Rochester

Joywave Premieres Music Video for “Somebody New”

February 25, 2015

Rochester’s Joywave (or JOYWAVE, we don’t really know these days) is becoming dangerously close to being too big for our regional coverage categories, but the five-piece continues to remain loyal to WNY, in particular its home town of Rochester. The group frequently comes home for special appearances at the Bug Jar, the band’s home away from home, so at least for now, we will continue to cover them within our Rochester posts. Last week, we posted that the band finally announced the release of its debut album, How Do You Feel Now, set to drop on April 21st, and just yesterday, Joywave premiered the music video to the LP’s first single, “Somebody New,” via Stereogum. The clip finds the Joywave boys hitting the streets with a crew of skateboarders doing some rather aggressive moves that rival some The Office level parkour feats. No confirmation on whether the band performed its[...]

Gay Angel Releases First Installment of floral

February 19, 2015

We first stumbled upon Jake Bellissimo’s Gay Angel project in the summer of 2014, impressing us enough to select his song “Gloria!” as one of our favorite Rochester tracks of the year. The chamber pop musician is what you would call ambitious, collecting one of the biggest cast of musicians for his album places i’ll eat, people i’ll eat I have seen on a WNY release, maybe ever. Bellissimo decided to up the ante on his latest work, an expansive four part, 100-track project that would make Sufjan Stevens blush. The first album, floral, pt. 1, was just dropped a couple days ago on bandcamp via Roch label Drunk With Love Records. The remaining albums hope to be released by the end of April according to Bellissimo. For the first floral installment, Gay Angel has continued to hone his orchestral sound, with influences ranging from Owen Pallett to Beirut to[...]

Joywave Annouces Debut LP, How Do You Feel Now?

February 17, 2015

After exhausting every ounce of airplay out of the breakout single, “Tongues,” Rochester’s synth pop five-some, Joywave, have finally announced the release of its debut full-length How Do You Feel Now?, set to drop on April 21st via Cultoco Music/Hollywood Records. The band has a couple area appearances coming up between now and then, including opening for Big Data, whose hit single, “Dangerous,” featured Joywave frontman Dan Armbruster on lead vocals, on Saturday, April 4th at the Showplace Theatre. The five piece is also set to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, March 2nd The band’s latest single, “Somebody New,” has been getting some serious burn on Alt-Nation lately. Originally included on the 2014 EP, How Do You Feel, which also featured “Tongues,” the song will be the lead off track on the forthcoming LP. Listen to “Somebody New” below.

Genesee Live Premieres Latest Session feat. Sea Planes

February 13, 2015

We have been following Rochester’s Genesee Live for about a year now, catching up with some of our favorite sister city acts like Ben Morey, Skirts, and Buffalo Sex Change. It’s been a great way to see some of those musicians in a live setting without having to make the hour drive east. One band that we have yet to see in person yet is Sea Planes, a synth pop trio who we have been writing about on a frequent basis since late 2013. The band sounds huge, polished, and frankly fantastic on recordings, but could easily be one of those studio acts whose sound doesn’t quite translate live. So when we found out that the duo would be showcased in the latest Genesee Live session, we were happy to finally see them in a live setting of sorts. The trio channels bits of latter day M83 in its session[...]

Brass Palace Begins 50 Bands, 50 Weeks Project

February 11, 2015

So after a busy day in the office yesterday (jk, we didn’t post anything), I was happy to see the continued progress in the “50 Band, 50 Week” project from Brass Palace, a Rochester based recording operation led by producer and engineer Chris Vandeviver. You may remember Brass Palace when we posted about the studio’s recording of Secret Pizza’s “Not a Lover” for the Shark Tank Sessions earlier this fall. Anyways, the Brass Palace crew has premiered three recordings so far in the near year long, fairly self-explanatory project, so far including songs from post-hardcore band, Druse, chill-hop MC, Benny Beyond, and most recently, prog-rockers, Edge of Jupiter. If all goes as planned, a new song should be added to the comp every week. No word yet on what bands will contribute future recordings, but you can follow the project at the 50 Bands, 50 Weeks’ bandcamp page for Brass Palace.[...]

Cooling Card Drops Shoe-Gaze Track, “All of Lost”

February 6, 2015

A rather mysterious band/artist popped on up Rochester’s bandcamp today in the form of Cooling Card. The artist page has no links to any other forms of social media, and the song doesn’t even have a date stamp on it. Is this even new? No matter. Whoever Cooling Card may be, the act delivered a solid cut of shoe-gaze in the track “All is Lost.” Droning vocals and reverb heavy guitars with the occasional jangle, pretty much the key ingredients to a good shoe-gaze, are all present on “All is Lost.” The song recalls a less mopey Smiths, a less poppy Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and even a touch of local act Spirit Choir. Check it out below and if you have an extra $666 lying around, you can purchase the track over at Cooling Card’s bandcamp page.

Full Body Releases Debut Demo, “World Famous”

February 3, 2015

We woke up this morning to some solid new Rochester material to pick through, one of which being the first track from the new college rock trio, Full Body, which made its FB debut just at the end of 2014. Recorded by Hayden Ford of Skirts, the slackerish “World Famous” recalls a mixed cast of bands from long time lo-fi’ers Guided by Voices to Weezer to even some fuzzier Sloan. Check out the track below and keep an eye out for forthcoming new material from Full Body.

MD WOODS Drops First Single From Young and Vain 2. EP

January 29, 2015

Winter usually kicks my seasonal folk obsession into high gear so I was pleased to see that stand out Rochester folkie, MD WOODS, dropped the first single from his forthcoming album, the sequel to his summer released Young and Vain 1. EP, earlier this week. On the passionate “Finally in Love,” WOODS’ pleading and somewhat broken down vocals recall Heartbreaker and Gold era Ryan Adams, so if that peaks your interest, give the song a spin. “Finally in Love,” which can be streamed below, will be featured on Young and Vain 2. in the near future.

