On November 30th, Adam Mormolstein and Kristen Holtschlag (aka The Wall and The Window) released their new ep The Years. This modern folk duo have created five charming and beautiful tracks. You can purchase the album through facebook here or through bandcamp below.
New England
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Ratigan — Fortune Metal
Within the first moments of Fortune Metal’s opening song, it’s obvious that Pavement is possibly the biggest influence on Ratigan’s music. The Providence, RI indie group, led by 20-year-old Patrick Higgins, share a nostalgia similar to that of most kids who grew up in the 1990s, and it is made evident in their lo-fi and low-key alternative rock. Higgins talk-sings his way through Cherry Blossom and the rest of the songs in a way that blends Gordon Gano, Stephen Malkmus, and John McCrea at its best, but sounds as if it was recorded in his sleep at its worst.
The fifteen songs of Fortune Metal range from the boisterous noise of Get a Load of THIS (Magic the Void) and the aptly named What the Fuck (Noise), to the instrumental explorations of Criteria, Dreaming of You, Waltz, and Love You. The band make it a point to add fits of clamor sporadically throughout.
One of the album’s highlights to play on repeat is French Kiss, a quirky and endearing song of seduction that you’ll wish someone wrote with you in mind. Higgins quips lines like “Unbutton my buttons and lay me down to die / Black mascara dripping from the circles in your eye”; The perfect make-out jam for the lusty indie pop couple.
Fortune Metal concludes its 42-minute journey with its most candid and gripping track, Chaos. Soft guitar and tambourine lead into introspective and emotionally hopeless lyrics. The song proceeds into ghostly wails echoing behind the repeated droning of “the emptiness always finds its way back in.”
The music Ratigan produces here is always understated and blissfully haphazard, but never dull. Unrefined and earnest, Fortune Metal proves to be an ambitious first full length for Ratigan.
–Sarah Ruggiero
New England
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Night Fruit — Dark Horse 7″
A long time ago, the only wise thing a very unwise person said was “Revolutionize your field and, short of that, convince others that is what you’re doing”, This is a rough paraphrase, of course; however, the point is Night Fruit don’t need to convince too hard.
On Dark Horse, their follow up to their debut Triangles EP, they blend a shoegaze dreaminess with sinister post-apocalyptic undertones, due to the otherworldy-ness of lead singer Amanda Dellevigne’s voice. It is a voice that rises and falls dreamy and distant and rides Jonathan Gill’s guitar like a stripper on a pole — all hips and swinging around. Commanding is one word to use. The guitar is reverby, and how. Jon often looks like he’s play-acting rockstar when he’s on stage, but it all comes down to the fact that he loves to entertain. He’s a greater guitar player for it too; this man isn’t afraid to throw every iota of emotion into a set or onto a record. Luke Sullivan’s tight drumming betrays his disaffected demeanor; he’s having fun no matter how taciturn the expression on his face.
The title track undulates out of the gate with dreamy riffing from Gill’s end and builds from there on out with Dellevigne’s voice, that enchanting dreamscape voice. Paper Thin is more of a straight forward rock song that includes some lovely building and breaking down, the bridge for this song was my favorite on the album. Bittersweet finishes this offering with some poppy goodness, a great bouncy beat, and some sing-a-long quality lyrics. Overall, a great showing from this excellent gang of bandits.
Night Fruit shows have a tendency to be an awfully good time and you should check them out. These smooth operators can be seen in the near future on:
Jan 10 at TT the Bear’s with Slowdim and You Can Be A Wesley
Feb 24 at O’Briens with Lymbyc Systym
–Chris Saenz
Philadelphia
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Photo Recap: BITBY Xmas Party at Little Bar
Bands in the Backyard and Phonographic Arts presented the BITBY Xmas Party this past Saturday night at Little Bar – complete with a five-band lineup, DJs, plenty of booze, and Santa! We were also sponsors for the event along with Sixpoint Brewery. Starting off the evening were Streetwalkers with their ultra-cool lyrics and underlying raw indie rock sound. BITBY’s founder Kyle Costill also strutted his stuff in a festive holiday Snoopy t-shirt while tapping the keys for only his second official live performance with the band. They were followed up by Brooklyn’s PC Worship who supplied some sludgy, psychedelic rock while their drummer sported a Santa ensemble – complete with a real beard and sunglasses. Spirit Animals (now with a “s”) were both festive and reflective of their music. Mindy and Robin wore holiday-appropriate outfits of bright red, while also showcasing feathers. Before Break It Up took the stage, the BITBY crew hung a sheet from the ceiling and projected their December Episode #5 featuring the upcoming trio. The band threw down in Costill’s decorated backyard while sporting plaid and ugly sweaters to keep warm during the performance. Break It Up’s set was fast-paced and fun. Casey Bell’s agility on the drums and big blue eyes wooed the men in the crowd. Their impressive, merrymaking rock hooks left the listeners incessantly chanting for an encore. Last up was Psychic Teens. They were loud. Very loud. Like rock should be played in the South Philly venue. Throughout the set, the bass was majorly bumping. Psychic Teens brought its own lighting, including an often-occurring strobe light, which created a very suiting vibe and illusion for their music, but probably not good for people prone to epileptic seizures. The set raged the way a closer should. In addition to the live music, DJs John Vettese (XPN2/The Key), Attia Taylor (Lady.Bang.Beat.), and others spun some tunes between the live sets. It was a wonderfully fun night of rock with a holiday spin and booze to warm your bones. You can take a look at our pics from the evening HERE.
