Rock and Folk mingle on stage tonight at O’brien’s Pub with Boston bands All Talk and Babydriver. All Talk, whose new album upstairs/downstairs is set to come out in May, sits at the bluesier folk end of the spectrum with a few songs here and there clearly influenced by heavier guitar rock. Their gem “Locomotive” (streaming below) off their album Juno is one of those songs. It’s a slow burner, searing longing and heartbreak carefully into our minds with every deliberate strum of the guitar, with every wistful stray chord. The song builds up until the end when the guitar erupts into a reverbed solo before fading off. Babydriver on the other hand is more upbeat, with songs shifting from heavier rock to frazzled pop pieces. “I Don’t Want To Be Your Dad” (streaming below) kicks off with franticly melodious guitars and rhythmic shakers in the background. Palmer’s vocals float effortlessly over the track, lending an air of nonchalance to it. It’s a song that would have fit in perfectly in any indie film soundtrack. Catch them tonight at O’Brien’s Pub alongside Painted Zeros and Izzy True. –Adriana S Ballester

A warm folk-rock track that vividly details a rugged life, “Miracle” (streaming below) by Queens quintet Hollis Brown is intriguingly enigmatic. Portraying the intense struggles of a down-on-her-luck heroine, the guitar-curled song off the band’s forthcoming release ‘Cluster of Pearls’ impressively purveys both the forlorn literariness of Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” and the hopeful, country jive of such Gene Clark tracks as “No Other” while emitting its own rough splendor. ‘Cluster of Pearls’ will be released on Record Store Day (4/16) and Hollis Brown has an upcoming residency at downtown Manhattan venue Berlin in May, playing there every Wednesday. Full details can be found at the band’s Facebook page. – Zach Weg 

The brainchild of The Deli NYC’s art collaborator Michael Zadick, The Unders declare their intent in the first seconds of their debut LP‘s opening song, with a male voice proclaiming: "I just wanna rock!" The band’s surely meets that goal with their inventive garage-surf, while also oozing fun thanks to simple but never banal vocal hooks. The breakneck speed of most of their tracks make them an ideal group to witness live, in particular for those who enjoy mosh pits and hearing loss. The next party is at The Gateway on April 20th with Total Slacker.

Listening to 100% Electronica, George Clanton’s (aka Mirror Kisses) new release, is like walking in a hazy limbo somewhere between sleep and awake. Not quite a dream not quite reality. Lingering between the spacey drones and shimmering synths, Clanton’s 80’s styled crooning explores love, heartbreak, deception and frustration. You may call it chillwave or vaporwave, but the ’80s new wave’s imprint is still all over it, although it doesn’t stop there: Clanton keeps us teetering, never letting us settle into just one spot. He keeps us constantly moving. Immersing himself wholly into his performances, often abandoning his DJ set and rolling around on the floor, his live performances are always entertaining. You can catch him at Alphaville on April 22. – Adriana S Ballester

Former Deli Album Of the Month WRITER return with their follow up full length album “Principle Web.” Out on Small Plates Records, the ten track long player can be acquired in either digital or the once again popular vinyl format. Current single “Neighborly” presents a hypnotic drum beat straight outta Creedence Clearwater Revivals 1968 hit “Suzie Q,” as buzzy, distorted guitar and bass hover on a singular note before moving into a three chord progression. Chanted vocals come delivered with a mantra-like “I love – all of you.” A full minute in and the vocal cadence quickens, delivering simple observations like “there’s a shortage of clean laundry, and a mound of plastic bags” with the following verse declaring “there’s a party” as well as “a new tree that was planted.” In place of where one might traditionally expect a guitar solo is a falsetto vocal melody, moving it all closer to David Lynch film soundtrack weirdness. Harder power rock guitar chords lead the charge towards an ending that conjures the sound of a car wreck explosion. The accompanying video directed by Brooklyn-based visual artist Paul Remund portrays moving images in stark black and white, distorted by a form of digital cubism. – Dave Cromwell

