John Valley is on a roll. The local videographer and producer recently made two stellar videos for Sweet Spirit with “Baby Doll” and “Baby When I Close My Eyes," and John’s kept the momentum rolling with his work on another equally captivating video, this time “Sex & Drugs”  just released by A Giant Dog. The video portrays the band as wintery minstrels stuck in a snowglobe at the mercy of a maniacal child who wreaks havoc by violently shaking the globe, a subtle allusion to the song’s lyrical theme of lost youth. Valley seems to relish in creating videos that portray the beautiful, glamorous, and alluring, and he then injects diabolical twists that turn the picturesque quickly awry. The track here is a lot of fun as well, very punchy and self-aware indie with a punkish vibe and a nonstop, frantic drive that is one to really jam out to, and hard. It’s an excellent showing from both band and Valley, and it’s a perfect example of what a music video really should be. Check it out below.

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Lee Ackerley

@slackerleemusic

Whew boy y’all! The Readers’ Poll for the 2015 Austin Deli Artist of the Year contest has done gone and finished, and what a hell of a thing it was. We deeply appreciate all of the nominated artists and the fans taking the time to put your votes in, and we think the results are pretty darn interesting.

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1. Wonderbitch

Wonderbitch takes the whole shebang for the Readers’ Poll after mobilizing their fan base, which is obviously ravenous for the hard prog-psych riffs and heady concepts this group offers up. Wonderbitch made a big splash on the scene in 2015 with their eponymous record, and it’s obvious that it hit big with the fans from the way they voted their little clicking fingers off for the group.

 

2. The Cuckoos

Young psych rockers dominate this list, and none are younger or of a purer old-school psych sound than The Cuckoos. A very new band, big things loom in the future for this Doors-esque act that elicited some truly impassioned commenting from fans on their poll page. It was close there for a while, but a steady push of voting bolstered by a late-game surge saw The Cuckoos take the crown in the Psych Rock category this year.

 

3. Daniel Eyes & The Vibes

Few bands have shot to local glory as quickly as Daniel Eyes & The Vibes, whose first EP is barely a month old but who already have a huge fan base in the city. Riding some intense hype from live shows and early singles, this true rock ‘n roll band has stormed through Austin this Winter, and it’s very likely you’ll be hearing their name no matter the season for a while to come.

 

4. The Bishops

The all-family silky smooth hip-hop act The Bishops has barely been around in its current form, but the three members each have a damned extensive catalog of top notch music as solo artists and in collaborations, often with each other. They’ve barely been together officially as a named trio, but heads around the city and far beyond have had the beats and the bars from these kids on repeat for a while. This group is pretty much destined to hit it big- they almost certainly have by far the most listens on SoundCloud across their four accounts out of any of our nominees bar none)- so if you voted for them here, feel proud of yourself for getting in on the ground floor with one of the city, and the nation’s, most exciting young groups.

 

5. Kev Bev & the Woodland Creatures

Apparently the answer in fair ole Austin to that timeless musical question, “Who wants the funk?” is “We want the funk.” Welp, it’s a good thing then that Kev Bev & the Woodland Creatures are here to turn this mother out with their big funk jams. Turning out big time is also what their fans did to the Hip Hop + Funk poll, where they slid in just barely behind newcomers The Bishops to take second in that poll and fifth overall. In terms of just straight-up fun music, Kev Bev et al. are second to none in the city, however, nor do they slack on the number of members front. This is the kind of band that almost needs to be seen live to really know them, and luckily for us all, that’s an opportunity Kev Bev & The Woodland Creatures provide in spades to the city of Austin.

 

6. The Halfways

The Halfways found themselves in a hell of a contest against upstarts The Cuckoos in the Psychcategory, and it’s not a damn little piece of surprising to us that they made our top 6 after the year they’ve had. Excellent, frequent shows, a few dead-on newpsych singles and one of the best-received and more critically acclaimed records in the city with EP The Halfways were what led this band to dominance in the burgeoning Austin psych scene this year, but in reality, it’s the hazy, dreamworld sound they cull from the ether to play in your ears like a hippy in a good sunny field that make them one of the top acts working in Austin today.

 

Honorable Mention: The Cover Letter, Sophia Johnson, Annabelle Chairlegs

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Once again: enormous and buttery thanks to all of the acts and bands who promoted the poll, and to all of you loverly fans out there with your awesome ears to hear this good stuff with and your fingers to choose what you like the best. You really da bes.

By the way, if you’re interested in the details of each poll by category and would like to see how it all went down, here are the links to each genre’s results:

ALT ROCK – FOLK ROCK – HIP HOP + FUNK – INDIE POP – INDIE ROCK – PSYCH – PUNK/METAL – ROOTS MUSIC – SINGER-SONGWRITER

Congrats to everyone who came up big in the poll, and stay tuned to this site to find out what act is our overall Deli Austin 2015 Artist of the Year. We’ll be releasing that as soon as we add the tally together for the juror votes and the Readers’ Poll combined, and we guarantee it’ll be some damn fine music.

