After having gone into a brief period of dormancy, the Deli SF will be resurrecting it’s weekly recommendations of happenings around the Bay Area so you can plan your time accordingly. With that in mind we encourage bands to post their shows on our DIY Live Show Listings as you never know if yours could be the one featured.

Though surely many people’s plans this weekend involve evenings by candlelight and something lacy from Good Vibrations, for those who dare to break the mold and treat their date to a different hot and sweaty environment, or just don’t give a rat’s arse about Hallmark holidays, here are a few show highlights for this weekend.

For a down-tempo night out Il Gato are giving a folky kick off to the weekend at The Blue Macaw in the Mission this Thursday the 11th at 8:30.

On Friday night Grand Lake (who took second place in the reader’s poll this year for the Deli’s best emerging artist) are opening for Alec Ounsworth (of Clap Your Hands a Say Yeah) at Cafe Du Nord.

If an excuse to have a goofy dance party is the impetus you need to get out Saturday night Super Adventure Club will be performing the second show of their four week residency at the Hotel Utah. One the other hand if your looking for something a bit rockier, Paranoids and Tokyo Raid will be playing on the other side of town at Kimo’s somewhere around 10pm.

That’s all for this week. Remember to keep us updated on the calender and we’ll do our best to disseminate the word.

-Ada Lann

Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope, the 2009 release from Michael Zapruder was recently awarded the Best Folk/Singer Songwriter album of 2009 by The Independent Music Awards.  Now in its 9th year, the Independent Music Awards has been recognizing self-released and independent music from around the globe. This is the 3rd full length album from Micheal since he earned notoriety in 1999 by releasing a new track every week throughout the year – the collection has been archived on The 52 Songs Project website. Fans can still vote for their favorite nominated ‘People’s Voice’ Independent Music Awards artists here.

Monday, February 8th at 8pm, Amoeba Music presents 2 music documentaries at a tucked away little venue on 37th and MLK in Oakland – Eli’s Mile High Club. This hidden staple in the Bay Area became semi-famous in the 70’s for being one of the few venues on the West Coast to exclusively feature local and national blues artists. The club struggled financially over the years, exchanged hands a few times and was resurrected in 2008. Today the bar has a divey feel, serves food until midnight and when the myriad of rock, punk, metal and experimental acts play a set, they’re standing on the same small Oakland stage that has been graced by James Brown, Etta James and Jimmy McCracklin.

Monday night features documentaries on the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival and "My Fleeting House," a look at the music of Tim Buckley. The films are free and if you purchase a $5 food ticket you get food [duh] and a $5 Amoeba coupon.

The Hundred Days have released their first video, an acoustic version of the single "Out Of Nowhere." The video was directed by Angelo Ibanez and filmed at Gadgetbox Studios in Santa Cruz.

The Hundred Days play Bottom of the Hill tonight as part of the SF Winter Film & Music Festival with Please Do Not Fight, Luke Franks or the Federalists and Scene of Action. $10 8pm

Last week Daytrotter released four free downloads from San Francisco’s Social Studies. The collection in includes an exclusive track, "Mad Decent", a cover of The Grass Roots song "Lets Live for Today" as well as tracks from their upcoming album, Wind-Up Wooden Heart and their previous album This Is The World’s Biggest Hammer.

Indie folk duo Beatbeat Whisper play a free show Thursday January 28th [thats tonight] at the SF Underground Farmers Market. 199 Capp St. at 17th, San Francisco. 5-11pm

Farmers markets start to darn early sometimes. Finally, someone came up with the idea to have one, not just at night but, at night combined with other evening activities like drinking and listening to live music. Behold the SF Underground Farmers Market where for hefty fee of nada you can graze and purchase wild mushroom spreads, pies, acorn fudge and sarasparilla while listening to a live band.

We’re happy to be finally closing the book on 2009 and wanted to take a moment to congratulate the winners of our Best Emerging Artist of 2009.

First, the Readers Poll where San Francisco’s Orchestra of Antlers (in the picture) reached the top spot in a heated race with Oakland’s Grand Lake. Both bands made major waves in the Bay Area music scene throughout 2009 and since the bands were only 2% apart in the total number of votes, we decided to split the banner up top to recognize everyone’s hard work. You can catch Orchestra of Antlers at the Retox Lounge on January 30 and Grand Lake on February 2nd at Thee Parkside as part of SF Winterfest. In third place was Bay Area Hip Hop artists Le Vice who played the West Beach Music & Arts Festival last year along side Ben Harper and Ozomatli. Thier debut release is due in March and they play El Rio on March 11th. See the full Top 10 of our Readers Poll here.