The Deli came up with the word "Avant-Indie" about a decade ago, and it’s proud of the fact that it stuck (at least to a certain degree!). The term was coined mostly because we didn’t feel comfortable using the loaded word ‘experimental’ for edgy indie bands. Also, since at the time NYC was experiencing an explosion of music that was truly pushing the envelope, we felt the need to create a word that could define that movement, which ended up giving us artists as relevant as Animal Collective, St. Vincent and Dirty Projectors, as separate from ‘regular indie rock.’ Rather heavy on the ear, those years were naturally followed by a period during which simpler musical revivals dominated our scene: the roots invasion of the early ’10s, the never obsolete garage rock NYC flavor, the ’80s synth-pop revival, the 90’s rock renaissance…). But ‘avant’ inclinations are ingrained in the Big Apple’s scene, and we are wondering if times are mature to give a renewed attention to acts that try their hardest to avoid the revival label. Brooklyn’s Twig Twig squarely belong to this category. Their debut EP ‘normal feelings,’ released this past March, doesn’t sound very… ‘normal,’ but still manages to be touching and sincere, and that’s a rare form of beauty. Employing a restrained sonic palette made of granular synth sounds, aloof vocals, and simple electronic drum sounds and patterns, the band excercises their ‘avant’ tendencies within a song format that employs melodies ranging from the poppy (like in remarkable ambient ballad ‘Fade Away,’ streaming) to the out there (as in single ‘Talk Go‘). Don’t miss their live show at Alphaville tonight (04.12) with other local forward looking bands Fieldings and Railings.

We have often pointed out how ladies (at least in NYC) appear to be slowly but surely taking over the electronic music scene – in particular its poppier current. A good example of this will be on display this coming Wednesday (04.13), when Mothica, Ela Minus, and Brooklyn born Lily McQueen (pictured) will be sharing the stage of Lower East Side’s Pianos. Of the three ladies on this bill, we’ll focus our attention on the one we’ve never covered before, Lily McQueen, whose debut, self titled and co-produced EP came out in mid 2015. In it, we hear musical and lyrical references to that particular kind of melodic electronic music of the ’80s that made its way into many popular teenage blockbusters of the time, but also some world music influences, as evident in our favorite single ‘You Are Not Read for My Love’ – streaming below.

DC’s indie-folk maestros Wylder released their debut album, Rain and Laura, yesterday, 4/8. It’s a beautiful journey of feeling, of clarity, of unlocking doors. This LP features supreme string work by Lavar Edmonds, carefully inserted in the tracks and adding the right emotional weight needed to rather somber progressions. All throughout, the ensemble strikes a plucky yet seasoned chord, expressing intimate emotion through gentle lead vocals and mandolin and held together by the drum work, acoustic guitar, and keys. The album is harmonic gold, blending lighthearted and earnest, wrapped in a bow tie of folk and indie vibes. Join the band on 4/22 at the Rock and Roll Hotel for their release party and take a journey of feeling by listening to this album. -Jonathan Goodwin

Here at The Deli our efforts are mostly directed towards researching and covering new artists we never blogged, but of course there are a lot of bands we’ve already covered that release great new music that sometimes we don’t have the time to highlight. Hence, this new, telegraphic appointment called ‘New(YC) Releases" – because words aren’t always necessary… Here are a bunch of new releases by great NYC artists that are not so emerging anymore (pictured: SKYES):

If you had a dream where Debbie Gibson and Stevie Nicks collaborated on a DJ set, you might find you’ve come pretty close to Caitlin Frame’s music and her project FRAME. Drawing a line from well-crafted pop gems to synth-backed haze, this young lady has been teasing us for a while about a pending album release. Frame is set to play some of this music at new Bushwick venue C’mon Everybody on Thursday, April 21st with Karlie Bruce. It’s been some time since she’s announced a show, and we’re excited to hear some of the new material, along with classic dream beat anthems like Run Around. Check out our favorite single ‘Polarizer’ below and, if you dig, don’t miss the upcoming performance. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

The true punk essence, we believe, is all in the vocals. Guitars and drums can only go so far in expressing rabid anger, total disgust, frustration-induced madness. It’s a kind of singing that requires its own talent to be pulled off properly, and Daniel Fern, the singer of Brooklyn’s aptly named hardcore punk trio You Fucking Die, is surely blessed with it – or rather, damned? The band just released this single entitled ‘Sterile Art’ from their upcoming EP and will be playing on a noisy bill of local acts at St. Vitus on April 18th.