To understand and fully appreciate Brooklyn’s Asa Ransom (pronounced ay-sah ran(t)-səm), attendance at one of their shows is mandatory. Their intense, whimsical energy practically throbs off their recorded EPs, but it is only fully realized and witnessed at their live performances. The band is tight, the crowd is wild for the dance-prone music and good times are bound to ensue.  
Asa Ransom dreams up songs that have transformative properties. Though some of their influences are Western-based such as the Talking Heads and Velvet Underground, they have clear world music inflections. They lure listeners in with the hypnotic, snake-charming intro to “Two Invitations” and keep them at bay with the polyrhythmic, African-influenced percussion over distinct, spirited guitar, tickling keys and walloping bass. To get a taste of their wildly vivacious music, their latest offerings, the five-song “Gold” EP, and the 12" The Luck of Stoney Bowes" can be streamed here. – Read Nancy Chow’s interview with the band here.

The anticipation builds for The Screaming Females impending fourth album release, titled “Castle Talk.” To be released through Don Giovanni records on September 14, the tracks appear positioned to match and possibly even surpass the quality shown on their previous album “Power Move.” On that record, the single "I Do" gave us an anthemic feel by way of a descending chord progression. While the bass and drums throttled forward like a 1980’s SST label punk band, guitars chunked over top until the inevitable sinewy guitar solo. “ Bell ” took that same formula but sped everything up a bit. There the vocals alternated between a sing and a scream, but still found the room for well placed background aaaahhhs. Still, the lead guitar solo’s jumped out at you, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to compare this band to a legendary act like Dinosaur Jr. “Buried In The Nude” stretched it all even further. More angular and a tad frantic, what’s clear is the equal interplay of a power trio that thinks like a band. Marissa may be the flashy focus, as gifted guitarists usually are, however one can sense the band dynamic clearly at work here. The new album can’t come soon enough. – Dave Cromwell

We received this email from Wild Yaks‘ Robert Bryn: "Last Wild Yaks show ever [tonight June 29) at Cameo […] With Zack Davis back on the bandstand with us. We’re playing […] with Imaginary Friends. Do you know them? Wow, ain’t nobody like Imaginary Friends and I hear that Ruell is moving away at the end of the summer. May not be many more chances to check them out. They’re awesome. […] Of course you don’t believe me that this is the last Wild Yaks show ever. You think I’m your raving uncle? Like you have company over and I’m just talking and talking in the backyard and your guests are like, what’s all that racket? And you’re like, that’s just my raving uncle. Of course I am not done playing music. As long as this pervasive heart ache continues, as long as love threatens to squeeze my little heart to lovely death I will have no choice but to go on singing this joyous, lonesome lament. I’ll sing to a rock. To a tree. Haven’t you seen me do it? Of course I am not finished playing music with Martin and Dan. Do you know those beautiful men? […]

After Glass Ghost, another band emerges from the ashes of Flying – a now defunct project we liked and occasionally covered. Woom shares with Flying a quirky sound that’s part industrial (although in some sort of "non-violent way) and part folk-pop. Even though the project is a few months old, the band, signed to BaDaBing Records, has already released a 7" and toured Europe. You can catch them at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 6 and 7 opening for Beirut

Check out the first official Blip Blip Bleep music video! Directed by Benjamin Ahr Harrison. It’s for "Freak You Out" off the forthcoming full-length album Like Track Stars – due out on June 29th at all major digital stores. Download the MP3 free here: http://bit.ly/freakyouout The band will play with Geographer at Pianos on july 3. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

In an effort to showcase New York City based musicians and filmmakers, Silver Sound brought to the Big Apple its first Music Video Film Festival + Band Battle at Public Assembly on August 12th, 2009. Out of hundreds of entries from five different countries, directors Chris Piazza and the Moonmen, and the band Dinosaur Feathers (pictured) were chosen as the Grand Prize Winners by popular audience vote. For their prize the winners were given creative reign on music videos to be produced by Festival founder, Erica Harsch – these videos will premiered on Tuesday June 29th, 2010 at Brooklyn Bowl. The auxiliary live performances include Lowry, The Casey Shea Band, and Dinosaur Feathers, with a special short opening set by the comedy band Man Cub.

