NYC

Noisegazing trio BAMBARA at Shea Stadium on May 4th

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Emerging as the latest entry into New York’s ever growing Psych Rock scene comes the Brooklyn based trio BAMBARA. Recognition of their shared sonic kinship with legendary New York bands like A Place To Bury Strangers and Swans most likely served as motivation to leave Athens, Georgia for the grittier Bushwick lifestyle. The band will now release their much anticipated debut full length album “DREAMVIOLENCE” via Arrowhawk Records as well as their own Emerald Weapon imprint. As you may evince from their predilection for all caps, this is not a band interested in whispering. Current single “Nail Polish” throttles along at a frantic pace, with warped guitar textures conjuring twisted carnival merry-go-rounds of an unsettling dream. “All The Same” creeps up from misty swamps until an overloaded bassline and clattering drum pattern cuts through it all with caustic force. Catch them live at Shea Stadium on May 4th. – Dave Cromwell

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Psych Rock songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

NYC

Small Multiples release debut + play Mercury on May 6

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The newly formed duo that is Small Multiples brings a pleasant Avant-Rock concoction (and not so pleasant out of focus press pictures) to NYC’s Indie scene. Formed at NY’s New School, Craig Hartley and Eli Friedmann combine their talent and experience to bring you a style of music that merges multiple genres to visually stimulate the mind while preserving the integrity of each, as the term “small multiples” suggests. The group is set to release their debut self-titled EP on May 21st and you can stream/download the song “Know My Name” from it below. See them live at The Mercury Lounge on May 06. – Michael Haskoor (@Tweetskoor)

NYC

Great American Roots Stomp – 2 nights of Americana at Union Hall

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The First Great American Roots Stomp – two nights of hootin’, hollerin’, jazzin’, swingin’, foot-stompin’, barn-burnin’ revelry with ten bands from Brooklyn and the Northeast bringing Americana roots back into the spotlight – is coming up on Friday 5/3, and Saturday 5/4 at Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY. The acts of night one include King Stork, Union Street Preservation Society, Whistling Wolves, Alex Mallett Band, and Charlotte Cornfield. On the first night, Alex Mallett Band and USPS stickout with high energy and erratically rhythmic tunes, while Charlotte Cornfield writes exquisitely crafted songs with lyrics full of playful imagery and rhyme schemes. The next night, 5/4, will have even more bands, like Portland, ME’s North of Nashville, Reed Hook Ramblers and more. Head to Park Slope this weekend, and get your folk music fix, all in one weekend. 7:30 doors, 8:00 Show on both nights. – Paul Jordan Talbot

Chicago

Jody

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The atmospheric r&b/hip-hop group simply known as Jody released their first of three ep’s which will lead up to their forthcoming debut album last month. The ep was produced by The-Drum, and so was their new single, "The Long Goodbye", which dropped this week.

Philadelphia

The Deli Seattle’s Album of the Month: Holy Trinity – King Dude

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The raw inspirations that TJ Cowgill, a.k.a. King Dude, draws on for his new 7” Holy Trinity showcases the artist’s dark rockabilly-structured roots and all the while still focusing on more of a heavy folk take on the horror genre that we expect from him. Songs like the album’s opener “Please Stay (In The Shadow Of My Grave)” have a very grim mood, which throws a nod back to his days in black metal outfit Black Earth. It all makes sense after all, because these songs are from the earlier days of Cowgill’s career. The old tunes sound great with the new mix, especially juxtaposed next to his previous release Burning Daylight. The EP was recorded with the members of his new band adding some background feed and percussion, and in the end, it makes for an exceptionally well-rounded sound with welcomed extra reverb. Standout track “Don’t Want Me Still” really shines through with its Bowie-esque vocals, possessing a mournful tone with a speck of hope, as it tramples through the graveyard all the while looking for its meaning. The album is a really nice collection of tracks from Cowgill that are more forgiving in the sense that it is meant to revel in the horrorbilly realm, but relies more on structure and less on despair. It provides fans with a new take on their old favorites and new fans with a foundation into King Dude’s signature shadowy sound, produced without the gimmicks that are usually found throughout the genre. – John Clements

