In what amounts to one of the biggest changes yet for his music, Ryan Hobler‘s latest single ‘See What You’re Doing To Me’ leaves behind many of the Jazz trappings of his earlier work, trading in 9th chord extensions for a breezier, bluesier tone. Picture every member of Local Natives coming together as an acoustic guitar-playing, highly emotive force of nature… and you’re close.

Hobler’s highly personal music has always been as joyful as it is mournful, and with this new single it’s as surprising as ever. Check out the new video below, and see how much eye shadow he was able to apply for this strange walk through the woods. See Ryan Hobler live at Rockwood Music Hall on 02.20. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

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

Streets of Laredo is the perfect band to get the many NYC country haters reconciled with their American music roots – which is bizarre, considering the band’s nucleus hails from New Zealand. Their songs, although within the canons of Americana, feature indie elements and a punkish attitude, and have a stompy quality that ignites an atmosphere of fun in any room – also thanks to a top notch live delivery, which we witnessed in person at last year’s Deli B.E.A.F. Fest and more recently at our stellar 3 stage CMJ 2013 show at Rockwood.

The band recently released two new EPs entitled "Vol I" and "Vol II," and just unveiled this stunning video for new single "Lonsdale Line." They will tour the East Coast in March and hit SXSW on their way south.

Self-described slimegaze practitioners Total Slacker have released two videos supporting “Slip Away,” their February 12th album release on Blackbell Records. “Sometimes You Gotta Die” (streaming below) pairs the tracks ominous, unsettling pace with a classic teens-terrorized-in-the-woods parody. The amusing spin off of films like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cabin In The Woods” serves as ample inspiration for director Norris Guncheon. The inevitable doom experienced by each member of the party is a perfect end for this song of rare intensity.

Follow-up single and video for “Keep The Ships At Bay” draws it’s spark from the exaggerated, reenactment scenes in television shows like Unsolved Mysteries. Directed by Nate Ford, the video features Tassy as narrator and Zoe as investigator while hyperbolic caricatures of Tucker and Emily steal a guitar (from Main Drag Music in Williamsburg!), raid a bodega and essentially go wild. The band has been quoted as also using bits of Paris Hilton’s “Good Time” video as an impetus for bombastic imagery – while a documented mutual admiration tweet exchange between the band and Ms. Hilton creates an additional element of wonder.

Total Slacker release show (which will also serve as The Deli’s issue #37 launch party) is tonight at Baby’s All Right. On the bill also Perfect Pussy, Life Size Maps and Honduras, more info here. – Dave Cromwell

The duo paris_monster just finished a residency at Rockwood Music Hall, and I was fortunate to see them two of those nights. A duo with a fair amount of equipment, they planted themselves half on the minuscule stage, half on the floor. Josh Dion had a simple kit on his left side, two synths on his right, and his vocal mic in the middle. Throughout the set, Dion demonstrated inhuman coordination, splitting his mind between drums, synth and voice – an impressive sight to behold! Geoff Kraly in the meantime created electronic drony sound-scapes with his bass and extensive pedal board. They have a bit of soul, electronica, and progressive rhythms all mixed up in a broth of alt rock energy. Keep your eyes locked on these two, and check out their video of single ‘Pride,’ streaming below. – Paul Jordan Talbot

Pride – Official Music Video from paris_monster on Vimeo.

Once known for their psych pop sound characterized by heavy drum patterns, single stroked chiming guitar chords and distant synthesizers, Brooklyn band Fort Lean (pictured) released new tracks that show a decidedly different side. “Do You Remember” places emphasis on lead vocals built on top of a rhythm that draws from 50’s do-wop. “The Mall” may still keep guitars out front, however its sing along pop anthem style reigns in previous psych leanings. “Envious” is built around a hand-clap percussion pattern and soaring harmonies that seems to draw inspiration from late 60’s/early 70’s hit radio. “All The Lights” employs dramatic stops and starts, ultimately moving from a slow ballad intro to a quicker paced arrangement.

