New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
R&B artist Sydny August followed-up her 2020 debut album, Miss August, with the fantastic single "How Does It Feel?". Back in November she dropped a video for the single that finds the talented young singer driving around our fair city.
Unfortunately the show that was scheduled for January 7th at Innjoy (2051 W. Division St.) with Chase Alex, Matty Wood$, and Gabriel The Angel has been postponed for Covid related reasons.
Singer/Songwriter Peter Joly released his sophomore album, Easy Has Never Been The Way, back in October. The album is a blend of Folk and Americana and found him working with the likes of Jon Williams, Josh Piet, Rachel Drew, Isaac David Lyons, Alex Hall, and more.
You can catch Peter Joly at Fitzgerald’s on January 22nd.
Pop Punk group Cut Your Losses has released a new EP called "Growing Pains". These three songs touch on an array of different types of relationship and were written as a reflection of the the band’s experience in 2020.
This is the work of Isabella Martinez (vocals, guitar, percussion), Alexander Criminger (vocals, guitar), Joseph Martinez (vocals, drums, percussion), and Joshua Lines (vocals, bass).
The group recently released a video for the EP’s second track and lead single "N.P.D." which can be viewed below.
Akosuen is the experimental music outlet of the pianist, violinist, violist, and educator Billie Howard. She is preparing to release the long anticipated album, In Flux, on January 22nd.
The album had been set for in March of 2020, but both the release event and album were delayed for obvious reasons. Over the last two year’s Howard has worked to re-record and re-image the EP that remains mostly improvised, and is built on piano, synth, and drum.
For the project she enlisted the help of Nate Kappes and Jesse Giallombardo, and worked to highlight the effects of a family member’s borderline personality disorder and the pain of a chronic injury as they coexist through periods of agony and relief.
Indie Pop trio SparkleTears recently released the first single, "Muse", from their forthcoming album which is due to be released at some point this year.
The single is accompanied by an outstanding remix from Totally F**king Gorgeous.
Welcome Familiar rang in the new year by releasing a sad, emo, shoegaze version of classic, twenty year old, Blink-182 song "Stay Together For the Kids".
This is the first new music from the Welcome Familiar since the release of their 2021 full-length album, No Stars, back in March.
Visual artist and Darkwave musician The Nancy Downs recently released her fourth and final single on 2021, "Jodi". All of her singles have been dark both sonically and thematically, but "Jodi" is the first in a series True Crime themed songs.
As promised above, this entry is about the massive year-end retrospective playlist recently assembled by the Deli editorial staff (ahem) and posted to a popular streaming service. Or, rather, retrospective playlists, as in two entire playlists. BOOM!! And not just a year-end retrospective, but a years-end retrospective, covering music released in both 2020 and 2021. BOOM!!
Never let it be said you don’t get your money’s worth on this blog. Because here you were promised one thing and now you’re getting twice what was promised. And each playlist is already massive by its own account. Taken together we’re talkin’ twenty-one freakin’ hours of music which is maybe kinda poetic since ya know since 2021 and all. Or, as noted tantric sex expert Sting would say, "synchronicity".
And yeah I get it I get it 21 hours of music is pretty freakin’ insane, even a little bit obscene as well. But you know what 2020 and 2021 were pretty freakin’ insane, even a little bit obscene as well, so again we’re talkin’ synchronicity here. What’s also insane is how much freakin’ good music came out in 2020 and 2021. It must mean worldwide pandemics are good for creativity after all which means these years weren’t a total write-off after all.
So by all means lock yourself in a room for the next 21 hours Trainspotting-style in order to properly enjoy these playlists—featuring 339 Original Songs by 339 Original Artists, including artists hailing from all around NYC, all around the USA, and all around the world—in one unbroken binge session. But please do enjoy them responsibly. And if you need to call in sick tomorrow from staying up all night binging on sweet sweet musical nectar from the gods then by all means do so. Because there’s a labor shortage ya know and what’s your boss gonna do, fire you for loving music too much?
And just one last piece of advice: it’s highly recommended to open up your Spot-I-Fried preferences, and apply a three-second crossfade when listening to these digital mixtapes cuz it’ll make listening to the mixes all the more immersive, that is, if you’re at all inclined to take advice from a humble music-blog website. Happy 2022 y’all… (Jason Lee)
