1. STEPHIE COPLAN & THE PEDESTRIANS

A young singer songwriter/pianist who recently moved from New England to NJ, Stephie Coplan is not just your regular "girl with a piano." Sure, she can write your classic emotional ballad ("Marilyn Monroe"), but she can also surprise you with a cover of Fountains of Wayne based on diy beat box layered loops ("Someone to Love"), or attack you with a piano-less, hyper-charged power pop tune like "JERK!". Her attitude, talent and versatility convinced us to select her as our #1 choice from the artists who submitted to our poll through SonicBids.

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2. MERRILY & THE POISON ORCHARD

Breaking things down to a level even adults can understand, the gently rolling lullabies of Merrily and the Poison Orchard take us back to an idyllic time of cloud watching and tree climbing. Merrily’s love for vaudeville-era jazz comes through strongly here, but her simple approach to storytelling with jaunty ukeleles and bouncy percussion will lift you up like a cool breeze.

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3. YVETTE
This band has the rare ability to create noise that’s also very musical and textured. Industrial is definitely their primary genre – the clanging drums and mechanical, metallic, and often dissonant guitars play the main characters here – but this dark soundscape becomes an almost cathartic, religious experience because of the choral, ethereal melodies that reference the shoegazer genre.

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4a. SINEM SANIYE
Born in Germany, but with roots from Turkey, Sinem Saniye blends Middle-Eastern and Jazz styles together to create lush, evocative tunes. From the bossa nova of ‘Boom Sheke Nana’s’ harmonies, to the romance of ‘In My Slumber’, Saniye covers a broad range in her music. She even has a new Christmas song and calendar to welcome the new year available for purchase.

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4b. BLONDE VALHALLA
Sounding like the exciting conclusion to an 80’s John Cusack film, Blonde Valhalla are bringing back the New-wave anthem with only a drum machine, guitar and keyboard to their name. Fronted by Suckers’ drummer Brian Aiken, this is synthesized jams stretched to their most anthemic.

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4c. MY PET DRAGON
Borrowing a guitar sound The Edge might be proud of, My Pet Dragon singer Todd Michaelsen belts his tenor up to the rafters. Playing anthems better suited to arenas than small Brooklyn clubs, it’s really only a matter of time before this band is all over the radio.

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4d. GRACE WEBER
An original choir girl with roots in Gospel and Jazz, she can croon over a bouncy ditty in ‘hitchhiker’ or belt over the lush ballad ‘Leave the Light On’ with equal power. Her latest effort ‘Hope & Heart’ is one of the better sounding records to come out last year, featuring production from Grammy-winning producer Mike Mangini. Who knows… maybe America has found our own Joss Stone.

 

We kept this for last people! Here are our Indie Rock selections and honorable mentions from the bands that submitted to ou Year End Poll for Emerging NYC Artists. This was the category with the most submission and it was truly painful having to stick with 6 bands… We had 22 bands with an average ranking above 7 out of 10. We’ll announce the SonicBids and the jurors picks later today and then… everything will be ready for the readers’ and fans’ poll!

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR ALT FOLK:
Jurors: Annamarya Scaccia (Deli Philly), Jessica Pace (Deli Nashville), Erin D’Souza (Deli NYC)

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

1. HURRAH! A BOLT OF LIGHT!

Will Farr doesn’t take long to drown himself in sweat. Spun from the same cloth as Bruce Springsteen or Ian Curtis, he routinely leads his homespun band to a blaze of glory, forcing his restless spirit and barbed hooks through anyone looking for a dose of excitement. Hurrah! builds each track of their heartland-brewed, rocking yet rootsy tunes to a frenzy, making believers of anyone looking for a rush of adrenaline chased down with a shot of big band frenzy.

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2. MINIBOONE

The video for ‘Cool Kids Cut Out of the Heart Itself‘ features the band MiniBoone take abuse in all its manifestations, from forced haircuts to facepaint almost as disturbing as their odd harmonies. The whole experience leaves you breathless and wondering what exactly you just saw, while making sure you never forget any of it. This group’s Kinks-inspired dance grooves charge ahead with this same kind of intense art posture throughout their whole ouevre, making for an experience as absurdly delicious as Queen’s ‘Bicycle’ in tracks like ‘Chairs are For Lovers,’ and as emotionally intense as At the Drive-In in my fave ‘Liars + Hiders.’

