NYC Scene Report – Strawberry Launch, King Falcon, & Middle Part w/ Yuno

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Strawberry Launch wondering if they’re “Ready Yet,” King Falcon taking a ride in a “Cadillac,” and Middle Part teaming up with Yuno for a trip to “Chinatown.”

* While the NYC-based foursome of Strawberry Launch have been busy creating songs, and crushing stages in and around the city, they’ve also been paying attention to what their non-musical friends have been up to, and all of this became the inspiration for the band’s latest single, “Ready Yet.”

Strawberry Launch’s lead singer, Riiza, explained the sentiment of the song in a statement, saying, “I feel like I’m still learning and growing with myself every day, and I wanted to write about the anxiety it gives me to compare my life trajectory to those closest to me.”

Keyboard player Taylor Hurt added, “Everyone talks about ‘coming of age,’ and romanticizing youth, but no one talks about how scary change is in your twenties when you’re left to your own devices.”

If you aren’t ready yet for Strawberry Launch, get ready, because “Ready Yet” is a must-hear indie pop rock song that pretty much everyone can relate to.

* King Falcon’s Michael Rubin had always wanted to cruise around in his best friend’s 1957 Cadillac Eldorado even though he knew it needed a little bit of love before it could be drivable.

One day he showed up with some tools, and a can of starter fluid, and gave the car new life. He had it up and running, and they went for a ride.

“We were cruisin’ down the boulevard in this unregistered Cadillac with 40 year old tires,” he remembers, “Totally unsafe, and illegal, but it was the single most fun I have ever had riding in a car. That old Caddy turns WAY more heads than any new Lamborghini, or Ferrari! The second I heard the engine roar to life I knew that this was a special moment that I wanted to write about.”

That car, and that moment, are embodied in the Queens-based rock band’s latest single, “Cadillac.” The ’57 Eldorado even has a starring role in the video, although Rubin notes it did break down twice during filming. “We had to push that two and a half ton beast uphill on a gravel road,” he says, “I now have a chronic injury from doing that, as a reminder of an experience I will never forget.”

Click play on “Cadillac,” and take a rock n roll ride with King Falcon.

* Brooklyn-based indie pop artist Middle Part – which is the project of Andrew Selkōw – has teamed up with fellow Brooklynite Yuno to take everyone on a trip to “Chinatown.”

“Chinatown” is about wanting to remain in NYC, while also wanting to leave NYC, which is an emotional juxtaposition many residents of the city can relate to, and a feeling Selkōw has experienced during his time in the city.

Selkōw has actually moved around quite a bit, initially going from Nashville, to Alaska, which is where he began writing music. Ultimately he landed in Brooklyn, where his songs came to life with producer and collaborator Brian Zaremba.

With songs that are deeply personal, Selkōw says, “I just want people to relate. I so desperately want to connect, and that might be the message … art is important, no matter how you decide to approach it. There’s no age, or formula, so just create. It’s the most healing form of therapy I’ve ever experienced.”

Speaking of creating, the video, which was directed by Glendon & Isabella, is an animated gem. Click play, and head to “Chinatown” with Middle Part and Yuno.

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