NYC Scene Report – QWAM, Homeboy Sandman, & Muo Duo

This week’s NYC Scene Report features QWAM looking to be a “Body Snatcher,” Homeboy Sandman inspiring us to “Look Alive,” and Muo Duo ruminating on what to do “After The End.”

* Brooklyn-based rockers QWAM released their latest album, girls aren’t afraid of blood, this past summer, and they’ve kicked off 2026 with a video for the song “Body Snatcher.”

Explaining the inspiration for not just “Body Snatcher,” but all of their work, frontwoman Felicia Lobo said, in a statement. “I want to write songs that help girls feel less alone. So much of female suffering is hidden in our own heads, and I wanted these songs to hold some girl’s hand and to give her someone to scream into the abyss with.”

With a high energy chorus that will make you want to shout “Do you want to save my life!” right along with Felicia, “Body Snatcher” is one you’ll definitely want to crank up.

Check out the video, which features a wanton disregard for pool safety. Get some floaties, Felicia!

* Homeboy Sandman has two words of advice for us as we begin our 2026 – “Look Alive.”

“Look Alive” is off of These Titles Are Getting Pretty Silly AKA Can’t Sell 4, which is the most recent in his I Can’t Sell These series of releases, and, as always, he’s looking to inspire listeners to think for themselves. As he raps in the song, “Going against the grain is the name of the game.”

Perhaps the line that affected me most in “Look Alive” was, “I remember that bank was a pizza shop.” Once you reach a certain age you start describing places, and directions based on what used to be there, and more often than not, something that was community based, or owned by someone local, has been replaced by a chain of some kind, whether a store, restaurant, or, quite often, bank. It’s another example of something with soul being overtaken by something that’s cookie cutter, and Homeboy Sandman wants us to embrace the former, while the masses flock to the latter.

Check out the video for “Look Alive,” as he looks to bring folks back to life.

* Brother-sister indie pop duo Muo Duo had a heck of a 2025. They released their debut album, Grammy Bait, rounded out their sound by putting together a live band, and capped off the year with a show at Mercury Lounge.

They’re keeping that momentum going in 2026 with the release of the latest single off of Grammy Bait, “After The End.”

A wonderful, vulnerable song, it sounds like it has some early ‘60s influences, it wouldn’t surprise me in the last if they’d been listening to a lot of Beatles records while writing it.

Give the video a play, as “After The End” is part of a nice beginning to Muo Duo’s 2026.

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