With it being Nesta Robert Marley’s birthday, the reggae vibes of Work Dugs‘ latest track "The Good In Goodbye" makes absolute sense to us today. It’s the second single from the band’s upcoming LP Insurgents, which is due out March 4 via Bobby Cahn Records. The song also features Kat Bean from Amanda X. Smoke ’em if ya got ’em, folks – that’s what Bob would do. Much love and respect!
New England
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Sorority Noise gets lucky with latest EP
On last September’s Young Luck EP, Sorority Noise bridges the gap between pop punk and alternative rock. At just under eight minutes, the four-song collection is a quick escapade into catchy hooks and precise rhythms. Opening track “Queen Anne’s Lace,” with its sea of distorted guitars and nonchalant vocals, should be enough to get you hooked, while later songs “Mediocre at Best” and “Still Shrill” explore the feelings of insecurity inherent to most twenty-somethings. On the former, vocalist Cameron Boucher laments “Nobody likes me – that’s what I tell myself.” The latter tugs at pop punk the most, with choppy guitar riffs and shouted back-up vocals as Boucher decides that to “close my eyes to feel more like myself” after comparing himself to his mother and ex-girlfriends. Young Luck is available on Bandcamp now and the band is nearing the completion of its next as-yet-untitled release. – Jake Reed
Chicago
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The Damn Choir @ The Hideout
The Damn Choir are back with a new album, Creatures of Habit. So far the band has released a single, "Morning Glory", and a video for a track called "Creatures".
You can catch The Damn Choir at The Hideout to celebrate the release tomorrow night, Feb. 7th, at The Hideout with The Wild Family.
NYC
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Found through the Best of NYC Year End poll: oddlogic
There’s something very alluring about NYC’s oddlogic‘s really, REALLY sparse instrumental electronica. Rather than attacking you with an infinity of derivative tricks and predictable four on the floor beats (a fault of too many artists dedicated to this genre), Alex Gohorel plays its cards well, producing tracks that entrance the listener with simple but unexpected rhythmic developments (hear "Trickers, Cascades," streaming below) or use original samples sparingly to construct an intriguing sonic collage, like in "Blunders, Wonders," a track that sounds like The Chemical Brothers without any Big Beat distractions.
It must also be noted oddlogic’s prolificity: the project’s Soundcloud profile gets updated with new material on a monthly basis – that’s what happens when you are a productive person without band mates to deal with…
We found out about this band through our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists, they placed 13th in the Readers’ Poll section.
Chicago
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Aaron Cooper
Every November for the last six year Aaron Cooper (Bear Weather) has released a set of recordings into the world digitally via bandcamp. His November 2013 collection is stripped down collection of acoustic tracks that he wrote, performed, and record himself. Each song is about 2 minutes and each are wonderfully gems that need to be heard.
You can next catch Aaron Cooper performing solo at The Store on March 1st.
NYC
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Fish Doctor becomes Stargazy + plays Pianos on 02.07
Brooklyn’s Stargazy is the new moniker for the artist previously known as Fish Doctor – who placed 2nd in our recent Best of 2013 Readers’ Poll – Indie Pop category. With this band, things are never as happy-go-surfing as they seem at first listen, with even the simple refrain of ‘and you drown in the Atlantic’ (from their latest single streaming below) hinting at a sinister layer of meaning hiding under the sunny melodies. Fun but far from throwaway, full of confidence and frivolity that smells of experience rather than naivety. Head down to the Lower East Side and catch them at Pianos on February 7th. – Francesca Baker
NYC
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Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony is The Deli Readers’ Best SF Band of 2013!
San Fran Deli Readers,
The Deli’s Best of SF 2013 Readers and Fans’ Poll for Emerging Artists is over, thanks to all those who cast their vote in support of the emerging SF Area bands and artists in our list of nominees.
Congrats to Oakland’s opera-rock revivalists Major Powers & The Lo-Fi Symphony (pictured and streaming) for being The Deli Readers’ Best Emerging SF Artist of 2013!
Kudos also to Psych Rockers Down Dirty Shake and soul charmers The California Honeydrops who placed second and third respectively.
Here’s this poll’s top 10 chart for the readers’ poll, full results can be found on the right hand side of this page.
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MOST IMPORTANTLY THOUGH! Stay tuned for the composite chart, to be released soon, which will include the point nominees accumulated from the jurors and Deli writers’ votes, and will crown The Deli’s Best Emerging SF Artist of 2013.
The Deli’s Staff
New England
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Boston Calling Preps for Sophomore Year
This Memorial Day weekend, Massachusetts-based music festival Boston Calling will be returning to captivate fans in Downtown Boston. Now entering its second year, festival organizers are preparing for their biggest turnout — and arguably best lineup — yet.
