Album of the Week

Spiria – Amateur’s Garden

September 18, 2025

Listening to Amateur’s Garden, the second album from Buffalo’s art pop duo Spiria *, feels like stepping into a secret world. It’s a space that’s both carefully tended to and wonderfully overgrown. You can tell that siblings Mikayla and Johnny Manke spent a lot of time with these songs, having written them over a few years before recording them in the summer of 2024. The result is an album that doesn’t rush – one that builds intricate, personal worlds and is more concerned with texture and feeling than easy hooks. It’s an invitation to get lost for a while, and its our album of the week.   The duo officially formed Spiria in 2022 after a lifetime of musical bonding. Their sound is built around the interplay between Mikayla’s piano and passionate, introspective vocals, and Johnny’s dynamic, expressive drumming. They move freely between ethereal, ambient textures and jazzy, experimental passages,[...]

gas station. – A Collection Of Songs For Saying Goodbye

September 11, 2025

Scrappy Buffalo-based three piece gas station. wrote themselves a full-length. Through a conception and birth, they foisted the 11-song A Collection Of Songs For Saying Goodbye (ACOSFSG) into this world, with just a little bit help from GCR Studio maestro Jay Zubricky and a brand new label in We’re Trying Records. In a world of short-form content and even shorter attention spans, what does it even mean to be a band nowadays, anyway? Is it enough to just be doing something, anything really? Why are we even here!? Does anything really matter? Ask yourself these existential questions with an open mind as you listen through the equally existential ACOSFSG – it’s our album of the week this week.   The album opens with “Perfect Crime Sequel,” a surprisingly tender offering – gas station.’s aesthetic makes them seem like the type of band to pound out big, spunky pop-punk compositions, but this[...]

Wylie Something – Up Through the Rust

September 4, 2025

If you ask Buffalo songwriter Jacob Smolinski, the creative force behind Wylie Something, his music is tied directly to the calendar. “Everything is seasonal to me, revolving around periods of time in our quad seasons of B-LO, NY,” he explains, comparing the seasonal vibes of previous Wylie releases. “Dimes was early Spring. Picnic? Summer. But sometimes… you get something evergreen.” His latest EP, Up Through the Rust, released August 29th, is one of those evergreen moments, but one that feels perfectly suited for the here and now. “It just sounds like early Fall to me,” Smolinski says, and he’s right. The five-song collection is a hazy, scrappy, and distinctly satisfying slice of slacker rock that feels like that first truly crispy day after a long, hot summer. Bust out those denim jackets, folks. Up Through the Rust is our album of the week.   This release, his 14th in 11[...]

We Were Blank – BLANK

August 28, 2025

Wouldn’t it be really funny if our review for We Were Blank‘s latest album, BLANK, was just… *blank?*   …   BLANK is out as of August 8th, 2025. Check it out on Bandcamp for a very reasonable “name your price” option, or, find it on your favorite streaming services.   Just kidding.   We Were Blank has been kicking around Buffalo for a while now. They’ve been both a three-piece and a quartet, born out of a Craigslist ad and having too much time on their hands… But perhaps the most important part of their existence is that they simply continue to make music. Buffalo musicians have this habit of borrowing musicians from other bands – you may recognize some of that happening here with fellow emo-ish act (and frequent buffaBLOG feature) Amateur Hockey Club. Whatever it takes, right? Either way, these guys ended up with BLANK – a five-song EP bridging[...]

Astronaut Head – Meek Moon

August 21, 2025

A musician’s evolution is rarely a straight line. For Buffalo’s Jessica Stoddard, the path to the ambient dream pop of her Astronaut Head solo project has been a long and patient one, winding from quirky piano pop at Buffalo open mics to full UK tours as a keyboardist for a Scottish indie rock band. Along the way, a different sound was brewing – one built from looped vocals, electronic textures, and cavernous reverb. The result is Meek Moon, a five-song EP where those years of private experimentation finally take the lead.   The EP’s sound is deeply indebted to a certain Scandinavian chill, favoring atmosphere and texture over immediate hooks. Opener “batshit” makes the Björk comparison impossible to ignore, not just in Stoddard’s vocal leaps but in the contrast between its crisp electronics and a restless, jungle-like percussion. Shifting on a dime, the percussion vanishes completely on “egg the snake.” Instead[...]

Boy Jr. – I Hate Getting Dumped!

