New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Jason Karaban | "Succeed 101"
Singer/songwriter Jason Karaban is taking a departure from the warm intimacy of his last EP Mayfly to the multi-instrumental and brighter sounds of his forthcoming Just Enough, Just In Case EP. If "Succeed 101" is any indication of the new release, expect Karaban’s signature pen in heavy lyric, but in a more optimistic sonic avenue.
On Thursday, Dec. 3rd, The Shake will celebrate the release of their new album, "The Shake Go Crazy," at the main room at Santos Party House. The New York 4-piece will be joined by fellow City rockers Milo & The Fuzz, Reckless Sons and Black Taxi. The band also just announced the release of their new music video for their single, "Got No Soul" – here it is – directed by Anders Urmacher (you guessed it, another New Yorker). Those who love fine rock’n’roll done the right way shouldn’t miss this show.
Webster Hall – which in the 1950s and 60s was the recording home of RCA records and hosted legendary recordings of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan among others – has lately been doing interesting things to help emerging local artists. The East Village venue staff started recording local emerging bands back in January 2009 and ended up gathering enough material to put together a compilation of of new up-and-coming artists recorded during their Webster performances. The resulting CD is called "Live At Webster Hall – The Sounds From New York City Vol 1”. It features 10 artists; some of which we have often covered – The Subjects, Bear Hands, Young Love, Tiger City, Asa Ransom, Static Jacks – plus others we never heard of that we are going to check out pronto; Jump Into The Gospel, US Royalty, The Royal Chains and Young Lords (in the picture). Best Buy (keen to promote their new musical instrument store in Manhattan) has jumped on board and is sponsoring this operation, agreeing to sell the CD in its stores. You can preview some tracks here.
We are sure Brooklyn Psych Rockers Bear in Heaven are not feeling too blue for placing second in last week’s Deli’s Artist of the Month poll – as Flavorpill just announced that they actually won the site’s "Open for Mew" contest. The band is getting quite a lot of attention, in particular after Pitchfork Media assigned the "Best New Music" tag to their new records. See Bear in Heaven open for Mew on December 4th at Webster Hall.
Sunday December 6th, 8pm $5, Fat Free presents: An Evening of Mental Unity. Fat Free has created a celebratory smörgåsbord of art, music, spoken word, poetry and otherwise hard-to-describe oddball entertainment. For music lovers who want to explore something different, an evening of Mental Unity can provide a good time for all involved. Hosted by Alethea Rivera, there will be performances by Fat Free, Beatbox Guitar, Life Occurs, Bobby Oats Jen Upchurch, and Top ten lovers (in the picture). Glasslands Gallery is on 289 Kent between South 1st and Grand Williamsburg, Bklyn. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).
Gold Streets released their new EP entitled "GO" on November 22nd with a show at at Mercury Lounge. To celebrate, they also presented their latest video, "Red." This project is a collaboration with Director/DP Brad DeCecco and premiered at Music on Main at The Sundance Film Festival. Brad De Cecco took 4 pictures for The Deli covers in 2008. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).
It’s hard to believe that Kelsey Wild is just 19, and just starting out her career as a musician. Yet, it is true, and there is this unmistakable maturity and depth in her voice that tells you she belongs. It also tells you where she’s been, that she’s been in love, and that she’ll be a star. What first caught my eye with Kelsey Wild was a video that the talent JM Harper did for her a few months ago for the song “Drunken Sailor”. Not only is the video incredible, but Kelsey’s song is captivating even without the great images and effects. She has been releasing songs through her blog all summer, and is currently a freshman at Northwestern. Earlier this month she played both Schubas and SPACE, and will be making her big national debut at SXSW in March 2010. I hope every one is ready for an amazing young talent.
This is a weekly entry that highlights some of the artists who posted their upcoming shows in our show listing section (right hand side column of this page). Any band can promote their show in The Deli’s DIY Live Show Listings section for free.
Monday 11/30: Xpia, Girls on Fire, and Veesugee @ Springwater
Wednesday 12/2: Absinthe Junk @ The Rutledge
Thursday 12/3: Max Beizer, Carswell, Blessing Offor, and Denitia Odigie @ Dan McGuinness
Friday 12/4: Heartbeater @ 5 Spot
Saturday 12/5: Vermicious K’nids, H-Beam, De Novo Dahl, and Evan P Donohue @ 5 Spot
Buzz and Click VI @ The End
The folks came out early for this one, which was somewhat mislabeled as a "benefit" for WRVU…The bands all got paid and so did the club, so while donations were being accepted this was indeed much more of a regular show, just with an extremely eccentric lineup. The Vermicious K’Nids started things out, and their well honed, key-driven power pop got the whole room quite excited right off the bat. There’s no doubt the VK’s are somewhat inspired by the sounds of The Killers/Bravery and their ilk, but there’s a much more honest and less pretentious delivery that, combined with a bombastic, frenetic live show and undeniable songcraft, make their take on the genre worthwhile. Make sure to catch their cd release Dec. 5th @ the 5 Spot with a newly re-formed De Novo Dahl.
