Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweethearts in Bands,

As usual, The Deli’s Year End Poll (for emerging artists) will assign the cover of our Spring Issue 2010. The polling process is as complex as rocket science (if you want to try and get your head around it be our guest and go here).

The submissions for the open contest that will select minimum 3 artists for the next phase is now closed. We are currently receiving the jurors’ votes. The next phase will be the readers’ vote, which will start on January 3.

All the bands that submitted to our open contest were also added to our chart system for indie artists – which will get them some exposure in the future.

Here we are taking a little bit of a holiday break – we’ll still have some content up in the next few days, but not as much. We will see you back in early January – in the meantime Happy Holidays to you all!!

The Deli’s Staff
www.thedelimagazine.com

Musical peoples from New England and beyond.

A few weeks are left before the end of 2009, and the time has come for our end of year musical "summary". Yes, you got that right: The Deli’s "Best of (emerging) New England 2009 Poll" is upon us!

This year we’ll have an overall chart including the votes from Jury, Writers and Readers, and a Readers’ charts including only the readers’ votes. There will be prizes in vouchers, software and studio time for all the top artists in both charts.

We have a lot to tell you about this, but as this poll couldn’t happen without sponsors, we’ll start by listing them all, and by thanking them for being part of this.

Instructions about the poll coming soon!

PREMIUM SPONSORS

OTHER SPONSORS

providing a total of 18 audio plug in for the pool of prizes(9 iZotope, 9 IK Multimedia)

On Saturday night, the [dog] and [pony] DVD Release Party was held at SPACE Gallery. [dog] and [pony] is a local filmmaker team that documents performances of local Portland bands and musicians and edits footage of them to capture the essence of their performances. [dog] and [pony] started in March of this year with an intimate performance by Dead End Armory, followed by one of Highway Jackson. If you know both of those bands, you’ll understand that [dog] and [pony] is aiming to find the great diversity of Portland music, with Dead End Armory’s alt-country/rock and Highway Jackson’s southern rock style.

This release party celebrated [dog] and [pony]’s first DVD volume of 15 videos. Of the musicians and bands on the DVD, nine of them were there to perform—The Lobolly Boy, Samuel James, Dana Gross, Wes Hartley (of Dead End Armory), Chriss Sutherland, Jesse Pilgrim, Kris Rodgers (of Highway Jackson) and Jacob Augustine—along with Portland’s hottest new rock band, Marie Stella.

One of the better moments of the show was when Samuel James performed his re-imagined Blues version of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean.” As soon as people realized what song he was performing, a collective grin stretched across the audience. I find it alarming that there can be such a talented artist who still has to hold a regular job at Videoport to make a living. This is true for many of the musicians who performed tonight, but hopefully [dog] and [pony]’s exposure will help them reach the stardom and praise that they deserve.

Another exciting moment was Jesse Pilgrim’s entire set. I had heard his voice had the likeness of Johnny Cash’s smoky bass, but I didn’t realize that he mixed his old country voice with punk-rock instrumentation. Jesse Pilgrim may have been the most exciting new voice I’ve heard in recent times.

Jacob Augustine was undoubtedly the crowd favorite of the night. His music was folk-based, infused with the incredible soul of his voice, all with a great backup band of piano, guitar, horns, and violin. Augustine was later joined by Aly Spaltro of Lady Lamb the Beekeeper for the final few songs of his set. Though the juxtaposition of the two figures was outlandish, the intensity and soulfulness of their voices were evenly matched. As a past enthusiast of Lady Lamb shows, it was exciting to see her perform with a full band behind her (she usually plays solo); I can only imagine how great her songs would sound with more instrumentation. You can pick up a copy of the [dog] and [pony] at all Bull Moose stores. A live CD recorded from the show will be released within the month. Follow the links below for video clips of [dog] and [pony]’s work:

Dead End Armory: http://vimeo.com/3553250

Samuel James/Chriss Sutherland: http://vimeo.com/4967713

Jacob Augustine video http://vimeo.com/5998694

–Dylan Martin

I caught my first punk show of the winter season this Saturday at the Middle East upstairs at one in the afternoon. Who knew you could do that? I couldn’t remember a show I’d ever been to that had started before 7 PM. Except for the time I saw Raffi, live (incidentally, one of the better performances I’ve ever seen. Even if it was only because I was a four-year-old with a funnel cake watching a Unibomber-lookalike play three chords).

The first act of the night was a Boston five-person folk-punk outfit The Swaggerin’ Growlers. The SGs came out with some real elephant-crushing energy that hardly relented during the course of their set and it wasn’t just one member of the group holding it all up. Whether it was lead vocalist Johnny Swagger contorting his body into some mean Hendrix-style lean-backs (which I’ve never, ever seen someone do at a punk show) or Fiddler/Tin Whistler/Accordionist Annie Growler getting mean on her tin whistle or even just the between-song banter, you could definitely tell that the SGs were there to have some goddamn fun up on that stage. Their fast folk-punk tunes in 4/4 time (with the exception of a 3/4 musical break where the lead singer shouted “WALTZ TIME!!!”), kept the crowd swinging and moshing through most of their set.

–Read the whole review by Dan Schneider HERE

The Jazz Guys are playing their final show this Friday at Muddy Waters on Main St, downtown Burlington. Part of the burgeoning indie rock scene, with a throwback style of with equal parts irony and smiles (a cover of Beyonce’s "Single Girls" was floating around the interwebs earlier this year). They will also be joined by Burlington acts Missy Bly, Swale, and Kochalka.

Muddy Waters
184 Main St.
Burlington, VT 05401

—The Deli Staff

Photo by Graham Marley

Chris North Alspach, Regina Peterson and Dylan Clark make up Boston’s The Points North. They just released� I Saw Across The Sound, which is self-described as "vocal harmonies, flute melodies, and bass drum thumps carry the listener through twelve New England ghost-country folk songs, and was released Oct 1st on vinyl, cassette and digital download from Grinding Tapes Recordings."

They have a few dates coming up. Jan 6th @ the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, MA, Jan 7th @ The Rabbit Hole in Fitchburg, MA and Jan 9th @ Mocha Maya’s in Shelburne Falls, MA .

This is an interview with Chris North Alspach.

The Deli: You all were raised in central MA, and the austerity and tonality of your music seems to draw on more intimate, close-to-the-earth musical traditions. At times, one feels transported into a farmhouse living room in the winter, with a warm fire accompanying the singalong. How has New England played a role in shaping the music you make?

Chris North Alspach: I appreciate the way you’ve interpreted our music and I’m glad tosay we’ve played a few shows in quiet farmhouses with warm firesand friends singing along. They’ve been very special times as wereally connect with the space. We all grew up in Central Mass. in post-agricultural communities and, after moving away, found that theaesthetic of that place really dominated our creative output. After ending a previous folk music project two years ago Regina and I worked hard learning the Irish flute and octave mandolin and solidifying ourvocal styles. It was all part of an effort to create the peaceful,cold and beautiful sounds that would convey the landscapes weexperienced as children, and the feelings they triggered. We typicallyplay rock venues whether it’s a basement or a bar, and part of whatmotivates us to write and perform this style is to be a bridge betweenlisteners in those environments and the world outside.

–Read the whole interview by Bill Braun HERE