Co-founders Brian Appel and Mike Snow (formerly of The Boston Phoenix and WFNX radio), have been working diligently since the festival’s inception to create a concert weekend that can satisfy even the most critical of New England music fans. “We try to put a festival together that speaks to the people of the Greater Boston area” says Appel, noting that the festival aims to appeal to music fans all across New England, in addition to its central focus on the City of Boston.
Click here to read the rest of this story.
Philadelphia
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The Weaks Debut EP Available for Streaming
Philly seems to be bustling with activity and releases which makes absolute sense with SXSW on the horizon. The Weaks, a new project from ex-Dangerous Ponies Evan Bernard and Chris Baglivo, will be dropping its debut EP The World Is A Terrible Place And I Hate Myself And Want To Die on February 11 via "Philadelphia independent record label that wasn’t supposed to happen" Lame-O Records. You can currently preview the album in its entirety over at Brooklyn Vegan. The band, which also includes Peter Helmis (ex-Algernon Cadwallader) and Greg Labold (Bandname) in its live lineup, is having a party this Friday, Feb. 7 at Golden Tea House, and will be celebrating its release with pals Thin Lips, Kite Party, and Tacoma’s Cowardice.
Nashville
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Axon Projects Launches
On January 20th, Axon Projects quietly held their launch party at Soulshine Pizza (well, as quietly as two rooms filled with bands, students, and kids raffling off Sok a Joe’s can be). Residents nearby might have felt a slight tremor in the ground as a company with tremendous potential to become a major resource for budding artists made their existence official. Axon Projects is a social fundraising platform for musicians, set apart from, say, Kickstarter by offering project consulting and allowing users to keep funds raised even if they fall short of their initial goal. Their website also drives home their mind towards building a community with future events and showcases, so may they grow into yet another fortification to Nashville’s vibrant and supportive music scene.
The Astrochimps were part of the lineup for Axon Project’s launch party. The band is preparing to open their project with the creative crowd funder. “I’ll Tell You Tomorrow” is from their debut EP released the summer of 2013. Influenced by Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys, it shows their chops at keeping things groovy. Keep up to date with their progress and maybe contribute to their venture HERE. –Terra James-Jura
NYC
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Me Like Bees: a Q&A with The Deli KC’s 2013 Readers’ Choice Winner
(Photo by Todd Zimmer)
Me Like Bees is the winner of The Deli KC’s 2013 Readers’ Poll! The Joplin band has been making waves in the Midwest for a few years now, and has more recently found success by taking home the award for the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands competition, earning them a coveted spot on Warped Tour and a three-song EP produced by Goldfinger’s John Feldmann. The four-piece group’s strongly developed indie rock sound draws comparisons to bands like The White Stripes and Modest Mouse, but Me Like Bees has cultivated its own melodic, quirky, upbeat style to stand on a national stage. We had a chance to talk with frontman Luke Sheafer and find out a little more about the band.
The Deli: Down and dirty: 1 sentence to describe your music. What is it?
Luke Sheafer: Sex and drugs in the trunk of Bill Murray’s ’87 Corsica.
A bagel with strawberry cream cheese in a world of doughnut holes.
Down and dirty? Up and clean! That’s two sentences. Three now. Four…
The Deli: Give us some background on the band.
Sheafer: We’ve been a band with our current and most active lineup for about three years. There isn’t a cohesive single event to attribute to our coming together, as each of our members came in years apart from each other. Pete started playing with a couple guys, Luke came in a couple of years later, Tim a year and a half further down the road, then finally Nick about two years after that. We’re sort of a hodgepodge. But we’ve been with our current lineup for almost two years now, and we are very comfortable with each other in a musical, family-friendly, completely innuendo-less sort of way.
The Deli: You guys hail from Joplin. How have you been able to find success outside of there, obviously being a bigger name in the KC area and also beyond?
Sheafer: We’ve put our nose to the grindstone. For example, taking gigs on a Tuesday night four hours away just to get our foot in the door of a venue. We pride ourselves on putting out a good product both in our recordings and on stage and we try to make the most of every good opportunity that’s been given us. We try to make our social media more about entertainment, rather than promotion, and gradually all these elements combined have worked for fostering a following in the surrounding markets (Also, we totes rawk soooo hard fo shoze).
The Deli: What would you say have been your biggest accomplishments as a band?
Sheafer: Aside from being the reader’s choice for best emerging band of 2013 by your readership, most recently we had the opportunity to play with three quality bands in the finals of this year’s Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, and we were fortunate to be selected as the winner. Last year we released our first full-length album entitled The Ides, and we went on a Midwest/East Coast tour with Never Shout Never last winter.
