New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Being a couple for nine years and writing music together for five, it is no wonder Andy Simmons (guitar/vocals) and Holly MacGibbon’s (keys/vocals) musical collaboration My Other Friend is filled with a raw passion and high energy. The band, mostly made of trained actors, plays dramatic and dynamic rock with occasional folky tinges. They are finally about to release their debut album with a party at Mercury Lounge on July 26th.
If New York’s music scene were summed up in two words, they would be Black Taxi. Kind of dirty, a little poppy, and VERY danceable, these Brooklynites fashion some of the most undeniably contagious music around. Each member brings to the table a style all his own, lending to Black Taxi’s widespread appeal and simultaneously distinct qualities, evident on their 2009 release, “Things of That Nature.” Lead vocalist Ezra Huleatt adds trumpet, keys, glockenspiel, and an array of noise-making gadgets to the mix that embellish Bill Mayo’s smooth backing vocals and virtuoso guitar skills, while Krisana Soponpong’s disco-infused bass lines interlace with Jason Holmes’s detailed drumming and resonant vocals. With finesse, Black Taxi compose songs of unmatched addictiveness, including “Shoeshine,” “Up Here for Thinking, Down There for Dancing,” “It’s a Ball,” and “Love Song for Ghost.” Revised fan-favorites from the band’s first two EP’s, “Pretty Mama,” “Head on a Pike” and “Wanted Man” remain staples in Black Taxi’s sets at their eye-catching, awe-inspiring shows. – Read Meijin Bruttomesso interview with the band here.
Naked Hearts‘ full length debut "Mass Hysteria" was The Deli’s CD of the Month in May 2010. To fully appreciate the duo’s talent for melancholic indie pop gems you might want to wait for the fall – which every stereotype indicates as the most melancholic of seasons. But good music is good music, even in the hottest NYC summer on record. – Read Claire Marie Le Bihan interview with the band here.
So I’ve been planning to hit this show for weeks, and I just realized that I have to be in NYC. Well, I’m there in spirit, and I hope that you can make it out to Eastern Conference Champions tonight at JB’s. These Bucks County boys left for LA with a label deal and high hopes and like many who follow the glitz and glam of the majors, they ended up running into walls and pounding their heads in frustration. ECC are doing it on their own right now and happy. Armed with a relatively new member Melissa Dougherty, the boys are making moves through the maze of the entertainment biz in LA. The band must be doing something right because they recently landed their track “A Million Miles an Hour” on the soundtrack of Eclipse, the latest from the Twilight phenomenon/franchise. That’s pretty huge. Luckily most of those fans are not old enough to come into JB’s. I hope that they still play “Navy Man” and “Noah”! I know. I’m not even going to be there, but I was thinking of you. Make sure to get their early enough to catch Busses. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $10, 21+ – Q.D. Tran
Seriously, when did mayor Sam Adams get so damned hip? First he adorned his office with a portrait of Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, then he switched all of the city phone on-hold music to local artists with his Listen Local campaign, now he’s teaming up with PDX Pop Now! to host a concert featuring all local bands on the steps of City Hall(1221 SW 4th Avenue).
Andrew Oliver Quartet, Atole, Kelli Schaefer and Nick Jaina Band are the acts that will be rockin’ outside the mayor’s office tomorrow evening. The show is FREE and ALL AGES, so you have no valid excuse not to be there!
5:45: Andrew Oliver Quartet
6:35: Kelli Schaefer
7:25: Atole
8:15: Nick Jaina Band
And don’t forget, the PDX Pop Now! music festival is a mere week away! In case you forgot, here are the deets:
FREE and ALL AGES. July 30, 31 and August 1st at Rotture. The festival will feature indoor and outdoor performances from Aan, AgesandAges, And And And, ASSS, Atriarch, Au, Autistic Youth, Ben Darwish, Billygoat, Blue Cranes, Blue Horns, Brainstorm, Cloudy October, Da’Rel Junior, Defect Defect, Eternal Tapestry, Fear No Music, Get Hustle, Grey Anne, Guantanamo Baywatch, Hockey, Hosannas, I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Joey Casio, Joggers, Krebsic Orkestar, Kung Pao Chickens, Kusikia, Lewi Longmire, Luck One, Michael The Blind, Operative, Parenthetical Girls, Please Step Out of The Vehicle, Reporter, Rollerball, Shoeshine Blue, Skeletron, Soup Purse, SubArachnoid Space, Tiny Knives, Tu Fawning, The Tumblers, Typhoon, Wampire, Why I Must Be Careful, and Ylang Ylang. The 2010 Festival schedule is available here.
Hope to see you all there!
-Katrina Nattress
Well, we don’t get to mention the word "Emmy" too often here at The Deli – we are way too humble (read "snobbish in some sort of reversed way") to cover that kind of stuff. But Kelly Scarr, an emerging, talented Brooklyn-based singer songwriter, gave us the perfect excuse to mention this Award by being nominated for her work as a composer on the HBO documentary "In A Dream." Kelly met director Jeremiah Zagar at an East Village bar – and that’s when the collaborative spark began. The lady sure has an interesting voice and is not afraid to take the twangy ballad concept to extremes of slowness and intimate intensity. Her debut album "Piece" will be out on Silence Breaks Records on July 27.
It is, for many reasons, going to be a good weekend to be a living, breathing, concertgoing Austinite…you’ve got your Quiet Company down at Threadgills (Friday), your Oh No Oh My over at the Ghost Room (Thursday), plus at the Mohawk Friday TV Torso, The Gary, and Martin Crane of Brazos, and then on Saturday, also at the Mohawk, the instigating and titular event for this particular post: the Fete D’Lorenza honoring KUT’s Laurie Gallardo, and featuring 2009 Deli Year End Poll winner STEREO IS A LIE, The (inimitable) Midgetmen, Melogrand (pictured above), Red Falcon, 100 Flowers, Elevated Lines, and Dead Black Hearts. Now THAT is a birthday party.
Magic Man
Looking for a break from your usual haunts in and around Boston? Don’t forget to look West!
Head out to the Green at Newton Center (Newton Center T stop on the Green D line) on Thursday, 7/22, for Sun Down Sounds, a free concert series featuring some seriously fresh talent. The event will also feature locally-made art installations and picnics!
I’m a little late on reporting this one – this Thursday’s is the second of four installments in the series – but that’s fitting, as I’m also a little late in realizing what a hotbed for new, experimental and folky music Newton has turned out to be. Some of it has infiltrated the Boston airwaves and blogspace, but much has stayed aloof.
The Sun Down Sounds series is showcasing some of the best of that talent. Each evening seems to have some unifying musical theme or general sound; this Thursday features some down-tempo, relaxing acoustic folk music. The evenings start at 530 and run until around 9. There’s more information about this series on their Facebook page.
July 15 :: THE HUMMING, VITAMIN SEED, MAGIC MAN
July 22 :: SHAI ERLICHMAN, ALICE HOWE, MIA FRIEDMAN
July 29 :: [BREAKFAST OF CHAMPS] :: MILES COE/MAX ALPER, THE CRATERS, PSYCHEDELIC FAMILY
August 5:: GABE GOODMAN, THE NOVEL IDEAS, VIO/MIRE
— The Deli Staff
Here is Chiddy Bang’s new video for “Dream Chasin”, the follow-up to “Sooner or Later”. It is off of The Swelly Express mixtape. Chiddy Bang will be releasing their upcoming album The Swelly Life on August 31, 2010, and will be celebrating it at the TLA on September 2. – H.M. Kauffman