Philadelphia

Kurt Vile & the Violators Heading on Tour w/Thurston Moore!

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Matador Records just announced that Kurt Vile & the Violators will be heading out on a short tour with Thurston Moore as well as Hush Arbors. Unfortunately, mostly all the dates are on the Left Coast with a stray one in Minneapolis. You can check out the Moore-Vile-Hush Arbors tour schedule below in case you’re interested in hopping on a plane or taking a road trip. Vile will be back home on Sunday June 12 at First Unitarian Church with Pissed Jeans and Meg Baird. – The Deli Staff
 
Moore-Vile-Hush Arbors Tour Schedule:
7/18 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theatre
7/21 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
7/23 Portland, OR – Alladin Theatre
7/26 San Francisco, CA – Great American Hall
7/28 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
7/29 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
7/30 San Diego, CA – Casbah
 
NYC

NYC Artists on the rise: Caged Animals

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Caged Animals, a relatively new project by Soft Black frontman Vincent Cacchione, creates music that is poppy and infectious, yet slightly unsettling under the surface. The songs weave atmospheric flourishes with electronic quirks, pitch-shifted and distorted vocals, and catchy hooks. Although Caged Animals could easily be described as “chill-wave” for its bedroom-recording aesthetic and penchant for synth lines and electronic drums, there’s more to the music then that. Cacchione isn’t afraid to venture into the odd psychedelic landscape here and there, and some of the songs sound almost alien, haunting the listener with otherworldly vocals and odd, discordant bits of noise. Check out “The Way It Feels to Be Hunted” (embedded here) to get an idea. Caged Animals create some forward-thinking pop music, and will hopefully be released into the wild to find a wider audience in the near future. – Bill Dvorak

Chicago

The Hit Back

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The Hit Back officially release their debut album, Who Are These Weird Old Kids, through Sidetown Records today. The band may not have a lot of experience on the scene, but their electro-pop sound is right in line with a lot of popular bands. Their sound is a mixture of guitar-based pop and subtle but effective electronics.

You can catch The Hit Back at Saki on May 14th.

Chicago

Nick Butcher Free Jazz Bitmaps

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I’ve long felt that Nick Butcher of Sonnenzimmer is not only a great screenprinter, but it one of the most inventive musicians in Chicago. With his latest project he has again teamed up with Portland’s Hometapes to create an instrumental work of art. Free Jazz Bitmaps, Volume One is a process-based publication in the form of a series of lathe-cut 7”records culminating in a 12” vinyl LP release. The architecture of this inaugural volume is provided by Hometapes musical and visual artist Nick Butcher. Songs created by Butcher will come to life throughout 2011 in six bi-monthly editions of ten lathe-cut records each made in an edition of 10. The collection will ultimately be featured on vinyl LP, alongside reinterpretations of those songs by renowned Chicago improvisers Jason Adasiewicz, Tim Daisy, Keefe Jackson,Mike Reed, Jason Reobke, and Jason Stein.

The entire project will be available digitally through bandcamp.

NYC

Karen Rockower + Diehard play Cake Shop onApril 27

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Karen Rockower‘s creepy, dreamy rock band bills up with powerpop indie rockers Diehard and friends from CT Ovlov for a co-ed night of bromance at the Cake Shop on April 27th. Doors at 8pm, show starts at 9pm. $7 cover. Here’s some press:
“Finally. An indie rock band who doesn’t drench their songs in so much reverb that it covers up the lack of songwriting abilities. Diehard, a fairly new 4-piece out of Brooklyn, is actually bringing the old beloved sounds of the 90s rock back to us with just enough pop flavor to make them become one our favorite new discoveries.” – BeatCrave.
"Rockower, is so far from a normal singer songwriter, that she’s practically in a class all by herself. She takes the solo artist template, crumbles it up, and sets it on fire." – The POP! Stereo
(as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building. 

