Our Best of Nashville 2017 poll began last week with the Hip Hop/Electronic category and after you-the-people cast your vote, we have the results to share with you!

Overall Poll winner (Jurors vote + Readers’ vote): Soft Bodies

Readers’ Poll Winner (Readers’ Vote only): Truitt

Both Soft Bodies and Truitt craft music that bores right down into the soul. Soft Bodies’ dancy, psychedelic sonicsphere nestles right down into the subconscious. Mostly synth-based, their tunes set a mind and body to motion. Rhythm and melody meet in blissful arpeggiating crescendoes, weaved together with deep melanchology vocals that drive the songs forward. Soft Bodies claims the entire atmosphere of a space, setting a tone and collective motion. 

Truitt carries a more structured, pop orientation, influenced by electronic based pop production (take the newest Justin Bieber record, for example). The songs are symmetrical with traditional pop structuring and offer irresistable vocal hooks that seep into your head. Don’t expect a uniform catalog of contemporary radio pop tunes with Truitt, however. Their songs offer a variety of production techniques and sampled instrumentation that shatter expectations and leave you waiting for the next one.

Honorable mentions go to Biyo and Jensen Sportag (tied for second in the overall chart) and PHANGS (second in the Readers’ poll). The full list of nominees can be found under the streaming tracks. 

Here is the list of all the finalists in the Nashville Hip Hop/Electronic category and their readers’ poll results:

	Biyo		0%	7 votes
	Chill Witch		4%	31 votes
	Facemajik		0%	2 votes
	Foreign Fields		0%	2 votes
	Jensen Sportag		0%	0 votes
	Mike Floss		0%	1 vote
	Nightblonde		0%	2 votes
	PHANGS		27%	199 votes
	Stealing Oceans		0%	0 votes
	Soft Bodies		0%	7 votes
	The Trinity Schill Kill		0%	1 vote
	Truitt		65%	476 votes

The Best of NYC Indie Pop Readers’ Poll ended last Friday and we have some results for ya’ll!

The band Zuli, brainchild of the New York native Ryan Camenzuli, got the upper hand in that category’s readers poll. The group plays well behaved pop in the tradition of the Beach Boys and Elvis Costello. Their debut EP "Supernatural Voodoo," filled with intoxicating melodies and witty lyrics, has been growing on us (and many other music fans) since its 2015 release. The band is playing Les Poisson Rouge on February 16th in a very "psych," all NYC bill including Monogold, Shana Falana and Dead Leaf Echo – that’s actually a show sponsored by The Deli, do not miss! Check out the recent video for "Better All the Time," streaming below.

In the crowded Brooklyn garage rock scene, Las Rosas stands out for catchiness, character. and authenticity. The band’s profile has been rising quite a bit in 2016, so much so that they are currently on a European tour that take them through the Check Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands. They’ll be in Austin for SXSW with a show at Hotel Vegas on March 18th, and then back to NYC for a home performance at Baby’s All Right on April 8th. Check out their recent video for single ‘Boys,’ streaming below.

In anticipation of his three week residency at NYC club Berlin, UK artist Reggie Snow has dropped a highly political new video. The plodding beat provided by Kendrick Lamar producer Rahki is an unsettling backdrop for a disconcerting journey through the darkest alley of our justice system. Tish Hyman, a BX native with pipes of bristled gold, adds further fervor to the tenor of the track. Rejjie has a free art project in the works with Beast Coast magnate Joey Bada$$ called The Moon In You. Catch Rejjie at Berlin on March 1, 8, and 15. – BrokeMC

It’s no surprise to see the charismatic loungy indie quartet, Yuma, atop the readers poll for ‘Best Emerging Indie Rock Artist of 2016’. Technically proficient but structurally unfettered, Yuma curates a refreshing dynamic of psychedlic-infused prog rock. The real lure of the group are their live performances which demand a no-gimmick focus on their melodies and choruses yet allows the listener to dance and lose themselves in the band’s intrinsic joviality. Yuma’s momentum continues to snowball, and 2017 should hold a myriad new milestones.

