Hailing from the UK’s west coast city of Cardiff, Until the Ribbon Breaks is a recent addition to the NYC scene. Interestingly enough, they sound nothing like a NYC or British band – or maybe they do, at times. Yes because these guys’ music is like a collage of influences dominated by the African American ingredients of soul and funk, but revisited through an electronic approach that’s partly reminiscent of Trip Hop (Bristol is pretty close to Cardiff after all) and structured EDM a la’ Moby. Electro-soul ballad "Pressure" (streaming) has gained them a lot of attention in 2013, while slow burning, sweaty noir funk "A Taste of Silver" – released earlier in 2014 – is keeping the band on the forefront of the music blogs. 

Saturday night, Baby’s All Right will host the first installment of BrainCave Series, hosted by Paper Garden Records.  In the past few years BrainCave has brought us some truly memorable weekend-long festivals that included NYC artists like Peelander-Z, Shilpa Ray, Hooray for Earth, Caged Animals, The Suzan, Black Cobra and more, alongside live art and DJs. Saturday’s stacked bill promises to be just as exciting, and includes Luke Temple of Here We Go Magic, Friend Roulette, Teletextile, Edan and She Keeps Bees (pictured), among others. Check out under-appreciated Brooklyn/D.C. alt folkers She Keeps Bees’ latest single "Counter Charm" – after this show they’ll be touring with Sharon Von Etten in May. – Bill Dvorak

Brooklyn psych rockers LODRO seem to be getting more intensely noir by the minute – or rather by the song. Their latest single "Snake Song" (streaming) is a sparse bluesy track full of suspense and character, pierced by a distorted guitar Blixa Bargeld would be proud of. Speaking of which, go see these guys open for Pictureplane this Saturday May 3rd to see if they are ready to tour with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – it would make perfect sense!

A duo obsessed with fuzz and falsetto, uplifting and epic at once,  Pre War is reclaiming the spirit of stadium-shouting rock n’ roll in debut LP ‘My Friend, the Enemy.’ Fans of Band of Horses should find common ground here, but there’s also a big part of this group that’s just as happy to paint landscapes of sound with mountains of reverb and harmony for several minutes. Check out ‘Sing to Me’ below to hear just how massive these guys can make the world seem. Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Brooklyn via Chicago Erin Fein’s brain baby, Psychic Twin was born out of a love for electronic pop music, new wave sounds of the past, and the unattainable notion of being two places at once. Her upbeat rhythms and frantic keyboard arpeggios lay the foundation for incredibly danceable songs from another life; but it doesn’t stop there. Doubled vocals, coupled with lengthier synth drones and the backing of project-mate Sean Hutchinson, create an effect almost ghostly and disturbing, adding depth and texture to the project. Fein’s hushed singing makes the music personal and intimate, lovely as a whole atop catchy complexity. Psychic Twin is scheduled to play an all electronic Deli stage at the Northside Fest this coming June – JP Basileo

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

We always welcome ridicolous video concepts here at The Deli, in particular when accompanied by good music. NJ’s The Everymen – a band featured on the cover of The Aquarian last year – is back at it with their usual sense of humor and punk rock attitude. The video for new single "Spain," from the upcoming sophomore album "Givin’ Up On Free Jazz" (out on May 20th) stars comedian Zach Garner as "professional rail-slider," and band main singer Mike V as his uber-demanding (but sympathetic and wise) coach. The band is a lot of fun live, so you don’t want to miss their CD release party at Baby’s All Right on May 19, which will be followed by a month and half long tour around the country. Here’s another track from the upcoming album available for preview.

P.S. We wonder if this video wants to be a metaphor of the life of musicians… 

For starters, Cannonball Statman (who made it in our latest  Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists) has got the look – with an over-sized afro of curly red hair and a commanding stage presence. The music delivers the acoustic punk attack of antifolk by way of black metal; it’s not unusual for a typical 5-minute song to run the BPM gamut and contain several distinct sections. Lyrically, he embraces smorgasbord surrealism, but the songs always resonate and the audience is never distanced from the youthful anxieties and aspiration that fuel his fervor. – Ben Krieger, photo by Herb Scher

