Casey Shea, Matt Singer and Paul Basile are among the 12 NYC artists performing on the second night of the four-night-long 6th Annual LC Fest, organized by independent music community Local Correspondents at Bar4 in Park Slope, Brooklyn (444 7th Ave.).

Casey Shea’s genuine, hook-filled rock ‘n’ roll calls to mind The Beatles, Kings of Leon, and Tom Petty, while (pictured and streaming below) Matt Singer’s goofy charm and surprising sincerity are reminiscent of Paul Simon or The Magnetic Fields. Matt’s latest album, The Build, was released in April, 2012 on Family Records. Paul Basile is the lead singer of the indie-folk band Great Elk. The band’s debut full-length album, Autogeography, was released in May, 2012, and draws comparisons to Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket. Shows are free, doors open at 6 p.m., and performances begin at 8 p.m. For a complete schedule of all four nights (from June 6 through June 9), go here.

This is hard for an Italian to admit, but, even though French wines and cheeses are obviously inferior to ours (he he), I have to concede that French musical influences are way, way, way more "usable" in an indie context than Italian ones. Led by French singer Quay Quinn-Settel, Slowdance is one of the newest bands belonging to the rather copious battalion of francophile and francophone artists produced by the NYC scene in the past decade (La Laque, CoCoRosie, Die Romantik, and Elodie O are some of the other notable ones). Their new single "Boyfriend" (out as a 7" on White Iris Records), end even more so side B "Airports," revisit the simple, charming melodies of 60s French pop and baptize them in a dream pop musical backdrop. This "French-girl-dream" formula is rather pleasing and conspires images of desperately needed motorcycle trips through Provence’s spectacular countryside. That is a good sign. But since you obvioulsy can’t afford that, you should probably go see Slowdance live at the next opportunity, which is on June 15 at Cameo, and dream about it. – PDG

The Jackpot, Lawrence, 9 pm, 21+, $10

Two area bands are featured at The Jackpot in Lawrence tonight: The Roseline, a pure, melodious country group from Lawrence, whose sound will mesh with the soulful, rootsy rock of the Ozarks group Ha Ha Tonka. Ha Ha Tonka has been touring with well-known singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim and continues to make a name for itself around the country. 

Check out the latest video from the boys, "Lonely Fortunes," off their acclaimed 2011 album Death of A Decade.

 The lineup for the first Lawrence Field Day Fest has been announced! The pre-party starts July 5 at The Jackpot with Stephen Egerton of The Descendents/ALL. See below for the full lineup:

Thursday, July 5: The Jackpot (Pre-Party)

• 10:00-10:45 Drag The River
• 11:00-11:45 Stephen Egerton
• 12:00-12:45 Stiff Middle Fingers

Friday, July 6: The Bottleneck

• 6:00-6:30    Soma
• 6:40-7:10    Busted Open
• 7:20-7:50    Jabberjosh
• 8:00-8:30    Field Day Jitters
• 8:40-9:10    Many Moods of Dad
• 9:20-9:50    Radar Defender
• 10:00-10:30 The Empty Spaces
• 10:40-11:25 Panda Circus
• 11:35-12:20 The ACBs
• 12:30-1:15   Mouthbreathers

Saturday, July 7: The Bottleneck

• 4:00-4:30    Sex Tapes
• 4:40-5:10    Black on Black
• 5:20-5:50    Awestrich
• 6:00-6:30    Dismantle The Virus
• 6:40-7:10    White
• 7:20-7:50    Melting Point of Bronze
• 8:00-8:30    Robocopter
• 8:40-9:10    Deco Auto
• 9:20-9:50    Dean Monkey
• 10:00-10:30 Doubleplus
• 10:40-11:25 Radkey
• 11:35-12:20 Major Games
• 12:30-1:00   Approach

Tickets go on sale this Friday, June 8. The festival is sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Co., KJHK 90.7 FM, and Midwest Music Foundation. 

Hannah Fairchild, Emily Mure and Jodi Shaw are among the 12 NYC artists performing on the first night of the four-night-long, Deli sponsored 6th Annual LC Fest, organized by independent music community Local Correspondents at Bar4 in Park Slope, Brooklyn  (444 7th Ave.).
 Hannah Fairchild is an energetic singer who fronts the punk cabaret band Hannah vs. The Many, while Emily Mure is a classically trained, smoky-voiced singer/songwriter currently recording her second album (pictured, check out hes song Joanne, streaming below). Jodi Shaw, whose new album, “In Waterland,” was just released on May 15, draws comparisons to Suzanne Vega, Fiona Apple, and The Beach Boys.

Shows are free, doors open at 6 p.m., and performances begin at 8 p.m. For a complete schedule of all four nights (from June 6 through June 9), go here.

