Deli Readers,

We’ve been working very hard to take as many bands as possible to this year’s CMJ Music Marathon. As a matter of fact we aren’t 100% finished with booking yet, but close enough to announce that we will have 6 shows and 7 stages during CMJ 2010 – in 5 different venues on 4 different days! As usual, there will be a smosgarboard of bands (around 50) mostly from NYC – including Keepaway, Oberhofer, Brahms, Bear Hands, Anni Rossi, Buke and Gass, The Rassle, The Living Days, Electric Tickle Machine, Chappo… and a welcome bunch of "foreigners" from other scenes we cover, like buzz-bands Blackbird Blackbird (SF), Bad Cop (Nashville), and Strand of Oaks (Philly).

SEE HERE FOR 99% FINAL SCHEDULE

We would also like to thank the 950+ artists that submitted through The Deli to play one of our CMJ parties – a dozen of them were selected by us and the venues. We really wish we could have picked more, it was a heart breaking process…

By the way, if your band wasn’t selected for CMJ 2010, you may want to check out this article we wrote just for you, about how to improve your chances to be part of it next year. Hope you find it helpful!

Cheers!
The Deli Staff
 

We nominated Sherlock’s Daughter for our NYC Artist of the Month poll some time ago, but then we kinda forgot to blog about them. Luckily we stumbled upon this video which reminded us how good their music is, check it out!

Claustrophobic and darkly experimental, Warm Ghost is the brainchild of programmers Paul Duncan & Oliver Chapoy.
Their music is composed of slow paced, dense electronic pieces that haunt without scaring, graced by vocals that range from low pitch moodiness to celestial falsetto openings. The band’s stronger signature sound lies in the use of heavily processed synth layers (distortion, reverb and deep modulation are the duo’s favorite effects), while electronic drums and synth bass arpeggiators keep the music’ pulse steady and emotionless. Minus the celestial openings, this is how New Order may have sounded if Ian Curtis was still in the picture… The band just released a new EP called Claws Overhead, you can catch them live at Cameon on October 10 and 16 and at Glasslands on the 12th.

Singer songwriter Chiara Angelicola is coming
back with a new stage name, Bird Call, and an updated and improved sound, in the new EP "The Animals Know". This bird decided to bring a piano to the forest to record a collection of leisurely
atmospheric folky tunes and mellow waltzes that draw inspiration from the sound of Regina Spektor
and Fiona Apple. Its musical "nest", a wisely sparse orchestration that allows Chiara’s soulful soprano (reminiscent at times of Kate Bush) to shine and charm, was built by Joel Hamilton, whose portfolio will impress any music fan (among others Hamilton worked with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello). "The Animals Know" will be released on 09.25 with a show at Pete’s Candy’s Store in Williamsburg. Bird Call is also scheduled to play Rockwood Music Hall on October 10. –
Mikhael Agafonov

The fact that there is an army of teenagers out there who were 1-2 years old when Kurt Cobain died is massively disturbing – that’s roughly how old my best friends were when Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix died (I’m a little younger than that, THANK YOU!). But besides all the useless self-pitying observations about our almost approaching senility, this crude fact can only mean that we are just about to experience a grunge renaissance. All the signs are there: all the surviving grunge bands seem to be reuniting and simultaneously releasing new albums, from The Smashing Pumpkins to Soundgarden… and now this: The Indecent (let’s open a debate about this name!) are a group of extremely young kids who are not ashamed to say they play grunge. They do a good job at it, and the video is a perfect lo budget play on the atmospheres of Smells Like Teen Spirits. Still, there’s something a little creepy and… morbid (??) about the entire concept. It’s that feeling you get when you watch Japanese horror movies where cute little pale girls reveal some kind of monstrous side (eyes without pupils or something). Probably because the word "grunge" somehow became intimately connected to the ideas of "drugs abuse", "depression" and "suicide". Honestly, I’d rather have teens follow other examples, in particular if the entire concept smells like teen… marketing?
P.S. Thinking about it, if the return of grunge is going to wipe out all those fake sounding auto-tune-rock/emo bands that for some obscure reason seem to thrive in LA, that’s probably not so bad. (Don’t tell our LA editor I said this).

Gee, don’t we all miss early Ween? I personally also miss early They Might Be Giants, but I know some people have bad reactions when they hear that name. I mean, would we have had Beck without Ween? And TMBG were The Pixies’ Black Francis favorite band… The two duos shared a super-playful, totally DIY approach to bedroom pop that many current lo-fi and or DIY NYC bands – consciously or not – inherited. This may sound weird, but Food Stamps (who curiously enough have in their name one of Ween’s favorite themes – grub) could be described as a shoegazer, not as silly (but goofy in some kind of cool way) version of Ween. Well, yes, they do sound weird, in a charming way though. If you are interested in checking them out, you have plenty of opportunities – they have a gazillion shows in the NYC area in the next month…

Electro-Psych-Rockers Tony Castles are definitely one of the most intriguing NYC bands right now – by the way, shouldn’t all psych bands have some electro element in them? Electricity and psychos have a history in common after all… Anyway, the band will be playing Union Pool on 09.17 and then tour with Tom Tom Club – yes, the "thing" that started as a side project from Talking Heads. Read a recent Deli interview with the band here.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list for emerging artists (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record store personnel, DJs, and our writers and readers).

So, what’s so special about the Freelance Whales? Lots…and many of you seem to know that already. Relative newbies on the scene (at least as a pod), The Whales busked and toured their way to a strong second place showing in The Deli’s recent Best of NYC 2009 Poll. The 5-member, infinitely instrumented and blazingly popular Queens-based act finds themselves adored for their unassuming and equally complex obscurity. – Read Michael D. Spencer’s feature on Freelance Whales here.

The Yes Way – currently our Deli Artist of the month – play an interesting hybrid of art rock, alt rock and indie pop. NYC scene follwers may be familiar with the voice and the guitar style of Aaron Mendelsohn, who was involved with the NYC pop band Xylos. The band doesn’t have an official EP out but they do have a video of the single "Mets", directed by Daniel Marks. They also just announced 3 CMJ shows – one of them will be a Deli party at The Delancey on October 19. you can catch them live on 09.16 at the Bowery Electric.

The Wicked Tomorrow is a new Brooklyn based duo that plays a dark brand of bold and melodically driven rock music. The band consists of Ian Jacobs (guitar/vocals) and MIchelle Feliciano (drums/vocals). The two have been making music together for the last 4 years in various other settings but it wasn’t until recently that they decided to start The Wicked Tomorrow as a duo. They debuted their songs at SXSW and The Northside Festival in 2010 and since then their single "Frenemy" has created some buzz in the NYC scene. That song and more are present on the 5-song EP that The Wicked Tomorrow will be releasing @ Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn on Friday, September 24th. The Wicked Tomorrow is also sharing the bill on 9/24 with The Highway from Boston/NYC who have gotten great reviews from The Deli Magazine New England, Performer and The Noise. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Just premiered on Pitchfork, here’s the band’s website. Don’t miss tonight’s show at Glasslands in W’Burg.