We’ve always said in this blog that Brooklyn goth-pop trio The Living Days had a lot of potential (we even booked them for our very first SXSW show a few years ago!), so we are more than happy to report that Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio shares our thoughts in this regard. His label Federal Prism just released the band’s latest single "I’m Fine," an elegant electro-pop song filtered through Stephonik Youth sophisticated and somewhat tortured delivery. Check out the video below, and see the band live at the Mercury Lounge tomorrow 12.10 with Bowmont and Youthquake.
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Promising dream poppers EZTV play Baby’s All Right on 12.13
Born in July 2014 (at least, that’s when their Facebook profile was created – do bands really exist before then?) EZTV is a new born Brooklyn based trio that channels so called "chill wave" vibes through very well crafted pop songs like "Hard to Believe" (streaming below). Check out also the more uptempo track Trampoline here. EZTV will be playing Baby’s All Right on December 13.
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Dream Pop/Psych songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!
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Hip Hop from the Bronx: Mike Larry Draw
Anomaly Conglomerate MC Mike Larry Draw wins the award for most West-Coast sounding rapper from the Bronx. His eloquent flows course with knowledge, smirking at the game they confound. His “Polymath” aesthetic, mantra, credo, or whatever it is, is an evolving identity which defines itself through the music, video, and visual work of this prolific artist. Truly an anomaly, Mike Larry is the only MC in the game who consistently dodges the spotlight in favor of shooting and directing his own music videos. His signature stunt of casting women to play as him, rapping his verses while he works the camera, never tires. – BrokeMC
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Spotlight on musician/songwriter Cameron Hawk
(Photo by Rachel Meyers)
“Sometimes I get kind of destructive, and music is part of how I keep everything together.”
Cameron Hawk already has quite an impressive resume: he’s been in a number of successful bands, he’s opened up for KISS, he’s organized the annual Lawrence Field Day Fest, and now he prepares to embark on a completely different adventure. In early 2015, Hawk will be taking off to China to teach English for 8 months.
“I’m 33 years old and I’ve never lived outside of Kansas in my life,” says Hawk. He’ll be going to China in early 2015 with his girlfriend Rachel, and stepping out of a comfort zone he’s carved out for himself in the 15 years he’s lived and made music in Lawrence. “I’m always going to love this scene and playing here and the music that comes out of here. But I know that as humans, we are all capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for.”
After graduating from high school in 2000, Hawk and his band Podstar relocated from Manhattan to Lawrence. They released two albums on Noisome Records before calling it quits in 2002—right around the same time many other notable area bands broke up, including Ultimate Fakebook, The Get Up Kids, and The Creature Comforts. Hawk recalls, “A huge chunk of people integral to the scene moved away or went on to other things in life right at the same time, and it really felt like a musical ghost town around here for awhile. But that ended up being the best time to start Dead Girls Ruin Everything.” He—along with Podstar bandmate JoJo Longbottom and Ultimate Fakebook alums Eric Melin and Nick Colby—formed the group that same year. “By that time, we cumulatively had a lot of experience with band stuff, and we were all trying to take a more realistic approach to music and how we handled everything.”
More than 10 years and a name change later, The Dead Girls have become the area’s most heralded power pop supergroup. They’ve released a number of albums (4 LPs, 3 EPs, and a 7”) and have shared the stage with the likes of Motion City Soundtrack, Dinosaur Jr., and yes, even KISS. Hawk and Longbottom have shared songwriting duties from the beginning, while the entire group composes each song. “We are all such big music geeks that we have very vivid ideas of how a song or album should be,” he mentions. With that type of history, success, and knowledge, he’s learned a lot about being a musician.
“I learned how to step up and put myself out there for something I care about. I learned how hard you actually have to work to make something yourself, and how fucking awesome it feels,” he notes. “I learned to try to not rock too hard and to never scream directly into a microphone during sound check.”
