NYC Scene Report – Diet Cig, Anna Rose, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features rockers Diet Cig celebrating a “Barf Day,” Anna Rose burying us deep with some fantastic blues rock, a kick ass break up tune from rock-funk-soul outfit Gnarly Karma, and some powerful pop from newcomer Evee.

* Diet Cig is a band I liked from the moment I first heard them. A little punk, a little pop, and a little garage rock, the band’s debut album, Swear I’m Good At This, is due out April 7th via Frenchkiss. The latest single off of the album is “Barf Day,” and it’s a song that features an ode to wanting ice cream on one’s birthday (which seems like a perfectly reasonable request).

While Swear I’m Good At This may not come with any ice cream, the album is going to have a heck of a rollout. Diet Cig is collaborating with Tuesday Bassen on limited-edition pink silk bomber jackets only available in the preorder bundles, and artist Faye Orlove has designed a t-shirt & sticker sheet that's available with the preorder, as well. The band even has limited edition glitter cassettes (hmm, that might go really well in the tape deck of my car).

As we wait for April 7th, let’s put “Barf Day” on repeat.


* Longtime column favorite Anna Rose is back with a lyric video for her latest single, “Bury Me Deep,” which is off of the blues rocker’s 2016 EP Strays In The Cut.

Rose says of “Bury Me Deep,” “I wrote this song at a time where I very often felt misunderstood, where spurts of emotion get lost in the chaos of life and the vast music industry.”

The clip was made to represent this feeling, as she explains, "The director, Wes Teshome, and I worked hard to make a visual landscape that complimented the mystery of the song. In this world, things are not always what they seem, and words become guideposts along the way.”

Check out the video, and get deep into the music of Anna Rose.


* Long Island indie rock-funk-soul band Gnarly Karma are going to be releasing a new album in 2017, and in anticipation of this they’re hitting listeners with the single “How Could I Love You.”

“How Could I Love You” is the story of a romance gone wrong, as the chorus features a man questioning why he’s in this particular relationship. “How could I love you, how could I care? / No one said it was gonna be easy,” Gnarly Karma’s Mike Renert passionately sings, “How could I love you, how could I care? / I guess this is just gonna be the end.”

I can’t remember the last time a break up sounded so good.


* In baseball we occasionally get a rare superstar who is a five tool player (wassup Mike Trout). By this, we mean he hits for average, as well as power, has speed, has a great arm, and has an amazing glove.

NYC-based artist Evee is looking to be a five tool player in her own way. Already having classically trained opera singer, model, and theater actress on her resume, with the release of “Lone Wolf” she’s adding “pop artist” to that list.

Evee says of the song, "Lone Wolf is, in a way, my personal theme song,” adding that it “came about really through the imagery the production gave me. I just kept picturing myself running through the woods at twilight.”

Give it a spin, and check out this now quadruple threat.


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