New Jersey psych rockers The Ugly Club (who placed 4th in our recent Psych Rock submissions to our Best of 2012 poll) stand out from the pack of guitar drone peers by placing sonic emphasis on keyboards (and – at times – horns). Their sound is less noisy, at times even borderline folky, with clearly understood vocals and lyrics delivered more emotionally than many of this genre’s counterparts. “Loosen Up” maintains ‘psych’ elements within a more structured pop format, allowing the aforementioned keyboard textures to provide improvisational patterns. “Under The Great Wave” (streaming) pulses with a heart-tugging pathos, adding trumpets and falsetto vocals to the mix, further contributing to the tracks sentimentally grandiose feeling. The band this week will be at the Railhouse in Rahway, NJ on the 19th, and then at The Studio at Webster on January 25th. – Dave Cromwell

Brooklyn based Californian brothers, Andy and Jayme Ralph work together to create a wall of sound which washes over your entire body when you listen to them – they named it Writer. Their music has definitely a thrashing quality, but not in a lo-fi way – every single element in their tracks sounds fuzzy but in a pleasing way. Among droning guitars and crashing drums they reveal tales of loves lost and hearts broken. Our favorite track "Miss Mermaid" (streaming below) sounds like an intriguing cross between The Walkmen’s slow burning and foggy instrumental intensity and vocal hooks reminiscent of indie pop masters like MGMT. These talented lads landed a residency at Pianos in January, we recommend you go check out on their last show on January 29. See their video for single "Cash for Gold" here. – Julia Kwamya

This song was added to our Deli curated SoundCloud playlist gathering all the best tracks from emerging NYC Indie bands – listen to it here (it’s awesome).

Brooklyn foursome Whale Belly kicked off 2013 right, with the release of their second album, “I Was Once a Bird,” on January 7. Singer Todd Bogin’s vocals that are reminiscent of a younger, rawer Van Morrison, but his band tends to experiment with more intricate arrangements, and an ubiquitous violin that brings to mind the sound of Camper Van Beethoven. Whale Belly’s songs have a definite sense of humor, but the lightheartedness of songs like “Selling Sh*t On Craiglist Just to Pay the Rent” or "Everything Causes Cancer" (streaming) still evokes genuine charm.  Devon Antonetti

This song was added to our SoundCloud playlist of the best emerging NYC folk artists – listen to it here.

This year 28 NYC "scene experts" helped us with our Best of NYC Poll 2012 for Emerging Artists by choosing their 3 favorite up and coming NYC acts. These jurors are comprised of local venue agents and other industry people who work with many local bands throughout the year (full list coming soon). Their votes this year produced a list of 68 artists, which means that – as always – most jurors voted for different bands. But some bands appeared more thans once in the "ballots": below we compiled a list of the artists who accumulated more points through the jurors vote only. Kudos to Foxygen (already on the cover of our 2012 CMJ issue) for getting the top spot.

The Best of NYC 2012 Readers and Fans’ Poll – including all the nominees – will start in a few days – stay tuned (since we have one of these polls happening in each scene we cover, we need to schedule them carefully to avoid to overload our server – thanks for your patience!).

ARTIST     1 Foxygen   2 Spirit Family Reunion   3 DIIV   4 Ambassadors   4 Ghost Beach   4 MS MR   7 Hunters

We call "Indie Pop" Pop music for the sophisticated minds. This genre achieves it’s "pop" status through melodic quality and uptempo bpm, while maintaining an "indie" edge through mild sonic experimentation and careful avoidance of cliches. The bands who submitted in this genre deviate from the mainstream with their unique sound and talent.  

Total submissions in this category: 45

Artists Qualified to the Poll’s Next Stage (starting soon):

1. Dalton – 8 (Out of 10)
1. Cultfever – 8
3. The Henry Millers – 7.83

Honerable Mentions (Score Above 7.16)

The Great American Novel, Battle flags, Brooms, RAILBIRD, Miracles Of Modern Science, The Universal Thump, St. Lenox, Hollands, Rebecca Brandt, Deb Oh &, the Cavaliers, Sinem Saniye, Emanuel & The Fear, Ludwig Persik. 

