Bright, airy and full of emotion, Grace Weber’s latest album "Hope and Heart" encompasses both sentiments beautifully. Since its September release, Weber has received a significant amount of press, including being listed as Billboard’s “Artist To Watch” and holding tight to a top ten spot on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts. Her video for “Everything to Me” (streaming below) appeared on the AOL music homepage, showcasing the soul of this talented songstress. After headlining The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F. Songwriters stage tonight (schedule in the post above), Grace Weber will be heading to the UK in June for a few dates in London. – CM

What started off as a solo project for visual artist Justin Storms in Texas, "Wailin Storms" has evolved into a four piece punk blues band that has played everywhere from London to Baltimore and is now raising the rock’n’roll dead here in Brooklyn. Storms recently teamed up with members from local heavy folk band "Such Hounds" and digitally released a 4 song EP called "Bone Colored Moon." The noises that they’ve stirred up are gritty, sparse, eerie, and sometimes punk but it still sounds as genuine as a blind bluesman. Upcoming shows: @ Legion, Brooklyn 6/3, Northside Festival, Charleston, Brooklyn 6/14. – (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.

If you think about it, it’s rather mind blowing how these days almost any promising emerging band can get a truly outstanding video made for somewhere between zero and a few thousand dollars. Until a few years ago, a video like this one by NYC retro-pop quartet Spacecamp of their single "Miko D.T.B." would have cost a fortune… kudos to director Philip Di Fiore who, according to IFC.com, "gives the piece a timeless feeling combining a love for old Blue Note record covers with magnificent manipulations of light and perspective."

Sometimes we get these press releases in the mail saying that a band we’ve never heard of just signed with a super cool label, and we look at each other (as if we were more than one) with a puzzled expression: "who the heck are these guys?". Today "these guys" are two zany guys involved in lo-fi psych-folk duo Foxygen, based 50% in Astoria, NYC and 50% in Olympia, WA, who recently signed to Jagjaguwar. Following a very non-chalant musical recipe which seems to phagocytize any musical influence every imagined since 1957, these guys’ songs certainly don’t lack in character. Think of it as a hipster, but also somewhat retro, version of They Might Be Giant. Fun!

An old Deli NYC favorite, Violens released their new album "True" with a very emphatic set last Wednesday at Le Poisson Rogue. The band, fronted by former Lansing-Dreiden art collective member Jorge Elbrecht, filled the audience’s need for both the angular and the melodic sides of the musical spectrum. The new material betrays and enhances the band’s fascination with the dream-pop sounds of the 80s, where a tight and square rhythm section gets glossed over with soaring didactic vocals and clean, fluid guitars. With the band now touring to Japan in promotion of their new LPlet’s hope they return to NYC soon this year. -Simon Heggie