With every year that passes the medium of video becomes increasingly important in how people discover, enjoy, interact, and experience music. In this post I am going to attempt to recap 2011 in video by posting my 15 favorite, but I would be missing something if failed to mention all of the wonderful live video that was captured this year. With sites like Small Chicago, Giant System, Rooftop Sessions, Lightbox Sessions, Living Room Songs and others dedicated to capturing local live performance fans of local music have access in ways they never have before.
Here is my disclaimer, as with all year end lists, this is in no way comprehensive, but these are my favorite video from 2011 and so how shape my year as a fan of Chicago music. You can view the entire list here.
Check out the new apocalyptic music video from Far-Out Fangtooth for a track called “The Thorns.” It will be available next month on a 7-inch that they’ll be releasing via HoZac Records. You can also catch them live on a kick-ass local bill at The Level Room with Lantern and Harsh Vibes on January 15. (Photo by James Horn)
Below is a new old-timey, feel good track from Gracie called “Flirty Little Fishy” off his latest split with Chicago’s Esta Vivo via rad LA indie label MJ MJ Records. You can purchase it for download and on limited edition cassette HERE. Gracie also has a new EP entilted Treehouse coming out on February 7 via Small Plates Records. Enjoy!
As far as LA’s indie bands rising to commercial success this year, Foster the People takes the crown for 2011, with honorable mentions for Young the Giant and Grouplove. Now looking ahead at 2012, the dazzling pop sounds of Youngblood Hawke place them on a similar path as all the aforementioned bands. Oddly enough, according to Youngblood Hawke’s biography, friends Sam Martin and Simon Katz wanted to avoid commercial pressures and started the band with a simple mindset of having fun and sharing music with friends. Whether or not the band, which also includes Tasso Smith, Alice Katz and Nik Hughes, actually has felt any pressure is unknown, but with bright vocals, sparkling percussion and fluttery guitars they should have very little trouble finding acceptance among music fans around the world.
While 2012 will most likely be a big year for Youngblood Hawke, it does not mean that 2011 was a snooze. On the contrary, the band released an EP in March and had a buzzing residency at The Satellite during the month of October. The exhilarated sounds of songs like "Rootless" and "Dannyboy" reflect the force of a radiating city. The lyrics contain a lot of motion, showing that the band members do not wait for opportunity to knock on their door. Instead, they take charge and make things happen for themselves. The band plans two wrap up a full-length album during the next two months, but do not expect them to be out of the spotlight for long. – Karla Hernández
Our Deli jurors just finished rating all the Electronic artists that submitted to be considered for our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists – and here are the results for you to check out! The top 3 artists in this list will qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.
P.S. If you are interested in understanding how our Year End Poll for Emerging Artists works, please go here.
NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS – ELECTRONIC
Jurors: Jason Behrends (Deli Chicago), Dawn Reed (Deli DC), QD Tran (Deli Philly).
NYC’s j.viewz mesmerized our jury with his mid to downtempo, soulful and absorbing electronic compositions. Compelling songwriting, refined production values and beautiful female voices work together in making this one of the best Electronic albums coming out of NYC in 2011. Apparently, the CD art isn’t that bad either – it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package!!!
2. Tayisha Busay
Williamsburg hypsters’ favorite party band has proven, with their new album "Focus/Virus" that they are much much more than just some kind of weird and hilarious cabaret act. Songs like "Nothing’s Happening" and "Heartmeat/Lovemuscle" (streaming here) are pure electronic pop gems, from a record that’s as consistent as it’s varied.
3. WAZU
Recent transplants from LA, the duo in Wazu crafts an almost scary electro-rock with industrial tinges and a pop soul. Their guitar sound alone commands awe, while the overall apop-calyptic mood of their music brings to mind that masterpiece of the 80s that is The The’s "Infected".
– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S THE NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (they all shared a final score of 7.66 out of 10) but won’t qualify to the next round of our poll because… I guess because we need to put a limit to the total number of nominees. We really wish they were in the final list though because they are really good, so check them out!
4a. Masterface
Atmospheric and textured, Masterface is a patient bunch: the band likes to build their songs slowly, letting their angelic melodies intertwine and feed each other, supported by (and often buried under) layers of gentle electronic sounds. This is an interesting project that bridges genres as antithetical as pop and ambient.
4b. Treasure Teeth
A collaboration spanning from London to Miami to NYC, Treasure Teeth is probably one of the most emotionally intense quirky bands we have ever heard. The fact that the sensitive female lead vocals don’t sound at all disconnected from the constantly evolving, somewhat bizarre electronic arrangements represents some kind of production miracle.
4c. Ghastly City Sleep
Also textured and atmospheric, Ghastly City Sleep conveys to its music an almost religious intensity through sparse arrangements and spacious melodies often drenched in reverb, showcasing also a penchant for intricate rhythms borrowed from Africa.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
These artists also had really good ratings from our jurors (between 7 and 7.5 out of 10): Kodomo, Cultfever, Papertwin, Great Tiger)
This year, our Year End 2011 Polls for emerging artists are proving to be more challenging than ever, with 11 US scenes involved and 1,500+ submissions between our own system and the Sonic Bids applications. We are spending a significant portion of the our 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… the results of the Open Submissions are slowly coming toget and we are slowly going to publish them starting with NYC (check back!). Sonic Bids selections will be coming after that.
Whether you were selected or not, it’s always good to 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." Take that as 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 in the first week of January and end at the end of that same month. 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!
