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Nashville, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit and Austin definitely have their moments, but there\u2019s no other American music city like New York.<\/p>\n
NYC \u2013 the home of Guitar World since 1980 \u2013 was the cradle of punk and hip-hop, a preferred hub for jazz, new wave and post-punk and the petri dish that spawned a relentless outbreak of gritty, guitar-forward bands, from the Velvet Underground to Sonic Youth, Blondie to Interpol, New York Dolls to the Ramones, Chic to Kiss, Mink DeVille to the Senders, White Lion to Parquet Courts, Television to TV on the Radio. You get the idea.<\/p>\n
And while it\u2019s reasonable to argue that NYC, like those other cities, only has its \u201cmoments\u201d of greatness (for instance, the punk explosion of the \u201970s and the \u201cClass of 2001\u201d with its Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs), it\u2019s safe to say that \u2013 based on actionable intel and the new music we\u2019re gloriously subjected to on a near-daily basis \u2013 it\u2019s having a genuine moment right now.<\/p>\n
Just ask anyone who\u2019s been baffled, bowled over and eventually converted by a Geese, Horsegirl or Castle Rat riff, music video or show.<\/p>\n
As the following 15 artists will attest, guitar is alive and well in every corner of the city (OK, mostly in Brooklyn, but who can afford Manhattan?). And speaking of Parquet Courts, when the hell are we getting a new album? But I digress\u2026<\/p>\n
1. Gooseberry<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a frigid spring morning and, due to a poorly timed pot of coffee, I\u2019m late to my Zoom call with Asa Daniels, the singer\/guitarist\/sometimes day-to-day manager \u2013 the Chief Warrior Officer, if you will \u2013 of Brooklyn rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band Gooseberry. Fortunately, Daniels is an affable guy, and, not sweating my tardiness, he\u2019s happy to delve into some of the band\u2019s war stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 1 a.m., we’ll get invited out to the owner of some bar\u2019s ranch and they\u2019ll invite the townies,\u201d he says. \u201cThen, all of a sudden we’re playing darts \u2013 using bows and arrows \u2013 in a barn. Those are the types of situations we find ourselves in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other situations Gooseberry find themselves in is writing riffs in 11\/8 and songs in 7\/4, largely because of Daniels\u2019 deep jazz roots. He was given At Carnegie Hall by the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane when he was 5, and it changed his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a jazz foundation that\u2019s happening there,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople will come up after the show and be like, \u2018You’re playing some weird fucking chords up there, man!\u2019 Really, what they’re just describing is playing, like, a ninth. It’s nothing crazy, but those influences do come out, even if there’s heavy distortion on the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. The Thing<\/p>\n
When I meet the Thing over Zoom, guitarist Michael Carter is proudly wielding a B.C. Rich Bich, a far cry from the white Ovation Breadwinner he typically plays. The guitar belongs to the Macks, who the Thing are staying with for a few nights while they play some West Coast shows. \u201cThe Macks fucking rip,\u201d Carter says.<\/p>\n
But the Thing fucking rip, too. Having played more than 300 shows worldwide, the band is tighter than your pants on Thanksgiving, and when they play, they turn their amps up loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people that are going in the other direction now,\u201d guitarist Jack Bradley says. He\u2019s referring to bands that lean on modelers, which might seem practical in a tightly packed city like New York, but the Thing proudly lug their amps to every gig.<\/p>\n
\u201cSound is fickle,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen it’s going through different tubes, speakers or preamps, it all adds to the character.\u201d<\/p>\n
While we\u2019re on the topic of cumbersome equipment, what about capos? \u201cIf you think capos are bad, you watch too much YouTube,\u201d Carter says. \u201cGet out of your room and play in a band.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Shower Curtain<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take Victoria Winter \u2013 Shower Curtain’s primary songwriter \u2013 very long to start writing songs after she first picked up the guitar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the lack of classical training just made me write my own music as a way to play guitar,\u201d Winter says. \u201cI never really took guitar lessons. At first it was just, like, learning covers; then I just started writing my own music on the guitar, and it just kind of developed as that type of relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is the development of Winter\u2019s unique voice on guitar, one that communicates the vulnerability and sensitivity of similar shoegaze bands like Fleeting Joys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take in from people a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cIf someone\u2019s watching me, I want an exchange in a very emotional way. For me, music is much more connection-based than a solo or inward experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. Horsegirl<\/p>\n
The thing about getting old is that you don\u2019t really realize it until one day, you\u2019re 38 and you join a Zoom call where a band of twentysomethings have to explain an Instagram post to you. For me, that band is the Chicago-bred\/NYC-based Horsegirl, and the post has something to do with an old meme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018grown ass man got his finger stuck at Chipotle,\u2019\u201d bassist Penelope Lowenstein says. \u201cIt\u2019s an old meme from our childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