The top winner in our overall Best Emerging Artist of 2009 was San Francisco’s Girls. The band seemed to blow up in the second half of the year and their debut release Album, was widely reviewed and talked about on music sites throughout the country. Girls will be playing the Great American Music Hall on February 14th. The second spot went to another band with a lot of buzz last year, Oakland’s Man/Miracle. Their LP The Shape of Things quickly sold through the first pressing and is expected to be re-released this year on Third Culture Records. Man/Miracle are playing a FREE show tonight at The Speakeasy [604 56th St., Oakland] and at Bottom of the Hill with Rogue Wave on February 24th. The third spot went to a a staple in the Bay Area music scene, Or, the Whale. This year saw them recording for Daytrotter and their self titled second release made a couple "Best Of" lists for 2009. Or, the Whale’s next local show is in March at The Independent. You can see the full list of nominees and their standings here.

A big thanks goes out to all of the readers that voted, The Deli staff that helped compile and vote on the nominees an the local bloggers, engineers and musicians who acted as jurors to help deliberate over a years worth of fantastic Bay Area music! Our jurors this year were: John Flores [owner of Studio SQ] Christian Cunningham [The Bay Bridged], Nate Seltenrich [East Bay Express], Anna Gazdowicz [Stranger Dance] , John Vanderslice [musician and owner of Tiny Telephone], Mark Taylor [KQED], Ted Leibowitz [Bagel Radio] and Peter Arko [Ears of the Beholder].

The Deli SF is looking forward to lots of amazing music from Bay Area artists in 2010!

-Nicole Leigh

1. WHY? – Eskimo Snow
Its hard to believe these songs were written at the same time as Alopecia way back in 2007. A perfect mix between weird, poppy, and intelligent that is incredibly fun and satisfying.

2. Man/Miracle – The Shape of Things
A band with some of the most original mixes of influences, think Talking Heads doing sometimes darker indie dance songs, Man/Miracle is one of my favorite bands in Oakland. Every song on The Shape of Things becomes your favorite as you listen to it. A late release in November of 100 copies has already rumored to be sold out, but it will be re-released by Third Culture Records in February of 2010 making it a safe prediction that The Shape of Things will make it on this same list next year too.

3. Girls – Album
It seems that there are a number of people who are “over” this record or sick of hearing about it on Pitchfork and other prominent music blogs but, to be frank, those people are idiots. Excessive publicity aside, Girls made a really amazing record. Interesting song writing and Christopher Owens’ voice made most of the songs on Album impossible to not enjoy. Was there a better opening song on a local record this year than “Lust For Life” or a better almost seven minute slow tempo pop song than “Hellhole Ratrace”? No, there wasn’t.

4. Grand Lake – Nevermint
Grand Lake’s debut with their original 4 person line up blew me away when it was released in March. Short minimal pop songs became controlled explosions for all 7 tracks of Nevermint. The songwriting of Caleb Nichols is complemented perfectly by the wild guitar abstractions of Jameson Swanagon. Grand Lake may have moved on from these type of songs, but none the less Nevermint is one of the better listens from the East Bay scene this year.

5.Tall Grass – Nothing, Nothing Tra La La
Tall Grass made my favorite CD-R of 2009. The songwriting of Andrew Macey is both emotional and hilarious allowing it to touch the listener in a special and unique way. Like their performances, Tall Grass is best enjoyed in an intimate setting where you can feel as close to the acoustic guitar, fiddle, harmonies, and subtle percussion as possible.

-Glenn Jackson

The morning benders’ recently released "Promises", the first single from their new album Big Echo, as a free download from their website for a limited time. True Panther Sounds will release the 7′ single with the B-side "Oh Annie" in late February. Big Echo is due out on March 9th.

This entry is from our Open Blog. I don’t know a lot of whippersnappers, but all of the ones I do know seem to go to Berkeley High. How big is Berkeley High anyway? These kids definitely have talent but I can’t help but wonder, do they ever get beat up?

After meeting in the renowned Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble two years ago, Thirstbusters began performing Pop/Rock around the Bay Area. Incorporating jazz sensibilities, the young band puts on a diverse, energetic, and mature performance. Now at UCLA, UC Irvine, Oberlin and Vassar, the band always has a new exciting project waiting for them when they come home. In addition to having shows, they recorded and produced an album of all originals. The release of Time You Awake was a huge success last summer at Ashkenaz in Berkeley and the debut album is now on iTunes. Now the high-caliber music video takes Thirstbusters to a level unexpected from such recent high school graduates. They’re currently planning a California tour for next summer. With Zach Sorgen on vocals and keyboard, Ryan Thomas on guitar, Forrest Mitchell on drums, and Chase Jackson on bass, Thirstbusters realize that with inspiration, dedication, and a little elbow grease, the dream can become a reality. Thirstbusters are young, full of passion, and on their way. While maintaining their youth and feel-good vibe, this band is lyrically and musically on the forefront of creative output.

You can post about your band to our open blog by visiting this site.

-Nicole