New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
It’s finally here, well almost, on May 9th at Beat Kitchen electro-magicians j+j+j will release their debut album They Hump While We Go Nuts. The band, Joanna, Johnny, and Jesus, will release these ten brand new tracks on a limited edition credit card-sized USB drive. The album features artwork by the talented local designer Jana Kinsman.
j+j+j will celebrate the release with Chicago’s Faggy Pussy and Salt Lake City’s Forest World and Ok Ikumi on May 9th at Beat Kitchen. The show begins at 8pm.
Corridor is multi-instrumentalist Michael Quinn’s chillingly beautiful head-dives into obscure psychic worlds via expertly orchestrated guitar, cello and sampler loops and digital effects. You’ll also want to catch our neighbors from the north, Sister Crayon out of Sacramento. At Spaceland tonight around party hour.
The current incarnation of FETCH has only been performing since the summer of 2008 and has been able to play consistently solid shows all over the Midwest. This Friday they will be sharing the stage with New York’s Martin Bisi and Inchworm.
FETCH will be performing at Darkroom on April 30th with Inchwork and Matin Bisi. The show begins at 9pm and tickets are $8 adv/$10.
Rock duos have been extremely trendy since the advent of The White Stripes – heck, we know this – having had two-peeps-bands on the last 4 covers of The Deli!!! (Buke and Gass, Zaza, Glass Ghost and Talk Normal…). In this kind of dual musical collaboration, most of the time the "sacrificed" instrument/player is the bass/bassist. Thankfully, Hank and Cupcakes are vindicating this often underestimated 4 string guitar. Hank’s virtuoso bass (with the help of a well picked selection of pedals) manages to create full arrangements spreading through the entire frequency spectrum. The man uses his instrument in what we could call a "maximalistic" way (as in: "I’m gonna squeeze all I can out of this thing, dude!"). Cupcakes (on the other side of the stage) sings, entertains, plays tight drums standing, while wearing "minimalistic" clothes – for the joy of part of the audience. The band is about to release a new EP with a show at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village on May 12 – be there!
We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsburg in May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).
Julie Peel leads a large pack of contemporary pop folk writers who are clamoring for the montage spot on show’s like "Grey’s Anatomy." While her peers stick as close to centrist as they can in terms of emotional delivery, Peel runs a bit more of the gamut. Her debut CD, "Near the Sun," shifts from well-crafted radio singles to intimate vulnerability reminiscent of Elliot Smith. Her best songs ("Once More With Feeling") focus on the aftermath of romantic entanglements, but can also read as general calls for brother/sisterly love. With such solid melodic material, it’s no wonder that Peel has indeed landed some air time on NBC. – Ben Krieger
Wondering what to do tonight?
Try The End, where Erick Brown from Stuck Lucky is headlining his side project Rainbowdragoneyes, with Allofher Twitch, a Secret Policeman’s Ball and Teenage Reverse Minds on Fire. $5
Or, if you’re feeling a little light in the pockets…
Check out The Basement for New Faces Night, with Danielle Bloom, Jessica Rae, Tribella, The Rouge, and more. FREE!
Or stay at home and do nothing and be a bum and eat ice cream and watch the trash they call music that is American Idol. –Fletcher Watson
Spring is here, which of course generally means for the local music scene that we’ll be seeing a lot of our favorites kicking off tours and heading out for the summer. With that in mind, this weekend finds us with a few shows good shows as well as a send off for one local favorite embarking on an east coast tour.
Start your weekend off by heading out to the Hotel Utah on Thursday the 29th, for something of a hoe down with the folk-y bluegrass stars TV Mike and the Scarecrowes along with The Big Nasty and 49 Special, 9pm.
The centre of a lot of this weekends activity, Bottom of the Hill will be hosting Spency Dude and the Doodles along with out-of-towners Disappears and The Ponys, 10pm.
Certainly the show to see this weekend will be Maus Haus with White Cloud and Rafter this Saturday, once again at Bottom of the Hill. Maus Haus will heading to the East Coast shortly thereafter touring to support their recently released 7-inch Winter/Zig Zag and its accompanying EP Sea Sides (currently the Deli SF’s Album of the Month). For those in Oakland and too lazy to cross the large body of water separating you from the Bottom of the Hill, fear not. Maus Haus will also be playing the Uptown on Thursday the 29th with Javelin and The Splinters, 9pm. So if you haven’t seen them in a while you really have no excuse this weekend – go out and check out some of their wonderful new songs, and perhaps a few old favorites.
–Ada Lann
Will Etheridge, founder of Portland’s Eternal Otter Records recently released Death, Rebirth and Transformation, a small collection of vinyl singles performed by Portland locals, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Cerberus Shoal and Blaque Boose. He’s been a strong influence of Portland’s music scene.
Deli: When you moved to Portland in 2008, what was your first impression of the music scene? What has changed since your arrival?
Will Etheridge: I moved in next door to an old friend of mine, John Fountain, who was a musician involved in the scene and he helped introduce me to a lot of great bands. I was just immediately blown away by the quality of the music. I hosted a radio show in college and now DJ for WSCA 106.1 fm in Portsmouth, so I’m constantly listening to new music – and I honestly believe some of the best stuff is being made in the little city of Portland, Maine.
Read the whole interview by Meghan Chiampa HERE
"As Crude as Watercolor" Live From a Venue Under Construction from The Sour Notes on Vimeo.
New vid from the Sour Notes…they’ll be performing for your enjoyment at the Midgetmen bash (along with The Mercers, Ringo Deathstarr, and of course the Midgetmen themselves) coming up on May 8th at the Mohawk.
Dinowalrus is a Brooklyn band under kanine Records, they play some kind of freaky psych rock – check out their new mad video for the song "Electric Car, Gas Guitar".
Greta Morgan’s (The Hush Sounds) new band Gold Motel has been making some noise around the city for awhile, but with their current east coast tour and the release of their full-length debut, Summer House, on June 1st, the band will be launch to the national level.
The record release event for the new album will be on June 11th at Lincoln Hall.