NYC Scene Report – Quiet Friend, Corina Corina, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features some puppy love from indie pop band Quiet Friend, a disco tinged jam from Corina Corina, a soulful “Blunder” from Michael Blume, and some rock n roll from Bambara.

* NYC-based indie pop band Quiet Friend clearly knows the way to everyone’s heart, as the video for their latest single, “Playgrounds” – which is off of their recently released self-titled debut album – stars a golden retriever.

The band has an artistic explanation for the video, as Quiet Friend’s Nick Zanca said, in a statement, “I consider ‘Playgrounds’ to be the album’s spiritual centerpiece — informed by anxiety, intimacy and the struggle to maintain self-confidence and enthusiasm. It’s about walking into the responsibilities of early adulthood still feeling like a child. Though it was an obvious choice as a single, we struggled for a while to find the right visual language to accompany it. Rather than taking the literal approach, our friend and collaborator Hayden Hoyl ultimately told a story antithetical to the song’s lyrics — one of unbridled confidence and trust.”

While that’s thought provoking, and moving, and artistic, if you’re anything like me your first reaction to the video will be to say, “Who’s a good boy?”


* If you thought disco was dead, consider Corina Corina’s “BAR$” a resurrection of the genre. The Willie Green produced track is a dance floor ready jam that features Corina Corina singing about dealing with life as a bartender while chasing her artistic dreams.

For the video she tapped (pun intended) some of her favorite badass women to co-star with her. As each one is introduced the plethora of gigs they work, and titles they hold, flash across the screen, illustrating how hard working, and unique, each one of them are.

Click play, and get your groove on to “BAR$.”


* If you’re ever having a rough day, and are all up in your own head, Michael Blume has the song for you. The soulful singer-songwriter’s latest single, “Blunder” – which will be on his upcoming EP, due out later this year – is all about moving on from everything from personal insecurities, to the comments of others.

In a statement, he discussed the song, and the video for it, saying, “We all make mistakes by allowing the outside world's ideas of who we should be to infiltrate our own psyches and concepts of self. We all sit in different places on the bus that is life struggling with our own demons. This video speaks to the ways in which this place of struggle connects us. I believe that empathy is a big part of community growth and I hope the video highlights how alike we all are even when we feel alone with our pain.”

Check out the inspirational song, and video, and to quote one of the lyrics, “Know your value is high.”


* Bambara just released their third full-length album, Shadow on Everything, the latest single off of which is “Doe Eyed Girl,” a dark rock n roll song with slight surf rock, and country rock, influences.

The NYC-via-Georgia trio worked with producer Andy Chugg (Pop. 1280, Pill) for the album, deciding to pull the vocals into the foreground. The decision has led to some incredible music that sounds like a walk through a dark alley in the deep country. I know that description may seem a bit strange – dark alleys, and country livin’, don’t usually go together – but click play on “Doe Eyed Girl” and hear what I mean.


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