NYC Scene Report – Psychic Ills, Anna Rose, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features a fantastic collaboration between Psychic Ills and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, the blues rock of Anna Rose, something that’s both soulful and noisy from Not Blood Paint, and the latest from super secretive indie rock duo The Blancos.

* The phrase "featuring Hope Sandoval (of Mazzy Star)" is always enough to get me interested in a song. When you add to that the fact that the song in question is the latest from Psychic Ills, it becomes even more of an event. Titled "I Don't Mind," the collaborative effort is off of Psychic Ills' upcoming album, Inner Journey Out, which is due out June 3rd via Sacred Bones.

The chilled out indie psych-pop tune is some seriously great mood music, and I can pretty much guarantee that clicking play will help you drift away for 4:42. Sometimes that's what we really need from music, and it's nice that "I Don't Mind" can provide that.


* Thanks to her electric live performances, and fantastic recorded music, blues rocker Anna Rose has cemented her title as NYC indie music's queen of kick ass. For her latest single, "Bury Me Deep," Rose slows things down a bit, but doesn't skimp on the emotion in the songwriting. Plus, there's a killer guitar solo, and rock music needs more guitar solos!

"Bury Me Deep" is off of Rose's upcoming EP, Strays in the Cut, which is due out June 17th via Noble Steed Music (known for Pat McGee's, and Tony Lucca's, self titled albums, as well as Brendan James' Simplify). There's some poetry in her association with Noble Steed Music, as Rose's 2013 LP was titled Behold a Pale Horse.

Check out "Bury Me Deep" here, and catch Anna Rose on tour this summer (find tour dates here).


* When a band's sound is described as "art rock," with the exception of expecting a guitar and drums, you really don't have much of an idea of what you're going to get. In the case of Brooklyn's Not Blood Paint, the art-rock of their latest single, "Take Another Chance," mixes the soulful and the noisy, with moments that will make you want to groove, juxtaposed with bursts of blaring guitars.

"Take Another Chance" is off of Not Blood Paint's upcoming album, Believing Is Believing, which is due out June 17th. The band described the album in a statement, saying it’s the result "of eight years working toward the marriage of our recorded songs with the exultant energy of our live show," adding, "our shows are about bringing together people in a space and breaking it down. Creating an environment where multiple people in a lawless state are in a positive and creative space with no hierarchy. Where rules are created on the spot, unspoken. A temporary tiny society where anything is possible. And that's our goal, to facilitate that dynamic."

Take a chance on "Take Another Chance," and check out Not Blood Paint.


* The Blancos are an NYC duo I would love to know more about, but I get the feeling secrecy is part of their persona. The indie rock twosome have released another song for listeners, titled "Wild Child," and while the chorus boasts, "I'm an emotional, difficult, child," that's pretty much all I can tell you about them.

The duo's debut EP, Broken Kids, is due out this Friday, and with "Wild Child" as a first taste, it's a release I'm going to be keeping an ear out for.


For more of the best of NYC’s indie music scene, come back next Wednesday, and check out the archives for previous columns.