Jason Reece of longtime Austin resident band …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead (newly transplanted to Brooklyn) still has at least one foot planted here in Austin: he’ll be taking over DJ duties this coming week on 101x every night this week from 6pm until 10pm. TOD recently dropped their seventh, Tao of the Dead, on Superball/Richter Scale. 

(Photo by Amo Bassan) 

One of our all-time favorite venues, The Ghost Room, plays host tonight to one of best new-ish Austin music events – the 2nd annual Roaries, presented by Republic of Austin (RoA, hence the name, pretty pleased I figured that one out). Show is FREE, starts at 7, and includes live performances by seven of the nominees: The Black and White Years, STEREO IS A LIE, One Hundred Flowers, Tje Austin (above), Christeene, Tara Craig, BK and Mr. E, and Jonathan Terrell. Award presenters include some of the luminaries of the Austin blogging/music scene: Adi Anand, Tolly Moseley, Tyler Groover, Laurie Gallardo, Richard Gonzalez, and more. Full list of nominees here. 

After debuting "Wake and Be Fine" on Jimmy Fallon, Okkervil River broke out another brand new song, "Weave Room Blues", a B side from the upcoming I Am Very Far. Lead singer/songwriter Will Sheff was also one of the more entertaining people to follow on twitter (@okkervilriver) in the run up to and during the Grammys…not to mention his running commentary on the vibe in Prescott, AZ. 

Agent Ribbons, Not in the Face, and one of our favorite new (ish) Austin bands, Black Books, bring The Rumble to Beerland tomorrow (2/16), for FREE. 

Black Books spread their lush, dreamy sound over four tracks on a recent nifty-looking green vinyl EP, An Introduction to…; lyrics include the very Texas sentiment "if you’re not sunburned you’re not having fun"…they’ve also got some upcoming 3/5 at the Mohawk & two more helping kick off the SX madness Tuesday 3/15 at (both!) The Ghost Room and Skinny’s Ballroom. 

One of the latest from our friends over at Austin Music Weekly – The Belleville Outfit, six members strong and three albums in, made fairly regular visits to Momo’s to flesh out their own particular Americana. AMW caught them this past 1/29 working here on "Caroline" – in what looks to have been their final show.

Ok, in our world, Matt the Electrician would play halftime, and the Black-Eyed Peas would scramble together a Kickstarter for their next effort, but…wisely, rather than dwell on this type of thing, Matt the E and family instead came up with this sweet and smart response to the plight of the indie musician…

As he does every Tuesday night, Erik Hokannen will take over at Flipnotic’s tonight at 9. The fiddle and guitar master has been a mainstay of the Austin scene for over twenty years, and has been described more than once as "the greatest Austin musician you’ve never heard." Jazz Mills (of Cowboy + Indian) gave her enthusiastic recommendation. Erik has skipped back and forth between Austin and Helsinki – he’s a third-generation Finn – throughout his musical career, and enjoys a devoted following in both cities. 

Children of the Tone LIVE at ND

Candi and The Strangers | Myspace Music Videos

Let’s go ahead and work on their 15 minutes right now: The band name, the album name, the presentation, and the songs themselves all draw from Andy Warhol’s legendary The Factory studio and scene. Candi and the Strangers brought their updated dreamy-psych sound to ND studios this past Saturday to celebrate the release of 10th of Always, which they played straight through. Album officially out tomorrow;  

Congrats to our 1-2-3 finishers in the Deli’s Best of Austin Emerging Artist Poll: Overall champs Quiet Company, runners-up Monahans and third-place (and readers’ poll winners) Baron Grod. 

Probably no shock to find Quiet Company on top; this seems to be their year here in Austin and beyond. They’ll be bringing their special brand of lengthily-titled indie pop gems (e.g. "It’s Better to Spend Money Like There’s No Tomorrow Then Spend Tonight Like There’s No Money") to the Mohawk Thursday 2/10, where they’ll open for Fastball, one of the many Austin acts to break big in the past. And it just so happens that same night their above-referenced song will be featured on USA’s show Royal Pains…so you could say they’re having a good week. They’re also official SXSW participants & are inching very close (possibly March) to the release of their new album, We Are All Where We Belong. 

