There is so much happening in the world of Distractions. The band recently released a hand-numbered 7" through twosyllable Records, in an edition of 500, for their track "We Were Better Off In The Rain".

Today marks the release of the bands debut full-length, Dark Green Sea, through Infinite Best. The album (with digital download) is also limited to 500 copies. The album includes the track "All Night" which you can check out below.

Distractions will be performing at Treasure Town (2106 S Kedzie Ave) with Hollows on Jan. 24th.

Finally you can all vote for your favorite emerging Chicago artist of 2010 from the list on the right!

I know, it’s a long list, but that’s what our jury of scene makers (see list below) passed us – there was hardly any consensus amongst them, they almost all voted for different artists, and that’s why the list is so long. The list also includes the winners for our open poll and our Sonicbids winners.

The band/artist from this list that wins on the poll’s composite chart (i.e. jurors + Deli writers + fans’ votes) will receive a plethora of prizes provided by the sponsors of The Deli. Right now all the artists in the list have accumulated some points from the votes cast by jurors and writers, now it’s the fans and readers’ turn!

JURORS: Here’s the list of jurors in random order: Samantha Gordon (Reviewsic), Matt Baron (Coach House Sounds), Brendan Shanley (Lost In Concert), Amy Dittmeier (Heave Media), Frank Krolicki. (Windy City Rock), Brendan Losch (Count Me Out), Brandon Wetherbee (You, Me, Them, Everybody), Bill Valenta, and Jason Behrends (The Deli)

In 2009 Wes Kirkpatrick relocated to Chicago from Denver, and has been working on his solo debut album Naps & Nightmares ever sinces. Recorded with Chad Weis (tour manager and sound engineer for Martin Sexton, Mason Jennings, Ben Kweller) at his new Minneapolis studio "The Devil’s Workshop", this album has been Wes’ driving force and he is finally ready to make it available. "A lot of love, hard work, good times and not so good times went into it. I stuck with it until it was exactly the way I wanted it to be. I didn’t want to rush this one." says Kirkpatrick. The album documents the transition of leaving his friends and family in Colodrado and the process of adapting to life in Chicago.

Naps & Nightmares will be released on March 1st by My Forlorn Wallet Records, and a Chicago release show should be announced shortly.

Yawn has just released a video for their track "Toys". The video was filmed in France, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands and the USA, and directed and produced by Eli Stonberg. "Toys" is the first song off their self-released, self-titled ep which can be downloaded for free from the band’s website.

Ezra Furman and The Harpoons announced the details of the third studio album, Mysterious Power, today. The album finds the band departing their local home Minty Fresh for the Warner Music label Red Parlor Records. The album will feature twelve tracks include the tile track, Mysterious Power, which the band performed for Daytrotter back in Feb. 2009. Furman has come to be known for his over-the-top and deeply emotional lyrics, and from the looks of this release he will not disappoint. With tracks like "I Killed Myself But I Didn’t Die", "Hard Time in a Terrible Land", and "Bloodsucking Whore" you can see that he is going all out on this one. The album is set to be released on April 5th.

Ezra Furman and The Harpoons will launch a headlining US tour in March after their appearance at SXSW.

Fool’s Gold Record just released a new mixtape by Kid Sister. The mix is called KissKissKiss and was mixed by Nick Catchdubs. It features a lot of great tracks from Kid Sis and tracks from Green Velvet, Pall Wall, and Jo-De-Ci.

The latest video from the folks at Giant System features Netherfriends.

California Wives’ Daytrotter session went live today and it includes great versions of three of the five songs from their EP Affair which was released back in September.

California Wives play at Lincoln Hall tomorrow, Jan. 12th, as part of Tomorrow Never Knows 2011.

Roommate is partnering with one of Chicago’s newer labels Antephonic (the sister-label to Contraphonic, Inc) to release the band’s third album Guilty Rainbows. The album is set to be released on March 22nd, but early report say that this is the band’s most complete and forceful product to date. You can get a sense of what the album may sound like from the recently released single "Snow Globe"

Roommate will be performing at The Hideout on Feb. 5th with SHAPERS as part of a Coach House Sounds show. The record release show for Guilty Rainbows will be on March 18th at Empty Bottle with Dozens and Algernon.

On April 5th, Scattered Trees will release their full-length record, Sympathy, via Roll Call Records/EMI. In anticipation of the early Spring release the band has released a new track from Sympathy called “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve”.

The band will also be performing on January 21 at Schubas.

Last month, The Loneliest Monk released a haunting video directed by Rubbish and produced by Hystk for the track "The Ghost and The Silhouette".

The winner of the Best of Chicago Open Poll Submission is Very Truly Yours! We had a lot of great submissions, and had two editors from other Deli cities rank the finalist. Below are the top ten musicians, and all ten of these bands will be added to our year end Best of Chicago Emerging Artists 2010 Poll. However the charming twee-pop sounds of Very Truly Yours won over our editors.

1. Very Truly Yours
2. Está Vivo
3. Julie Meckler
4. Scattered Trees
5. Canasta
6. Chaperone! 
7. Soft Speaker
8. Nathan Xander & Witchouse
9. Gemini Club
10. Unicycle Loves You