NYC Scene Report – Fiona Silver, Stranger Cat, & Warren Britt

This week’s NYC Scene Report features three longtime column favorites, with Fiona Silver feeling “Vertigo,” Stranger Cat needing a “Witness,” and Warren Britt with “A Song About A Woman From Harlem.”

* I am very excited to let everyone know Fiona Silver, and her unique brand of retro-cool, is back, as she has a new EP titled The Spell due out this Friday!

Silver, who I’ve been featuring here since 2017, has an incredible voice, and her influences range from classic, to current. On her recently released single, “Vertigo” there’s everything from retro-soul, to psych rock, and it all plays as the perfect, slightly spooky, backdrop for Fiona’s vocals.

In addition to Silver’s EP coming out on Friday, she also has an EP release show that night at Warsaw in Brooklyn, with Pretty Girls Make Graves. With an entirely new band, and new set list, Silver says, “This show will be unlike any I’ve done before, and it’s perfectly timed for the spooky season!”

Until then, check out “Vertigo,” and fall under The Spell of Fiona Silver.

* In what might be the most triumphant return to the scene, Stranger Cat (who I’ve been writing about since 2015) is back, with a new album titled Slow Jam Love Letters To My Body In Pieces due out November 15th. Why do I say her return is especially triumphant? What she came back from was downright harrowing.

Discussing what she went through, and how it all ended up on the album, she said, “These songs were written during a three year period when I was forced to sort of drop out of life, and recover, first dealing with a difficult dance injury which required 1.5 years of rehab, followed by a serious accident which left me healing in a wheelchair for five months with both legs casted.”

Her radically rearranged life led her to the creative mindset for Slow Jam Love Letters To My Body In Pieces. “I was thinking, show your pain, but make it sexy, make it art,” adding, “It felt like I was in an intimate relationship with my own body, writing to it as my lover, my muse.”

Check out the lead single from the album, the electro-pop slow jam “Witness,” and hear the beauty in the pain, and celebrate the victory of Stranger Cat.

* The longest awaited comeback of the three artists in this week’s column is that of Warren Britt (who I’ve been writing about since 2009!). An extraordinary emcee, Warren just released his first new project in seven years. Titled This Is For The Win, This Is Writing To Survive, the EP came out this past Friday, and despite a seven year hiatus, Warren clearly hasn’t missed a beat.

The EP – which was produced by Kamasile, mixed and mastered by Willie Green, and features appearances from Verse AKA LP, and Brook Pridemore – sees Warren with his trademark range which goes from deeply introspective, to insanely high energy. Anyone who saw him perform back in the day knows all about that energy. Warren Britt made your favorite energy drink look like decaf tea!

Check out “A Song About A Woman From Harlem,” which is the lead single off This Is For The Win, This Is Writing To Survive, to hear that range, and enjoy the return of Warren Britt.

For the full story on his seven year hiatus, and what brought him back, check out my interview with Warren at: Warren Britt – A Fire Reignited.

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