Last Monday, School Night! held a free show at Baby’s All Right with Active Bird Community as a headliner. You never know what to expect from opening acts, but this time we were in for a pleasant surprise. QTY is a couple playing music reminiscent of classics such as Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, but with a sonic attitude closer to the Jesus and Mary Chain. Their song "Rodeo," which seems to tackle the couple’s relationship, delivers plenty of rock’n’roll attitude, strong songwriting, and a satisfyingly bright distorted guitar sound. If you are traveling to Austin for SXSW in two weeks, you’ll have an opportunity to catch these guys live at Maggie Mae’s on March 17th.
Not many people will promptly associate Craigslist with rock’n’roll, but it’s not rare to hear of musicians finding each other in the free online classifieds’ Musicians section. That’s what brought together NYC Indie quartet, Glass Tactics. In February they released their three track debut EP “Tactics,” a record that, with its catchy hooks and laid back choruses, captures the essence of a classic power pop track. On their Facebook page, they describe their shows as “joyous, finger-bleeding” which seems like half of one good reason to see them on March 17th at Pianos. – Jocelyn Huggler
This indie rock quartet graced the cover of our winter 2017 issue of The Deli, and offers catchy and melancholic indie rock that sticks to the soul. They hone a fuzzy, distorted rock sound with folky overtones and production that cleans it up enough to be endlessly listenable.
Cut Worms offers 60s pop revival reminiscent of anything from The Beach Boys to Gerry and the Pacemakers. With catchy, simple, and relatable tunes that satisfyingly dabble in the retro, Cut Worms knows how to catch an ear.
Baby Acid is self-described as "grunge-gaze" and it’s easy to understand why on a first listen. They blend the fuzzier, harder, heavier elements of grunge with the the reverb-soaked, sound walls and atmospheres of shoegaze to create an entire sonic space.
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Here’s the list of all the finalists with their Readers’ Poll scores. As always, we’d like to thank all of our artists, jurors, and readers for participating in this year’s polls. Stay tuned and vote for all of our remaining genre polls!
This indie rock quartet graced the cover of our winter 2017 issue of The Deli, and offers catchy and melancholic indie rock that sticks to the soul. They hone a fuzzy, distorted rock sound with folky overtones and production that cleans it up enough to be endlessly listenable.
Cut Worms offers 60s pop revival reminiscent of anything from The Beach Boys to Gerry and the Pacemakers. With catchy, simple, and relatable tunes that satisfyingly dabble in the retro, Cut Worms knows how to catch an ear.
Baby Acid is self-described as "grunge-gaze" and it’s easy to understand why on a first listen. They blend the fuzzier, harder, heavier elements of grunge with the the reverb-soaked, sound walls and atmospheres of shoegaze to create an entire sonic space.
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Here’s the list of all the finalists with their Readers’ Poll scores. As always, we’d like to thank all of our artists, jurors, and readers for participating in this year’s polls. Stay tuned and vote for all of our remaining genre polls!
This indie rock quartet graced the cover of our winter 2017 issue of The Deli, and offers catchy and melancholic indie rock that sticks to the soul. They hone a fuzzy, distorted rock sound with folky overtones and production that cleans it up enough to be endlessly listenable.
Cut Worms offers 60s pop revival reminiscent of anything from The Beach Boys to Gerry and the Pacemakers. With catchy, simple, and relatable tunes that satisfyingly dabble in the retro, Cut Worms knows how to catch an ear.
Baby Acid is self-described as "grunge-gaze" and it’s easy to understand why on a first listen. They blend the fuzzier, harder, heavier elements of grunge with the the reverb-soaked, sound walls and atmospheres of shoegaze to create an entire sonic space.
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Here’s the list of all the finalists with their Readers’ Poll scores. As always, we’d like to thank all of our artists, jurors, and readers for participating in this year’s polls. Stay tuned and vote for all of our remaining genre polls!
