It seems inevitable that Queens will soon replace Brooklyn as the musicians’ favoriote NYC borough – Frog is the second band we are covering from Astoria this week, sign of times to come! This year the duo came out of nowhere with their debut LP ‘Kind of Blah.’ a collection of electric and eclectic songs sharing a slacker rock attitude. Their music features a variety of influences ranging from the sparse and dreamy atmospheres of slow core (‘All Dogs go to Heaven‘) to the more uptempo experiments of post punk (check out ‘Fucking’ – streaming below, reminiscent of early XTC – or ‘King Kong‘ that’s half punk madness, half folk sanity). Ballads like ‘Everything‘ and ‘Knocking on the Door‘ more clearly unveil the duo’s Americana tendencies, while other uptempo episodes like ‘Photograph‘ are a direct reference to the mother of all slacking bands, Pavement, probably the most influential band in Brooklyn right now. Frog’s eclectic take on the genre is refreshing, and is taking them places: they’ll be playing some dates in the UK in January. You can beat the Britons by seeing them live at Palisades tonight (08.11).

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

Back in June, New York-born singer/songwriter Rachel Brown released her latest EP, ‘The Band.’ As indicated in the crisply-shot, infectiously joyful music video for the song “You Got Me” (below), the release blasts sunny, horn-backed moments that are refreshingly happy. But there is also the Harvard University graduate’s cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” which powerfully illuminates the desperate solitude of that party song. Subtly brilliant work. Rachel Brown plays at Joe’s Pub tonight (8.11). – Zach Weg

When two guys start shouting, it usually spells trouble. Not so with Möbius Strip, an indie punk trio from DC. The vocals are harsh and gritty, the basslines are chunkier than Campbell’s soup, and the guitars cry out for the world to listen, all classic ingredients to a quality punk act. Möbius Strip isn’t just another punk act, however. Their latest 7” Palabras Podridas was recorded with living legend Don Zientara in his studio. You’ll be able to find these noteworthy rockers headlining at The Black Cat, 8/18. All ages, $10. -Jonathan Goodwin

Cindy Sukrattawong is one integral third of surfpunky Dustin and the Explosions. She causes a ruckus on the regular, trading dirty guitar licks and bass fills with Mike Trejo. But on her spare time, Cindy is strips down the guitar tone to its most basic form, harvesting acoustic timbres for her instrumental project Littlest Sister. Backed by drummer Evan Piehler (also part of D & the E’s), the duo’s sounds rolls like a summer wind with its rising and falling rhythms, with cascading strums that ease into a soft lull. Emotionally dynamic, Littlest Sister offers listeners a peak of the greatest heights for the heart to soar in the intimate expanse of its wordless narratives.

Watch their first official music video "Begin Again" below, and find the song on their self-titled debut, available on local microlabel Bed Weather Records. – Ryan Mo

Yesterday (Sunday August 9th) Selfie.com‘s large Tribeca headquarters hosted a Deli sponsored Sofarsounds.com show. Once again, it was a night of great music enjoyed by an extremely attentive audience.

Talented songwriter Tica Douglas was first on stage, for a solo acoustic set. Her latest release ‘Joey‘ received a flattering review on Pitchfork this past February, and for a good reason: the young songwriter has crafted a very personal style, and her live delivery of the songs from the album was touching and well performed. Check out the tune that closed yesterday’s show below.

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Tica was followed by three acoustic guitar strumming dudes from Astoria (in the picture), who represent 50% of the band Side Sattle (we blogged about them in January). The trio picked up the tempo with four catchy folk-pop tunes that stood out for flawless three way vocal harmonies – these guys don’t miss a note! The full band can sound completely different from what we heard yesterday, which was more on the lines of their single "When it’s All Done" (streaming below). We like both versions. You can see them live at Pianos on August 28. 

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NYC (via Seattle) dual sisterhood Chaos Chaos closed the show with something radically different: no signs of acoustic instruments in their set up, just keyboards and a drum machine – played by hand! Now, let’s get this straight: playing a drum machine with your fingers is not exactly the simplest thing in the world (we tried), and doing so while singing and shaking an shaker egg reveals superior, almost circus worthy motor skills. Chloe Saavedra pulled that off with flair, while singing back up vocals to her sister Asy, who also showcased a noteworthy instrumental ability at the keyboards. The duo offers electric piano driven songs that are at once catchy and quirky, and feature unexpected breakdowns and a airy openings. They played four new songs, check out their 2014 EP ‘Committed to the Crime’ here, and/or see them live at Baby’s All Right on 08.31.

Last year we featured heavily trippy psych rockers Sunflower Bean on the (uber-psychedelic) cover of The Deli NYC’s Fall/CMJ 2014 issue – always one of the most read issues of the year – so we are pumped to hear that they will be embarking on a 23 date North American tour with DIIV this fall. The band recently released single ‘I Hear Voices’ through Fat Possum Records, and just unveiled this mind bending video for it. The NYC date is on November 8 at Webster Hall, be there!