Ah yes, the highly coveted and first ever “All Things Buffalo: Music Award”. There have been a decent amount of good local releases this year but this year, the competition ended before this blog was even up and running. The first ever winner is [drumroll]…

Ani Difranco-”Knuckle Down”
A great album from start to finish and since I never had the chance to subject all of you to a review of this album, here goes!
1. “Knuckle Down” A very catchy, upbeat song with a little attitude mixed in, gets a little repetitive but boy was this one catchy
2. “Studying Stones” A dramatic and emotional song, you can really feel the emotions of Ani in this song about her childhood
3. “Manhole” My favorite, Ani’s cutting words do great in this song with some great guitar in it. Another song that you’ll enjoy having stuck in your head.
4. “Sunday Morning” Kind of has a mid-90’s mellow rock-chick sound to it…very catchy and once again, her lyrics enhance/compliment the music greatly
5. “Modulation”-Even though this isn’t my favorite, it has a good, catchy melody…sounds like the kind of song that sounds good live but just doesnt come accross as well in an album
6. “Seeing Eye Dog”-Don’t like this song. Sometimes she feels the need to vocalize in a wierd psuedo-manly voice
7. “Lag Time”-Washes out the taste of the last song completely! Maybe the second best song on this album. You can really feel this one. The melody is beyond solid with good lyrics to accompany it
8. “Parameters”-A spoken word piece, interesting lyrics although for somereason she sounds a little self-righteous in it…but the music in the back is very nice and regardless of the rhetoric-the words are powerful and flow well
9. “Callous”-A dramatic and catchy tune, as usual, deep lyrics to accompany some nice guitar
10. “Parradigim”-An allright trackm, the rythym isnt very solid compared to the other songs
11. “Minerva”-In my opinion maybe the weakest track on the album…gets pretty monotonous.
12. “Recoil”-Great way to end the album…classic Ani at her best with deep lyrics and some extremely catchy guitar (a reccuring theme to say the least)

So it gets 4.5 out of 5 stars..a great album with six or seven songs i can listen to everyday without getting tired of it. Ani comes out with an album a year so expect another release despite her arthritic problem in her wrist that cancelled a majority of her summer tour…so thats it for 2005 for us here at “All Things Buffalo”. Thanks to you out there who check our site daily despite our infrequent updates (which we got/will get better at, I promise!) So good luck to you in 2006 and most of all, good luck to Buffalo in 2006, God knows we need it!

It’s official now…the Seneca Nation has been sued by a group of Buffalonians who site various violations by the Senecas in persuit of this “Buffalo Creek Casino”. Good points brought up by both sides. The Anti-Casino peoples in the lawsuit site that the acquisition of the land, the proceedings to begin construction and ignoring the historically significant “H-O Oats” grain elevator put them in violation. These issues are debatable since a New York state judge did give the Senecas permission to build in Buffalo and in fact a judge DEMANDED that they build in Buffalo and nowhere else. Masiello and Snyder (head of the nation) cite the creation of 1,100 jobs downtown and $11 million in profits for the city of Buffalo. Knowing the way Buffalo works, the Senecas will get this thing done with very little delay. Personally, I’d feel more comfortable with a casino next to the airport, but in reality-we are looking at a desolate part of downtown with no projects planned at the site of the casino. The H-O Oats grain elevator has been abandoned for a very long time with no development in site…this might be progress after all. Not so much the fact that we can gamble downtown, but because to out-of-staters, a casino is more interesting and worthy of one’s time than a decaying abandoned grain elevator with no signs of life.

Oh those Sabres were at it again! After earning a point in a shootout loss in Toronto they came back strong in front of the sold out crowd at the HSBC Arena to defeat Atlanta 4-1. Vanek, Grier, Afinogenov, and Drury scored the goals and Miller had his best performance of the year with 38 saves. With the Islanders’ DiPietro down, it looks as if Miller could join the US Olympic team afterall….this might be hard to believe but the Sabres have the second most points in the ENTIRE NHL! Only three back of Ottawa…Next game is tomorrow hosting Florida (Free autographs after the game BTW)…

Driving to Toronto through Niagara Falls, USA two days ago I saw the new Seneca Nation Hotel/Casino thingamajigger

and I must admit it looks quite sleek and then I picked up the Buffalo News and saw this…

“The Senecas will top their new hotel with a five-story high-definition television screen shaped like a feather, an embellishment expected to outshine anything across the border and be visible as far away as the upper floors of some buildings in downtown Buffalo.
‘On a clear day you can see the hotel from Rich Stadium,’ said Dennis Ryan, the Korea-based company’s director of sales in North America and a Buffalo resident.”

