New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Modoc, one of The Deli‘s favorite rock outfits, is throwing down this Friday at 12th & Porter with Jamie Grace and Arch Nemisiz. It’s a benefit show for People Loving Nashville, and your donations will go toward helping the homeless. Nice way to spend your money, no? Oh, and P.S., if you haven’t already, you can download the single "Hard Times" off Modoc’s upcoming record. It’s good stuff.
Sydney (Australia) to New York transplants Sherlock’s Daughter are set to begin a month long residency at The Knitting Factory for the next four Monday nights in May. Their sound is a fascinating hybrid of delicate female lead vocals and somewhat unsettling instrumentation, leaning towards the droney and the dreamy. "Song For Old People" emphases a chanting chorus vocal style, with primitive thumping on tree-stump percussion, then building out with pulsing keyboard undercurrents. "Reprise" gives off lullaby sensations via the lead vocal, while presenting an unsettling backdrop of uncertain instrumental accompaniment. “In The End” focuses even further on the gentle qualities of the bands lead voice. “Love can’t hurt us now” is a repeated lyric, as clackety percussion dances over top of deeper thumps and arpeggiated guitar patterns. An extended coda of rain and thunder sounds further establishes the intended mood. “Sons and Daughters” adds background vocals providing a call and response element found in early American spiritual folk music – however, droney guitar textures keep things very much rooted in the psych rock genre. The Knitting Factory shows are all ages and free to attend. – Dave Cromwell
Save a slow dance for Silver Swans at Thursday’s Popscene, sharing the bill with Brooklyn’s The Hundred in the Hands. Silver Swans’ dark, dream-pop lullabies are the project of DJ producer Jon Waters and songwriter Ann Yu. The duo likes to record late night and it’s heard in the ethereal, bedroom sound of the "Secrets" EP. Together they marry synth and low-fi with Portishead-style distorted female vocals, feedback, piano, loops, and rhythm noises. The upbeat remixes will warrent more than a slow dance while covers such as The National’s “Anyone’s Ghost” show off Silver Swans’ ability to leave its signature moody mark on any song.
-Whitney Phaneuf
Silver Swans – Anyone’s Ghost (The National Cover) by silverswans
Wyoming Exploded, a four-piece Baltimore rock band, performed at the Ottobar on Friday, 4/29. The 45-minute set, featuring songs from last summer’s At Our Worst EP and the band’s forthcoming LP, garnered praise from young and old and even impressed the bartender. Descriptions of the band’s music and performances have included comparisons to a Billie Joe Armstrong-fronted Guided By Voices (by author James Greer) and The Ramones on crack (by Friday’s headliners, Leadheart Deadbird). See the band perform at Bourbon Street Ballroom on Friday, May 27th.
On their debut album "Songs from the Bromley House", Lucius (who placed 86th on our latest Year End Poll for emerging NYC artists) shares their experiences of living in this century-old Bushwick residence. The album is filled with warm colors and folksy Americana, working well as a backdrop under the unrushed energy of singer-songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. It’s a beautiful thing to hear their voices tell each other’s stories together in perfect cadence. You feel the care and sensitivity these two share for one another with every delicate nuance. It’s nice to be invited into the Bromley House for a little while… – Mike Levine
Lucius will be playing the Folk/Singer-Songwriter Stage at the upcoming Deli 2011 NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artists Fest). Here’s the full lineup for that night (the fest will have 9 stages that same week):
The Knitting Factory – $8/12 – 18+
DELI’S B.E.A.F. FOLK/SINGER/SONGWRITERS STAGE
11.15 Turner Cody
10.45 TBA
10.15 Waking Lights
9.30 Bird Call (CD Release)
9.00 Norman Vladimir
8.30 Lacrymosa
8.00 Lucius
7.30 Huff This!
7.00 Fifth Nation
"Hop Skip Jump", the hit track from The Brothers Burn‘s latest LP, "A Work In Progress", has been immortalized in video, and been spotted bobbing amongst the flotsam of Youtube! By sheerest accident, the brothers were discovered at an Austin grocery store in the wee hours of the morning, helping themselves to the grapes in the produce section. You need to be able to look past the court’s commitment judgment and the obsessive concern about "Mother" to really experience the brothers’ music, which has been compared to the likes of Aphex Twin, Prodigy, and The Crystal Method.
(Ed.: this post taken from The Brothers Burn’s post on our DIY Open Blog, check out other Open Blog posts in the Deli Kitchen.)
Salem has released a haunting video for their track "Sick". The track comes from their 2010 debut album King Night (IAMSOUND). With their dark take on gansta rap they are still the scariest band in town.
Dengue Fever, is burning up critics and fans with their Indie-Cambodian Pop stylings on their latest release Cannibal Courtship. Mixing a LA surf sounds with traditional Cambodian music is ironic, but even moreso when it works, making this their most co-hesive album to date. This six-peice LA based band just finished up their west coast tour and are heading to Europe this summer. To celebrate their new release and tour, they are playing 3 free shows, 6/4 at the Do-Division Fest, Damen Stage in Chicago, 6/18 Sat off the 405 at The Getty Center in LA, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2011, Damrosch Park, Bandshell, Manhattan, NYC.
