NYC Scene Report – Mainland, Rosebug, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features indie pop-rockers Mainland signing, and singing, their own “Permission Slip,” Rosebug giving us dream punk we want to hear in the Worst Way, some ageless emo from MELT, and singer-songwriter Conversing With Oceans tapping into the “Heart of a Poet.”

* Brooklyn-based indie-pop/rock band Mainland are back with a new song that’s a celebration of freedom that will also allow you to take a class trip. “Permission Slip” is the name of the single, and it’s the first of a new collection of songs the band has been working on.

Mainland’s latest efforts are the result of a trip to the Bay Area, as the band explained in a statement, "We wrote and recorded 'Permission Slip' in the foggy hills above of San Francisco … This is the first of a collection of songs that we've recorded completely on our own, and we found it inspiring to have zero creative boundaries. The seclusion was great for having minimal distraction, but after awhile the cabin fever can make you feel restless. The song is a reflection of that pent up energy needing to be released."

This is a permission slip you don’t need signed, but should be spun.


* Keeping things in Brooklyn, up next we have Rosebug, a dream punk band who released their debut LP, Worst Way just two weeks ago.

Describing their album by saying it “toes the line between guilty pleasure and essential punk fantasy,” Rosebug have the melodic qualities of pop, while still embracing some of punk’s more gritty musicality.

Featuring elements of both pop, and punk, some may want to call Rosebug pop punk, but I think that would be a misleading label, as they don’t sound like a pop punk band, at least not on their lead single, “I Am The One.” A better description would be – a dream pop band with attitude. Give “I Am The One” a spin to hear what I mean.


* Modern English once offered to stop the world and melt with you. The next artist in this week’s NYC Scene Report just wants to stop the world so you can check out MELT. MELT being the New Jersey-based band who originally bonded over a mutual interest in updating early aughts’ emo without the “stuff that didn’t age well.”

The band’s debut album, Riffer, was co-released last week by Danger Collective Records and Topshelf Records. Vocalist Dylan White describes the sound of the album, saying, "We like to think that MELT is what would happen if The Anniversary took too much Adderall and did a terrible Jawbreaker impression."

Want to know what that sounds like? Give “Out Of Line” a listen, and stop the world to check out MELT.


* NYC-based singer-songwriter Conversing With Oceans is hitting listeners with something deep, and heartfelt, with his latest single, “Heart of a Poet,” which is about the bond he shared with an older friend who was battling cancer.

In a statement, Conversing With Oceans explained, ”We developed a friendship where he'd share philosophies on life – particularly on how he had beaten cancer several times, the importance of family and friends, of enjoying life, and most importantly, of what it means to live a 'worthwhile' life,"

The song will be on Conversing With Oceans’ upcoming EP, due out on Friday, and you can check out the single right here.


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