NYC Scene Report – Whisper Doll, Slow Fiction, & halfway up a jagged hill

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Whisper Doll readying their Lucky Clover, Slow Fiction building a dollhouse, and halfway up a jagged hill dealing with “Obscure Sorrows.”

* Whisper Doll announced their new album, Lucky Clover, will be out October 2nd via Take Care Records, and it will feature the band’s latest single, “Bluebells.”

A gorgeous indie pop song, the video for “Bluebells” was inspired by the classic tale Alice in Wonderland. The band’s founder, and frontwoman, Fiona Tagami, explained, “I wanted it to be very fun, and energetic, just like the song. I knew I wanted magical animal characters, and a tea party, and the rest of the plot slowly began to form.”

The clip was filmed on the way to the band’s first stop on their recent tour, when director Owen Lehman felt the campus of Bard College would be a perfect locale. 

hile the video turned out exactly how they wanted it, Tagami noted there was one post-filming hiccup. “Unfortunately, I sent my tour suitcase back in the car to NYC with Owen, so I was left with no clothes for the tour.”

Click play on “Bluebells,” and check out the video that accidentally cost Tagami her entire tour wardrobe.

* Slow Fiction, who recently wrapped up supporting Wet Leg and Vundabar on a Northeast tour, will be releasing their debut album, titled dollhouse, on August 7th via Tight Knit. The latest from the album is the poignant single “satellite.”

Discussing the song in a statement, frontwoman Julia Vassallo said, “‘satellite’ is an allegory for collective atrophy in a country that’s poisoned with an Us vs. Them mentality. I was thinking of a person watching something uncomfortable on TV, and then being like ‘oh, that’s too much, I have to turn it off,’ because as a whole we’ve become selective with our empathy. I heard someone say recently that the price of community is occasional inconvenience; we’ve got to start considering community as more than just our own digital echo chambers.”

An awesome ideology from an awesome band, as Slow Fiction continues to be on a fast track to success.

* NYC rock duo halfway up a jagged hill recently signed to Brooklyn-based label Vinegar Hill Sound Records (hill symmetry!), which will be releasing the band’s upcoming debut album, HUAJH, on September 10th.

The first single off the album is “Obscure Sorrows,” and the twosome of Devin Gilbert and Jeb Polstein explained the inspiration for the song in a joint statement, saying, “‘Obscure Sorrows’ is inspired by The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which is a book of made-up words to describe human feelings and experiences that there are no real words for in the English language. In the screamed section (of the song), the lyrics reference the Nine of Swords, the tarot card that represents fear, pain, and sadness. The song is ultimately about releasing your despair, and not being held captive by it. This was the first song we wrote, and our first journey into blast beats.”

Click play on “Obscure Sorrows,” and don’t let halfway up a jagged hill stay obscure to you!

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