Members in the rotating lineup of The Davenports have rightfully played alongside such icons as They Might Be Giants, Fountains of Wayne, and Rhett Miller. Considering their peers, it’s no surprise the band’s claimed a steady fan-base. While their sound is based in power pop roots, lead singer Scott Class sounding like a mix between Ben Folds and Ok Go’s Damian Kulash, the band refuses to conform to expected composition, offering alternatively Beach Boys-y vocal arrangements, horn and accordion orchestrations in the styling of Beirut, and occasional overly saturated guitar stabs in an overall very well crafted and clean indie pop production. The band will play a release party for their latest album on January 19th at NYC’s Living Room. – Katie Bennett

It’s nearing the annual Deli Magazine Best Emerging Artist of 2010 Poll, a first this year for DC/Baltimore, and with our vast jury still getting in their votes and bands continuing to send in their submissions, we thought we’d let you in on the top 3 selected artists found through our SonicBids open call. First up is the Maryland born, Virginia raised avant-garde hip-hop maestro Atari Blitzkrieg who’s released 3 albums & 15 EP’s (in over a 3 year time period!), and has been in the game since ’95 recording and producing with many major names in underground hip-hop. He was also selected as one of Urb Magazine’s Next 1000.

Atari Blitzkrieg – The Maturation of Nothingness (Produced by Daedelus) by Godsendant Music

We also dig the lovely alt. soul folk sounds of Ally Way, a native of DC born into a musical family of a gospel singer mother and instrumentalist father. Singing since a toddler, Way draws inspiration from Joni Mitchell to Nirvana and more.

 And the 5-piece pop rock DC band The Silver Liners rocked the loudest on our list of Sonicbid submissions, who’ve recently released their second EP (S/T). Their first EP "Just Like the Rest" came out April 2010, and critics compared it to bands like Foo Fighters, My Bloody Valentine, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Awesome.

 And a mentionable found through our open-call is the ambient new age cellist T.A. Zook, from Arlington, who creates masterpieces of ambient classical soundscapes perfect for planetarium soundtracks, and in fact is working on a soundtrack for an upcoming IMAX film, "Outside In the Movie." Party! –Dawn

In a whirlwind year, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, along with peers The Raveonettes and Deerhunter, have catapulted the genre of modern noise-pop into one of the most popular sectors of “indie-pop”. The band is gearing up for a European tour, and has been working on their sophomore album, with help from the best in noise pop’s past- specifically, producer Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain). And they’ve announced a spring tour to showcase their recent work- catchy power-pop songs strewn with crystallized synth and dipped in heavy guitar feedback. Openers will be NYC electro pop prodige Twin Shadow. – Katie Bennett

Deli readers, indie bands and artists,

This year, our local Year End Emerging Artists 2010 Polls are proving to be more challenging than ever, with 10 US scenes involved and 1,500+ submissions between our own system and the Sonic Bids applications. We spent a significant portion of the recent Holidays listening to your music (thanks for that by the way!), and we haven’t even had the chance to check out the bands selected by our jury of local promoters, bloggers and scene makers yet…

ANYWAYYYY… we have the results of the Open Submissions at hand and we are slowly going to publish them in the next few days. Sonic Bids selections coming soon. Whether you were selected or not, always remember that in 1961 The Beatles were rejected by Decca with the following gems: "guitar groups are on the way out" and "The Beatles have no future in show business." Just a friendly reminder that there is no final authority on music, despite what pitchfork.com would have you believe.

Year End Poll Next Phase: The Fans’ Poll
The next phase of the Poll – a vote open to the fans – is likely to start towards the end of this week and the end of the next. We’ll spread the cities out a little bit to minimize contemporary traffic spikes that repeatedly brought our site down last year. So stay tuned. We should have the final results for our two separate final charts (fans poll and composite chart including the jurors’ vote) by the end of January.

Also, of course all this is possible also because of our sponsors – many of them are providing free studio time and prizes for the winners. Here they are God Bless ’em!

LIST OF PRO AUDIO PRIZES FOR POLL WINNERS HERE!

The Deli’s Staff

Williamsburg’s Low Water don’t rely on gimmicks or the glitzy indie-pop or psych-surf formulas frequented by their neighboring bands. Instead, they craft authentic rock ‘n roll with catchy and comforting pop sensibility. Singer John Leitra’s voice cracks and rasps equal part Jeff Tweedy and Paul Westerberg (both of whom the band name as influences), adding dynamic to deceptively simple, guitar-driven melodies. Their music is perfect for mixed company- the young rebel and aged hippie alike can appreciate the tracks, and the group have been featured on a variety of entertainment sources, including NPR’s “All Songs Considered,” as well as television networks PBS and HGTV. This Saturday at Spike Hill, they’ll be playing a release party for their fourth album, “A Taste You Know and Enjoy.” – Katie Bennett