The Deli: What do you have coming up?
Sheafer: We are playing Middle of the Map Fest this year, and also Midcoast Takeover in Austin! But before all that we have a show at The Riot Room in Kansas City on the 28th that we’re excited to play. Two of us are from Kansas City originally, so we’re always amped to play in front of family and friends.
The Deli: Tell us a little bit about the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands competition you recently won.
Sheafer: The Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands is put on by Ernie Ball Strings every year. 25,000 bands entered this year for a chance to play on select dates of Vans Warped Tour. Four finalists receive the chance to play at a showcase in Hollywood for a grand prize of $15,000 to spend at Guitar Center, two weeks on Warped Tour, and an EP with producer John Feldmann. We were the winner this year. I look forward to playing shows in the blazing heat and making connections on Warped Tour. I feel like it’s basically going to be living out the Hunger Games for a couple of weeks.
The Deli: What does supporting local music mean to you?
Sheafer: It means building a community, and a home for local talent. We have found a home in several cities through others supporting us and we wouldn’t be in the position we are now without the support of our friends in Joplin and Kansas City.
The Deli: Who are your favorite local musicians right now?
Sheafer: This is a tough question because we play with and are friends with a ton of quality musicians. With that disclaimer out of the way, my favorite local band is called The Travel Guide out of Wichita. Very cool sound. You should look them up if you haven’t already. In Kansas City, it’s Not A Planet and Clairaudients. I was more recently introduced to Palace. They’re fantastic, and I’m hoping to see them live sooner rather than later. They remind me of another band I love out of St. Louis called Humdrum. Joplin favorites: Third Party, Carter Hulsey, The Too’s, and Caleb Denison.
The Deli: Who are your favorite not-so-local musicians right now?
Sheafer: Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, and Arcade Fire.
The Deli: What is your ultimate fantasy concert bill to play on?
Sheafer: My ultimate fantasy concert bill would be opening up for something like Jay-Z and Linkin Park in some crazy mash-up scenario, but there’s no way they would ever do that because it doesn’t really make any damn sense.
The Deli: A music-themed Mount Rushmore. What four faces are you putting up there and why?
Sheafer: Jack White, Win Butler, Isaac Brock, and a two-headed monster consisting of Andy Hull and Jesse Lacy. I picked these because they have had the most influence on me as a musician and lyricist.
The Deli: Where can we find you on the web?
Sheafer: http://melikebees.com
The Deli: What other goals does Me Like Bees have for 2014?
Sheafer: Continue to improve our live show.
The Deli: Always go out on a high note. Any last words of wisdom for the Deli audience?
Sheafer: You gotta know when to hold ‘em… (try not singing the rest of that classic in your head for the next hour!
Me Like Bees is:
Luke Sheafer – vocals, guitar
Pete Burton – guitar, vocals
Nick Bynum – bass, vocals
Timothy Cote – drums, synths, vocals
You can check out Me Like Bees next set in Kansas City on Friday, February 28, at The Riot Room. They’ll be playing with Not A Planet and The Electric Lungs. Facebook event page. They will also be playing at Middle of the Map Fest on Saturday, April 5.
–Michelle Bacon
Michelle Bacon is editor of The Deli KC and plays bass in The Philistines and Dolls on Fire, and drums in Drew Black & Dirty Electric.
San Francisco
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Mara Hruby and Kacey Johansing Co Headline with Emily Moldy and Sparkbox at Great American Music Hall – 2/6
Great American Music Hall hosts a stellar line up of intensely talented female singer/songwriters. On Thursday, February 5th, Kacey Johansing and Mara Hruby will co headline with similarly talented and musically smoldering musicians, Emily Moldy and Sparkbox.
This completely local assemblage of artists guarantees a full night of moving soundscapes that will keep you fully engaged and trembling from these musician’s powerful feminine presences and supremely crisp musical styles.
Mara Hruby and Kacey Johansing’s artistic approach to alternative, contemporary folk are full of depth, but distinctly different from each other. Hruby is slightly less traditional with her compositions, as they embody an experimental, electro acoustic style, with touches of hip hop influences. Emily Moldy is a pure minimalist folk composer and will perform solo while playing acoustic guitar. Sparkbox is a new project from two other Bay Area based artists, Kelly McFarling and Megan Keely. These two women are also staples in the close knit Bay Area folk community, and will be sure to bring an elegant combination of harmonies to the stage.
Make sure you make your way to the Great American Music Hall tomorrow night for an extremely well curated show. –je