Cakes Da Killa is guilty. He murders every microphone he touches. His 808-heavy beats terrorize clubs and send dancers into hedonistic fugues. It’s cathartic to hear a rapper be lewd and lascivious to his own sex, drop Maybelline references, and boast about stealing your boyfriend. Is it politically incorrect if a male rapper sexualizes and objectifies… men? Excellent dinner conversation if you ask me. Regardless, Cakes has the delivery and bounce to keep crowds grooving deep into dance floors. If you feel like dancing, pay a visit to the crime scene. Download his newest release The Eulogy on MishkaNYC’s bandcamp page. – BrokeMc

We wonder if, when Marijuana will be fully legalized in the US, Psych Rock and derivatives will be as popular among young NYC musicians as they’ve been during this never ending "prohibition era." Yes because right now North Brooklyn might as well be the region in the US with the highest consumption of weed per capita, and various forms of Psychedelia seem to pop up from every corner of the neighborhood.

A band that chooses to name itself Baked must be contributing heavily to this awesome (alleged) record, not only through heavy (alleged) personal consuption, but also through the creation of music that pretty much begs for an audience with altered states of mind. Thing is, the guys are good at it, which should be concerning for anti-liberalization advocates. They are so good that, thanks to an upcoming spring tour supporting NJ rockers Titus Andronicus, they’ll soon get the opportunity to spread their whiffy vibes through states probably not ready for this, like North Carolina and West Virginia. We wish them good luck with this noble and dangerous mission. See the full list of shows here and don’t forget to ply our collection of Psych Rock songs by emerging NYC bands when appropriate, it features Baked’s single "Wet Blanket".

The Morning Sea, a softly moving, seductive chamber-pop folk collective rotating about singer songwriter Adam Cohen, is poised to travel the world from their bathtub. Looking like a mermaid (minus the coconut bra) lost in the middle of a his tub on the cover of new record ‘Strange Captive,’ Cohen is one-half confessional late night crooner (‘Mellow Rage’), and one-half whimsical wanderer, as in the brawling rock of ‘Bit My Tongue.’ The music tells slowly developing stories, of lands traveled, and seas swam, no matter how difficult the journey. Especially on the fun abandon of title track ‘Strange Captive,’ where Adam hopefully sings ‘there is still time to face the light.’ And there’s still time to see The Morning Sea when the band releases their 7-track ‘Strange Captive’ at Pianos on Thu, May 15th. See them then and check out ‘Strange Captive’ below. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Most artists who call themselves sound designers – those solitary musicians seeking to place aural oddities from their surrounding environments into their music – usually go about it in the most serious ways imaginable (think Eno or Peter Gabriel). Not so with Passenger Peru. These Brooklyn based sound sculptors use everything from train sounds and bird tweets (‘Tiger Lily’) to cult preachers talking backwards (at least that’s what it sounds like to us in ‘Heavy Drugs’), and end up with a quality record celebrating planet Earth, but without ever forgetting to serve up fun old indie rock while at it.

In this self titled debut LP, Justin Gonzales and Justin Stivers share vocals and instrumental duties, conjuring up tracks that are at once pensive in tone and eclectic in form. With their internal understanding of how much better the world sounds inside of a green cassette tape (that’s the format of choice), the duo winds up with something resembling at times a fuzzier, crazier version of XTC, at others Animal Collective taking Beck out to the prom and keeping him up way past curfew. Truly an exciting and one-of-a-kind experience, the record abunds in sonic eclecticism, but manages to sound uniformly produced, which is a noteworthy achievemt for what seems like a mostly self-recorded effort (Stevers mixed and mastered the album). Even though it is missing a truly explosive single, we recommend Passanger Peru’s debut LP to anyone on the hunt for sonic surprises. Check out epic jam "Haelth System" below and see what things sound like on the other side. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This band submitted their music for coverage here.

Few bands these days succeed in spreading their sound over genres the way Brooklyn’s Slothrust do. At one moment, blues and folk-infused verses instill a mellow, dull ache; the next, a writhing whirlwind of metal jolts and throbs in agony. The trio embodies the Brooklyn grunge reinassaince, and stands out with their versatility. One thing remains constant throughout: the beautifully bleak and haunting vocals of front-lady Leah Wellbaum, creating soundscapes of depravity, longing and darkness.
Keeping with their diverse style, Slothrust already released two unnerving videos in 2014: paying homage to their roots, they went full metal with the cover of Black Sabbath’s "Electric Funeral," while with the claymated "No Eye Candy" (streaming) they explored the colorful world of limb amputation. They will be supporting Ben Kweller on a string of East Coast dates this May, landing at Bowery Ballroom on the 6th. – JP Basileo