The quietly celebratory music video for Brooklyn-via-Detroit singer/songwriter Victoria Reed‘s "Make It Easy" (playing below) is an ode to resilience. Showing the twenty-something Reed wandering through a sunny wood before coming to a blissful scenery at a waterfall, the crisp clip elegantly portrays internal struggle with compassion. Reed wrote the track (featured in her forthcoming debut album ‘Chariot’) as a kind of letter to herself and, with the serene imagery of director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, she has imbued these accompanying visuals with reflective warmth. ‘Chariot’ is scheduled for release on February 26th, 2016. In the meantime, Victoria Reed plays at Baby’s All Right on Monday (11.2). – Zach Weg

Felte Records hosts a show tonight at the Non Plus Ultra, with a disparate lineup to welcome the darkest part of the year. Melbourne’s new romantic punk Romy (A G E N D E R) shares new music from her eponymous project. With a debut EP around the corner, new shuffler The Tissues wipes Los Angeles again, and upstart occultists Sextile will raise the night — stream their debut album One Thousand Hands below. Brooklyn’s Lushes, of the original show lineup, was called to support Kurt Vile before their Europe tour. Label owner Jeff Owens and Lucifersam spin songs at 9. $5 at the door. – Ryan Mo

Mary Kennedy is a lifelong Bostonian learning her way around Kansas City. She can often be found in an art museum, checking out local music, or taking a nap. 

NYC gave birth to records such as Metal Machine Music and Deadream Nation, cornerstones of the genre known, by the few initiated, as "noise rock." Disciples of this cult sound abound in the experiment-driven Brooklyn DIY scene, and you’ll have the chance to check out three of them at once on November 12, opening for delicious post punk revivalists Future Punx.

The noisiest and most dissonant of the three bands on this bill appears to be Clean Girls, a Brooklyn based trio hailing from Virginia. Their music is pure post-hardcore fury, although luckily enough – according to their Facebook notes – their drummer/screamer is listed to play the part of "common sense." Listening to streaming track "June Girls will reveal that he obviously has none.

Dead Waves often reference the bright, spacious distortion and driving bass lines of Jesus and Mary Chain, alternating them with explosive moments reminiscent of Nirvana at their wildest.

On the other hand, Heavy Birds, with their droney, sparser arrangements and discernible but obsessive melodies, feature a tamer sound that places them in psychedelic territory (a musical land not immune from the noise bug). Their sound is influenced by both The Velvet Underground and the bands from that ’80s US psychedelic wave called Paysley Underground.

Check out these bands’ music below, and if their music appeals to you, be at Palisades on November 12, with a solid pair of earplugs.

New York City’s ASTR is a two-person operation: Zoe Anna on vocals and Adam Pallin handling production. After meeting in a Manhattan yoga studio, they started writing music together. Soon enough, with a shared love of deep house, ’90s hip-hop, film noir and R&B, ASTR was born. Their new single "Bleeding Love" (streaming), delivers one of their most radio friendly tunes, without entirely giving up their atmospheric tendencies. ASTR will release the "Homecoming" EP later this year, and will be hitting the road in November as tour support for Ryn Weaver and Holychild.

He’s brash and crass, laying down wisely juvenile verses in his oddly delightful Australian dialect. Rapper Allday is touring the US to support Startup Cult, his album released last year. He uses his music to share his uniquely down-under energy and inspired lyrics about life and relationships, and he’s coming to U Street Music Hall next week on 11/4. Sharing the stage that night with Mod Sun, New Beat Fund, and Benny Freestyles, you won’t want to miss Allday for his sincerity and pleasing voice. Doors at 6:30, $15. -Jonathan Goodwin

