Not too long ago, Steve Carter started his singer-songwriter career for what ended up a short-winded run. His solo act became a collaborative effort when his backups came frontward and started collaborating with him. A year later, Escape Directors was born: an alternative rock group that has gained a lot of momentum in their Northern Jersey scene. One of their newest singles, “The Distant Past”, gained a lot of publicity through youtube sharing more than 5 thousand views over the course of a few weeks. – Read Caitlin Clive’s interview with the band here.

NYC scene Psych/Alt semi-veterans Your 33 Black Angels will return at Mercury Lounge on August 12th for a show with California droney band Six Organs of Admittance. The self-described "group of hobgoblins in drag" will play selections from its four albums, the latest of which, "SONGS FROM THE NEAR BLEAK FUTURE", was released in 2010 on Toronto’s Optical Sounds.  – (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.

 

You should all know by now how partial we are (I am) to Lia Ices and her wonderful dreamy sonic mellowness – the lady graced the cover of our latest, winter issue. Lia just released this DIY video for the song "Love is Won", shot on Super 8 Film in Rome (hey that’s where I was born!). Understandably, most of the video is about Lia eating awesome Italian food. The video was directed by Christin Turner in collaboration with Lia. She will play at the Mercury Lounge in NYC tonight, in the UK this month and on the west coast in December with The Sea and Cake. Check also out Lia’s tour diary from Lollapalooza here.

NYC via Denmark pop diva Oh Land just released this video for the song "White Nights". The video is based on lead singer Nanna Øland Fabricius’ dreams and inspiration and "what keeps me up all night when the whole city is asleep" – "White Nights" are how Scandinavians call sleepless nights. Oh land is currently on an extensive tour which will take her to Europe in September.

Sheri Miller, a singer-songwriter with a long history in and out of the City, has recently released her album “Winning Hand” with the help of producer Kevin Killen (U2, Peter Gabriel). Rolling Stone has called her music "Alluring… She makes a powerful first impression, and then, even better, a series of more complex and lasting ones." Check out her latest tracks here, see her live at Rockwood on August 22.

Last Thursday at the Rockwood Music Hall, Robert DiPietro celebrated his new release “Bad Luck Bobby”, now available here, a strong collection of upbeat alt folk featuring a cute ukulele track “Perfect Room,” picked violin in “Easy Chair,” and more electric guitar/key support in “The Getaway”, of which the repeated chorus says, “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay…” and finally, “just not today.” It’s a roundup of well-played lyrics, and a generally nice vibe. – Caitlin Clive

Bikini is an interesting emerging electro duo that has been enjoying a good amount of buzz in the last year or so – they played Austin Museum of Art at SXSW 2011. Since then the band has released a remixed 12" vinyl for RIPJDS featuring remixes by Win Win, CFCF, Teen Daze, Dreamboat, Houses, and cover art by the prolific Nate Lowman, and wrote and directed their first official music video for "ACheerlaeder". They are currently finalizing a new album, due out towards the end of the year. They’ll be playing Cameo Gallery on 08.12.

BootBlacks recently released a self titled EP that mixes the tense athmospheres of the British new wave of the early 80s (think Joy Division and Bauhaus) with the industrial clangor of industrial music. Those who dig this "post-punk, pre-goth" style should check these guys out because they have some really good songs, and lead singer Panther sounds like a new Nick Cave – whose original band Birthday Party also made music along similar coordinates. Check them out live at Public Assembly on Saturday 08.13.

I have this vision of Brad Henkel practicing his trumpet. In lieu of pounding scales he analyzes his saliva outtake and the myriad of methods with which he may manipulate his saliva in a mouthpiece.
The man is centrifugal.  His tongue invents diphthongs.  Passionately impudent, he curses a waterfall.  Watch closely as he rocks and transitions to crawl around David Grollman. Commotion builds and groans. Screeches and excretions amass then suddenly vanish with a flippant signal of his delicate hand.
Brad is one of a handful of gentlemen busily building a scene in Brooklyn that commands what’s left that’s good in Jazz, Noise, and New music, gloriously borrowing and running with it like that snarky octopus stealing the video camera.
The result is sculpted sound that exhumes eternal cycles of impatience and upheaval from some long-forgotten vault.  The music pivots absurdly.  The experience resonates with intellectual bravado. You intake and you feel both ridiculous and smart, which is good.  
I first heard Brad in Chicago, alongside two fellow horn-slinging ingenues, (Peter Hanson, Nathaniel Morgan), co-conspirators.  Together they read music off pink stands, uttered suspended phrases inside a Bucky dome assembled from rolled up newspaper.  They call this project Buckminster.
Brad recently started a label, Prom Night Records.  Perhaps this evokes every moment you almost kissed someone, or alternately skipped prom altogether and got drunk in the woods on skunked beer, ie. what I did on that fateful evening. – Valerie Kuehne