Album of the Week

Raybees – Seed Funding from the Federal Government

September 10, 2026

It’s Raybees, baybee. Live from the dungeon? Live from the sunroom? Who even knows how songs like these originate? There are only a few things that we do know: 1.) Buffalo-based songwriter Jacob Smolinski is at it again – Raybees is another vehicle for his uber-prolific musical output. 2.) This six-song EP doesn’t even breach six (6) minutes in length. 3.) These songs are weird as hell.   Ok fair enough – here’s a little background. Consider Seed Funding from the Federal Government a palate cleanser, if you will. Smolinski made a conscientious effort this time around to put out some music that felt a little less meticulously crafted than, say, Reaper, Take My Life For Free!. Being a songwriter is hard when you’re also a full time IT guy or insurance adjuster or human resources assistant, so off the clock, Smolinski turned to creating these noisy nugs as a way[...]

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death – Earthquake Lights

September 3, 2026

Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death (EHAFTD) have a long and storied history, and we don’t mean in an Oregon Trail (TM) kind of way. The Ithaca-based post-punk act released a now-revered second-wave emo record in the early aughts and its members splintered onto other projects (in the way that a lot of projects from that era tended to do). Luckily for us, the group has been back since 2016 – and some might argue stronger than ever! Their latest is a nine-song offering called Earthquake Lights – an amalgamation of their multi-genre experiences with an added focus on heaviness.   A heavy Black Sabbath permeates Earthquake Lights – perhaps not so surprisingly, as album opener “Joe Sabbath” has a pretty obvious nod. This one makes use of cranked Big Muff (TM) tone, pairing sludgy Black Sabbath intros with the freak-out post-punk intensity that the band is otherwise known for. Gravel-y[...]

Orange Dog Club – little white house (on a hill)

August 27, 2026

Orange Dog Club (ODC) comes from humble beginnings – birthed from boredom somewhere in the middle-of-nowhere upstate NY – but they have quickly become one of Buffalo’s most exciting exports. The band is led by the enigmatic Tim Turner, who after emigrating to Buffalo at age 18, has sharpened and honed his songwriting into something wholly sophisticated for someone who’s still young enough to be in college. With his cornfield-bred friends and a few Buffalonians in tow, Turner & co. have crafted an incredible debut, little white house (on a hill), a razor-sharp collection of eight songs that Julian Casablancas probably wishes he wrote, if he went back to singing through a garbage practice amp instead of a fancy vocoder.   “dorm girl” kicks off this album and, immediately, Turner turns on his songwriting charms. This is almost assuredly the most beautiful song ever written about banging in a dorm[...]

Jerry Kingsman and his Model Horses – Year of the Horse

August 20, 2026

Jerry Kingsman and his Model Horses (aka Vanity Club aka Sal Constantin and a ton of his friends) are an explosion of youth. They have a devil-may-care, je ne sais quoi aura – but their existence is intentional and their ideas are fully realized. Sure, their greatest inspiration may be a Smiths cover called “Heaven Knows I’m Doing Your Mom,” but we’re thankful for low-hanging mom jokes in this case… Their latest album, Year of the Horse, reminds us of simpler times – when creating an album was the most important thing you could do with your time. Jerry & co. built a nine “song” offering, running the gamut between sweaty garage rock, salty surf tones, and full-on skits that make this experience as much performance art as it is an album   The first real song on Year of the Horse is “I Don’t Want To Work,” and it’s[...]

Jesse & The Spirit – cloudspotting

August 13, 2026

It’s both hard to believe and easy to envision Jesse & The Spirit (aka Jesse James) being around for more than a decade. With multiple acclaimed projects to their name (including the one we’re focusing on in this review, Jesse & The Spirit; sludge-gaze band Dolly Sods; freaked-out electronica act The Niagara River; and even their pre-pandemic post-rock bliss-out in Tomoreaux), they’re approaching, or has, by default, already achieved Buffalo indie rock royalty. James’ latest album is called cloudspotting, James’ umpteenth release, but one that feels anchored in multiple ways. Distinctly Buffalonian (we’ll get to that in a minute), cloudspotting not only chronicles James’ return to Buffalo, but also happens to host James’ 100th original J&TS song. 100 songs is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a prolific songwriter like James, who has split songwriting duties in so many bands throughout the years.   James’ approach for Jesse & The Spirit[...]

