In early 2014, Brooklynite Henry Crawford released the palpably moving ‘Wendy’ under the moniker Small Wonder. Taking inspiration from the tale of Peter Pan, the indie-pop effort balanced the intimacy of Youth Lagoon’s ‘The Year of Hibernation’ and the stateliness of Golden Suits’ self-titled debut while displaying Crawford’s own gentle power. On songs such as the alternately calm and explosive “Patron Saint of Pretty Faces” (streaming below), the songwriter sings of a lover’s lasting impact with a directness that makes his struggle towards peace that much more involving. That’s the triumph of Crawford: as with all engaging storytellers, you really see, and feel, the unraveling humanity. Small Wonder plays at The Knitting Factory on Monday june 15). – Zach Weg

Following in the footsteps of the two most prominent… let’s call them "Beauty and the Beast" rock bands of all times (The B52’s and Bjork’s early band The Sugarcubes), NYC/NJ’s Gillian features the constrasting double vocals of Kym Hawkins’ pretty alto and Geoff Bennington’s manic tenor. These two characters inhabit a rather schizofrenic sonic environment where pop melodies emerge unexpectedly from a rather chaotic and heavy musical background. The best example of this is single "Spirit Night’ from their 2014 EP "The Eyes in My Head,’ a kaleidoscopic track that blends all sorts of influences: we hear Americana leaning guitars, a garage rock rhythm section, melodies reminiscent of the ’80s sophistipop wave, and vocals at times reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The band landed a June residency at Arlene’s Grocery – the next two dates are on the 17th and 24th of the month.

We are big fans of Brooklyn’s exper-orchestral collective Friend Roulette, therefore we are happy to highlight this track by Spritzer, the solo project of Matthew Meade, one of that band’s founding members. His single "Melt" takes us back to the summers of the mid 80s, when Lloyd Cole and the Commotions injected a cool, Lou Reed-esque narrational touch to the often overly melodic British pop tradition. You can see Spritzer live at Matchless on Friday 06.12 within the Supercrush Studio, Greenpointers.com and Cara Bella official Northside show featuring a lot of great local artists.

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

Baltimore Raindeer‘s latest EP ‘You Look Smashing‘ (released this past January) is a truly original and quirky work of lighthearted indie pop with influences ranging from 60’s psychedelia to dream pop, filtered through a very personal musical lens. Recently the band has landed a series of festival gigs, including one at Scapescape this past weekend and at NYC’s Northside Fest tomorrow (06.11). Check out single "This is Rock’n’Roll," which is not really Rock’n’Roll, but it’s nonetheless a lot of fun.

We love it when we stumble upon completely unknown artists with some truly beautiful music (and videos) – that’s what The Deli is here for! Norwegian artist OKAY KAYA (now based in NYC) hit the ground running earlier this year when she released this truly touching video for single ‘Damn, Gravity’ (produced by Rodaidh McDonald of The xx fame), and, shortly later, toured the US in support of Tobias Jesso Jr. The Scandinavian songwriter has three songs up on her Soundcloud page, all featuring a very sparse, drumless dream folk sound. She’ll be performing at this year’s Northside festival with a show at Cameo opening for Deli favorites Fort Lean and Caveman, tomorrow June 11.

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

NYC’s Vaughn PM follows Kendrick Lamar’s example and makes a party track about substance abuse with "Don’t Fail Us / The Stories." In the video, art imitates life when what starts out as a regular party with drinking games and good times devolves into a fatal zombie encounter. After Vaugh vomits up a cavalcade of polaroids, the pace of the track and the video shifts gears and he spirals down the dark well of his past. He raps, “I know you always slippin on the details, truth be told, time slips when you gettin refills.” We’ve all been there. His art captures the feeling well.

This artist submitted music for coverage here.

Active since the late aughts, indie collective Ava Luna precipitated NYC’s soul revival of the 2010s. From that hub of DIY creativity that is Bushwick’s Silent Barn, the band’s fourth LP, Infinite House, continues their homage to variety and experimentation. Atonal guitars undulate behind doo-wop harmonies to form an audio puzzle so mesmerizingly inconceivable that it borders on the sublime. With five uncompromisingly forward-thinking albums and a Deli cover of under their belts, Ava Luna has become an absolute pillar of the Brooklyn underground. The band’s drummer Julien Fader recently sat down to answer a few questions in our Delicious Audio interview (link below). By the way, if you are in the mood for some good live music, you can catch them tonight (06.09) at Aviv.

LINK: Interview with Ava Luna about gear and the creative process.

NYC has a long and rich tradition of noise making that spans from the Velvet Underground’s ‘White Light White Heat" to Sonic Youth’s dissonant noise rock stylings. This is not music that easily find its way in the media (mainstream or not), so those interested in a taste of what this scene has to offer shouldn’t miss the opportunity offered by the Experimental x Noise Northside showcase on Thursday 06.11 at Aviv, featuring five of NYC’s best and most uncompromising cacophony worshippers – including legendary electro-drone veterans Excepter, who are actually one of the least noisy band on the bill. Advice to the audience: this music has eardrum melting powers – bring earplugs! Here’s a quick sampler for ya.

Brooklyn’s Electro-Dream-Pop Deli darling Empress of just unveiled this video for single ‘Water Water,’ a taste from her upcoming debut album, scheduled for a summer release on XL Recording/Terrible Records. Spanish-American programmer and songwriter Lorely Rodriguez self-produced and wrote the album during a solo writing retreat in Mexico. Making the most of her bilingualism, she also released a version of the song in Spanish.

Wolf Colony is an anonymous, mask wearing NYC based singer-songwriter whose soulful and hopelessly romantic brand of electro-pop started receiving some attention in 2013, when is single "Beauty" became an online "cult hit." March 2015 saw the release of the full length debut "Unmasked," featuring 13 tracks of intimate and intensely melodic mid tempos, led by the songwriter signature dark, soul stirring vocals. Wolf Colony will be performing at Pianos tomorrow (06.09) within the AYER June residency.

While the word "emo" – when applied to music – has been getting somewhat of a bad rap because of some overly produced, unbearably pompous break out bands, there are still a lot of great, authentically punk emo bands out there, and Brooklyn via Wisconsin Rainer Maria is one of them. Not new to the scene, this trio churned out records for a decade starting from their formation in the mid 90s, and, after an eight year hiatus, re-banded at the end of 2014 with a New Year’s Eve show at Bowery Ballroom. You’ll have a chance to see them live at St. Vitus on July 2nd: anticipate that mosh pit inducing experience by checking out the impeccable live version of "Anyone In Love With You," streaming below.

The brainchild of guitarist and songwriter Bryan Kane’s, Bone Gunn is an excercise in defying musical labels, in most cases without venturing outside the ‘rock music’ umbrella. While listening to their repertoire you’ll find songs (and sections of songs) influenced by psychedelia, electronica, ambient, hard rock, but also stumble upon mellow ballads and moments of pure cacophony. You’ll have a rare opportunity to see them live at Bar Matchless on June 10.