Despite the previous comment, I plan to try to check out this new album and their other two because they sound interesting. I just can’t let that go about what people think though. As someone from Buffalo who has lived in and traveled to many other cities, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vibrant local scene and music community… correction, arts community- theatre and visual art included, quite like Buffalo’s. You can feel the edge in Buffalo. The culture encourages artists to find a voice that pushes boundaries and strives to be honest. In turn, generations pick up, dismantle, and reconstruct something new in the same space. It’s actually an enviable paradigm. So yea, “it’s all politics,” but you noticed and spoke your mind. Swim in that.
There should be a deep dive into Andre Pilette and how he took over Band Together Buffalo - an organization that was giving money directly to musicians during COVID - for his own selfish and narcissistic means. He turned a great concept into a fraud of a contest that screwed 18 year old bands out of the top prize despite Farrow comes in last in voting.
His company Buffalocal became the main sponsor and he changed the rules on voting so he could basically fund free studio time from his company under the guise of a contest. He held the entire Band Together board under his will with this - many spoke out about this, but somehow this was largely ignored. This was so clearly a conflict of interest, but he made sure to shield himself by paying all the engineers and videographers involved, and unfortunately we both know this is how it works in Buffalo. There is so little money going around in this scene that people will screw each other over for a couple hundred bucks - so sad. This wasn't a "mistake" - this is carefully crafted manipulation of people.
Lets be clear - if this was the 43 North sponsorship contest - there'd be a massive story and people would be charged with fraud. If this occurred in the sports world, it would be front page news. This is why Buffalo music is so consistently looked down upon - every other area of entertainment has accountability in this city. Jerry Sullivan got fired for making off color comments about female fans - but Andre Pilete can screw over a whole scene and no ones held accountable.
Members of Music Is Art were on the board and can back this - it would be great if we actually made an effort to change things for the better instead of consistently allowing people to do this to Buffalo music. Does anyone think the bands he screwed out of prizes are that eager to continue to participate in the Buffalo music scene? Obviously not.
Just sad how eager we are to print an article about an outsider club opening at the old Tralf spot as a potential bad thing, but we turn an embarrassingly blatant blind eye to people inside of Buffalo that continuesously damage the reputation and quality of the music scene for very little gain. There's a reason some of Buffalo's most stand-up people like Sportsmens want nothing to do with Andre.
No one is saying don't support Farrow - people just want accountability. And there is no one in music journalism doing that.
Despite the previous comment, I plan to try to check out this new album and their other two because they sound interesting. I just can’t let that go about what people think though. As someone from Buffalo who has lived in and traveled to many other cities, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vibrant local scene and music community… correction, arts community- theatre and visual art included, quite like Buffalo’s. You can feel the edge in Buffalo. The culture encourages artists to find a voice that pushes boundaries and strives to be honest. In turn, generations pick up, dismantle, and reconstruct something new in the same space. It’s actually an enviable paradigm. So yea, “it’s all politics,” but you noticed and spoke your mind. Swim in that.
There should be a deep dive into Andre Pilette and how he took over Band Together Buffalo - an organization that was giving money directly to musicians during COVID - for his own selfish and narcissistic means. He turned a great concept into a fraud of a contest that screwed 18 year old bands out of the top prize despite Farrow comes in last in voting.
His company Buffalocal became the main sponsor and he changed the rules on voting so he could basically fund free studio time from his company under the guise of a contest. He held the entire Band Together board under his will with this - many spoke out about this, but somehow this was largely ignored. This was so clearly a conflict of interest, but he made sure to shield himself by paying all the engineers and videographers involved, and unfortunately we both know this is how it works in Buffalo. There is so little money going around in this scene that people will screw each other over for a couple hundred bucks - so sad. This wasn't a "mistake" - this is carefully crafted manipulation of people.
Lets be clear - if this was the 43 North sponsorship contest - there'd be a massive story and people would be charged with fraud. If this occurred in the sports world, it would be front page news. This is why Buffalo music is so consistently looked down upon - every other area of entertainment has accountability in this city. Jerry Sullivan got fired for making off color comments about female fans - but Andre Pilete can screw over a whole scene and no ones held accountable.
Members of Music Is Art were on the board and can back this - it would be great if we actually made an effort to change things for the better instead of consistently allowing people to do this to Buffalo music. Does anyone think the bands he screwed out of prizes are that eager to continue to participate in the Buffalo music scene? Obviously not.
Just sad how eager we are to print an article about an outsider club opening at the old Tralf spot as a potential bad thing, but we turn an embarrassingly blatant blind eye to people inside of Buffalo that continuesously damage the reputation and quality of the music scene for very little gain. There's a reason some of Buffalo's most stand-up people like Sportsmens want nothing to do with Andre.
No one is saying don't support Farrow - people just want accountability. And there is no one in music journalism doing that.