NYC

Year End Best of Austin 2010 for emerging bands – Submit via Sonicbids

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Deli-rious readership,

We gave bands a week to apply for free to our Year End Best of Austin 2010 Poll, but submissions aren’t closed – we are now still accepting them until 12.31 HERE, through SonicBids, with a $5 submission fee. It’s the first time we charge musicians for anything, but these polls take so much of our time that we needed to find a way to offset some of the personal effort we put in them, we hope you understand.

The Deli’s Polls’ mission is to highlight the best local bands that emerged in 2010 in the 10 scenes we cover – the full list of cities we cover can be found here.

Our polling system (based on the votes of a local jury of scene makers and partially on our readers vote) has rewarded in the past artists like Local Natives, Yeasayer, Girls, Chairlift, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Freelance Whales, Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian (among others) before they hit it big.

The summary of last year’s polls (each city’s top 3 + readers poll winner) can be found here.
A full explanation of the polling system can be found here.

We hope you’ll submit your music, because the more bands submit, the more accurate our poll is… good luck, and… we swear that we will listen to your music!

The Deli’s Staff

Nashville

BASSICK! Vol. 1 @ Mercy Lounge, 12/9/10

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So we’re gonna give the Nashville Bass/DnB/Dubstep thing another shot, because the last huge show we got so pumped about ended up being strangely underattended–(we blame the funky weather and stuff that night)–but the show tomorrow night will be like an addendum to the STRICTLY DUBSTEP series that has taken place, which is suppoed to be the bejeweled crown for dubstep shows in Nashville.

The first headliner will be Skrillex, who is best known for his remixes of some Lady Gaga singles, The Black Eyed Peas, and even a song for the Twilight movie. WoW!!! He’s a big deal. And then there will be the local openers, Wick-It, Mike Allison, Melee, SkekTek, Brandon Wahl, and various others badazz dj’s and producers. Mercy Lounge is even opening up the back room so that there will be two staggered shows going on simultaneously for DUB-ble the fun! It’s supposed to sell out, so go here to get discounted pre-sale tickets, and here to read a little more about Skrillex.–Deli Staff

Chicago

CD of the Month: Dastardly

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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first play the debut album, May You Never…, from Dastardly. The band name conjured up some darker images, but the album cover felt jazz or ballroom influenced. I was pleasantly surprised when "Villain" kicked in with it’s mellow-folk based indie rock tones. However, the darker images did ring true through out tracks like "Exercises in Self-Loathing" and "Creepy". This is not an upbeat album, but it is a perfect example of a sound that is becoming increasing popular in Chicago, Americana. It is a genre title that bothers me because there are so many sounds coming from American bands and to call a sound Americana is some what limiting.

Dastardly takes this genre and makes it their own through adding elements of blues and folk. My favorite track with gentle ballad "Morning Blue" with vocals be Sarah Morgan. The six-piece band has two vocalist and they take turns taking the lead through out the album. This track also features a haunting pedal steel performance, and a surprising ending. This is a well produced debut. The album was engineered at Gallery of Carpet Studios by Brian Zieske (Bailiff, Pet Lions, Secret Colours) and mixed by Paul Klimson (The Roots, John Legend). Dastardly may be one of the brightest newcomers to the scene this year.

Dastardly will be celebrating the release of their debut album on December 9th at Schubas with Glittermouse, Chaperone, and Jared Bartman.

NYC

CD of the Month: Lia Ices, “Grown Unknown”

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Lia Ices‘ "Grown Unknown" reminds us that you don’t really need weird samples or odd time signatures or a knack for bizarre song structure to make great, unique music. What you really need is stellar songwriting, confidence, character, a great voice, and a scary amount of talent. The uniqueness of the sound will come naturally.
With the help of a piano and a few other traditional instruments, Lia Ices manages to create music that stops time, pierces the veil of Maya of our daily all-absorbing routine, and gets us to listen, and I would go as far as saying to enjoy, and reconnect to, the sad hemisphere of our emotions. In a world that seems to function in synch with up-tempo pop hits, this music could represent the only true rebellion we have left.
Don’t miss Lia Ices’ show at Mercury Lounge on 12.14. The album will be released in January on Jagjaguar. The video below is from a song featured in Lia’s 2008 debut album "Necima"


 

NYC

Barnaby Brights win Songwriting Competition + play Living Room on 01.20

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Husband and wife Nathan and Becky Bliss – aka Barnaby Bright – sure had an exciting end of 2010 – the duo won the NYC’s own SongCirlce 5th Annual Songwriting Contest, and therefore took home $10k in cash plus recording, publishing and full label services agreement with SongCircle Music/EMI, and various other prizes. We’ll have a chance to witness their moody, melancholic folk live at The Living Room on 01.20.

