NYC Scene Report – MX LONELY, Rebounder, & Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities

This week’s NYC Scene Report features MX LONELY teaming up with Caitlin Starr, Rebounder heading downtown, and Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities taking flight with “Spotted Lantern Fly.”

* Brooklyn-based rockers MX LONELY will be releasing a new EP titled PERFECT HOUSE on October 2nd, via Julia’s War Recordings, but the lead single was inspired by a tragedy that occurred in December of last year.

Titled “March 16th,” the song was originally written as an instrumental while they were recording their ALL MONSTERS album, which was released in February of this year. It didn’t fit with the rest of the album, but when Caitlin Starr paid a visit to be a guest on a different song, they started playing with ideas for “March 16th.”

In a joint statement, the band said, “Lyrically, ‘March 16th’ references the Brown University shooting, which had happened the day before the session on December 13th, 2025. A friend of Caitlin’s had been in lockdown at the school in the aftermath. The song explores the proximity to tragedy and the cyclical nature of violence – we’ve been here before.”

A rock song teeming with the energy, anger, and frustration of dealing with school shooting after school shooting, and seeing zero changes in policy, “March 16th” is a must-hear on a number of levels.

* Way back in 1964 Petula Clark sang about the wonders of being downtown, and 62 years later NYC indie duo Rebounder has found very little has changed.

Their latest single, titled “Downtown People,” is all about the purported feeling of cool being in the lower numbered, and below the numbered, part of the city.

Rebounder’s Dylan Chenfeld, who is one half of the band alongside his brother Noah, explained, “Uptown People wanna be downtown people. Downtown people wanna be downtown people. And I would like for it to be easier to sit at restaurants. It’s a mess, nobody is happy.”

“Downtown People” is the title track of Rebounder’s upcoming album, which will be released on November 6th via Nettwerk. Here’s hoping that for poetry’s sake they have an album release show at a venue that’s downtown.

* When most of us see a spotted laternfly it’s cause for concern, and to immediately step on it, but Brooklyn based poetic project Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities’ “Spotted Latern Fly” should be allowed to take flight.

Off their upcoming album, Earth, Swallow Me Whole, which is due out September 18th via Sage Records, the song’s combination of poetic delivery, and singing creates a really cool vibe akin to an artist like Dessa.

The band’s frontperson, trans vocalist and cellist Tallen Gabriel, discussed the inspiration for the song in a statement, saying, “‘Spotted Lantern Fly’ is a metaphor about a romantic entanglement that was not good for me, a species trying to survive in an ecosystem that it’s invasive to. Both trying to outrun a situation that I know I shouldn’t be in, while continuously returning to the addictive nature of the obsession.”

After listening to “Spotted Lantern Fly” there’s a pretty good chance you’ll end up obsessed with Captain Tallen & the Benevolent Entities. The song is that good!

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