Music Reviews

There is a lot to process on Andrew Cloninger’s new album, “Brutalist.” Processing, in fact, could serve as the guiding concept behind the album. Song titles like “Archive” and “Field Notes” suggest raw sonic material of various sorts underwent a careful process of refinement, sifting or even distilling. Instead of clean, repeatable melodies and chord […]

For the uninitiated, Rosa Boêmia is sultry summer samba, sans singing. The Rochester three-piece’s name translates from Portuguese to English as “bohemian pink,” and they play choro, an upbeat, classical style of Brazilian music with roots in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro. If you’re unfamiliar with choro (as I was), “Rosa do Inverno” is a great […]

Ego is a sticky thing. Brian Wilson famously took acid and wrote a song about letting go of his own, only to be persuaded by Mike Love to tone down the psychedelia. (“I Know There’s an Answer” still goes.) The Rochester rapper Robert Hirko, who uses his last name to release music, has now made […]

Rochester loves its hometown icons, and in that pantheon of lilacs and frozen custard there is a special place for the long-tenured local salsa band La Muralla. Founded on the city’s northside in 1973, this all-star mashup of musicians released a new album, “Como Me La Pida,” on June 28 that provides a delightful break […]

Lilypad Underground and Raincoated Records are at it again, showcasing four of Rochester’s most interesting indie bands recorded directly to a four-track cassette tape. The result is “Spit Takes and Split Tapes, Vol. II,” an endearing split EP offering two songs each from local bands Chores, Comfy, Bad Bloom and Big Nobody. The opening song, […]

New York singer, songwriter and clawhammer banjo player Benny Bleu has announced his debut collection of self-recorded songs, “When I Am a Fossil” due June 5, with a release show at Bop Shop Records on June 6. A decade in the making, Bleu, a geologist by trade, examines the roots of traditional song through his […]

It’s morning. You’re sipping coffee, watching the sun crest over a California canyon. Or, it’s midnight. You’re crushing beers, closing down a bar somewhere on Monroe Avenue. Either way, “Graceland Way,” Rochester-born Mikaela Davis’s latest, would be an apt soundtrack. Davis and company strain melancholy and make-believe through frontier thinking. Orville Peck — your favorite […]

Practice. Study. Repetition. These are the familiar patterns of learning: for a musical instrument, a new language or most other skills. Dreaming. Resting. Feeling. Are these modes the break from that work, or can they also be a part of it?  Those interlocking experiences were on my mind while listening to Jeff Beal’s new album, […]

On “Burn From Both Ends,” the second full-length release from local favorite Pluck, the band’s indie-rock sound rings true. This vibrant collection explores a wide variety of topics and themes. From sickness to relationships to the political state of the world, Pluck’s sophomore album is ready to converse with the listener.  “Sooner” opens the album […]

People mean well. They offer thoughts and prayers, best wishes and Bible verses, but they don’t understand. Sometimes their good intentions end up as judgments. This social consternation is at the heart of local singer-songwriter Annie Wells’ newest single, “Devil’s Gonna Get You,” released in March. The bluesy number was inspired, Wells writes in the […]

This past winter was particularly brutal and seemingly never-ending. One of the only positive takeaways is that it inspired a wildly imaginative new track from Rochester studio project No Glitter. Snowed in after one of the many blizzards suffered by the region, musical polymath Billy Martin challenged himself to capture the chilly isolationist vibes in […]