Hands down, Brian Hurd (aka Daddy Long Legs) is the best blues harmonica player this writer has ever seen or heard. His playing is so pummeling and soulful it just saws you in half. In this first of a multi-part video series, Brian discusses his history, and plays a stripped-down rail-riding Guthrie-esque set at Guvnor’s Vintage Thrift store in Park Slope. The series’ 2nd episode will be filmed on Thursday 04.14 at Bowery Electric, where he’ll surround himself with a full band that sounds as if it stumbled out of CBGB’s in its heyday. Most importantly, the band will allow Brian to ditch the guitar, two-hand that harp, and rip the roof clean off. Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery at 2nd St. Thursday 4/ 14 @ 9pm. – See the video and interview with Brian Hurd here.
Sonny Smith began singing while a patient at Warm Springs Foundation Hospital in Texas, to amuse the other patients. Quasi-mystical with a tendency to write about new-agey subjects such as hypnotherapy, extrasensory perception, fortune tellers, palm readers and channelers Smith has been given his own genre by the press as ‘pop supernaturalism’ – we would add "quirky" and "folky" to that description. He was released from Warm Springs in the care of his brother and wife, Ryan Browne and Tahlia Harbour who soon became his backing band. Later, at the Canyon Manor Rehabilitation Center north of San Francisco, he met Kelley Stoltz who became the Sunsets’ permanent drummer. On and off the four of them lived out of a Browne’s Toyota van for the next three years, playing with a revolving cast of musicians. They embarked on a triple album in late 2009 but a hurricane hit the coastal studio they were recording in and most of the tapes were destroyed as well as their equipment. What’s left is the record they just released: "Hit After Hit". See Sonny and the Sunsets live at The New Parish in Oakland on April 21.
Brooklyn psychedelic rockers Himalaya have just unleashed their second full-length album entitled ‘The Reason We Start Fires.’ Written and recorded throughout 2010, the album is a collection of eight songs that skillfully infuse psych-rock with elements of shoegaze, garage, and noise. Geared up to tour throughout 2011, Himalaya will be making appearances across the NY-metro area, and up and down the east coast. ‘The Reason We Start Fires’ is available now as a digital download through iTunes and Amazon; CDs are available through the band’s website, and at shows. To preview a track, check out the video for the album’s first single, ‘Day Six.’- (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building.
Headless Horseman – winners of our Artist of the Month poll in October 2010 – are definitely one of the most interesting emerging avant-indie bands in Brooklyn. After being named a "Stereogum Band To Watch", holding down a residency at Pianos, and playing a dozen shows last month at SXSW, the band is getting ready for an exciting spring, with a 7" release together with Das Racist and a live appearence at The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artist Fest – last year’s poster can be found here) on May 28 at Brooklyn Bowl with Delicate Steve. The fest will involve more than 50 artists, for the most part ones that were included in our latest Best of NYC Emerging Artists Poll here. The Fest’s full lineup will be announced in early May.
We stumbled upon this video by Turner Cody, a prolific Brooklyn based songwriter who has been performing and recording for over ten years. His first commercial release was on Rough Trade’s 2002 "Anti-folk Vol.1" CD alongside Adam Green, Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis and others from NYC’s legendary Sidewalk Café scene. Since then Cody released 3 albums and toured Europe and the UK many times, opening for Herman Dune and Adam Green but also headlining as a solo act and with his backing band. He has appeared on some of New York’s finest stages with the Citizen’s Band.
Zula is a state of musical mind expanding pop. This Brooklyn quartet was born when cousins Henry and Nate Terepka joined forces with Mike Lawless and Zach Nicita to create a fresh Indie music style. Tuesday, April 5th marked the premiere of their debut EP "Crescent Intake Session" – stream it here. The EP romps through a velvet, synth, pop-jam band journey into the ether. The first track "Grind" breaks you into the head trip with typical Indie beats, then surprisingly takes a turn into a new soundscape. By the time you get into "Grind is a shuttle" there are elements of a Radiohead exploration occurring. Zula is going beyond your typical Indie synth band and tripping into the nether regions of amazing tunes not of this world. They play May 7 at Spike Hill. –Michele McMannon
Kordan‘s shoegaze-electro sound with synths and bleak soundscapes, first received attention and acclaim from Cut Copy, who chose them to open for tours across North America in 2008. Since then, they’ve played with The Drums and dream pop aces The Mary Onettes, gaining a steady following. Their debut album "The Longing" foretells a broken love story in the hazy metropolis of Tokyo, circa 2036. The story is told over post-punk rhythms that evoke haunting imagery and macabre overtones a la The Cure and Bauhaus, as well as waves of guitar distortion and pulsating beats to reflect energy and light in the style of My Bloody Valentine. We heard rumors that the band is temporarily on a hiatus, although band leader Arthur Eisele is still very active in the NYC scene as a DJ and remixer – RCRD LBL premiered his remix of Sacramento based Sister Crayon‘s "I’m Still the Same Person" on April 4. The band shared the 96th place in The Deli’s Best of NYC Emerging Artists Poll 2010 with Taurus and Forgetters.
