NYC indie/folk songstress, Talia Billig, played the Living Room last night, November 16th, along with Daniel Ellis Ferris on back-up vocals and Nick Jozwiack on the stand-up bass and voice. The trio came together through The Orchard Sessions Volume 4, a platform created by Billig where she improvises new music with guest artists and posts the sessions online. The zany but endearing singer brought out her tiny pink piano for the song “You and I,” (featured in the official video) and the threesome harmonized flawlessly. The group played a few songs off of Bilig’s recently released debut album, The Ripple Effect, but the curly-haired singer’s talent manifested itself best when her counterparts left the stage. Singing solo and playing piano on a song the singer declared flippantly “comes from a really deep place of love in my heart that I can’t really find anymore,” she kept the room entranced with the emotionally charged and heartbreaking ballad. Check out Talia’s music on her website, or catch her at Rockwood on December 14th!

Talented New York indie pop quartet Mainland has been on the blogosphere’s radar for a couple of years now (some of you may remember them under their previous moniker, Mainland Fever) but they started recording their full length debut just earlier this year. The single they are previewing from the upcoming album, "Wasted" (streaming below) is playful, full of plucky riffs, and grounded by rock n’ roll crooning of vocalist Jordan Topf. If “Wasted” signifies what’s to come, we can expect just the right amount of retrospective melancholy embedded in a web of pop warmth. If you want to hear more by this band, they have another new song streaming here. – We added "Wasted" to our SoundCloud playlist of the best songs by emerging NYC artists here. – Corinne Bagish

Casually flirting with the edges of psychedelic heritage and other glimpses of 70s memory, The Barrens abide, in a self-titled first album, by no rules but their own. Released a year ago, the record remains their latest to date, a timeless, yet cohesive effort  built upon a constant back and forth between revivalism & reinterpretation. The result: as varied an output as you could hope for, with its warm waves of tingling reverb-soaked psychedelia ("Claw Remains"), hand-clapping, glowing indie ("Bottom Of Well" – streaming below), good ol’ riff-based solo-fused hard rock-based jams ("Felt").. Best thing is, these are only the first three tracks, singled out of a seamless ride along the edges of indie rock. Check it out on their Bandcamp, and see them live at Arlene’s Grocery on 11.21 with ZZZ’s and/or at Bowery Electric on 11.30 with Generator Ohm. 

If there was ever a mascot for NYC’s neo-soul scene, Rebecca Jordan is undoubtedly one of the top contenders. Rebecca is a young torch singer with an appreciation for the old, coupled with some serious plans for the future. From recording tracks on Alice Smith’s new record, to working with Citizen Cope, she’s got her hands all over our scene. In her new video ‘Eve,’ the singer flirts with a wide array of roles, from Ella Fitzgerald club entertainer to African princess, her net is cast about as wide as the ground the acoustic jam covers. Taken from her EP "Asphalt Heart," this is just one of many flavors to expect from Jordan’s latest release. Check out her new video below and see her live when she plays Dec 9 at Rockwood Music Hall. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Widowspeak – which seems to have become a duo – just announced the release of their second full length scheduled for early 2013. Preview track "Ballad of the Golden Hour" replicates their usual, indolently dreamy atmospheres, with a progressive build up that’s slightly noisier and faster than what we would normally expect from them. The press release promises "denser arrangements" and exploring of "new sonic territory" – but as long as the songs are as consistently good as the ones in the band’s previous release, pretty much anything will do, really…

One thing these three aren’t serious about has to be finding names for stuff, starting with the band itself, Low Fat Getting High, or their first EP, ‘Shake Weight’. And if the content of their records itself approaches political rather than nonsense, it’s almost hard to tell their concern from beneath the nuisance. For of the few things they ARE serious about, noisemaking’s a definite first on the list. Yet where the early efforts flew none too far off scuzzy standards, new single ‘Lacoste’ finds them stepping away from the old dirt road, working their way one phase after another into fast-shredding cacophony. Split with The Black Black, the 7” comes out November 19th, greeted by a show on the 20th at Legion Bar with Vulture Shit and Advaeta where you’ll be treated to some new material.

