Last night at Baby’s All Right we stumbled upon Brooklyn’s trio The Midnight Hollow, and were impressed by their performance. Active since the beginning of the decade, the band plays moody rock with vibes reminiscent of some rather psychedelic acts from the 80’s new wave. Their vaguely epic, fully arranged songs and lead vocalist (and songwriter) Spencer Draeger’s intimidating tenor bring to mind Echo and the Bunnymen’s peak records from the mid 80s. They recently released a new EP entitled ‘For The People Inside,’ featuring singe "Forward" (streaming below). You can see them next at Union Pool on June 11.

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

Today marks a year since New Paltz-rooted, New York City-based band What Moon Things released their self-titled debut album, a rapturously dark eight-song thunderstorm of guitar streaks, drum bangs, and atmospheric shrieks. On tracks such as the heavy and plodding, but also gently arpeggiated ‘Staring at the Radio’ (streaming below) or the meditative and penetrating ‘Vampir,’ the group headed by early-twenties multi-instrumentalists Jake Harms and John Morisi recalled Nirvana’s pained ’90s punk and Big Troubles’ reflective shoegaze, while sounding out their own nightmare of death sponge – as they label the genre they play. Now, the group prepares for the release of their sophomore record and has a few upcoming shows: you can see them next at Williamsburg’s Cameo Gallery on 6.14. – Zach Weg

Stop goofing around. You may know BRNDA as that friendly post-punk quartet that likes blowing up balloons, singing to apple queens and carefree manatees, and parrot fronted metal, but they can totally beat you up (ok, or give you a stern talking to). These self-proclaimed snack core rockers are “a serious band from Washington DC”. If you don’t believe me, listen to their latest single “Serious Band”, in which they make this themesong-like claim maybe 20 times. If you’re wondering, why so serious? Well they also claim to be quite angry! Why so angry? They yell out “Alex Kozen!” (the group’s vocalist/guitarist) a few times. We’re not exactly sure what that guy did, but theoretically there are plenty of reasons to be angry at any given moment in the life of an ethically aware human being. Ease up, these buds have been on a super tour with Teen Mom but they’ll be back to play a home show at Above The Bayou on 6/15 with Pupppy, O-Face, and Swings.

-Leora Mandel

Christoph Hochheim has an intimate history with New York’s shoegaze/dreampop scene, as a past member of the now-defunct shoegaze/chiptune The Depreciation Guild and a current member of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart along with Anton Hochheim.

However, the brothers have also been working as Ablebody, a Los Angeles passion project that first featured remixes and covers, but later grew to self-release High Home, a three-song instrumental EP with ethereal cries, bent-out guitars, and dying electronics. 2013’s All My Everybody EP developed with 80’s soft and clipping synth vibes. Slower and more sensual, the five songs now had Christoph’s warm and reassuring in front of the mix, even as the album dealt with more serious feels per an interview with BYT. Ablebody’s latest release dates back to last year, but does a complete 360-reverse-moonwalk to the dancey indie pop "After Hours" before getting rugged with fuzzy B-side "Lose Your Head".

Ablebody will play their first set since early January this Friday for Young Lover’s fifth night of residency along with Sacramento’s glazed out indie pop quintet Soft Science and the jangle-psych group Deep Fields. Listen below to their 2014 7" split "Ablebody". – Ryan Mo, photo credit Nick Marshall

Brooklyn’s band of folk innovators Streets of Laredo (whose core members are from New Zealand) seems to be growing larger every year – now a septet, they started out as a trio, and it was five of them when we booked them for our 2013 NYC B.E.A.F. They just released this new dreamy (and admittedly not very folky) single entitled "Diamonds," and took the opportunity to announce that they’ll be playing Governors’ Ball in a few days (Sunday June 7). Knowing how great these guys are live, that’s a show you don’t want to miss.

Featuring Ryan Newmyer and Jen Goma of Philly’s A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Brooklyn’s own Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir, Pains of Being Pure at Heart), trio Roman à Clef crafts light-hearted songs heavily inspired by the sophisticated English pop of the ’80s (think Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and – in particular – Prefab Sprout). Their super breezy, borderline jazzy pop features alternating male and female voices, with Feldman’s crooning tenor carrying most of the lead vocals’ weight. The project has been around since 2013, when single PSBTV was released digitally; two years later (i.e. just a few weeks ago), the band unveiled that single’s video (streaming), a testament to how tortuous the creative process can be for indie musicians. Roman à Clef will be celebrating the release of their sophomore album ‘Abandonware’ at Union Pool tonight (June 2nd).

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

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Big Eyes is a truly great sounding NYC based melodic punk trio that’s been around at least since 2010, and that for some mysterious reason went completely unnoticed here at The Deli NYC. They have a series of singles and two full lenght albums under their belt, the latest of which, "Almost Famous," was released in 2013. But our favorite track (at least of the ones we listened to) is last year’s single ‘Asking You To Stay’ (streaming, from a 7" split with Post Teens) which took us back to the days when Joan Jett was at the peak of her punkyness. If you are looking for a fun and loud way to spend June 4th, don’t miss these guys’ show at Shea Stadium. 

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

Even though they always shared a common passion for drugs, Punk music and Psychedelia have mostly been at opposite sides of the alternative rock spectrum, which prevented a lot of genre-blending (with some noteworthy exceptions like Butthole Surfers and early Mercury Rev). Brooklyn’s Acid Dad, who’ve been active for less than one year and have three singles on their Soundcloud page, call their music "psych punk." Their repertoire doesn’t touch the level of sonic insanity of the aforementioned artists, but does offer a fun blend of those genres, with a heavier punk accent. Notwithstanding their short existence, they are already getting a good amount of attention and made a list of best 10 new emerging NYC bands (which interestingly featured some not very new bands). You can check them out live at Aviv on June 6 with The Gradients and other locals.

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

June marks the official start of summer, and Tennis System kicks it off by premiering the video for "Such a Drag" from the 2014 album Technicolor Blind. Guitars shimmer and crackle in this down-tempo memento, but the song is anything but a drag — Matty’s and Zach’s harmonizing "oohs" swirl amongst the torrent of sound through fast and slow rhythms courtesy of ex-member Misha Bullock’s impeccable drumming.

Check out Tennis System’s first night of residency tonight at The Echo with The Primals, Sunset Sons, and Bonfire Beach — it’s free, so what’s stopping you? – Ryan Mo

After releasing a lovely, orchestral-ish debut EP in 2014 entitled ‘The Guard,’ Brooklyn musician Domino Kirke had a life changing encounter with Deli favorite Luke Temple (whose debut album ‘Snowbeat’ was our NYC record of the month back in 2007, years before he founded his popular band Here We Go Magic). Luke worked on the electronic arrangements of Domino’s new songs, which are featured in sophomore EP ‘Independent Channel,’ released in March of 2015. Temple is now also part of the live band, which you’ll have the opportunity to see live tonight (June 1st) at Baby’s All Right. Check out also Domino’s brand new video for the EP’s titletrack.

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

With tunes boasting his angelic voice and uplifting, breezy atmospheres, in just about a year Brooklyn synth-soul-pop one man band AYER has been able to release an impressive string of singles and remixes that obviously resonated with the Soundcloud and Hypem communities (several got hundreds of thousands of plays, this one almost one million). To celebrate his free June Pianos residency, AYER just released this new, vaguely U2-esque single entitled ‘Castaway.’ The residency will begin tomorrow (June 2nd), and will be followed by three more dates on the 9th, 16th and 23rd of the month.