Alternative Buffalo,
buffalo,
buffalo radio sucks,
Cliff,
the weeknd,
Tor-Buff-Chester,
Toronto
—
No, this isn't a hostage play like the one going on in our nation's capital or anything specifically emphatic. But as I perused Twitter Sunday night and noted Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot's transmissions from the first of two shows in Chicago for Toronto post r&b mystery man The Weeknd and read his review on Monday, this fact became crystal clear to me. At this point in the fall of 2013, it's past time that The Weeknd make a stop in Buffalo.
After bursting on the scene with an air of elusive mystery and a killer mixtape called House Of Balloons in 2011, The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, has cultivated a rabid and growing following thanks to his expressive new jack soul voice, ever interesting indie electronica sound, and dark, sexy, and vaguely dangerous witching hour subject matter. Enigmatic amorphousness soon gave way to hot live shows in Toronto and GTA before the hotly buzzed about act completely skipped Buffalo on their way to larger, more buzzworthy locals, and for local fans who'd gone all in The Weeknd's next two free mixtapes Thursday and Echoes of Silence and waited for Canada's next big thing to play here, it hurt.
It hurt because this is Buffalo, a city that's enjoyed the musical bounty of our neighbors to the north for decades, from Rush to The Tragically Hip to Sloan to Arkells, etc. etc.. We're the creamy nougat of Tor-Buff-Chester, the one's that get Arkells shows at the Town Ballroom, Tokyo Police Club at Soundlab, Wildlife at the Mohawk, Sam Roberts in just about every venue in the city, Gord Downie at the Adam's Mark to play and talk about protecting our Great Lakes, and two Hip shows at the Outer Harbor when Mother Nature rains us out. We've got the Peace Bridge, that brings us this wonderful bounty as well as the occasional band coming from or going to Toronto, where EVERYBODY plays. His US debut was always earmarked for someplace else, The Weeknd was crossing over into the US via WNY on his march to conquest on a regular basis.
And it's even worse now that The Weeknd released his proper debut album, Kissland, on Universal last month and riding an even bigger wave of buzz after an electrifying performance on Jimmy Kimmel and Letterman and shows in big markets. It's becoming clear that The Weeknd is the big thing coming out of Canada right now (whereas Wildlife is the next big thing coming out of Canada), but because he falls entirely in between genres he's nowhere on local radio, a big problem now that we've skipped the "getting to know each other" phase on his path to stardom.
Ideally The Weeknd (on Universal Records) would be in rotation on our "new music alternative" 107.7 FM, but that station is still decidedly in it's infancy and yet to fully take up it's professed mantle as a source for new music. I haven't heard any Weeknd, Toro Y Moi, Janelle Monae, or Chvrches for that matter, and way, way too much No Doubt and Muse, and that's a damn shame, especially because it isn't aiding in getting The Weeknd down here to Buffalo for a show. But I still remain optimistic about that station, in part because they're still setting up a local operation that will theoretically give it the local flavor longed for by area music fans. Patience will be a virtue, and in any case it's gratifying to hear Tame Impala, Phoenix, and new Arcade Fire on Buffalo radio that isn't 91.3.
I guess that patience applies to The Weeknd getting down here for a show. It is inevitable after all. It might be after his second album when he's spreading it around beyond the places he hit on his magical mystery introductory tour. In the meantime I'll re-consume his Trilogy mini boxed set (which collected his 3 mixtapes for a rather affordable price) and the aforementioned Kissland, and keep an eye out for word of our Buffalo show. Word on the street is that it will be worth the wait.
buffalo,
buffalo radio sucks,
Cliff
—
It wasn't ballyhooed in any way, but the game in Buffalo's music scene might have been changed last Thursday at noon when music returned to 107.7 FM in a big way. After being the FM classic rock equivalent of satellite radio and the FM radio home for right wing nutjobs for the last few years, 107.7 is now Alternative Buffalo 107.7, and it's playing all sorts of decent music you had to listen to 91.3 or Toronto radio to catch. It's by no means perfect, but demographics wildly under served by local radio finally (FINALLY!) have a station to call home, and for Buffalo's ever growing and evolving music scene, this could be the game changer we've been waiting for. Or, the one that I've been waiting for because frankly I wrote about it last year.
Yes, bands like Foals, Kings Of Leon, Tame Impala, MGMT, Phoenix, Arcade Fire, Of Monsters And Men, Metric, and Passion Pit (which has a non imagined local connection) now have a home on Buffalo radio that's not 91.3, and it's bloody fantastic. Yeah the new 107.7 isn't perfect with it's penchant for lesser 90's alternative acts and an unfortunate fondness for that painfully boring "Royals" song, but I'm enjoying at least one song in every block, and sometimes I've heard whole blocks of goodness, and in Buffalo that's unheard of.
I know there's going to be some talk about terrestrial radio being old hat and on it's way out, but really that's just hipster talk talking about how hipsters consume music off of the Internet or satellite and not about how most people consume music, which is still largely from sources like local FM radio. And Buffalo radio outside of 91.3 (which does occasionally suck) has sucked forever... clogged up with pap, shite, unadventurous classic rock, and butt metal. But now radio listeners in Buffalo have another choice, one that offers the opportunity for discovery and access to something we all call GOOD MUSIC.
