We highlighted Long Island’s The Lemon Twigs in our recent Best of NYC 2016 issue, and it looks like the Long Island duo is set for an exciting year. The D’Addario brothers just announced their signing with legendary British label 4AD (now part of the Beggars’ Group), and unveiled vaguely Supertramp-esque new single ‘These Words’ – streaming below. The upcoming full length will be produced by Jonathan Rado, co-founder of Foxygen, who seems to be specializing in producing albums that offer a new take on the sound of the late ’60s and early ’70s. This is definitely a record we are looking forward to. Check out The Lemon Twig’s other recent single (also produced by Rado) "As Long As We’re Together."

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

Who said a beautiful melody is necessary to create a great song? SOFI TUKKER‘s’s gone viral single Drinkee (brand new video below) features a one-note melodic phrase repeated over and over pretty much from the beginning to the end of the song – and we’ll never get tired of it! The Brooklyn based duo just unveiled their debut EP ‘Soft Animals,’ which comprises all their singles to date, plus electro ballad ‘Moon Tattoo,’ and also announced a bunch of summer dates in Europe and the US – the local date at Baby’s All Right on July 30th is already sold out. We recently asked them a few questions about their creative process, check out the link below. 

Delicious Audio Interview with SOFI TUKKER about synths and their creative process.

Epic-Nerd-Art-Rock is the closest approximation we can find, as far as genres, to describe the music of Bushwick’s Not Blood, Paint. With their premier full studio album release "Believing Is Believing" they capture the shock and awe of their dynamic live sets. Join them at Bushwick staple venue House of Yes tomorrow July 8th for the release party. Adding to the festivities will be Idgy Dean, That Handsome Devil and Starwood. – BrokeMc

One of the easier ways, for emerging artists, to have a first popularity outbreak, is through the endorsement of a celebrity. Yes, because – rather sadly – they are a much more effective promotional vehicles than blogs, which is a reason good enough for all ambitious artists to cultivate their VIP PR skills! NYC songwriter Maggie Rogers knows something about that. We were very impressed by her folky debut album (now pulled from the web) back in 2014, so much so that we interviewed her and booked her for one of our official CMJ 2014 shows (with Margaret Glaspy, who is also getting some buzz as of late). After that, Maggie’s name got a little lost, until this happened (Pharrel stumbled upon Maggie’s new song at a NYU seminar and fell in love with it). Obviously Rogers, who is still in her early ’20s, has spent these two years working hard on a more sophisticated sound (her debut was almost entirely acoustic). The audible results so far – in the shape of new single ‘Alaska’ – showcase a successful effort to step up her musical game, and are certainly worthy of praise. Still, it looks like Pharrell Williams’ promotion of the track was worth about five million Spotify plays, which is a very tall order for even an established artist! The pressure is now on Maggie to make the most of this incredible opportunity, because, to sustain a lenghty musical career, talent and good luck also need to be matched by consistently powerful songwriting. The Deli is with you, Maggie!

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

One of the most interesting developments of recording technology has been the creative use of samples, something hip hop anticipated with scratching and vinyls featuring music loops of sample drumbeats – here’s the most popular one of all. Brooklyn producer, songwriter and emcee Kirk Knight exhibits impressive skills in the sampling department on his 2013 release “Dust,” an unrelease collection of songs that was released earlier this year after Kirk soared in popularity thanks to his 2015’s LP ‘Late Knight Special.’ That he will also perform as New York’s lone home-grown representative at this year’s Village Voice 4Knots Fest is something of a coup as well. A total of ten under two minute tracks on “Dust” exhibit a mastery of the Ableton production software, allowing the artist to weave in bits of his own voice samples. The approach delivers a series of dream-like tracks that include electronic, cut up Motown with an easy, breezy, trip-hop-jazz feel to it all. Featured track “The Right Thing” incorporate sampled elements that breakout acts like Charli XCX explored on a number of her debut album tracks like “So Far Away.” Charting single "I Know" (also streaming) features a more aggressive attitude and production. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Knight presents this sound to a live audience at 4Knots. That festival takes place Saturday July 9, returning to its original South Street Seaport location. Other acts performing are Guided By Voices, Strumbellas, Car Seat Headrest and many others. See the full listing here. – Dave Cromwell

