For us here at The Deli, it’s always a great feeling to see an early Deli NYC Record of the Month artist keeping at it with great new releases. Alice Cohen was rewarded with the highest Deli honor (short of being on the cover of the mag) back in 2008, thanks to this gem of a record, full of references to many of our favorite new wave bands. Since then she kept releasing her dark and mysterious records (five to date), all dwelling in a world reminiscent of the darkest days of The Cure, the lush melodicism of Cocteau Twins and the tense experiments of Wire – "Walking Up Walls" being the most experimental of the bunch. Her latest albums, which for some reason we overlooked, showcase an exciting songwriting and production growth. 2015’s "Into The Grey Salons" confirms Alice as a musician full of ideas, both in the sonic and melodi departments. If you dig her music, don’t miss a rare live appearance at Union Pool on December 1st.

Hailing from New Jersey, and armed with a seemingly unlimited supply of fuzz, reverb, and catchy melodies, Sunshine & The Rain‘s Ashley Anderson and Justin Angelo Morey form one of the noisiest married couples of the current NYC scene. Rediscovering the "three chords songs buried in distortion" sound of early Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain, the duo lets Ashley’s airy pop melodies float on top of what sounds like (deliciously) organized sonic mayhem. On December 6th, Sunshine & the Rain will be opening for legendary band Rocket from the Tombs (not to be confused with Rocket from the Cripts), a Cleveland band whose debanding, back in the late ’70s, gave birth to Pere Ubu and the Dead Boys. 

The music video (playing below) for New York band Ursae‘s "I Swear" is a crushing yet cathartic tone poem of shorn love. As the nimble guitars and winding strings of project head Andrew Campbell (previously in local folk band Little Sur) ominously hover above electronic distortions, a young couple gradually draws apart, the ravages of anger and jealousy severing their affection for each other. Campbell’s calm voice glides over the ensuing drama, though, giving it integrity and compassion. "I Swear" is off a forthcoming full-length effort scheduled for a Summer 2016 release and, meanwhile, Ursae will play shows (details to-be-determined) this winter. – Zach Weg

You’ll have a couple chances to see Jessica Paige this week. She’ll be playing some tunes on Thanksgiving night at recordBar with Vi Tran and friends, and will take the stage at Mills Record Company the following evening for Black Friday/Record Store Day. Her set starts at 7:00 p.m., followed by Pink Royal. Facebook event page. 

Between the heartfelt prose of her blog posts and her casual ’90s R&B mashups, the humble singer-songwriter mesmi creates temperate compositions that exemplify her singing prowess. Her name, a gift of her college friends, is intentionally undercapped to convey a mindfulness that "music and art is about much more than me."

Even so, mesmi’s voice naturally commands the attention of others. Hers is a luster that’s reminiscent of Mandopop artists like Jay Chou — her 2013 debut EP was painted with the rosy veneer of studio production which gave some young Sarah McLachlan feels. Outside of the mixing room, mesmi’s unplugged café performances make you forget about the woes of your workweek, if only for a few minutes. Her journey is neither glam nor grunge — the artisanal and artistic qualities of mesmi’s musicianship, coupled with her attentiveness to fans, brings mesmi closer to earth than you’d expect. 

Having played across the disparate and disconnected sprawl of Los Angeles for years, from Long Beach to the San Gabriel Valley, mesmi is ambivalent of the city’s sheer size.

"It can be hard to feel at home or to feel like you matter sometimes, but the fact that there’s always something going on and you can find creatives of so many different types is really special."

We couldn’t agree more. Rest assured — you do matter.

mesmi performs back-to-back shows this weekend: on Saturday at The Roar Room in La Crescenta, and Sunday at Art Share LA for So Soul Sundays. Listen to her newest released single "Gloria" below. – Ryan Mo

There’s heavy VHS nostalgia in Sextile‘s newest music video for "Visions of You", off their debut album A Thousand Hands. The band worked with Jesse Kelly, a local video editor whose contributions include music videos for Hammered Satin, Whispering Pines, and Alana Amram. The video bombards with heavy tape noise, strobe lights, and color inversions, conveying the rawness of Sextile’s homegrown sound. It’s definitely 90’s Goth Klub material. – Ryan Mo

