My wife surprised me with a weekend trip to NYC to hang out with my good friends, The Boys™️. My flight landed at 2PM which gave me most of the afternoon and some of the evening to explore. I’ve mostly been to NYC on business so I wanted to just explore. After surfacing from Penn station and walking around a bit, I found myself in Chelsea where I loved exploring the market, walking around the Hudson River Park and snapping pictures of the cool architecture. That evening I caught up with the boys at their favorite haunt, Tracks Raw Bar and Grill (soon to be O’Briens), across from MSG. It was such a good time, in fact, that Saturday morning was entirely spent recovering at my friend’s apartment in Hoboken.

Once my headache subsided, I made my way to Koreatown to visit an old friend who’s been living in the city for the last decade. We got incredible Korean food and boba while we caught up. After, he took me over to Flower Street which was filled with flower shops packed with trees and plants that spill out onto the sidewalks in organized, beautiful chaos. We then made our way to Madison Square Park and checked out the art installations there while a jazz band played. There we said our goodbyes and he left to get a new flash tattoo and to catch a Grizzly Bear show while I made my way to Midtown Comics and found a New York slice along the way.

Later, I met the boys for some indoor mini golfing. You walk through the front door, down a flight of stairs, and when you turn the corner it opens up into this beautifully decorated space with dimmed lighting and club music. It was a wonderful time. After that, we quickly made our way to a Fogo de Chao for dinner. I had never heard of this chain restaurant and was blown away by the food and atmosphere. After, we hung out at a bar nearby and closed out the night early like the good adults we are.

Sunday morning I managed to make it to LGA from Hoboken for a 10AM flight, not without missing a subway. I never get tired of visiting NYC and hope to find myself there again soon.

Traveling gave me some time to listen to new music uninterrupted which was really wonderful. There were a few albums that really stuck out to me as I took planes, trains and automobiles (and buses, and subways)…

(Alt-R&B / Grunge) Quite a change in sound for JMSN (the moniker of singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist, Christian Berishaj) on his ninth album. After spending the last 12 years perfecting his Alt-R&B sound, Berishaj has taken a slight detour into grunge territory. The kick drum and snare still have that R&B punch but now it’s combined with gritty guitar riffs and breakdown bridges. Berishaj also occasionally turns up the grit on his traditionally silky vocals, at times sounding like something you’d find on a mid-2000’s emo album.

The lead single, Click Bait, is reminiscent of 90’s grunge with the chorus’ lyrical pattern having similarities to Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, all underpinned with that Alt-R&B groove Berishaj is known for.

Stand out track I Don’t Even Think About U starts out with a simple guitar line, a groove beat and Berishaj’s silky vocals. It slowly grows louder and louder turning into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on Brand New’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me with Berishaj screaming a repeated melody with lyrics that cut deeply into a failed relationship.

Listen here >

(Rock / Hardcore) Not that combining metal and pop is new, but there have been a lot of exciting recent experiments of combining hardcore elements with pop structures like Turnstile, Drug Church and The Armed. On their second album, Militarie Gun really amps things up. Right out of the gate they have us chanting along with B A D I D E A.

Laugh At Me feels like an alternate reality of the Blink-182 pop-punk sound of the early 2000’s. A song that would sound at home in both a basement house show and an arena.

It’s not all fun and games though, tracks like I Won’t Murder Your Friend are emotionally charged. At first sounding like an offhand song about hating a friend of a friend turns into a ballad about the angry grieving of a friend’s suicide.

God Save The Gun indeed.

Listen here >

(Dream Pop / Shoegaze) A little more than a decade into their career, Canadian band Living Hour are back with their fourth full-length. Some songs (Wheel, Big Shadow) will give you the sense of being in a car with the windows down, driving fast with no destination, while others (Texting, Little Kid) force you to sit down and experience the world around you.

Listen here >

(R&B / Soul) Brittney Denise Parks is an incredible violinist, singer and songwriter who blends her music eclectically. Parks deftly combines orchestral sections and club beats, soul vocals and rap verses, luscious 80’s synths and harsh samples. She is incredibly good at switching things up as soon as you feel comfortable without ever giving you a sense of whiplash.

Listen here >

Have a great week!

Love,
Harley