Our Year End Poll for Emerging Austin Artists was – as usual – a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!
Kudos to intense rockers Löwin (pictured and streaming) for winning the poll, check out their noteworthy last single "Best Laid Plans," released just a month ago.
Thumbs up also to wicked electro-choral trio Keeper (we featured them in this blog a few days ago) who placed second, and to textural and adventurous post rockers Chipper Jones, who came in third. Here’s some of these folks music:
Here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ Austin scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each. Then we polled our writers, then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.
If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music Austin produced in the year 2013, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
BEST OF 2014 POLL FOR EMERGING AUSTIN ARTISTS
****** FINAL RESULTS ******
Yes, that was a grammar-correction joke in the title. I think it’s funny (it’s not, but an editor only gets so many chances to make word jokes). Now, to the music.
Sleep Good is a mostly instrumental act out of the excellent local Pau Wau Records that makes music true to its name. I say "mostly" instrumental because there is a bit of "ooh"-ing, some fuzzed-up vocal sampling and a track or so of singing in here, but mostly what this music does is to create an atmosphere of deliciously blurry-eyed lay-down music. That makes it pretty damn lovely that Sleep Good has just given us the entirety of new album "Dream Dealer" on Soundcloud (yes, it says it’s older, but trust me, it’s just Soundcloud being a tit). What we’ve got here is 11 tracks that are aren’t just good to sleep to (see what I did there), they’re outright made to nod off to, preferably while on a hammock in the sun. Or maybe you might put it on while seducing a mermaid. Driftmusic is a good name for it. Get yourself comfy, crack a window for some breeze, and get them eyes shut while you listen to track "Godlike" with its Boards of Canada-with-a-band beachy aesthetics. I did, and damn; I can’t wait for summer. It’s a quite damn lovely sound indeed, as is the rest of the album, so make sure to head to this link for the other 10 tracks.
The Deli Toronto’s reader choice winner of 2014, have a few stories to tell. We pressed Sun K with some hard questions! We wanted to know all their dirty little secrets…like, how did you guys meet and who is Sweet Marie? Excited to announce their first full-length album, Northern Lies, which will debut this March, we only wish it was sooner. Sun K, puts forth an eclectic folk-rock style that is warm, crisp and inviting; every track on Northern Lies tells it’s own tale with ease and grace. Our ears can’t get enough of Teaser Part II, it lifts us up and drops us hard with a rockin’ chorus that leaves you chanting. Now that we know everything about Sweet Marie, she is so much sexier to sing along to.Let it Growhas us feeling the sun on our face on a rainy day. So, hold on tight and see them live 2/20 @ Lee’s Palace. It will be a tremendous event!
Talk about the Golden Tea House closing its doors to shows have been floating around for a while now, and unfortunately, all that talk has become a reality. Earlier today, the post below appeared on the house’s Facebook page. There are a lot of heavy hearts in the DIY community in Philly and all over right now, but also a lot of fond memories. R.I.P. Golden Tea House.
hey lovelies,
golden tea house is no more. everything we’ve got booked right now will be moving elsewhere, and we won’t be doing any more shows. the why and how aren’t really important but suffice it to say it was one of the more predictable inevitable causes. this whole thing has been an absolute pleasure, and we’ve done so much more than i ever would have predicted. so many absurd, beautiful, brilliant, fun, stupid stupid shows. i can’t help but get sappy and sentimental about something that’s consumed most of my free time for so long, but we want to most of all say thank you to everyone who ever lived here, booked shows here, played here, helped out, or just came out to support what we were doing. I don’t think we did anything that great, and we fucked up more times than i can count, but it was fucking magical nonetheless, and hopefully some of you feel the same. we love you all. keep in touch, we’ll be around. xoxo house
PS: we have a lot of stuff that needs to get moved, and if you’ve got a spot that’s willing to take some stuff on, please get in touch.
