Is Buffalo weather starting to wear on you? Find yourself wanting to scream obscenities at one too many cars that have driven by and splashed murky slush onto your jeans? I know I rely on popping Vitamin D pills daily to curb the dreaded seasonal depression. Thank goodness this winter has been the best spring Buffalo has ever had, but regardless, the dreary skies and lack of sunlight may be coming to an irritating point.

"Breathe" by Télépopmusik is a throwback tune that I have consistently listened to and not gotten sick of. For those who have known about this, you may agree with me. For those who have never heard it, you can cross this off your 'songs-I-need-to-hear' list. It's one of those all encompassing mood satisfying tracks; when you're miserable, alienated, ecstatic or enraged this song can cure it, at least in my opinion.

The French electronic trio, Télépopmusik, released "Breathe" on their 2001 album Genetic World. Their sound is minimal house with a hypnotic downtemp. This song has that powerful way of bringing an inexplicable feeling to the surface. It brings you to a place you can't quite describe.

The music video captures the essence of the song perfectly while also creatively incorporating poetic and deep themes. The scene is mellow but shot in a light that leaves a bizarre taste in your mouth. There are juxtaposing concepts represented throughout the three minute video. There is uniting love, life, death and the perspective of loneliness. If you're the type to analyze videos, you may discover there is an argument of innocence versus cynicism and that the destruction of something beautiful doesn't go unpunished. By the end, you may be longing for the literal summer sun or the metaphorical need for a better state of mind, but the lyrics will keep you grounded and still intact with hope.

"Another day, just believe, just breathe..."



Also, check out this remix I stumbled across by Los Angeles female producer, TOKiMONSTA, entitled "Breathe on my Contacts".

"I can kind of envision maybe, um, one person with a lot of machines, tapes and electronic setups uh, uh, singing or speaking and, and... using machines"
-Jim Morrison


Congratulations Jim, your babbling, nonsensical, overrated mouth just spat out something intelligent. Electronic music is here kids, and if you're an American, this is news to you. Electronic music is so here in fact, that even in Buffalo, mostly known for it's red and blue Hammer pants and bizarre allegiance to Pat Benatar (no disrespect), a three story party featuring four rooms of versatile, cutting edge music can still be a success. 

A lot of credit goes to the venue, DNIPRO is one of the coolest places in Buffalo to stage an endless maze of DJ's, bands, lasers, fog, and bars serving delicious Ukrainian beer (Obolon Weizen anyone?).  Such a maze is no fun without talent though.  Leading off the show in the band room, Wonder Crayon forgot it wasn't in the DJ room and dropped into a spirited cover of Daft Punk's "Robot Rock". Following them were The Wakos, performing a more electronic set than the one the night before at the buffaBLOG Holiday Party. Piggybacking sets across the room after that were local favorites Logo City, playing before the largest crowd of the night, before Neffski and Sean Clements cooled down the evening with some lush, diverse downtempo music.

Since I was helping Chris Young from The Wakos run sound in the band room, I didn't make it to the other floors as much as I wanted to, but when I did manage to aimlessly wander, I caught great sets from Hoogs and Odi on the third floor, hosted by Buffalo Drum 'n Bass, Jelo on the Main Stage, and a show stealing set from Sunglasses Mike from Queen City Cartel. As with most of these types of events, the best sets are always hidden on the schedule in the places you'd least expect, where up and coming DJ's push the envelope and try just a little bit harder to stand out. Even if the main stage acts weren't your thing, however, you owed it to yourself to stand in front of Tristan Ferguson's wall of homemade subwoofers on the second floor. I've been to a lot of great sounding shows, but the warmth and clarity of that main stage deserves a shout out from my ears.  A special shout out, however, does NOT go out to the manufacturer of LED lights. Make your lights easier to work, man.

Here's a little video of my aimless wanderings:





Also, check out some photos, courtesy of Michael Nico Nostro



As the event was a charity for the Native American Organization, NETO, a special mention to the Local businesses that helped support it are in order.

-Madd Tiki Tattoo
-Massage Suite & Spa
-Delta Sonic
-Encore Restaurant
-Certo Bros. Distributing
-Designated Drivers of Buffalo

A Special thanks also goes out to the Get Down team and all the people at DNIPRO for putting on a show worth going to. See you next year?

Hello, Brian here with some video from The Vault Holiday Show a week ago. I was able to get videos of two great local acts that should have your attention, Voodoo Friends and Applennium. Voodoo Friends will be joining buffaBLOG favorites Love Scenes on New Years Eve at Sp@ce224 Gallery, and Applennium will be at Mohawk Place on January 26th. Be sure to catch those shows!