It is Austin, after all.

The Deli Austin Staff

Sharks In The Deep End is an Austin quintet with a uniquely developed sound that melds jilted New Wave vocals with infectious dance-pop, and they’re currently gearing up to release their debut LP Killin Machine (April 22). The first single off of that debut album is called “Shadows In The Sunset,” and it’s a smart fusion of eclectic influences that rattles along to the urgent warble of vocalist Tucker Jameson. The secret weapon of Sharks In The Deep End is the pounding punk influence that adds backbone to the pop melodies and doesn’t allow the listener to become complacent for a second. If the full Killin Machine album proves to have the same alchemy as Sharks In The Deep End’s first single, then it should be a special debut. Catch the single below, and if you see this today (February 18), you can get an eyeful of these guys at their very first show ever tonight at 8pm at Studio C.

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Lee Ackerley
@slackerleemusic

 

Alright, it is time for you readers to get lost…in a good way. In a "lose your mind in melodic pleasures kind of way," in fact. The ability to do that nice thing is available to you, RIGHT NOW, because a local Austin band that has only been together since 2014 has gone and done it- just last month Daniel Eyes & the Vibe’s new EP release Sweet Dreaming released a four song EP with some mathy and delicious guitar from frontman Daniel Eyes, and you can listen to it here today.

This bluesy quartet has a good home here in Austin and their new output deserves a good listen in return. Single ‘Dessert Cocaine’ off of the new EP, for instance, is a perfect example of the 80s rock, blues pop sound that these cats have to offer, though maybe it’s a bit more of a flashback than some of you bargained for, putting thoughts of desserts and cocaine and “setting you free” in your brain (you heathens).

You can check them out on Spotify and Facebook for tunes and show dates, or better yet, catch them at their next show at Stubbs BBQ in downtown Austin on February 20 at 10:30 after the O.A.R. concert. Tickets are $6 in advance at www.stubbsaustin.com and will go up soon, so don’t miss out on some great Austin music and go buy your tickets early!

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Taylor Mangiameli
 

Morrison has risen- This is a natural thought progression upon hearing Ken Frost, lead singer of the Austin 60’s psych trio The Cuckoos, sing for the first time. Frost has a dead-on Lizard King baritone but, rather than run from comparisons to the Doors, the Cuckoos embrace it, own it, and then make it their own. The trio’s magnetism, mature sound, and youthful precociousness (Frost is the oldest in the group at 19) mean that there are many more doors of perception for these Moog-mavens to open. Here’s track “Stranger in Your Eyes” from their upcoming spring full-length release that offers a tantalizing organ sound straight from 1967. The dark psych groove perfectly coalesces with Frost’s intoxicating throwback vocals for a track that’s about as close as we’re ever going to get to a new classic Doors track, do listen below, flower children of 2016. The Cuckoos are also a nominee for ‘Artist of the Year’ in the psych category and would love your vote, so check the polls to the right if you want to help the guys out.

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Lee Ackerley
@slackerleemusic

Cross Record is an airy, sophisticated and sometimes creepy indie folkish duo that writes, records and lives out at a parcel of gorgeous Texas Hill Country land known as Moon Phase Ranch. With equal parts technical, atypical instrumentals from Dan Duszynski and the ghostliest, lovely and philosophical vocals from wife Emily Cross, Cross Record will play well with the folk/psych indie lovers out there, as well as those into that whole witchy thing going on right now. Recent release Wabi Sabi has the two at their best yet, with building cerebral tracks that are as deep-thought provoking as they are beautifully spacious and emotionally gripping. Catch a two-track preview of Wabi Sabi here, including the modern stormy day folk song “Steady Waves,” and check out the poignant minimalist and symbolic prettiness of the music video for second single “High Rise” below. It’ll get your spine tingling, and your mind soaring over a gloomy, picturesque Texas countryscape.

Lookin’ for some real Texas-ass punk shit? Give this new two-tracker from Austin’s Leche a few minutes to thrash yer brains up all nice and scrambly. It’s some grumbling, don’t care about nothin’ DIY bluespunk glory; real drunk Southern madman music the way you want it to be (and rarely get), and it’s fun as fuck. As Leche themselves say, “GEt your Butz REady To Spend the Next 4 Minutes In Heaven” by clicking yon play button below and, if you’re so inclined (wink wink, nudge nudge), the band says they’ll “meet you down Buttlick Alley between Beerland and Sidewinder for one heck of a time” if you send them a few old fashioned, green “American Dollers™”/for the download. Texas punk and buttlicks? A hard bargain to turn down, if you ask us.

