The Public’s weekly local music reviews and previews.

Album:  Better Luck Next Time by Honey  Recommended if you like:  Weezer, Brand New, Northstar

Buffalo-based emo band Honey released a five-track record last week titled Better Luck Next Year. The duo, Katlin Purpura and Eric Bechard, deliver 1990s-esque indie rock tunes with standard instrumentation—bass, drums, guitars, and their harmonized vocals. They manage to dodge formulaic trappings, however, relying on anthemic choruses and slower tempos on songs like “I’ll Be Right Back” and “Cicada.” Album opener Raked, an ode to Weezer, sets the tone.

Album:  Advice From Yama by Gas Chamber  Recommended if you like:  Sunn O))), The Locust, The Body

Released in October, the latest album from Buffalo-based experimental noise-metal band Gas Chamber is a nightmarish lo-fi metal-scape. Breaking through noise passages with violent lo-fi metal blast beats and blood curdling vocals, Advice From Yama is the equivalent of a found footage horror film viewed on a grainy VHS tape. Much of the album, tracks like “White” and “Modern Vision (2008)” feel like a secret glimpse into a hellish dimension not originally meant for human consumption.