Listen: Diet Cig - "Scene Sick"

07 January 2015, 09:45 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

I’ve covered my fair share of breathy and twee female lead vocals, and almost always they’re ballasted with a literary and/or romantic edge a la The Smiths – think Jessica Weiss and Fear of Men as one of the more superb examples.

I love the stuff, so I love Alex Luciano’s sweet little coo here on New Paltz, NY (it’s upstate, folks, so don’t feel bad you’ve never heard of it) trio Diet Cig’s debut single, “Scene Sick”. Difference is, she’s nobody’s Morrissey, she’s more our Evan Dando.

Quite possibly our shortest Song of the Day at just 106 seconds, you won’t notice its brevity and you’ll only miss it when it’s over because it’s so damn good. Atop a bounding drum rhythm, punctuated by the occasional sugary guitar strum, Luciano’s straight to the point about you and your pretenses, my friend – she doesn’t care. Oh, and by the way, “fuck your romance / I just wanna dance”.

Amen, sister. After the stuffy, bloated end of year season, gimme Diet Cig’s 106 seconds of fuck-it nonchalance. Pick up the band’s debut EP, Over Easy, 24 February on cassette(!) or digital courtesy of Father/Daughter Records.