Deli Readers,
Our Best of New England 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, but we have finally arrived at destination: we can announce the final results. This year we heave a very eclectic chart – at least for the top positions.
We are happy to announce that Boston’s pop punk band Rebuilder, thanks to an accumulation of jurors votes, is The Deli New England’s Best Emerging Artist of the Year, and will therefore be featured in our upcoming SXSW print issue (check out last year’s one digitally, here). We have been following this unstoppable power-quartet since their beginnings in 2014, and it’s been great to see them grow and mature with each release.Their 2015 album ‘Rock’n’Roll in America‘ blends the melodic punk tradition of pioneers Husker Do with a more modern and epic sound, without ever letting the BPM slow down. Don’t miss them live!
Thumbs up also for weirdly named, slow core trio Horse Jumper of Love, also hailing from Beantown, who placed second. Their sound – from what we can hear from the two songs available online – channels the slacker rock of the 90’s in rather seductive and chilled ways. They have a full release coming up on March 11th, from which first single ‘Ugly Brunette’ (streaming below) was premiered by Stereogum just about two weeks ago. We found another of their tracks on Soundcloud, here. Promising band indeed!
In third place we have a truly unique artist – and yes, she is a Bostonian too. Her name is Ruby Rose Fox, and we are really, really tempted to label her as THE (or some kind of) new Nick Cave, an artist we regard as one the best of all times. As you may have gathered though, Rosy is a lady. Gifted with an incredibly deep and expressive voice, and confidence aplenty, Ruby plays slow to mid tempo noir pop that flirts with Americana – and trouble. You definitely want to keep an ear and an eye out for this one – check out her stunning latest video for single "Dance of Frankestein."
Check out our poll’s top ten below, and don’t forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:
ALT ROCK – ELECTRO/OTHER GARAGE/DIY – INDIE POP –
INDIE ROCK – PUNK ROCK –ROOTS/SONGWRITERS
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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 15+ New England 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 for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.
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 New England produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
Many Thanks to our Jurors: Aaron Gray (Gray Skull Booking), Adam Blye (Mutiny on the Microphone), Adam Morgan (Surviving the Golden Age), Adam Parshall (Do617), Alyssa Spector (Lysten Boston), Dan McMahon (Deli NE Editor), Dave Crespo (WEMF Radio), Deep Thoughts (Deep Thoughts), Ellie Molitor (Allston Pudding), Erich Hagan (John Fleming Entertainment), Jacob Nathan (AS220), Jake (Boston Ska), Joseph Graham (NE Music Awards), Knar Bedian (Sound of Boston), Kristin Nicholls (Bishop & Rook), Lance Tobin (Brighton Music Hall), Lionel Train (The Middle East), llya Sitnikov (I Heart Noise), Malcolm Tent (Trash American Style), Paul Mayer (Cafe Nine), Perry Eaton (BDCWire), Radio Bean (Radio Bean), Ryan Agate (O’Brien’s Pub), Salty Speakers (Salty Speakers), Samuel Potrykus (Boston Hassle), The Space (The Space), TJ Edson (Out of the Blue Too).
Hope you’ll find some awesome new artists you weren’t aware of!
The Deli’s Staff