Latest Posts

Passed Out – I just don’t feel like myself anymore & Do you miss anything at all?

December 18, 2025

Buffalo’s own Passed Out has been a fixture of our local basement shows and bar stages for a decade now, but December 12th marks a massive shift for the five-piece. Instead of a standard release cycle, they dropped a massive double-feature on Buffalo mainstay label Harvest Sum: their first full-length LP, I just don’t feel like myself anymore, and a companion EP, Do you miss anything at all?. It’s a lot of ground to cover, especially since we haven’t had new music from them since 2021, but the wait feels justified. By splitting the songs across two releases recorded at different studios–Afterglow with Cody Morse for the LP and The Garden with Johnathan Bobowicz for the EP–the band gives us two moods to chew on. Both were tied together in the mixing stage by Justin John of Mammoth Recording, and then mastered by John Angelo, ensuring that despite the different[...]

The Burkharts – “Tell Me”

December 12, 2025

Buffalo’s surf-pop loyalists The Burkharts are back in the spotlight with a new single, “Tell Me,” serving up another dose of their 60’s-soaked California style rock and roll. The single, their first new release since 2024, comes hand-in-hand with an official music video that nods blatantly (but charmingly) to the freewheeling antics of The Monkees TV show.    In the video, the boys tee up a series of lighthearted shenanigans as they race through several notable WNY filming locations, all soundtracked by their signature retro jangle and stacked vocal harmonies. Seems we won’t have to wait long for more new music either, as the single is the “first of many to come soon” according to the band’s Instagram.   “Tell Me” is streaming now on all major platforms; check out the music video below.    

Bugcatcher – Big Field

December 11, 2025

Rochester’s Jake Denning has been quietly chipping away at his distinct sound as Bugcatcher since the early days of the pandemic, crafting slowcore indie folk that’s always been hazy, quiet, and a little existential. On his latest full-length, Big Field, released November 5th on Raincoated Records, he leans fully into that genre blend—it feels like a slowed-down collision between Midwest emo introspection and twangy alt-country sadness, but done with a minimalistic approach that gets impressively lush at times. Think Hovvdy meets Pinegrove meets Wednesday and you’re pretty much right there, save for Bugcatcher’s proprietary secret ingredient–this ethereal stillness that permeates the whole thing. I’m calling it “lush hush.” Big Field is our album of the week.   There’s a clear evolution in the production this time around. While Denning has proved himself as a lo-fi artist on previous releases, Big Field steps away from some of the charmingly ragged edges[...]

Ian McCuen – After I Descend from the Sky, Before I Return to the Dirt

December 4, 2025

Ian McCuen operates on a creative clock that ticks a little faster than the rest of us. For the past nine years, the Buffalo-based singer-songwriter has delivered a new full-length record on a nearly annual basis, a pace that would exhaust most musicians. Their latest offering, After I Descend from the Sky, Before I Return to the Dirt, arrives just a year after the electronic-tinged As the Oceans Rise and the Empire Falls. But where 2024 saw McCuen experimenting with synthetic textures, this massive 24-track collection marks a return to the soil. It is a sprawling, organic entry into the bedroom folk canon that Ian has honed in on over the past decade, and it’s our album of the week.   Despite the “bedroom” descriptor (the album was self-recorded), the sound here is far from sparse. McCuen has once again assembled a recurring cast of collaborators to flesh out their[...]

Luxury Suite – Sparrows / Starry Eyes (Evalina)

November 24, 2025

Luxury Suite might be a fresh addition to the Rochester marquee, but the DNA here is strictly local royalty. Featuring alumni from previous blog favorites SPORTS and Cottage Jefferson, the new group feels like a logical, sonic handshake between those two previous projects. They manage to fuse the angular, dancey post-punk rhythms of the former with the distinct jangle-pop sensibilities of the latter. It’s a sound that nods respectfully to New Wave titans—think the rhythmic elasticity of Talking Heads meeting the melodic jangle of The Smiths—while keeping a power-pop edge that recalls early Elvis Costello. After a summer of tightening up the set on stage, they’ve finally dropped their debut studio efforts, produced and engineered by fellow Rochester staples Josh Netsky and Sam Snyder of Maybird.   “Sparrows” serves as the high-energy introduction. It’s got a kinetic, upbeat drive where the guitars do a lot of the heavy lifting, chiming[...]

