Deli Lovers,
Our infamous Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists has been – as usual – a lengthy and painstaking journey which took us through prairies of numbers, horizons filled with band names, and a dense, (mostly) joyous rain of music. We have finally reached our destination and we can announce the final results! In case you are not aware, the winner of this poll end up on the cover of our Spring Issue of The Deli! Last year it was Porches. The year before Big Ups.
And the winner is…
1. ACID DAD
Our jury of NYC scenesters converged towards this quartet of young Brooklyn residents devoted to a modern, "shoegazi-er" reinterpretation of the psychedelic garage rock sound of the ’80s – a rather obscure wave that had NYC as its epicenter thanks to legendary – and still very much active – bands like The Fleshtones and The Fuzztones. Through songwriting that tames the outdated bluesy overtones typical of those pioneers in favor of poppier melodies, these guys may have found the recipe to bring psych-garage out of the underground. Check out their latest single "Fool’s Gold," from their upcoming EP, scheduled for a late February release. Oh and yes: you’ll see these guys on the cover of the Spring Issue of The Deli NYC!
2. DONNA MISSAL
The jurors who voted for New Jersey’s soul rocker Donna Missal swear she’s gonna be a star. Now, that’s rare, because anybody employed full time in the record industry is perfectly aware of how slim those chances are. But listening to this young lady’s two debut singles – both released at the end of 2015 and immediately gone viral – it’s very hard to disagree with them: great songs, incredible energy, powerful, pitch perfect vocals, production that’s dark and edgy without being too weird for the mainstream; and – what’s crucial these days – stage presence and actual vocal prowess.We are sold!
3. HONDURAS
Channeling similar influences as this poll’s winners, but in more sober, post punk-influenced ways, the guys in Honduras have the NYC running in their blood (and sound). 2015 marked the release of their very well received debut LP "Rituals," and because of it, although they haven’t gotten to tour in their moniker-lending country just yet (which would certainly be a sign of world wide fame!), they landed a series of high profile gigs and got a ton of press out of it, with this very blog being second to none in that department. They are set to tour with Deli darlings Sunflower Beans in the spring. Don’t miss the two of them at Bowery Ballroom on February 25th. Here’s a new single from their upcoming EP, entitled "Hollywood" and recently premiered by none other legendary British publication NME.
Check out our poll’s top thirty below, and don’t forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:
ALT FOLK – ALT ROCK – ALT SOUL – DREAM POP – ELECTRONIC – HIP HOP/OTHER – INDIE POP – INDIE/POST PUNK – PSYCH/SHOEGAZE – SLACKER ROCK – REVIVAL POP/ROCK – SOUL
|
BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
—
If you wonder how this chart came into existence, here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 20+ NYC scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each (3 points for the top choice, then 2 and 1). Then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open to the genres we cover, from Indie Rock to Roots Music, from electronic to Hip Hop (no jazz, no seriously experimental music).
If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music NYC produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
Many Thanks to our Jurors: Alex Rossiter (The Studio, Webster Hall) Andy Bodor (Cake Shop), Ariel Bitran (Palisades), Billy Jones (Baby’s All Right), Christine Cook (Sofar Sound NYC), Claire and Patrick McNamara (OhMyRockness.com), Diane (Bowery Ballroom), George Flanagan (Rough Trade NYC), Greg (The Delancey), Kelly Bruce (doNYC/RedBull) Lucas Sacks (Brooklyn Bowl), Matt Currie (Rockwood Music Hall), Max Brennan (The Flat), Nora Dabdoub (Shea Stadium), Rachael Pazdan (The Hum), Rami Haykal (Popgun Presents), Richard Sloven (The Knitting Factory), Sam Cox (BMI), Steven King (The Rock Shop), Steven Matrick (Pianos), Tim Maginnis (Ascap), Todd Abramson (independent promoter), Tyler Bates (Communiom Music).
Hope you’ll find some awesome new artists you weren’t aware of!
The Deli’s Staff