Now, an actual audience might grow around this GOOD MUSIC, and with the pre-existing GOOD MUSIC fans, things might start really happening in our already dynamic music scene. Older folks who want to listen to new music and kids who want to listen to actual adult/college music are going to have a Buffalo station to gravitate to, and the bands they're exposed to might actually play Buffalo now that they exist in our radio market, and that means more shows for music fans to go to and shows for local bands to open for. Buffalo will never be NYC or Toronto, and yes Buffalo does get some great shows (way more than back in the day), but there's always room for more, and hell, everybody should play Buffalo at least once, especially if they've got an audience here.
I'm not saying that 107.7 FM will directly bring elusive acts like Radiohead and Sigur Ros (which I haven't heard on that station...yet) to Buffalo, but the odds definitely improve if those bands are played on Buffalo radio, and that's why 107.7 is something to at least check out and support. With all of this urban energy and talk about "Buffalo 2.0," the arrival of Buffalo's new alternative radio station might be the start of something this area has been starving for.
audio buffalo,
buffalo,
buffalo radio sucks,
Cliff,
wbny
—
What Buffalo really needs right now is a cool radio station. I'm sorry, but after this last month of shows in our fine city, it's become clear (to me) that show promoters in Buffalo are fighting an uphill battle promoting shows and finding an audience for the stream of indie shows that have been rolling through this area these last few years, and they need help. It's actually a damn shame. Buffalo's music scene has been going gradually more and more gangbusters these last 5 years, with more high quality national acts playing the city each year without any radio support other than Buff state's 91.3, and by radio support I'm actually just talking about playing their music, let alone mentioning the shows. Plus there's the fact that 91.3 doesn't always seem all that committed to the local music scene it is inevitably part of (although that's been changing...). It really is impressive that we get good crowds and the occasional sellout, a testament to the fact that we've got a lot of college kids in the area (a good thing) and a solid core audience of music lovers, but when school is out and a mondo buzz band Yeasayer plays to a 2/3's filled Town Ballroom, you have to wonder why.
But of course we know why. Buffalo radio is terrible, and a whole universe of music is not featured on our local airwaves other than occasionally on 91.3 (which in many regards is a true local resource whether it wants to be or not). 97 Rock is a true case study in unfulfilled potential; for the most part they play decent bands but it's always the same songs instead of going deep. Maybe their research says otherwise but I'd like to think that local music fans wouldn't mind occasionally hearing Zepp's "Tangerine" or late 70's Bowie. 103.3 The Edge however is for the most part rubbish, holding tightly onto nu-metal at all costs. Local music fans of course have turned to the Internet and yes, while indie music sites and music blogs are the "new" radio, there's still nothing quite like local radio, including buffaBLOG and buffaBLOG Radio, which while being the best of both worlds (a local site and weekly show with an eye on it's locale as well as the world at large) doesn't have the 24 hour presence that radio has. Satellite radio is all well and good, but there's no sense of locality or community to plug into and connect with, and that's what local radio still has, whether that's old fashioned or not.
The other night I did something I never do and that's dvr the Channel 7 11 PM News because they were doing a segment on whether this year's Thursday at the Harbor was a success and I was curious to see what the local media and general public made of this year's installment. The verdict of course was that it was a success, which wasn't surprising, but I was in particular impressed by the sense of optimism folks at the Matt Nathanson show had about the city in general, chilling out and watching free music, with one chap even stating that "it felt like the future of Buffalo," a sentiment I am totally down with. Sometimes it feels like Buffalo rock fans are moving in two separate grooves, with one group strictly classic rock- the 97 Rock / Artpark crowd, while another is all about the indie (the nu-metal and heavy metal folks are doing their own thing). The thing is, there's a lot of crossover potential there, something you see in the crowds at Thursday At The Harbor when new bands and indie acts are on the bill. Is that "the future of Buffalo" glimpsed occasionally at Thursday At The Square? A city with curious and intelligent music fans open to new music as well as the old, willing to support a burgeoning indie music scene along with the folks doing it now with the support of the out of town college kids? Considering that support could be the difference between a two thirds full Town Ballroom for Yeasayer in early August when school is out for summer and a sell out, as well as providing additional demand and impetus for advance ticket sales in a city notorious for walk up ticket buying the night of a show, I definitely think it could well be the future of this city. And wouldn't it be great if it was?
Now, I'm entirely willing to concede that a cool radio station in Buffalo is abject wishful thinking on my part, and I''m sure there's more than a few readers thinking "radio? Get with it old man," and there's something to that, considering the seismic paradigm shifts that have rocked the music industry over the last decade. Indeed, the music landscape has changed tremendously, with the rise of the Internet as a primary tool for finding music as well as distributing it, the collapse of MTV as an actual music channel, and the simultaneous meltdown of the major record labels and rise of indie labels; the previous structures have either become outmoded or no longer exist, while the new structures replacing them are either still in the process of evolving or exist as solitary pursuits in cyberspace (not there's anything wrong with that). Radio however is still chugging along, primarily because at it's best it's a community touchstone that also provides a sense of identity and a place for people to plug in to and check out what people are listening to in their area. A "cool" radio station in Buffalo might be ludicrously fanciful thinking, but damn, I think it's what we need as our music scene is evolves and grows into something potentially fantastic for our region.
"The future of our city" indeed.
WBNY... now's the time. In the meantime, I recommend religiously consuming buffaBLOG Radio, a true local resource. Listen to it more than once a week. Learn it. Love it. Live it.
