Seeing one of our past Artist of the Month (in this case The Ludlow Thieves) headline what’s undeniably the most prestigious NYC venue (the Bowery Ballroom) is very exciting and rewarding. In particular when you know that these NYC folk rockers earned it by working relentlessly on their music, live show and fan base year after year. The band also took the opportunity to make public their first official video for single ‘World Completely’ – which actually gives you a pretty good idea of what you can expect at tomorrow’s show.

Needless to say, life in Vermont flows at a different pace than in NYC. That’s why all New Yorkers interested in hanging on to their mental sanity should spend a few weeks a year in Vermont. But if, like us, you can afford no vacation, music from that land can offer some form of relief. Burlington’s Alpenglow play beautiful, acoustic pastoral folk that’s so detached from the metropolitan lifestyle it almost sounds unreal – and so looks the video for single ‘Brothers in Crime’ (streaming). Against any logical reasoning, they recently relocated to Brooklyn, and announced the release of the ‘Chapel’ EP. Even just the titles of their songs (‘Catskills,’ ‘Solitude,’ ‘Fields,’ ‘Old Country’) sound exactly like what your average stressed out New Yorker needs. I guess we’ll see in the next few months how this city affects the musical output of a band accustomed to a completely different lifestyle! Give yourself a break and see them at Baby’s All Right on 07.13 with likeminded Brookynite Lapland.

It definitely took me a couple listens to dig behind the mess of emotions and feelings that come up within Charly Bliss‘ music. Eva Hendricks’ high-pitched vocals might come across as a little shrill at first, but don’t take long to become part of a glorious over-arcing energy of punk-ridden overdrive. But behind that there’s definitely a lot more going on. Take the song "Urge to Purge" from the brand new EP ‘Soft Serve,’ where Hendricks shrieks: "Everyday’s the same/When you get home from work I try and keep you entertained/And you know we’re both so far from sane/Picking fights to let you know I’m glad you came." The song is one big "fuck you" to the mundane, the domestic, and the monotony that consumes our lives from time to time. Although the desire for more excitement is ever present in their music, which we see through blasts of overdrive and momentous climaxes, Charly Bliss’ is not a band with negative energy, in fact we’re feeling posy-vibes all around. See Charly Bliss live at Glasslands on August 16. – Jake Saunders

The no wave/art-punk movement pioneered by bands like The Lounge Lizards, Art Brut and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have paved the way for the current up and coming sonic experimenters that continue to push the boundaries of what punk music is and what it can sound like.  Bands like Guerrilla Toss, Sediment Club, Show Me the Body have been re-contextualizing an already well known punk sound and aesthetic, turning it completely on its side, and traveling to further and further reaches of sonic experimentation.  One of the latest additions to this crew is a quirky, all female Brooklyn based trio of multi-instrumentalists who go by the name of Palberta.  Here are some reasons why we love Palberta: They like to push peoples buttons, they all swap instruments on each song, and they’re not afraid of the patriarchy.  Their sound covers a lot of territory, but each song has this whimsically dark personality completely unique to Palberta. The band fearlessly switches between off-kiltered, yet quite catchy, indie-rock melodies to monstrously static-ridden blasts of noise.  They recently released a split EP with New England Patriots, a band which exists in a similar realm. Stream below their interoperation of Hot Cross Buns, it’s a real treat. – Jake Saunders 

In 2010 Lia Ices put a spell on us with her gorgeous sophomore album ‘Grown Unknown,’ which earned her the cover of the Winter 2011 issue of The Deli. Admittedly we found ourselves wondering when we would hear from Lia again (the only release after that album was a split single featuring a cover of Pink Floyd’s "Wish You Wer Here"). Well, the wait is over: Jagjaguwar has just announced the September release of a new full length entitled ‘ICES’, and made available single "Thousand Eyes" (streaming), which shows us a breezier, slightly more uptempo, and also a little more lo-fi approach. As usual Lia’s magnetic vocals carve ethereal melodies that will intrigue fans of Enya or Cocteau Twins. No mentions of live performances as of now.