The Ten Best Songs from Rochester in 2025
2025 felt like a landmark year for Rochester indie music, rivaling any era since buffaBLOG’s inception. We’ve dug through hundreds of songs to hand-pick our absolute favorites of the year. Did we miss that critically acclaimed jam band album or a classical musician’s final bow? Probably. But that’s not really our bag. We chose to focus on the tracks our team truly championed and debated the ones that came out on top. Here is a Spotify playlist we made with all of our picks. Without further ado, here are our favorite ten songs from Rochester in 2025.
10. Harmonica Lewinski – “Rat Race”
Rochester creepsters Harmonica Lewinski started off the year right with their beachy, 60s-era single “Rat Race,” which showcased the band’s punchbowl of surfy guitar riffs, jungle beats, and signature oddness. For a band that’s been around nearly fifteen years, Harmonica Lewinski still has got “it” and continues to impress us. – Matt Burgerhoff
9. Home Videos – “Underwater Breathing”
Over the summer, Rochester midwest-emos Home Videos delivered on their 12 song album Home Taping is Killing Music. Self-described as “slacker tapehead indie nonsense” the release had elements of both post and math rock, with comparisons to American Football, Explosions in the Sky, and early era Death Cab for Cutie. The standout of the album was the track “Underwater Breathing,” which brought us on second-wave emo journey and made us want to log back into LiveJournal. – Ron Walczyk
8. Luxury Suite – “Sparrows”
Luxury Suite is a 2025 project that popped up on our radar, combining members of two 2010s buffaBLOG favorites, Cottage Jefferson and Sports. Fronted by Ian Proper, the band released a two-song debut at the tail end of the year, however, “Sparrows” highlights the band’s promising future. The single channels Johnny Marr at his most melodic, with a sneer-y, boppy Elvis Costello swagger. – Mike Moretti
7. Boy Jr. – “Zitty Stardust”
Boy Jr. has been growing the project in many ways ever since breaking through on TikTok and other social media sites during COVID lockdowns with their impressive re-genrifying renditions of pop songs. The outlier of their 2025 releases is the triumphant “Zitty Stardust,” which is “a celebration of transformation and genderfluidity,” countering internet trolls and emerging triumphant and proud. Boy Jr. continues to be one of the most innovative and connected acts emerging out of Rochester. Fans of Gwen Stefani and St. Vincent should take note. – Ron Walczyk
6. Bad Bloom – “Onion”
Fuzzy rockers Bad Bloom have been on our radar for years and are still consistently on the forefront of the Rochester shoegaze scene. 2025 saw the release of the band’s latest EP, pepper, which featured the official release of their track “onion.” The single was reminiscent of its namesake, with “dozens of tiers of guitars and basses layered thick with Smashing Pumpkins-esque intensity,” inviting comparisons to Pity Sex or Gleemer. – Nick Sessanna
5. Milo – “Whatever”
Milo was a 2025 project that quickly caught out ears with their Rainer Maria and Lemuria comparisons. The band released two singles in the early spring which hit hard with our millennial preference for the college radio sounds of the early 00s. “Whatever” is a song about aging and indifference with a Jenny Lewis-esque delivery, framed by bratty indie nostalgia. – Nick Sessanna
4. Bug Day – “Cockroach Kid”
“Cockroach Kid” was the clear highlight of Bug Day’s 2025 debut, Six-Legs Inexperience. The song starts out with an angular, riff-driven post-punk sound, conjuring the sound of early Preoccupations. The highlight of the track however is the intense climactic build-up that an Interpol fan would recognize and love. – Ron Walczyk
3. “Bugcatcher” – “How Long”
Bugcatcher has been tinkering away and mastering their sound since the early days of the pandemic, developing an existential slowcore indie-folk sound that we can’t help but love. The project is a collision of Midwest emo introspection and twangy alt-country sadness, all with a minimalistic approach. “How Long” encapsulated the sound with its stylistic comparisons to Pinegrove and Hovvdy, perfecting Bugcatcher’s “lush hush” sound. – Ron Walczyk
2. Jerry Big’s World Famous Band – “The Happening”
Jerry Big’s World Famous Band impressed us immediately with their explosive garage rock stylings last May and stayed constantly in rotation throughout the rest of the year at the buffaBLOG HQ. The intensity of four song EP, JBWFB, was unmatched, with “The Happening” being the most overtly melodic track from the release. It will have you singing along and has an anthemic quality that we rarely hear. It expertly weaves hooks into an aggressive punk rock sound. – Ron Walczyk
(photo by Steven Coleman)
1. kitchen – “Real Estate Agent”
2026’s Blue Heeler in Ugly Snowlight, Grey on Gray on Gray on White by lo-fi bedroom project, kitchen, blew us away with track after track of earworms along with its cohesiveness on the 20 song mega-release. The eighth song on the release, “Real Estate Agent,” was undeniable, bursting forth as a twangy, emo-coded indie rock stunner that holds its own alongside established contemporaries like Pinegrove or Slaughter Beach, Dog. This is just a slice of the album, but it made us come back to it again and again and again. – Ron Walczyk
Categorised in: Columns, Rochester
This post was written by Admin