Something in the Water is a micro-documentary focused on the Seattle music scene and its continual abundance of innovative and talented artists.  Directed by Ward Serrill, the short served as an accompaniment to Pearl Jam Twenty, the Cameron Crowe directed documentary, which aired on PBS last Friday.  While mainly focused on the indie pop side of the Seattle scene, the doc touched on some of the biggest acts in the city, including clips of Pickwick, Shabazz Palaces, The Head and the Heart, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Total Experience Gospel Choir.  Also featured are KEXP DJs John Richards, Kevin Cole, and Cherly Waters, as well as Megan Jasper and Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop Records.  Watch the 13 minute video below via KCTS.  

Watch Something in the Water on PBS. See more from KCTS 9 Documentaries.

A refreshing change of pace from some of CMJ’s more brawny, electro collectives, Mitten’s more elegant style has been compared to Au Revoir Simone and The Postal Service, who the band themselves cite as a major influence. Their arrangements are neat and chic, with programmed beats, pretty melodies, sweet vocals, twisted guitar licks and various other toys and treats rounding out their sound. Singer Maia Macdonald and producer Joanna Katcher formed under the Mitten moniker in 2009, beginning a process of songwriting via email that led to their debut EP "See You Bye" earlier this year. With all six tracks on that release so fully realized, it’s hard to believe Mitten are a band still very much making their way in the indie world. But chatting to both members, it’s clear they can’t hide their wide-eyed excitement about their fledgling career. – Read Dean Van Nguyen’s interview with the band here.

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a band that can fill you with energetic, upbeat music that you can’t help but move to, and that’s exactly what Ursa Minor provides. Fronted by power vocalist Michelle Casillas and rounded out with a rock star band consisting of Tony Scherr, Rob Jost and Robert DiPietro, the music of Ursa Minor is full of catchy riffs, bold pop rock vocals, and good-fashioned attitude to fill your inner rock n’roll spirit. Their most recent album, “Showface” hit the market running, feeding their fans with new music that was a long-awaited follow up to their 2003 debut. With a healthy mix of sultry, sharp melodies and consistently strong rhythms, Ursa Minor is quickly climbing the ranks as a mainstay band in the indie pop rock scene. – Read Christina Morelli’s Q&A with the band here.

I like dancing. I play and promote a wildly disputed genre of music wherein dancing’s the elephant in the room unless somebody snaps and starts writhing on the floor next to the stage with their shirt pulled over their head, obscuring their glasses. In the experimental stratosphere there are freaks, nerds, theatre expats, guitar teachers aplenty, with Europeans formally delegating from the top of the pile like meringue on pie…but there is no dancing. Unless the dancers are part of the performance and also double as throat singers.
Cracked Vessel makes people dance. I’ve seen it at least thrice. They urge the geeks into jumping and make even the most overdressed oyster-sipping upper-crust civilian wish they had a hula hoop.
Ben Syversen (trumpet, tunes), Xander Naylor (guitar), Jeremy Gustin (drums). Somewhere in the range of fractured balkan hardcore miasmatic sublime dissonant jazz like if Godspeed You Black Emperor played itself out on double speed over three sets of speakers simultaneously, just out of synch enough to make the white noise in your head spill out your eyes and nose and into your seltzer/beer (which you must set down because it is time to dance at this gallery space, 9 out of 10 high school geometry teachers agree). – Valerie Kuehne

After releasing their debut album last year and generating some buzz in the blogs, NYC based, ambient/folk/rock band Howth begun playing live with a full lineup earlier this year, and performed at 2 CMJ shows last week. The band also just released a digital EP which can be found on their bandcamp profile. See them live at Cameo on November 1st. – (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.

The B-side track "Mother" is out from Broken Water’s first 7" Whet.  It’s a stony, shoegaze gem.  The heavy sliding guitar style of My Bloody Valentine (the quintessential genre name drop) is very prevalent in the song, with melty vocals that seem to dissolve into the misty reverberating atmosphere.  I don’t think this band has released anything I’m not excited about.  Listen to it below, and get excited about it!  

Formed by skilled musicians who met each other while playing in various NYC bands (in particular some relevant names from the the NYC Anti-Folk scene like Adam Green and The Moldy Peaches), Spacecamp plays well produced pop-rock which we find reminiscent of XTC and The Police. The indie pop quartet just ended a Sunday residency at Pianos.

Here’s something a little dark (like this rainy day) but also a little upbeat, which was submitted to The Deli digitally here (you are welcome, bands without a PR agent!). Black Onassis is an NYC based collaborative electronic band led by Christopher Karloff (formerly of British band Kasabian) with a very very very intriguing sound. Think Depeche Mode mixed with The Stone Roses, for a synth-shoegaze-pop sound that’s an exciting variation on the familiar British psych-pop wave. There are currently only 2 songs for streaming, but they are both equally good, featuring prominent guest vocalists like Aurelio Valle (Calla, The Phenomenal Handclap Band) and Ben Gautrey (The Cooper Temple Clause, Ashridge Park FC). NYC gazers and psychers don’t want to miss their show at Mercury Lounge on October 31.

What’s up with this disturbing "Auto-Tune" vocal effect showing up more and more frequently in songs by emerging indie artists, folks? Are we sure we want to adopt this sound that screams "I sold my soul to my major label"? I mean… Cher’s "Believe" – which started this infamous trend – came out in 1998, and since then commercial radio has been inundated by imitations often more revolting than the original. Up until today I reacted to "Auto-Tune effect detection" with instant record dismissal – unless it was used in some sort of ironic way. But today I feel like "forgiving" a band for this – and it’s a first, people! NY dance rock act Ghost Beach – compared to your average major label dance group – makes a subtle use of this effect, but brings to the table enough redeeming qualities – in particular a super catchy chorus and a well produced lo-budget video. See their live debut at Tammany Hall on December 1st.