NYC Scene Report – GIRL SKIN, THICK, & WYLDLIFE

This week’s NYC Scene Report features folk-rock collective GIRL SKIN promising “Forever & Always,” punk rock trio THICK getting bummed out, and rockers WYLDLIFE playing “Kiss and Tell.”

* Brooklyn-based folk-rock collective GIRL SKIN will be releasing their debut album, Shade is on the other side, on April 17th, the first single off of which is “Forever & Always.” A mixture of folk-rock and chamber pop, the song is beautifully melodic first taste of the project.

GIRL SKIN frontman Sid Simons discussed Shade is on the other side in a statement, saying, “I wanted these songs to give listeners a layered experience. There’s the first intuitive reaction, which I wanted to be joyful and optimistic, but then, as they listened further, other emotions would come to the fore – darker, more complex emotions that give the songs breadth and depth.”

Simons added, “I’m excited by the different interpretations people are having to the same song, some feeling the darker shades, others feeling the lighter ones.”

Check out the video for “Forever & Always,” and enjoy some of GIRL SKIN’s Shade.


* Brooklyn DIY punk rockers THICK were supposed to be hitting the road for a tour from April 11th through May 7th. The coronavirus, however, has forced them to postpone the shows, which is certainly a bummer. With that in mind, I guess it's apropos that the band's latest single is “Bumming Me Out.”

“Bumming Me Out,” which is off THICK’s recently released debut album, 5 Years Behind, is all about feeling powerless. The video for it, however, goes a non-literal route.

Discussing the clip in a statement, the band said, “It’s one of our more vulnerable songs lyrically, so it was important to inject the video with some playfulness. We collaborated on the concept with (director) Nic Henry. He had wanted to introduce the ‘Chill Reaper’ character for a while, so we worked him into the slumber party story, as the night gets weirder and weirder. We constructed the set in Nikki's bedroom as a throwback to our own bedrooms growing up, so there's also a sense of nostalgia throughout.”

Click play, and get weird with THICK.


* NYC rockers WYLDLIFE will be releasing their fourth album, Year Of The Snake, on April 17th via Wicked Cool Records, but they’re up for some “Kiss and Tell” right now.

“Kiss and Tell” is the second single off Year Of The Snake, and frontman Dave Feldman discussed the inspiration for the song in a statement, saying, “After listening to Definitely Maybe for more times than we can count, Sam (Allen) and I wanted to make a song that was tough and angry, but still confident and cool. The lyric ‘I’d rather be ignored than be adored’ was a riff on another favorite Manchester band, The Stone Roses. Obviously, we as a band want to be celebrated and have an impact on people’s lives, but most times I just want to be left the fuck alone. WYLDLIFE tends to have a larger than life personality, but most people don’t actually know any thing about us. I’ve said ‘good to see you’ to more people I don’t know than I’m comfortable with.”

With a sound that transcends eras, “Kiss and Tell” is pure rock n roll, and that’s a beautiful thing.


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