A good way to measure the health of any arts community is to listen to what kind of music it’s making. Luckily, ours is as varied as ever — garage rock and contemporary classical exist side by side with folk and bluegrass and a thriving electronic and experimental scene. Local rappers drop more mixtapes than can be clocked. Concerts dot every night on the calendar, if you’re game.
It’s impossible to encapsulate the breadth of musicians in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region in a single playlist. But a quick primer will do. Below, CITY and WXXI staffers and contributors rounded up some of our favorite tunes made locally in 2024.
“Many Roads to Follow,” by Rose & the Bros, from Ever Changing
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
In Cajun-Zydeco, the practice of covering and adapting popular music for the dance hall is about as traditional as the music itself, allowing appreciating audiences more ease of move and groove on the floor. Joined by the Bros, Rosie Newton leads her darling pack through the Nerves classic, joining a club of diverse artists who lend their skills to the composition. Seated comfortably in the Southern dance hall tradition, the song showcases the Ithaca ensemble’s fiddles, triangle/scrubboard and dubby bass/percussion, setting its bumping treatment apart. —RYAN YARMEL
“Eclipse,” composed by Marc Mellits, performed by fivebyfive, from Eclipse
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
One of the coolest things to come out of the eclipse this past spring was a performance by the chamber group fivebyfive at the Strasenburgh Planetarium, where the musicians performed new music that they commissioned inspired by the celestial experience. That music is now out on their album “Eclipse.” The title track by composer Marc Mellits draws on the idea of hidden things becoming visible. There’s plenty of dreamy beauty in this music, and as the 15-minute musical expanse unfolds, fivebyfive grooves and rumbles a bit, too. Or as Mellits describes it: “The moon gleams in dancing rhythms and funky lines.” —MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI
“PMA Anthem!!!,” by Therapy Gun, from Different Forms of Miserable
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
About a decade ago, calling a band “emo-adjacent” became a convenient way of side-stepping that genre’s complicated legacy. But local group Therapy Gun doesn’t just embrace the label; it makes emo howl again. Thanks to a superstar performance from vocalist Shola, “PMA Anthem!!!” stage-dives toward clarity (its title stands for “positive mental attitude”) while somehow sounding like both the genre’s rough post-hardcore roots and the mall screamo that defined a later generation. For four minutes, feeling bad feels pretty great. —PATRICK HOSKEN
“Crossing Lake Riley,” by Benny Bleu, from Banjo Meditations
(Bandcamp)
Crickets establish a prudential nighttime journey across Culver Road’s Lake Riley, a ghost of the Eastern Wide Waters, from when 490 was the Erie Canal. A contemplative solo banjo offering, the tune sways royally, tempered melodically by dissonance and funk. Ben Haravitch, known as Benny Bleu, helps us imagine what might necessitate an evening trip across this local pond, in this gorgeous rendition of the G.E. Meixner (Wilderness Family) original. —RYAN YARMEL
“Drove By Your Home,” by Chores, from Tender as a Wound
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
Situated at the terminus of Rochester alternative trio Chores’s sparkling full-length debut, “Drove By Your Home” reminds just how powerful a slow joyride past the formerly occupied house of a loved one is. Cosseted in the band’s alt-glam mayhem, the track’s opening electric bass trots are sleepover innocent, before explosive T. Rex headbanger hooks enter and a recitation calls to take us back to simpler times. —RYAN YARMEL
“A Miracle in Legacy,” composed by Jasmine Barnes Chance, performed by Joshua Conyers and pianist Chelsea Whitaker, from A Miracle in Legacy
(Instagram)
Joshua Conyers is a world-traveling opera star, and since last year, he’s also been a voice professor at the Eastman School of Music. In his debut album, Conyers’s rich baritone voice rings out in connections to painful pasts that are transformed into a more hopeful present and future — while acknowledging that the journey is still far from over. The standout selections on this album are music and words written for him by composer Jasmine Arielle Barnes and librettist Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton. The writing is wise and lyrical, and these are artistic voices that we should be hearing more in the future. —MONA SEGHATOLESLAMI
“Thief in the Grove,” by No Time for Caution, from Thief in the Grove
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
Musician Ryan Crosby’s post-rock project No Time for Caution returned this year with “Thief in the Grove,” a twinkling voyage split up into three acts and an epilogue. The title track is its own cinematic adventure. Winding through atmospheric pinging guitar and world-building percussion, the instrumental song reaches a stillness that can only be described as amniotic. Then, of course, it explodes at the 5:42 mark, creating a goosebumps moment. Good things come to those who wait. —PATRICK HOSKEN
“Pangea (Wide Open Sea),” by trndytrndy, from Virtua
(Bandcamp/Instagram)
“Sentimental uplifting feel good childhood dreams and friendships and future promises kind of music.” Yes; Instagram commenter @haaa.raam is on to something. “Pangea (Wide Open Sea)” is the undeniable boot-up sound to trndytrndy’s “Virtua” EP that really delivers on what the album art promises: a journey back to a simpler time when you’d stick a learning game CD into a PC tower and find yourself enmeshed in a tapestry of bass bends, midi mallet percussion and waves of digital synthesis. Absolutely nothing like it; welcome to the planetarium. —JACOB WALSH
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
