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Witty Tarbox EP Release Show

[INDIE] Buffalo-based surf rock band Witty Tarbox will celebrate the release of their first studio EP, The Adventures of Schmitty: issue #1 v RARE, with a show at Nietzsche’s this Saturday, April 28. The record and the band’s accompanying music video for their single, “Pabst Blue Rhythm,” combines their loves for comic books, video games, and of course beer, in the form of head bobbing, surfy indie rock grooves. Get there early and stay late to catch Handsome Jack and Mosswalk.

The Go Rounds

[INDIE] Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Go Rounds are a four-piece psychedelic rock band. Their latest release is titled code, and features seven tracks, the first three of which were recorded in studio, while the latter four were recorded at a couple of live gigs. The difference in recording method isn’t very noticeable as the listener meanders through the band’s colorful, light indie rock songs that land somewhere between Real Estate and Dr. Dog.

Smokepurpp

[HIP HOP] Lil Pump associate (accomplice?) Smokepurpp is on tour on the heels of his latest mixtape, the divisive Bless Yo Trap, released just last week.. Though with fewer facial tats than his partner in rap, the 20-year-old, who hails from Miami, Florida, shares Pump’s love for lean, gunz, and ignorant trap beats, as evidenced on the new mixtape, produced by young Canadian hip hop producer Murda Beatz.

Made Violent

[ROCK] Hometown garage-rock heroes Made Violent return to Buffalo for a show this Sunday, April 29 at Mohawk Place. Late last month, the band released their latest record, Squeeze, a fun, light hearted, and driving straight-up-rock n’ roll record that’s been a few years in the making for the band that formed in 2012. They’ll be joined by fellow hometown indie rock bands Ugly Sun and Cold Fronts.

Nina Nesbitt

[POP] Age 23 may seem like a very young age to already be a major label refugee, but things happen fast in the world of digital music and social media. In 2016, after seven EPs and one full length release for Universal, Scottish lass Nina Nesbitt broke off to do her own thing. It seemed like a marketing wet dream: attractive, young and talented, Nesbitt is also a high-profile model who has worked in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Estee Lauder, among others. She also dated Ed Sheeran for a spell (“Nina,” “Photograph” and “Friends” are all written with her in mind).

John Popper

[ROCK] At 51, John Popper is a young rock survivor. The Blues Traveler frontman has experienced his share of woes, from the death of band mate/bassist Bobby Sheehan, to his 1992 motorbike accident (which put him in a wheelchair for a spell) to a near fatal heart attack in 1999 brought on by obesity. Popper has since slimmed down and Blues Traveler has continued to make music as an indie band.

Popa Chubby

[ROCK] Popa Chubby A.K.A. Ted Horowitz makes blues with a sense of humorous swagger, as his stage name suggests. After scoring a mid-1990’s deal with Sony/Okeh. Horowitz took up residence on the Blind Pig roster and has, in more recent years, self-released his records—of which there are over 25. There are plenty of electric blues players out there performing in smaller halls, but Horowitz brings enough personality to his show to make him stand apart.

Minus the Bear

[INDIE] When Minus the Bear released their third full length, Planet of Ice, in 2007, reactions were mixed – as they have been, pretty much, with everything they’ve released since turning the corner from their prog-absurdist early work to something a bit moodier and more personal. Now a decade later, Ice has sold out four vinyl pressings and continues to be regarded as a career high point for MTB, who just finished touring last year’s ambitious Voids, their first album without drummer Erin Tate.

Deer Tick

[ROCK] Deer Tick released two volumes of self-titled records last fall. Deer Tick Vol 1 and 2 could be seen as the two sides of the band over their 14-year-long career—Vol 1, the stringy, acoustic, rootsy side, and Vol 2, the garage rocking, fiery side. Formed as a solo project for frontman John McCauley in 2004, the band gradually took form as a four-piece after the 2007 release of debut album War Elephant, which was released on the band’s long-time label, Partisan Records.

Retro Rewind All Star Jam

[DANCE PARTY] The first ever Retro Rewind All Star Jam happens this Friday, April 27 at Buffalo Iron Works. The event features a few hometown favorites, including C.O.Jones, Nerds Gone Wild, and Vinnie Derosa Trio, as well as a friend from the north, Toronto’s Alyssa Gill. Expect a bunch of funk, pop, and rock from the 1970s and 1980s. 

America: Great Again?

There are two hugely anti-American things going on right now that are getting very little, if any, regular mainstream media attention. The first is the absolutely disgraceful process to restore power to Puerto Rico. The hurricane that knocked the American territory’s power out on September 20th, and as of earlier this week only a fraction of electricity had been restored to the island…before a freak accident knocked it all out again this week. 

Final Portrait, You Were Never Really Here

I have never seen a film by Stanley Tucci that I haven’t loved. Tucci is of course best known as an actor, but he has also directed a handful of films, beginning with his best-known, Big Night (1996, co-directed with Campbell Scott), about two brothers who own an Italian restaurant. After the slight but entertaining comedy The Imposters (1998), he made another gem, Joe Gould’s Secret (2000), based on the work of New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell.

Itzhak

Entertaining Alan Alda in a scene from Alison Chernick’s Itzhak, her documentary about Itzhak Perlman, the eminent violinist jokingly offers a deprecating self-characterization. Seated in the kitchen of his New York home, after serving the actor some of his “garbage pail” soup, Perlman says that as he’s aged, he’s decided he “doesn’t like anyone.” And then he laughs.

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