Music

Here’s an album to turn on when you’re looking for something bright and fun in the midst of winter — whether you’re embracing the season’s chilly energy or trying to combat its gloom.  From the first note of Jeff Tyzik’s “Jazz Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble,” there’s brightness, bounce, lift and energy. In […]

Indie artist Shep Treasure’s second full-length album, “Blanket,” feels like taking a walk after a blizzard, leaving the house for a world sheathed in layers of pearl grey and reflected sunlight. Sabrina Nichols, the primary creative force behind the band’s name, wrote “Blanket” after moving back to her native Rochester from Brooklyn. Nichols takes charge […]

“Before the Dawn,” the sophomore album from Fairport native Claudia Hoyser, is an ethereal dive into modern Americana and country. Hoyser’s unique voice and emotional vulnerability create something new and fresh, sultry and sweet. For fans of indie and country, this LP is sure to turn heads. While exploring themes like growth and healing, “Before […]

Year-end lists condition people like me to think that there must be One Best Album to rule over all others. This is simply not true. My favorite 2025 music was made by several diverse artists that I love equally: ambient instrumentalist Walt McClements, New York City band Geese, local improvisational duo Wren Cove — more […]

Where can we put our rage when it becomes too heavy? Where shall we get the release our emotions crave? Local emocore band Comfort Object provides a safe space for those who are fed up with these questions on its latest release, “Pinnacle Hill,” making the case that music is a hobby to some and […]

Though goals and results drive modern society, it’s only after struggle and pain that we learn the journey is the destination. Local singer-songwriter Katy Martin’s latest solo album, “Are We There Yet,” captures this wisdom in eight indie folk songs that play with bright, twee sounds while tackling an ever-present heaviness. Martin, half of the […]

Is physical media dead? Or is it having a comeback? If the latter is the case, let’s have more unusual physical forms, like the guitar-shaped USB drive on which you can find the Suen-Kam Guitar Duo’s debut album, “Between Strings.” Guitarists Shiuen-Huang Suen and Kenneth Kam met through the Eastman School of Music as graduate […]

Until recently, Rochester band The Thriffs went by a more typical tag: The Thrifts. But due to the existence of another band of the same name, this moody yet energetic quartet modified its name. The change-up suits the music, a rare blend of insular post-punk infused with blasts of extroverted personality. On The Thriffs’ debut […]

The Rochester band channels decades of indie rock on two laid-back EPs.