NYC

NYC Artists on the rise: The Nico Blues play 2 shows in NYC

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The Nico Blues is a NJ/NYC based rock band that sound a little bit as if Oasis (and at times Blur) were born in Seattle in the mid 90s instead of the UK – which is a way to say that they write good pop songs with great harmonies and then drench them in grungy distorted guitars. The band has just released this video and will be performing at Arlene’s Grocery on May 3 and at Party Expo on May 5.


 

NYC

Pure pop joy from NYC: Jonka

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This video by Jonka is probably too cute to please the hipster in you, but there’s something refreshing about the lack of pretension, without mentioning the catchiness of the tune, slightly reminiscent of Nik Kershaw – one of my favorite pop stars when I was a teenager, who unfortunately "let the sun (of stardom) get down on him" – if you don’t get this sentence just listen to his most famous single.

Nashville

review of Erin Manning’s, “Back and Forth”

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After the expected December release date came and went, singer/songwriter Erin Manning finally released her second EP, Back and Forth, April 23. Given that Manning is yet another female singer belting out I’m-not-in-love songs behind a keyboard, it would be easy for her to get lost in the jumble. But with grandiose piano-driven melodies laced with jazz and Latin dance influence as well as a wordy, analytical lyrical style, Back and Forth is a small, six-track piece of proof of Manning’s staying power.

The first two tracks introduce rich instrumental texture, with strings and hard-driving piano sounding over a Latin drum tap in “Let It Go,” and then Manning’s full-bodied voice and thundering piano parts are softened with backing vocal harmonies in “Solar Eclipse.” A collection of influences converge to create her eccentric , key-driven pop craft including a Tori Amos way with the piano and a Santana-like affection for salsa and tango rhythms. Even Alison Krauss sort of work with the violin creeps in unexpectedly, like on the opening track or the EP’s most mainstream, breezy pop number, “The Difference.”

But Manning’s voice is a powerful instrument in itself and delivers her plain and truthful yet poetic song craft. The standout is the sultry bottom-falling-out tango in which she sings, “If love can come undone from following the rules/and giving in to the push and the pull of a person who left when I screamed no more/I should’ve known before you pushed me back and forth.” The album closes with gentle, eyes-cast-down ballad “The Cruelest Thing” tapped out lightly on the keys as she sings, “It’s got to be the cruelest thing when someone takes away what they once so freely gave.”

Manning airs out her dirty laundry infectiously and belts out her breakup stories with a vocal style similar to Amy Winehouse, managing to dress up the mainstream with colorful, campy and vaguely seductive instrumental style that reflects her Louisiana roots. Back and Forth doesn’t transcend pop, but it surpasses the mediocrity often produced from the voice-and-piano combination. – Jessica Pace

Philadelphia

Ports of Call Open for Smith Westerns & Unknown Mortal Orchestra at JB’s April 26

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After taking a hiatus, Ports of Call have regrouped with a bit of a lineup change and just released a new EP last month titled Fractals, which was produced by Jeff Zeigler (Uniform Recording) and is available on limited edition 12” orange vinyl and digitally HERE. The band still has elements of dream pop and shoegaze (that helped them become former Deli Featured Artists of the Month) but with more of an indie rock edge. They’ll be opening for much-buzzed-about Smith Westerns (Fat Possum) and recently signed label mate Unknown Mortal Orchestra a.k.a. Ruban Nielson (who sounds pretty rad) so tonight is a show that you’ll want to make. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $10 adv/$12 door, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman
 
Philadelphia

Blackhawks Debut Release on Split Cassette!

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Blackhawks just released their debut recordings on a split cassette with Minneapolis’ Radiators Girls titled Black Girls via Two Michael Jordans, which is the label’s fourth release. Blackhawks feature members from local outfits BAnanas Symphony and Nude Beach. (You might remember when we first came across the Spaceman 3-influenced act HERE.) Well, the new cassette contains four tracks from the Fishtown crew, which includes three originals and (of course) a cover of Spaceman 3’s “More Rainbows (Come Down Softly)” (on side A). It also has four tracks from Radiator Girls, which are really killer as well. The cassette comes on yellow, blue and chrome tape, and is available digitally HERE. – The Deli Staff