Imaginative indie poppers Deleted Scenes won our Best of DC Area 2011 Poll for emerging artists for the second year in a row! This is the first time a band wins it twice… They sure need to buy a beer to that ONE fan who voted for them, since that single vote (worth 0.001 points in our perverse system) avoided a tie with Sweet Leda, the funk-rock winners of the Readers’ and Fans’ Poll, who placed 2nd. Big Kudos also to Bluebrain, a really interesting electronic project that was rewarded in particular by the Jurors’ vote.
These are the final results of our Best of New England 2011 Poll for Emerging Artists. Congrats to The New Highway Hymnal, our new local "champions", and to runners up Oldjack and Night Fruit. Kudos also go to our Readers’ and Fans’ poll winners, The Milkman’s Union.
The New Highway Hymnal blew our jurors away this year. Throughout 2011, The New Highway Hymnal –a psych rock shoegaze outfit — (who seemed to all of a sudden come out of nowhere) started working their asses off playing basement shows, DIY fests, and local clubs week in, week out. Their hard work paid off because not only did these young (their average age is 21) musicians garner a cult following, they developed their sound, and came into their own… basically blowing away all other bands they shared bills with. Catch them a week from today, Friday, Feb. 10 at Great Scott for the release of Blackened Hands.
Runners up Oldjack, who also came in a respectable 3rd place in our Fans’ Poll earlier this week, are also a band to keep your eye on. We love the raw, fun energy Oldjack bring to their live shows and we recommend checking them out. They’ll be taking off for Austin, TX and performing at SXSW next month.
Night Fruit came in a respectable third in our overall poll. The deli editors gave them the highest overall marks, leaving them the winners of the Open Submissions round of voting. Recently releasing their Dark Horse 7", this dream pop trio are just as pretty to listen to live as they are on record. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for upcoming shows.
High Highs kicked off their month long residency of sorts at Pianos last night – they’ll be playing every second Wednesday in February. These New Yorkers by way of Australia bedecked the stage in white lights and immediately captivated the audience with their brand of dreamy electro; as the set began, the sizable crowd stood rapt and respectfully silent. Between notes, between songs, you could hear a pin drop – or more likely some dude slurping his drink.
Jack Milas’s confident falsetto carried over soft waves of trance-inducing electronics. Standing on his toes to conquer the high notes, he switched from electric to acoustic and back again. The trio’s genuinely pretty beats have a pied piper effect – the melodic beauty lures you in so you fail to notice at first how incredibly haunting it is.
High Highs ended the night with the first track off their self-titled EP, “Open Season.” This song, executed with great inspiration, packed the eerily lush punch that lends High Highs depth. – Corinne Bagish
This might sound kind of trite, but imagination is one of the crucial deciding factors that makes us pay attention to music we get introduced to. This is a quality that is definitely not missing from Night Manager‘s music, lead singer Caitlin Seager’s melodies in particular. The Brooklyn via Paris/San Francisco band offers some of the most refreshingly catchy pop lines we heard in a long time. The gorgeous single "Ghost" (streaming below) is a glorious melange of genres, somewhat reminiscent of the carefully constructed songs from The Throwing Muses’ pop masterpiece "The Real Ramona" – one of the most underestimated pop album of the 90s. Unpredictable melodies blending Cocteau Twins’ heavenly beauty and The Beach Boys’ harmonizing mastery, float on top of what could be described as a grunge-style track, although drenched in reverb and filtered through the NYC DIY sound of the new millennium, with all its homages to the new wave and the garage sound of the 60s. But the sonic character of the track is kind of contingent here, because the actual song is so good that it would work in any instrumental context. The other two tracks on the 7" (the band’s third release), present a similar recipe, with a heavier influence of the 60’s surf pop element, which awakens comparisons to west coast breakout band Best Coast. The "Ghost" 7" caught the year of the folks at Rough Trade in the UK and Big Love in Japan, who will be releasing it starting today in those countries.
One of the most fun rootsy groups in NYC, The Debutante Hour sounds like if The Dresden Dolls met Tegan and Sara and had beautiful vaudeville cabaret babies (which isn’t surprising considering Brian Viglione, drummer for The Dresden Dolls, collaborated with the group on various songs). The three-woman band sings songs covering subjects that span from zombies to self-confidence and shell out covers including the likes of 90s super- group TLC’s hit single “No Scrubs” (streaming below). Their charming matching outfits perfectly compliment the charming harmonies they produce as well as the captivating personalities that shine through their playful lyrics. The band will be playing at 8 p.m. at Union Hall in Brooklyn on Friday, February 10th. – Christine Cauthen
I don’t think we need to reiterate how much we love Brooklyn songstress Lia Ices, who graced the cover of our Winter 2011 issue of The Deli. Lia has recently premiered a new video of the arresting single"Little Marriage" (streaming below) and also released a newly recorded cover of Pink Floyd’s ginormous single "Wish You Were Here" on Fader.
