It would be interesting to have stats about what’s the percentage of indie bands that are still together after 2 or 3 years of existence: we are ready to bet that a majority of emerging bands doesn’t last one year. Brooklyn’s Mainland is a great example of what (should) happen to a band that manages to stick around for more than two years, while developing their sound: the songwriting becomes more mature, the sound more rounded out, the delivery more confident. Their new single ‘Outcast’ (streaming) raises above the ubiquitous "Brooklyn garage pop" sound, assuming the sonic characters of timeless pop. The single is the first tast from their debut album scheduled for an early 2016 releas.

It doesn’t seem too often that a band looks to rather campy pop culture and comes out with an album that moves. But that is exactly what Brooklyn rock quintet Howth does with their latest effort, "Trashy Milky Nothing Town," referencing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to tell stories of longing and comradeship. On songs such as "Superfreak!" (streaming below), which recalls Wilco’s "I’m Always in Love" with its spacey keys, Howth impressively achieves gravitas while alluding to the fantastical. The Ninja Turtles aren’t real but Trashy Milk Nothing Town gives them, and its listeners, palpable feeling. Howth plays Cake Shop on Wednesday, 7.1. – Zachary Weg, photo by Bryan Bruchman

With their first music video just a week away, Simi Valley’s SHEER comes out to perform with San Francisco’s ethereal wave duo Mercury’s Antennae and dark experimental singer Carisa Bianca Mellado at Club Violaine. Resident DJs will also be spinning songs in tribute to Lush along with other classic ’90s shoegaze hits till 2 AM.

Since 2001, Club Violaine has kept its hand on the beat of Los Angeles’ shoegaze-dreampop scene, hosting local and visiting acts including The Meeting Places, Light FM, Chapterhouse, and more. For seven years, Club Violaine was hosted at Roberto’s Club near Chinatown until the establishment closed late 2013. Now it seems Club Violaine has found a new home at the M-BAR Music Lounge in Boyle Heights, easily accessible via Metro. Cover is $5 all night and doors open at 9:30 PM. – Ryan Mo

With her soft and silvery voice, mellow-yet-passionate compositions, and poetic and intimate lyrics, New York-by-way-of-LA singer-songwriter DYLLAN has the potential to conquer many hearts. Her latest single “Moments Like These,” an emotionally complex reminiscence of a love gone wrong, was released in March of 2015 along with this simple music video, and shows a noteworthy maturation compared to earlier repertoire. DYLLAN has released two EPs thus far, her debut “Acclimating,” out in 2010, and the follow-up, “Anything But Scared,” from the following year. While living in Paris, she also collaborated with French electronic artist Thylacine on a track entitled “Distance,” which became the single of the week on iTunes in France. While she currently has no upcoming shows planned, DYLLAN is set to release several new singles over the course of 2015, so be sure to keep an eye out. – Patrick Wolff

This artist submitted music for coverage here.

We’ll say it folks. Our feeling is that in the NYC scene these days too many indie bands are playing it either too safe, or too… unsafe? There’s just so much garage rock and ’90s revival (on one hand) and insane/unstructured noise (on the other) anybody can deal with. It’s time to mix things up a little! Brooklyn’s Show Me the Body is a rare example of a band that’s successfully exploring new sonic avenues without losing sight of song structure. Their sound marries the darkest trip hop a la’ Tricky with post punk, noise rock and sludge metal impulses. We dug their ‘One Train‘ single from last year, and find the more recent one entitled ‘Space Faithful’ (streaming) as compelling. If you are brave enough to experience this noisy trio live, don’t miss their upcoming show at Palisades on July 10.

Active since 2011, Boston’s The Life Electric play rather aggressive but always melodic rock’n’roll, with psych and disco influences. Their personal guitar sound is crafted through carefully chosen stompboxes, so we decided to ask them a few questions about their gear and creative process – check out the interview on Delicious Audio.

