NYC Scene Report – Stranger Cat, Sammy Rae & The Friends, & CIAO MALZ

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Stranger Cat diving deep with “Come My Darlin To The Sea,” Sammy Rae & The Friends promising they’ll “Call-Ya-Back,” and CIAO MALZ feeling “Two Feet Tall.”

* Longtime column favorite Stranger Cat recently released her sophomore album, Slow Jam Love Letters To My Body In Pieces, the latest single off of which is the gorgeous “Come My Darlin’ To The Sea.”

Discussing the song in a statement, Stranger Cat said that while she originally wrote “Come My Darlin’ To The Sea” a number of years ago, she continued to come back to it, saying, “I wanted the drums and bass to be sexy and aggressive, contrasting the beauty of the ethereal vocals and piano. I poured myself into the making of the song, and video, following its lead in every sound and nuance until the end – there’s a story I had to discover and tell, like I was making my own myth, the movie trailer to my life.”

If “Come My Darlin’ To The Sea” is the trailer, her life is definitely a blockbuster. Check out the video, and vibe out to Stranger Cat.

* Sammy Rae & The Friends have a wonderful knack for writing songs that are both super fun, and musically incredible. Their latest, “Call-Ya-Back,” is yet another example of this.

A perfect song to have as your voicemail’s away message, “Call-Ya-Back” is a burst of high energy and hand claps that has Sammy letting everyone know that even though her phone isn’t on her at the moment, she will, in fact, be calling you back.

One part playful jam, one part lighthearted commentary on people’s use of cell phones, “Call-Ya-Back” is an absolute blast. Click play on the video, which perfectly matches the fun of the song.

* CIAO MALZ – which is the musical project of Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Malia DelaCruz – released a new EP this past week titled Safe Then Sorry, the lead single off of which is the emotional “Two Feet Tall.”

Explaining the shrinking feeling that went into the song, DelaCruz said, “‘Two Feet Tall’ is about the feeling of losing an inch every day you put off making that call you really need to make. It’s the pile of clothes growing bigger, and feeling yourself getting smaller. Regardless of the overcompensation, the mountains to hide behind, that unsettling feeling persists. I wanted to evoke the feeling of stagnation while everything else is in motion, so the lead on this track quivers in front of the persistent drums that push the scene along.”

A fantastic opening salvo from the EP, here’s hoping “Two Feet Tall” is the beginning of a growth spurt of musical output from CIAO MALZ.

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