It’s always a good sign when a local medium size NYC venue like Rough Trade books two local acts to play on new year’s eve. This year the Williamsburg venue/record store picked garage trio THICK and atmospheric indie pop quartet Plastic Picnic to perform as openers for Nashville’s Diarrhea Planet on Sunday December 31st, check out two of their videos in this YouTube playlist!

P.S. Fellow NYC psych garagers Stuyedeyed will open for that same band on the 30th.

Nate B’s new track “take u out” adds some sparkle to the characteristic dust of his repertoire.  It’s easy to get lost in; like his past compositions it unfolds like clouds of smoke, an opium fog whose marshmallow jaws gently pound you into ecstatic submission.  Pitched-up vocal harmonies resurrected from the days of doo-wop undulate over a lo-fi drum loop and jazzy synth lines and a Hendrix-esque guitar riff.  Dousing upbeat and quixotic lyrics in minor progressions, B creates an compelling tension.  He understands the art he wants to create and composes it with the same meticulous care he gives to his beautiful photographywww.nathanbajar.com/.  Dim the lights and turn him up.

Feeling stuck? Headphones got you down? Nodding off-beat and tapping your toes more out of impatience for something dope rather than in celebration of its presence? Deca provides The Way Through. He’s no newbie. He’s been carpetbagging scenes and dropping albums from Denver to LA before setting up his camp here in NYC. Now he’s manifesting his varied talents (production, visuals, lyrics, etc.) for we denizens of the gum-spotted concrete. He bumps from abstract to full manifest with a growl and fluidity reminiscent of both Aesop Rock and Blue Scholars. Tune in and let Deca get you open. See him live at Elsewhere tomorrow (December 23). – BrokeMC

Tribal, gloomy and tense, the sound of NYC’s Ritual Humor finds some solace in Celeste Carballo’s warm vocals. The simple melodies and stern rhythm section take us back to the early day of post-punk, including the simple bass synth parts and overall droney tendencies – a sound many children of the late ’70s/early ’80s carry in their DNA. The band will be performing at Sunnyvale on January 25th, check out single "Red Tiger," streaming below.

Those who, like us, need at least one tense experience to survive through the mellow/hypocritical holiday season, might want to consider witnessing Brooklyn’s post punkers Talk Shop live at Alphaville on December 28. The trio’s 2016 debut record is unapologetically grating and exists in an imaginary musical intersection between Violent Femmes and Olimpia’s Old Time Relijun. Check out closing track Love Dart, streaming below

Something very simple happens to bands that are able to keep together for a few years: they get better, their songs get better, their recordings get better, and – if all of the above happens – their fan base slowly starts expanding. In four years, Jersey City’s Long Necks went from humble, ukulele-fueled beginnings to the full folk-pop-rock production of their upcoming LP "Will This Do?," scheduled for a January 26th release. The record is marked by the full and expressive voice of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Lily Mastrodimos, who can play a list of instruments that would make Paul Simon envious. The band will perform live at the Silent Barn on January 5th, just before embarking on a 17-day east coast tour.

Brooklyn’s post-hardcore/metal quartet Husbandry sounded pretty darn heavy on 2016’s debut full length "Fera," but the 2017 EP "Bad Weeds Never Die" takes things to an entirely new level, with metal influences seemingly taking over emo and post-punk ones. Their distorted guitars, in this new record, are a lot more explosive and dynamic, so our friends at Delicious Audio thought about asking them a few questions about it in this Q&A. Check out their video for "Elder Spencer Deery" streaming below.

Those who happen to miss the sense of mystery the holiday season brought with it when they were more religious than they are now, have an opportunity to recover some of that feeling tomorrow (12.20) at Rough Trade, where orchestral band Seasonal Beast will perform live. Led by producer/composer Yuval Semo and singer extraordinaire Yula Beeri, the NYC collective offers uber-intense, atmospheric music that blends droney elements with classical arrangements. The visually stunning (sort of)-live video of single "This is Where" provides the perfect amount of drama and uplifting emotions to help us celebrate a holiday that can still represent an effort towards spiritual rebirth, with or without God in the picture.

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

Tomorrow’s 22nd installment of The Revolution, a Deli-sponsored monthly showcase highlighting the best emerging local artists with a particular focus on Soul, Hip Hop and Funk, will deliver a lineup that’s bound to lift souls. Yes, because soul is the common thread found in the three acts performing in the stylish architecture of Williamsburg’s National Sawdust. 

Soul Science Lab is a collective of incredible musicians able to seamlessly combine afrobeat, funk, pop and hip hop into wonderfully produced tunes even the most static of New Yorkers will be hard press not to move to.

The lineup, co-curated by Soul Science Lab, alongside Katie Jones, founder + producer of The Revolution series, will also feature the mellow pop of Meridian Lights‘ and The Experi3nce‘s inventive soul/hip-hop.

The night will start at 10pm, tickets can be found here.

Strange and wonderful things can happen when three talented artists from completely different musical backgrounds join creative forces. One of these "things" is Levitating (streaming below), a mostly hip hop track that merges Sammus‘ rhymes with Olga Bell‘s European flavored electronic production and Xenia Rubinos Hispanic music influences. Born from an instrumental penned by Bell, the track is a perfect example of what NYC is (and has been for awhile): an irreversible melting pot of races and culture, where positive collaboration trumps any difference and distrust. The message here is that (hard) work and curiosity are the best antidotes to intolerance, and these prolific ladies know something about it. Check out the track below, and catch Xenia Rubinos at the Ecstatic Music Fest at the Kaufman Center on January 27th. 

The Iron Chef of Brooklyn-based producers Willie Green and Rapper/Karma Kids labelhead Lt. Headtrip have curated a Michelin worthy taste of NYC’s independent rap scene.  The combination of the seven producers and 16 MCs involved in this project creates a flavor both familiar and fantastically new.  It’s savory like a burger with a steak on top of it with subtle essence of arugula and avocado (because: Brooklyn, you know?), and an aftertaste of Malt liquor and Absynthe.  Following in the heels of brokeMC’s DEADBEATS and Willie Green’s Doc Savage, Hip Hop camaraderie never tasted so good. Stream it for free right here!

Charming NYC trio The Happy Fits plays an intriguing blend of folk, vintage pop and funk/soul. Their sound is sparse but – as you can hear in single "While You Fade Away" (streaming below) – it can be pretty punchy. If the bass in that track sounds a little bright to you, it’s because it’s not actually a bass, but a plucked cello, which impersonates the other four string instruments in all their songs. The young group has a fun live show and simple but sophisticated melodies everybody can relate to, and these are certainly two of the reasons why Pianos decided to give them a residency during the month of December. The next live performance will be on December 12, if you dig it, do not miss it!