The greatest strength of old time music is that (unlike all the experimental-ish indie genres we tend to fetishize here) it can really convey a feeling of community, of people coming together not just to listen, but to be part of something – and to share feelings and lift their mood while doing so. Which makes us think that maybe the current resurgence of rootsy music is somehow linked to the country’s economic troubles… Contagiously upbeat NYC collective Spirit Family Reunion – what an appropriate name! – will be at The Living Room every Wednesday in January to spread this kind of "rustic" good vibes, which are very likely to make us forget for one night about the fact that we can’t really afford to live in NYC. Great way to start the new year! The guys are really good at it, don’t miss!
If you live in or around Austin and during New Year’s Eve celebrations you intend to escape that ubiquitous aural cheese also known as "generic party music," we recommend you spend the last few hours of 2011 at the Deli sponsored, 3 stage indie show at Cheer Up Charlie, featuring 9 indie Austin based artists, including Ringo DeathStarr, TV Torso, and The Sour Notes. In the best indie/DIY tradition, tickets are very affordable (only $5) and quite unbelievably also include free champagne for a proper year end toast.
Check out all the bands playing in the compilation embedded below. And may 2012 be a very indie year indeed!
Honestly, I’ve been so busy that I really haven’t thought about making an end of the year list until I recently received a few inquiries about what would make mine. So with a little free time to reflect this weekend, I started thinking about the local albums that kept me coming back for more in 2011. It’s been a rad year for Philly indie music so I’ve been beating myself up trying to narrow it down to 10. But I’m over this sadomasochistic act. I give up. After all, it is my list, right? Why can’t it be 15? Yes, it could be even more than that, but I need to get some rest and stop obsessing. You can take a look at my list of favorite local albums in 2011 and listen to some of the tracks that have helped them stand out in my mind HERE. If you like what you hear, make sure to grab a copy or revisit it if its somewhere in your collection. I know. There are some that you think I missed or overlooked. Feel free to also share your faves from this year that you don’t see. Enjoy!
We’re not very religious on this end at The Deli. But we did want to take this opportunity to wish Happy Holidaze to all our beloved readers and supporters – YOU ROCK! We hope that everyone has a great time while Philly slows down for a much-needed break. We’ll still be posting here and there this week, but we’d also like to take this opportunity to chill a bit. However, we did want to share with you one of our favorite childhood jams (if not THE favorite). The footage was taken by our pals at BITBY from The Extraordinaires’ Holiday Revue this year. Much love and cheers!
As of late, many young artists have leaned towards more antiquated musical stylings to boast their musical prowess. It’s a cyclical thing – once what sounds new becomes an old trope, there’s always some relegated genre about to make a reappearance for the even younger to discover. While we wait for the next buzzband to adopt the smooth delivery of Steely Dan, we currently have the winsome pop delicacies of Henry Wolfe. On the surface, the melodies Wolfe performs with his five piece could pass for the slightly unorthodox methods of a young Randy Newman – he’s easy on the eye but his words are pungent, with the smarts to charm a middle-aged lady into liking him and convincing him to drive her up to Margaritaville. This is middle-of-the-road seventies pop of the highest order with a wink of nostalgia thrown into the mix. But the music is anything but ironic – Wolfe’s slick strums and pacific rhetoric are just a way to communicate the pains of unrequited love. So before some top line producer sequesters him for a string of Nora Ephron movie scores (or some quirky animated film about a couple of precocious kids), take a listen to his promising debut Linda Vista before he crosses over – then thinking about it, it’s plausible to imagine the whole family singing along to his memorable ditties.
With the release of his sophomore album, "Euphoria," Devon Williams has not had a chance to spend too much time at home in Los Angeles. This fall has seen him touring across the U.S. with Wet Illustrated, gigging in London and opening for Tennis on the West Coast. The latter brought him to LA for a hometown show on December 7th at the Satellite, where he was welcomed with unexpected fanfare. Playing with his 4-piece band, Williams performed a shimmering 9-song set of indie pop tunes, with more than half being from the new album. However, what neither Williams or the crowd expected was an annex orchestra of kazoos and bells in the audience. A few enthusiastic friends of Williams added to the show’s excitement with their instrumentation. Just like on the record, Williams voice spiked with energy in a very charming way on sunny songs like ‘Right Direction’ and ‘Your Sympathy.’ The songs were illuminated with twinkling keys and bright intertwining guitars. His voice was thin in a comforting way, which was a surprising match for his hard-witted lyrics and onstage banter. In between songs, Williams made snappy comments to counter small technical difficulties and cracked jokes about his drummer being Canadian. It was an easy way to relieve the tensions of an opening slot and the band seemed to have fun on stage. The band did a good job at connecting the dots between the upbeat songs and the more reflective, psychedelic-driven tracks.
The show lined up well with the release of William’s second single ‘Revelations.’ The song is the first track on "Euphoria", and opens with a lovely set of "ba ba bum bum bums" and an enchanting guitar line. Williams sings with utter delight, and the layering in instrumentation makes the listener want to sing out with him. Woodwinds and strings tinker in the background like a blossoming garden. The digital release of the single is accompanied with a remix of ‘Tower of Thought.’ The song is remixed by New York’s Violens, who turn the track into an electro blend of hyper keys and dark percussion. For the first minute, the only vocal elements are Williams’ haunting wails. In its original state, ‘Tower of Thought’ is delicate and moves at a slow daze. In the remix, the momentum is sped up tremendously with the aesthetic of a UK club scene. The ending is a bit deceiving as the instrumentation seems to suddenly drop off the map, but then kicks back in and slowly fades out. Violens take the word remix to heart and give the song an incredible new life. The ‘Revelations’ single and "Euphoria" CD/LP are out now via Slumberland Records. – Karla Hernández
If you live in or around Austin and during New Year’s Eve celebrations you intend to escape that ubiquitous aural cheese also known as "generic party music," we recommend you spend the last few hours of 2011 at the Deli sponsored, 3 stage indie show at Cheer Up Charlie, featuring 9 indie Austin based artists, including 
