Tough, rowdy, noisy and just plain raw, Liquor Store is New Jersey’s punk rock pride. Their debut LP ‘Yeah Buddy’ was a gritty affair (with a debatable cover), but the band seems to have cleaned up the edges for the better in their recent sophomore album ‘In The Garden.’  The first track "Satin Dollars" is reminiscent of Titus Andronicus with a soft touch of Blue Oyster Cult. They took their sonic noise punk to SXSW in Austin last week to play a bunch of shows (including two at Hotel Vegas Patio on 3/12 & 3/15), and they will keep touring the US until the end of the month. After that, look out for a show at their favorite Brooklyn spot: Shea Stadium of course! – Michael Haskoor (@Tweetskoor)

The brainchild of Noah Stitelman, synth pop act Neighbors is set to release its sophomore album ‘Failure’ on March 25th. Over a year in the making (it sounds like Noah got caught in the over-analysis trap that makes artists constantly unhappy with their recordings), ‘Failure’ deals with overcoming the disappointments faced from day to day, yet still manages to stay optimistic, light, and bubbly. Listen to the first track and music video, “Wild Enough”. Neighbors will celebrate the release of ‘Failure’ with a show at Glasslands on March 29. – Sammie Spektor

Searching for coverage of truly emerging bands that played SXSW, we stumbled upon the Hitfix’s "Band to watch at SXSW", where we were introduced to Austin’s own Sh*t Kickers, who played five shows at this past SXSW fest. The band plays some kind of slacker punk with noise accents that will surely excite many local students (and us). Their music seems to be coherent with their personality: they slack so much they couldn’t even get it together to create a Facebook profile for the band, not to mention a website. Press pictures, you say? Ha ha ha… Thankfully, Austin label Monofonus Press posted a couple of their songs on Soundcloud (even though they don’t seem to be on their roster). Check out brief single "Living Alone" below, and don’t miss their next live show for some loud slacking.

The seemingly endless cold creates a force field which is anything but welcoming and warm. Castevet creates a sonic ethos worthy of these circumstance. Their darkness transcends typical metal music categorizations, leaving a wonderment among the chaos and dismay. ‘Obsian,’ the trio’s second release, presents itself beyond its own soundscapes and into universal plateaus, worthy of multiple listens.

Steering the ship is a technical power-house on the drums in Ian Jacyszyn. It’s as if the guitar and bass set a drone that’s just waiting for the beat to drive them straight through whatever immovable object is placed before them. Fans of Mastodon and Brooklyn’s own Sannhet will find familiar contexts in this latest collection, bringing some well deserved chops to our music scenes underbelly. – Joey Fish @squidterm

Brooklyn band Tiger Dare just unveiled this video for mellow, dream pop single “Good Times” as a preview of their upcoming debut album, ‘Wires Over, Wired In,’ out on March 25th. The band will be celebrating this release at Shea Stadium on March 28 with a bunch of other compatible and interesting locals: Free Time, Icewater, and Chase King. – Sammie Spektor

Tiger Dare – Good Times from Matthew Walker on Vimeo.

Brooklyn Indie shoegazers ohnomoon played an intimate, loud and good sounding show at Glasslands Gallery on Saturday, March 15, where they played with likeminded locals For Every Story Untold and Winkie. The PopGun Presents organized show was claimed by the band as their "slightly" outside of Austin SXSW show… more like 1700 miles away to be exact. With a voice reminiscent of a sweeter Karen O, Kat Lee fronts the quartet, her voice barely floating in the layer of effected guitars and synths. Listen to one of their latest tracks, a cover of The Flamingos’ "I Only Have Eyes for You" via their Bandcamp page. – Michael Haskoor (@Tweetskoor)

Acoustic and electronic instruments are at the opposite sides of the sonic spectrum, but they are not incompatible, even though it’s rare to find a musical project that incorporates them both. Brooklyn based one man band Goste (an artist we booked at our latest CMJ Music Marathon) plays a kind of folk music where the acoustic guitar is only present as a series of intriguing, intricate, abstract, often reversed samples, blended with other gentle electronic elements. This unusual deconstruction of the folkiest of instruments doesn’t diminish the authenticity of Goste’s songs, but contributes to creating a very personal style, that still sounds as folk as a man with a real acoustic six string. – See Goste tonight at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg.

Oh Honey, a phenomenal, NYC based rootsy duo we booked at the latest CMJ Marathon, played the Ascap official SXSW show last week and is in the midst of a three leg spring tour that will see them open for American Authors and James Blunt, among others. They’ll be back in NYC on May 5 at Webster Hall.

LINKS: Sam Kogon’s interview with Oh Honey

As you probably know, the number of SXSW shows played by a band is directly proportional to their "buzz." With six gigs (some for noteworthy publications and blogs like FILTER, Gorilla vs. Bear and The Wild Honey Pie), Brooklyn based mellowtronica trio Tei Shi definitely ranked among the most buzzed about emerging artists of this edition of the Austin live fest. We had the chance to interview them in our winter issue of The Deli NYC – see link below.

LINKS: Dean Van Nguyen’s interview with Tei Shi

If you haven’t heard art-rock group blow up hollywood yet (a band/collective that was featured in the first print issue of The Deli, out in the Winter of 2004) then you’ve been missing out on some of the best of what art house New York has been up to in the past decade.

In that time frame the group has traversed the distant lands of hip-hop, jazz, ambient music and piano-based pop in equal measure, seasoning their work with more or less degrees of each genre. Latest record ‘blue sky blond’ takes their genre-hopping mission to the pianistic lullaby of ‘Where Does the Night Go’ and the warped ambience of ‘pilots of the canadian lights.’

Catch yourself up with where the group’s been heading lately with ‘Where Does the Night Go’ below, and see them when they return from their west coast tour next month, to play Rockwood Stage 3 on April 12th. – (Mike Levine @Goldnuggets)

There is a heroic nature to Mike McKeever’s musical project Life Size Maps. Following in the digital footprints marked out by Kurt Feldman’s Depreciation Guild and other NYC groups like Parts and Labor and Anamanaguchi, McKeever employs similar sound design concepts in personal ways. “This Same House,” the band’s latest single, shimmers with a celestial background pulse as cleanly defined vocals overlay forceful guitar washes and precise synthesizer hooks. Lyrically, the story is about trying to keep focused on what you really want to do, while the endless all night party swirls around you. A number of surprising changes masterfully embedded in this just over three minute songs shows songwriting sophistication and – dare we say it – prog rock leanings. Life Size Maps is currently doing a Wednesday night residency at Pianos, with their next shows on March 12, 19 and 26. – Dave Cromwell

[Streaming content removed upon request of the artist, listen to Life Size Maps here]

Emily Grove is that missing link between folk balladry, singer-songwriters, and uptempo pop grooves. But her upcoming record will mark one of the biggest changes yet in her career. The alt-folk artist is somewhat of a local hero in Asbury Park, NJ, releasing her debut record ‘Way Across the Sea’ to critical acclaim last year, where she picked up two Asbury Music Awards for Best Female Acoustic Act. I know whenever I’ve seen her perform on Jersey shore boardwalks, there’s always a crowd close by. Preview her upcoming record below where she takes an unexpectedly dark turn, and see her in Jersey when she releases new full-length ‘The Life of a Commoner’ next Friday, March 28th. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)