Extreme happiness or pain can be very inspiring for artists, but it occurred to us that most musicians might never write their desperate songs during their "NYC years." Because by the time you are desperate, you’ve normally moved out of the city already. As you know this blog only covers NYC based artists, and maybe that’s why we don’t often stumble upon material that channels that kind of emotion- which is completely different from, and way more sincere and troubled than, the provocative nihilism many punkish bands convey. The city-induced "low" is perfectly expressed in Astoria based Dirty Wings’ latest single "Forever Nights of Winter" (streaming below): "gonna go to a place where I can’t be found, cause its so cold in this dirty town, gonna get so high till I fall down, gonna plant my face in the frozen ground." With their Tom Waits and Lou Reed references, one can’t help but immediately associate the band’s sound with excessive alcohol intake, which not only works with the content of the lyrics, but also makes for a pretty original sound in today’s NYC music soundscape.
