Rebellious, whimsical, literary, and elegiac are some of the hopefully accurate words that come to mind when reflecting on Providence band Edgar Clinks‘ exhilerating September release, ‘Keep Jetty Diving.’ Featuring the innocent yet relentless vocals of frontman Joe Guadiana, these genre-melding tracks, from the sweet pop-punk of opener "Tree Culture" to the apparently surf rock-rattled closer "weave roll’d into another dream" (streaming below), curl up on the listener like a dog whose pure affection can’t be denied. Edgar Clinks plays at The Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA on 12.2 and at AS220 in Providence, RI on 12.5. – Zach Weg

It would be interesting to know how many bands are born in NYC every day on average – and how many of them are bedroom based electronic pop project. Here’s one for you fresh off the oven, but with well known "ingredients": 2001 is the band of Benjamin Lazar Davis and Joan Wasser (of Joan As Police Woman!). The duo met each other after separate trips to Africa, and almost naturally ended up writing songs inspired by the music of the Ba-Benzele Pygmy people from the Central African Republic (all we know is that they sound nothing like The Strokes). "I fell in love with these cycles, played by one person alternating quickly between singing and playing the one note flute" Lazar says. The results, filtered through a contemporary and entirely Western electronic instrumentation is quite mesmerizing. Check out single "Broke Me in Two" below – and expect a new single out soon.

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

A little less than a month after releasing his two-part debut LP ‘The Arc,’ New Jersey folk-rock musician Charlie Szytk now premieres the hauntingly poignant music video (playing below) for album track "Wed." A worrisome dream of romantic regret and nocturnal solitude, the crisp clip shows Szytk strolling through a quiet town and spotting, or imagining, a possible former lover, going onto dance with her amongst friends at a potentially fictional party. Side Saddle’s Ian McGuiness co-produced the guitar-blistered song for these visuals and, like the video for his own band’s "Legs for Days," this one impresses with its subtle devastation. While Charlie Szytk doesn’t currently have any upcoming shows listed, ‘The Arc’ is available on Bandcamp. – Zach Weg

With their signature ghostly, melancholic melodies, Belle Mare have carved for themselves a rather unique niche in the NYC music scene. Their insanely eerie debut EP "The Boat of the Fragile Mind" was our NYC record of the month back in 2013. Since then, the band’s sound has dialed back the reverb knob and opened up to rhythms a little bit to more upbeat. Still, their music maintains that haunting quality that has the power to bring back to focus the good and bad emotional baggage that our daily, stressful routine conceals from our attention. New single "Dark of my Evening" is just about that: "You can make me feel. The worst that I feel. Or the happiest." This is music that enriches the lives of those who can appreciate it, because, sadly or luckily, it’s not always time to party.

Singer-songwriter Miya Folick is not all that strange. She grew up in Santa Ana, went to college for Theatre, and moved to New York for a short period of time. In a recent interview with Drunken Werewolf, Folick concedes that she didn’t consider pursuing music in her adolescence.

"I think I came to music fairly late. I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be a working musician or even thinking that that was in the realm of possibilities for me."

And yet "Talking with Strangers", the first song we heard Folick half-nervously perform at James Supercave‘s 11/11 show, commanded a je ne sai quoi seldom felt from rosy-eyed musicians, and even less seldom heard by Los Angeles. For those six minutes, the Echo resonated with her voice and guitar, an off-white Telecaster finger-plucked with precision — unequivocably serene. As she performed alone, it was difficult to consider Folick’s singing with embellishment, but listen to the studio version in her newly released "Strange Darling" EP.

Like the devil winds of Santa Ana, the katabatic pianos, synth dust, and guitar arpeggios fan Folick’s verses into flames, burning presumption to leave us in the ashes of wonder and awe.

"Strange Darling" is available to stream on Miya Foick’s Soundcloud and Bandcamp page. Watch Miya Folick perform at The Bootleg Theatre on December 3rd with Lena Fayre. And maybe buy some underwear, if you’re a strange darling. – Ryan Mo

What if humans were a little more "gregarious" (and a lot less less private) than they actually are, and did everything in groups of ten, organized by gender, race and bodily features? From sleeping to showering to… mating? One things is sure, they could NOT live in tight NYC. But the concept of collective individuality is rather intriguing, and it’s explored in Brooklyn synth pop quartet Total Makeover‘s new video for single "Self Destructive," with disappointing developments. A seemingly disciplined group of young white men, disgracefully falls apart soon after intersecting with a gang of attractive (and obviously interested) blonde ladies, and – of course! – it’s all the boys’ fault.
Among many other down sides, in that configuration it would get quite expensive to attend any kind of paid event – which brings us to the fact that Total Makeover is playing at St. Vitus bar on December 1st with Spector and Slothrust. Bring your better tenths.