Knife Crazy – Knife Crazy

August 6, 2026

Picture this – it’s 2007. I’m in high school trying to grow my curly hair long but it’s just growing more and more into an unmanageable ‘fro. George W. Bush is president, for better or for worse (see album cover). Buffalo trio Knife Crazy is about to shatter spectacularly, but for the time being, they’re freezing their collective asses off in an uninsulated Buffalo hayloft, recording indescribable, jagged indie rock in between firehouse sirens and the rumble of motors from the auto shop downstairs. These final, pre-shard moments together as a unit would eventually become Knife Crazy – a long-rumored, 14 song collection of aptly-named “shardjamz” that is finally being released nearly 20 years later. The group reconvened virtually to finish it from pretty much all across the globe – Fen Ikner in New Zealand (now of Lips); Vic Lazar in LA (now of Some Gifts); and Phillip Freedenberg, still in[...]

Tiny the Dream – The Cycle

July 31, 2026

Buffalo-based outfit, Tiny the Dream, have become local mainstays after a flurry of successful releases the last few years, with their 2024 The Window EP, in particular, garnering them support and placing them a “band to watch” radar for all WNY music fans.   Earlier last month, the group, spearhead by producer Suzanne Bonifacio and artist-producer Adam Pressley, returned empathically with the release of their new EP, The Cycle, an ambitious, meditative exploration of life’s innate, meandering nature and the ways things always seem to come back around.   Sonically, the project juxtaposes elements of rock and pop seamlessly, oftentimes within the same song. “Cute Anthem,” for example, a track which Bonifacio described to have “cracked my code, getting me back here for presence, love, sharing, [and] connection,” boasts a huge, thunderous chorus that sits wonderfully between a verse-bridge segment seeping with early 2000’s pop undertones. The project’s title-track, while thematically[...]

Philip Stephen – Field Guide For Loneliness Vol 1

July 24, 2026

Philip Stephen (more formally known as Philip Sivecz) has been at it for, like, two decades now (ask me how I know). Having long been a mainstay at open mics, acoustic showcases, and any other type of performance really (especially across his many other projects like Skamagotchi, Threefold, and stints in a ton of other local bands), it would be surprising for any Buffalo music connoisseur to not have stumbled upon one of his many projects. For as prolific a songwriter as Sivecz is (just take a look at his IG feed, or stay up with his stories), his solo recordings have been few and far between – which is why we were delighted to stumble upon Field Guide For Loneliness Vol 1. (FGFL) Alongside frequent collaborator (and fellow first-name/middle-name monikered) Sara Elizabeth, Sivecz has crafted an album that highlights his stellar acoustic guitar playing and folk/alt-country roots. As per Sara[...]

Mother Nature’s Son – The Seven People You Meet In Heaven

July 9, 2026

Mother Nature’s Son (MNS) are an injection of fresh energy into Buffalo’s music scene. Their synth-meets-guitar music is as intriguing as it is energizing, and they’ve just released a magnum opus of an EP into the world. The Seven People You Meet In Heaven is perhaps unsurprisingly inspired by Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet In Heaven – a novel that talks about interconnectedness, life meaning, and purpose. Those themes are found all over this EP – wide-eyed in an over-informed (and probably chronically online) kind of way, The Seven People You Meet In Heaven is less your typical pop punk album and more a reflection on what it means to be human, especially in a our post-pandemic, questionably apocalyptic existence that is 2026.   “Wrong Jazz” is the album opener, and it’s a perfect introduction to Mother Nature’s Son’s sound. A cross between the glasses-wearing, Moog-tickled pop punk of Motion City Soundtrack and[...]

Chores, Comfy, Bad Bloom & Big Nobody – Spit Takes and Split Tapes, Vol. II

June 11, 2026

Back in 2024, Rochester-based label Raincoated Records, renowned for releasing some of the best music to come out of the area in both the recent and not-so-recent past, released spit takes and split tapes, an eight-song compilation from four great Rochester bands, all recorded on a four-track cassette tape over the course of one year. The reception was hugely positive, lending credence to just how much musical talent is scattered across the city. Today, we’re excited to feature a second installment of the same ilk: Spit Takes and Split Tapes, Vol. II, an epic, guitar-shredded foray into the worlds of local (and buffaBLOG) mainstays Chores, Comfy, Bad Bloom, and Big Nobody. All tracks were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jake Annal and Nate Bellavia at the Lilypad Underground.   At the risk of stating the obvious, these songs are best listened to at high volume. They rip, as the kids[...]