Sacco is a brand new Brooklyn band that merges ambient atmospherics, relaxed drumming and diverse textural guitar flourishes with an appealing vocal style on their current dark psych track “Driving.” See both bands live when they play Baby’s All Right on 02.13 with Brooklyn band Tropic of Pisces. – Dave Cromwell

Big Ups – winners of our latest Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists – are a versatile band. Sometimes their lyrics are delivered in a deadpan, monotone way. Other times they’re delivered with madness, loudly. Similarly, their content is not limited to a stale laundry list of themes (growing up, love, what it’s like being a Millennial). A wide range of emotions are trampled upon: anger, apathy, drunken conversations, ontological inquiries, relationships gone to hell, and more. And just when you’re getting tired of the talking, the pondering, the action returns: There’s as much chaos as there is navel-gazing. Their live shows are equally cathartic, with the same purging, purifying quality to them as the recorded music. – LINKS: John McGovern interview with BIG UPS.

Formed in 2010 as Neighbors, Long Island’s quartet NGHBRS changed their name the following year, and has since then been releasing various EPs, mixtapes, and now a full length album. They’ve garnered media attention for their creative use of social media in their video for ‘Hold Up Girl’ (30k+ views and counting) which shows the band in many ‘viral’ scenarios in an innovative format, and did very well in our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists, winning the Readers’ Poll in the ALT ROCK/REVIVAL ROCK category. Their sound is a very digestible pop/rock blend, which would explain why they’ve been paired to open for such bands as Third Eye Blind and Matt & Kim.

On their latest effort ‘Twenty One Rooms,’ the bluesy title track (streaming) gives us a glimpse into their potential to really break out and rock a party, whather hosted in a venue or a packed arena, in ways early Pearl Jam and Soundgarden used to do. Ballads like ‘Wake Me In the Morning’ have a sound reminiscent of the English band Elbow. ‘We Were Wolves’ forms another pocket where NGHBRS can really shine, in which Ian Kenny’s vocals are reminiscent of "Danger" Lewis from the Toadies. The track itself could easily be mistaken as a B-Side off of ‘Possum Kingdom.’

On March 4th they’ll be playing at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ. – Joey Fish

Deli Nation,

Our Year End Poll for Emerging SF Bay Area Artists was – as usual – a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!

Kudos to vintage sounding psych rockers Down Dirty Shake (pictured) for winning it! Thumbs up also to dissonance masters Disappearing People (ion second place) and to bronze medal winners indie pop high fivers French Cassettes who bring a wave of optimism to this truly out there top 3… but it’s SF, baby! (Oh and there’s no medal, really…)

Here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ SF Bay Area scene expert (our jury, list at the bottom) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each. Then we polled our writers, then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.

If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music SF Bay Area produced in the year 2013, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

BEST OF 2013 POLL FOR EMERGING SF BAY AREA ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS ******

