The Weather Hasn’t Let Up, But I Have Music
Seven bands I’ve kept on loop during New York’s never-ending downpour
Hello friends, below is a little carousel of what’s been filling me up. The small, strange rituals that tether me to myself as I try to survive the wet and rainy days in New York. It’s been raining every weekend for the past six weeks, and the city feels like it’s been stuck in the same soggy, gray loop.
Eating: prosecco sugar grapes straight from the freezer, sweet and sharp like glass candy
Reading: Simulacra and Simulation, underlining the same passages I didn’t understand in grad school, wondering if I ever will
Watching: Fantastic Planet, that surreal French animated film I always return to when I want to feel gently unmoored
It’s five days before my birthday, and everything feels a little off-center. The light hits strange. Time feels like it's melting sideways.
Somewhere in that fog, I made a TikTok. No makeup, hair unbrushed, just a passing thought turned audible. I said, “I heard you’re looking for some new rock music,” like I was whispering it through a cracked door. No punchline. No trend-chasing. Just a short list of bands that had been keeping me company through the louder, lonelier parts of the week.
And then, somehow, the video kind of went viral.
It was strange to watch something so small ripple outward. But I think it resonated because it came from the place all real recommendations and not from performance or pressure. From that quiet devotion that says, this meant something to me and maybe it will to you too.
So here’s the longer version. A little slower, a little closer. Six indie rock bands I’ve had on loop, plus one Dutch post-punk act I couldn’t keep to myself. Each one comes with a three-word mood to guide your listening, and a link in case you want to fall into it.
Westside Cowboy
Track: “I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love Until I Met You”
Three words: slow-burning, tender, warped
This feels like overhearing someone confess something they didn’t mean to say out loud. A song caught in the static of a dream, disintegrating at the edges. Vocals stumble in like they’re drunk on memory, held together by flickering guitar lines and a piano that sounds like it was recorded through a wall. It’s romantic in the way loneliness can be. Like loving someone you know won’t stay, but saying it anyway.
CARSICK
Track: “Pubwatch”
Three words: feral, funny, restless
CARSICK feels like being yelled at and high-fived at the same time. “Pub Watch” is all elbows and eye contact, the sound of a night out that ends in running from the bouncer. It's punk that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still has something real to say. The guitars spit. The vocals lean in, grin cracked wide. You leave breathless, maybe a little bruised.
Cucamaras
Track: “Western”
Three words: dusky, coiled, bitter
“Western” unspools slowly, like a cigarette lit in the backseat of a moving car. It has that dry, post-punk tension, the kind that hums beneath everything but never quite explodes. The bassline pulls tight, the vocals speak low. It’s a landscape of small violences: glances, silences, doors left half-closed. A song that doesn't need to be loud to leave a mark.
Horsepower
Track: “Excalibur”
Three words: sultry, honeyed, slowburn
Horsepower writes songs that feel like they’re happening one room over. You hear them through a closed door, soft and swelling, like a film score played backwards. There’s a narcotic stillness in the pacing, a sense that everything is about to bloom or break. The vocals barely brush the surface, as if afraid to disturb the quiet. It’s beautiful, and it’s barely holding together.
MOULD
Track: “Frances”
Three words: fragmented, agile, strange
MOULD makes music like a broken mirror reflecting sunlight. It’s sharp, unpredictable, sometimes funny in a way that catches in your throat. Their songs loop and lurch, refusing to resolve the way you expect. What I love most is the commitment to disorientation; how they never quite let you get comfortable, but still offer glimpses of softness if you’re paying attention.
Fool Nelson
Track: “Bad Dreams”
Three words: earnest, jangly, dusk-colored
This one reminds me of old photos taken on disposable cameras. All soft edges and accidental intimacy. There’s a warmth here that doesn’t try too hard, it just exists. Fool Nelson makes garage rock that remembers its heart. The vocals are cracked, the riffs familiar but comforting, like a hoodie worn so often it stopped smelling like anyone else.
Bonus: Real Farmer
Track: “Big Stepper”
Three words: cold, punchy, relentless
The first time I heard Real Farmer, I felt like I’d been dropped into a basement show in a city I didn’t know. Their sound is tight as a clenched jaw, unflinching and lean. It’s post-punk without the posturing. Everything hits on the first try; no excess, no hesitation. The guitars don’t shimmer, they slice. It’s hard not to move. It’s harder not to care.
I think what that Tiktok video reminded me of, more than numbers or reach, is that people are still listening. Still looking for something that cuts a little deeper. These bands might not break the algorithm, but they fracture something else: routine, silence, the dull blur of what's expected.
This list is a gesture, a hand outstretched. A way of saying: here, this helped me feel more alive and maybe, just maybe it will do the same for you.
So take your time. Let one of these songs find you in the in-between spaces. In the kitchen light, on a walk you didn’t plan, in that flicker of feeling you haven’t named yet.
That’s where music lives, after all.
stay noisy friends,
xoxo
saint ✿ virgil
I loooove your writing, it's so heartwarming❤️🔥