The end of 2009 saw a lot of bands like Real Estate, Washed Out, and Glass Ghost producing tired blissful sounds. It was like the whole crowd of music listeners had had a fantastic busy summer and wanted their winter music to remind them what drinking a clandestine beer on the beach was like. Glass Ghost plays syncopated tropicalía rhythms over warm, eccentric keyboard riffs. Eliot Krimsky sings with a bouncy falsetto croon not too distant from Thom Yorke’s timbre. – Read Andrew Spaulding’s interview with the band here.

We’ve always liked Samamidon‘s alt-country (and that’s one of the reasons why we made his debut album Deli CD of the month some time in 2008). His alt country – unlike the music of a more established band that coined the genre – is quite literally… alt country. This singer-banjoist’s repertoire is made up of re-arranged American folk songs, drawing simultaneously on his experiences growing up a child of folk musicians in Vermont and his more recent work in New York with the experimental indie-rock bands Doveman and Stars Like Fleas. Don’t miss the CD release party at 92YTribeca on April 10 – Doveman’s lead Thomas Bartlett will be the opena.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list here (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsbur on May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).

Blowing into Brooklyn from Kansas, We Are Country Mice front man Jason Krueger brought the dusty, county music sound with him. Krueger’s farm-boy background may be all over the band’s music (sample song title: ‘A Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising’), but hooking up with his new group in a new city has opened some creative doors. “I grew up in the one of the most rural settings there is and now live in a huge metropolis. Out here I’m challenged every day with new sounds yet my roots keep my feet grounded in the dirt. That push and pull can be found in our music.”  

Chappo is a NYC electro rock band with a new EP that meshes all sorts of influences, from the playful approach to music reminiscent of Beck to the spacey atmospheres of Air, to occasional funk rock rhythms, hip hop references and noisy distorted guitars. We really like the vocals attitude and the fun approach. Definitely worth checking out their live show at Glasslands on April 23.

Blank Dogs – a mainly a one-man recording project by songwriter Mike Sniper from Brooklyn, and currently a three-piece live band featuring Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugh and Craig Mileski – play dark lo fi pop with cold synth lines, surfy guitar hooks and angular basslines. The band raised to "cult status" after releasing records on various labels including In The Red, Woodsist, Troubleman, Sacred Bones and the band’s own Captured Tracks imprint. The newest release is the 12" EP Phrases, just released on Captured Tracks. The band is currently putting the finishing touches on a new full-length album, which should see the light of day on the same label later this year.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list here (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsbur on May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).

Julianna Barwick is a one-woman choir, a skyscraper of bliss, a monumental swirl of ghostly energy. Moving mountains by using little more than a loop pedal and her crystal-clear voice, Barwick is the epitome of DIY energy. Put her in front of a microphone and it’s a punk rock take on new age, the scrappy basement show rocker making something drone-heavy, churchlike, meditative. Her triumphant phonemes are never mumbled or moaned, but confidently belted from the rafters. Think Kate Bush’s most heartwarming dreampop untethered from the shackles or rhythm or instruments or form or pop; just one heavenly, angelic coo multi-tracked into a prismatic haze. – Christopher R. Weingarten

Quirky experimental Brooklyn group Javelin are about to spread their good vibrations beyond New York’s borders as they kicked off a nationwide tour last week at the Alfred University. The duo of George Langford Tom Van Buskirk cites acts as wide-ranging as Kraftwork to Smokey Robinson as influences and this eclectic nature is easy to spot, using everything from 8 bit blips, muted drums and spray painted boom boxes to create a collage of sounds. Teamed up with indie it-boys Yeasayer for their April tour, the group seem set to spread their unique brand of tropical pop as well as their unique fashion sense, since the band are known to perform wearing nothing but leopard skin tights. – Dean Van Nguyen

The Press celebrate the launch of their new album “INTEOTWIJTEOAE” by playing a set at Matchless this Saturday 04.03. The show comes just days before the band set off on a national tour to promote the record. After five years releasing a stack of well received EP’s and 7” singles, “INTEOTWIJTEOAE” feels like a real artist statement from the Brooklyn group. Combining flamboyant pop exuberance, punk melodies and the occasional moment of delicate beauty, they step out from the crowd of recent baroque pop bands who have emerged in this city and others, giving every track a distinctly Press-like feel. Take the album’s single ‘Master’. Built around a scuzzy guitar riff, heavy cymbal crashes and howling vocals, it’s outrageously busy for a pop song, but still incites manic arm-waving and fist-clenching joy on every listen. It even proved to be ripe for a dubstep remix, provided by Nate Mars. – Dean Van Nguyen

Deli readers,

For the second year The Deli Magazine and Rooftop Films will partner to give New Yorkers some quality independent music AND movies.
The Rooftop Films 2010 Summer Series, the 14th year of "Underground Movies Outdoors," will run every weekend from May 14-August 15, hosted by different suggestive NYC roofs.. Each night a local emerging artist will perform before the projection – considering how tall NYC buildings are, this is truly a match made in heaven!
The Rooftop Films 2010 calendar will be announced in a few weeks, in the meantime…

NYC BANDS CAN SUBMIT TO PLAY
ROOFTOP FILMS SERIES 2010 HERE.

The artist selection will be made by the Rooftop Films music staff – no need to schmooze The Deli’s staff to be picked – we know you!!!

The Deli’s Staff
www.thedelimagazine.com

92YTribeca has been contributing in recent time to bring the West Village scene back to relevance with a series of interesting shows mixing local music and art. Roberto Lange aka Helado Negro (in the picture) and Julianna Barwick, along with visual artists Jonathan Dueck and Kristi Sword take over the downtown venue with a night of music and month of art exhibitions. These artists will be engaging in a collaboration that blurs the divisions between studio, stage, touring and recording. While Roberto and Julianna collaborate to produce new music live on stage, Dueck will be documenting with drawings, video and photography which will later be incorporated into the packaging materials for the final product of this experience. Buy tickets here.

From Sid Vicious to Iggy Pop, real names have been forsaken for pseudonyms with a rock ‘n’ roll feel. Lizzy McChesney didn’t have quite the right ring to it, so the singer-songwriter christened the stage name Lissy Trullie to host the rotating musicians that write and perform in her band. Although she currently slays crowds with her guitar skills, she began her musical education with the least punk rock instrument, the xylophone.  This minor setback to dominating the world with her rock ‘n’ roll only fueled her desire to obtain a guitar. After a great deal of pleading, her parents finally bought her the much-coveted guitar. She began writing songs at 14 based on the basic song structures found in Tom Petty songs her instructor taught her. Over time, her songwriting shifted with her exposure to different frameworks and sounds. – read Nancy Chow’s interview with Lissy here.

Peter Silberman grew up in a family of writers and editors. When you hear his band The Antlers — and more importantly, when you read his lyrics — it’s obvious. The story told in the band’s 2009 album Hospice reads like a young writer’s first tragedy. And it hurts to hear.
Just shy of 24-years-old, and fresh off of nearly four months of touring, Silberman was sipping coffee in Brooklyn on a December morning. He said he was "very happy," but he mostly spoke about illness, abuse and mortality, the themes of his latest record.
"I hate to say that my favorite writer is very depressing, but it’s true," he said. He was speaking, of course, of 1980s short story writer and poet, the seminal minimalist Raymond Carver, whose work Silberman called both "hopeful" and "doomed."– read Joe Coscarelli interview with the band here.