The west Texas dunes-inspired Monahans dropped a new single on us every month of 2010, and they’re compiling those into their next record as we type…you can catch them at Emo’s one week after your Quiet Company intake, Friday, Feb. 18th. As for heavy but intricate post-rockers Baron Grod, who stomped off with a hard-fought victory in our readers’ poll and ranked third overall, we’ll keep you posted on their goings on – as of writing, they plan to record a new one in 2011. 

Thanks again to all who participated in the poll – reminded us again what an extraordinary music scene we have here…

Austiners with a fine hear,

After a seizure inducing 2 months of polling and voting and churning numbers, HABEMUS POLL WINNER!
Congrats to pop rockers  Quiet Company, who preceded moody indie band Monahans and prog metal Baron Grod (who also won our related fans poll). Here’s a picture of Quiet Company for the ladies…







Thanks to all the jurors and the bands and the fans who helped us put together this list of artists. Please don’t take our poll too seriously (but not even too lightly, as these are great new bands!), we see it as a fun, playful way to give exposure to deserving emerging local artists, and as an opportunity to keep our finger on the Austin scene’s pulse.

Artist J W OS F TOTAL   1 Quiet Company 5     0.035 5.035 2 Monahans 3 1   0.016 4.016 3 Baron Grod     1 3 4 4 Little Lo 3   0.5 0.027 3.527 5 Crooks 3     0.02 3.02 6 Politics 3     0.018 3.018 7 SPEAK 3     0.007 3.007 8 Amy Cook 3     0.005 3.005 9 TV Torso 3     0.003 3.003 10 Dana Falconberry 3     0.002 3.002 11 Ethan Kennedy 3     0.001 3.001 12 Saints of Valory   1   2 3 13 The Canvas Waiting   1   1.5 2.5 14 Leatherbag 1 1   0.027 2.027 15 The Authors 2     0.02 2.02 16 Marmalakes 2     0.012 2.012 17 Follow That Bird 2     0.006 2.006 18  Zlam Dunk 2     0.004 2.004 19 Cowboy and Indian 1 1   0.003 2.003   Pure Ecstasy 2     0.003 2.003 21 Butcher Bear and Charlie 2     0.002 2.002 22 Love at 20 2     0.001 2.001   Ugly Beats 2     0.001 2.001 24 Meggan Carney 2     0 2   Sip Sip 1     1 2 26 Lacuna Incorporated 1     0.05 1.05 27 Zorch     1 0.02 1.02 28  MoTel Aviv 1     0.011 1.011 29 Fresh Millions 1     0.005 1.005 30 Melogrand 1     0.003 1.003   Ruby Jane 1     0.003 1.003   Woven Bones 1     0.003 1.003   Devil in the Drink   1   0.002 1.002 34 The Rocketboys     0.5 0.5 1   Markov 1     0 1 36 The Sour Notes     0.75 0.006 0.756 37 Horse + Donkey     0.75 0 0.75 38 Sad Accordions     0.5 0.041 0.541 39 She Sir     0.5 0.019 0.519 40 The Boxing Lesson     0.5 0.011 0.511 41 The Pons     0.5 0.009 0.509 42 Sarah Jarosz     0.5 0.004 0.504   Thai Paul     0.5 0.004 0.504 44 Megan Tubb     0.5 0 0.5 Legend: J = Jury – OS = Open Submissions – W = Deli Writers – F = Fans

The Deli’s Staff

In anticipation of the planned March release of their second full length Hope We Live Like We Promised, The Great Nostalgic is posting a vid every month. Latest out is the appropriately quirky "Spirit World". The album is already available on vinyl right here, with some generous bonus items thrown in. 

Big congrats to Baron Grod, who made a late move to capture our Best of 2010 fans’ poll. It’s not the first and surely not the last accolade to be thrown at the instrumental post-rocker quartet, who edged out Saints of Valory (second) and The Canvas Waiting (third) to top the poll. Composite charts results will be tallied and announced within the week, meanwhile thanks to bands + readers for making this a hotly contested poll! Here’s the Fans’ Poll Top Ten for ya!

Artist   1 Baron Grod 2 Saints of Valory 3 The Canvas Waiting 4 Sip Sip 5 The Rocket Boys 6 Lacuna Incorporated 7 Sad Accordions 8 Quiet Company 9 Leatherbag 9 Little Lo

The Deli Staff