Deli Readers,

Our Best of SF Bay Area 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!

Heartwatch

The Bay Area has spoken and the local indie pop band, Heartwatch has not only won this year’s overall poll, but they dominated the Deli SF’s Reader Poll as well making them our undisputed Artist of the Year! We can tell why with their dancible brand of pop music and admirable work ethic. It all paid off this year!

Emily Afton

Emily Afton’s sultry, soulful style of indie pop melds elements of pop, soul and electronica to create original and penetrating modern ballads. She didn’t come in too far after Heartwatch. She deserves a huge congratulations and we look forward to seeing more from her.

Annie Girl and the Flight

Well, Annie is nothing but pure rock and roll! We’re thrilled to see her come in third place as she’s been a relentless force in the local underground rock scene. A great songwriter, composer and live musician is something that is sorely needed in the Bay Area right now. Congrats to Annie Girl and the Flight!

Check out our poll’s top 15 below, and don’t forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:

AVANT INDIE – ELECTRONIC – INDIE POP – PSYCH– REVIVAL POP/ROCK – ROOTS MUSIC

BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR EMERGING SF BAY AREA ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS – TOP 15 ******

ARTIST J OS R TOT   1 Heartwatch 5.5   2 7.5 2 Emily Afton 5.5   1 6.5 3 Annie Girl and the Flight 3.5   1.5 5 4 The She’s 4.5   0.009 4.509 5 Eight Belles 2 2 0.029 4.029 6 The Seshen 3.5   0.015 3.515 7 Zodiac Death Valley 3.5   0.004 3.504   Night Shapes 2 1 0.054 3.054 9 Bells Atlas 3   0.015 3.015 10 Waterstrider 3   0.009 3.009 11 Wicked Man   3 0.005 3.005 12 Useless Eaters 3   0.004 3.004   Cellar Doors 3   0.004 3.004 14 Fuzz 3   0.003 3.003   Cathedrals 3   0.003 3.003 Legend: J = Jurors, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

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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+ SF Bay Area 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 SF Bay Area produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

Many Thanks to our Jurors: David A Sikorski (Writer at SF Weekly), Doug Kinsey (The Night Light), Dace James Hines (Writer for SF Critic), Anisa (Sofar Sounds), Barry Smyth (Brick and Mortar Music Hall), Dennis Gonzales (POW Magazine), Jason Black (Writer for Beatport), Aisah Gemora (Sofar Sounds), Derek See (Indie Record Collector/Retailer), ​Sam Lefebvre​ (East Bay Express), Audra (Thee Parkside), Ash Reiter (Founder of Hickey Fest), Bob Patterson (SF Critic Managing Editor), Jordannah Elizabeth (The Deli SF).

Hope you’ll find some awesome new artists you weren’t aware of!

The Deli’s Staff

At first listen, you’d expect a loud crash somewhere within the minute, but stick around and you’ll find mellow and soothing folk in homage to an entire decade: somewhere around the 60’s. Three-piece Waterplanet paints landscapes with one broad brush. It’s a somewhat familiar sound, but the smooth vocals and cleansing strings delivered by Millie Landrum, James Hesser, and recently added Gregtape, keep it interesting. From ‘Go Go Go’ and its nod to Violent Femmes to the Latin guitar twist and mixed lyrics of ‘Get Lost’ and the psychedelic chants in between, they’re setting your sights on Baltimore for the next gig. Check out their new entry to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series below!-Justin Bieggar

Post Punk and Shoegaze are genres that have found a fertile ground in the DNA of the NYC scene (in particular the Brooklyn DIY one). Locals LADY blend the two genres in their recent EP ‘The Washer,’ which ranges from slow and almost introspective to bouncing-off-the-walls energetic. With songs like “Things Are Wrong” and “Creatures of the Night” you get a progressive build up of reverb laden guitars and distant pleading vocals, speckled with intense cymbal crashes and the steady pulsing of drums. Then in contrast you have “Chuta” and “Can’t Stay,” which give you a high octane punch right off the bat with the jittery, energetic guitars rolling along thunderous drum beats, and vocals that sound like hot wax slowly dripping over the composition. If you wish to give into these guys’ wondrous sonic assault don’t miss them this Sunday, 2.28, at Palisades, with Dumb Wolves and Fraidycat. Check out their track "Things Are Wrong" below.

