NYC Scene Report – Chelsea Sica, Bad Mary, & Quicksand

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Chelsea Sica releasing “Pheromones,” Bad Mary feeling trashy, and Quicksand unearthing a previously unreleased song.

* Chelsea Sica is dishing out the full spectrum of feelings on the title track of her debut album, Pheromones, which was released earlier this month. 

Discussing the sultry meets scary song in a statement, Sica revealed, “It’s about an ex I couldn’t stand, but couldn’t get away from. We had this unexplained attraction, like pheromones. I felt like if I saw him again I would want to punch him in the face, and then make out with him.”

With a video that matches the insanity of that … let’s call it mixed emotion … Chelsea Sica is debuting with quite the bang. Check out her must-hear voice, and the must-see clip.

* After discovering Bad Mary earlier this year when they opened for The Dollyrots, they immediately became one of my favorite bands in the scene. I interviewed the punk rock outfit’s frontwoman, Amanda Mac, last month (check that out here), and at the end of our conversation she mentioned the band’s next single would be “It’s All Trash.” Well, it’s time to get trashy, because “It’s All Trash” is out now, and the video for it features Mac dancing in an abandoned psychiatric hospital.

Yes, you read that correctly!

“It’s All Trash” is our first taste of Bad Mary’s upcoming EP, Trash and Glamour, which is due out in 2023. Bassist Mike Staub explained the song in a statement, saying, “This song is a sort of realization that despite a fancy label, or how we dress up a lot of what we consume, much of it is still just ... trash. I wanted to still convey this message in our own, cheeky, and bratty way, hence the 80s glam metal ‘oh yeahs’ in the chorus. In the end, even trash can be a lot of fun. This is also, to me, one of our heaviest songs, which I like, as it encapsulates a fun-yet-aggressive vibe.”

Combine a kick ass punk rock song, with a highly addictive chorus, and one of my side obsessions – abandoned buildings, especially potentially spooky ones – and you have something I’m going to be clicking play on a lot.

Check out “It’s All Trash.”

* NYC-based rockers Quicksand recently returned home after a successful North American tour with Clutch, and Helmet, and they did so with a new single titled “Felíz.”

“Felíz” is actually only new to us. The band’s had it for a while, as it was a previously unreleased song from when they were putting together their 2021 album Distant Populations.

According to Quicksand’s Walter Schreifels, the band wrote “Felíz” because they were looking to create something decidedly aggressive for their live show. “Listening now reminds me of something we might have written earlier in our career,” he says, “but (it) still feels right at home with where we’re at currently. The lyrics speak to the fleeting nature of happiness, which paradoxically is what makes feeling happy such a desirable thing.”

If you like hard rock, Quicksand’s “Felíz” is going to make you happy.

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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