Philadelphia

The Deli Philly’s May Album of the Month: LP2 – Restorations

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For those who decide whether to come or go based on the first forty seconds of an album, Restorations’ LP2 is practically tailor-made for snap judgments. After a chiming, anthemic guitar opening, the band already known for fist-raising jams lets all hell break loose with “D,” their most unrestrained opener yet. The drum kit-mauling, earth-shaking bass lines and ascendant guitar riffs can only be described as complete sensory overload, and make it clear that the following eleven songs are going to be fueled by pure viscera. If your preferences run towards structure over huge sound, this release may leave you cold; LP2’s predominant means of exploring the band’s wealth of ideas are stadium-sized instrumentation and endless waves of atmospherics, as well as a dose of ennui.
 
This is a murkier, more inward-looking Restorations than we’re used to. Everything that was there before, musically, is blown sky-high this time around. They’ve managed to pack ideas into every iota of the song list, aided by Jon Low’s miles-deep production; the density of the music itself is offset by an album-long meditation on place, belonging, and the ramifications of leaving the familiar behind, which makes the outsized sound that much more of an interesting direction. Juxtaposing the existential discomfort with more sophisticated, complex forays into Restorations’ sonic wheelhouse.
 
The spiraling guitars, one of the album’s specially prominent features, are everywhere, serving various purposes in each song. “Kind of Comfort”’s jittery glam rock aspirations accompany lyrics of searching and wanderlust. Even the more downbeat cuts (“In Perpetuity Through The Universe,” “New Old”) are propelled beyond their subject matter by the songs’ barely-concealed restless energy. At its more pensive moments, like the folk-inflected “Civil Inattention,” there is a restless undercurrent of texture and volatility that never quite lets up.
 
Album closer “Adventure Tortoise” is all monster buildup laced with extraterrestrial effects, kicking off into a sort of requiem for the band’s neighborhood. “I’d really like to stay to help this place,” growls Jon Loudon through his teeth, but the allure of letting it all go is too strong to resist.  The longing for a place “where nobody knows your name” isn’t quite all-consuming enough to inspire real action, but it is definitely the new paradigm Loudon means.

It takes guts to pull off a release that feels ten minutes long but contains more emotional and musical texture than most records. Restorations cover a whole lot of ground on LP2, and for the most part, pull off their ambitions. A bit too sanguine for shoegaze, and maybe too heady for punk, Restorations’ second full-length album brings an intriguing palette of aspirations to their open road-ready sound, prepared to try anything and everything. – Alyssa Greenberg

Philadelphia

New Bad Braids Album Out Today & Available for Streaming

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Bad Braids (a.k.a. Megan Biscieglia) released her bewitching new full-length album, Supreme Parallel, today via Austin-based indie label Haute Magie. You can stream the record in its entirety below. Bad Braids will be heading on a month-long European tour with Mike Bruno starting this month.

L.A.

Artist to Watch: Coming

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Coming are a trio that bulldoze ear-splitting shards of noise with militant force, faithfully drawn from the more abrasive influences of seventies post-punk. And though there’s been a revival of sorts in the past few years, we’ve yet to see an LA band that’s fully committed to channel their nihilistic sense of despair with utter abjection. Every scene needs its modern-day, disenchanted voice, and Coming may be it – they’re also fully committed to the task, promoting themselves as a branded commodity with their peculiar band symbol, which they sell in the form of patches along with their debut cassette tape on bandcamp. But it’s the songs themselves in their debut EP, Lonely, that are coupled with a visceral conviction; fast, atonal guitar assaults delivered with that of a fiendish smirk, yet melodically driven behind all the blaring noise. If you want to catch them in all their primal fury, they’ll be playing a set at the Smell on May 30th.

L.A.

The Shakers play the Satellite on 5.16

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Soulful alt-rock foursome The Shakers plays a bare bones brand of rock n’ roll that instantly grabs you with a powerful force. And they’ll be proving just that with their headlining show at the Satellite on May 16th, in which they’ll be playing songs off their upcoming LP, titled Rescue Team.