A 2014 Billboard magazine headline read “Vinyl Sales Hit Historic High in 2014.” Take that in for a moment. More vinyl records were sold last year than in any year since 1991, the year Nielsen began tracking vinyl record sales.
SATURDAY, APRIL 18 IS RECORD STORE DAY, when celebrants pay homage to the brick-and-mortar shops that sell music and serve as anchors to communities of fans. Check out our Guide to Record Store Day 2015!
BUFFALO UNCONFERENCE—which takes place this Saturday, April 18 at D!G, the shared workspace in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus’s Innovation Center—promises to bring together a host of young tech innovators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and others who hope to nurture and benefit from a burgeoning sector of the Western New York economy. Attendees are encouraged not only to listen to presentations but to suggest subjects and make presentations themselves.
[CELEBRATION] As Buffaloians, we are witnessing many developmental changes, as well as an increase in our city’s population. A sizeable portion of the population increase is due to an influx of immigrants, that have migrated to Buffalo from various countries, but also the rate of college students that have decided to stay in Buffalo after attending one of our local colleges. These recent college grads are beginning their careers in Buffalo, and making a huge impact on our community.
In our second Public Conversation I sat down with Barbara Cole of Just Buffalo Literary Center. We chat about where she’s from and what she’s done, Just Buffalo Literary Center’s history, and the upcoming Babel event featuring Patti Smith on April 18th.
[INDIE ROCK] Come out to Mohawk Place this Friday, April 17 where a myriad of the brightest local bands will be playing a benefit show in support of the Tins Kickstarter campaign to fund their latest full-length album and documentary.
[YACHT ROCK] Blame the Bee Gees for upping the ante on America’s collective falsetto hard-on, but in retrospect, the oft-maligned “Yacht Rock” era produced some damn fine pop music. True, it’s hard not to wince when you play the tape all the way through to its late-stage devolution and the syrupy, adult contemporary crap it helped spawn, but in the 70s and early 80s these smooth crooners made for top notch talent.
[MARKET] Author George Bernard Shaw on the first book he attempted to have published: “I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later.” If it was that difficult for the author of Man and Superman to have a book published, it’s no wonder so many authors are self-publishing these days.
[BLUES] Taking a break from a series of in-the-round gigs with Ruthie Foster and Joe Ely, Paul Thorn hits the Tralf Music Hall this Thursday for his first full-band show in a while. Out supporting last year’s Too Blessed to be Stressed, Thorn is a bluesman’s bluesman with a raspy belt that any fan of the genre can appreciate.
[SURF ROCK] It’s hard to believe that such tidy, ultra-melodic surf-pop can actually come from the cloud-heavy cover of Western New York. True, the sentiment isn’t always as sunny to match, but that’s part of the fun. Bryan Johnson and Family wrap old-timey themes of juvenile angst in bouncy, two- to three-minute pop songs that help us forget how awfully complicated life has become.