Robot Princess (our NYC Record of the Month this past February) is getting ready to celebrate the release of their second full-length album ‘Tentacles.’ If you love gritty guitars, nonsensical poetry, releasing anxieties, and the sensation of endless freedom, stop by at Ridgewood’s Footlight on November 11th and join the celebration! Streaming below the record’s excellent opening track entitled ‘Claudia.’ And if Queens is too far for you, you can catch the band at Mercury Lounge on November 20th. – Ashley Muniz

Few things in the life of this little blog are more satisfying than putting the spotlight on musicians that actually deserve it. Jake Cheriff, Dan Hemerlein, Harry Terrell and Bernardo Ochoa, also known as NYC’s Modern Diet, have put together a cleverly crafted double single—"Karenina // Basement"—off their forthcoming album, ‘Sit Down and Dance.’ Two seconds into "Karenina", a honeyed, wistful vocal sings "leave me alone"—but it’s not that easy to comply, for we’ve already been given good reasons to stay. Shortly afterwards, an energy-driven montage of drums, guitars, and bass surges in and takes the lead. Throughout the song, the energy is strategically interrupted by a downtempo breakdown, which emphasizes the reprise. "Basement" plays this in reverse, interlacing a prominent laidback groove with heaps of energy. If you get tired of clicking the play buttons down below, word on the street is Modern Diet will be performing a secret gig December 3rd in NYC. Join SoFar Sounds to find out where. – Ashley Muniz

We’re exactly a month into Fall and faced with those chilly Autumn nights, it’s really easy to get idealistic about summer–warm sand, boardwalk popsicles, and top-down car rides are starting to feel more and more like functions of the past.  Big Surr, with all their beach-poppy swagger, surf beats, and fuzzy guitar licks, feel like summer but lack those rose-colored glasses we tend to don everytime cold weather rolls around. This is summer, pit stains and all, where the skin that’s not covered by your shorts ends up sticking to your car seat. But this is what we love about Big Surr: there’s a real rawness in the music created by their intersection of jangly guitar voicings and lackadaisical vocals. Baked + Bruised, the band’s 3-track EP, is a good example of this and throughout the album the band manages to create infectiously catchy melodies, all while maintaining their lo-fi allure. You can check out Big Surr playing live at Charlie Bob’s on 10.30, but be sure to stream them below in the meantime.-Olivia Sisinni

We highlighted COTE a few weeks ago in this very blog and we just noticed the Brooklyn based project (brainchild of singer songwriter Taryn Randall) released her second single, entitled ‘Green Light,’ which confirms the good things we heard in the first one, and in particular a beautifully expressive voice. No live events scheduled for her just yet. – photo by Jen Trahan

From the Hard Rock Cafe to the House of Blues, Stone Giant has been unleashing the downtrodden tales of their 2015 debut album. Underlying the harsh, raspy vocals of Sebastian Fernandez is an outcry of a despair, longing, and the strength to move on. Join them as they rock the Mercury Lounge on November 2nd, and check out their single "LDG" down below! – Ashley Muniz 

Following his 2014 R&B album Burn, Steven Mullan has released a new collaborative EP, What You Don’t Need, on October 10th under the name Mackinac. Mackinac’s album title track delivers a multiplex sonic mixture, assembling juicy synth pads, airy vocal harmonies, a rhythmic backdrop that adjusts in energy from section to section, and the crisp, and Steven’s clear vocals. Listen to "What You Don’t Need" down below, as well as the album title track for Burn, and catch Steven live at Acme Feed & Seed on October 21st. –Ashley Muniz