He’s also been instrumental in his other two current bands: Stiff Middle Fingers and Many Moods of Dad. Stiff Middle Fingers injects a heavy dose of personality into their punk rock repertoire, according to Hawk. “We don’t worry about sounding derivative, and we just wear our influences on our sleeves and have fun.” In SMF, he comes up with guitar riffs and sends them to vocalist Travis Arey for lyrics. Hawk considers Many Moods of Dad to be a “psychopop hodgepodge of ideas,” and includes his other Podstar bandmates JP Redmon and Aaron Swenson, who co-writes much of the material with Hawk. “The whole idea behind MMOD was for us to do all the fun/dumb/weird stuff we always wanted to do on a record but never could, because it was always shot down for some reason.”
(Photo of Stiff Middle Fingers by Todd Zimmer)
(Photo of Many Moods of Dad by Quinton Cheney)
When he leaves, Hawk also leaves behind Lawrence Field Day Fest, an event that will be 4 years in the running come 2015. He hopes to continue planning the summer fest from China, and enlisting help from other supporters of the music community. “Even though our [scene] isn’t the biggest or the “hottest” or whatever, I have come to understand how special it really is. There are huge cities—hell, metropoli—that don’t have a music scene of this quality. There should be someone or something around here supporting that.”
But regardless of where he’s living and what he’s doing, Hawk will not be ready to give up on music. Since he’ll be out of the country, most of his projects will go on indefinite hiatus (SMF will likely continue with a different guitarist), but Hawk plans to release his debut solo album, entitled Dream You Forgot, in early 2015. “Music is not only what I love to do, but it’s my main source of sanity.”
And in this new phase of his life, Hawk plans to apply all of the experiences he’s had through playing and making music. “I think a lot of people lose sight of how every little experience they have in life eventually helps them in some way. We need to actively use all experiences as fodder for learning and growing, and pushing our own limits.”
—Michelle Bacon
Michelle is the editor of The Deli KC and plays in bands.
The Dead Girls will perform their last Kansas City show this Friday, December 12, at Harling’s Upstairs. Deco Auto and Rev Gusto will open. Facebook event page. He’ll also be playing with Stiff Middle Fingers on Friday, December 26 at Replay Lounge. Facebook event page.
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From the NYC submissions: Noble Kids’ roots music
Brooklyn is perceived as the home of indie, psych and garage artists, but the community of musicians inspired by the roots of American music is large, and probably bound to expand in the years to come. Noble Kids, whose four-song EP “Kingdom,” released in November of 2013, is deeply rooted in lyrical imagery and compositional intricacy. The record is quite an interesting collection and manages to accomplish much in just four tracks. While opener “Pine” emplyoys dynamic variations on an overall droney atmosphere, “James Gabriel” (streaming) and “Disregard” offer up the simple, crooning heartbreak of true folk songs. All in all, the five members, which recently expanded from the original duo, have come together to create something quite unique, and we are curious to see what else they have coming. Word on the street is they are recording their first full-length as we speak – keep an ear out. – Jillian Dooley
This band submitted their music for coverage here.
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Mystery NYC band catches our ear: Simon Doom
We just stumbled upon this great rock’n’roller entitled "My Baby’s a Baby" by NYC’s Simon Doom, a band we don’t know much about, apart from the fact that they played Glasslands on November 30 with Fort Lean, and that they have a singer with an incredible voice and attitude. Check them out.
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best songs by emerging NYC "punkish" artists – check it out!