Low fidelity swagger. That’s what Laughing Man’s debut album, The Lovings (’63-’69), exudes. It’s a short album that spans only seven tracks, but it is dense with artistic potential. The first thing you will notice when listening to this album is the unique sound of the production. The vocals of singer Brandon Moses are quivering and distorted, hiding just below the surface in a way that convinces your ears they are listening to antique vinyl. The guitar and drums manage to be both tastefully understated and sonically raunchy. The song structures are simple but based around the sophisticated voices of jazz chords and a wide range of tonality.
I feel tempted to write about this album in a way that suggests that its very genius is founded on a perfectly balanced merge between classic blues and soul and the leading edge of rock music; that the juxtaposition between post-modern soundscapes (such as the lovely minimalist droning on "Swirl") and dripping-with-attitude blues manages to adeptly cross musical boundaries in style as well as in the audience that appreciates and supports it. I’d like to go on and on about those things – about how a whole history of music that has thrived in D.C. is somehow apparent in seven short songs. I’d really like to point out that the last track on the album, "Mood and Dress," manages to consolidate all of those points the strongest. This is possibly the most self-aware track on the album with Moses’s emotion filled vocals ringing in the fuzzy background as bubbly supporting voices are brought to the very front of the song in perfect clarity.
However, I feel pretty sure that the band would cringe at reading that sort of review. Getting back to my original thesis, I’m reasonably confident that Laughing Man really just took all the music that they grew up loving and stirred it up into a really great debut. It’s lo-fi without pretention and an homage to the early days of soul without sounding geriatric (despite what the album’s aging title may imply…)
This Saturday Cara Bella presents the Brain-Cave Festival, which will feature some of Brooklyn’s finest emerging bands, artists and DJs at Shea Stadium. Some of the bands include Dinowalrus, Shark?, She Keeps Bees, Mr. Dream, Natureboy, and Dpony (mem of Hooray For Earth).There will be 17 bands total and four DJs showcased alongside live painting and artwork. Brain-Cave promises to be a 12-hour explosion of artistic stimuli that is not be missed! Shea Stadium (20 Meadow St. Brooklyn NY, 11206)
April 9th, 2011 – 2pm-2am – $10
Food by donation from 6-8pm
Apart from the creeptastic image they’ve come to adopt, the Xray Eyeballs are actually a relatively fun, garage rockin’ group.
While a lot of this Brooklyn band’s imagery consists of skulls, crystal meth and other touchy subjects… deep down, the band’s songwriter O.J. San Felipe is a hopeless romantic, and it shows on catchy songs like "Escape From That Girl" and "Fake Wedding". Helping tug at the heartstrings are accompanying vocalists Carly Rabalais and Jay High, lending soulful ooh’s and aah’s that help round out Felipe’s strung out whine.
Like The Beets and Deerhunter, Xray Eyeballs revel in the lo-fi. If you’d never heard of this band before, you might be convinced they were a lost 7-inch-only garage band from your dad’s youth. While they do share much in common with Nuggets-style jangle and 4-track charm, they have a Misfits-style gore that leads to some spooky results in the video for the LP’s first single Crystal.
Pre-order the record here and see them play at Shea Stadium on April 14 with tribal noisemakers Zulus. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets) – Read Chuck Davis’ interview with the band here.
Atlantic/Pacific began their career in a half hazard manner with a basic desire for the band, which then mainly consisted of Garret Klahn and John Herguth, to take a trip through Europe. The duo performed material that existed from their previous bands, Texas is the Reason, and House & Perish. After having success in Europe, “somewhere between Prague and Germany” said John “we decided to become a band”. – Read Michele McMannon’s feature on the band here.
Coming from a very Vermont background of jam band music, the Rubblebucket crew has slowly morphed its sound into an extremely original avant-pop direction, reminiscent of a funkier and less contrived version of Dirty Projector, also armed with an unobtrusive but always fun horn section.
Recently relocated to Brooklyn, the band is about to release a new full length entitled "Omega La La", realized with producer/mixer Eric Broucek (LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy, Hercules and Love Affair) – the track "Silly Fathers" is available for free listen and downnload at the end of this blog entry.
Rubblebucket is currently on an extensive US tour and will be back in NYC for a Deli sponsored show with Com Truise at Le Poisson Rouge on April 20. Fun is guaranteed so we hope to see you all there!
Sonny Smith
Zula
