Bop Shop Records is one the best live music venues in town. As a retail store, it caters to a quieter crowd of diligent devotees who don’t mind seeing artists like “Sesame Street” composer Joe Fiedler and country bluesman Charlie Parr set up between stacks of CDs and vinyl LPs.
The remarkably clear sound of these in-store performances arrives via Dan Gross, who mixes sets live behind a tech console across from the checkout counter.
Gross knows the room from its carpet to the shelves lining the aisles. As such, his new mobile production company Stereo Field Recordings aims to preserve that cozy feel.
The first official release comes from guitarist Greg Maslyn and a trio: saxophonist Chris Fischer, bassist Lochlan Boebel and drummer Max D’Amico. All four gathered at Bop Shop on Nov. 3 to lay down this recording, while Gross captured it on tape.
The composition? A Maslyn-penned modal jazz tune called “[PRESS START],” which owes its title to the influence of video games. Think of it as the musical exploration of a start menu on the Nintendo 64 — a gaming console Maslyn often played with his brother as a kid.
Maslyn’s brother, Mike, tragically died of leukemia while still in his teens. Here, the younger Maslyn honors his late sibling with a heartfelt, playful tune. His lyrical fretwork pops over the rippling rhythmic foundation of D’Amico and Boebel.
With Fischer’s saxophone at its center, though, the tune crackles with flair even as it stays grounded in quiet grace.
“[PRESS START],” released in early 2025, marks the beginning of Stereo Field Recordings’s output as an emerging Rochester audio institution. It’s a welcome arrival and a reminder of the talent found inside the shop at 1460 Monroe Ave. — both in the stacks and, occasionally, staged on the floor between them.
Patrick Hosken is an arts reporter at CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
