NYC Scene Report – Barrie, Belaver, & more


This week’s NYC Scene Report features Barrie picking “Clovers,” Belaver taking the wheel on “Driver,” Trixie Whitley’s seductive “Touch,” and Craig Finn laying out some “Blankets.”

* Indie-pop five-piece Barrie has become a column favorite here over the past few years, and come May they’ll be releasing their full length debut, Happy To Be Here, via Winspear. The project is led by the fantastic single, “Clovers.”

With members of Barrie having lived everywhere – including Boston, Baltimore, upstate New York, London, and São Paulo via Berlin – frontwoman Barrie Lindsay describes how their diverse backgrounds played into the makeup of the album, saying, “The scaffolding of this album is moving to New York, and finding these people that make up the band. We’re very different, but we cover each other’s gaps personally and creatively, and are eager to learn from each other.”

The band’s Noah Prebish adds, “Part of what makes Barrie greater than the sum of the parts is that it’s actually a bunch of freaks working together to make super accessible, satisfying music. So there’s a somewhat experimental nature to the approach.”

Barrie is currently on the road, with US and UK tour dates booked through May 10th, so you check them out when they come to your town. Of course, you can also listen to “Clovers” right here.


* Belaver is a new singer-songwriter on the scene, and with the video for his debut single, “Driver,” he’s clearly ready to give people something to talk about.

“Driver” is off Belaver’s upcoming album, True Love of Crime, due out April 26th, and the video is a story that features some scenes that look as though they’re right out of the ‘80s (I got some serious Videodrome vibes from the intro).

Musically inspired by Neil Young and David Bowie, with “Driver” Belaver is behind the wheel, and taking us on quite the ride. Check it out.


* Trixie Whitley will be releasing her third album, LACUNA, on May 29th, and the video for the sultry lead single, “Touch,” is the first in a trilogy leading up to the album’s release.

The clip for “Touch” was created by Whitley with visual artist, and creative director, Hannah Marshall. Whitley discussed the concept for the entire video trilogy in a statement, saying “We shot the trilogy in London over the course of two days. I was contemplating a lot of spaces in-between, and the different forms of trust and intimacy during the writing and recordings of LACUNA, which was co-produced with Little Shalimar.”

She continued, adding, “I felt movement and dance formed an integral part of the language that I wanted to use to tell this story. Around the same time, I was working with dance company Ultima Vez on a mixed media performance and got introduced to some incredibly talented dancers who fully aligned with the vision that I had. I was also lucky enough to have my dear friend, and movement director, Paul Zivkovich by my side for the entire journey. I couldn't be happier with the process and explorations we took on together, and I’m excited to share these intimate films with the world.”

Whitley will be touring Europe and North America in support of LACUNA, and you can check out the sensual “Touch” right here.


* We still haven’t quite made it out of winter yet, so let’s pull up some “Blankets,” specifically Craig Finn’s latest single, “Blankets.”

“Blankets” is off Finn’s upcoming album, I Need A New War, due out April 26th via Partisan Records. In a statement, the former frontman of The Hold Steady said of the project, “Going in, I saw this record as the third part of a trilogy (following 2015’s Faith in the Future, and 2017’s We All Want The Same Things). Thematically, this was the third group of songs that I had written about smaller moments – people trying to stay afloat in modern times, attempting to find connection, achieving tiny triumphs, and frustrating let downs, in their day to day lives.”

Finn continued, “Perhaps forward motion is everything. The characters in the songs on this record, and the last two, are trying to keep up and keep their heads above water. They succeed, or they don’t, but their stories are the tales of their attempts at pushing ahead.”

Check out “Blankets,” and push ahead with Craig Finn.


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

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