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3. MONOGOLD

As a three-piece band, Monogold can support catchy songs that extend beyond confined spaces or genres. Keith Kelly’s falsetto flirtatiously glides through twinkling keys in the album’s starting track, “Ivory Teeth Golden Tusk,” a cherubic welcome to the trio’s sensational, epic voyage through their 2011 album “The Softest Glow.” The tribalesque, frenetic rhythms feel exotic but ground the different sounds and textures, in an impressive debut that feels both foreign and familiar at the same time.

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4a. APPOMATTOX
This thunderous power trio – one of the best live bands in town – is taking indie guitar rock’s format and cramming politically charged lyrics head-on down its throat. A welcome change from the usually passive temperament of contemporary rock, this band has found a way to stand out amongst Brooklyn’s crowded backdrop by turning the form on its head and back to its roots as a counter-cultural force for change.

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4b. QUILTY
I think if Damon Albarn had fronted The Pixies, something like Quilty might have happened. A band with loud-soft dynamics that took a left turn somewhere along the way to britpop goofiness, singer/guitarist Sarah Dupuis twists Pixies-like formulas into pretzel-like jams that pour on the sweetness and grisliness in equal parts.

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4c. SNOWMINE
Meditative, melodic and spacious, Snowmine’s music emplyos a sweeping array of pastoral tones which range from longing, drifting acoustics to electronic drum patterns that build in tension with soaring horn sounds. In their music we hear XTC’s immense melodic talent and Tortoise’s suspenseful and arty arrangements. Call it post-pop if you wish.

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– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (almost 8 out of 10!) but won’t qualify to the next round of our year end poll. Dudes we are sorry but we must draw a line or this thing is going to be insane (and it will be anyway, with more than 100 bands qualified already!!!)

7a. BUGS IN THE DARK

Not many bands do it like Bugs in the Dark. Here’s a group that wrap their sound up tightly, and unleash it just as strongly. The three-piece places charging riffs under singer Karen Rockower’s soul-shaking vocals to weave a punishing set together that takes no prisoners. No reason to miss the Sonic Youth of years ago, this band is every bit as devastating and noisy, but you’ll love the abuse.

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7b. DIEHARD
There seems to be a trend of late that we certainly won’t complain about: local NYC/Brooklyn bands channeling earnest 90s music styles to match the Doc Martens and grandmother-inspired floral prints seen on the streets of Williamsburg. Obviously inspired to the indie sound of that decade, Diehard’s music triggers a mental trip back to youth for 30 and 40 somethings like us, while sounding like a breath of fresh air to the younger hipsters.

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7c. LIGHTOUTS
It’s about time Gowanus represented. Lightouts its two people with a love affair for the epic buildup. Taking drum machines and Michael Hutchence-minded vocals to a height where this town’s canal will never reach. Something like Bowie backed by LCD Soundsystem’s band, they have no trouble getting intense, but keep their feet in the dance floor throughout the show.

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7d. MOTIVE
In track ‘Nobody Eats My Dinner,’ singer Nick Wold is way too hard on himself. At first lamenting how nobody likes him, he eventually gets lost in the driving rhythm instead; taking the song to a loud, hard-jamming place similar to the destinations The Strokes used to take me. Like track ‘Summer Solstice,’ that takes you on a long ride but leaves you in about the same place it began, Motive deals with life’s revolving frustrations the only way they know how: by channeling their angst through heartbreak riffs and confessional lyrics.

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7e. THE YOUNG THINGS
The Young Things are taking tried-and-true rock sensibilities and giving them an LES makeover. In ‘All My Friends are Junkies,’ the band takes an approach like Brian Jonestown Massacre or Oasis, forcing rock riffs usually associated with Beatlemania into a mold better suited for city dwellers. So Get off your ass. this is a sound as infectious as it’s ever been.

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– HONORABLE MENTIONS

The following bands deserve to be mentioned as well, they all had a 7.5 average rating: Clinical Trials, The Ropes, The Veda Rays, Wild International, Yvette.

Arlington VA’s darkwave duo Screen Vinyl Image emerge again with electronic shoegaze splendor in Strange Behavior (released Dec 2011.) IMO, Kim and Jake Ried are at the top of the leader-board when it comes to their genre, and after a listen- I think the SVI audience would agree.

One could simply spin this entire record at a Goth Prom night and have the place jumping with doom & gloom in SVI’s catchy rhythms as heard in "Revival", a gothic boom layered in pumping beats and fuzzy guitars. And "Rx" hits even darker notes, welcoming a good ol’fashioned blood rave.

