NYC Scene Report – The Rad Trads, BAILEN, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features The Rad Trads wishing “Good Luck Unto Ya,” family trio BAILEN admitting “I Was Wrong,” Teach Me Human looking to connect with “Tell Me That You Love Me,” and I Am Snow Angel landing her Mothership.

* It’s fitting that Brooklyn-based five-piece band The Rad Trads have rad in their name, because after listening to their latest single, “Good Luck Unto Ya,” you’ll think they’re pretty freakin’ rad.

Defying traditional genre categorization, The Rad Trads have elements of pop, rock, soul, and jazz.

The band was formed in 2012 at NYU, and as drummer and vocalist John Fatum, notes, they had some fairly reasonable dreams at that time. “(We were) a bunch of buds looking to play the bars, and drink for free.”

Bassist and vocalist Michael Harlen explains that their goals grew as their travel itinerary became more and more interesting. “It turns out that every jazz festival in the world needed a fun band to hold down the late night parties, and so we went to Europe for the first time.”

The band has now performed on four continents, in 15 countries, and 41 states, and they’re currently wrapping up a West Coast tour. Check out “Good Luck Unto Ya,” which is off their most recent album, On Tap, and hear why The Rad Trads are such a good time.


* When I first heard family trio BAILEN’s “I Was Wrong” I was immediately struck by the gorgeous harmonies in the chorus. While they may be singing “I Was Wrong,” their voices sound oh so right.

The NYC-based trio consists of fraternal twins Daniel and David Bailen, and younger sister Julia, and they explained “I Was Wrong” in a statement, saying, “The song is about coming together and listening to the other side of an argument, hearing another perspective, and being able to say, ‘I was wrong.’ It was inspired by the growing global divide in ideology, and a general unwillingness to hear out someone with differing opinions. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is admit your faults, but often it’s the only way to move forward.”

“I Was Wrong” is off BAILEN’s debut album, Thrilled To Be Here, which was produced by Grammy award winner John Congleton (St. Vincent, The War on Drugs), and is due out on April 26th, via Fantasy Records.

The trio will be on tour from February 20th through April 6th (see all their tour dates on their Facebook page), and you can hear “I Was Wrong” right here.


* Sometimes an artist’s story simply blows you away, and for me that was the case when I read about Long Island indie rock band Teach Me Human, and their frontman, Brian Cotter. Cotter is an active aviator in the United States Air Force, and he wrote the band’s latest single, “Tell Me That You Love Me,” while deployed in Iraq in 2018.

In a statement, Cotter explained the inspiration for the song, saying, “The lyrics represent the conflict of living in a new and dangerous reality while still attempting to connect with loved ones back at home.”

He adds that these are themes that are ever-present in his music, saying, “There is no manual, or instruction book, that we get to help us deal with things like death, heartbreak, friendship … I am learning (to be) human every day. I take many things from life, and mix it with metaphors.”

After two independently released EPs, Teach Me Human are now working on their first full length album, and you can see their video for “Tell Me That You Love Me” right here.


* I Am Snow Angel has been creating other-worldly atmospheres at live shows for years with her sultry, ethereal brand of electronic/downtempo music. Now, her Mothership has landed.

Mothership is the singer-songwriter-producer’s latest full length album. Recorded in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state, according to I Am Snow Angel the album touches on themes of isolation, longing, paranoia, the paranormal, and ultimately, redemption.

I Am Snow Angel did an amazing Stacking The Deck interview with me last year, which you can read here, and to hear what it sounds like aboard her Mothership, click play on “You Were Mine,” and allow her to take you on a chilled out ride.


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