Meet SWEET FIX, five scrappy guys from New York who play irony-free rock songs about sneaking out, falling in love, and hitting it big—anthems with danceable hooks, soaring vocals, and, yes, bitchin’ guitar. Seem like a throwback to glory days? Golden Age, the name of the band’s tight debut album, really means the future as much as the past. Cyber soundscapes converge with classic craft in music you can make out to—on the moon. See them headline Mercury Lounge on October 3 and watch for their forthcoming feature-length documentary.  – Cary Gitter

While for most musicians – or artists in general – the dream-following move to the big city is a lonely affair, the five friends in alt folk group Wild Leaves left their homes in the Midwest together a few years ago, relocating to Brooklyn. Not that they don’t miss home – you can hear that in the nostalgic overtones of most of their songs – but it must be great to have well known faces around you to comfort you and remind you of it. The band has just released the second single from upcoming EP "Hello Sunlight," scheduled to be released on 10.01 with a show at Mercury Lounge (noteworthy bill with Zachary Cale and The Lawsuits). The song is called ‘Black River’ and it’s streaming below.

A Ssng by Wild Leaves is included in The Deli’s playlist of Best rootsy songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

Lilly Wolf is the electro pop brainchild of Lilly Wolfson and (invisible) producer Alex Neuhausen, who recently relocated to NYC from the San Francisco Bay Area. Described as “pop music for pop music snobs,” the duo crafts melodic, sophisticated tunes that don’t shy away from melancholy or sadness, like in single ‘Pop Dream," whose video we are premièring here. Entirely shot in the big apple, the video contrasts the deep greenery of an empty Forest Park, Queens, with the concrete, graffiti-covered landscape of East Williamsburg. Video release party tomorrow (09.19) at Hail Hail Bar at 10.30.

Bandmates Andrew James, Aynsley Powell, James Cleare, Tom Deis, and Grant Zubritsky have come together to form the elusive Elaphant, an edgy quintet with rock and roll at its heart. The group kicked off the summer of 2014 with their self-titled debut EP, a short but powerful collection of raw and genuine musicality. While Andrew is the songwriter and mastermind behind the project, it is his bandmates who translate the compositions and transform them into something truly compelling. The result is a big band sound threaded with authentic blues and commanding instrumental interludes, and we’re dying to hear what they have in store for their next release. Elaphant is scheduled to play the CMJ Music Marathon at Rockwood Music Hall on 10.23. 

LINKS: Read Jillian Dooley Interview with Elaphant

Like constantly unstable chemical elements, most musicians are always seeking new collaborations that can open new creative possibilities – which also explains why for bands it’s nearly impossible to find committed musicians. Fancy Colors‘ songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Zac Colwell and drummer Dave Heilman toured with Regina Spektor, of Montreal, and Sondre Lerche among others, met on the road and recorded their debut album ‘Near Equator‘ in several locations during breaks in their tour schedule. In June 2014 they followed up with sophomore LP ‘Island of the Dead,’ which brings their evocative and elegant dream pop to new levels of lusciousness. The band today is premièring this psychedelic video for new single ‘Gnosis,’ and we are proud to let you know that they are scheduled to play our Indie Pop CMJ Official show on Saturday 10.25 at Spike Hill. You can also see them live at Rockwood Music Hall tomorrow (09.18)

Juniper Rising is a washy western blues band form Brooklyn convincing enough to take us back to Texas. They’re putting out their full length debut on Burger Records next month, and we can tell it’s going to be a solid release. "I don’t care what the people say/I ain’t waiting for my wedding day" Holly Overton sings on this spaced out track, as she weaves nostalgic images of rainy days on the beach. Live they are absolutely delightful, Kevin Faulkner plays a mean table stell slide guitar, providing sliding melodies that give this band that extra western feel. Make sure to give their debut, ‘Day of Days,’ a listen and catch them at their release show on October 3rd or at these east coast dates in late September. – Jake Saunders

Lia Ices, one of our favorite NYC chanteuses (featured on the cover of the 25th issue of The Deli in 2011) is finally back with her long awaited sophomore album, and, well… it sounds nothing like the debut one that grabbed our tortured hearts. But change and experimentation are necessary in music, and in this record – entitled simply "ICES" – Lia abandons the spare, deeply intense ballad format that characterized her early career in favor of more lighthearted, lo(wer)-fi pop tunes that embrace many world influences, Caribbean ones in particular – we are thinking more about Calipso than reggae. The vacation related imagery in this new video for single "Higher" confirm how "ICES" can be filed under the ‘beach pop album’ category. Since it’s dropping at the end of the summer, it might help us extend the perception of the warm season through sound induced nostalgia, or maybe even make us dream of that trip through exotic lands we never took. Don’t miss her live tomorrow (09.17) at The Mercury Lounge.

Led by singer Kelso Norris, NYC emerging synth pop quartet Una Lux constructs dark melodic songs that land somewhere between Depeche Mode’s digestible industrial pop and Goldfrapp’s lush and layered romanticism. They released their first single ‘Simon’ in mid August, and just unveiled its video (streaming below). The band is scheduled to play Glasslands Gallery on September 18.

Earlier this summer we blogged about the young alt/art rock band The New Tarot, a group founded and led by sisters Monica and Karen Walker (pictured). The quintet has been getting some attention love recently after releasing this intriguing video for single "Make Up." We are excited to announce that the band will be playing one of our official CMJ shows at this year Music Marathon in October.

NYC quintet Controller may put on a tough front, but despite their lyrical aggression, they’ve really got a grasp on instrumental technicality. With a sound somewhere between post punk and pop – similar sonic coordinates inspiring what seems to be their biggest influence, i.e. early U2 – the band surely masters the art of anthemic choruses.  Listen to their self-titled debut EP here, and – if you dig – catch them live at Mercury Lounge on September 30. – Jillian Dooley

This band submitted their music for coverage here.

Are you afraid of noise and guttural voices? If you are, don’t even bother checking out this track by NYC sonic terrorists Sick Feeling, ’cause the guys have no mercy for delicate ears. Mixing post-hardcore and screamo with noise rock and math, the quintet offer concisely creative tunes that are true explosions of sounds. Those of you craving some good old tinnitus should check them out live – without earplugs – at Glasslands tomorrow (09.16).

It’s been an eventful, life changing couple of weeks for that constantly naked pixie of the Brooklyn music scene that is Ejecta. First the project announced a change of name due to a cease or desist threat received from a DJ called "Ejeca" (presumably this Irish act) – by the way, not sure how this dude can have such a request considering the two names are in fact different… maybe in Ireland "t"s are silent? Then they released a new video for single "Silver" under… the ‘old’ name Ejecta (?!? – apparently because they haven’t picked a new name yet – their fans are helping them out). But what’s truly shocking in a bizarrely reversed way, is that in the video (Minute 1:08) we get to see for the first time lead singer Leanne Macomber WITH some clothes on!!! Although we’ve been conflicted about the band’s promotional (but very tasteful) use of nudity, that is actually a genius move. The next step for the Dream Pop electro duo would be to finally show in photo or video the face and boy of Joel Ford, the second half of the project, that so far has been kept away from the cameras.