OH, what a very most lovely and doomiest of days! Not only has Deli-beloved act Troller just announced that we’re but months away from the release of their second full album, they’ve also deigned to bestow upon us ravenous Troller fans a new, dark, weird single from that album in the form of one hell of a music video for song “Not Here.”

It’s damn good too, pairing a Lynchian setting and visual style with a gripping performance from drag queen Louisiana Purchase, whose piercing, manic eyes and understated, elegant and sometimes terrifying dance grasps your gaze and won’t let go. The track, too, is of the highest Troller quality (which to us is a way to say it’s killer as fuck), doing their gorgeous drones and dark cathedral melodies and industrial drum machines thing to perfection on this devastating, heavy track.

Both track and video are exquisite treatment and representation of pain, something we typically get fed to us in music through highly pop (Taylor Swift) or deeply self indulgent and stereotypical (Adele) ways, but here get from a thoroughly non-mainstream (even in 2016) and queer-positive perspective. It’s done with beauty, finesse and a fine, sharp edge, and it bodes seriously fucking well for the upcoming album.

Watch and listen below, and look for Troller’s Graphic LP on April 8 through Holodeck Records.

Fancy Pants is a band that’s a shot of youth-fueled creativity with a sound that dances across music genres- unrestricted, untethered, and in search of fun. Megan Scribner’s soaring vocals are powerful and seductive, and Travis Drew’s instrumentals bring funk-electro guitar chucking and chillwave synth melodies to the music that provide the backbone of Fancy Pants’ sound. The Austin-based dance-electro duo is set to release their first full-length release, Funk Paradise, in the next few weeks, and songs like the recently released “Come and take IT” indicate that these upstarts are on track to infect Austin with their dance party vibe.

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Lee Ackerley
@slackerleemusic

Velo is indie rock with lush melodies that set the listener adrift in a psychedelic sea of strings, horns, and sun-drenched synths. Founded in late 2014, Velo is already making waves in the Austin music scene and elsewhere, including big shows that had the group sharing the bill with local standouts such as White Denim and Mother Falcon. While their music is atypical in its lack of heavy hooks, their broad sound is accessible and memorable as they strike up an orchestra of controlled chaos. Velo is currently working on a seasonally themed concept record with producer Keith Gary (Coldplay, Rufus Wainwright), which is slated for release in 2016 and is expected to feature excellent indie tracks such as those on their Spring EP from last year. Take a listen to that below, and get ready for the next entry by this intriguing act.

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Lee Ackerley
@slackerleemusic

One of Austin’s best-kept secrets, Mr. Kitty has become the dark prince of self-destructive synthpop here in town. Having shared the stage with Crystal Castles and begun to establish a sizeable following outside of Austin as well, this goth-electro genius is destined to darken many doorsteps across the nation sometime soon. Providing dark lyrics with romantic themes and new wave synths floating over pulsating drum machines, Mr. Kitty hasn’t missed on any of the five full-length releases they’ve put out so far. Factor in a powerful live show, and some of you may be kicking yourself for having not found them sooner. Mr. Kitty will be releasing the (Rose Edition) of the album, Eternity, on Valentine’s Day, and here’s a recent remix of Crystal Castles’ “Frail” to get you in the mood.

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Lee Ackerley

Fucking yes, this is that shit you wait for all year as an Austin music fan.

Super Thief is back after a spectacular album from last year, bringing us a furious record with the new dump sink EP. Back in March of last year we said that Super Thief’s eponymous last record hit our shit-wrecking nerve nice and good, and dump sink picks up right where that record did, except that it’s even heavier and more outright fucking vicious.

The four track EP is the band turning up everything that was in their last record, and that means it’s some rip-you-apart shit from beginning to end. The high-burning, churning pace starts from the get-go with heavy, fast, straight to 100mph opener “dog fart,” and it doesn’t let up a tiny bit on song two, “euthanasia.”

The tracks on dumps sink all seem to fuck with the idea of what a song should be in 2016 Austin, ditching all the indie prettiness and poppiness and burning a fiery trail off down that more experimental, dangerously hard path that shit like Death Grips, Liars, Flux Information Sciences, Fugazi, Sonic Youth etc. have gone down before them. Super Thief seem like they’re mad about the way people in the supposed underground think songs are supposed to be now, and even the names of the songs feel like damaging jabs at the expected.

Super Thief is obviously hitting a hell of a stride here with these two excellent releases. They’re seriously getting franticness right, using their distorted, whining guitars with Super Thief’s signature crunch sound, their screaming vocals and devastating speed in a tight-as-fuck structure for music that simply doesn’t let up. With the release of dump sink and their album from last year, Super Thief isn’t just a very interesting noisy local hardcore band anymore; they’re maybe the most interesting noisy band I’ve heard period in a long time. Get a listen below.