NYC Scene Report – Leah Nawy, Loren Berí, & Ghost Funk Orchestra

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Leah Nawy “Walking” to full bloom, Loren Berí mourning that “Dimes Square Is Over,” and Ghost Funk Orchestra with a song inspired by a desert plant.

* NYC-based indie pop artist Leah Nawy recently released her debut EP, I Could Bloom From Here, and part of that bloom is the single “Walking.”

Discussing the song in a statement, Nawy said, ‘“Walking’ is an indie-folk song about letting go, and accepting what you cannot change. It’s about the peace in learning to accept yourself, and others, where they’re at.”

Written after Nawy moved to NYC, it’s the oldest song on the EP, and for quite a while she wrestled with what she was going to do with it, saying, “For a long time I kept trying to get the older songs to keep up with who I was as I kept growing. At a certain point, I knew I had to stop reworking them, let them be what they were, and set them free. They represent who I was at the time, and I put a lot of time, effort, and care into them.”

Leah Nawy is now in full bloom, and you should run to press play on “Walking.” 

Oh, and did I mention there’s a sax solo? There’s a sax solo!

* There was a time when there was a very specific place, and scene in NYC that was referred to as Dimes Square, and whether or not it mattered, or if it could even be accurately defined, has been hotly debated. On Loren Berí’s latest single, “Dimes Square is Over” he laments the demise of the scene, while simultaneously admitting he isn’t really sure what it was.

As the song opens, Berí sings he’s “too young for LCD, too old for the drugs,” a lyric he came up with after a conversation with a younger artist. “I was talking with an up-and-coming artist associated with the Dimes Square scene,” Berí said in a statement, “They asked me what I thought of a song, and I said I thought it sounded very influenced by LCD Soundsystem. They said, ‘What’s LCD Soundsystem?’ That's where I got the opening to this song.”

“Dimes Square is Over” is from Berí's upcoming sophomore album, Stagehand, which is due out this September, along with a companion book of poems.

Click play on the song, because whether or not you knew of the scene, it’s a fitting eulogy for something that may, or may not, have mattered.

* Closing things out this week is something wonderfully funky, because Ghost Funk Orchestra are back with a new single titled “Ocotillo.”

What’s an ocotillo?

Glad you asked, because I had no idea either.

An ocotillo is a type of cactus, and the band’s Seth Applebaum explained an especially magnificent one inspired the song.

“The ocotillo is an imposing figure, tall, and reminiscent of a torch. I dedicated this song to the desert dwelling plant after a particularly challenging tour that took our band through the southwest. After days of unbearable heat and humidity, reaching New Mexico surprisingly gave us some reprieve. After landing at the venue in Silver City, I took a walk to clear my head and observe the scenery as the mountain climate provided a more manageable atmosphere to exist and reflect in.”

It was there the he saw the ocotillo, and we can all be thankful he did, because the funky jam it inspired is great.

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