Last Updated on November 7, 2023, 9:33 PM | Published: November 7, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — From indie rock to country to jazz to hip-hop, it seems like every scene in OKC has been dropping music gold lately, with enough awesome single releases to fill up any playlist for days.
No time for long preambles here. Let’s dive into some of the best right now.
Brotherboy – ‘Peanut Butter Eyes’
Riding a wave of steady local buzz and regular single drops, Brotherboy has been popping on the scene all year long, carrying a torch for the city’s beloved indie-rock/dream-pop sound, and “Peanut Butter Eyes” might just be the best example yet of what they can do.
With the requisite glitchy, ethereal guitar textures and drippy vocal atmospherics, they’re surely not reinventing the dream-pop wheel, but they come stunningly close to perfecting it by pairing the naturally wistful, nostalgic vibe of the genre with a genuine lyrical exploration of nostalgia itself.
It’s a song seemingly about the inherent sadness inside of even the best memories, knowing they’ll always be in the past, and the way that a thought or a feeling can get stuck to the roof of your brain like peanut butter in the mouth.
Follow Brotherboy on Instagram at @wearebrotherboy.
Sid Carter – ‘Catfish’
Atop a watery, minimalist backing track of drowning pianos and booming subs, Sid Carter opens up his mind and explores the intersection between the need for freedom and the fear of abandonment in one of the densest, most thoughtful tracks in recent memory.
In a track that’s under four-and-a-half minutes long, Carter spends nearly two solid minutes developing the hook, adding new vocal layers and subtle harmonies, before breaking into an in-the-pocket rap dissecting a host of questions and mentalities all at once.
Carter discusses his own father leaving, his own desire to run, and the effect those acts have had on his relationships, on his faith, and on his ability to effectively impart that faith to others.
Carter himself calls “Catfish” one of the most vulnerable and personal songs he’s ever written and admits that “for the last 3 years, I’ve held onto this song in fear, but I’m not afraid anymore.”
That vulnerability comes through, but so does the confidence that makes this one of the deepest local tracks in months.
Follow Sid Carter on Instagram at @therealsidcarter.
Jason Scott – ‘Me & The Bottle (Hungover You)’
It’s probably safe to say there’s no one in the OKC scene right now who’s having more flat-out, high-energy fun with the Country and Western genre than Jason Scott.
When he and his High Heat dropped the still remarkably re-listenable “Castle Rock” early last year, the album’s cross between fist-pumping, boot-stamping anthems and some starkly real, raw looks at addiction and depression struck a few chords and even garnered the boys a little national buzz.
Well, here comes Scott again, this time with a fist-pumping anthem about addiction and depression, threading the needle between country’s favorite topics as delicately as line dancing on the head of a pin.
“Me & The Bottle” marries the classic country breakup anthem with the equally classic country drunken barroom sing-a-long, all with a ratchet-tightened country-rock riff that’s pretty well guaranteed to live rent-free in your brain for a week or so every time you hear it.
Follow Jason Scott online at facebook.com/jsandthehighheat and on Instagram at @jasonscottmusic.
Nelson Gonzalez Barreto – ‘Castaway’
The lead-off track to Barreto’s “It Blurs as We Speak,” an album of shocking depth and emotional heft, not only for such a young jazzman, but for the entire genre of instrumental jazz itself.
“Castaway” opens up not with Barreto himself on bass, but with musical confidant (and OKC jazz scene maestro) Kendrik McKinney extrapolating briefly and emotionally around a single piano note like a beacon or a lighthouse, giving you your bearings before the band builds in with a thunderstorm around you.
Throughout the eight-and-a-half minute album-opening opus, Barreto and McKinney are bolstered by Sam Vaughn and Michael Potts on dueling saxes, Lee Rucker on trumpet, and Dave Bowen and JR Pettis with a drums/percussion combo that feels so fluid and natural, you’d think it was a single, four-armed player.
The piece morphs and shifts slightly to set up each solo, getting softly funky for Barreto’s bass showcase and wild, nearly cacophonous for the explosive sax section, and then strips everything away momentarily for Bowen and Pettis to jam on a Latin-inspired groove culled beautifully from Barreto’s own Venezuelan heritage.
This track, as with the full album, sees Barreto not only exploring that heritage through music but also grappling with the back-to-back struggles of the COVID pandemic and its isolation followed by the death of his grandfather, for who, the sprawling “A Suite for Juan Barreto” is named.
It’s a giant of a track. Not only the best jazz piece I’ve heard out of Oklahoma this year, but likely one of the top jazz tracks from anywhere in 2023.
The full-length “It Blurs as We Speak” is available on all streaming services now from Catapult Recordings.
Follow Nelson Gonzalez Barreto on Instagram at @nelsongonzalez03.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
