NYC Scene Report - Big Girl, Kemba, & Amiture

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Big Girl riding “Cadillacs,” Kemba hoping you “Dont.Tell.Nobody,” and Amiture getting “Dirty.”

* You know how I’m always saying people need to go to indie music venues, and feel the energy of hearing a great new band for the first time? Indie rockers Big Girl have been bringing that feeling direct to you as best as possible via a series of live clips they’ve been posting on their YouTube.

One of those clips is of their song “Cadillacs” performed live at the Queens venue Trans-Pecos in 2023, and if you’re anything like me it will immediately make you want to see Big Girl live.

“Cadillacs” is from their 2023 album Big Girl vs. GOD, and this performance of the song vacillates between indie rock, and boisterous punk rock, with a wonderfully ominous bass line that has you eagerly anticipating each burst of energy. At times the energy gets so high that I wondered if frontwoman Kaitlin Pelkey was going to injure herself with her aggressive tambourine play.

Hey, what’s a few bruises in the name of rock n roll, right?

Click play on “Cadillacs,” and then make a note to see Big Girl live when they come to your city.

* Longtime Adam’s World fave Kemba – he’s been featured here under a few different names since 2009 – has been up to some really big things.

The Bronx-based emcee just wrapped up the Sundance Film Festival premiere of his documentary As We Speak, where he explores the weaponization of rap lyrics in the criminal justice system, and the troubling history of this that dates back decades.

In addition to the documentary, Kemba also recently released a new single titled “Dont.Tell.Nobody.”

On “Dont.Tell.Nobody” he’s once again doing one of the things he does best – using his pen to get things off his chest (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme. I swear). Always powerful with his words, Kemba raps

Up out that cage but handcuffed to my ways
I go to write hits but the life shit jump off the page
Ain’t it obvious by how we getting martyred on screen
Cameras pointed at the scene – I guess content is king ... 

This makes “Dont.Tell.Nobody” a song you’ll want to tell everybody about, and I’m pretty sure Kemba is cool with that.

* Forgive me for the obvious play on words, but when it comes to making music, NYC-duo Amiture sound like a couple of pros.

Consisting of Jack Whitescarver and Coco Goupil, Amiture will be releasing their debut album, Mother Engine, on February 9th via Dots Per Inch Music, and it will include the dark industrial pop song “Dirty.”

Amiture recently released a self-directed video for “Dirty,” and Whitescarver explained the concept behind it in a statement, saying, “Cameras are always recording you. Your laptop records you. Your phone records you. It’s not clear what distinguishes an intimate moment from a public one. Most major cities like New York are massively surveilled. I thought it was interesting to think about how you would behave if privacy was no longer a clear-cut idea. The video intercuts surveillance-type video of New York City streets and people with more intimate interior scenes, and even scenes of people making out.”

He continued, adding, “‘Dirty’ is about remembering a time when sex and love were valuable. If you know someone is watching you, maybe that estranges you further from that, maybe it makes it more so.”

A kick ass song, and a heady concept worth contemplating, take a few minutes to get “Dirty” with Amiture.

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