NYC
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NYC Artists on the rise: Plates of Cake play Cake Shop on 01.19
What’s going on today people? Almost every song we play sounds like… Christmas. It’s happening also with this very very pretty track by Plates of Cake, a Brooklyn based quartet playing an interesting melange of alt folk and lo-fi: that calming melody, those beautiful female harmonies… Is that Santa singing? The track, entitled "As if the choice were mine," is the opener of their debut 7 inch, which also features "Transit," a song starting with some kind of "celtic/spaghetti western" verse followed by a chorus of pure pop crooning. Only a NYC based band could have given birth to such tune. See Plates of Cake Live at Cakeshop on 01.19 or at Pianos on 02.03.
L.A.
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Artist to Watch: Robert DeLong
I’m in the group of people that believes that you can make music out of anything. I was certain that the opus I composed on pots and pans was a masterpiece. While that’s debatable, the talent that young electronic artist Robert DeLong has is not. He uses everything from his voice to a Midi keyboard to video game remote controls to maneuver his way through his one man live shows. From the two minute preview of his live shows, it looks like a swirling mess of bodies and synth lines. His latest work is currently under construction for a new album, but one of the songs, "Happy", has been getting some coverage from KROQ. It’s an inescapably fun tune that is effervescent and well…happy. It’s nice to step away from the downer tunes once and awhile and just have some fun. Keep an eye on him. He’s sure to be popping up in your radar very soon. Starting January 9th, DeLong will host a residency at Los Globos in Silver Lake. – Taylor Lampela
NYC
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Ticket Giveaway: J Roddy Walston and the Business @ 9:30 Club 12/30
On Friday 12/30, Drive-By Truckers will be on there 2nd night of a 3 night residency at the 9:30 Club. And on this night they will be joined by the ever-rising Baltimore based americana-rockers J Roddy Walston and The Business! And the 9:30 Club wants to make sure that happens, so we’ve got a couple passes to give away! Just email us here by 5 PM on Thursday 12/29 and let us know your fav song by J Roddy Walston and the Business. (Please include your first and last name.) The winner will be chosen at random and emailed back.
Tickets are going fast (one night sold out already at time of publishing,) but you can still get them here. For now, check out their video for "Used to Did" from their album Hail Mega Boys, below.
NYC
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The Ludlow Thieves release self titled CD at Mrecury on 01.06
The Ludlow Thieves is a rather new and rather impressive NYC based folk rock trio whose songs, ranging from the uplifting and energetic to the intimate and pensive, work very well as a soundtrack to our impending winter holidays. These guys have already gotten some impressive song placement on a couple of TV shows, and will be releasing their debut record at Mercury Lounge on January 6. Check out a preview of it here.
NYC
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Ambassadors, Clouder, Desert Sharks and Eli Orling play Pianos on 12.22
There’s an interesting all-NYC-based-bands rock show this Thursday 12/22 at Pianos featuring Deli NYC favorites Ambassadors and Clouder, Brooklyn’s Desert Sharks, and singer/songwriter Eli Orling from Brooklyn based Car on the Moon.
Ambassadors is a band with serious potential. They craft short catchy yet rockin’ tracks with strong melodies and hooks. Made up of brothers Casey and Sam Harris, their childhood friend Noah Feldshuh and drummer Adam Levin, the band has been making headlines since their conception in 2008, playing exciting R&B-infused indie rock shows around the city. Their most recent release is the “Unconsolable” single and their full length is due out early next year.
Brooklyn’s Clouder has been sweeping the scene with their psychedelic influenced indie rock music. The five piece was recently nominated for the NYC Deli band of the month and with the lead of singer Eric Gilstrap, have been building their fan base, wowing audiences and press outlets like CMJ and Hype Machine . They have just finished recording a full length album.