Gatto Black – Sky Is Blue

November 20, 2025

If there is a singular ethos driving Buffalo’s Gatto Black, it is the sheer, unadulterated catharsis of truth. The recording project, spearheaded by singer/songwriter Sal Mastrocola, has spent the last few years sharpening its teeth on a pair of EPs—2022’s 2 Stressed 2 Be Blessed and 2024’s (Not) Ready To Die. But on his debut LP, Sky Is Blue, Mastrocola isn’t just sharpening teeth; he’s baring them. Released via Triple Hammer Records, the album benefits heavily from the steady hands of producers Gary Cioni (Hot Mulligan, Crime in Stereo) and Michael Hansen (Pentimento, Hotel Etiquette). Together, they have helped Mastrocola sculpt a sound that sits comfortably at the intersection of melodic hardcore and emo, channeling the frantic energy of Comeback Kid with the emotional weight of Touché Amore.   The visual identity of the album—a black cat (often the project’s mascot of sorts) precariously navigating a power line against a[...]

Lower Pony – Bluette

November 17, 2025

If you’re at all familiar with Buffalo’s music scene, you already know the guys in Lower Pony. Ray Fulton, Dave Calos, and Ryan Besch have been in and out of Harvest Sum bands for years, and they recently tapped Passed Out frontman Andy Pothier (another recent Harvest Sum inductee) on drums. So their first proper 7-inch, Bluette, isn’t really a debut, it’s more of a “hello again.” After a years-long stream of demos, these four tracks finally put the band’s sound on wax: lo-fi, 90s-indebted slacker rock. It’s a refreshingly traditional guitar/guitar/bass/drums formula that leans on good, honest songs, not studio tricks, pulling hard from influences like Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh.   The EP starts fast with the single, “Bluette,” a 59-second sprint that’s all tangled guitars and resigned lyrics (“if you feel this way / there’s not much I can say”). It’s as jagged as it is engaging and[...]

Bryan Dubay – Call Your Mother

October 23, 2025

At a time when music often feels fleeting, Buffalo’s Bryan Dubay has delivered Call Your Mother, a deeply personal, full-length album whose careful, deliberate construction invites you to slow down and truly absorb it. Continuing to explore the atmospheric terrain between indie rock and chamber folk, the record showcases Dubay’s comprehensive role as performer, producer, and engineer. While he enlists talent for certain string and percussion parts, the album’s cohesive vision is distinctly his own, a product of a very specific melodic focus.   The album is framed by Dubay himself as an “exercise in gratitude,” a concept that finds its footing through the music’s emotionally intelligent explorations of life, loss, and connection. He cites George Harrison’s slide guitar work and Elliott Smith’s songwriting as primary influences, and these are not just casual touchstones. The slide guitar, prominent throughout, is used not for bluesy grit but as Harrison often did:[...]

The Mookies – “Grocery Store”

October 22, 2025

Sporting an updated lineup and a slight rebrand, The Mookies (formerly Mookie) have dropped their latest single, “Grocery Store,” a track that gives the Buffalo five-piece a solid launchpad for their jangle-pop trajectory. Recorded at Watchmen Studios and mixed/mastered by Nathaniel Weiss (of Rom Com Victims), the track is a quick, boppy earworm that has surf-punk leanings, showing a bit more teeth than their previous work. The instrumentation is tight and energetic, a fitting foundation for a song that’s all about the dizzying internal monologue of spotting a potential crush in the produce aisle.   The concept is relatable enough–letting your imagination run wild with “what-ifs” in the context of an alluring stranger–but it’s the execution that makes the song shine. Giuliana Bauman’s vocals are sweet and disarming, offering a counterpoint to the song’s blazing pace and jangly, overdriven guitars. It’s bubblegum punk of the highest degree–accessible enough for a[...]

Soul Butchers – Second Death

October 9, 2025

Buffalo’s Soul Butchers have always been a force in the local scene, known for their high-octane live shows that leave ears ringing and soles smoking. Three years in the making, their latest full-length album, Second Death, has finally arrived, soaked in all things that give the four-piece rock band their signature snarling edge. The 13-track effort is another blistering document of the band’s unique blend of noise rock and garage punk, bottling the raw energy of their stage presence into a calculated and surprisingly diverse collection of songs this time around. Second Death is our album of the week.   The album’s sound is immediate and raw, not unlike previous Butchers releases, but this time around the band recorded and engineered the entire project themselves before handing it over to John Angelo for mixing and mastering. The result: an album on which the band had the breathing room to do[...]

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,[...]

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[...]

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[...]