Sonny Smith began singing while a patient at Warm Springs Foundation Hospital in Texas, to amuse the other patients. Quasi-mystical with a tendency to write about new-agey subjects such as hypnotherapy, extrasensory perception, fortune tellers, palm readers and channelers Smith has been given his own genre by the press as ‘pop supernaturalism’ – we would add "quirky" and "folky" to that description. He was released from Warm Springs in the care of his brother and wife, Ryan Browne and Tahlia Harbour who soon became his backing band. Later, at the Canyon Manor Rehabilitation Center north of San Francisco, he met Kelley Stoltz who became the Sunsets’ permanent drummer. On and off the four of them lived out of a Browne’s Toyota van for the next three years, playing with a revolving cast of musicians. They embarked on a triple album in late 2009 but a hurricane hit the coastal studio they were recording in and most of the tapes were destroyed as well as their equipment. What’s left is the record they just released: "Hit After Hit". See Sonny and the Sunsets live at The New Parish in Oakland on April 21.

Headless Horseman – winners of our Artist of the Month poll in October 2010 – are definitely one of the most interesting emerging avant-indie bands in Brooklyn. After being named a "Stereogum Band To Watch", holding down a residency at Pianos, and playing a dozen shows last month at SXSW, the band is getting ready for an exciting spring, with a 7" release together with Das Racist and a live appearence at The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artist Fest – last year’s poster can be found here) on May 28 at Brooklyn Bowl with Delicate Steve. The fest will involve more than 50 artists, for the most part ones that were included in our latest Best of NYC Emerging Artists Poll here. The Fest’s full lineup will be announced in early May.

We stumbled upon this video by Turner Cody, a prolific Brooklyn based songwriter who has been performing and recording for over ten years. His first commercial release was on Rough Trade’s 2002 "Anti-folk Vol.1" CD alongside Adam Green, Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis and others from NYC’s legendary Sidewalk Café scene. Since then Cody released 3 albums and toured Europe and the UK many times, opening for Herman Dune and Adam Green but also headlining as a solo act and with his backing band. He has appeared on some of New York’s finest stages with the Citizen’s Band.