Chicago

Joan of Arc Oh Brother

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Joan of Arc is preparing to release the most challenging and perhaps rewarding album in their ten year career. The album, Oh Brother, will be released by Joyful Noise on February 8th on limited edition, hand-numbered double LP on white & black vinyl. The album will Feature collaborations with 14 musicians, including Zach Hill of Hella & Rob Lowe of Lichens. The release is the combination of four distinct albums embarked upon but never completed by Joan of Arc curator Tim Kinsella. Each album is broken up and spliced together into a tessellating unity of long, noisy, meditative, instrumental movements which fill the totality of each side of this double LP. Each side –A, B, C, and D– contains just one track, with song lengths varying from 20 minutes to 20 minutes and 36 seconds. The project is ambitious, but from the sample we have already it was also necessary.

Joan of Arc will be celebrating the release of Oh Brother on February 6th at The Hideout.

NYC

NYC band on the rise: Lavalier’s circusy pop live at Pianos on 12.10

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Lavalier is the brainchild of Dave Horowitz and Steve Milton, former members of NYC indie pop band The Cloud Room – a group The Deli covered extensively a few years ago, and which seems to have been rather dormant as of late. Besides a melodic approach to songwriting, Lavalier’s melancholic, dreamy atmospheres and mid tempo, sparse tunes don’t share much with the members’ previous band’s uptempo pop. The arrangements and instrumentation of choice (left to a remarkably high revolving cast of musicians, including a choir) create a surreal, circusy atmosphere that can be placed somewhere between the Beatles’ "A Day in The Life" and Tom Waits’ darker and slower ballads, forging a sound that stands out from current NYC indie trends – which is something we always appreciate here at The Deli. Director Kendra Eliot did a good job in giving a visual representation of Lavalier’s Lynchian sonic imagery in the video below. Check out these guys live at Pianos on Friday 12.10.

NYC

Your Daily dose of delicious noise: Web Dating play W’burg thrice

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What’s the deal with these small emerging NYC bands playing 3 shows within a week in the same neighborhood?? I mean not even The Yeah Yeah Yeahs do that… Web Dating is a noise pop band from Brooklyn. The band’s lead singer Tucker Rountree also plays in Total Slacker and formed Wed Dating as an impromptu filler when Total Slacker couldn’t make a scheduled appearance at Death By Audio in Brooklyn. Web Dating produces pop songs whose lyrics straddle the nebulous divider between painfully sincere and tongue-in-cheek. Despite the saccharine words, Web Dating packs a power chord filled high volume sound. The group plans to release a four song EP in January, check them out at Death By Audio on 12.08, Glasslands on 12.10 and/or Shea Stadium on 12.16. – Nick Haycock

Philadelphia

Chang Chang Is Back for “Magic Moments” at KFN Dec. 8

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It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Chang Chang (a.k.a. Jon Rehr). But he’s back! Though Chang Chang has “been sitting on his ass” a lot, he’s also been “working his ass off”, and is ready to drop some new tracks for us which include a collaboration with Hennessy Youngman (Jayson from Plastic Little). Well, all this will be going down at Kung Fu Necktie for the sophomore event of “Magic Moments”, which is FREE by the way. Chang Chang will also be sharing the fun with DJ Copout, Strawberry Mansion DJs and your host with the most Hennessy Youngman. They promise that “it’s gonna be crowded, it’s gonna be sweaty, and everyone is going to feel violated”. To get you in that “Magic Moments” mood, below is a promo video for this evening from Chang Chang and Thomas Larochelle. Cheers! Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 10pm, FREE, 21+ (Photo by Ryan Scott) – Q.D. Tran
 

CHANG CHANG – Magic Moments Dec. 8th @ KFN! from Thomas Larochelle

 

L.A.

Crash Kings Video

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Crash Kings, one of our favorite alternative piano rock trios, has a new video for their song "Non-Believer". The video is shot in all black and white, so it has an intimate, classic vibe. It captures an energetic, memorable performance at their show in Boston at The Middle East, which is a venue that frontmen and brothers Tony and Mike Beliveau grew up frequenting. The video cuts in scenes from the house they were raised in, leaving the viewer with a nostalgic and overall joyful feeling. Crash Kings self-titled debut album is available on iTunes.
 
–Jenna Putnam
 

Philadelphia

Meg Baird Opens for Bert Jansch at JB’s Dec. 8

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British folk icon Bert Jansch is coming to Johnny Brenda’s tonight. Having influenced icons like Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Johnny Marr and Nick Drake just to name few, you can’t help but feel honored to share in this intimate event. But definitely get there early to show some hometown love. The multi-faceted Meg Baird will be bringing her sparse yet ruminative solo material with her always entrancing vocals in the forefront. It was exciting to see the recent return of Espers, but her solo appearance is certainly befitting for this evening. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $15, 21+ – Adam G.