Theodore Maxwell Robinson Carr Debuts Electronic Project

January 29, 2015

If you’ve been listening to the buffaBLOG Podcast over the past two weeks, then you are well aware of my latest audio obsession, “Maiden (Glas House),” by Rochester’s Theodore Maxwell Robinson Carr. For those unfamiliar with Carr’s previous works, he was operating as a solo acoustic solo artist, with sounds that were somewhere in between an early Bon Iver and an endearing Bright Eyes. Most recently, Carr was dabbling in jam-tronica project, Poetry for Thieves. His tenure with Poetry for Thieves must have inspired him for his latest three-song batch, which land somewhere in between Ghostland Observatory, MGMT, and Joywave. Carr will be playing some songs from the project next Friday at the Bug Jar under the band, Fyrewerx, sharing the stage with Brian Kozlowski  (Heroic Enthusiasts) and Dexter Redic (Roots Collider).  Check out “Maiden (Glas House)” below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/186171983″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Pappy Stardust & The Eclectic Moon Sandwich Drops the Grimy EP, Your Local Lizard Band

January 27, 2015

After seeing the title for the new Pappy Stardust & The Eclectic Moon Sandwich EP, Your Local Lizard Band, I had to ask myself, what exactly is a Lizard Band? Pappy Stardust, by the way, is a lo-fi, messy, garage rock collective from our good friend and neighbor city, Rochester. After listening, it really made sense to me in an odd way. The group of revolving members’ latest tracks are an overall grimy combination of really cool, psychedelic instrumentals with heavily echoed vocals, and at times, even a bit of a surf rock. Your Local Lizard Band starts off with the incredibly groovy “The Lizard #3,” highly due to the prevalent plucked bass line and the catchy repeated guitar riff, and ends with the nearly 8 minute, mostly instrumental track, “The Wave,” which is truly a psychedelic monster. Your Local Lizard Band is an overall incredibly fun listen, and is highly recommended. It is available[...]

SPEIRS Releases Debut Single, “Headwarm”

January 26, 2015

Despite the “buffa” in our name, we definitely have a soft spot for our neighbors in Rochester. One of the sister city’s newest offerings comes from SPEIRS, a female-fronted post-rock group a la The Appleseed Cast. The group’s debut single, titled “Headwarm,” is a five-minute sweller, full of effected guitars (coming from some really tasty looking gear) and chill out vibes. According to the band’s facebook page, we can expect the rest of their EP in a few weeks. Until then, click the widget below to enjoy “Headwarm…” After all, the Northeast could use some extra warmth today.

Gaby and the Thurstones Contribute “Everything is Red” to Split Single

January 26, 2015

Over the weekend, a Rochester band that was new to my radar, although apparently not to the former host of the WBNY Local Show, dropped a solid single as part of the two-track Sport. Gaby and the Thurstones, a trio of singer/songwriters released a split single along with Little Alien, who I would assume to be another Roch act, but his FB page offers pretty much no info. Anyways, Gaby and the Thurstones’ contribution to the split, titled “Everything is Red,” is a pleasant cocktail of Fanfarlo, Local Natives, and Los Campesinos. It’s peppy, indie-folk with some chamber pop flair, and a bit of a ray of sun shine on an otherwise miserable winter day here in WNY. The full split single can be streamed here, and you can listen to “Everything is Red” below.

Maybird Reveals “Down and Under” Video

January 20, 2015

The Netsky brothers have done it again with the video for “Down and Under,” the title track and album closer to Rochester indie band Maybird’s intense 2013 debut. Featuring the stark and plaintive vocals of Josh,  evocative direction, and heartbeat like drums from Adam, not to mention some fine pedal steel guitar from Kurt Johnson, “Down and Under” is pure upstate / downstate New York like the band itself now that they’ve since partially relocated to Brooklyn: walks in snowy woods in a red flannel jacket, art happenings, and listening to records in Christmas light lit city dwellings, all meditatively shot by brother Adam. The band is currently working on new tunes for the follow up to Down and Under, which can be listened to and purchased from Maybird’s Bandcamp page.

KOPPS Debuts New Single, “Dumb”

January 19, 2015

It’s been a minute since we’ve last heard from Rochester-based electro-pop quartet, KOPPS, although they have been sharing the radio waves (specifically the infectious scat from lead singer Patricia Petrone) with Rochester breakout act, JOYWAVE, with the 2014 breakout single of the 2013 single “Tongues.” If you have been following KOPPS on social media, then you should not be surprised to find a new single debuting this morning. Titled “Dumb,” the track is a brief, 90’s club banger with hushed paranoid backing vocals from co-member Kyle O’Hara. The single is currently streaming via Soundcloud below.

1809 Studios Premieres Latest Session feat. Big Fred

January 16, 2015

Its been a minute since we caught up with Macedon’s 1809 Studios and its still fresh video session series, 1809 Sessions. Located just outside of Rochester, the studio has already hosted and filmed some great acts out of the 585 including buzz band Secret Pizza, crooner Jon Valenti, and harpist Mikaela Davis. The studio’s latest installment, the #9 from the young series, comes from a Rochester band called Big Fred. The band does have a Wild Beasts type feel to it though so you are a fan, then maybe Big Fred is up your alley. Check out the clip, produced and filmed/edited as always by studio engineer, Dave Drago, and Roch-singer/songwriter, Jon Lewis, below.