for Above & Beyond.  The progressive trance DJs and producers were what introduced me to the wonderful world of this music scene.  Call me dramatic, but I would be lying if I said they didn't change my life - and based on the title of their album and tour "Group Therapy," I am not alone.  Above & Beyond sums themselves up with one word: connection.  A&B group members, Tony McGuinness, Jono Grant, and Paavo Siljamaki, emphasize their poetic lyrical art, which in addition to their instrumentals can heal the heartbroken and depressed and inspire the joyful, bringing everyone together.  “Poetry can be powerful, great literature is another great informer and educator, but few of us can remember any significant words from the great books or poems we read. But something amazing happens when you put words to music,” said McGuinness.

Under British record label Anjunabeats, Above & Beyond achieved the title of the only dance act to win the Essential Mix of the Year twice.  They host their own weekly radio show "Trance Around the World" which attracts around 30 million listeners worldwide.  Group Therapy was named Mixmag's "artist album of the year."           
“The one thing I didn't expect to happen on the scale it has, is how people from around the world have shared their stories with us as they go through amazingly positive or incredibly difficult times in their lives. It's really touched us all and feels like a driving force for new creativity,” says Siljamaki. 


Tonight May 11, 2012
Factory Nightlife presents Above & Beyond
at Town Ballroom
9pm-2am
$25 advance $31 at the door.


http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/

 

A mass of curly, wild hair, she dances fluidly as the gems adorning her forehead sparkle. Her waist dips and drops in time to the high-pitched peaks of house music. Wearing hot pink tights beneath destroyed black tights and a top that bears her stomach, she moves freely and shamelessly: a true rave girl.

Factory Nightlife and After Dark Entertainment brought Dim Mak's Deadmeat Tour, and like a meat warehouse, Town Ballroom was packed Tuesday night. It was a mixed crowd of traditional ravers, house heads, 'dubsteppers' and others who joined the scene since the mainstream sucked it in.

Solidisco, comprised of Buffalo's own talented DJ Dstar and DJ Biacco, opened the night. The 22-year-old Indonesian native, Angger Dimas, followed with an incredibly impressive performance. He demonstrated his amazing skill at working the crowd with pure DJ mastery rather then using gimmicks.

The moment of his set I was most looking forward to came when I heard the crisp drums and chopped, repeating vocals of "My Feelings for You" by Avicii and Sebastien Drums. It exceeded what I imagined it would be earlier in the night as I lined my eyes with black liquid liner. His remix of the track has a perfect build, and I finally was able to see the effect it has on a crowd in a packed venue; many open hands were raised high, motioning with the beat.

With a fidget, house and electro induced couple of hours, his set was pretty impeccably executed. Not only were his track selections flawless, but his stage presence was high energy and welcoming. By the end of his set, my only disappointment was that it was over. I not-so-secretly wished Angger Dimas was the headliner for the night.

The stage set-up per DJ grew in extravagance, and throughout the night, the professional lighting that came with the tour was phenomenal. When the pre-determined intermission background music ceased, the black, raised set that adorned Datsik's logo glowed and seared the crowd with a blazing, bright red haze. This Canadian dubstep DJ is growing in popularity as the genre itself becomes better known.

His set was ideal for those who craved only intense and forceful transitions. Sporadically throughout, he dropped a few tracks that varied the grating, heavy dubstep - a few of them very hip-hop influenced. At one point he even took a moment to bring it back to the beginning of the 2000s as Dr. Dre's lyrics from "The Next Episode" sounded throughout the venue.

Datsik too often jumped on top of his set to shout to the crowd through the mic. Gigantic floor-to-ceiling banners advertised the sponsor of the tour, Rockstar Energy Drink. Periodically throughout Datsik's set, a woman would come by and toss full cans of energy drinks into the crowd. The concept of a free Rockstar is a wonderful idea. But the thought of throwing a 12 ounce can into a crowd seems even more dangerous than the routine stage diver.

Before Steve Aoki went on, I had no idea what type of bizarre performance I was in for. His stage set-up was reminiscent of a gigantic glowing nest. When the lights shone on him, a girl nearby screamed as if she saw The Beatles, no exaggeration. Guys sprinted down from the upper tiers to the floor, and one even sat upon the shoulders of another man; that was just one of the first of many odd sights that night.

The minute his set was illuminated, I noticed he had neither turntables nor CDJs. Mixing internally off of Ableton was not what I had expected from the world-renowned Los Angeles DJ. His mostly house music set was interrupted briefly by a heavy metal segment as Aoki stepped down from his set and ran back and froth on stage, screaming the lyrics into the mic. His lengthy set allowed for all of his well-known tracks to be heard.

What caused my jaw to drop was the use of theatrics. In the time I have been part of this scene, I can say that I have seen a lot, but I have never seen anything like this. It was the most I have ever seen a DJ leave his equipment, but there were also random things that happened throughout the night that truly left me speechless. The first occurrence was when the lights dimmed, and suddenly Aoki was sporting a sailor hat. It was a little strange, but I didn't think much of it - until the champagne, half-gallons of orange juice, the inflatable raft and the multiple sheet cakes came out. As Aoki sprayed the audience with champagne and then proceeded to spit the excess sticky liquid into the crowd like a sprinkler, all I could think of was how happy I was to not be on the receiving end of the squirting spectacle.

He'd tend to the music again and then come out with a jug of some type of juice. Teasing the crowd and walking to and fro, he proceeded to dump the entire half-gallon onto a girl in the front row. It was only after the show that I realized it was orange juice, when a friend of mine came up to me drenched and reeking of citrus.

Just when I thought the night couldn't get stranger, Aoki approached the crest of the stage once again, this time with a sheet cake in hand. I stopped dancing and watched intently, wondering what the hell was happening. The inscription on the cake was the least of my curiosities as I watched him tempt the audience with the cake. Thank goodness I didn't take my eyes off of him, or else I would have missed one of the weirdest things I have ever seen at a show – and I've seen some strange happenings. A guy in the front row was hit in the face with the full impact of the cake, and like the recoil of a shooting gun, his head knocked back. He was slammed in the face with a sheet cake.

The inflatable raft was used as a means for stage diving, which was a relatively cool idea regardless of my bias against stage divers. To a 5' 2'' girl not always surrounded by the most reliable hands, stage divers can become a thing of terror. Toward the end of the night, one of Aoki's original and classic tunes "No Beef" had everyone crazed. The crescendo ending of the song brought high spirits. His closing track was his remix of Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness," and everyone sang along with the lyrics, most likely flashing back to memories of times with friends when the song first released.

The after party took place at Noir Ultra Lounge on Chippewa; it was dope. Buffalo DJs Bigski, SwaggleRock and Roboroc spun for those who attended. The crowd was decently packed with people still wanting more.

Overall, the night was interesting. Happy that I got to see these huge names perform in my own city, I was also left with a bizarre story to tell.