Ivy Meissner has a way of making you picture much of her music as a visual field while you listen. The Brooklyn singer-songwriter’s new song ‘Talk To Me’ begins simply enough, but takes on new meanings when she collides her softly spoken acoustic guitar and mellow vocals with loudly ringing telephones, heavily distorted drum kits, and telegraph wires. It’s a healthy dose of musique concrete dancing around Meissner’s wistful lyrics. Check out the tune below, and see the artist when she plays with Charlotte Cornfield and Space Captain on August 6th at Littlefield. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

LAVACHILD is a NYC based synth pop project fronted by fashionable singer songwriter/keyboardist Chantel De Lava (pictured), whose hypnotic presence charmed us at our 2015 B.E.A.F. festival. Her older single "Want U To" went viral on the internet, and since then Chantel has been releasing promising new material on her Soundcloud profile. She just unveiled a new video for single ‘Kandy,’ streaming below. The song will be featured in LAVACHILD’s upcoming debut EP.

Check out the Delicious Audio Q&A with Lavachild about her favorite synths.

The members of electronic duo The Familiar share a Norwegian heritage, and are based one in Brooklyn and the other one in a place called Tromsø, which appears to be a Norwegian city that’s closer to the North Pole than Iceland. No wonder they sing about "Patience" (the title of their single streaming below) in ways that are not exactly heart warming! Of course this is very stereotypical of us, but it’s undeniable that the amount of sunlight a country gets has a direct influence on the kind of art it produces – it’s no coincidence that northern cultures are the primary creators of anything "Goth."  The Familiar isn’t exactly goth, but they are dark and sober in ways reminiscent of electronic bands of the ’80s, and they acknowledge all we said by defining their music as "Dark Arctic ElectroPop." Fortunately though, Ruth Mirsky’s voice breaks the "aural ice" with her simple melodies and thoughtful lyrics full of melancholy. The band just released their sophomore EP "Seconds," which can be streamed in its entirety here.

After having played in a variety of bands throughout his life (including NGHBRS), New York musician Ian Kenny is now focusing on his solo rock project, under the moniker of King Neptune. The band’s first and only single released to date, “Black Hole” (streaming below) is an honest and infectious break-up song about the perception of knowing someone and the realization that it’s not true. The song starts off as a passionate, slightly angry rock ‘n’ roll anthem, slowly evolving through a disorderly succession of the five stages of grief. Acceptance seems to set it in the mellow ending, until the final sentence "I knew you" pretty much denies any progress, sending the author back to the stage of "denial." King Neptune is set to play the Cake Shop tonight (06.30). – Madeleine Grossman

This artist submitted music for coverage here.

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

Despite being now three years old, the only single released to date by Brooklyn-based shoegazers Vivienne Eastwood still manages to have heart-wrenching and mind-altering effects on us.  The track is entitled “Rose Pedals,” (with a "d"), which is either a clever play on words linking back to shoegazer music, or an hilariously appropriate typo – we experienced something similar a few years ago when one of our interns thought guitar pedals was spelled ‘petals‘ – awww… 
With its expansive reverberation and undulating guitars, this is a song that may cause the listeners to lose track of their surroundings. If they enjoy it, they may want to regain awareness before the weekend and find their way to Sunnyvale, where Vivienne Eastwood will be performing with Teen Body and Treatment on July 2nd. – Madeleine Grossman

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

One of the noisiest bands to grace the cover of The Deli Magazine (back in 2014, issue #37, which also featured an interview with Todd P), Total Slacker announced today the release of their third LP, entitled ‘Parallels,’ by unveiling single “Turn on The Lights,” which features epic overtones, ’80s and ’90s references and the usual wall of guitars; a wall that, in this song – rather uncharacteristically for the band – features "holes" that leave space for mellower interludes. ‘Parallels’ is scheduled for an August 19th release.

Belonging to the rare category of "bands that keep getting better all the time," Brooklyn’s dream rock quintet Caveman just released their third full length album (and three years in the making) ‘Otero War,’ and is set to play several major festivals this summer including Forecastle in Louisville, KY, Panorama in NYC and Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco, CA. With a gear insider like Jimmy Carbonetti in its ranks – besides being the band’s guitarist, the man is a fine luthier and owns Cobra Guitars – we were tempted to ask him a few question about guitar pedals – check out the link below. Check out latest single ‘Life or Just Living,’ streaming below.

Delicious Audio Q&A with Caveman about their guitar pedals.