We can finally begin to publish the results of the open submissions for our Best of NYC 2013 Poll for Emerging Artists, starting with the Revival Rock category! FYI, all our local branches are running a Year End Poll right now, so check them out in the next 3-4 weeks (only Austin has released some results so far).

Since in NYC we always get hundreds of submissions for this yearly poll, we organize these results by genre. It’s the first year that we feature a Revival Rock category (it used to be bundled together with Alt Rock), which includes mostly Garage, Punk and Classic Rock bands.

As always, more than 2 bands deserved to go through to the poll’s next phase, but unfortunately we have to put a limit to the band that qualify (we already have too many!). Here we go then: 

Total submissions in this category: 13

Artists Qualified to the next stage (Readers’ Poll, starting around 01.15):

1. Whiskey Bitches – 8.33
2. Wyldlife – 7.83

Honorable Mentions (scores above 6.5):

Sharkmuffin, Sylvana Joyce & The Moment, Swanky Tiger, WIFEY, Crazy Pills.

Jurors: Charise Sowells (Deli Austin), Terra James-Jura (Deli Nashville), Paolo De Gregorio (Deli NYC)

Stay tuned for more results, and then for the final poll – this is just the beginning of a month long process!

The Deli’s Staff

The female Brooklyn punk rock trio known as Whiskey Bitches will remind you why you like punk rock so much:  their drunken party rock and heavy guitar riffs pack a punch that will knock you to the floor. The trio, composed of Kate Black, Madge & Laura J. are set to headline Bar Matchless in Brooklyn on 1/11 with The Mystic Underground, The Johnny Pumps and Girls Love Cigarettes. Listen to their song “Money Gone Drinking” below via Bandcamp! For a band that likes to keep it simple, they sure have a knack for songwriting. – Michael Haskoor (@Tweetskoor)

Whilst some of us were quaffing back bubbles and celebrating the start of 2014 (14?!) New York’s Wyldlife were back in 1979, unwrapping their newly purchased The Buzzcocks records and wondering when The Clash might make it over the pond. Before slicking back their hair, downing some beers, chucking on a leather jacket, shredding up their six strings and having a party in Alphabet City. From debut ‘The Nicotine’ EP to their first full length ‘The Time Has Come To Rock’n’Roll’ the band have not hidden their passion for making sweaty, scuzzy, irreverent music, and having a damn good time, fearless and thrusting as they do so. Opening track ‘The Right’ from the latest record kicks off with the definite and defiant statement that ‘at 10pm it’s time to party,’ not fooling anyone that Wyldlife ever stopped their rampage and reverie. Loose morals, tight chords, rocking melodies and brash attitude. Roll on the seventies. – Francesca Baker

Industrial dance duo Vows may hide beneath a veneer of unsentimental cold-wave machinery, with the robotic-like hooks of ‘Symbol System’ and ‘Councillor’s’ dizzying array of drum machines. But as they say: ‘I’m thought of as a cool unemotional dancer, but inside I am not.’ Though I’d recommend seeing them live first before being too sure about that.

The band’s new, self-titled EP is all this and more. One minute their low growls are making us more than a little on edge, and the next… they sound like the anthemic soundtrack to every teen-vamp movie we’ve ever seen. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This band submitted their music for coverage here. We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Electronic songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

We covered extensively the NYC folk and soul revivals in the past year or so, while – more recently – we couldn’t help but notice the massive resurgence of 90s inspired guitar rock… Will the 2010’s be remembered as the musical decade of revivals? If that’s the case, maybe bands like The Bothers, who’ve been playing their garage influenced rockabilly since 2011, may be seen as some kind of pioneers… In the vein of J. Roddy Walston and The Business, these lads play tunes that sound like if Nirvana was into Jerry Lee Lewis and Stray Cats – the Nirvana influence being mostly due to lead vocalist Sean McNally’s grungy tenor. The band played a super fun psychobilly New Year’s Eve party at Arlene’s Grocery with The Spastiks and Raw Dogs, check them out live when you can. – Paul Jordan Talbot

Mannequin Pussy brings a sonic assault similar to that of Boredoms, Melt Banana or a female fronted Pissed Jeans. Feverish noisy experimental mayhem blasts through their latest release ‘Gypsy Pervert.’ Ever so often they’re able break away to string together down tempo rockers that conjure up visions of either Kim Gordon or Deal singing along with them. Guitarist / singer Marisita Dabeast can scream her lungs out (as in tracks Sneaky and Clue Juice) or bring a comforting element amidst this chaos with smooth melodies (My Baby, streaming), pairing with long time friend Thanasi Paul and new drummer Drew Adler. Noisy pop-punk rarely sounded so uncompromising and catchy at once. Mannequin Pussy will be shredding the stage at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn this Saturday, January 4th, and opening for NYC buzz band BIG UPS’ record release show on January 9th at Shea Stadium. – Joey Fish

