From the suburban parking lot snowpiles to overpriced avant-shit

Briarbrothers

damn tough to find. apparently its in the valley not the first ward.

no twitter either

an actual brewery! they werent trying to sell me a shit $15 hamburger! so already a 4/5

they even have $5 beers. how long that lasts is counted in days.

place is is awesome. way better than anticipated, think barrel factory but no elevator. the silos r righr in the building.

place has a lot of potential and will be overwhelmed by turds soon. prayers up to a real brewery for at least a few months!

restaurant review: graylynn

downtown date night. was gonna go to fatty beer co for a few pops snd saw this place in the old French place.

The concierge was about as nice as can be. we didnt have a rez because we just wanted dessert and sit out side on a moderate night on a downtown patio. she got us a spot.

never had tiramisu but boy wass it tasty. had a trial by wombat and a nice view of main st.

i grade it multiple train stops, brava

another drip in the pan, another loaf in the oven, another year in the book. the role of music in my life has changed over the last three years. it’s still a huge part of my life, but definitely a more private one. i realized that i still make a best of music list every year only to not publish it. in no particular order.

mild orange - mild orange. nice and smooth. melodic and contemplative. some great hooks on this sleepy pop hit. (freak in me) quiet. could listen to during a snow storm. (one)

shimmertraps - look!. chillwave reincarnated! nice lil’ album with some catchy electro beats. love the falsetto. best song is lilac. but overall the album is solid.

toner - silk road. these guys finally put up an official full record and it’s a lot their old stuff all polished up. the songs are great but i liked the quality of recording on the earlier records. let’s face it, B.C. Hope is their best song. I liked the new one Always on Time. these guys are so good.

tops- i feel alive. they’re finally back to form. this album this 70′s pop gold. singer jane penny amazing voice sounds so confident. the title track is a standout as is Witching Hour and Direct Sunlight. this album is still melancholy but has some spots of sun through the canopy.

jw francis- we share a similar joy. this album is the best. a collection of tunes that i’ve been listening to all year. lo fi but tons of heart. every song is great.

brief list, here are the albums I downloaded this year:

Big Thief - Two Hands

Big Thief - UFOF

Black Keys - Lets Rock

Chance the Rapper - The Big Day

Kanye West - JESUS IS KING

Kaytranada - Bubba

Thom Yorke - Anima

Toro y Moi - Outer Peace

Tyler, the Creator - igor

Young Thug - So Much Fun

Continuing with our year end lists here is a ranking of the worst people in Buffalo for 2019!

5. mike andrzejewski

The restauranteur closed sea bar to fuck off to the bistro he still owns in university heights. He claimed they wouldnt take reservations the last week they were open but the well heeled sure still got in.

4. howard simon

Good grief, how is this dull old turd still a fixture on buffalo sports talk radio. There might not be a less boring, old, humorless uninteresting person in the entire two county area. Yet he continues on yammering about his mundane existence being dragged along by jeremy white. fucking retire

3. sheila megan

A small time small town west seneca politician who was as inept and clueless as she was brazen and corrupt. Not only did she raise taxes and her own god damn salary but on her way out revoked said raises for her predecessor. Has anything ever opened up in west seneca?

2. mickey kerns

This loathsome cretin is as spineless an opportunist as you will find. So aghast and spooked by the least privileged among us, Kerns has cried, pissed, moaned and sued to prevent migrants from getting a drivers license. Is that a good use of public funds, advancing your misguided politics for a photo op and headlines you self serving piece of shit?

1. jason botteril

There are more and more god damn breweries in this city every year. Rarely are they good or even worth spending $7 for a 12oz (that they make looking like s fucking 16oz) glass of some new fancy "IPA".

Yeah, yeah theyre still fun to go to and for fucks sake it is god damn beer. But some have to be bad. So here are the five worst Buffalo Breweries of 2019:

5. Resurgence

The only reason they are on the list? There are two god damn locations. Why? Wasnt the old one supposed to change a bit and have different vibes? Why is half the new one always closed and surrounded by dirt piles and fallen trees?

4. Flying Bison

Their food truck Tuesday adjacent-ness is nice in the summer and the beers usually max out at $5. But they never have a porter when I want one or a session IPA when my druthers are a session IPA. None of the beer is memorable either.

3. Froth

Is there a place less necessary? Their beer isnt good and grossly overpriced. No one lives near this place and the parling lot is a fuckin potholed triangle. WTF?

2. Community Beer Works

What happen to the old place reopening? What happen to the Niagara Falls location? What happen to the quality of their beer the last FEW years? Why is the beer $2-3 more expensive than it should be? Why is the beer taxed at point of sale? Why dont they can more than 6 packs?

1. Rusty Nickle

Dan's year end list!

BEST. MUSIC. 2019.

Good Morning - Basketball Breakups 

Chill Australian garage rock.  Seems like these guys can never put anything bad out. 

Diiv - Deceiver

It seems like it took forever for these guys to put out a new album.  The wait was worth it though.  Changed up their sound a little bit but did it in a way where they still keep their style (if that makes any sense). 

Men I Trust - Oncle Jazz

Solid bedroom pop.  Great music to listen to in the morning.

Dogbreth - Ever Loving

This album has a great pop-punk/garage vibe to it.  Reminds me of old Cloud Nothings 

Surf Curse - Heaven Surrounds You

Reminds me of old Beach Fossils. I almost forgot about these guys... Glad I didn't. 

Milly - Our Four Favorite Songs

Four song ep. Looking forward to when these guys *hopefully* put out a full length.

Horse Jumper of Love - So Divine 

Friday nites are for glitz and glam. Time to get dolled up and hit the town. Polish the ‘Stang and cruise on down to the finest Italian restaurant this side of the Arno. I’m talking about (the) Mulberry in Lackawanna, New York. My mustang is in my dreams so we took the Chevy Malibu instead.

This was a purposeful date. My wife is 40 weeks pregnant and must have overheard a bunch of geriatric wives weaving tales of labor induction. Apparently one of these narratives includes eating eggplant parm and having the baby. We made reservations online and showed up one minute late. The place was pretty packed. Upon arrival we were seated in the busy front/bar dining room. But then the hostess saw my wife’s belly and asked if we wanted to swap tables to a more a serene room. So we did. We were now yellow hairs amongst blues.

Our waitress was very excited to have a pregnant lady in her company. She touched my wife’s shoulder repeatedly and told us that we were the 4th couple to have eggplant parm that week. The garlic bread that we ordered for our appetizers was very tasty. Way better than white bread with butter and garlic salt in a toaster oven. Way better. Our entrees came pretty fast. I ordered a white pasta dish with sausage and broccoli rabe and she got her parm. My fone fell in her pasta while I was demonstrating the rigidity of my new case. The food was great. Service was amazing.  And now the contractions start. 

7.6 out of 7.9.