[ROCK] Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. When you pull it apart, it seems to mean “opportunity is everywhere if you channel it,” or something along those lines. It’s just the sort of happy-go-lucky stance you might expect from a pair of guys that met while stocking the beer cooler at the golf course that employed them near Toronto.
[POP] It’s been a rough year for Heart’s Ann Wilson, but she’s all the stronger for it. Last August, while headlining the Rock Hall Three For All Tour alongside Cheap Trick and Joan Jett, things took a turn for the strange when a scuffle broke out between Wilson’s husband Dean Witter and her sister Nancy’s kids at a homecoming gig in Washington state.
[PUNK] I read a headline the other day that read “Breaking: Billy Joel Quits Green Day” and I immediately knew it was #fakenews because Billy would never leave Green Day. But then I realized it was really fake news because Billy Joel isn’t in Green Day. He’s a pop singer! His BROTHER Billie Joe Armstrong, is the guy in Green Day, a band that will probably never break up, because only the good die young. Their latest record came out last year (WHAT?!) and is titled Revolution Radio.
[TRIBUTE] Last month, Buffalo-based 1990s cover band Kurt and the Loders tackled the heady music of Radiohead, but this month they’ve got their sights set on the perhaps more instrumentally complex music of Tool, again. And they’re looking forward to it. “They are one of our favorite bands,” says Loders guitarist Jeremy Franklin. “We really wanted to challenge ourselves musically. None of us are really the ‘virtuoso’ type so we wanted to branch out. Also, with Tool you get more of a full visual experience along with the music.
[INDIE] Buffalo’s love for Hamilton, Ontario five-piece Arkells is well documented, and the band tends to sell out whenever they come to play here. Barely nine months ago they filled Town Ballroom two nights in a row and now, on Saturday, August 19, they’re at Artpark. Still supporting last year’s Morning Report (Last Gang Records/eOne) Arkells have reached a new pinnacle of maturity, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped having fun.
[PUNK] What we need right now are more bands like Downtown Boys. “A wall is a wall and nothing more at all!” lead vocalist Victoria Ruiz sings on the band’s latest album, Cost of Living, released this month on Sub Pop records. That statement, and most of the rage that permeates the record are clearly pointed directly at the President. But it’s not all rage, there’s existential and reflective statements as well.
[RALLY] Outraged by the violence in Charlottesville? Appalled that it is simply the latest manifestation of endemic racism and its attendant violence in this country? Eager to say or do something to express yourself? Erie County Executive mark Poloncarz and Buffal Common Council President Darius Pridgen are sponsoring a Citywide Rally to End Racism on Wednesday evening, August 16, at AME Zion Church on Eagle Street in downtown Buffalo. The rally, in solidarity with the victims of violence in Charlottesville, begins at 5pm.
[CRAFT FAIR] The annual Jack Craft Fair moves outdoors this year, to Wilkeson Pointe at Buffalo’s Outer Harbor. Artists and artisans working in print, jewelry, paper craft, wood, design, photography, textiles, and even personal care products, participatory art projects, live music, and local food vendors inside and on the grounds of the terminal from 11am through 5pm. Founded by Sam Epps and Khrista Tabak, this year’s event will host more than 100 artists and a bunch of free workshops, from button making to photography and origami.
[LECTURE] Journalist Douglas Lucas may know more about the hacktivist group (or groups) that calls itself Anonymous than many one of its putative members or factions. He has written extensively about Anonymous for Vice, Salon, Daily Dot, Nerve, and other sites. He has also covered the plight of Barrett Brown, a journalist who was jailed, in part, for publishing hacked documents and then protecting the sources from which he acquired those documents.
[DISCO] “Record stores can’t save your life, but they can give you a better one,” poet Nick Hornby once said. A couple of DJs are hoping their time spent at the record stores will make your life a little bit better, with the help of some beer too, this Thursday, August 17 at Nietzsche’s. Sike and DJ Trashcan will trade off obscure, not so obscure, and straight up hits dug out from the bottom of the disco, funk, soul, and house bargain bins to get you dancing in Allentown on a Thursday night.
[EMO] This is pretty self-explanatory for most of you reading this, but let’s elaborate anyway. The rise of Taking Back Sunday began in 1999 with guitarist Eddie Reyes from Long Island, along with a few punk screamo kids in and out of other bands. Their first album, Tell All Your Friends, was released in 2002, followed by Where You Want to Be in 2004, meaning that these albums are just about 15 years old.
[POLITICS] Listen, folks: Politics can be more than a civic responsibility. It can be engaging on many levels, evoking pride of place, eye-rolling indignation, and even humor. The cast of characters in this year’s mayoral election offers a promising lineup for the annual Buffalo Association of Black Journalists Mayoral Debate, hosted by the Burchfield Penney Art Center this Thursday, August 17.
[ROCK] Is there a difference between Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson? As the frontman, writer, flutist and all-around architect of the band from 1968 until it wound down a decade ago, Anderson is certainly its sine qua non.
GreenWatch Sunday
The events of the past 48 hours, including the violence and deaths in Charlottesville Virginia, and the ongoing national protests and rallies both for and against racist white nationalists, is shocking.
The state of the world has moved into chaos. Dont just be distracted by Trump’s North Korea and Venezuela threats. There is so much to be consumed by. And we are being consumed.
WHAT TO DO WITH ROUTE 240?
At first glance, America’s off-road vehicle craze seems illogical. But if viewed as an emerging grassroots highway preference, it may resolve a contentious local road-building issue.
Two groups of people are likely to have problems with The Glass Castle, the new film adaptation of Jeannette Walls’s best-selling memoir about growing up in a dysfunctional family with parents who couldn’t adequately care for them.