Jurors: Lucy Sherman (Deli Contributer), Hillary Anderson (Deli New England), QD Tran (Deli Philly)

The Deli’s Staff

Any fan of the summer (or global warming) will immediately latch on to Dalton. This is the scrappy, thrown together energy of Brooklyn’s native son Nate Harar. A man with a deep, abiding belief in the power of the sun to work out whatever kinks are found in his guitar jams. ‘Breaker’ might not blast off, but it floats along on a breeze knowing it’ll get to its destination in due time. We are looking forward to a full release, but if the two tracks up on his Bandcamp are an indication of things to come… we can’t wait to play in this warm-weather sandbox – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Welcome to the always troublesome world of Cultfever. The Brooklyn-based duo made up from equal parts haunting vocals, (provided by singer/howler Tamara Jafar) and the warped groove sculptures of Joe Durniak. Though I’m not entirely sure what the endgame is, this is a group that clearly seems to be on a mission. From iPhone videos (‘knewyouwell’) to their rampaging self-titled debut, the band attacks with an emotional blast in tracks like my favorite ‘Collector.’ They won’t be gentle with you, but that’s probably not what you wanted from a band anyway. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Whenever I think of The Henry Millers, the ultra-literate quartet from Brooklyn, I always think of my parent’s music and how every band sorta looked like a family back in the ’60s. While not related to one another, singers John MacCallum and Katie Schecter certainly convey a kind of sibling understanding in their discussions of exes (‘Mr. Flash Gordon’) and love (‘Spinning Daises’).

Their kind of folksy wisdom isn’t out of step with memories of listening to The Mamas and The Papas for latest LP ‘Daises’. The record’s charm just might bring you into their family too. See the band live when they play at The Studio at Webster Hall on April 1st. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This is the category gathering NYC based bands who play roots music in all its traditional glory. Or at least that’s what we intended it to be – a couple of bands in the list (namely, Sewing Machines and The Balboans) obviously mis-categorized themselves when submitting for this poll…

Total Submissions in this category: 23

Artists Qualified to the Poll’s Next Stage (starting soon):

1. Swear and Shake – 8.16 (out of 10)
2. The Ludlow Thieves – 7.66
3. The Courtesy Tier – 7.5

Honorable Mentions (score above 7):

Sewing Machines, The Balboans, Ten Ton Man, Runaway Dorothy, Zak Smith, Mail the Horse, Alana Amram & the Rough Gems, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, David King + The Confirmed Bachelors, Elijah Ocean, This Old Ghost, Thomas Bryan Eaton.

Jurors: Ben Toledo (Deli Portland), Jacqueline Caruso (Deli LA), QD Tran (Deli Philly)

The Deli’ Staff

For a folk band, Swear and Shake are distinctly uninterested in discussing far off lands and forgotten frontiers. In her lyrics, girl-next-door/singer Kari Spieler would rather bring up her weed habits (‘These White Walls’) or tough choices concerning playing marbles (‘Marbles’ – streaming).You’ll feel like you already know the group after listening through a couple of these charming acoustic tunes. See the band live when they play Irving Plaza on Jan 16. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

For the lower east side’s The Ludlow Thieves, life is a continuing anthem, filled with moments larger than they may seem, only your lens needs shifting. Projecting an exuberance that harkens back to hair metal’s declarations of passion and love, The Ludlow Thieves do it all with mandolins and acoustic energy instead. Songs like ‘Sing Me Back’ (streaming) might very well harken a new national anthem with all their love for their hometown New York and all the circles of friends they’re surrounded by. Check the band out when they play Arlene’s Grocery on Jan 16. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)