Autoignition – Against The World

May 28, 2026

Autoignition has been quietly… actually, no, loudly taking over Buffalo’s pop punk scene since their inception in 2021. We’ve been excited to hear what they’ve been up to since we heard a brand new single, “Not For Nothing,” a few months ago. After three (3) years between releases, the band has finally dropped a five-song EP, Against The World, a collection of songs that’s probably exactly what you’d be expecting from this super raucous quartet. Plan for full-throttle pop punk with angsty vocals around a massive, guitar-driven core… And a few big bass lines that would make Mark Hoppus proud. We can’t ignore the sheer energy found here on Against The World, so for that reason (and a few more), it’s our Album of the Week this week.   Speaking of Hoppus-esque bass lines, the album starts out strong with the aforementioned “Not For Nothing.” This song is Autoignition at their most[...]

Beach Glass – Closure

May 15, 2026

Who would have ever thought that a band making real music would be… refreshing? Beach Glass is a Buffalo-based duo doing just that. Harkening back to the halcyon days of Tascam recorders, honest feelings, and no autotune, their latest offering is the five-song Closure. Supremely ’90s-influenced and sincere as all get out, these songs are sure to end up on some obscure IG post touting the latest and greatest in real emo… We’ll put it this way – fans of bands with a Kinsella brother in them are going to like Beach Glass.   Opening song “Second Largest City (In New York)” is an ode to Buffalo in all its rotting, rusty glory. Twanging guitars stumble over rolling drums. Heartfelt vocals sing and scream about the (arguably) dilapidated state of our beautiful city – and it’s hard not to notice the parallel’s to the singer’s mindset. Sure, talking to therapists[...]

War Bond – An Act of Treason

May 7, 2026

Politically-charged Buffalo hardcore recruits, War Bond, take your ass to boot camp with their irreverently outspoken debut, An Act of Treason.   Born from the scene in February 2025, War Bond is vocalist Ky Reynolds (Brain Dead, Raggedy Anne), bassist Richard Bertucca, guitarists Shanahan Roach (Immolated) and Cole Blasz (Havana Syndrome, Monomaniac) and drummer Nick Haring (Detemps/Entemps). In its short existence, the band has been busy grinding out gigs and boosting its profile thanks to an angry artillery of crossover hardcore punk calloused with political animosity. The headstrong five-piece stands up for basic human rights and staying true to yourself while standing against ICE goons and the continued assault on Palestine. On An Act of Treason, the band channels this ideological rage and more into ten bombastic tracks of old school melodic hardcore that will leave you shell shocked.   The record begins with the groovy, mid-tempo warm-up track “March[...]

Personal Style – Garbage Can E.P.

April 23, 2026

It’s not often we’re met with a release that has everyone standing up from their figurative seats, but Buffalo-based band Personal Style continues to exhibit the kind of skill that only builds on their hype with their new four-song Garbage Can E.P. – a pulsating post-punk serenade that scratches all the right itches and further cements the group as one of the most exciting outfits in the region.   Formed in the fall of 2019, the project brings together Bryan Johnson, Evan Wachowski, and Stephen Floyd, a trio of local scene stalwarts. With a collective 15+ years spent cutting their teeth in Buffalo’s DIY circuit under various monikers (Mapmaker, Patchwork, Bryan Johnson and Family, Mallwalkers, many more), these veterans have traded their individual histories for a cohesive new chapter with the project. Garbage Can E.P. was recorded with Jay Zubricky (GCR Recording Studio) and Justin John Smith (Mammoth Recording Studio),[...]

Kill Uncle – We Are the Wicked

April 16, 2026

Buffalo harcore punk quartet Kill Uncle lash out with ten new tracks of perpetually pissed-off hardcore punk on their killer debut album We Are the Wicked.   Founded by lead vocalist Billie Page (Lockjaw, Wrong the Oppressor) in the Spring of 2023 at the encouragement of a friend, the line-up solidified with the recruitment of Khari Waits (Onnpoint, Disrepair, Hostile Thoughts), bassist Sean Reverie (Reverie, Makeshift Graves) and drummer Dan Marin (Coterie of Stern, Skags). Since then, Kill Uncle has wasted no time building up a profile with a steady stream of Black Flag and horror punk-inspired releases while rocking stages across the 716.   We Are the Wicked opens with the squealing dissonant strings of “I Am in Hell Help Me,” a previously released single and excellent table-setter to the band’s abrasive buffet. What stands out instantly are Page’s distinctive barking vocals; delivered with enough force and ferocity to[...]