OK folks, it’s almost Valentine’s Day, but, really… are we rockers supposed to give a crap? (Answer: it depends what your other half thinks about it, and how much you care about him/her…). Brooklyn’s Def.GRLS, at first glance, looks like a band perfectly equipped to entertain Valentine’s Day practitioners. Just look at the cover of their 2015 “GRLS EP,” which features the annual red, pink and white "hues of adoration." The image on the record even depicts a woman biting into a marshmallow of some sort, while the band, in one of their Beatlesy-bubbly-beepity-bop tracks, sings about a… "FinGRLess Lady"??? Can you feel the love in the air or what? Okay, true, other great indie hits have been written about mutilation, and at the end of the day Def.GRLS do also sing about the girl of their dreams in “GRL,” another lo-fi, ’60s style psychedelic pop gem. But we don’t think that’s enough to make them a good choice for your "regular" Valentine’s day – and that’s probably why their upcoming show is NOT on February14th, but a month and two days later, at Rough Trade, on March 16th. Check out their recent single Krampus, streaming below. – Jocelyn Huggler

In 2015, when they released their self titled, debut EP, Brooklyn’s Electro Rock duo Ghost Cop wrote, in the record’s bandcamp notes: "GHOST COP thinks the dystopia you dreamt of in the celluloid past is upon us." We are not sure if what they meant with the word "dystopia," at the time, was exactly "Trump as president," but we can confidently say that those words, withtoday’s hindsight, sound profetic. Thanks to this guessed forecast, the band finds itself in the enviable position of having a perfect soundtrack ready for the dark times we are living – while other artists are laggin behind, trying to catch up with the sudden change of atmosphere. Their music is a sober, flawlessly produced coldwave with industrial and pop influences. Recommended for all those who think it’s time to embrace darkness, or at least start getting used to it… Ghost Cop will be performing at Alphaville on 02.25. 

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

NYC is filled with garage rock bands, but few of them bypass the huge influence The Ramones have on the city’s sound, to find inspiration, instead, in the proto-punk of the genre’s true pioneers: Iggy Pop’s The Stooges. Like them, Brooklyn’s own Stuyedeyed, who recently won this very blog’s Best of NYC Readers’ Poll in the Garage Rock category, have a sound that’s not only in your face, but that’s also (figuratively speaking) making faces, while starring grimly at you, inches from your nose. Single Mr. Policeman (streaming below) gives you an idea of what kind of wildness you will witness on February 18, when the band will take the stage at Alphaville with Bambara (another tense band!) and Pink Mexico. Check out the recent video for Stuyedeyed track ‘Funeral,’ below.

The Deli’s Best of Folk/Americana Poll for emerging Chicago artists ended yesterday and elected a single winner for both the Readers’ Poll and the overall chart, which aggregates both readers votes and the votes of our jury of scene experts.

Belonging to the "less is more" school of thought, Jessie Winslow employs a very sparse instrumentation but aims directly at the earth. In her 2016 EP, appropriately titled "Bare," she even rejects the flattering effects of artificial reverberation on the vocals, an effect so common in recorded music that, by itself, its absence forges an original sound.

Kudos also to Furious Frank and Todd Kesler, who placed 2nd and third in the readers’ poll and also, respectively, 2nd and 4th in the overall charts, separated by Robbie Fulks who snatched the 3rd place in the latter.

Find all the finalist of the Folk//Americana category under the streaming track.

	Al Scorch		3%	7 votes
	Furious Frank		18%	35 votes
	glyders		0%	1 vote
	Homme		2%	4 votes
	Jessie Winslow		35%	65 votes
	Parent		1%	2 votes
	Rebecca Rego & The Trainmen		11%	22 votes
	Robbie Fulks		1%	3 votes
	Robert Rolfe Fedderson		1%	3 votes
	Tara Terra		4%	9 votes
	The Belvederes		0%	1 vote
	Trevor Sensor		0%	0 votes
	Todd Kesler		17%	33 votes

Those who are wondering what the state of synthpop in NYC is, should head to Bowery Ballroom on Saturday February 11. Three of the best emerging local bands dedicated to the most joyous of electronic genres (VHS Collection, Paperwhite and Corbu) will share the stage of that venerable stage – on a Saturday night! Check out their tunes, streaming below.

Here’s a pretty little album we just discvovered, released earlier this year. Its title is "Princess Plum," and the band that recorded goes under the moniker Absolutely Yours. It’s dream pop at its most ethereal, in particular on opening track "Best I Got," streaming below. The quartet is performing at Alphaville tongiht, February 9th, 2017.

Western MA-based GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!  is one of those bands crafting deliciously head-spinning math-rock licks so labyrinthine, that you’d imagine it’d be tough for even a full four or five piece band to execute. So, when you hear that their music is the work of solely Joseph Andreoli (guitar) and Kenneth Topham (drums), it’s more than a little dizzying to think about how the duo manages to pull it off. Luckily for us, Joesph was kind enough to give our sister blog Delicious Audio a behind-the-scenes look at the pedals he uses to create GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! expansive sound. You can find the interview at the link below. – Olivia Sisinni

Giraffes? Giraffes! Q&A about pedals on Delicious Audio.