Rebellious, whimsical, literary, and elegiac are some of the hopefully accurate words that come to mind when reflecting on Providence band Edgar Clinks‘ exhilerating September release, ‘Keep Jetty Diving.’ Featuring the innocent yet relentless vocals of frontman Joe Guadiana, these genre-melding tracks, from the sweet pop-punk of opener "Tree Culture" to the apparently surf rock-rattled closer "weave roll’d into another dream" (streaming below), curl up on the listener like a dog whose pure affection can’t be denied. Edgar Clinks plays at The Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA on 12.2 and at AS220 in Providence, RI on 12.5. – Zach Weg

It would be interesting to know how many bands are born in NYC every day on average – and how many of them are bedroom based electronic pop project. Here’s one for you fresh off the oven, but with well known "ingredients": 2001 is the band of Benjamin Lazar Davis and Joan Wasser (of Joan As Police Woman!). The duo met each other after separate trips to Africa, and almost naturally ended up writing songs inspired by the music of the Ba-Benzele Pygmy people from the Central African Republic (all we know is that they sound nothing like The Strokes). "I fell in love with these cycles, played by one person alternating quickly between singing and playing the one note flute" Lazar says. The results, filtered through a contemporary and entirely Western electronic instrumentation is quite mesmerizing. Check out single "Broke Me in Two" below – and expect a new single out soon.

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

A little less than a month after releasing his two-part debut LP ‘The Arc,’ New Jersey folk-rock musician Charlie Szytk now premieres the hauntingly poignant music video (playing below) for album track "Wed." A worrisome dream of romantic regret and nocturnal solitude, the crisp clip shows Szytk strolling through a quiet town and spotting, or imagining, a possible former lover, going onto dance with her amongst friends at a potentially fictional party. Side Saddle’s Ian McGuiness co-produced the guitar-blistered song for these visuals and, like the video for his own band’s "Legs for Days," this one impresses with its subtle devastation. While Charlie Szytk doesn’t currently have any upcoming shows listed, ‘The Arc’ is available on Bandcamp. – Zach Weg

With their signature ghostly, melancholic melodies, Belle Mare have carved for themselves a rather unique niche in the NYC music scene. Their insanely eerie debut EP "The Boat of the Fragile Mind" was our NYC record of the month back in 2013. Since then, the band’s sound has dialed back the reverb knob and opened up to rhythms a little bit to more upbeat. Still, their music maintains that haunting quality that has the power to bring back to focus the good and bad emotional baggage that our daily, stressful routine conceals from our attention. New single "Dark of my Evening" is just about that: "You can make me feel. The worst that I feel. Or the happiest." This is music that enriches the lives of those who can appreciate it, because, sadly or luckily, it’s not always time to party.

Singer-songwriter Miya Folick is not all that strange. She grew up in Santa Ana, went to college for Theatre, and moved to New York for a short period of time. In a recent interview with Drunken Werewolf, Folick concedes that she didn’t consider pursuing music in her adolescence.

"I think I came to music fairly late. I didn’t grow up thinking I’d be a working musician or even thinking that that was in the realm of possibilities for me."

And yet "Talking with Strangers", the first song we heard Folick half-nervously perform at James Supercave‘s 11/11 show, commanded a je ne sai quoi seldom felt from rosy-eyed musicians, and even less seldom heard by Los Angeles. For those six minutes, the Echo resonated with her voice and guitar, an off-white Telecaster finger-plucked with precision — unequivocably serene. As she performed alone, it was difficult to consider Folick’s singing with embellishment, but listen to the studio version in her newly released "Strange Darling" EP.

Like the devil winds of Santa Ana, the katabatic pianos, synth dust, and guitar arpeggios fan Folick’s verses into flames, burning presumption to leave us in the ashes of wonder and awe.

"Strange Darling" is available to stream on Miya Foick’s Soundcloud and Bandcamp page. Watch Miya Folick perform at The Bootleg Theatre on December 3rd with Lena Fayre. And maybe buy some underwear, if you’re a strange darling. – Ryan Mo

What if humans were a little more "gregarious" (and a lot less less private) than they actually are, and did everything in groups of ten, organized by gender, race and bodily features? From sleeping to showering to… mating? One things is sure, they could NOT live in tight NYC. But the concept of collective individuality is rather intriguing, and it’s explored in Brooklyn synth pop quartet Total Makeover‘s new video for single "Self Destructive," with disappointing developments. A seemingly disciplined group of young white men, disgracefully falls apart soon after intersecting with a gang of attractive (and obviously interested) blonde ladies, and – of course! – it’s all the boys’ fault.
Among many other down sides, in that configuration it would get quite expensive to attend any kind of paid event – which brings us to the fact that Total Makeover is playing at St. Vitus bar on December 1st with Spector and Slothrust. Bring your better tenths.