"Stay Asleep" gets beautiful with lush guitars oozing over that beat that keeps you swaying on the dancefloor, before pushing through into another realm of intoxicating synth swirls and hallucinogenic vocal reverbs. Acoustic guitars come in on "My Confession" as Jake’s echoes melt into the atmosphere that remains from "Stay Asleep." Chilling yet soothing, and dark as all hell. –Dawn

The results are in from the Open Submissions stage for our DC/Baltimore Year End Poll for Emerging Artists. All of the submissions were ranked by Deli Editors from other cities and the list of acts that have advanced to our Readers’ Poll phase are below. We will also be releasing the list of nominees chosen by our local jurors very soon. We would like to thank all of the talented artists who submitted. It was our largest Open Submissions pool yet! (Pic: Satori Trova)

1. Deleted Scenes

2a. Is and of The

Litost by is and of the

2b. Satori Trova

3. kindlewood

4a. Drop Electric

4b. We Were Pirates

Here at The Deli we call "Alt Folk" all those bands who reference traditional American music but graft some less traditional elements onto it. These are the results of the top bands from this genre who submitted to be considered for our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists.

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR ALT FOLK:
Jurors: Kate Shepherd (Deli Seattle), Annamarya Scaccia (Deli Philly), Erin D’Souza (Deli NYC)

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

1. BIG WILSON RIVER

Big Wilson River plays my favorite kind of trashiness: Here you’ll find songs written about badass literary figures the way other bands discuss a wild night out. In ‘Hemingway Had a Cat’ for instance, you get your hard truths served up right alongside beer anthem-ready singalongs. Singers Darrin Bradbury and April Acerno sing in the kind of flannel only Jersey musicians can wear right, with big brawling songs like ‘Noah Goldstein,’ together with downhome front porch sentiment like ‘Twenty Little Soldiers.’ You won’t have to get dressed up to appreciate this band, but you will have to get down.

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2. FOOD WILL WIN THE WAR

If you’re looking for a pithy descriptor to file Food Will Win the War under, you’re bound to be disappointed. Singer/songwriter Rob Ward and company have been routinely re-inventing themselves from their dreams of extra-marital astronaut affairs to their latest full-length, "A False Sense of Warmth." This abstract folk ensemble constantly challenges expectations by inserting dreamy lyrics through Ward’s steady baritone and allowing his raucous band to burn the barn down in intensive sets of acoustic string shredding.

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3a. THE DUE DILIGENCE

Like any self-respecting Brooklynite, there’s nothing I’d like to see more than The Band make a return and show all these alt-folk cats how its done. Fortunately, now I can finally put that sentiment to rest. The Due Diligence picks up right where Robbie Robertson left off, carving a unique line extending from roots rock preservation to loud and brawling bar jams. Lead singer Sir Isaac Diligence sports a nautical disposition with one of the best beards I’ve seen yet in an otherwise crowded city of beards. Plenty of bands can jam, but few have this much to say while doing it.

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3b: FIREHORSE

An active performer in Citizens Band and Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout, Leah Siegel has written a number of albums under her own name before she founded Firehorse. In this new project’s debut album "And So They Ran Faster…" she boasts a range of roles in diverse compositions that explore pop, rock, jazz, funk and soul with electronic flourishes. The genre-leaping tracks showcase Siegel’s versatile, intense vocals that lead her band into challenging sonic landscapes.

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3c: FUTURIST

Futurist have some very big ideas. As much a multimedia project as 5-piece experimental folk outfit led by singer Curtis Peel. This group doesn’t just write songs, as much as they construct whole movements like a folk-rock symphony. Listen to just a couple measures into "Slackjaw Pilgrims" or "Wingspan" and you’ll find yourself getting pulled into their unique way of hearing the world. Like their name implies, there’s nothing old about this group. Good thing foot-stomping dance grooves never go out of style.

– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (almost 8 out of 10!) but won’t qualify to the next round of our year end poll.

6a. GANGSTAGRASS
Folk music, meet hip-hop. Hip-hop, meet folk. Country singer Rench has been singing his mind for years now over some solid downhome beats, but with his band Gangstagrass, he’s something else entirely. He’s teamed up with rapper T.O.N.E.Z. to come up with a unique blend of these styles you probably haven’t heard before. This is a group that doesn’t bother with distinctions between hip-hop and folk styles, these come together with the same attitude both Hank Williams and Chuck D have in common: A hard-hitting beat placed under an outlaw sentiment.

 

6b. THE MAJORLEANS
This is what it would sound like if Lou Reed or Bob dylan played summer jams. Telling downtown stories of lost romance and strange motivations in songs like Damager and The Main Vine, singer Michael Daves takes rootsy tradition and gives it a distinctly New York feel, placing our town’s music in the middle of the heartland.

