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Spotlight: Ugly Sun

Talking to the three piece garage rock band Ugly Sun on a cold afternoon at a coffee shop in Buffalo, the conversation turns to their choice of hats.

Guitarist Trey Hollowood is wearing something like a Russian Ushanka hat. Bassist/vocalist John Crook is wearing a beenie with the logo of his family’s bar in East Aurora, the Bar Bill Tavern, and his brother Harry, the drummer of the band, is wearing a retro Buffalo Bills hat—the standing red Buffalo on a white background. Harry is given the award for best hat of the day by me, and Hollowood is visibly disappointed.

Deconstructing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

[SCREENING] Fifty years ago this week, the biggest songs on the radio were the two sides of the new Beatles single, “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The single was released after an unusual period of inactivity from the band, which six months earlier had announced its retirement from touring. Fans fretted that this might be the end of The Beatles; instead, as this innovative pair of recordings demonstrated, it was the beginning of an era in which they would concentrate on maximizing the possibilities of the modern studio.

Chocolate Puma

[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] If you’ve got any love for the house sounds of the early 1990s then Chocolate Puma’s got some love for you. The Holland-born duo burst on the scene in 1992 with an inescapable house hit called “Give It Up” (released under the moniker of The Good Men) that lit a fire under club floors all over the world, featuring a marching band beat on steroids and a dismissive chant, “Give it up, Girl!” that kept the gay boys bouncing for two years solid.

Joe Pera

[COMEDY] “Will the real Joe Pera please stand up?” Indeed he will, at Babeville on Friday, February 17, presented by Laugh and Other Drugs. Pera is a salad of awkwardness, best known for his Christmas tree shtick, delivered with the demeanor of an NPR announcer that’s got a touch of Asperger’s – simultaneously calming and off-puttingly-odd. Hailing from here in Buffalo, Pera’s expertise at choosing the correct Christmas tree was a big hit on Adult Swim, earning him an appearance on Late Night with Seth Myers.

The Leones with Sonny Baker

[INDIE] If you’ve ever found yourself wishing that My Morning Jacket had more of a spaced-out (strung-out?) Twin Peaks-y feel, sorta like Jim James’ solo work, The Leones might just be the answer to your prayers. Together, guitarist Dustin Lau and songwriter/vocalist Justin Leone Bachulak weave trippy, cinematic textures that play on the listeners imagination in unexpected ways.

Parking Lot Tuna

[ROCK] Parking Lot Tuna is an unfortunately named reggae-rock cover band from Buffalo. Despite their unsavory name (look it up on Urban Dictionary if you’re curious), the band sure does have the licks to take on the reggae-rock bands which they cover—the list includes Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, The Dirty Heads and more. Parking Lot Tuna comes to the Tralf Music Hall for a special show this Friday, February 17 with support from Max Muscato. 

Brahms' Requiem

[CLASSICAL] Described as a program designed to both “comfort and inspire,” the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus with singers Deborah Selig and Darren Stokes will perform the music of Brahms and Kodaly on Saturday, February 18 at Kleinhans Music Hall. The Chorus, lead by conductor JoAnna Falletta will perform the 20th century Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly’s “Dances of Marosszek” and “Peacock,” as well as Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem” as part of their “Musically Speaking” series sponsored by Uniland Development.

Josh Wolf

[COMEDY] Country music fans might be more familiar with comedian Josh Wolf than most since Wolf’s new talk show, appropriately titled The Josh Wolf Show, premiered on Country Music Television in 2015. But Wolf’s style doesn’t necessarily fit into the country comedy niche that comedians like Larry the Cable Guy or Jeff Foxworthy fall into—he’s also a regular on Chelsea Handler’s E! network talk show Chelsea Lately, so make of that what you will.

Coin

[INDIE] Indie pop band Coin unapologetically declare that they’re a product of the 1990s. In fact an early release from the band was titled 1992 and featured the kind of poppy indie rock that you might expect to hear from a 1990s one hit wonder. But of course, Coin are hoping not to be one hit wonders, though their latest single, “Talk Too Much” could certainly end up turning into a mainstream hit. For now, the Nashville, Tennessee band remains percolating in the underground, waiting for their opportunity to shine bright.

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