Tonight at the Waiting Room: Swearin', Bryan Johnson & Family, Marine Biologist and The Big.

First: check out that picture up top. If you're telling me those aren't the people you want to spend your Saturday night with, you're lying.

I'm not being especially novel by comparing Swearin' to The Pixies and The Breeders, but that's because it's true. Male-female vocals, clever lyrics, solid melodies, loud-quiet-loud dynamics and a healthy dose of fuzz: the band's debt to late 80's/early 90's alternative rock in general, and Frank Black/Kim Deal in particular is on display. That's not to say that Swearin' is derivative by any stretch. Where Frank Black wanted to sing about, say, bloody dresses and incest, Swearin' is here to sing about the unease, precarity, and occasional joys of early adulthood. Their music isn't a rallying cry, an indictment or a resolution (leave that for poorly-considered trend pieces in Time). It's more personal than that, and all the more satisfying for sitting with the feeling of being unsure and inconclusive. Plus, it rocks: the choruses are gigantic and the hooks are never lost in the fuzz.

Joining Swearin' will be Buffalo bands Marine Biologist and Bryan Johnson & Family, along with Rochester's The Big. If you made it to our holiday party last December, then you caught the first one. Where Swearin' might capitalize on the feeling of being uncertain, Marine Biologist's effusive post-rock is totally sincere (we named their song, "Allegro," one of the best local songs of 2013 for that very reason). Surf-rockers Bryan Johnson & Family make catchy music for fun people (they, too, made the list of best songs of 2013). And Rochester's The Big will be bringing their slower, contemplative indie-rock to Buffalo for the first time. And it'll be their first show with their new drummer, who according to their Facebook page is a "looker."

Meowza. Facebook event here. Tickets are ten bucks. Doors at 7 pm. 

After tonight, Head North is, ironically, going to be heading south on an East Coast tour... (I should probably make a joke that includes the word "West.") But tonight they celebrate with an official tour kickoff featuring the likes of The Traditional, Real People, Figurehead, Lancer, and Maritime Law. Needless to say, this lineup is pretty stacked.

Doors open at 6:00pm tonight. If you can grab them from a band before the show (I know they would appreciate that), they're only $10. At the door, tickets are $13.

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.

You could describe Evan Weiss as some sort of "emo royalty," having been a part of several notable bands in the genre (including Buffalo's own now-defunct Damiera). It would be hard to deny his influence on the genre. With Into It. Over It., Weiss has channeled his inner Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids fame for you emo noobs) and gone quasi-solo, writing a bunch of charming songs and touring hard behind them.  

He's stopping in Buffalo tonight with support from the two bands with the longest names in the genre, The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die and A Great Big Pile of Leaves.  Local support comes from Rochester's Taking Meds.  Tickets are $12, doors are at 7:00pm.

Buffalo is all of a sudden a hot spot for shows. The latest tour to add our city on its routing will be breakthrough rapper Danny Brown. A native of Detroit, Brown describes himself as a "hipster by heart but I can tell you how the streets feel." The rapper, unique in his own, has grown to major festival tours and signed to high-profile label Fool's Gold Records, which released his well received Old early last fall. Brown will be making his return to Buffalo with an appearance at the Waiting Room on Wednesday, April 16th. Tickets from "The "Old Danny Brown" tour go on sale tomorrow at noon for $20 in advance/$25 day of.

Breet breet. Okay, so The Bunny The Bear doesn't actually have pig squeals, but wouldn't that be appropriate? The Buffalo-based post-hardcore group is hitting the Waiting Room tonight, clad in their trademark masks of - you guessed it - a bunny (who screams) and a bear. It's a little ridiculous (and I'm sure equally as fun), but hey, who is buffaBLOG to judge?

Supporting The Bunny The Bear are Jose Garzon, The Bella Donna, Lost Elysium, and As Summer Dies. Tickets are $13 at the door, 16+ for all you youngins, and doors open at 6:00pm.

2013 was quite a busy year for Brooklyn-based songwriter Kevin Devine. He released two albums, Bubblegum and Bulldozer, both of which showcased his ability to write ridiculously catchy songs that also contain thoughtful introspective lyrics. When listening to tracks like the addictive "Little Bulldozer," one can't help but wonder if Devine would have been more at home in the early 90s alternative radio scene. Anyone who loved Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend album would likely enjoy both of Devine's 2013 releases. Not one to restrict himself to a given style or sound, Devine is also quite active in the folk scene, and has recorded plenty of acoustic records throughout his career.

Tonight, the multi-faceted Devine, who also plays in Bad Books, makes his way to our fair city for a show at The Waiting Room on Delaware Avenue, and will start at 7 pm, with Brother Kepp as the opening act. Tickets are $12 at the door. Anyone curious about Devine's repertoire, or any longtime fans wanting to finally see him in person are likely in for a great time.

Tonight is Pentimento's second annual holiday show. Last year, in one of the dying venue's memorable last shows, the band packed the Mohawk Place so tightly it was hard to move (at least I'm pretty sure that was the Pentimento show I'm thinking of)... But this year, Pentimento will be shredding The Waiting Room. Joining them will be I Can See Mountains in what will be their farewell performance, The Traditional, Dangerfield, and Caleb and Carolyn.

