City Center (currently #6 in our Avant Indie NYC Web Buzz chart) formed in 2007 as the side project of Fred Thomas and Ryan Howard of Saturday Looks Good to Me. After just dabbling and recording over the past couple years, the duo recently released their self-titled full-length City Center. The album is beautifully diverse and swims with sound and experimental electronic loveliness. With brief guest appearances by Mary Pearson from High Places, other friends, as well as tons of sampling, City Center takes sounds that would typically be dubbed as noise or strange and makes something so much more fluid and meaningful. Their raw textures and busy electronic orchestration creates a watery, floating feeling and the vocals are clear, yet soft and blisteringly sweet with harmonies. The duo also has a really entertaining blog, which is apparently how the whole band began in the first place. – read the full interview here.

Hesta Prynn should know by now that you DON’T lick the snare on a freezing day!!! The singer – formerly of the hip-hop group Northern State – is putting the final touches on her first solo album due out later this year. Hesta’s new sound pits euphoric beats and distorted basslines with punkish guitar overlays to create and energetic, edgy sound. New Yorkers will have another chance to catch her live this Wednesday, January 27th at Pianos.

Third Border is the name of the band formed in 2003 by Ben Miller, a veteran of the alternative scene who pioneered psych-rock in the fecund late ’60s Ann Arbor scene, and later teamed up with Stooge Ron Asheton and Michael Davis of the MC5 in the seminal art punk outfit Destroy All Monsters. The band’s new album, Return Return, was recorded in 2008 at The Kennel Studio in East Williamsburg Brooklyn by NYC underground producer Wharton Tiers (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Helmet). Those who love noisy rock music shouldn’t miss their CD release party at Pianos on Saturday 01.30.

Top Ten Lovers Say: "We love, hate, and aren’t sure about…owl caricatures, buffalo hunting, Betty Davis, people that need a lot of attention, Paul Westerberg, perfect hair, Tom Waits, hangovers, trains, fog and steam, Dwight Yoakam, TV, Television, indecision, heartache, Sly Stone, Velvet underground, J Lindeberg, Woo, catching wild animals with your hands, loud-ass guitar amps, falling in love, Mark Bolan, Sleep Dirt, THE CLASH!!! staying for one more, Scott Walker, non-guys, Russian Animation, burgers, stealing cigarette lighters, beating on the brat, Brooklyn, late night jams, Sexy beast, revolution, drumbo, the shaving of the widows peak, Silver apples, Adidas, computers, coffee, war, Leonard Cohen, hurricanes, fire places, secrets, black clouds of smoke, automatic weapons, the smell of dead leaves, Daniel Johnston, Joe Tex, Mitch Mitchell , Dave Davies, hey buddy deli phone chat, mods and rockers, blues hammer, empty socks, carrying stress in the jaw, chick chat, Hasil Adkins, Hudson river,The War on Drugs, pop culture, dropping out, Townes Van Zandt, tape machines, sleeping late, distant cousins, fugazi, a sharp knife, a deck of cards, mass media, drones, sheep, and their behavior, fingerino, hillbilly junk, texas, panic, scroungers, peepers,stoners".

Iranian-born rockers, turned New Yorkers via Los Angeles, Hypernova, are set to release their debut album “Through the Chaos” through Narnack Records this spring. Raam (vocals/guitar), Jamshid (bass), Kami (drums), Kodi (guitar), and Poya (rhythm guitar) have endured the chaos and limits of Tehran and the competition of the music scene in American metropolises only to emerge on top. The quintet masters rollicking and bright guitars, accompanied by forceful, syncopated drums, and an interchange of tormented and hopeful lyrics about their struggle, journey, and fortitude. The group’s fast-paced, dark dance-rock fits comfortably into the New York groove; and with the new album on the way, these determined gentlemen are sure to fulfill their American and rock n’ roll dreams. – Meijin Bruttomesso