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Saturday Samurais – Wavey
Remember what it felt like to discover dope hip-hop? The ominous tones this track open with immediately captivate the listener’s attention, leaving us wondering what’s coming next. Featuring dope production by Flying Lotus, Saturday Samurais transform "Wavey" into a smooth, hip-hop masterpiece. With lyrics floating easily over intricately sampled production, we’re introduced to their carefully constructed sound. Their flow reminds me of elements of Mos Def and Q-tip, bringing hip-hop back to a place of story-telling as the song explores the definition of "Wavey" according to Saturday Samurais. Press play and get lost in this cool collaboration. –Opal Rose
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Brooklyn teenage indie band to keep an ear on: Petalwar
For a band that just came out of high school, Brooklyn’s Petalwar have an incredible potential. They just released their “Purple Faced Winter” split single, and it’s got the emotional backing and tonal versatility of a band in their mid-twenties. The single is apparently PetalWar’s first release as a quartet, having started, and released their S/T EP as just a duo: Alex Ruiz on guitar/vocals, and Abbie Jones on drums. Lena Mandolina and Esme Ashley White joined later on lead guitar and bass, respectively, only adding to what was already a tremendous sound. Not necessarily tremendous in decibel-level (though they can get loud), but tremendous in weight and depth. They play (and play well) a grunge-infused indie rock that teeters between atonal uneasiness at certain times, breaking into roaring upheavals at others, often coupled with a surprising soothing solemnity. – JP Basileo
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A Deli Premiere: The Pluto Moon’s ‘Eyez’ from upcoming “Espooky EP”
In case you hadn’t realized this yet, here at The Deli NYC we often reward crazyness, and The Pluto Moons are kinda crazy (you must have gathered that from the picture). Also, to most musicians’ horror, we like genre categorization, but, in truth, we love to be challenged in that department by bands that, like The Pluto Moons, are hard to pigeonhole. We won’t even try to describe these guys’ music, just put together all the pieces yourself, theres a bunch of them in this single we are premiering below, entitled "Eyez," an excerpt from the upcoming "Espooky" EP, to be released in January. Want to hear more? Check out last year’s full length "Mannequin Legs" here, and don’t miss their EP release party at Cameo on January 10. – Photo by Zach Sokol
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!
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Beast Patrol plays Glasslands on December 7
With a unique band name and their hardcore leather ensemble in tow, Beast Patrol has just about everybody fooled. The NYC band is described as a psychedelic-indie rock band at best, but we at the Deli can’t help to fall in love with their dream pop undertones. The soft delicate voice of lead singer Vanessa Bley captured Rolling Stone’s attention in 2013 (The Deli was about a year ahead)and now the band has all of NYC’s rock enthusiasts under their spell as well since the band’s inception in 2012. The band has released the Unarm Yourself EP earlier in June and will be playing one of Brooklyn’s Glasslands final shows on December 7 before the venue closes their doors by year’s end for good. It will also be the band’s last live appearance of the year. – Robert Frezza
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Legs headline multi-disciplinary event by Destination Moon on 12.05
Destination Moon, a curated concert series and collective, started out as a couple of house shows based in Crown Heights. Since then their events have taken more of a cosmic bent, in more ways than one. Most of their shows are solar powered and all of them incorporate both music and visual art. The collective’s next event, SCREEN/SOUNDS, takes place this Friday (12/5) at new venue Lot 45, and is billed as "multi-disciplinary" and featuring collaborations between musicians and film-makers. The night begins with shorts performed with original, live scores by Carson Moody (of Tigue) & Anthony Vine, and Star Rover followed by sets from local avant rockers Modern Rivals and lounge popper Legs (a band we kind of missed so far, check out their video below), both awash in the projections of Jesse Mann. Recommended for all A/V kids who like to dance. – Emilio Herce
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Weekly Feature: Hard Nips play Glasslands on 12.06
From Japan-to-Brooklyn, girl rock band Hard Nips are not only known for their catchy, anthemic party rock, but also for their quirky live performances that will keep you coming back for more. They recently released a new EP titled ‘Uncommon Animal’ which packs some heavy riffage but is also fun and light hearted, just like them. They’ve been playing music since 2009, after they all had just met and decided to form a band, picking up their respective instruments for the very first time – now that’s punk attitude! They also have a kick-ass website might we add.
See them live at Glasslands on 12.06 and read Michael Haskoor interview with Hard Nips.