[PUNK] The Altoona, Pennsylvania five-piece, the Post Season, displays some impressive chops, cranking out infectious punk-pop tunes that land with a worthwhile punch. The band’s Facebook description reads, “More hooks than your Granddad’s tacklebox,” and they’re not lying—track after track will ring through your head like an earworm on meth.
[FESTIVAL] Buffalo Ironworks is hosting a benefit blowout this Friday, August 28 and Saturday, August 29 in the form of Joey’s Shakedown Festival, staged as a benefit for Evergreen Health Services of WNY.
[INDIE] “Local Boys Make Good with Disc of Seven New Tunes, Stage Massive Celebration at Sugar City.” Listening to Aircraft’s late winter single “Space Euphoria,” a cinematic vision comes to mind: a club scene in an episode of “Get Smart” where Don Adams is on some KAOS-related mission, fumbling through a crowd of chicks in short polyester dresses doing the Boogaloo.
[INDIE] Longtime local players Mark Costantino and Brandon Delmont have joined forces for a series of tunes that straddle the lines between collegiate angst and the (arguably more painful) realizations of growing older. It gives the duo’s self-titled disc, recorded in the throes of a brutal winter, a cross-section of emotional appeal—which also helps explain why college radio is responding to it so well. Costantino’s even-tempered crooning sets the stage for short, shimmering vignettes that’ll continue gnawing at you well after the record ends.
This weekend, the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts will celebrate its 16th year by inviting more than 170 artists and 70 performers to a six block stretch of Elmwood Avenue between West Ferry Street and St. James Place. “We wanted to create an event, with the help of thousands of co-creators that helped to bring out the best in all of us,” says festival chairman, Joe DiPasquale.
[ALT ROCK] A string of in-store appearances leads the LA-based alt rock band, Silversun Pickups to Record Theater on Main and Lafayette for a special performance on Saturday, August 29. The band is on the road promoting their fourth studio album, Better Nature, which will be released on September 22. To guarantee entry to the event, fans must pre-order a copy of Better Nature from Record Theatre. The pre-order will also come with a limited-edition lithograph, which the band will sign after the show.
[ROCK] In 1993, the Counting Crows unleashed their gorgeously orchestrated debut album, August and Everything After to an audience unprepared for such an original and honest sound. “Mr. Jones” burned up the charts with its thick melodies and Adam Duritz’s passionate vocals. Twenty-one years and five albums later, the Crows are back with Somewhere Under Wonderland to remind us that they have evolved, but their songs can still penetrate the soul.
[COUNTRY] Rascal Flatts are three guys who boast pleasant country-pop a few degrees hotter than that of their contemporaries. From “My Wish” and “Rewind” to “Prayin’ for Daylight” and “What Hurts The Most,” they bask in their honeyed harmonies, bright production, and infectious mid-tempo pop grooves to create heart-on-your-sleeve ballads that make you want to sway. Catch Rascal Flatts with Scotty McCreery and Raelyn at Darien Lake on Saturday, August 29.
[JAZZ] It’s the last weekend in August and that means that Center Street in Lewiston will be jam-packed with four stages worth of smoldering jazz performed by world-class musicians for the Lewiston Jazz Festival. Renowned jazz pianist, Ron Corsaro, backed by the Upstate Express and featuring Laurie Bordonaro on vocals, will hold down the Main Stage on Friday.
[PARTY] This Saturday, August 29 Squeaky Wheel welcomes you to join them as they celebrate their 30th anniversary at their annual multimedia extravaganza, Peepshow. It’s the kind of lively, all-out event you can expect from the city’s chief multimedia nonprofit.
Two imbeciles from South Boston this past week pissed on a homeless man, and then beat the shit out of him. Get a load of what happened,
The homeless man was lying on the ground, shaking, when police arrived early Wednesday. His face was soaked, apparently with urine, his nose broken, his chest and arms battered.
THICK SOY SAUCE BRAND PISTOLS / HOLLIS FRAMPTON was a filmmaker, photographer, writer, and member of the faculty of UB’s Department of Media Study from 1973 until his death in 1984. His work has been the subject of a summer-long retrospective based at CEPA Gallery, in partnership with Dean Brownrout Modern/Contemporary, Squeaky Wheel, Big Orbit, and the Burchfield Penney.