Like a lot of folk singer-songwriters, Alec Gross paints a specific time and place for the experiences that his character (Ron Avery) makes his way through. Most of these aren’t happy times, and this comes through loud and clear on songs like the haunting ‘Burning Grounds,’ inspired by Alec’s trip to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem and a poem he saw there by Anatoly Kuznetsov.
Most tracks are quiet and moody impressions of an imagined idyllic existence, from the Irish ballad ‘Be Not Jealous of the Sea,’ to the tormented ‘Looking Glass Lies.’ It isn’t until barnburner ‘Strip the Lanterns’ that we hear Gross really cut loose, but it’s well worth the wait through the record’s more even-tempered and traditional sections. – Read Mike Levine interview with Alec Gross here.

To be or not to b.FUNK? It’s a silly question, really. Tis more noble to spit fly rhymes about outrageous fortune than to effuse a sea of wackness, and by opposing the forces of weak lyricism and poor stage presence, to rise – to sleep no more. b.FUNK is a charismatic MC with a natural talent for engaging lyricism and enthralling energy. Even Shakespeare is rumored to have kept him on regular rotation in his ipod. He’ll be opening for the Legendary Phife Dawg at B.B.Kings on Feb 23rd. Bring your lute. – BrokeMC

Unsane‘s press kit offered a quote from an unlikely source: The New York Times. The Grey Lady described the band’s sound as representative of the East Village, which may be accurate if you’re talking late 80’s New York. Unfortunately since then the East Village has lost most if not all its musical reputation to the LES and Williamsburg, hosting now just a couple of venues and a shrinking community of musicians. The fact that the band chose to record their latest album, "Wreck," out in March 20th, in Brooklyn, speaks volumes even louder than Unsane’s aggressive vocals. Unsane have mastered their own brand of noise rock, powered by unstoppable bass and smashing percussion, meshed with grinding guitarwork and the raw vocals mentioned earlier. Unsane will be touring with punk rockers The Melvins, and land in New York on April 29 to play a show at Webster Hall. -allison levin

Dinosaur Feathers‘ 2009 debut album "Fantasy Memorial" became a little cult classic in the NYC scene – the band made our Best of NYC that year. Their next venture into the world or release, "Whistle Tips," won’t be out for their patient fans’ enjoyment until April 10th, but you can get a sneak peak of the track “Untrue,” streaming below. The four Brooklyn musicians created a fun, upbeat, slightly crooked danceable tune, with guitars true to their tropical roots, and light and enjoyable vocals. Fans can look forward to the group tour, whic will start at the very end of February through April 14th, when they’ll come back home to play at Grasslands in Brooklyn. – Holly Moran

NJ’s indie pop-rock group Socratic just released their 3rd full-length record titled "Socratic (The Album)." The release was produced by drummer Thomas Stratton at Soundwaves Studios in Union, NJ. The record has received praise from fans new and old as well as publications like Absolutepunk.net and The Interlude. This is the follow up to the Mark Hoppus produced "Spread The Rumors" LP. The band has also released a brand new video directed by Seiichi Daimo of Music1nfocus Productions of their first single "Curtain Call", streaming here. The new record can be purchased at "pay what you wish" rate here. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building and APS Mastering.

New Jersey melllow-indie-pop group The Ugly Club has recently announced they will be doing a tour down to SXSW this March. The band has confirmed a show at The National Underground in Nashville, TN on March 10th and Super Happy Fun Land in Houston, TX on March 13th, with more dates and SXSW plans TBA. The band has also released 2 live, in-studio music videos of new songs off their upcoming album (here’s one). The performances were shot live at Soundwaves Studios in Union, NJ with videographer Seiichi Daimo of Music1nfocus Productions. The audio is cut from one live take. A bonus video and other releases can be found on the band’s youtube channel. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here). The Deli’s NYC Open Blog is powered by The Music Building and APS Mastering.

We are getting there folks! We just uploaded the full list of artists nominated for our Best of LA 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!

The Deli’s Staff

We highlighted this new Brooklyn band Motive a few weeks ago in the Indie Rock submission results for our Best of NYC Poll. Filter just debuted their video of the single "Nobody Loves Me", streaming below. There’s also a rather fitting spoof version of it dedicated to Mitt Romney, the man 75% of Republican voters and 100% of the rest of the human beings don’t seem to love. Well, that’s ALMOST nobody I guess…

I recently heard somebody saying how one of the reasons why unemployment is so high these days is that we are all doing a lot more DIY than we used to: from accounting software to Ikea furniture assembling, the occasional odd job has become a form of entertainment. This is obviously an extremely valid point when applied to indie music, in an age where almost all records are at least partially recorded at home, and recording studios are struggling. Porcelain Raft extended this concept also to their music video, which was directed by bearded band leader Remiddi himself – who obviously knows what he’s doing in both sonic and visual realms. The band just released their debut album "Strange Weekend" on Secretly Canadian and is about to begin a US tour.

We receive a lot of video submissions, and this one from NYC band Water Knot caught our eye. The four piece, whose sound is epic and dark, has crafted a psychedelic video for their new song “Big Brother”. The band is currently working on a new album, check out their new video below. – Amanda Dissinger