Formed just about one year ago from the ashes of Noah Stitelman’s previous band Jacksonknife, Brooklyn’s Neighbors play interestingly bare synth pop that’s also deprived of any trendy buzzy analog sounds and beeps’n’blips. The band will celebrate the digital release of their debut EP with a live show at Coco66 in Greenpoint on July 3.

A good humored Orthodox Hasidic rabbi father of six who hangs out in Greenwich Village and plays original compositions on his guitar, Rav Shmuel does not see an inconsistency between these two identities. Rather, he thinks of Judaism and pop music as complementary and often coalescing tools and methods for communication. Rav, who has taught Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at various Universities, has also toured the country with Gefiltefish, his first band, playing sold-out parking lots before and after Phish shows. He does not play klezmer, although he does make the odd Maimonidean joke, and he thinks of himself as a Rock Star. Rav Shmuel will play the Marlin Room at Webster on July 28, during Lach’s monthly appointment with Anti-Folk music.

The Noise Rock genre seems to have three main branches: the unstructured, purely noisy one that finds inspiration in Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music; the very structured, super poppy prong that likes to bury beautiful melodies under layers and layers of feedback and guitar noise – a la’ Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psycho Candy; and finally the still structured but inherently non-pop "thing" that Sonic Youth invented and then refined in their "mature" period, when they mastered the art of what can be called "dissonant songwriting": i.e. noise rock that works like pop music, but achieves that genre’s "liberating" effect through the interaction of dissonant elements, rather than melodic ones. Adult Themes is one of the few bands that’s developing that idea and making it their own. This band’s deranged melodies and dissonant instrumental deviations somehow make perfect musical sense. Their controlled cacophony raises musical tension exactly to the point of alarm rather than ear piercing, unbearable madness. The songs in their debut 7" – Young Bodies and Four Fires – are perfect examples of this and mark an obvious improvement from the band’s previous unreleased recorded material. Highly recommended.

Son Lux, brainchild of classically trained composer Ryan Lott, bravely explores and blends genres that our average NYC hipster won’t find too attractive – industrial, jungle, jazz, ambient, hip hop, and – of course – classical (no trace of surf music here). The result is an epic, almost schizofrenic carousel of sounds that picks up where Radiohead’s Kid A left off, but with an even eerier approach to existential rock. Landis Smither’s video of the single "Weapons VII" adds a sexy cinematic layer that’s appropriately part David Lynch (those red curtains!) and part Japanese horror movie. 

Air Waves‘ sweet, lighthearted sing-along-style folky songs, complete with delightful, echoed vocals, are the creation of Nicole Schneit. Her catchy melodies and falsetto vocals give the tunes a magical, upbeat quality that wouldn’t be expected of a lo-fi band. But the bouncy guitars and intimate lyrics are welcoming warm as they gently sink through the speakers. The best part is the unassuming aspect that Schneit’s vocals emit: Air Waves could be total strangers or your best friends, but the music would sound just as lovely. – Lauren Piper

The NYC Deli rarely covers bluegrass artists – maybe because there aren’t THAT many in this bustling city. But when we stumbled upon musicians of the caliber of Punch Brothers, we felt compelled to write about them. The rootsy combo just released their second full length album "Antifogmatic" – named after a type of 19th century alcoholic drink that was meant as a cure for the effects of fog and other inclement weather. Of choosing the title, singer Thile notes, “Antifogmatic is an old term for a bracing beverage, generally rum or whiskey, that a person would have before going out to work in rough weather to stave off any ill effects. This batch of tunes could be used in much the same way, and includes some characters who would probably benefit mightily, if temporarily, from a good antifogmatic.”