August 14, 2025

Boy Jr., the musical alter-ego of Rochester native Ariel Allen-Lubman, is the kind of artist that doesn’t let the grass grow under their feet. Their latest six-track EP, I Hate Getting Dumped!, released July 25th, serves as the spiritual successor to last year’s full-length album, I Love Getting Dumped. It follows in the same synth-heavy electropunk vein, but as the title suggests, this outing is less bright, a little darker, and more serious. The dichotomy is impressive and obviously intentional; the two releases feel like siblings in spirit, a point underscored by their respective album covers. The vibrant birthday party scene of I Love is replaced by the darker, sepia-toned art for I Hate, which features Boy Jr. in a full fencing uniform, standing stoically beside a tablet-distracted angel. Is this new EP a collection of I Love Getting Dumped! B-sides or is it a deliberate continuation? Either way, it’s our[...]

Shane Meyer – To the broken coast / on the crystal wave / it’s you, oh / hey

August 7, 2025

On his latest full-length, Buffalo’s Shane Meyer reaffirms his status as one of the area’s most distinct and disarming songwriters. A veteran of the scene, formerly of the slacker-rock outfit Difficult Night, Meyer’s solo work has found its own lane and cruises there comfortably. His new album, released August 1st on Steak & Cake Records, arrives with the wonderfully unwieldy title, to the broken coast / on the crystal wave / it’s you, oh / hey. Failure to edit? Perhaps. But it seems messy on purpose: across ten tracks of sparkling, minimalist jangle-pop, Meyer continues to perfect his unassuming, heart-on-sleeve style, delivering fractured vignettes of life that are gentle on the ear but carry surprising emotional weight.   The core of the album’s sound is Meyer’s intricate fingerpicked acoustic guitar, which provides the foundation for nearly every track. The arrangements are often sparse, allowing his lyrics and uniquely conversational delivery[...]

Dotsun Moon – Tiger

July 24, 2025

Buffalo’s Dotsun Moon trades the precise architecture of synthpop for the sprawling, emotive wash of shoegaze guitars on the project’s newest release, Tiger.  The recording project of multi-instrumentalist Richard Flierl, Dotsun Moon has always been prolific, but this eight-song collection feels like a deliberate statement. Drawing a direct line to the grandeur of M83’s Before The Dawn Heals Us and the seminal post-punk of New Order, Flierl swaps programmed beats for soaring textures, creating an album that is expansive, atmospheric, and unique. Tiger is our album of the week.   The album marks a significant turning point for the Dotsun Moon project, not only in its sonic direction but in its execution. For the first time, Flierl handles all vocal duties, a departure from the prominence of female vocals featured on much of his previous work. This shift brings a new, personal-feeling cohesion to the album, with his voice acting as a steady[...]

tuesday nite – to just exist

July 17, 2025

Sometimes, a record feels less like a collection of songs and more like a place you can visit. The new EP from Buffalo’s tuesday nite, to just exist, is one of those places. It’s a room filled with hazy, drifting smoke, where reverb-soaked guitars and echo-laden harmonies hang in the air. Over four tracks, singer-guitarists Sara Elizabeth and Courtney Ann have built a sound that channels the ghosts of 90s dream-pop groups like Mazzy Star and The Sundays while remaining firmly planted in the contemporary indie sphere they so admire. to just exist is our album of the week.   tuesday nite is the kind of band that could only have formed in the strange quiet of 2020. Bonding over virtual open mics and a shared love for the raw-nerve songwriting of Phoebe Bridgers, Sara and Courtney developed an immediate chemistry that feels palpable on this recording. That intimate, two-voice core is the[...]

Home Videos – Home Taping is Killing Music

July 10, 2025

For a band that first introduced themselves with quiet, acoustic whispers, Rochester’s Home Videos is making a hell of a lot of noise on their debut full-length, Home Taping is Killing Music. Arriving a full six years after their initial EP, the album is the sound of that same band plugging in and turning everything up. The tentative, lo-fi beginnings have been traded for ringing guitars and crashing crescendos, marking a powerful and deliberate evolution from where they started. Home Taping is Killing Music is our album of the week.   The title feels like an inside joke for a band that lives and breathes DIY. According to their Bandcamp, Home Taping… was recorded “slowly 2023 – 2025 by us on a 4-track cassette in a basement in Rochester, NY.” You wouldn’t guess it from the sound, which punches well above its weight. It’s a far cry from the lo-fi hiss of their first[...]