– Adriana S Ballester

There’s something deeply earnest about the sound of Brooklyn’s power pop quartet Robot Princess. Their music feels friendly and unpretentious, although the sound maintains a constant abrasiveness that adds a restless quality to it, without really venturing into punk or garage territory. The guitar rock sound of a ’90s is obviously an influence, but the remarkable songwriting lifts this band beyond mere revival: their songs come across as thoughtful outbursts of a bunch of friends in their early twenties, singing about their daily struggles. Their 2015 debut album (or rather, cassette) ‘Teen Vogue LP + Action Moves EP‘ is incredibly consistent and, notwithstanding the obvious DIY ethos, very well recorded and produced. There’s a deep relatability to all of these songs – even when the the lyrics are hard to understand. That’s what good music does, it conveys emotion, it triggers thoughts, it evokes periods of our past without the need for rationalizing. Don’t miss these guys’ upcoming live show at Rough Trade on March 5th.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best indie guitar rock songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

“Thee in thy panoply” is how Walt Whitman addressed a bi-coastal 19th century freight train, though his words easily apply to NYC’s Mystery Lights as well. Their garage-psych panoply is pure Sixties, albeit a variegated Sixties, which makes sense given their origins in California. The band recently won the Psych category of our Best of NYC 2015 Readers’ Poll. They will be playing LES’ new rocking basement Berlin on Friday February 26 with The Britanys – also a garage sounding, Deli award winning NYC band! – Brian Chidester

With his unique style and the voice of an old soul, NYC guitarist Ben Greenberg (formerly of The Men) proves that uniqueness doesn’t need to be complicated, but requires character and talent. We just stumbled upon his project Hubble‘s amazing tracks, built on a blurry web of fluttery electric guitar arpeggios (or something similar that still has no definition), and we are completely mesmerized by them. The artists recently has been focusing on covers of classics from the past. The one of Tim Buckley’s "Song to the Siren," (streaming, which sounds more like a cover of the cover This Mortal Coil did of that track in 1984) is one of the most beautifully intense tunes we’ve heard in a while, imparting to Buckley’s lyrics a weight that – to quote The Flaming Lips – is just too heavy for Superman to lift. Check out also the slightly more serene remake of Gary Numan "Me! I disconnect from You." You can see Hubble live at Palisades tomorrow (February 25th).

The Deli Magazine’s SXSW annual print issue is coming out soon and DC’s The Walking Sticks are featured! If you haven’t heard of this awesome indie dance band or their genre-flexing music, you’ve had your buried in the sand and under a rock. Vocalist Chelsea Lee has been on the scene for a few years now and her siren pipes grew a fanbase all their own. Now artfully flanked by some inventive electronica, her trained voice rings out, gripping your attention and moving your body for you. As this group has blown up, they’re playing sold out shows around town, so catch them soon! -Jonathan Goodwin

South by Southwest is coming up fast and The Deli Magazine is proud to release its annual print issue for the festival. Featured in the mag will be Baltimore-based New God, one of the best experimental indie groups in the city. Their music is somber and atmospheric, and you’ll feel the work put into carefully constructing their albums. You’ll find their tracks easy to lose yourself in, time passing you by most pleasantly. Keep an eye on them as they announce what are sure to be fantastic shows. -Jonathan Goodwin

In their latest single ‘Nighttime Hunger,’ Overcoats take a simple expression of longing, ‘when the darkness comes,’ and twist the suggestive phrase around until it turns itself into a mantra of foreboding and threat. Laid over sinuous beats and rapturous harmonies. It’s a strong debut from duo Hana and JJ, who only just released their self-titled debut EP last summer and are already playing dates alongside musicians like James Blake and Hozier – and performing live for NPR. Hear the song below and see them when they play at Fat Baby on Thursday, March 3rd. – 
Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best mellow songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

Changing seasons have seen changing sounds in Let’s Drive to Alaska, but Christopher Garcia’s electronic post-rock outlet remains as verdant as it did in 2005, when it was just a laptop project. LDTA has warped and whittled down, with only the ardent Patrick Haag (ex-Mississippi Men) on drums, percussion, and noise while Garcia multi-tasks synths, loops, and effects—they were a quartet at one time. But through the decade of production struggles and lineup changes, quiet releases and whispered tours, comes an official debut album that breathes new purpose in songs from A Bell and A Mirror (Muerte Pop) and "Indigo Children," and some new ones, to boot. The polyrhythmic blossom "Sejatski (Brother)" is the first released single from LDTA’s 13-song LP In the Fifth House, set to release March 8, 2016. A syncopated beat and motif picks up wind, climbs and falls to the hum of pop-inflected waves—it’s a reaffirmation of the duo’s efforts, a taste of what’s to come, and a resounding sign of life in the quietude of Whittier.

Join Let’s Drive to Alaska for a release party on March 10th at Au Lac in Los Angeles with The Grigori Dance Company, as well as The Littlest Vikingand The New Octaves. – Ryan Mo, photo credit: Jacob Pulido

Deli Readers,

Our Best of Austin 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!

1. CAPYAC

The Artist of the Year for The Deli Austin 2015, the artist voted in by our panel of Austin music folks in the know in tandem with you the public, is the inimitable future funk outfit and Austin standard carrier CAPYAC. To put it as blunt and forward as the good beats this act puts out, the win was no surprise. CAPYAC have taken their sound, their show and their presence in the music scene and have exploded them all to new heights this year. We once called them the ‘smoothest music in Austin right now,’ and not only has this sly scifi-appropriate spacefunk + beats duo lived up to that title with numerous spot-on spaced-out releases since our last review of them, they’ve also added ‘most fun,’ ‘most consistent’ and very possibly ‘best live show in Austin, right now’ to the list of claims they can make on the Live Music Capital of the World’s local scene. Those alone are some damn chops to contend with, but since CAPYAC also had the single that was the biggest repeat play in The Deli Austin’s offices this year with the cherry red, lazer-beats and deep funk glorious “Speedracer,” we really can’t argue with this pick. It’s been, and it continues to be, the age of CAPYAC in Austin, Texas.