Desert Sharks (in the picture) is a 4 piece all girl rock band that forges instantly hummable songs drenched in surf rock and punk influences. Their latest release is a 4 song EP available for download on their bandcamp.
Brooklyn’s Eli Orling is the lead singer of multi-instrumental indie folk quartet Car on the Moon. He releases solo music that is both intimate and honest, touching upon issues of love, loss and everyday relationships with a bluesy rock’n’roll tinge.
NYC
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From Washington DC to NYC: Aaron Thompson
Streaming below is the song ‘The Pines’ from Aaron Thompson‘s latest release, "Vessel EP". More raw and ambitious than his eponymous debut album, "Vessel EP" was recorded in five days this past summer at the Empress of Sound Studio in Washington, DC (where he was based). Thompson has recently moved to Brooklyn and will be performing in at Pianos on February 10, 2012. – (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 and APS Mastering.
NYC
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Mittenfields & “The Fresh Sum” EP
Season greetings from Mittenfields! The DC based rock quintet have a ‘name your price’ deal going on over at their site for their self-released EP The Fresh Sum (released July 2011) until the end of the year! The five tracks highlight their impressively huge sound in the vein of Pixies and Pavement. Get a taste of the excellence below! They’ve started working on their new full-length album due out in 2012, so stay tuned.
Catch them live at the Velvet Lounge on Jan. 2 2012!
Philadelphia
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Recap & Photos: The War on Drugs w/Sun Airway & Ape School at Union Transfer
his past Saturday night at Union Transfer was certainly a local family affair with The War on Drugs, Sun Airway, and Ape School filling the stage with some of the areas finest musicians as well as having them behind the scenes manning the sound. Ha…as predicted by R5, the Fishtown community was definitely in the house as well as the rest of Philly who came out to support on an evening filled with plenty to do in town.
Ape School rolled into the venue seven-deep with Michael Johnson leading the gang of performers that included Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick, The Extraordinaires’ Zach “Scooter” Poyatt and Adam Ravitz, and many others. We got a taste of new material from Johnson’s upcoming album Junior Violence, which is planned for release in late spring 2012, and its title gives us a hint of the aural assault that we’ll find on the record. The hazy, woozy folk of Ape School’s self-titled album seemed to have been left behind in the wake of the noisy rock band that showed up to open the evening. They were much more impressive than the version of the band which we had experienced at one of our Deli-presented showcases a while back.
Sun Airway followed, and we’ve seen them live multiples times this year, but we are always happy to do so. They were missing a guitarist which we’re not sure is a permanent thing now. However, our 2010’s End of the Year Emerging Artist Poll Winners still sounded as comfortable on the big stage as they did at this year’s POPPED! Festival. Their setlist consisted of mostly songs from their debut album and the A and B-sides of their latest single with a new song called “New Movements” thrown into the mix. The band definitely wrapped up 2011 on a high note with their final performance of the year.
Finally, The War on Drugs took the stage after a bit of time setting up, but it was understandable since they had extra gear for Drugs alumni like Kurt Vile, Kyle Lloyd, and Mike Zanghi to join them on stage so we knew that we’d be getting some of our favorite classics from past albums. Their current four-piece lineup consisting of Dave Hartley on bass, Robbie Bennett on keys/guitar, Steven Urgo on drums, and of course, Adam Granduciel on guitar/vox has had a lot of time on the road this year to work on their chemistry, and it certainly showed at UT. The band sounded the tightest that we’ve ever heard them over the years, and their comfort level also allowed for a looseness in their playing which led to plenty of experimentation and extended jams on most of their tunes. Their set was about a hundred and five minutes long with only fifteen songs. The show highlight for us was the monstrous jam in “A Needle in Your Eye #16” with Vile and others to close out the set. While the stigma of being called a “jam band” might be frowned upon these days after the flooding of such bands into the music scene in the nineties and early aughts, it is pretty obvious to us that a resurgence of “jam bands” is inevitable and already here in one form or another with rising and established indie bands finally being less afraid to admit that they grew up on a healthy dose of The Grateful Dead and Phish. So it wasn’t surprising at all that the first of the two encore songs was a cover of The Grateful Dead’s “Touch of Grey,” which we already knew that The War on Drugs had whipped out earlier on this tour. After a raucous evening of intense jams, the band mellowed things out with “Black Water Falls” sending the satisfied crowd on its way with something to lament over as the New Year approaches. You can check out some of our photos from the evening HERE.