ARTIST J W OS R TOT   1 Down Dirty Shake 7     1.5 8.5 2 Disappearing People 6 1   0.003 7.003 3 French Cassettes 3   3 0.051 6.051 4 The Love Dimension 6     0.015 6.015 5 Chasms 6     0.006 6.006 6 8th Grader 3 1   0.052 4.052 7 Meat Market 3 1   0.012 4.012 8 JAM 2   2 0.004 4.004 9 Everyone is Dirty 3     0.096 3.096 10 Sea Dramas     3 0.045 3.045 11 Twin Steps 2 1   0.037 3.037 12 Black Cobra Vipers 3     0.008 3.008 13 Cellar Doors 3     0.005 3.005 14 Happy Fangs 3     0.001 3.001 15 Major Powers & The Lo-Fi…     1 2 3   California Honeydrops 2     1 3   Koruscant Weekend 2 1   0 3 18 False Priest 1   1 0.091 2.091 19 Range of Light Wilderness 2     0.046 2.046 20 Miserable 2     0.011 2.011 21 Fuzz 2     0.009 2.009 22 Fine Steps 2     0.007 2.007   Warm Soda 2     0.007 2.007 24 Gitter Wizard 2     0.005 2.005 25 Cold Beat 1 1   0.004 2.004   Asteroid #4 2     0.004 2.004   The Family Crest 2     0.004 2.004   There’s Talk 1 1   0.004 2.004 29 Blackbird Blackbird 2     0.003 2.003 30 Art Elliot     1.5 0.024 1.524 31 Devin Farney     1.5 0.018 1.518 32 Agony Aunts     1 0.5 1.5   Airs 1     0.5 1.5 34 Owl Paws     1 0.092 1.092 35 Down and Outlaws 1     0.082 1.082 36 Seshen 1     0.069 1.069 37 The She’s 1     0.053 1.053 38 Chris Klippel     1 0.035 1.035 39 Fritz Montana     1 0.027 1.027   Religious Girls 1     0.027 1.027 41 Hot Lunch 1     0.025 1.025 42 Electric Shepherd 1     NYC Sam Kogon (of The Vanderbuilts) plays Silent Barn on 02.09 Posted on: February 7, 2014 For Sam Kogon‘s latest 2-track EP the dream pop crooner, and lead singer for The Vanderbilts, paints a lush soundscape that negotiates some of the benefits and consequences of sleeping too much. Opener ‘Wake Up Your Kids’ pleads for you to spend as much time with your children as possible (even if that means they get no sleep), while ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is a wandering ode to the possibilities of love spent unconsciously. Check it out below and see him when he plays with a full band this Sunday at Silent Barn with Montreal pop band Sheer Agony (Feb 9). – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) NYC Singing the Blues-Rock: Blue & Gold play Brooklyn Bazaar on 02.14 Posted on: February 7, 2014 Look no further than Blue & Gold to find your weekly fix of raunchy, lowdown rock n’ roll attitude. The band has the stuff in their blood, and they’re taking no prisoners for their bluesy new self-titled EP, taking trademark riffs and remaking them for loud rock fans like us in tracks like ‘Anything For Love’ and ‘It’s Only You.’ See the group when they play at Brooklyn Night Bazaar on Friday, Feb 14th with Team Spirit, and see why the Blues is still an essential ingredient to any well-cooked music scene. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) NYC Tropic of Pisces releases debut EP, plays Baby’s All Right on 02.13 Posted on: February 7, 2014 It seems appropriate for a glockenspiel player to have a project with heavy tropical influences, although the origins of the instrument – as betrayed by its name – are from what is arguably one of the least tropical places: Germany. Tropic of Pisces is the new project from the guitarist/glockenspieler of Oberhofer, Mathew Scheiner. In his band’s lighthearted melodies you’ll find an affinity with Vampire Weekend, although Mathew’s melodies have a jazzier feel to them. Charming single "Symmetry" (streaming), from the omonymous EP out on 02.25, is a playful carribean-pop ditty with a synchopated chorus that might make you feel tipsy. See them live when they play Baby’s All Right on 02.13 with other northworthy Brooklyn bands Fort Lean and Sacco. We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out! NYC Found through the Best of NYC Year End poll: Bridget Davis + the Viking Kings, live at Spike Hill on 02.20 Posted on: February 6, 2014 Bridget Davis + the Viking Kings  – a folk ensemble that placed third in our Best of NYC Year End Readers’ Roots Music Poll – isn’t your typical crooning Country songstress. Each song weaves together its own unique tapestry of interesting characters and romantic late-night adventures, and most of these characters have some dark stories to tell. These songs are narrative inspiration perfect for anyone with an axe to grind. For her just-released EP ‘January,’ Davis takes the month to task. The eponymous track compares January to a lover that leaves you in the cold, a fairly apt description if you ask me. Let’s hope February treats the singer/songwriter a little better (and us too!), with her upcoming show scheduled for Spike hill on Feb. 20th at 10pm. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)