NYC Scene Report – Alana Markel, Pamphlets, & Computerwife

This week’s NYC Scene Report features Alana Markel doing something “Not Likely,” Pamphlets being a force of nature, and Computerwife with some revelations after an extended visit home.

* Brooklyn-based songwriter and composer Alana Markel recently released a double single where both tracks are the same song, but completely different versions of it.

Titled “Not Likely,” and “Not Likely 2,” the former has an electronic pop sound, while the latter is a stripped down, piano driven version.

Whatever your musical flavor, Markel has it for you with this song, which she says is “about having the bravery to honestly share your desire and life force with the world.”

Check out the video for first version, and then if you want to hear the difference, take a listen to “Not Likely 2.” Both are well worth your time.

* Pamphlets is the rock duo of Brooklyn-based singer/guitarist Jeremy Marquez, and Philly-based bassist Ben Griffin, and they are readying their upcoming full-length album Somewhere In Zacatecas, due out January 29th, 2027 via Lost Future Records.

The lead single from the album is “Against The Forces of Nature,” and it demands being cranked up as loud as possible. 

The song truly makes you feel something, as there’s a frustration that’s palpable in Marquez’s delivery of lyrics that express being exhausted with people’s performative, and materialistic, ways.

With this being the first taste of Somewhere In Zacatecas, the album is already on my radar for 2027.

* NYC by way of Atlanta artist Computerwife will be releasing her sophomore album, Born From A Wish, on November 6th via Danger Collective, and it will include the recently released alt-rock single “Foreverrr.”

The inspiration for “Foreverrr” dates all the way back to the pandemic.

“I wrote this after reflecting on being back in my home city during the lockdowns,” Computerwife explained in a statement, “Atlanta looks totally different from where I live now, and it was shocking to go back to. Once I adjusted, I had a sense of closure, like I could fully appreciate living there as an adult for the first time.”

She continued, adding, “It’s about laying in the grass, and reading poetry with my childhood friends during that summer, and walking through the forested streets at night going to the bars. It’s the same simple moments of peace I appreciate the most anywhere, just in this specific setting of where I grew up. This song is in respect for how it felt to live there.”

“Foreverrr” is nostalgia meeting the present, and it sounds great.

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