A Hobbyist Halftime Snack: Charlie Kaplan’s Favorite Bands in New York
An essential list of the best music coming out of the best city
Hello my Hobbyists! Here is a little mid-week treat for all of you. Tuesdays can be just awful sometimes, so here is a lil’ Edition #1 supplement courtesy of my main man Charlie Kaplan. As a New York scenester, I thought, “Who better to walk us through the various communities bubbling up in Da Big Apple?” Between his solo music and work as the head of excellent label Glamour Gowns, I thought this Supplemental series would be the perfect vehicle for Kaplan to recommend some of his local favorites. Give it a read below, and support these artists. All of them are amazing and I truly mean that. Look at me! I already have a new hobby: chronicling the brilliant underground scene that is percolating across New York.
“My little scene roosts at a handful of local venues, including the Owl Music Parlor and Tradesman. The participants are linked up in a small constellation of independent labels, including Ruination Records, Dear Life, and my own Glamour Gowns. The putative figureheads of the scene are my friends Dan Knishkowy of Adeline Hotel, and Winston Cook-Wilson, who plays in Adeline but who I also play with in Winston’s primary songwriting vehicle Office Culture. I won’t list either of them below but they have my strong recommendation. The sound of the music around here is marked, in my view, by the somewhat studied backgrounds of the people here: the sort of songwriters and performers who are very far into their own self-discovery as artists whether they’ve released a lot of music or a little. It can be a little brainy at times. Some matriculated at music schools, or now teach in them, or have ended up here by their attraction to the forms that now get taught there, like classical and jazz. Most of all, all their voices are very unique and beautiful. I love hearing everyone sing and I’m always so happy to be in the room with them.” — Charlie Kaplan
Little Mystery – Ivy Meissner took the name for her band from her dad, who performed under the same name decades ago (and who chose her name because he’s a gardener). Following the release of her first eponymous album last year, more and more listeners are coming across her beautiful songwriting and (just as strikingly) her deep, classic voice. Ivy’s voice sounds like a hollowbody guitar with the tone knob all the way down: Rich, round, deep. It is, to me, one of those voices — like Natalie Mering, Linda Rondstadt, or Danielle Haim — that would be classic in any era. I love her song “Eye of the Storm.”
Domestic Drafts – In a similar vein: Andy Cush (who some may know as the bassist for Garcia Peoples) has a voice that reminds me of Leonard Cohen, Damien Jurado, and Bill Callahan: deep and sonorous, an entrancing conveyance for the vulnerable, hilarious, filmic conceits in his songs. When you see Andy play, you will often catch him just performing solo on his acoustic guitar. I love hearing him this way, in part because it shows that making his music perfect requires no steps past the ingredients he has at home.
Katy Pinke – Katy is a brilliant songwriter, but that gives her short shrift. She is a polyglot multimedia artist, and experiencing her in full requires seeing one of her shows (especially a release show), when the full spectrum of her vision comes on display. Good example: at the double header performance for the release of her first album, Katy played an album of written material with full costuming, choreography, and film accompaniment. When you buy her tapes, you see visual art that is entirely of her making. If you catch her next release show, you will see puppetry she fabricated. Sometimes when I’m approaching her from far down the block I half expect to see her drawn in cray-pas.
Scree – Scree is an instrumental jazz trio made up of guitarist Ryan El-Solh (who I play with in Office Culture, and who writes Scree’s music), bassist Carmen Quill, and drummer Jason Burger (who will come up again later). Ryan has a distinctly orchestral ear on his dark wood telecaster; listening to his parts you can often hear the shapes of the much larger ensembles he occasionally convenes. Each of these individuals are some of the best instrumentalists I know of, but beyond their music or musicianship, the thing I am so often moved by in their music is the deep pain and empathy they convey for the Palestinian people. Ryan uses Scree’s performances not just to share beautiful composition and performance, but often to read poetry and extemporize, which brings his writing into the larger picture of his and his family’s life experience.
Tony Vaz – I have known Trevor longer than anyone else on this list, but his moniker as Tony Vaz is among the newer names here. When Winston sent me a preview of his debut album The Pretty Side of the Ugly Life last year, he described it as a masterpiece, and I strongly agree. Of particular note is his song “9 Lives,” a sort of party-at-the-end-of-the-world banger that pairs his own, downtown sprechstimme with Alena Spanger’s singular birdsong. It’s kind of country, kind of clubby, kind of jubilant, kind of desperate.
The Bird Calls – Sam Sodomsky is one of the purest songwriters I’ve ever met. He is startlingly prolific (go to his Bandcamp page and see if your hand cramps before you stop scrolling). But more strikingly is how expertly constructed his songs are. He reminds me often of John Prine - songwriters who seem to churn out endless, self-contained, perfect songs. And Sam had done so, more often than not, into the external mic of his laptop, giving you, the listener, the sense that you’re hearing a private genius through the shared wall of your apartment building. He is never heady or dramatic, pretentious or artificial. He’s just very funny and deep in a blue jeans and sweatshirt kind of way.
Alena Spanger – I have few people to compare Alena to, or to contextualize her in if you haven’t heard her. At times I think of Bjork, others Shelley Hirsch. None are really right though. There are tracts of the emotional plane Alena maps that I’ve never been before. Take the relatively spare arrangement of “Steady Song”: these may be chords I’ve heard before, or drum patterns I know, but I’ve never felt a warmth so strange. Part of it is how unique each melodic fragment she expels is. It’s not idiosyncratic or percussive; it’s qualitative. Her voice sometimes rasps or chirps, hums or splits, fleetingly, into two tones, before reconverging like a figment of the imagination. Everything feels intentional but spontaneous too.
Mr. California - Mr. California does not exist on social media, has no songs, and very possibly will never have a recording. To experience them, you have to find them on one of their live dates, usually at the Tradesman bar in Williamsburg. Their shows are entirely improvised, but paradoxically never sound chaotic or illegible. Rather, the group — comprised of guitarist Ryan Weiner, bassist Derek Weaving, and drummer Jason Burger — seem to assemble into grooves, riffs, and styles as quickly as they melt away from them. Songs are regularly as long as 20min, but they never drag or hit the bottom of the well.