NYC Scene Report – Aria Lisslo, Baby Got Back Talk, & The Lemon Twigs

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Aria Lisso with an anthem about exes, Baby Got Back Talk being found “Guilty of Being Bright,” and The Lemon Twigs asking “How Can I Love Her More?”

* Indie pop artist Aria Lisslo has been a favorite here since I first saw her live back in January of 2023. She’s worked on developing a wonderful slow build for her music, giving listeners time to anticipate each single she releases, with her latest being the funky jam “1000 F*cks Ago.”

A song for folks who are REALLY over their exes, Lisslo goes through a list of lame dates, unreliable dudes, and guys who clearly need to get it together, noting that she is not only over them – or as some would say, she has no f*cks left to give about them – they’re “like 1000 f*cks ago.”

With each of her songs Lisslo seems to dip her toe in another genre, and this one has elements of pop, funk, and R&B, proving once again she is a musical chameleon, who is all about constant artistic evolution.

What’s next for her? Only she knows the answer to that, but right now we can jam out to “1000 F*cks Ago” … just don’t dine and dash if you go out with her, or propose on the second date, because the world’s gonna end up knowing all about it.

* Pop-punk band Baby Got Back Talk have curated a playlist titled Articulate At That Level, and it features a plethora of great rock bands (including longtime Adam’s World fave Rebelmatic).

Discussing the project in an article he penned for the Boston Globe, Baby Got Back Talk frontman G’ra Asim wrote that it’s “a mixtape featuring musicians of color and/or women artists who are bona fide philosophers of rock,” adding the playlist has “a cross-section of the gnarliest noise emanating from today’s underground.”

Asim’s own band has a few songs on the playlist, including the anti-tradition anthem “Guilty of Being Bright,” which has Asim singing of pushing aside old ways, and choosing to not accept how things have always been.

“So why not burn down the old stomping grounds,” he sings, “Turn down heirlooms that we found.”

If you’re ready for a pop-punk revolution, click play on “Guilty of Being Bright,” and then check out the rest of the Articulate At That Level playlist (but not until you’ve finished reading this column!).

* Sibling duo The Lemon Twigs have a sound that makes me wonder if they’ve been transported here from another time, and place. Are they current NYC indie music? Yes. Do they sound as if they might also be from California in the 1960s? Also yes, and that’s what makes them great.

Take, for example, their latest single, “How Can I Love Her More?,” which is off their upcoming album, A Dream Is All We Know, due out May 3rd via Captured Tracks. Describing the song in a statement, the band’s Michael D’Addario said, “With ‘How Can I Love Her More?’ we tried to bridge the gap between professional Brill Building writing, and the more off the wall writing style of the post Sgt. Pepper psychedelic scene. There are a lot of musical ideas, but it’s still a catchy pop song.”

Personally, I hear elements of The Monkees, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles, and what’s not to love about that?

Click play on “How Can I Love Her More?,” and you might be asking yourself – how can I love this band more???

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