That easily-remembered moniker \u2013 Horsegirl \u2013 came to Lowenstein in a dream when she was a teenager. That iteration of the band was much noisier that the version I\u2019m speaking with today<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of distortion going on,\u201d guitarist Nora Cheng says. Modern Horsegirl draw on bands like the Velvet Underground, Cheng\u2019s open tunings and Lowenstein\u2019s Fender Bass VI for their minimalistic sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love, love this instrument. I\u2019d never play regular bass in a trio,\u201d Lowenstein says. \u201cOn the higher strings, you can almost play a voicing as if you’re playing a riff on the lower strings of a guitar. It gives us a ton of flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. Castle Rat<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s true that Castle Rat are technically based in the Large Apple, what\u2019s more important is where vocalist-guitarist Riley Pinkerton (aka the Rat Queen), lead guitarist Franco Vittore (aka the Count) and the rest of the chainmail-wearing, sword-swingin\u2019 metal warriors are trying to take you through their fantastically brimstone-and-Strymon-Sunset-scented stoniness \u2013 an enigmatic artistic plane they call \u201cThe Realm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea behind it is a feeling of collective connectedness, in a way that is flexible across space and time to include everyone,\u201d Pinkerton says. \u201cMy goal behind it is to create a place for anyone who\u2019s ever felt like they don\u2019t belong, which is something I struggled with growing up.<\/p>\n
My goal behind it is to create a place for anyone who\u2019s ever felt like they don\u2019t belong, which is something I struggled with growing up<\/p>\n
Riley Pinkerton<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually my way of coping with it was going off into a fantasy world, or making up a game and getting other kids on the playground to be a part of the world. I\u2019m just doing the same shit at 30 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s The Bestiary holds dominion through Pinkerton\u2019s swaggering trad-metal chunking, Vittore\u2019s livewire Mixolydian flourishes and wizard-friendly lyricism.<\/p>\n
The album just got a wider re-release through Loma Vista, and the band recently hit a big-time metal tour with Dethklok and Amon Amarth. In other words, more fans are heading into \u201cThe Realm\u201d than ever before.<\/p>\n
6. Pasquale Grasso<\/p>\n
During our call, jazz guitarist Pasquale Grasso described to me how he hit the ground running when he moved from Naples, Italy, to NYC in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a place where there’s space for anybody if you want to do anything,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you wait for the phone to ring, that’s never gonna happen. You can go out and hear somebody almost every single night. That\u2019s how you meet people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was inspired to make the move by his teacher, legendary jazz pianist Barry Harris. \u201cI\u2019ve known him since I was about nine,\u201d Grasso says. \u201cHe always talked about New York. Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Elmo Hope \u2013 all those guys are from the City. A friend of mine \u2013 a great bass clarinet player, Stefano Doglioni; we have a band together \u2013 was coming to New York in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked me and my brother if we wanted to come. I was 19. We went to see a show at Smalls Jazz Club \u2013 it was the great piano player, Sacha Perry \u2013 and when I was there, I thought that was my home.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Emanuel Casablanca<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t choose the blues,\u201d Brooklyn native Emanuel Casablanca says. \u201cIt kind of chose me.\u201d He\u2019s wary that this idea could come off as cheesy, but when you\u2019re a kid who wants to play guitar and the only lessons you can afford are the free ones from the guy down the street who plays guitar on his porch \u2013 and that guy only knows the blues \u2013 it\u2019s hard to argue with Casablanca\u2019s logic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to get better, so I just asked him, \u2018Can I play with you sometime? Can you show me some stuff?\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
You never get a yes to a question you don\u2019t ask. It\u2019s this philosophy that led Casablanca to not only developing his chops, but also meeting Ronnie Wood, getting a gig playing with Lauryn Hill and ultimately getting a record deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people were all where I wanted to be,\u201d he says. \u201cMy father always said a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. I can not say something and not get there, or I can say something and actually have a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
8. Geese<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying guitar in Geese is an exercise in shape-shifting. There\u2019s not one set thing that we do,\u201d says Emily Green, lead guitarist in Geese. The hype that surrounded the Brooklynites\u2019 late-2025 record, Getting Killed, was palpable, and for good reason.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dynamic, relentless guitar-driven rock record with echoes of the Velvet Underground and Television. Endorsements from Patti Smith, Nick Cave and Julian Casablancas have added fuel to extravagant press statements that Geese are here to reanimate rock\u2019s corpse.<\/p>\n
Playing guitar in Geese is an exercise in shape-shifting. There\u2019s not one set thing that we do<\/p>\n
Emily Green<\/p>\n
When the band passed through Detroit last year, Green told me about the first guitar she bought with her own money, the blue-and-silver Reverend Double Agent she still uses.<\/p>\n
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