Check out our interview with Kangaroo Knife Fight, The Deli KC Readers’ Choice for 2014 Emerging Artist! See them this Saturday at the MidCoast Takeover fundraiser at recordBar too! Here’s the link.
Our Year End Poll for Emerging SF Bay Area Artists was – as usual – a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!
Kudos to garage rockers, Down and Outlaws, our new Deli SF Bay Area Artist of the Year!!!
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. Then we polled our writers, 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 2013, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
BEST OF 2014 POLL FOR EMERGING SF BAY AREA ARTISTS
****** FINAL RESULTS ******
Jaki Liebezeit, the drummer for the seminal Krautrock band Can, had an epiphany; he was confronted by a mysterious person in the late 60’s who told him "YOU MUST PLAY MONOTONOUS." Jaki could have easily passed off the comment with total disregard, but there was something about the wide-eyed nature of this mysterious person that seemed to suggest something alien and perhaps knowledge of worlds beyond our own. And so Jaki took heed and began playing monotonous and consequently changed and effected the way we approach pop and odd music ever since.
The fact that a moment so fleeting and seemingly inconsequential could have such a resounding effect on the future of music seems magical at best. Could aliens really have informed the Germans about this musical zeitgeist? …Now I’m imagining a planet where the national anthem is a motorik beat that plays for half an hour…
Meanwhile, back on earth we’re sending those signals back out to space in hopes that the mothership returns to bring us bountiful gifts of synthesizers that oscillate emotions and guitars that feedback into eternity. Tonight there is a live transmission from The LO-FI with cosmic kraut conductors, Red Martian (who on any other day could be the house band for Creation Records), Terminal Fuzz Terror (Amon Duul disciples), Bites, and more… All paying homage to the greatest musical genre the west has ever known. Lift off starts at 8pm
When listening to really young artists, there’s one element that – in our opinion – can reveal right away if they have potential: the singer’s voice and its character. Jon Jurow, the mind and voice behind dark pop band Leisure, possesses these quality, and his singings comes across like a slightly gothy-er version of Lloyd Cole. The only song we found available for streaming, entitled "Gone Again" (streaming below), is a brief and simple tune firmly grounded between lo-fi and chill waves coordinates, but the vocals make it way more interesting – to our ears – than many perfectly recorded and beautifully orchestrated tracks. Leisure will make its NYC live debut at Baby’s All Right on February 14, sharing the stage with one of our favorite local bands of the moment: Future Punx.
Extreme happiness or pain can be very inspiring for artists, but it occurred to us that most musicians might never write their desperate songs during their "NYC years." Because by the time you are desperate, you’ve normally moved out of the city already. As you know this blog only covers NYC based artists, and maybe that’s why we don’t often stumble upon material that channels that kind of emotion- which is completely different from, and way more sincere and troubled than, the provocative nihilism many punkish bands convey. The city-induced "low" is perfectly expressed in Astoria based Dirty Wings’ latest single "Forever Nights of Winter" (streaming below): "gonna go to a place where I can’t be found, cause its so cold in this dirty town, gonna get so high till I fall down, gonna plant my face in the frozen ground." With their Tom Waits and Lou Reed references, one can’t help but immediately associate the band’s sound with excessive alcohol intake, which not only works with the content of the lyrics, but also makes for a pretty original sound in today’s NYC music soundscape.
Our Year End Poll for Emerging Austin Artists was – as usual – a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!
Kudos to intense rockers Löwin (pictured and streaming) for winning the poll, check out their noteworthy last single "Best Laid Plans," released just a month ago.
Thumbs up also to wicked electro-choral trio Keeper (we featured them in this blog a few days ago) who placed second, and to textural and adventurous post rockers Chipper Jones, who came in third. Here’s some of these folks music:
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. Then we polled our writers, 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 2013, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
BEST OF 2014 POLL FOR EMERGING AUSTIN ARTISTS
****** FINAL RESULTS ******
Having been hard at work on their new LP for the past few months, Alpenglow is getting ready to stretch their wings and debut a full set of new songs in a mini tour of the Northeast. The new album, which is being produced by Sam Cohen (of The Yellowbirds), promises for an even trippier, more insightful continuation of their lonesome-traveler, psych-folk sound, drawing from the essence and experience of perhaps one too many New England winters, and translating their move to Brooklyn into audible incentives by which to live. The psych-soul underlining of Cohen’s vision will introduce only the most effectual tonal brilliance to Alpenglow’s already established soul-searching sound. The tour stops at Rough Trade on February 19, with support from Barsuk Records’ Laura Gibson and Wild Leaves . –JP Basileo
It’s sad day for the underground. Seminal DIY space and home to outsider music of Seattle, The Josephine, has ceased operations. The house/venue had recently come under scrutiny by the city, who were tipped off about the venue through a local noise complaint. Members of the house have not been kicked out yet and will continue to live out the lease, but all sounds are silent.
Let’s take a minute to pay our repects to DIY spaces across the world; without them the Deli would be a lonely place.
Comprised of four dudes (some of them unshaved), there’s a new Brooklyn band that calls itself Female and just released debut single "Florida" – talk about being fond of paradoxes! After all, genders are blending these days, but hopefully that will never be true for geography. Florida is a plodding dream rock song with an interesting, evolving melody, and features heavier drums and a spacier atmoshpere than your average "chill wave" tune – which is NYC’s own, poppier take on psychedelia. References to the psych rock of the 60s abound in the guitar and vocals (you may hear some references from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper era at some point). Female formed in the summer of 2014 and will be playing a free show at Baby’s All Right tonight (02.04).
Our Year End Poll for Emerging DC Area Artists was – as usual – a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!
Congratulations to garage-pop wizards Typefighter for winning the poll! Typefighter released The End of Everything in early 2014 to much critical acclaim. Their tight and energetic live shows make them a must see, and obviously one of DC’s most exciting bands. We wait with baited breath for their next move.
Richmond’s Sleepwalkers came in a close second with our jurors, thanks to their phenominal debut album, Greenwood Shade. Less than two years after they formed, Sleepwalkers released an impressively ambitious and succesful collection of well crafted psychedelic pop-rock that defies categorization and leaves jaws dropped.
Teen Mom keep our excitement bubbling on a constant simmer, dropping lo-fi fuzz-pop gems every few months. A staple of DC’s rich house-show scene, they do everything you love about electric guitars. We want more. Now please. Thank you.
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+ DC Area scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each. Then we polled our writers, 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 DC Area produced in the year 2014, this list is all you need. Enjoy!
BEST OF 2014 POLL FOR EMERGING
DC AREA ARTISTS
****** FINAL RESULTS ******
The Deli Austin’s Best of 2014 Readers and Fans’ Poll for local emerging artists is over, thanks to all those who cast their vote in support of the emerging local bands and artists in our list of nominees.
We happily announce our top three local emerging artists, super young blues rockers Skyline, textured and mellow indie rocker Comforter and talented singer songwriter Leah Nobel. Whoo-Hoo!! This was an incredible experience! We thank you for all your Deli support!
Here’s this poll’s top 10 chart, full results can be found here.
BEST OF AUSTIN 2014 – READERS’ POLL RESULTS
Artists
Votes
1
Skyline
277
2
Comforter
205
3
Leah Nobel
51
4
Lowin
48
5
Grace London
30
6
The Stargazers
27
7
Anya
20
8
Illustrations
19
9
Popper Burns
17
10
Keeper
14
Stay tuned for the composite chart, to be released soon, which will include details about the point nominees accumulated from the jurors and Deli writers’ votes, and will crown The Deli’s Best Emerging Austin Artist of 2014.