Jacob King – Merry Locker

July 3, 2025

A fixture in Buffalo’s music scene for several years, folk artist Jacob King has been a restless creative, lending his talents to projects like T.T.T.T. and Hal & Pals while pouring his own steady stream of singles, EPs, ‘zines, and poetry. With his debut solo LP, Merry Locker, it feels like we’re finally getting the clearest transmission from his particular wavelength. The album, released June 27th on his own The New Disposable label, is pure psych-folk, and its sound is as raw and atmospheric as the foggy Lake Erie harbor pictured on its cover. It’s a direct invitation into King’s cryptic, hazy world, and it’s our album of the week.   What struck me first about Merry Locker is the texture. The entire album feels warm and lived-in, humming with the fuzzy crackle of an old vinyl record. The production is lo-fi at times, but never lazy. Most tracks are built around[...]

Root Cellar – Fermentations

June 26, 2025

For Buffalo’s Root Cellar, the act of creation is a patient one. The chamber quintet’s debut album, Fermentations, arrives via Erie’s Infrasonic Press with a backstory as interesting as its sound. The six expansive tracks were captured live in two distinct sessions at Revolution Gallery, separated by over a year. This lengthy process, engineered and mixed by Shaun Mullins, has produced a remarkably cohesive, hour-long album that breathes with the energy of its live origins yet feels brilliantly intentional in its construction. It’s a fitting title, as the album documents a sound that has been allowed to bubble, evolve, and mature, settling into something complex and potent. Fermentations is our album of the week.   The band’s “post-jazz” description is a starting point, but it hardly covers the ground they explore. The group, formed in 2017, operates at a compelling intersection of influences. There’s the structural sensibility of post-rock outfits like Tortoise,[...]

Science Man – Monarch Joy

June 12, 2025

Stage dive for cover because Buffalo’s diabolical Science Man returns with his latest hardcore punk abomination, Monarch Joy.   After a 5-year banishment touring the Rust Belt countryside, local scenester heavyweight John Toohill’s project has evolved from the lone multi-hyphenate and a drum machine to a full-blown and fully-realized ensemble. Recorded and mixed by Toohill and John Angelo, and mastered by the latter, the LP marks Science Man’s latest experiment as his most cohesive and focused work to date.   Monarch Joy is sutured together with chunks of hardcore punk, garage and noise rock and injected with expressionistic themes of moral decay, sacrifice and religion’s influence on society. Toohill breathes life into his bastard creation with barking vocals that rage with the ferocity of a feral, caged animal.   The record opens with the unsettling instrumental track, “S.C.I.M.N.” Featuring a grotesque cacophony of screeching horns, droning guitars and tumbling drums,[...]

Jerry Big’s World Famous Band – JBWFB

May 29, 2025

If the walls of Rochester’s music venues could talk, they’d likely be buzzing–quite literally–about Jerry Big’s World Famous Band. This trio–Jared Effman on bass and backup vocals, Yassir Ahmed on guitar, and Max Wakeling handling drums and lead vocals–might be a newer name on the scene, but the word spreading about their super-tight garage punk and explosive live shows is well and truly deserved. Their new self-titled EP, JBWFB, which hit the streets on April 25th, is a four-song affirmation of this burgeoning reputation, delivering a sound that’s far bigger than the sum of its three parts. JBWFB is our album of the week.   Right from the start, JBWFB makes it clear that this isn’t background music. It’s a full-frontal assault of garage punk grit and melodic hardcore urgency. The production feels immediate and raw, capturing the kind of live-wire intensity you’d expect in a packed, sweaty club. Ahmed’s guitar work is a thrilling[...]

The Ant Hill Kids – All Together Now!

May 22, 2025

Buffalo lofi-folk act The Ant Hill Kids have surfaced again with their second full-length album, All Together Now!, which officially saw the light of day back in March. This collection finds the group digging deeper into their unique “cult-folk” niche, a space where the unstructured spirit of freak folk meets the unhurried, reflective nature of slowcore. From the get-go, the album wraps you in a warm, fuzzy blanket of lo-fi production. It has that unmistakable, intimate feel of a passion project born in a bedroom or basement, where the raw edges are part of the charm. All Together Now! is our album of the week.   All Together Now! takes a noticeably moodier path than the band’s 2024 self-titled debut. The Ant Hill Kids embrace this darker vibe, building their songs around an instrumental core that feels both earthy and subtly inventive. Acoustic guitars pull double duty as the primary instrumentation and[...]