If you ask us "how’s the NYC scene doing these days?" we’ll respond with a mixed feelings kind of answer. But even though the local scene is undoubtedly going through some rough times (mostly caused by the excessive cost of the city and the extreme gentrification of Williamsburg), it has still managed to express some very fine music in 2017. Or at least that’s what Rough Trade believes, since they just released a list of the Best 20 Records of 2017 that features four albums released by NYC based artists:

– Big Thief’s Capacity (on the cover of our Winter 2016 issue of The Deli) placed in 4th position. 

– Cigarettes After Sex’s self titled debut LP placed in 6th position. 

– The National’s Sleep Well Beast placed in 14th position

– Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts’ Milano placed in 16th position.

Four out of twenty, that’s A LOT, congrats NYC scene!

Here’s a YouTube playlist of these artists’ most popular songs from their 2017 releases.

National Sawdust’s monthly appointment with great local acts operating outside the "indie rock realm" returns on Saturday November 18 with the live performance of three very interesting artists, united by an original but entirely different approach to soul music: Fusilier, Shenna and Lohai. More info here.

We created a YouTube playlist of their recent videos, check it out!

With their fast paced sound, perfasive distortion and abrasive melodies reminiscent of legendary Husker Du (the first bands that blended hardcore punk with pop melodies), Brooklyn’s Surf Thugs could be described as a proto-pop punk revival band. This being said, the single ‘Just Sad’ (streaming below) from their brand new EP bearing the same title, sound to our years like a reinterpretation of the garage sound of the ’70s through a ’90s filter. The experiment works, and the other four tracks on the record well complement it with their incessant power chord aggression and in your face vocals, propelled by relentless drums. You can bob your head to these tunes tonight (November 10) at The Well.

P.S. We found out about Surf Thugs’ gig in our site’s DIY NYC Live Listings section, check it out and promote your show there for free!

Blush is the new solo project of Brooklyn singer-songwriter Maura Lynch (previously keys and backing vocals in Darlings). With its distant, reverberated vocals, first single Daisy Chain (streaming below) seems to confirm Maura’s preference for (beautiful) melodies that work around your ears, rather than in front of them. The tracks’ sleepy attitude and plodding pace place it squarely in the dream pop niche – heck, even the lyrics are about dreams! According to Bandcamp, the full record will drop on December 8th, but we couldn’t find a date for the release show.

Bootblacks offer a gothic melancholia bounced back and forth on synth-pop beats, a menacing vision of gloom that’s infectious. Bootblacks’ post-punk/new-wave sensibility is beautifully paired with Panther Macdonald’s vocals. They’re straight out of the post-punk catalog: romantic, dramatic, seductive. The band promises a seedier vision of NYC, one of decadence and decay. They shared their preference about synths with our sister blog Delicious Synths, check it out!

Some bands are like wine, they get better with time (sadly, most don’t). The Majorleans’ 2013 album "Black Belt" showed a confident band with solid songs and production values. Armed with a sound that could be described as "classic rock sans-cheese,"  and blessed with the character of songwriter Nicky Francis DiFonzo’s vocals, the record brings to mind Tom Petty and the electric Bob Dylan of the ’80s. But new single "Black Magic Woman" (streaming below) takes things to a whole new level: it’s a blue blues made even darker and vintage sounding through a noir, loungey arrangement that flirts with psychedelia and The Beatles of Abbey Road. The trio will be performing at Berling on November 11, we recommend! 

Three NYC based bands with a surprisingly similar sound (rather mellow but edgy, electronic and melodic, featuring female lead vocals) will share the stage of Baby’s All Right in occasion of the headliner’s Iris Lune release party. The other two are Lip Talk and MMEADOWS. We created a compilation of their songs for you, it’s really good, check it out!

We are very excited to inform you that avant-electro-psych band Guerilla Toss, who graced the latest cover of our NYC print issue, will be performing their first live show since that issue hit the streets of NYC in mid October. The band’s latest album, entitled GT Ultra and released through DFA Records, is an exuberant, multifaceted explosion of sound inspired by mysterious government sponsored experiments and The Greatful Dead (althoughg it sounds nothing like them). The band recently unveiled this new video for single "Betty Dreams of Green Men." The live show will be at Baby’s All Right on November 16, be there!

Comprised by Reni Lane and Anna Nordeen (two NYC artists whose solo careers were covered in this blog) Fever High just announced the November 10th release of their debut album "FHNY." The duo plays a brand of retro-pop that seems to look for inspiration in all the sunny and melodic musical eras of the past. if the synthpop of the ’80s is a recurrent influence (hear 2015’s break out single "Tantalized" in this regard), the preview track from the upcoming full length, "Casting My Spell" (video streaming below), reinterprets the west coast’s pop sound from twenty years prior, when the Beach Boys had just broken into the scene. The other single "Good Advice," also included in the upcoming release, features more exotic influences conjuring up beach parties in the early aughts. Stay tuned for tour dates.

Queens’ Big Breakfast, repping Brooklyn micro-label Smoker’s Cough, flips flows tight as He-Man’s loincloth.  He’s definitely a rapper’s rapper.  His punchlines are clever, but they hinge more on the rhyme scheme than on mainstream references.  This puts him in the realm of DOOM and Breeze Brewin, which is great if you really love dynamic lyricism.  It’s also great if you smoked too much of that blunt and need to duck into a corner and get lost in your headphones.  His Sports Plus EP is available as a limited cassette and zine via his bandcamp page.  He plays at The Kingsland in Brooklyn November 4th.

We blogged about soulful NYC’s singer songwriter Aisha Badru earlier this year, after one of her songs was picked for a Volkswagen commercial. Aisha earlier this month  traveled to Bali, Indonesia to donate a portion of the income she received from that ad to rebuild a home for a local poverty-stricken family. In the meantime, her other single "Mind of Fire," a simple, a-cappella track dealing with how the needs of our daily lives end up killing our dreams and motivations, was racking up plays on Spotify (video streaming below). After completing a short October tour in the southern US states, Aisha is preparing to release her debut album "Pendulum," scheduled for early 2018. It will also feature single "Bridges," also streaming.

This past summer of 2017, Brooklyn’s The Sofas released their first single "Hum," which immediately resonated with oddball indie rock lovers and fans of those fuzzadelic records from the ’90s bands like Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev were putting out early in their career. Streaming below, the single’s B side, "Rodeo Jones Is Dead." The band is about to release their debut full length "Chop Water" on Jurassic Pop Records; after the fun of "Hum," our attention and curiosity are guaranteed.

The band’s guitarist and bass player shared their thoughts on guitar pedals with our sister blog Delicious Audio, check out the Q&A here!