(EDITOR’S NOTES — You may know the very talented Lex Squier as the bassist for the Buffalo indie band Romcom Victims, the recently formed punk trio The Jake King Band and/or the art-folk duo The New Dionysians. But in recent months, Lex also has been making waves with an excellent solo synth project called ‘Radio Calisthenics,’ for which she recently dropped its debut LP. The album spans a fascinating range of emotion and artistic exploration with a retro feel that’s weaved i

ARCANA (photo provided) The new album ‘Absence’ by Buffalo alternative metal band ARCANA is a fascinating and powerful work of art, fusing together vision with technical skill and raw emotion. Heavy, haunting and atmospheric, the nearly 40-minute LP both exudes passion and hits like an anvil. The album’s songs are not only to be heard but felt. There’s a hypnotic element to ARCANA’s music, which, at first, seeps into your brain before ultimately hitting you in the gut. Y

(Editor’s Note — Dawn Cochran does stuff… a lot of stuff. She’s an actor, a photographer, a writer, and podcast host of the Buffalo Struggling Artist Series, which can be heard on Spotify HERE, and on YouTube HERE, under the appropriately named heading, ‘Dawn Does Stuff.’ Recently, 1120 Press caught up with Dawn, who was nice enough to take time from her busy schedule to talk to us about the Buffalo Struggling Artist (BSA) Series, the inspiration behind it, her formative year

Art by @likanlan The local punk community and Buff State’s WBNY 91.3 FM have enjoyed a storied relationship, dating back more than 40 years to the college radio station’s founding in 1982. WBNY’s willingness to perpetually shine a light upon the Buffalo scene has long been valued by area musicians, and the station’s tradition of supporting the city’s punk and DIY artists continues to this day with programs such as The Local Show, which hosts bands in-studio for live performan

(EDITOR’S NOTES — Justin Von Strasburg has been omnipresent on the Buffalo scene for years, playing drums in an array of bands which traipse across a plethora of musical styles from punk to indie to experimental to noise rock and everything in between. Widely known for his minimalist kits, Justin these days is a member of the indie bands Peak Fun and The Step Down, the avant-garde noise rock trio Arrangements, and the experimental duo Regional Headbutting Techniques just to n

'Nap' album cover. There’s always something comforting about a Wylie Something record. Dreamlike and sonically gallivanting, oftentimes to a daring extent, there is an eternal sense of wonderment and escape embedded within the music. And let’s be honest: who doesn’t need an escape right about now? Thankfully, as we navigate this dark and twisted Trumpian nightmare, escape is at hand, as a new Wylie Something record drops today. And what better way to escape than hiding undern

The prolific and unpredictable Buffalo indie artist Jacob King continues to build onto his impressive and extensive catalogue with the upcoming release of his new EP, ‘Rock and Roll,’ which drops on Friday. Jake — who will be playing Area 54 on Wednesday night with Age of Peace from Cincinnati and Buffalo’s Plant Water (details HERE) — returns to his guitar-driven neo-psych sound in spectacular fashion on this record. Chock full of unrestrained sonic distortion, low-fi vocals

(EDITOR’S NOTE — We’ve opined here once before that the Buffalo band Autoignition seems incapable of writing a bad song. And the group’s latest single, ‘Not for Nothing,’ lends further credence to our stance. The new track, which you can listen to HERE, is the lead single from Autoignition’s upcoming five-song EP, ‘Against the World,’ which drops on May 15. In a sense, the new record has been a longtime coming for the band, given that some of the EP’s songs were written three

War Bond, 'An Act of Treason' If 20 years from now debate swirls in local hardcore circles over what LPs are among the best debut albums recorded by a Buffalo hardcore band, we wouldn’t be surprised at all if War Bond’s ‘An Act of Treason’ is among those mentioned. It’s just that fucking good. From the very start of the album’s opening track, ‘March On,’ as Ricky Bertucca’s foreboding bass intro paves way to vocalist Ky Reynolds’ impassioned oration, you immediately get the s

Jenn Orr passed away in Nov. 2022 after a nearly two-decades-long battle with mental illness, yet still to this day, her presence is felt. She speaks through the original music of her brother, Buffalo musician Brendan Orr, whose bands include Canetis and deb. Meanwhile, the love she so fiercely radiated, and the good she brought to this world, have transcended her death and continues on a daily basis to impact the lives of those she touched while she was here. “Jenn’s passion