If you bought a presale ticket, enjoy your VIP session with the band that starts at 6:00pm.  If you settled for regular tickets, doors are at 7.

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.

Yes everyone, feel free to say it out loud... 2004 was almost 10 years ago. That means a bunch of our favorite emo bands are now old enough to be doing tours in honor of a decade in the cutthroat music biz. Case in point, Story of the Year. 2003/2004 was a big year for them - ten years later, they have decided to tour in celebration of their landmark album, Page Avenue. They will be playing it start to finish tonight. I'm sure some diehard fans will remember this show until the day they die (see what I did there?).

Joining SOTY will be Red Letter Statement, along with local support from Cedar Kites and Venona. Tickets are $18 at the door. Doors are at 6. 16+.

When I started writing for this blog, the first band that I heard about was this band from Toronto that I had to see at the Mohawk called Wildlife. I didn't get to the show, but of course immediately regretted it because the gig immediately became somewhat legendary, at least among those who were there, and when I saw them open for Hollerado and Arkells at the Town Ballroom, and listened to their debut album Strike Hard Young Diamond, I understood why. Rousing, passionate, soaring, purposeful, and sharply melodic, Wildlife channels (tastefully) bands you give a shit about, bands like U2, Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and TV On The Radio; and puts on an intense and joyous live show that goes for your head, heart, and dancing feet. 

Tonight they make a hotly anticipated return to our fair city for a special headlining show in support of their excellent current album ...On The Heart at The Waiting Room with blog favorite Roger Bryan & The Orphans handling opening support at 8pm, and get this... it's only $10. Yes, you can see the next big thing to come out of Canada up close at The Waiting Room for $10. You should probably be there.

After waiting to see Dopapod for over a year, I was beyond jazzed to check out their set at The Waiting Room last night. This venue was an ideal spot for the show. The low ceilings created an illusion of a cavern with studio lighting, providing an intimate setting and sonic enclosure. The energy of the small crowd (around 200 or so) was on high. We were all stoked for the show to begin, and a phrase I kept hearing was, "we're at Dopapod right now!" I couldn't help but grin.

Buffalo-based jam band Space Junk kicked off the evening with upbeat dance tunes, an appropriate choice to contrast the (occasionally) heavier sound of Dopapod. They played two extended songs that blended into each other, beginning with "Snowblinds," moving into "Birds of Prey," channeling elements of electronic and funk that set a positive and peaceful tone to the evening.

Around 10:30 Dopapod opened with "Bubble Brain" off their latest album Redivider. Maneuvering through an opening that sounded like we were entering on an interstellar voyage, to a sudden break into a metallic drop, this was a strong choice. I was consistently impressed how well their sound shifted in dynamics, like a quiet, ethereal organ solo by Eli to sudden thud in pressure created by bassist Chuck, notably on "Onionhead" and "French Bowling." Unfortunately their current drummer Fro wasn't able to attend, and they had Scott Zwang hold down the fort. His performance was sharp and on point, especially with having a short window to learn most of their material.

"Trapper Keeper" was one of the highlights, a sizzling opening with lyrics lamenting the magnetic and forceful power of technology. "Can we play a new game/ look inside my trapper keeper" echoes the addictive and click-happy generation, always seeking something higher, newer, instead of taking a kick down the block and feeling the grass with our fingertips. "Trapper keeper" has to be one of the best expressions for a computer-ized object I've heard to date. For the finale they closed with "Vol. 3 #86" that featured more drawn out phrases from each member of the band.

We had the pleasure of singing Rob a happy birthday, and in return he serenaded us with a slick, jazzy tune, featuring his unique voice and wide-range of melody. A truly fantastic way to end the evening! Thank you Rob for letting me snag the setlist:

I:
"Bubble Brain"
"Black & White"
"Psycho"
"Onionhead" > "Turnin' Knobs"
"Give It A Name"
"Bahbi"
"Faba"

II:
"Sonic"
"French Bowling"
"Trapper Keeper"
"Nuggy Jawson"

Finale: "Vol. 3 #86"

Following in the footsteps of Canadian acts like the Tragically Hip, Sam Roberts Band, and the Arkells, Wildlife appear to be the next band in line to continue Buffalo's man crush with acts from the north. I will never quite understand it, but this city has a thing for adopting Canadian acts as our own and I fully except/hope the same for the Toronto five piece.

The band dropped its stellar album, ...On the Heart, a collection of big and rousing anthems without some of the heavy handedness of acts like Arcade Fire and U2, earlier this year, and will make a return to the city later this month (Thurs, Oct. 17th) with their first appearance at the Waiting Room. I finally got to the venue for a couple weeks ago for a proper show, the devastatingly good Spiritualized, and was blown away by the sound in the place.

Opening for Wildlife will be one of Buffalo's musical gems, Roger Bryan & the Orphans (think Ryan Adams fronting the Replacements). The band has been rather absent from the stage since the closing of Mohawk Place, and with some new songs in works, this is as good of a time as any to catch them Tickets are on sale now at TicketFly for the very cheap $8, or $10 the night of. Shows starts at 8pm.