We’ve been following Mike Grubb’s Wakey!Wakey! project develop over the years through the various phases (from his solo beginnings to the current full band orchestration) and we are happy to see the man is finally reaping the benefits of all his hard work. Wakey!Wakey! play a mixture of orchestral pop and alt rock that speaks to the heart. Driven by the piano, the band’s songs develop in many different directions, sometimes flirting with the emotional intensity a’ la Coldplay, other times building up a more playful, bouncy approach reminiscent of early Elton John or pre–Broadway Billy Joel. You can catch the band "e-live" (attention, we will copyright this term!) on Facebook every Monday at 8pm until May 17, and "real-live" at the Bowery on May 20th.

We receive and gladly publish a message from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, presenting the new single "Say No to Love", which will be released digitally in early June:

"Just a quick update form the land of Pains to let you know what we’ve been up to. 2009 was so amazing, and 2010 is shaping up to be even better. We had so much fun touring Japan, Australia and New Zealand in February and in June we’ll be touring the US to support our new single coming out on Slumberland Records, "Say No to Love." Joining us will be two of our favorite new bands, Surfer Blood and Hooray for Earth. After that, it’s back home to New York to start making our next record!
In many ways, "Say No to Love" is pretty Pains-by-numbers. It’s got 3 chords, a fuzz pedal and lots of feelings. But instead of recording in the basement like we did for our album and both EPs, we recorded in an actual studio (Stratosphere Sound in New York). We tried hard to make it sound, as Peggy would say, "life affirming" and we’re pretty excited about how it turned out. We hope you are too. Oh, and before I forget– sea foam green vinyl!!! Thanks!!! – Kip, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Here at The Deli we have organized our very first Metal show – it was right about time after 5 years of live indieness and folkyness. We have a lineup of exciting (and of course loud local artists), including, SOS, the band of the man that writes pretty much all our metal reviews (Mike SOS).
Check out the line-up and come over next week to the Studio at Webster Hall to blast your ear drums with us – yay!

07.45 SOS
08.30 Ruby Bullet
09.15 Thinning The Herd
10.00 Descender
11.00 Wizardry
 

The end of 2009 saw a lot of bands like Real Estate, Washed Out, and Glass Ghost producing tired blissful sounds. It was like the whole crowd of music listeners had had a fantastic busy summer and wanted their winter music to remind them what drinking a clandestine beer on the beach was like. Glass Ghost plays syncopated tropicalía rhythms over warm, eccentric keyboard riffs. Eliot Krimsky sings with a bouncy falsetto croon not too distant from Thom Yorke’s timbre. – Read Andrew Spaulding’s interview with the band here.

We’ve always liked Samamidon‘s alt-country (and that’s one of the reasons why we made his debut album Deli CD of the month some time in 2008). His alt country – unlike the music of a more established band that coined the genre – is quite literally… alt country. This singer-banjoist’s repertoire is made up of re-arranged American folk songs, drawing simultaneously on his experiences growing up a child of folk musicians in Vermont and his more recent work in New York with the experimental indie-rock bands Doveman and Stars Like Fleas. Don’t miss the CD release party at 92YTribeca on April 10 – Doveman’s lead Thomas Bartlett will be the opena.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list here (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsbur on May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).

Blowing into Brooklyn from Kansas, We Are Country Mice front man Jason Krueger brought the dusty, county music sound with him. Krueger’s farm-boy background may be all over the band’s music (sample song title: ‘A Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising’), but hooking up with his new group in a new city has opened some creative doors. “I grew up in the one of the most rural settings there is and now live in a huge metropolis. Out here I’m challenged every day with new sounds yet my roots keep my feet grounded in the dirt. That push and pull can be found in our music.”  

Chappo is a NYC electro rock band with a new EP that meshes all sorts of influences, from the playful approach to music reminiscent of Beck to the spacey atmospheres of Air, to occasional funk rock rhythms, hip hop references and noisy distorted guitars. We really like the vocals attitude and the fun approach. Definitely worth checking out their live show at Glasslands on April 23.

Blank Dogs – a mainly a one-man recording project by songwriter Mike Sniper from Brooklyn, and currently a three-piece live band featuring Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh and Craig Mileski – play dark lo fi pop with cold synth lines, surfy guitar hooks and angular basslines. The band raised to "cult status" after releasing records on various labels including In The Red, Woodsist, Troubleman, Sacred Bones and the band’s own Captured Tracks imprint. The newest release is the 12" EP Phrases, just released on Captured Tracks. The band is currently putting the finishing touches on a new full-length album, which should see the light of day on the same label later this year.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list here (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsbur on May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).

Julianna Barwick is a one-woman choir, a skyscraper of bliss, a monumental swirl of ghostly energy. Moving mountains by using little more than a loop pedal and her crystal-clear voice, Barwick is the epitome of DIY energy. Put her in front of a microphone and it’s a punk rock take on new age, the scrappy basement show rocker making something drone-heavy, churchlike, meditative. Her triumphant phonemes are never mumbled or moaned, but confidently belted from the rafters. Think Kate Bush’s most heartwarming dreampop untethered from the shackles or rhythm or instruments or form or pop; just one heavenly, angelic coo multi-tracked into a prismatic haze. – Christopher R. Weingarten

Quirky experimental Brooklyn group Javelin are about to spread their good vibrations beyond New York’s borders as they kicked off a nationwide tour last week at the Alfred University. The duo of George Langford Tom Van Buskirk cites acts as wide-ranging as Kraftwork to Smokey Robinson as influences and this eclectic nature is easy to spot, using everything from 8 bit blips, muted drums and spray painted boom boxes to create a collage of sounds. Teamed up with indie it-boys Yeasayer for their April tour, the group seem set to spread their unique brand of tropical pop as well as their unique fashion sense, since the band are known to perform wearing nothing but leopard skin tights. – Dean Van Nguyen

The Press celebrate the launch of their new album “INTEOTWIJTEOAE” by playing a set at Matchless this Saturday 04.03. The show comes just days before the band set off on a national tour to promote the record. After five years releasing a stack of well received EP’s and 7” singles, “INTEOTWIJTEOAE” feels like a real artist statement from the Brooklyn group. Combining flamboyant pop exuberance, punk melodies and the occasional moment of delicate beauty, they step out from the crowd of recent baroque pop bands who have emerged in this city and others, giving every track a distinctly Press-like feel. Take the album’s single ‘Master’. Built around a scuzzy guitar riff, heavy cymbal crashes and howling vocals, it’s outrageously busy for a pop song, but still incites manic arm-waving and fist-clenching joy on every listen. It even proved to be ripe for a dubstep remix, provided by Nate Mars. – Dean Van Nguyen

Deli readers,

For the second year The Deli Magazine and Rooftop Films will partner to give New Yorkers some quality independent music AND movies.
The Rooftop Films 2010 Summer Series, the 14th year of "Underground Movies Outdoors," will run every weekend from May 14-August 15, hosted by different suggestive NYC roofs.. Each night a local emerging artist will perform before the projection – considering how tall NYC buildings are, this is truly a match made in heaven!
The Rooftop Films 2010 calendar will be announced in a few weeks, in the meantime…

NYC BANDS CAN SUBMIT TO PLAY
ROOFTOP FILMS SERIES 2010 HERE.

The artist selection will be made by the Rooftop Films music staff – no need to schmooze The Deli’s staff to be picked – we know you!!!

The Deli’s Staff
www.thedelimagazine.com