We are getting there folks, sorry for the delay! We just uploaded the full list of artists nominated for our Best of Austin 2011 Poll for Emerging Artists. It’s in the right column on this same page and also HERE, where you can actually vote. Some bands in the list were selected through a submission process and some others were picked by our jury of local scene-makers, who could freely choose 3 bands each in order of preference. Points were already assigned to each band according to how well they did in the selection process. Now the readers’ and fans’ votes will also influence the final chart. Each vote will count!
After a month and a half long painstaking process, we finally have the overall results of The Deli’s Best of Chicago 2011 Poll for Emerging Artists! Unlike in NYC, where Caveman was a clear winner with 5 jurors vote, scores are very close this year in our Chicago poll, due to the fact that our jury’s vote was extremely fragmented.
Congrats to heavy rockers Mutts, who won the overall competition in virtue of points accumulated through the Open Submissions, the Fans Poll and the Jurors votes (see below – they were picked as 2nd and 3rd choice by 2 jurors, and therefore were assigned 2 + 1 points in the jurors column).
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2. DRIFTLESS PONY CLUB
Driftless Pony Club grabbed 2nd place thanks to the 3 points assigned to them because of their win in the Fans Poll, plus one extra point earned through the Open Submission contest.
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3. SHARPLESS
Winners of the Open Submission contest – which earned them 3 potins – Sharpless also stacked up 517 fans votes, which granted them 3rd position in the overall poll. These indie rockers blend crooked melodies a la Modest Mouse with uplifting and dense choruses – definitely an emerging Chicago band worth checking out.
Here’s the final chart of The Deli Chicago’s Year End Poll for Emerging Artists – thank you all for spreading the word!
Totals still aren’t final for the overall winners of the DC Deli Best Emerging Artist of 2011, but for now we can reveal the top voted bands via our recent Reader/Fan Poll. It was another year of close calls, and your love for local music has helped these acts get pushed further to the top. So until the final results are revealed later this week, check out some tracks from this round’s top scorers.
Brooklyn continues to be the most receptive area for what is surely now a full blown emerging spaced out, jam heavy psych rock movement. No better venue represents this than Death By Audio, where Ancient Sky had their record release party on Friday January 27th. Celebrating the release of their latest collection of songs, the band played through nearly all of "T.R.I.P.S." in front of an enthusiastic audience that filled the room. Far from simple feedback and drone practitioners, this band constructs mostly tight, well-defined songs that also focus on meaningful lyrics and interesting melodies. Dynamics play a crucial role as power and dramatic emphasis is favored over simple noise making. Within that framework, however, come delightful sonic forays of a definite jam-worthy caliber – song lengths mostly within the three to six minute range attest to that. With titles like "Towards the Light," "All Colors at Once," "Ray Bradbury," "Time is an Ocean," and "The Wind" one can quickly grasp the message being presented – and that is one of discovery and the possibilities that exist all around us. For their grande finale of the night the band pulled out all the stops with a nearly ten minute tour-de-force of textured, fx-laden guitar washes, mystical vocalizing, bass and drum propulsion and deliciously winding twin guitar soloing. It all added up to a heady mixture that kept the audience captured from first note till finish. Also performing on this night was Deli favorite EXITMUSIC, who create a solemn dreamlike atmosphere, powered by Aleksa Palladino’s captivating voice (and looks). Both bands have significant upcoming tour schedules, and have just released or will be releasing important records. – Dave Cromwell
Brooklyn-based artist Sophia Knapp will release her upcoming album, "Into the Waves," on February 28th on Drag City. After singing and playing guitar in NYC psych rock all girl band Cliffie Swan (ex LIGHTS), this will be Knapp’s debut solo album. Co-produced and co-arranged by esteemed piano and film composer Eric Gorman and Jay Israelson, the album will feature musical contributions by Bob Brockman (TLC, Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo) on bass guitar, Robert “Chicken” Burke (The Duke and The King) on drums and vocals by Bill Callahan. Knapp has 2 upcoming shows in NYC, the first will be at Union Pool in Brooklyn on February 23rd and the second will be her record release show (free to the public) at Sway – with complimentary drinks from 8-10 PM on February 29th. – Chelsea Eriksen
Brooklyn band Ambassadors are known for having one of the grooviest, most energetic live shows in town. Made up of brother Sam and Casey Harris, middle school friend Noah Feldshuh and college chum Adam Levin, the quartet has taken the NYC music scene by storm in the past few years, playing their signature fusion of classic rock n’ roll and upbeat pop music. With their long-awaited LP "Litost", the band calls upon gospel and blues influences to create engaging songs propelled by heavy percussions and Sam’s powerful pipes. Look for "Litost" on itunes and stream our favorite singe, "Unconsolable," below. The band will also be performing a series of tour dates with Lights before making their way down to SXSW. Ambassadors will play a hometown performance at The Mercury Lounge on February 3rd. – Amanda Dissinger
One of the most fun rootsy groups in NYC, 