The Deli Magazine is proud to premier Jazze Belle’s first EP, ‘Go To Bed Standing Up.’ The four songs are an all too short celebration of those moments in life where we feel like we’re doing everything we can to make our dreams happen and it’s still not enough. In “Every Day Tomorrow,” vocalist Taylor Simone expresses perfectly how even our dreams can be a subtle form of torture; she sings, “My dreams are made of never ending alarms so I sleep with one eye open.” Those words should hit close to home for any New Yorker. We’re excited to be invited to the slumber party! – BrokeMc
Cut Worms is the nom de plume of singer/songwriter/one-man-band Max Clarke, whose spate of releases between 2015 and 2016 transform the lead of past genres into new gold. See him (and his make-shift band) tonight at the Bowery Ballroom, where Cut Worms opens for critical darlings the Lemon Twigs. Back to the recordings: at first, the influences seem easy enough to pin down, as in the case of recent single "Don’t Want to Say Goodbye" (streaming). If it’s all Clarke in the studio, he should proceed to make a video of himself playing every member of Gerry and the Pacemakers on stage at the "Ed Sullivan Show," as musically and vocally he faithfully recreates the sound of like minded bands from that era. B-side "Like Going Down Sideways" is less melodic overall, but infinitely more complex. It starts out like an early seventies acoustic ballad (think Lobo or Rodriguez), then veers into a variety of directions—a sprinkling of Gram Parsons, a dash of the Everly Brothers—which suggest a rather deep knowledge of pop history, and an uncommon ability to write retro pop songs. Then there are the "Soft Boiled Demos, Pt. 1-8," an MP3 offering from mid-2016, which falls somewhere between a set of lost Buddy Holly demos and the more showy retroism of Ryan Adams. Single "Mad About You" is pure allegory: a walk down Broadway, with the wind in his hair, evinces the hidden order of the cosmos. We’ll have to wait and see what ultimately becomes of Cut Worms but for now, we can certainly enjoy his tracks, and let them transport us back to a time when pop songwriting was governed by different laws. – Brian Chidester
NYC psych rockers Steady Sun‘s latest single, which we are premiering below, bears the aquatic title "Benthos," a term used to describe the flora and fauna found on the bottom of a body of water. Music and water have many things in common, in particular a fluid, "streamy" nature. But the concept of underwater recalls an extra set of attributes (like "dreamy, calm, slow-moving") that perfectly fit the profile of a mellow, psychedelic song. The track, with its plodding pace and dreamy atmosphere, certainly keeps faith to its title. Dylan Nowik’s warm falsetto draws semi-unintelligible but arresting melodies, while ghostly strings and backing vocals float in a pool of reverb, creating a sonic environment that’s as surreal as it is serene. If you dig this tune, check out the quintet’s 2016 EP ‘FLORA‘ and don’t miss their upcoming show at Arlene’s Grocery on March 10, opening for Indigo King. Check out also their previous single "Life At One Twenty Two," at the bottom of this page.
The results are in for our year-end Best Emerging New England Indie Rock Artist poll. The popular vote has elected Tall Teenagers from Providence, RI as our 2016 Deli Readers’ champions for the Indie Rock/Pop category. They are a name we’ve been hearing a lot this past year and we are excited to see what 2017 has in store for them. We would also like to give a shout-out to Boston garage-rockers Mokita for giving them a run for their money.
In addition, the points accumulated through votes cast by our panel of jurors, and a third position in the readers’ poll, crowned XR Tabs and their brand of experimental indie-pop as the Best of New England in this category. Check out their new single "Wet Fire for Edison the Unclean" and see what all the hype is about.
As always, we’d like to thank all of our artists, jurors, and readers for participating in this year’s polls. Stay tuned and vote for all of our remaining genre polls! -Brian Varneke
Our Best of Austin Poll for Emerging Indie Pop Aritsts ended recently and here’s a summary of the results.
We already celebrated Yuma for winning the Readers’ Poll.
Trio Summer Salt was the winners of the overall chart, the one that combines the readers’ votes with the one cast by our "scene experts," who picked the list of nominees we pasted at the bottom of this post.
Summer Salt has been on tip of the tongue of anyone who had the chance to see the trio of best friends in 2016. The equivalent of audio soma, Summer Salt’s musical essence is unobtrusive oldies that might sound like if Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson had been left on a deserted cay to write music for eternity. The trio’s balmy bossanova-influenced tropical tracks are indulgent and entrancing which is why Summer Salt captured the most votes out of our music industry poll on ‘Best Emerging Indie Rock Artist of 2016’.
Big thumbs up also to Tele Novella and Sweet Spirit, who tied on second place in the jurors votes department, and Magic Rockers of Texas, second place in the Readers’ Poll and 4th overall.
Here’s a recap of our Best of NYC Indie Pop Poll, which ended last Friday and highlighted some truly talented emerging locals.
We already celebrated Zuli, winner of the Readers’ Poll, here.
Ex Reyes, the project of New Orleans songwriter Mikey Freedom Hart, was the winner of the overall chart (and therefore of the "Best of NYC" title for this category – this chart adds to the readers’ votes the points cast by our scene "experts," who nominated all the artists in the list). Rather impressively, this band has been consistently churning out quality, extremely sophisticated, soulful and somewhat loungy tracks that reveal the rich musical background of its singer/songwriter and the city he hails from. Check out the video for their break out single "Bad Timing" below.
Other artists who did really well in the poll are Sam Evian (same juror score as Ex Reyes, less readers votes), Surf Rock is Dead (3rd place overall and 2nd in the Readers’ Poll), and Plastic Picnic (3rd in the Readers’ Poll) – check out their tracks, streaming below.
Find the full list of the Indie Pop Category finalist at the bottom of this post.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wonder who came up with the term “Nu-Wop Dreamsauce,” we can assure you it wasn’t late Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia (R.I.P.). The words, instead, are used by NYC trio PEP to describe their Doo-Woop influenced vintage pop. These ladies just released a new single entitled "Get Physical," in anticipation of their debut album, to be released later this year. It sounds like some African influences made their way inside that ‘dreamsauce" – we likey! The band will be performing at Rough Trade on March 16. It promises to be a fun night.
