Fast drums, distorted guitars and melodic vocals barely floating on top of the noise – it’s the rock’n’roll equivalent of a BLT, you just can’t go wrong with it. That is, in a few words, what Dion Lunadon‘s band does when he’s not busy playing the bass for A Place to Bury Strangers or Flower of Evil. Dion unveiled just one track so far, the streaming "Com/Broke," to be released in vinyl on February 16th, but – most importantly – already has booking representation through Paradigma, which is a great asset for a new band. If this sonic BLT is your cup of tea, don’t miss the band’s show at Palisades tomorrow (02.04) – it should be a good one. 

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

The life of the salaryman is dead in Shinya Mizoguchi, the Japan-to-Los Angeles producer/multi-instrumentalist with roots in jazz, soul, and R&B. Saved by the grace of Low End Theory after years locked in a cubicle, Mizoguchi’s project starRo made its first digital footprints with the Vib collab single "I need you" — since then he’s taken strides with future music collective Soulection and supported Chet Faker on the rapper’s 2014 tour. Last year was especially momentous for Mizoguchi: he dropped the debut EP Emotion in February, performed with Japanese instrumental rock band toe, and flew out for a winter tour in Asia that touched Manila, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Jakarta.

Enter the present: starRo’s recently released single, featuring kouhai producer/singer/songwriter One T, marks a change in direction. Says Mizoguchi in a Facebook post, "I am excited to show my love to funk, garage, pop music and 80’s synth soundscape in this song."

From slap bass to sawtooth delicacies, modulating pulsations to indelible vocals, we can honestly say: we feel that love.  

Listen to "Relapse" and watch starRo’s live band performance this Friday at The Lyric Theater with Jarell Perry, VŌX, and guest DJs Sosupersam and NALA. – Ryan Mo

In the company of just two ukuleles, in her new track "unpuzzle Me’ (premiered below), NYC singer songwriter Kate Copeland moves in a direction dramatically different from her previous album, taking a (rather long) step towards a sparser, more intimate sound that unveils the artist’s silky voice and intense lyrics. Gone are the experimental arrangements, gone is the "sonic puzzle" brought by electronic arrangements and a "produced" sound. It makes sense, then, to discover that the song "is an attempt at describing [a] complex process of growth and transition" – as Kate admits; the track’s simplicity acts, at once, as a more candid medium for her songwriting, and as a cure for "jumbled-up feelings that arose during a confusing and exciting time." As a welcome side effect, the song seem to have therapeutic effects on us too. Kate Copeland will be performing at Rockwood Music Hall’s stage 3 tonight (February 3rd). Her new EP ‘Red & Blue’ is scheduled for a spring release.

Brookyn based alt folkers Jagged Leaves (brainchild of songwriter Dan Penta) on February 5th will be playing at Palisades and unveiling physical copies of their debut album, ‘Nightmare Afternoon‘ (saying "physical copies" sounds so quaint, these days!). So far, we only have access to one single, ‘Low & Wet’ (streaming), a poignantly beautiful song led by Dan’s commanding voice, and gently propelled by acoustic guitar, drums and the melodious accompaniment of a violin. Female vocal harmonies tastefully integrate Penta’s powerful voice, adding an appropriately melancholic aura to the vulnerability of the lyrics: "Vision cast onto anything/ My two fingers are all syrupy/ The bulbs glow back/ And we are both spent/ It’s ok if you’re low and wet." This sounds like Anti-Folk done properly. – Adriana S Ballester

Maybe the ’10s will be remembered as the decade when New Jersey became cool… these days so many good bands hail from the Garden State that we are starting to wonder whether we should start calling it "The New Brooklyn!" The Jack Moves is a NJ based orchestral soul pop duo that will touch your heart and give you goosebumps, in particular if you’ve been waiting for an ’80s soul revival to get your romantic side out of jail. With their pristine falsettos and sensual arrangements, in single ‘Doublin’ Down’ (video streaming below) the group channels at once Hall & Oates and Prince’s softer side, with incredible confidence and vocal skills rare to find in a young band. The band released their full length, self-titled debut in October 2015, and will be performing at Baby’s All Right on February 8, opening for Brick + Mortar.