Forgiveness is a tough, hard process. It can be both liberating and excrutiating, and synth-pop duo OOFJ make sure to apply a dramatic angle to the term with their expansive new single "I Forgive You". The Danish/South Africa transplants’ latest opens with a swathe of luscious strings and trickling sound bytes, which abruptly descend into a disquieting pause as singer Katherine Mills-Rymer softly coos with cold detachment, "I forgive you/ like I’m supposed to". We’re never quite sure who or what she’s referring to — quiet submission or bold acquiensence — its thorny ambivalence a sign of something that’s about to happen even if we’re not supposed to find out.
"I Forgive You" is the first reveal off the duo’s upcoming full-length release Acute Feast, which is slated for an April 21 release through Ring The Alarm/Fake Diamond.
San Francisco based indie Americana band, Tumbleweed Wanderers have released a new music video for their single, Bad Blood. Bad Blood is the first single to be released from the band’s upcoming full length album, Realize. The music video captures a live performance from Tumbleweed Wanderers at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, CA.
Take a gander what they’ve got to offer and if you think the video is rad, you can see the band perform live at The Independent in San Francisco this Friday, February 6th! We have just delivered you nothing but good news!
Having been hard at work on their new LP for the past few months, Alpenglow is getting ready to stretch their wings and debut a full set of new songs in a mini tour of the Northeast. The new album, which is being produced by Sam Cohen (of The Yellowbirds), promises for an even trippier, more insightful continuation of their lonesome-traveler, psych-folk sound, drawing from the essence and experience of perhaps one too many New England winters, and translating their move to Brooklyn into audible incentives by which to live. The psych-soul underlining of Cohen’s vision will introduce only the most effectual tonal brilliance to Alpenglow’s already established soul-searching sound. The tour stops at Rough Trade on February 19, with support from Barsuk Records’ Laura Gibson and Wild Leaves . –JP Basileo
It’s sad day for the underground. Seminal DIY space and home to outsider music of Seattle, The Josephine, has ceased operations. The house/venue had recently come under scrutiny by the city, who were tipped off about the venue through a local noise complaint. Members of the house have not been kicked out yet and will continue to live out the lease, but all sounds are silent.
Let’s take a minute to pay our repects to DIY spaces across the world; without them the Deli would be a lonely place.
We have been absolutely charmed by the bedroom pop of Shari Heck’s Cyberbully Mom Club. Her sadcore lyrical style, accompanied by beautifully melodic lo-fi instrumentation and production, simply warms our hearts. And in Cyberbully Mom Club’s new music video for their latest single "Bobby Pins," it’s easy to see why others may grow to love Heck and her crew as well.
Christian Punk Band is no stranger to the Deli Toronto, we watched them climb the year-end poll, catching our attention. If you are cumbersome to check these guys out because you think they are a “Christian" rock band, it’s not the case at all. Christian Turner (former member of Teenage Kicks) formed Christian Punk Band with Jeff Takahashi and Jon Lubanski, the trio released self-titled EP late November. Claiming “Fuzz-Pop” genre, Christian Punk Band has a special wit about them delivering catchy, fuzzy-pop punked out tunes. Keeping the tracks short and sweet, the album rips through you ears leaving each track etched in your head. “Bang-Bang”, bangs with sweet vocals that bounce in and out of a wailing guitar riffs and cracking bubbly drum beats. Listen to their EP below! Don’t miss them @ the Blackshire 2/7, it’s going to be a Christian Punk Band kinda time!
Usually when I hear the words “Western Massachusetts”, I think of an imaginary land populated by a few hippies and raging-drunk college students. After hearing California X’s new record, Nights in the Dark, I’ll be holding Western MA in much higher regard from now on. Super-tight riffs, crunchy guitars–these guys pull off a great metal/punk sound that’s versatile enough to appeal to punks, metal-heads and laid-back rockers alike. My favorite track is "Hadley, MA," with is slow, churning riffs and Pavement-esque feel. This song captures the band’s grit, but with added hints of lo-fi pop-punk that I find really appealing.
For more info on California X (and to see a list of their upcoming 2015 tour dates), check out their Facebook page.
