Towering Trees, a band of four from Portland, Oregon, make music they describe as, “contemporary snake charming,” but "indie rock with roots influences" is quite appropriate too. Their first album, “Hangover Hearts,” released in 2013, is a compilation of the band’s best qualities: warming vocals, jangly electric guitar, and ardent melodrama. A good example of this is their track “Misfortune.” The song starts out with a plucked guitar melody that pierces through the steady percussion undercurrent, while the vocals, “I feel so sick, I feel so weak,” oscillate above the instrumentation, sounding almost like a whine. Towering Trees will be playing tonight at Kelly’s Olympian for the first time in six months! If you can’t make it, or don’t live in Portland, give their Kickstarter-funded album a listen on Bandcamp. – Isabel Rolston

It’s arguable whether people, like wine, improve with age. Musically, it’s almost never the case, which is why the new album by People’s Champs is an exception. The Brooklyn band has been around for more than half a decade, skirting the edges of nascent PBR&B (aka hipster-soul) with a smattering of self-produced anthems that lean more mainstream than indie. With their latest album "American Dreamers" (out on 3rd Generation Recordings), the Champs eschew fragility and the clatter-trap percussion of lightweight new-soul by going straight for the jugular. “Family” and “Your Love” employ a punky drum/horn interplay that lands somewhere between the Budos Band and the Flaming Lips. Cole Williams’ full-bodied vocals tie it all together, taking shrieks, screams, and swoons to swelteringly high levels. “Humanity/We need you to listen,” she sings earnestly. Message received. – Brian Chidester

The polymath Mike Larry Draw is back with some fresh new visuals to accompany his latest album Amalgamate.  His team has once again produced an exceptional video rife with lush cinematography and provocative symbolism.  The song and video detail the struggles of a man who has been pushed far enough and is resorting to whatever means necessary to elevate his position.  “You care if you live, I don’t give a f— if I die,” is the unfortunate ethos this video illustrates.  The chorus puts it in more distressing perspective.  Mike Larry raps, “Without actually telling someone where I’m coming from; 99 ways to feed a family, this is the fastest one.”  It’s as real as it gets. – BrokeMC

Monday October 26th marks the last appointment with the Deli Sponsored, collaborative series The Hum at Greeinpoint’s Manhattan Inn, featuring several talented female NYC musicians, collaborating with each other on new material.

Monday will see a heck of a lot of talent, starting with amazing, mesmerizing guitarist Kaki King, accompanied on drums by Kiran Gandhi of Madame Gandhi. Following up, a three way collaboration between experimental violinist Jeanann Dara, singer Katie Von Schleicher of mellow rootsy quintet Wilder Maker and out of control noise rock DIY artist Rose Blanshei of Prima – this one promises sparkles. The night will end with three more women on stage: soulful singer Alisha Roney of Feathers+Eyes, classic soul singer Amy Leon and Bridget Kearney from wonderful folk rock band Lake Street Dive.

This is going to be a great night of music, see you there, there will be a lot of Deli mags for you to read in between performances!

The Deli’s Folks (in the picture, by David Andrako; Lorna Dune and Emily Wells at last week’s installment of The Hum).

Reaching from Baltimore to your heart, Parks Landing has a great swirl of pop and rock topped with some indie, rife with sweet riffs and tireless drumming. Their new single, Little Plane, is radio-ready and has chart potential thanks to its upbeat, hopeful sound, perfect grasp of repetition, and energetic female vocals. Their melodies are reminiscent of Death Cab for Cutie and Best Coast, so keep a weather eye out for the full EP which is due soon!

Jib Kidder is one of the monikers of super prolific multimedia collagist and musician Sean Schuster-Craig, who splits his time between LA and NYC, and who has already released a handful of albums since 2008. His latest, out earlier this year, is entitled "Teaspoon to the Ocean" and sounds quite literally like the equivalent of a kaleidoscope for the ear. His music is unapologetically psychedelic, in a quirky, super-creative way. Jib is the kind of artist who seems to make it a priority to produce songs that have something bizarre and unexpected to them. His melodies, his vocals, his arrangements, even his drum parts deliver surprise after surprise. A vocoder finds its way into opener ‘Remove a Tooth," which manages to be droney and groovy at once, while sounding like an electronic version of Gregorian chants. Following track "In Between" flirts with Indian influences with a hilarious hiccup sample slightly interfering with the vocals. Song after song we are presented with ever changing, unlikely sonic scenarios that work like clockwork. But despite the variety of ideas, sounds and textures, the record maintains an incredible uniformity. Like a child who found a toy that will satisfy his curiosity until the end of days, Jib seems to possess an unlimited supply of inspiration, and the necessary production skills to translate it into relevent, exciting, and unique psychedelia. If he’ll manage to incorporate more harmonic variation (read: choruses and bridges) in his next record, he could become a new, even more bizarre and wildly creative Mac DeMarco. – PDG