NYC Scene Report – Strawberry Runners, Operator Music Band, & more

This week’s NYC Scene Report features some “Dog Days” from singer-songwriter project Strawberry Runners, an art pop tune from Operator Music Band, indie pop artist Sondre Lerche stripping down to reimagine his latest album, and Indo Dhans giving listeners a perfect late night indie electro pop soundtrack.

* The dog days of summer may be long gone, but you won’t miss the extreme heat, and the feeling of melting in your seat, when you listen to the relaxed, singer-songwriter, indie pop vibe of Strawberry Runners’ “Dog Days.”

Frequent readers of this column have seen the name Strawberry Runners – which is the project of songwriter Emi Night – quite a few times here over the past few months, and along with the release of “Dog Days,” Strawberry Runners’ EP, In the Garden, In the Night, is finally available!

The current Brooklynite recorded the EP in Colorado, had it mixed in LA, and recently completed a U.S. tour.

Check out Strawberry Runners’ self directed and edited video for “Dog Days,” and make sure to stay to the end for the ducks!


* Sometimes a band sees the proverbial box, doesn’t want to completely destroy it, but wants to punch enough holes in it to create something musically radical, yet still recognizable. This seems to be the case with Brooklyn’s Operator Music Band.

Take, for example, their latest single, “Realistic Saturation.” The song features elements from multiple eras of NYC’s indie music scene, as the band plays on the edges of both modern, and classic, art pop.

“Realistic Saturation” is off of Operator Music Band’s upcoming Coördination EP, due out December 1st. In a statement, they dove deep into the creation of the EP, saying, “This EP is an interesting chimera of some older ideas with some newer approaches. The songs themselves are left over from the period right after we finished our first LP, so they aesthetically reside there, but we tried a lot of new things once it came time to record. First was bringing in a producer in the form of Henry Terepka, who added a whole new perspective to the project. We additionally decided not to approach the demos so literally, instead spending a lot of the time exploring referenced material and breaking each instrumental line apart to find out alternate arrangements that would really juice the songs.”

Check out what the result of all that hard work, and creativity, sounds like by clicking play on “Realistic Saturation.”


* There are two ways an artist can strip an album down and make it acoustic. The first is to simply play all the songs acoustically. That, however, isn’t all that creative, which is why the really good artists look at going acoustic as an opportunity to dramatically rework their songs. This is what NYC, by way of Norway, singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche has done with his most recent album, Pleasure, turning it into Solo Pleasure.

In addition to reworking the ten songs on Pleasure, Lerche recorded Solo Pleasure to analog tape in just one take to keep it as honest, and pure, as possible.

A special limited edition release of Solo Pleasure on pink marble colored vinyl will be available on Black Friday Record Store Day, November 23rd. Until then, you can give the reworked version of “Siamese Twin” a listen right here.


* Looking for some danceable indie electro-pop? Then look no further than Indo Dhans’ latest, “Who You Kiddin?”

The bouncy track has the feel of bodies moving, late night, in a tiny, sweaty, venue, and that late night turning into early morning, as no one has plans on getting home until the sun is up.

Sure, the drinks are probably wildly overpriced, and you may have just paid $6 for a PBR, but that’s just part of the vibe.

Click play on “Who You Kiddin?” and get that vibe where you’re sitting right now. Did I say sitting? Yeah, you won’t be sitting for long.


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