Pillow hugger by the Band Comfy Hits Rolling Stone

The Utica area garage band Comfy was recently featured in Rolling Stone Magazine in a list of the top cassette tapes released in 2014.

The band, made up of locals, released the original album, "Pillowhugger" in January of last year and somehow it ended up into the hands of Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield and last week he added it to his list of the year's best.

One would have thought that the cassette format was a thing of the past; but, there's been a resurgence of sorts as the younger generation discovers what most of us grew up with and threw aside for new technology.

"It's easy to see why — the cassette is the most hands-on and intimate format. You can't speed-click through the files, because there are no files. You have to resist your urge to control and quantify music; you have to just let it roll," Sheffield writes in his story.

Today's music listener has a much shorter attention span. We give a track a few seconds before we 'click' to the next song. When it comes to albums, people today tend to buy individual songs and leave the tracks they're not interested in sitting on the shelf (the digital shelf, if you will). So, to see new bands releasing their music on cassette tape seems to be a breath of fresh air.

Connor Benincasa wrote all of the songs on the album and he sings and plays guitar. Zeno Pitarelli is on drums and Zack Marsh is on bass guitar. The three are surrounded by a few more seasoned musicians to create the 'sound,' but clearly Benincasa a.k.a Comfy inserts his style through the words of the songs he wrote.

So, what does Pillowhugger mean? Benincasa says that when he was writing the songs for the album last year, it was a cold Utica winter and he was depressed and "didn't want to get out of bed. So, I hugged a lot of pillows," he said on WIBX's First News with Keeler in the Morning.

The feature in Rolling Stone has developed into a little progress for the struggling musicians. They were featured on local tv station WKTV and at the end of the month they'll be playing at the Devereux; oh, and the national attention has landed them a gig at a venue in Brooklyn later this winter.

Listen to cuts from the album here and you could even purchase a download for just $3.

Check out clips from Monday mornings Keeler Show below.