In a musical landscape that doesn’t have funds to invest in artist development, and in a city that’s becoming incrisingly unaffordable for struggling musicians like New York, the artistic growth of EMEFE is nothing short of a small miracle. The collective started in 2010 as a horn driven, instrumental project with heavy afrobeat, funk and jazz influences (if you like the sound of that, check out 2012’s LP "Good Future"), and slowly evolved into a more experimental, and somewhat darker sounding hybrid, featuring occasional vocals and synths, as you can hear on their sophomore, self titled album, released earlier in 2015. The record showcases a band more aligned with that tradition of edgy NYC music we like to celebrate in this blog, borrowing from the experience of another local band famous for incorporating world music influences: The Talking Heads. Brand new single "Confess" (premiered below), with its pop structure, memorable melody, and clear emphasys on synths and other electronic effects, represents further evidence of the band’s new direction. A direction that elegantly and compellingly marries the body-moving power of afrobeat and funk with the propensity, typical of the best NYC artists, for cerebral experimentation within the pop and rock realms. 

EMEFE will be opening for legendary NYC Afrobeat masters Antibalas on November 4th at Brooklyn Bowl – a show that should not be missed. – Photo by Austin Hein

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

Los Angeles’ narcotic siblings Gateway Drugs threw out a music video for their 2015 long-play Magick Spells opener "Anu", the garage-surf invigorator for your calisthenics and jazzercise regimens. Free yourself from the couch-lock and work up a sweat to this VHS magic. – Ryan Mo 

Painted Zeros is a Brooklyn trio devising (rather) lo-fi songs that strike a happy medium between the clean, dreamy sound of dream-pop and the hyper-effected one of shoegazer, without outruling the occasional bursts of feedback-based noise. The band will be celebrating the release of their debut full length "Floriography" at Shea Stadium on 10.30, a few weeks before embarking on a tour with another local trio, Slight, who play a catchy brand of garage pop. Check out the two singles available for streaming from Painted Zeros’ album, below. Their most popular single from their debut EP Svalbard, entitled "Polar Night," can be found here.

Brooklyn indie pop trio Mainland just unveiled this video for single "Outcast," which depicts the familiar two-boys-after-one-girl teenage drama. We fell in the emotinal trap band and director set up for us, reminiscing of our first romantic attempts in our teen years, with all their mixed signals, misunderstandings, and consistently disappointed dreams. But, suddenly, we wondered if – in the age of texting, Facebook and dating sites – this is still an accurate representation of how teens struggle for love. Which made us wonder… is the pursuit of love, in this day and age, and in most cases, becoming too boring to inspire a music video – or a movie, or a book? If so, let’s take the opportunity to enjoy the good, vintage vibes brought by this song/video combo, and remember (with bleary eyes) our first crush, and how mind blowing it was to fall in love for the first time. Hopefully she’s not on Facebook. 

Today, Florist have shared the full stream for their new EP "Holdly," out October 30th on Double Double Whammy.  The band plays minimalistic, super sparse melodic folk, led by Emily Sprague’s subdued vocals, whose delicate whispering is matched by her band mates’ gentle accompaniment. No wonder the original nucleus of the band originates from the Catskills, where silence actually exists. In relentlessly noisy NYC, Florist’s music is as close as you can get to silence. Or rather, it’s silence’s pretty sounding cousin. The band will leave for a two week tour on November 3rd.

One of Toronto’s bands on the rise (it’s not an accident that they are on our chart of Top 15 emerging local artists) HIGHS play a rhythmic, bouncy version of ambient pop-rock, inundated with beautiful harmonies and a playful rhythm section. In their debut, self titled EP HIGHS consistently utilizes a high energy, mellow vibe to bring the fun, blending in a soca beat to bring the danceability that can keep a room pulsating. Opening track Summer Dress (streaming) does that to perfection. Third song “Harvest” – on the other hand – introduces a slower beat, a soft atmosphere and a great build, and acts as a pace break between the other faster songs, emphasizing the space and harmonies and functioning as a beautiful centerpiece to the EP. If you’re looking to maintain a summertime frame of mind into the upcoming winter, these songs are the perfect soundtrack. – Cody Wright