OC’s four-piece rock band (full-stop) Media Jeweler recently released their new single "Autopilot" from the upcoming album $99 R/T Hawaii, and it’s an epilepsy of sounds. Moving against the current of synths and drum machines, Media Jeweler’s tonal experimentation in this track includes brass melody, bass and guitar harmonics, and well-time dissonance that could be attributed as much to the late ’90s ska-punk movement as to Sonic Youth. Fight against the temptation to prefix their genre; this is rock music — perhaps not so simple, but definitely pure.

Media Jeweler have also announced that the album will be self-released August 14th. Sadly, no shows till the second half of July, where you’ll find at the Pomona dA Center for the Arts on the 24th, and Los Angeles’ The Smell on the 30th. – Ryan Mo

Of all the 30+ bands that played our 2015 NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artists Fest), garage rockers Big Huge had certainly one of the most entertaining live shows. Their colorful t-shirts (or lack o thereof) matched the musicians’ personalities, definitely not shy nor subtle. You can clearly hear this in their brand new single "Late at Nite," a gritty uptempo number that blends garage rock and ’60s pop (including a touch of early Beatles, dare we say!) with super fun results. Whatch out for an upcoming EP featuring this song later in the summer.

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

Summer is back in NYC, and, with it, our favorite series of outdoors indie film projections, combined with live music by emerging artists: Rooftop Films. On July 2nd, a live performance of Brooklyn (via Portland) singer-songwriter Tica Douglas will preceed a program of documentary shorts at the Trilok Fusion Center for the Arts (on 143 Waverly Ave, Brooklyn). Douglas is an accomplished and prolific songwriter who’s been releasing records since 2011. Her latest, beautiful full length, "Joey," was released in early 2015 and erneastly dwells in meditations related to gender identity, through mellow and thoughtful electric ballads that highlight her versatile soprano and original melodies. Check out single ‘I didn’t,’ streaming below.

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

Hailing quite appropriately from the US home of electronic music (Chicago), The Fantastic Plastics is an electronic trio comprised of Tyson, Miranda and Dylan Plastic. They recently moved to NYC to foster their musical ‘de-evolution’ (as in: picking up the sound genius Ohio post punk band Devo left off after their early records, around 1982). The band isn’t afraid to admit that influence: they actually often perform as a Devo cover act, in costumes inspired to that band’s dumb futurism, and their upcoming record, scheduled for a September release, will be called ‘Devolver.’ Their original material preserves the sonics and fun attitude of Devo’s early, groundbreaking albums, with references to working like machines and human obsolescence, like in the new single we are premiering here, entitled ‘We Are Obsolete.’ Check out also the other preview single from the upcoming album, NoNoGoGo.

You may have been already exposed to Brooklyn based sisters Asy and Chloe Saavedra through the adorable pop band they led in the aughts, called Smoosh – the project started when Chloe was eight years old! Now fully grown women, but still remarkably young notwithstanding their decennial experience in the band business,  the Saavandras retired the former moniker in favor of more aggressive sounding Chaos Chaos. Under the new moniker they released two six songs EPs since 2012 . This is a more mature sounding project that blends orchestral, rock and electronic elements, and also showcases impressive dual vocals reminiscent of Deli NYC all time favorites Lucius. We are digging latest single ‘Love,’ with its noisy edge and electronic texture, check out the video below. Chaos Chaos will be playing The Mercury Lounge on July 13.

Back in 2012, Brooklyn folk-rock band Mail the Horse released the album “Great Kills,” which featured the slow-burning, piano-laden single “Dirty Blood.” Tonight at The Knitting Factory, the five-piece will release a new full-length, “Planet Gates.” Comprising such tracks as “Wasted Sex” and “Holy Motel Magic” (streaming below), the former a bluesy rollick reminiscent of The Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile” and the latter a keys-spiked rocker, the new release appears lovingly referential and purely thrilling. Mail the Horse will play at The Knitting Factory tonight (6.24). Deli favorite Brooklyn dwellers Rivergazer and Yellowbirds’ Sam Cohen will perform, too. – Zach Weg

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