NYC Scene Report – Johnny Burgos, Lathe of Heaven, & Anamanaguchi

This week’s NYC Scene Report has retro vibes with Johnny Burgos hitting listeners with some classic soul, Lathe of Heaven drawing inspiration from multiple ‘80s genres, and Anamanaguchi creating a music video that hearkens back to the days of big budget movie soundtrack songs.

* I think a lot of us would love to go back to when R&B music not only sounded phenomenal, but had messages that weren’t solely romantically driven. Thankfully, Jonny Burgos has recreated the vibe of that era with his recently released single, “Caught Up.”

“Caught Up” legitimately feels like a long lost classic soul song. Burgos explained his inspiration for it in a statement, saying, “‘Caught Up’ is the result of me simply reflecting the times. I’d been carrying a lot of heavy feelings around the current political and socioeconomic climate – not just in the U.S., but globally. I knew a song like this was brewing in my soul. I had something to say, even if I didn’t yet know how to say it.”

Burgos clearly now knows how to say it, and the way he says it sounds so damned good.

* The ‘80s offered us a plethora of interesting musical subgrenes, as synths made their way into the scene. Brooklyn-based band Lathe of Heaven recently blended some of those subgenres for their latest single, “Aurora.”

The title track off their upcoming full-length album, the band discussed the song – which would be equally at home on the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie as it is in the present – saying, “A song loosely inspired by an Arthur C. Clarke short story called If I Forget Thee, O Earth… In the story a man and his son take a trip from their colony on the moon to a lookout point where Earth – long abandoned due to nuclear war– can be seen rising across the vast gulf of space. Playing with this concept, I took a more personal, and romantic approach, exploring similar themes of loss, love, and devotion at the end of the world.”

Aurora is due out August 29th via Sacred Bones, but there’s no need to wait to get lost in the sound of Lathe of Heaven, you can click play on the video for the title track right here.

* NYC-based band Anamanaguchi teamed up with director Jared Raab to create one of the coolest music videos you’re going to see ... as long as they don’t get sued for it, or asked to take it down.

The concept was wild to begin with – the band felt their latest single, “Magnet,” would be perfect for the soundtrack of a Batman movie, so they wanted to have a music video that would prove it.

Enter Raab, who created a video for the song that merges the band’s performance with various Batman movies from 1989 to the present in a way that’s reminiscent of some of the classic music videos from the soundtracks of summer blockbusters back in the day.

In fact, after seeing the video for “Magnet” you’ll be convinced it should’ve been in EVERY Batman movie, so bravo to both Anamanaguchi, and Raab.

“Magnet” is off Anamanaguchi’s upcoming album, Anyway, which is due out August 8th via Polyvinyl Record Co., and I REALLY hope the video gets to stay on the internet, because it’s absolutely brilliant.

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