Mp3: Emily Mure – Joanne

I have yet to hear someone discuss how they’d love to take my money as sympathetically as I have with Beautiful Small Machines’ joyously acoustic, recently released version of MIA’s ‘Paper Planes’ (streaming below). While some might dismiss the duo’s banjo/piano inventions here as mere novelty, there is something to be said about the loving time and care the band imparts to the tune that’s truly the attraction here. The band’s careful attention to details like this helps them to construct a world around their toys, building synth stabs that move to explosion in their last EP’s title track ‘Robots in Love,’ and the stomping B-52’s inspired ‘Superconducter.’

Their machines may be small, but their attention to aesthetic detail makes the efforts beautifully unique. No wonder Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon accepted to work with them in their breakthrough track ‘Simple Joys.’ See the band when they play Piano’s this Friday evening. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Having already opened for Smith Westerns, Chairlift, and Surfer Blood, the country and 90s-influenced Grand Rapids (the band, not the city in west Michigan) is doing quite well for a bunch of early 20-somethings. The group formed when childhood friends Dan Lardner and Peter Baumann, both on guitar, moved from New Jersey to the East Village, soon meeting up with the band’s female halves of Alex Niemetz and Clara Balzary, bass and drums, respectively. The quartet released a self-titled EP in 2011, combining Stephen Malkmus vocal hooks with garage rock guitars. The group has 3 upcoming shows in NYC, (see here), we recommend the show at Mercury Lounge on June 24 with NYC punk rockers Dirty Fences.

Austin based retro-pop combo Major Major Major will be entertaining the local crowds on June 9 at the 29th St. Ballroom, in occasion of the vinyl release of their latest self-titled EP. At times noisy and at times nostalgic, this is group’s songs are influenced by a wide range of genres, going from the early 60s pop music to the lo-fi wave of the early 00s.

Austin based rock trio Megafauna offer an interesting melange of rock’n’roll (drums, guitar solos), pop (Dani Nelf’s beautiful melodies and voice, at times reminiscent of Bjork) and psych rock (production and overall musical approach). It must be ssaid that Dani – originally from Brooklyn – also plays guitar with impressive dexterity. The band is prepping their full-length follow up to their 2010 debut album "Larger Than Human." and in the meantime they are releasing a digital 3 track "Love Project" EP (streaming below), which sounds very promising indeed, showcasing the diverse range of styles and influences that drive the band’s sound. Don’t miss these guys live!

Probably because they only recently relocated to NYC (they originally hail from Florida), we somehow missed BLONDS‘ rise to semi-notoriety. The duo, comprised of dating, non-blonde couple Cari Rae and Jordy Asher, is partial to slow tempos and intense, almost Lynchian dreamy atmoshperes. A rather sexy video of the Portishead-ish single "206" raised their profile in the past winter, and to take things to the next level the band is now releasing this single "RUN" from the upcoming full length album "The Bad Ones". We can’t help but notice spaghetti Western references both in the record’s title and in the single, which sounds very much like a revisitation of Morricone’s dramatic approach to Country’n’Western music. This band seems to have a rather big music vocabulary at their disposal, and this is a very good sign – looking forward to the summer release.

Mike Higbee is the ghost of Roy Orbison riding on Hank Williams’ horse over to the saloon for a cold, hard drink. A man who most likely grew up listening to the King from his hometown of Paris, and dreaming of the ‘Donna’ of Ritche Valens’ genius, Higbee has resurrected the spirit of Nashville for New York in his latest LP ‘Secret Life.’

From accordion-backed love songs (Love of My Life) to raucous barnburners like the eponymous ‘Secret Life,’ and even covering a song by Parisian singer Manu Chao (‘La Primavera’), Higbee proves he’s up to the task of carving out a complete statement by re-shaping the forgotten ghosts of rustic Americana to his liking.

Perhaps it took someone born in Paris to reinvent our own history for us. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) – This music was submitted digitally to The Deli here.

I personally abhor the words "highly anticipated" – which are almost always used pointlessly by press people in particular – but in this circumstance those words are perfectly justified. Friends was the most buzzed about emerging NYC band of 2011, mostly because of the beautiful take on psych-soul of their single/video "I’m His Girl" (The band placed 3rd in our Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists, and was featured on the cover of our latest NYC print issue.  "Manifest!" is the title of Friends’… highly anticipated debut full length, out today on Fat Possum Records and available for streaming on Spin.com. The question everybody is wondering about is, of course, if there is another single as good as "I’m His Girl" in the album… From a quick listen, our feeling is that that single is still the peak of this young band’s repertoire, but we have been wrong before… the new tracks in the album however sound solid and we are happy to report that the recording team decided to keet the "mid-fi" approach of the early singles, avoiding to fall into the often corrupting temptations of "over-production".

P.S. We were hoping for some new press pictures for this release… BIG disappointment (we’ve been using the same 2-3 pics of this band a dozen times already!