After some feel-good jams from DJ Orig, Powerbrrrd came next with a blistering set of straightforward honest-to-goodness trashy punk rock that was delivered with brazen displays of equal parts egotism and humor, and it all blended into an extremely fun set. Not modest about their roots (ranging from "Montreal, Canada" to "Phoenix, AZ" depending on when you listened), local guys-you-see-everywhere Seth Graves, Brandon Jazz, and Steve Cross played with no sense of restraint and were a pure display of no-frills, sloppy rock n roll. Following the Brrd was Westfolk(formerly Oscar Anthony and the Westfolk Band), who began and ended with a solid groove that held up their furious inter-twining of genres, from bluesy/soulful croons to 70’s rock-n-roll decadence guitar solos to jangly folk rhythms. Westfolk proved they were a band that can have quite a bit more than necessary happening on stage but still compress it all into jams that make sense and make the people move. Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, these guys play material that is not only musically relevant and a display of greater things to come, but the focus on songwriting is quite evident as well. The crowd had a superb sense of camaraderie throughout the evening, but Westfolk really brought the dancing to the table.
Closing the night out was Cheer Up Charlie Daniels who was also celebrating a vinyl release. They brought to the table solid harmonies and catchy sing-alongs, and everyone on stage made it a point to get across the fun they were having during the set. The crowd was definitely comprised mostly of friends who drunkenly cheered every aspect of the performance, and the guys cranked through their entire new albums worth of country-friendly pop rock and then some. When the clock struck 130 everyone was pretty ready to go sleep, many of them likely to have class the next morning, but the show was successful (despite an attempted boycott, more on that later) and both crowd and bands seemingly went home happy. – Jesse Baker
So you’ve probably heard of YEAH (Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Humanities) by now; it’s a promising community project that gives the youth of middle Tennessee the chance to hone their musical skills in a safe and productive environment. Basically, they’re assuring Nashville a good music scene for years to come, and that is an invaluable service.
YEAH is holding a benefit show Monday (11/23) and you should go support this great organization. Here are the details:
The fundraising party on Monday (11/23) from 7-9. The event is for Friends of YEAH!, which means the people who are 18+ (too old to attend YEAH! on a regular basis) are allowed in, they’re asking for a pledge of $20/month (that’s less than a dollar a day, you can handle it). But, if someone wants to come in and pay $20 at the door to jam with local artists, eat food, get some drink, screen print, or take an acting class, they’d definitely be cool with that too. So don’t be a bum, come on out and help support this great resource for Tennessee’s youth.
So it looks like Ex-Meemaw guitarist Daniel Pujol is in need of a new drummer, and it could be you! Want to see the nation and meet interesting people? Want to have a "real rock and roll experience"? Need to get out of town for a bit? Well this could be the break you’ve been looking for! Sounds cool to us, here’s what Daniel had to say:
"Greetings, My name is Daniel Pujol. Now you just got to let me know: Do you know any musicians who want to tour all the time but can’t in your area?
As long as they’re not crazy, violent, or drug addicts, you should send them my way to danielluccapujol@gmail.com , because I need a tour drummer really bad right now. In fact, I just put out an entire tape as a Want Ad for a drummer called Ringo, Where Art Thou? Tracks from it can be heard at myspace.com/danielluccapujol and I can send a tape if anyone expresses further interest.
Right now I’m pushing by at barely 2 weeks a month of tour, but I’d like 2 weeks to be a minimum and I can book and provide equipment as well as transportation, but it’d be really cool if I didn’t have too. They can be from here or somewhere else, or I’ll go somewhere else to practice haha. I want to tour more. Everything must go! With prices like this, math just makes things more complicated!"
Thanks for reading,
Daniel Pujol
The Royal Bangs have had a pretty exciting career lately. Their quircky blend of electronic blips and glitches layed over rough but infectious guitar riffs has attracted the attention of the music community lately, and there seem to be nothing but promising times ahead for these guys. In the past they’ve joined forces with huge names like The Black Keys, played some large festivals (including our own Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival), spent large amounts of time across the pond on their European tour, and recently just released their sophomore effort, Let It Beep–which is totally badass. Despite their hectic and exhaustive touring schedule, The Deli managed to sit down with frontman Ryan Schaefer to have a few words on the band’s past, the new album, and plans for the future. Check it out here. –Interview by Jessica Pace