…So who knows what the Sencas are gonna do with the “Buffalo Creek” casino. I’m sure it won’t be nearly as breathtaking but it would be nice to have a nice additon to the already nice skyline of our city.

PS…how cool would it be to have a Times Square-Esque TV in Downtown Buffalo!?!?

The biggest band out of our city has been doing quite well latley.
As their newest single “Better Days”

climbs the charts, they won an RMA for best band of 2005

and rumor has it that their new album will be titled “Let Love In” due out in mid-February with a tour starting in Buffalo!
Good times!

Oh man, beautiful night. Bill Clinton in attendance, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Roman Tynan, aaaand a Sabres’ victory! Biron was very solid and is making the whole “return of Ryan Miller” situation, VERY sticky.

A great crowd on hand, and you could just sense the fact that the City of Buffalo is believing in the Sabres again.

This group from Tonawanda is currently touring its debut album, “Always Leave the Ground”.

In fact, they’ll be at Club Infinity on Friday night and tickets are only $10. (PS…This Day and Age are 999999x better live then in the studio)
I discovered these guys at a Spill Canvas show last September at the Icon and these guys definitly impressed. Immediatley after coming back from the show I downloaded the album. Although they are not nearly as good as they are in person (I can’t empasize that enough), their debut album was pretty impressive…
1. Sometimes
A light and short introduction
2. Tomorrow is Waiting
Pace picks up a little here, pretty catchy
2. Hourglass
One of the best songs on this album, kinda hard (at least in relative terms)
4. Second Place Victory
In my opinion, the best song on this album, starts of real slow and soft but builds up. Very catchy and a little emotional.
5. Slideshow
Really solid track, interesting lyrics and once again, pretty darn catchy
6. History is Falling for Science
Oooooh, i see a trend here! Once again, really catchy and they stray away from the piano completely…kudos.
7. The Day We Started
Not a bad song at all but not my favorite though
8. We Always Rewind the Best Part
Too much piano, too corny
9. I Remember Me
Its allright, but I don’t like the part where
10. Seven-Eighty
I don’t particularly like this song that much but its a bit catchy
11. Clouds and Skyscrapers
Once again, start off slow, build up big…good stuff in general.
12. A New Focus
A bit edgy, good stuff, no piano (hooray!) gets you kinda amped up for a dramatic, exciting final song but…
12. Long Walk Home
No! That darn piano comes back, but the song does build up once again. Not bad, I just expect a little more excitement for a final track

Buffaloist rating: 4 out of 5 Buffaloes
All in all, a little bit too much piano going on and they lyrics sometimes sound a little to corny in order to sound poetic but the overall sound is very solid and lots of catchy hooks throughout the album. A must listen and A MUST SEE in person, seriously, worth the $10 and more to see them this Friday.

The Sabres

are more than

The Bills

…I think we have reached the point where the Sabres are back to being the #1 team in Buffalo. Thank you Bills, it was a great run but now its back to those days where the team flat out stunk (pre-Marv Levy era). Now its time to focus on Dury and those high flying Sabres.

I know, I know! It’s hard to believe. Can you just see it now? A REAL waterfront?!!?! Oh man. Now I can’t friggin wait to see a fully developed downtown with a waterfront, HealthNow, BassPro (hey, its better than an abandoned Aud). I’m telling you peoples, Buffalo is gonna look pretty pretty nice in five years.

Well ladies and gents I think I’ve found my shtick for all things buffalo.. Browsing for some business jobs on craigslist all 6 of them ( I kid you not, compared to a ‘normal’ craigslist city having 432987432 daily), I wasn’t having much success so I went to browse the other sections…

He is a dealer.. with out the doll part.

So the wonderful Mary Beth is looking for some dolls. Hopefully this will help her out, because All Things Buffalo is most likely a hot spot for dolls aficionados. Also I really hope ‘Mary Beth’ isn’t in real life ‘Robert’.

Movie Choice of macho-men across the nation (that includes buffalo)

I’m just gonna say this guy, someone who goes to the steer and considers himself to be a lookalike for Tom Cruise *no homo* in the movie Risky business *Nullus*, needs sometime type of help…

Only In Buffalo.

legal info:
about the proceeding post coming soon, I just don’t know what lawyer commercial to pick. kthxbye.