The Onion’s AV Club is running an exclusive stream of Crystal Stilts "Radiant Door EP" a week before release date. Head over to their website to listen. The band was featured on the cover of The Deli back in 2008 – you can find the cover feature here.

If it’s true that China is about to conquer the world, we can only hope they’ll do it with The Notorious MSG‘s sense of humor. Rising up from the hard streets of Chinatown as a hip hop project in 2002, the trio is on a mission to challenge the Western cultural dominance from the inside, using its own (outdated) weapons – including leather jackets, permed hair and macho antics (all stuff that is scheduled to come back in fashion in the next decade of course…) The band’s music, with the recently released debut album "Heavy Ghetto", has expanded towards more aggressive and bizarre territories. Check out this brand new video of their single "Red Tonight", a song betraying influences of early Devo and late Beastie Boys.

Looking like a bizarre collective of spirited semi-nerds singing upbeat, seriously ass-shake inducing tunes, Miniboone is one of those rare bands that’s a real pleasure to witness live. After a busy CMJ, the band is about to release a new EP, and also start a 3 week November residency at Pianos on Thurdays- tomorrow’s the first date. Here’s a stream of the uplifting and rocking single "Man/Woman".

Brooklyn’s ferocious sex rockers, Bugs in the Dark, are celebrating their new release, "Hang It on the Wall." The new EP has been described as a "deliciously assaultive new record". Fresh off of touring Europe and opening for JEFF The Brotherhood in Canada’s Halifax Pop Explosion, this Sunday welcomes Bugs in the Dark back to New York. The release party features a solid lineup including Bambara, Butchers & Bakers and Hilly Eye (featuring Amy Klein of Titus Andronicus). Doors are at 7:30pm this Sunday, Nov 6th. Mercury Lounge $8 tickets, ages 21+. Here’s a song from their previous EP "Grand Avenue" released in 2008. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building and APS Mastering.

South Brooklyn band One Ring Zero know their food – and their celebrities. The orchestral pop duo emerged in 2006 after releasing "As Smart As We Are", a CD featuring original music and lyrics by top novelists including Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Dave Eggers and Jonathan Ames amongst others. The new album takes a similar approach, but replacing authors with top chefs in the lyrics department – isn’t good food a little like poetry after all? One Ring Zero asked David Chang, Chris Cosentino, Mario Batali, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Michael Symon, Mark Kurlansky, and many more chefs for (yummy) recipes. These were then set to music and sung WORD FOR WORD – musical styles suggested by the chef. Here’s a vegan recipe/song called "Peanut Butter Brunettes" by chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz, featuring ex Throwing Muses and Belly heroine Tanya Donelly’s vocals. The CD/book release party will be at the Brooklyn Kitchen on 11.03.

Forest Fire, who played our flagship CMJ show at Pianos on 10.20 with Caveman and The Stepkids among others, just premiered this fun video for the song "The News", the first single from the band’s sophomore album (the first one released under FatCat’s wing) "Staring at the X". The more we listen to these guys the more we think about Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Lou Reed, bathing in a 2010 musical context – this song is particularly reminiscent of the first two on the list. That cannot possibly be a bad thing…

The New York based trio, The Happy Problem, perpetuates the intensity and drive of punk, adding their own gritty and graceful elements on their full-length record, “Head Case.” Aptly depicted by loony clown cover art, the album features a tinge of circus kookiness combined with Sam Shaber’s compelling, heartfelt-meet-heated vocals, slamming drums, and gripping guitars. Not a stereotypical punk album, The Happy Problem place greater emphasis on melody over momentum. Highlight tracks, opener, “Curvature,” frantic “Matador,” softer- edged “The Prettiest Girl,” straight ahead rock title tune, “Head Case,” flowing “Seaweed,” metal-inspired “Wizard,” and heavier rendition of Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” demonstrate that THP cannot be confined to one type of rock. On Thursday, November 3, The Happy Problem will take on IndiePunk Night at the Delancey at 9pm. – Meijin Bruttomesso

We were sorry to lose Emil & Friends from our CMJ bill at The Delancey on October 22 – the show run very late and the band had another show in Brooklyn at like 2 am. The band just released this new video that serves TWO songs ("Let Your Heart / Prescriptions") and will celebrate their CD release party at Lorelay on November 2nd. – read a Deli interview with the band here.

We are often reluctant to publish videos of live bands on the site – they look all the same and tend to sound awful – but we’ll gladly make an exception for Octant, the inimitable Brooklyn based one man + mechanical orchestra. Here’s a video shot (by breakthroughradio.com) at one of the coolest far flung Brooklyn venues – Ditmas Park’s Sycamore, which doubles as a flower shop during the day.

Started by Todd Goldstein a few years ago as a folky solo act after the disbanding of his previous project The Harlem Shakes, ARMS has slowly morphed into a new animal: now a quartet, the band offers elegant, supple pop that feeds itself with a variety of influences and musical ingredients. The first single "fleeced" (streaming here) reveals this transformation: tense electric guitar riffs blend with angular drums and an electronic bass line, while lead vocals and lavish harmonies sing a slippery melody drenched in reverb. This lush psych-prog approach to folk-pop should satisfy those waiting for new Grizzly Bear and Rufus Wainwright releases. Don’t miss the band’s CD release party at Glasslands on November 11.

Brooklyn folky quartet A Locomotive will be releasing their debut CD at Mercury Lounge on November 22nd, and even though their spanking new Facebook account only has 12 "likes", this doesn’t mean they just formed. Recording this album took them 3 years, but from what we are hearing it was worth the effort. The embedded song "Traveling", an intimate and sparse alt-folk ballad that lazily builds in intensity, is contributing to cure our CMJtis (stress induced disease suffered by music industry people after attending the CMJ Music Marathon – similar to SXSW-itis), and other mellow folk-pop gem found on their myspace profile confirm consistent songwriting output and a noteworthy talent for harmonized backing vocals.

NYC based "Hip Hopper" Mag was one of the artists to win a Sesac’s search for the best emerging local artists. As a result he played Webster Hall in the Marlin Room as part of the CMJ Music Marathon together with the other winners, including Little Devil, Headless Horsemen, and Tayisha Busay.