With its member spread between DC, VA and MD, Greenland is Pavement’s kid brother. It seems only right to call them a “kid brother,” anything else is too brash of a comparison. Even so, their nonsensical lyrics and mismatched rhythms may be similar enough for a “twins separated at birth” label – oh and Guided by Voices may be a distant relative as well. Around since 2007, they released their newest album in May of 2013, “Evil Spring" – check out their video for “Dirty Lovin”, and opener Sucko V below. Part literal lyric interpretation, part psych colored basement jam session, their music is surely going to entertein you. If you are looking for a real weird fix, check out their Tumblr profile. References to their music are dispersed between descriptions of a fictional road trip. It is jus as fantastic as a Tom Robbins’ novel. – Alex Noghaven

A set of highly orchestrated folk music, constructed from a private playground of strange and wonderful sounds, star-gazing wonder, and tear-jerking harmonies, Mutual Benefit‘s debut LP ‘Love’s Crushing Diamond’ has been deservedly getting a great deal of attention from tastemakers everywhere. Taken from tales of life lived on the road from singer/songwriter Jordan Lee, the record is the first album to be named Best New Music by Pitchfork based on a Bandcamp release alone. Now the record’s appearing on everyone’s top ten lists, and now I’m hastily re-doing my own list to make way for this ambitious record. Listen below to fave track ‘Advanced Falconry,’ and see Jordan Lee and his collective of musicians gathered from all the places where he lived (Ohio, Boston, Austin) when they return from tour to play at Mercury Lounge on Feb 7. Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

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

Bills like this don’t come around too often. Curated by true hip hop heads, featuring some of the baddest talent pulsing through the veins of the underground, this event that could go down in history as the one you were lucky enough to be at – like when the Beasties toured with RUN-DMC or Wu-Tang with Rage Against the Machine. Homeboy Sandman, YC the Cynic (pictured), I Am Many, and Tone Tank round out the New York sets like a style sampler. Also featured is LA via Chicago’s Open Mike Eagle’s smoked-out psychedelia rap. Each performer is a genius in his own right; it would be stupid to miss this show. – BrokeMc

The Britanys‘ anxious riffs in tracks like ‘Coming Home’ or ‘Ravens in the Night’ keep you thinking things are about to fall apart, but after listening to all of their debut EP ‘Hello Britany,’ I’m convinced there’s no stopping them. Their reinterprestation of the loud/quiet/loud dynamics that informed so much of the best indie guitar rock of the 90s is an irresistible invitation to the most epic of (and somewhat slo-mo) of mosh pit dancing, which is always a great way to burn holiday calories. Check out their EP opener "Mamma Says". – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This band submitted their music for coverage here.

Blending the glacial sound of digital instruments with the warmth of soul ballads, Brooklyn duo CREEP doesn’t sound as creepy as their name suggests. Rather, slow and haunting. Their long awaited debut album "Echoes" gathers the three singles the band released since 2010 (which garnered a good amount of attention), and seven new tracks. Following a modus operandi reminiscent of Trip-Hop pioneers Massive Attack, in each song the band employs a slew of different guest musicians, singers in particular, although the choice of vocalists seems to be almost exclusively reserved to (soulful) female singers. The result is an atmospheric record that blends the ghostly overtones of slow goth bands like This Mortal Coil and Cranes with elements of synth pop and soul music. See CREEP live at Glasslands on January 7.

The sound of the early 80s synth rock infancy is kept alive and well by Brooklyn’s The Harrow. Juno-style brass and flute pads, and TR-808 style electronic drums soon give way to open note guitar chords on “To A Figure,” the opening track from their self-titled debut EP. Muted, mechanized percussive thuds, reverberated snare cracks and mournful vocals all point toward an affinity for the early output of bands like The Cure, Bauhaus and The Human League. Vocals are sung in a falsetto range and drenched in enough reverb to make Alan Vega of seminal NYC industrial band Suicide happy. “The Fall” develops this approach even further, almost sounding like an outtake from the Cocteau’s seminal debut album “Garlands,” while  “Milk and Honey” is the most successful track in combining the band’s sonic weaponry, with a bit of Sisters Of Mercy’s gloomyness thrown in for good measure; its automated percussive pulse and driving bass guitar provide solid foundation for the ethereal vocals. – Dave Cromwell

This band submitted their music for consideration here.