NYC Scene Report – WYLDLIFE, Anya Marina, & OK Cowgirl

This week’s NYC Scene Report features WYLDLIFE living their 8-bit “Fast Dreams,” Anya Marina realizing “Nothing Lasts,” and OK Cowgirl contemplating “Forever.”

* If you grew up with an NES, or are a retro gamer, you’re going to love the latest video from NYC-based punk rock band WYLDLIFE.

The clip is for their recently released single, “Fast Dreams,” and it’s an 8-bit odyssey created by their college friend, Alex Derwick.

WYLDLIFE frontman Dave Feldman explained the inspiration for the video, saying, “We have already conquered every other music video format in our tenure as musicians, so it was time to go animated. We’re already animated guys by nature.”

He continued, adding that when it comes to the lyrics of “Fast Dreams,” “Surface level, the song is about partying just before bed time, but more so it’s a point of advice to keep dreaming, whether you want to better your life, travel to space, or just be a mid-30s semi-secret rock icon.”

Click play on “Fast Dreams,” and take WYLDLIFE’s advice to never stop dreaming.

* NYC-based singer-songwriter Anya Marina has come to a realization – “Nothing Lasts.”

The title of her latest single, she calls “Nothing Lasts,” “The most straightforwardly autobiographical song I’ve ever written,” adding, “In the past few years I’ve lost close friends, relationships have ended, and started, I’ve moved, and said goodbye to people and cities I loved. Collectively, we’ve all undergone much sadness watching the world go through a lot of turmoil. ‘Nothing Lasts’ has been my mantra.”

The video for “Nothing Lasts” features Anya ice skating by herself interspersed with clips from her childhood. It’s a beautiful video for an equally beautiful song.

PS – If you’re of a certain age you know we all had that plaid couch (and some of us are still holding on to one like it’s a family member).

* Last month, after raving about OK Cowgirl’s single “Little Splinters,” I said I couldn’t wait to hear more from the Brooklyn-based indie rock band. With the release of “Forever,” I’ve now heard more from them, and I’m even more in love their music.

In an Instagram post, OK Cowgirl frontwoman Leah Lavigne said of “Forever,” “It experiments with how our feeling of time in this finite life informs the risks and comforts we gravitate towards. The song is built around ‘ifs’ as I negotiated whether leaving a relationship was a mere impulse, or a necessary step towards fulfillment.”

Both “Forever,” and “Little Splinters,” are from OK Cowgirl’s upcoming full-length debut, Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut, which is due out August 16th via Easy Does It Records.

Check out the video for “Forever.” After giving the clip multiple plays, Couldn’t Save Us From My Gut has become of my most anticipated albums of the second half of 2024.

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