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2. Annabelle Chairlegs

If there are two scenes producing at the top of their game in Austin right now that are most visible (out of many such scenes, let’s not short this crazy city its talent), it’d be the beat scene, of which our contest winner CAPYAC is a member, and it would also be the psych rock side of this here music town. Among those acts bending the psych thing back around to new 2016-primed directions, Annabelle Chairlegs is perhaps the most exciting. They’re also The Deli Austin’s #2 Best Emerging Artist of 2015, an accomplishment this young and daring band has achieved due both to its embracing of the spirit of early psychedelic music and for where they branch off from that parent sound to express themselves in their own new and rebellious ways. They’re as much punk and 80s/90s lush indie pop influenced as they are psych; pretty and layered when they’re being edgy and poppy and druggy, and pretty even when they are actually trying to be pretty. It’s hard to do both of those at the same time, but 2015’s Watermelon Summer was a debut album that is very likely to be the soundtrack of this summer in Austin for the young and ultra-hip in the hippy/psych scene, just as it was last summer. These young art partiers, with their bubblegum hair-sporting banshee songstress and dreamy pop singles, are one of the acts we think very well could break out of this city in a big way. With a second place showing in our contest, it looks like the rest of Austin agrees with us.

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3. Tomar and the FCs

The thing about real, good soul is that it says it right there in the name: it’s gotta hit you in the soul. That shit can’t be faked; though many try to achieve it, soul isn’t something that can be tried at or denied when it’s heard in its real form. It hits you, in your own soul like a burning weight, and you know you’re hearing it done right. And, when you hear it done right, you know just why it is so good, and why that’s important. Tomar and the FCs, our third place band this year, are soul. They’re soul, and they’re good, and it’s cool as fuck. They put out songs that sound like new classics, like the guys writing and performing them know their musical history and just went and inserted themselves into the soul canon through the sheer quality and dedication and, to bring it back to the point, the pure fucking soul of their music. Hell, Tomar and the FCs, aren’t trying to bring soul back, they’ve done it. They are soul, and it’s just plain feel good badass sing-it-out music. To do what they do with an old sound in a day that’s so aware of what’s come before, and to make it feel fresh and damn fine to boogie down to, is tremendous, and Tomar and the FCs well deserve the showing they’ve made in our poll.

Check out our poll’s top 15 below, and don’t forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:

ALT ROCK – FOLK ROCK – HIP HOP + FUNK – INDIE POP – INDIE ROCK –PSYCH – PUNK/METAL – ROOTS MUSIC – SINGER-SONGWRITER

BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR EMERGING NKC ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS – TOP 15 ******

ARTIST J OS R TOT   1 Capyac 8.5   0.012 8.512 2 Annabelle Chairlegs 7.5   0.028 7.528 3 Tomar & the FCs 6.5   0 6.5 4 Loteria 6   0.015 6.015 5 Cross Record 5.5   0.005 5.505 6 Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes 5.5   0.004 5.504 7 Super Thief 5.5   0.001 5.501   Mayeux & Broussard 4.5   0.014 4.514 9 The Cuckoos 3   1.5 4.5 10 Daniel Eyes & The Vibes 3   1 4 11 The Halfways 3.5   0.372 3.872 12 Sailor Poon 3   0.01 3.01 13 Hard Proof   3 0.003 3.003 14 Aaron Miller aka Multi-Tracker 3   0.002 3.002   Katy Kirby 3   0.002 3.002 Legend: J = Jurors, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

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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+ Austin 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 Austin produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

Many Thanks to our Jurors: Trevor Talley (The Deli Austin), Howdy Darrell (The White Horse), Austen Bailey (The Parish), Tyson Swindell (Red 7), Jason McNeely (Hotel Vegas), Ashley Bradley (Ovrld) Ben Webster (The North Door) Alice Geaccone (Witchxxdoctor) Matt Reilly (KUT Austin) Maggie Lea (Cheer Up Charlies) Margaret Galton (C3) Diane Scott (Continental Club) Shelley Neuman (ATX Streetstyle) Marcus Lawyer (Transmission Events) Jonathon Gaylon (American Icon Records) Gillian Driscoll (Sound Dessert) Alexander Dubois (Self)

Hope you’ll find some awesome new artists you weren’t aware of!

The Deli’s Staff

It may be a little late to make you change your plans for the night, but we just found out about this cool Brooklyn band called Milan to Minsk and they are playing the Mercury Lounge tonight, celebrating the release of their self titled debut EP. Even though the band’s name conjures up images of gray, cold cities (Milan isn’t Rome, my friend!), their elegant lo-fi pop features exotic accents that seem to preannounce the summer.