Allison Mitchell of Velvet Bethany (photo provided ) One of the very cool aspects of the Buffalo scene is the collaborative projects that often spring up seemingly out of nowhere, producing extraordinary music which then falls gift-wrapped into our collective laps from the musical heavens when we least expect it. And one the most recent ventures to grace our ears combines Aronia M., a project started by Broken Locker drummer Jeffrey Szatkowski, with Allison Mitchell from Ve

Buffalo’s Personal Style has dropped a new and ferociously raw four-track EP titled ‘Garbage Can.’ Described by the group on its Bandcamp page as “four rippin’ songs that we wrote along the way,” the EP stands as a master class in blistering garage rock and underscores, once again, why this band is so widely respected throughout Buffalo’s scene. Adding to the new record’s excellence is the appearance of Buffalo’s Jake King, who appears on guitar on the song ‘ Double Down

The young and too short-lived Buffalo punk band Standard Living — which has decided to go on “indefinite hiatus” as its members attend college across the country and Canada —always seemed to write beyond its years. Though its members were born this century, their music exuded the raw urgency of the 1980’s LA and DC punk scenes, not only in sound, but in spirit too. But what was equally interesting about Standard Living was that the band was impossible to pigeonhole. Just

Area 54 will play host on Saturday to a unique all-Fredonia show featuring a trio of bands on a genre-mashing bill. Hitting the stage will be New Venice (alt-metal), Ordinary Feeling (shoegaze and formerly known until just recently as Bone Machine), and Face First (Fredonia hardcore). Doors open at 7 p.m. and music starts at 8. 1120 Press caught up with a few of the musicians who’ll be playing Saturday for a quick conversation in advance of the show. We thank them for their t

‘I’ll let entropy decide … I’m terrified of people because they have guns and knives’ - Plank Over Constant Slaughter (from the EP, ‘Worship the Disease’ by Sleep Debt Ceiling ) We acknowledge it may be somewhat tactless to suggest, but the Buffalo music scene would be a lot worse off without James Stephenson’s angst and inner turmoil. Stephenson, for the uninitiated, is the artist behind the prolific folk-rock band, Sleep Debt Ceiling , which yesterday released its latest

When hardcore punk band Kill Uncle dropped its debut EP in 2023, it hit like an anvil, asserting the band’s arrival on the Buffalo scene. And since then, the group’s become a fixed presence, noted for its raw, cyclonic performances. While gigging regularly, Kill Uncle over the last several months also has been hard at work writing new material, and tomorrow the fruit of the band’s labor will be unveiled with the release of its first full-length album, ‘We Are the Wicked .’

Prairie Pavement ( Photo by Jare Curtis/inset edit by band ) If you’ve ever been to a Prairie Pavement show, you already know the group is arguably one of the best live bands on the Buffalo scene. With a palpable on-stage chemistry, the band has built a sizeable following through its animated, high-energy performances which generate a contagious positive vibe. The hype that surrounds the group is well-deserved; it’s earned every bit of it. Yet its reputation for fun and sho

Headbutt ( photo by Phu Trans ) Meet Headbutt , a new Buffalo band that despite emerging only a few short months ago already has some notable excitement swirling around it on the city’s indie rock scene, which in the past year has been thriving at an increasingly steady rate. The buzz comes with good reason. Made up of scene veterans, Headbutt is comprised of Wavy (vocals), Bran Schlia (bass), Kameron Plotner (drums) and Sam Share (guitar), each of whom brings to the group

Jonathan Bobowicz ( photo provided ) There’s a subtle brilliance about the music of Jonathan Bobowicz, the Buffalo indie artist who performs under the name Whitetails . Sonically hypnotic and often infused with vivid introspective lyrics, Bobowicz’s songs have a way of creating worlds that absorb you, that invite you to get lost, that leave you feeling as if you are starring in your very own secret indie movie. They provide escape and a sense of sanctuary. And really, who

(EDITOR’S NOTE — There was a flurry of new music released across the Buffalo scene over the Valentines Day weekend. Here’s a quick roundup of just some of the songs that dropped to help you start your week off right.) The Mookies have released a very cool new single and it’s called ‘Bad News,’ which you can listen to HERE . Punctuated by a bouncy rhythm and vivid wordplay of a calamitous existence, we’ve spent the weekend vibing on this extremely catchy tune. ‘Bad News,’ i