Bluegrass folk revivalists Joy Kills Sorrow celebrate stripped down acoustic melodies and rich, earthy vocals, while adding an original freshness to their sound. The Boston and Brooklyn-based five piece formed in 2005, finding their sound in the Boston area and soon releasing their self-titled debut. Their current line-up solidified in 2009: singer Emma Beaton’s mellow country noir voice is the absolute star here, but the banjo and mandolin set the overall tone with their rustic quality. The band’s most recent album, “This Unknown Science,” was released in 2011, showcasing a finely tuned melodic bluegrass with somewhat reminiscent of female-led Punch Brothers. Joy Kills Sorrow will be touring the Northeast this fall, including a December 5 appearance at The Rock Shop in NYC and a few show in New England – see here for the full schedule. – Devon Antonetti

If I start telling you about an exciting new artist who’s proposing to add a dose of spirituality to visually-based instrumental music experiments… you’ll promise not to run in the other direction, right? Good, just checking.

Through a series of unlikely collaborations, artist Maria Takeuchi has given New York something we least expected. An insertion of the mysterious and appreciation for spiritual distance in new EP “Doppelgänger.” The record feels like the soundtrack to an unreleased David Fincher film, complete with dense noise-scapes and percussive vocoding. As she’s prone to: Takeuchi creates music for “Doppelgänger” you can see as much as listen to.

So, please don’t be afraid. The music may exist in it’s own world, but it’s a place you’ll want to visit too. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

A not too new project from XXXChange and Devlin (of Devlin and Darko—Spank Rock’s tour DJs), NYC and Boston based electro-pop band Win Win has been gathering a good amount of buzz in 2012, after signing with Vice records. Their sound falls somewhere between MGMT’s catchy pop constructions and Brian Eno’s deadpan experimentation and delivery. Check out their new video of the single "After the Wait" here – also streaming below in mp3 format.

Just like their music, Glass Ghost always seem to be on the verge of percolating out to the mainstream. From a mountain of press commenting on their impressive debut ‘Idol Omen,’ to gracing the cover of the Deli, there’s no shortage of praise for the Brooklyn duo. Eliot Krimsky and Mike Johnson can’t seem to find an instrument that won’t make their music as lush and soulful as a spiritual, with the magic to cut like the diamond mentioned in their biggest song ‘Like a Diamond.’ And hey, if Sharon Van Etten is covering your songs … you really can’t go wrong. The band is playing with two of my favorite local acts (Strand of Oats, Yellow Ostrich) this Wednesday at Bowery Ballroom. See them there and buy tickets here. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Stream: Like A Diamond (via Youtube)

Blues traditionalist, country revivalist, Jon LaDeau is taking Brooklyn to the genres usually reserved for Austin, Chicago and New Orleans. This is a truly down home American style, presented with grit… irony-free. His latest record sticks to these styles with glee as LaDeau’s guitar work shreds like a latter-day Stevie Ray Vaughn. At times, his voice recalls the George Harrison from ‘All Things Must Pass,’ a rocker who still understands the roots of his sound. Tracks like ‘Lucille’ and ‘Grapple’ especially carry with them the railroad grooves of delta blues under jackhammer guitar licks. See him when he plays his ongoing residency at Way Station in Prospect Heights on November 30th. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Back for its third year, Tinderbox Music Festival — entirely composed of female musicians and female-fronted bands — showcased this past Sunday a diverse amount of genres with acts from all over the country playing on 3 separate stages. The event started at 1pm with folkier bands taking the stage in the morning, including a stand out performance by NYC  Jamie Bendell (pictured and streaming), whose beautifully raw and innocent voice blended perfectly with catchy acoustic guitar riffs and a grittier sound from the back-up electric guitarist. Other standouts of the day included: Hello Phones, the powerful and punky ohian group Jasper the Colossal, the endearing and talented Mal Blum backed by drummer and guitarist, and one of the last bands of the day, the wonderfully energetic Charlene Kaye and the Brilliant Eyes. The headliner, Coco Rosie, ended the night with an emotional and experimental set that had the audience entranced. For more information on the festival or the musicians involved, go here. – Chelsea Eriksen – Photo credit: Maxime Lemoine