Last night, Buffalo was treated to a great lineup of female fronted bands at Soundlab. Buffalo's own Love Scenes opened up the show with a solid set of favorites and a few rarities. The highlight of the night was their rendition of John Carpenter's Halloween theme, which led right into "Heavy". They finished their set with the rarely played "Precious Little Heart", the closing track to their debut album Classy Excuse for a Trashy Experience (which you can download here!). Memoryhouse took the stage boasting a 4 person lineup, including live drums, bass and guitar. Their live set had more of an indie rock feel than some of their studio work. While I enjoy the sound of their studio work, the full band made for a more engaging performance, at times seeming reminiscent of Beach House. You can check out videos of both bands below. Hooray live music!

Canadian electro-pop drop outs Tokyo Police Club ended this years Thursday In the Square concert series with an epic concert that included some classics, a few newer tunes and even a Kelly Clarkson cover. Like all the previous performances held at the new & improved water front, the crowd was huge and the sun was shinning. In other words, It was a complete success.  Which makes us believe the water front will most likely be the new home of the free iconic downtown concert series for years to come. Cheers to that.

These videos might be nauseatingly shaky, but boy do those camera phones take great audio. Check out these fan recordings to get a good idea of how the show went.

Lil Wayne, in all his tattooed & never-wear-a-shirt glory, performed to an energetic crowd last night at Darien Lake. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to make it to the show. But like everything else in this day and age, there are already plenty of shaky phone camera videos popping up on YouTube. Take a quick look at the concert entrance, "I'm the One", "Mr. Carter" and concert closer "6 foot 7 foot". These big time concert special effects seem get better every year!

Yesterday, we posted our thoughts on last week's Josh Ritter concert. Today, you can see for yourself what a great time it really was with this video of the stand out rocker "Wolves". I wouldn't call the video portion impressive (it looks like your standard cell phone video), but the audio quality is superb. It's almost impossible not to smile when the audience starts howling around the 2:50 minute mark.

Twin Shadow played their 80's lovin' hearts out last night. Although they couldn't find a place to eat they still managed to perform a near flawless version of their Forget standout "when We We're Dancing". Check it out!

Nietzsches was packed to the brim last night for their Neil Young Tribute show, Tonight's The Night, presented by the fine folks at the Good Neighborhood with benefits going towards Target Cancer.  We were able to get there just in time for Bearhunter's set, which covered "Cortez the Killer" and my personal favorite track from Young's On The Beach album "Walk On".


After the Albrights finished up their acoustic set up front, jam band Free Henry! took the stage to play their two songs, including "Down by the River".  If that seems like a short set, it wasn't as the band jammed out each song to the fullest extent.


We had to squeeze our way upfront to catch our friends Brad Gower and Evan Kaderbeck of Ramforinkus and the rest of the guys from the Brian DeAngelo Jazz trio, who had just finished up a set at Merge earlier in the night.  Their passionate takes of "Cinnamon Girl", "Cowgirl in the Sand", "Ohio", and even a sneaky crowd pleasing cover of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" put the finishing touches on a great night of music.



Judging by the size of the crowd, Target Cancer should be receiving a nice donation towards their efforts to find cures for rare cancers.  Tonight was the first Neil Young Tribute put on at Nietzsches, and judging by the turnout, it will not be the last.

If you didn't get a chance to see Tokyo Police Club this past Saturday at Soundlab because it was sold out we found the next best thing. Fan shot concert footage! These videos we're uploaded a couple of days ago and gives the general impression of everything you missed out on. Lots of sweaty people bobbing their heads up and down and singing along with every 'ohh' and 'ahh'. And what a cool raccoon T-shirt! Sure looks like a great freakin' time.

I honestly never knew what a crazy mofo Charlie Sheen was until yesterday.  I mean seriously.  It's a really bad career move for a celebrity to give one embarrassing interview, but 3 of them! All in one day!  Chances are one of your friends is even quoting Charlie Sheen on Facebook right now. Well to celebrate the true hilarity of all this, I've scoured the web for all of the best fan made Charlie Sheen music videos and it turns out people have been making these things for a while now. Fans of rap music should check out AC's song 'Charlie Sheen' who samples Real McCoy's 90′s Jam "Another Night". Country music lovers will enjoy Randy Ricks' song which uses harmonicas, mandolins, and guitars for a foot stomping good time. Finally, this electronic techno jam by J K Productions, uploaded earlier today, samples yesterdays morning interview and mashes it will some dancey drums and bass(see below).