Some may say that by the sheer sound of their music, Brooklyn based trio – CHILDE – was born out of the side of a dragon’s fiery head or perhaps the hairy gut of a bearded gypsy. But reality has proven that the strangely heroic and poetic rock of this new band stems from the wit and spit of their hard work. CHILDE has sprouted a surprising new sound – something earth shattering and soul satisfying – a solid sense of proportion and passion amidst the vast vagueness of music in our culturally over-saturated contemporanea. A fiery blend of stoned-out punk rock and psychadelia with a pop sensibility to make any music lover feel they are on the edge of a great vastness with no strings attached. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

This show packed with NYC based artists (including Deli Best of NYC #34 The Paper Raincoat) will be at City Winery next Monday 01.25. The gig starts at 7PM. Each artist will get 15 minutes to get on stage, perform, and get off stage (roughly 3 tunes). Don’t miss!

Gravity is a rare quality in rock music nowadays – the gravity you find in those intense songs from the 60s and 70s, from the Doors to John Lennon, from David Bowie to Syd Barret. Brooklyn’s Paul and the Patients own that trait, not only in their songwriting, but also in their looks – and we dig it. This new video develops a simple idea in a gorgeous way, and definitely enhances the intensity of the song (called "Complaint 15), that really sounds like a classic to our ears.

The Vandelles (who placed 22nd on our Best of NYC 2009 Poll) have just release a new self titled EP in the UK under SVC Records. The band’s sound (quite literally) reverberates with British noise pop influences reminiscent of Jesus and Mary Chain with an added blues, surf and… vampire edge ("vampire"? Is that a new genre? – we hear you ask. Yeah maybe… you know when the vocals sound like they are coming from… hell or something?). Don’t miss them tonight (01.22) opening for Serena Maneesh at Mercury Lounge.

We stubmled upon Shayna Zaid & The Catch last night at Southpaw and were charmed by their sunny and well performed rootsy pop. I guess we weren’t the only ones to be charmed considering that as of late the band signed not one but 7 tv Licenses and 2 ABC Family films. They are also doing an in studio perfromance next week on Break Thru Radio and Sirius. The band has a busy schedule ahead with a series of shows booked – including several performances at SXSW and a showcase tonight (01.22) at Rockwood Music Hall in the LES. Check them out!

Noise is back with a bang in the NYC music scene! Brooklyn turbolent Talk Normal are the winners of our Year End Best of NYC poll (the full chart, including 67 emerging artist, can be found here). The band gathered 8 jury and one Deli writers’ votes which allowed them to seal the poll’s 1st position – even if they obviously didn’t promote the readers’ poll (only 5 votes were cast in their favor in that department). Hey, we are cool with that! The fans’ vote, though, was instrumental in assigning positions from #2 to #7 – as these 6 artists all received 7 votes between the jury and the Deli writers. Freelance Whales and Bear in Heaven will therefore need to thank their fanbase for appearing on the smaller cover pictures of the Spring 2010 issue of The Deli. We’d like to bring to everybody’s attention that any of these 6 bands could have won the overall contest if they had placed 1st or 2nd in our readers’ poll – we are saying this because often readers and bands complain about the fact that in our system the readers’ votes don’t bear enough weight.

Curiously enough, Freelance Whales‘ 2nd place seems like a symbolic testament to how wide the NYC scene’s sonic spectrum is: where Talk Normal’s music literally couldn’t exist without electricity, the guys in Freelance Whales pride themselves of being able to play live shows without any amplification – not even microphones (that’s what they did during our packed CMJ party in October – although sure enough some people in the back couldn’t hear much…)

Bear in Heaven (in third place) complete our virtual podium with their texturally rich psych rock. In a rock scene as fragmented as ever (in which attitude more than genre has become the aggregating component) the psych rock and shoegazer community of artists represents an exception; they are part of probably the only genre-defined rock scene in NYC, developing a very defined sonic legacy. Bear in Heaven – an incredibly talented and hard working band – is definitely one of the best expressions of the current NYC psychedelic sound.

64 more bands are listed in our charts, from the world conquering, exotic experimentations of Dirty Projectors to the beautifully sparse and intimate songs of Callers (the two bands coincidentially share the same record label, together with our current cover band Glass Ghost). We will cover all these bands in the spring issue of The Deli and on our NYC site in the following months.

The Deli’s Staff