Rochester

The Wayouts Record Exclusive Record Store Day 7″ for WAYO FM

April 16, 2015

With all this talk of Record Store Day in Buffalo, there is a pretty cool RSD related project coming out of Rochester for Saturday’s big day. Featuring members of SPORTS, No Glitter, Howlo, Faux Leather Jacket, and Pleistocene, the Wayouts recorded a two track pressing titled Way Out​/​Roses and Rainbows in Ben Morey’s Submarine Records studio. The “supergroup” of sorts fleshed out a new version of the track “Way Out,” originally featured on an episode of the Flinstones back in the 60’s, in addition to a cover of “Roses and Rainbows” by Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night. Pleistocene’s Katie Preston tackles lead vocals on the latter track. Those screaming teenagers you hear in “Roses and Rainbows” are original shrieks recorded from overwhelmed Beatles’ fans outside of one of the Fab Four’s shows. The 7″ is currently available for purchase on the band’s bandcamp page, in addition to a limited number of  physical copies[...]

Mario Bee and Mike Gerbino Announce Point of No Concern EP

April 14, 2015

Two former Rochester-based artists, DJ Mario Bee and rapper Mike Gerbino, are set to release their debut collaborative EP, Point of No Concern on April 20th. Featuring an assortment of hip-hop, electronic, and grime beats, the five-track record abrasively touches on subjects like the middle-east, prostitution, global warming, and Facebook. Well known for his work on HBO’s Brave New Voices poetry special, Gerbino is an accomplished spoken work artist in addition to his hip hop endeavors, while Mario Bee began his career DJing and producing in both Rochester and Buffalo before moving to New York City where he now gigs frequently throughout the city and the East Coast. The pair are also having a release party for the EP this Saturday at Leftfield Bar in New York if you find yourself in the area Check out the project’s first single, “Eliot Spizter,” below.

Maybird Releases Music Video For “Two Horizons”

April 6, 2015

In the midst of recording new material, the Rochester bred psych folk act, Maybird, released the music video for “Two Horizons,” a track found on the group’s debut release Down and Under. The band currently splits time between Brooklyn and WNY, and for the clip, director and VICE news contributor, Michael Faller, choose to focus on the citizens of the band’s adoptive new city, recording intimate shots of both the young and old, at work and at play, some touching and some humorous, all while occasionally catching the breathtaking city skyline on film. The video feels like a moving collage of the Humans of New York photo series. Take a minute to watch the video for “Two Horizons” below and keep an eye out in the near future for new music from Maybird.

The Televisionaries Drop Latest Track “AGAVE”

March 23, 2015

Despite this last blast of winter, summer is coming (we think), and with that, we have a seasonable new song from Rochester surf trio, the Televisionaries. Titled, “AGAVE,” the track is set to be included on the band’s forthcoming sophomore album sometime in the near future. Just don’t mistake that intro for “When The Saint Go Marching In.” You can catch the Televisionaries in their live (and free!) glory along with Buffalo’s finest surf acts, Aaron & the Burrs and the Hamiltones, next week on Friday, April 3rd. No matter what the weather looks like outside that evening, thoughts of sunny skies and tiki drinks will be in the air in the Glitterbox basement. Listen to “AGAVE” below. Surf’s up.

Brass Palace Continues “50 Bands 50 Weeks” Compilation, Releases SPEIRS’ “Threshold”

March 18, 2015

Last month, we wrote about the Rochester recording studio, Brass Palace, and its ambitious “50 Bands 50 Weeks” project. At the time of writing, producer and engineer Chris Vandeviver had already released tracks from bands like Druse and Edge of Jupiter. For the latest installment in the ongoing project, Brass Palace premiered a song from SPEIRS, who you may remember us introducing you to earlier this year when the ethereal, female-fronted post-rock act from Rochester released its debut single, “Headwarm.” For the five piece’s contribution to “50 Bands 50 Weeks,” the group recorded its newest offering, “Threshold,” a track full of swelling, guitar-driven ambiance a la Appleseed Cast or Now, Now. Listen to “Threshold” below and follow the progress of Brass Palace’s “50 Bands 50 Weeks” compilation here.

Blue Falcon Drops New Single, “S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)”

March 17, 2015

After an extended lull out of Rochester, our sister city’s music scene had a sudden surge last week with the release of some quality, blog worthy material. One of those bands, Blue Falcon, released its latest single during the tail end of last week. Titled “S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder),” something I would have to assume most WNYers were hit hard with this past, insufferable winter, the song has a laid back Mac DeMarco meets Earlimart slacker feel, a bit of a departure from the band’s blues-rock sounds on its previous EP, First Flight. No word yet on whether the single is going to be included on a future release, so in the mean time, listen to “S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)” below.

Scope & Figure Shares First Single From Forthcoming EP, Exemplary Sports Magic

March 16, 2015

Late last week, Rochester quartet, Scope & Figure, released the first single from its forthcoming EP, Exemplary Sports Magic, set to be released on May 1st via Dadstache Records. Titled “Cincinnati Fire Kites,” the track is pretty different from last spring’s single “Entropy Knows Best,” sounding like clean mathy indie rock (think Minus the Bear meets Two Door Cinema Club with a hint of Early November). The band seemed to take a nod from fellow Roch math rock act, Fowls, distancing its from the robust, folkier sounds of the previous single. Look for the Scope & Figure full EP to drop this spring. In the mean time, listen to “Cincinnati Fire Kites” below.

Genesee Live Premieres Latest Session feat. Northern Spies

March 11, 2015

These past couple weeks have been really busy for us at the blog with our many various projects coming up (Herd Fest, our fifth birthday, plus many others that still are developing in our board room). Due to this, it took us a little bit to share with our loyal readers Rochester’s Genesee Live’s 21st session, with Northern Spies. You may remember Northern Spies from our brief track write-up we did in January. In early March, Northern Spies debuted its full-set recording at WITR Studios (a la the stellar session with Attic Abasement). Some faces may look familiar in Northern Spies, as they’ve been around the scene for a bit having participated in Joywave, the Demos, Cottage Jefferson, and Kopps. The half hour session is a healthy mix of 60’s power-pop, and even branches out to The Unicorns-esque Americana. Check it out below.

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.