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– HONORABLE MENTIONS:
The competition in this category was really, really tight. 20 artists received an average rating of 7 of more points out of 10, here are the 4 one that with 7.5: Ben Lear, Lucius, Shenandoah & the Night, We Are The Woods.

Metal might not be the music genre that made NYC famous, but it’s a growing scene, mostly fueled by artists based in Long Island and New Jersey, areas covered by our blog. We only had 6 submissions in this category, but all very good.

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR METAL
Jurors: Mike SOS (Deli NYC), Erin D’Souza (Deli NYC)

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

1a: EXEMPTION

Jam packing its copmposition with an encyclopedic knowledge of a multitude of rock genres, Long Island based Exemption allows its prog rock sensibilities to overshadow their stoner metal tendencies and modern metal panache, while tumultuous percussive rumbles and layers of delectable guitars illuminate their variety-addled path to musical enlightenment.

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2a: THINNING THE HERD

Self-professed hard rock psyche metal troupe Thinning the Herd lays down a thunderous backbeat that shares as much with Blue Cheer as it does with Soundgarden, while offering a dastardly amalgamation of doomy blues, fuzzed-out psychedelics, grungy post metal , and ‘70s arena rock.

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2b: FALL OF THE ALBATROSS

Schizophrenic Queens quintet Fall of the Albatross serve up a soulful smorgasbord of eclectic heaviness, fusing mind-blowing funk, smooth jazz, headstrong progressive rock and blistering technical metal into a surprisingly tidy package. – Mike SOS

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

PUi, Wolfhaven, Terra Stigma.

Psych Rock and derivatives genres like Shoegazer and Dreampop are a very interesting musical niches with lots of loyal fans – many of which reside in NYC. Here are these genres results related to the submissions we received for our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists.

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR PSYCH ROCK/ SHOEGAZER/ DREAM-POP:
Jurors: Chrissy Prisco (Deli New England), Dawn Reed (Deli DC Area), QD Tran (Deli Philly)

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

1. Grassfight (also overall submissions winners with 9.33 out of 10)

 

Bleak like Ian Curtis (but with a much higher range), danceable like, well… Joy Division (but twice as zonked out), Grassfight expands on the freaky shoegazer vibe in a way Interpol never got around to. Wtih a name based on a tragic battle during the Texas Revolution, their new EP Icon is bound to be confrontational. But don’t let that scare you, singer Nathan Forster and band make the kind of lush, devastating music too catchy to keep you down.

2a. Field Mouse

There’s something to be said about a band that could only come from a certain kind of collaboration. Field Mouse is a labor of love from singer/songwriters Rachel Browne and Andrew Futral. The duo take turns between rootsy sentiment and driving electronics ala Jesus and Mary Chain. Mouse’s warm sentiment hits home in sweetly affecting songs like ‘You Guys are Gonna Wake Up My Mom’ and their fantastic cover of Deerhoof’s ‘Helicopter.’

2b. Spanish Prisoners
Cinematic and mysterious, Spanish Prisoners blends bubbly psych pop with dark telltale vocals and daydream guitar and keyboard textures. The band’s album Gold Fools was recently declared "Best Free Album of the Year" by gimmetinnitus.com

4a. Himalaya
Here’s a band you should add to your ipod for any trip you’re planning on taking, outdoors or indoors. They’re the perfect soundtrack, as this group’s not in much of a rush to go anywhere. The songs of Himalaya can take a fair amount of time to gather steam. But once they do, anthemic choral singing usually supplements layers of washy guitar in an almost religious exultation. Tracks like Don’t Stop and Hospital will land you at a church somewhere deep in outer space, and their live show will leave you equally blissed out.

4b. Dead Leaf Echo
With swirling guitars, beatbox percussion, and ultra-wet vocals, Dead Leaf Echo sound like the long-awaited return of shoegaze. As much an art project as band, singer-guitarist LG, bassist Mike DiLalla, and keyboardist-vocalist Liza B make films as often as they release records. No wonder tracks like Woolgathering and Trial hit you as a medium tempo, wide-screen production experience.

– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (almost 8 out of 10!) but won’t qualify to the next round of our year end poll.

6. Fan-Tan
Meeting up at Chapel Hill a couple years ago, Fan-Tan have already been playing together for a few years now, and their live shows have earned the band a solid rep. Singer Ryan Lee Dunlap can sound pained like Spencer Krug, but he pours his heart out over an energetic mix of buzzing synthesizers and driving percussion from Kuki and Sandee Kooks’ rhythm section. Now the band is set to release their debut full-length early this year, and if 2010’s EP The Age of Discovery is any indication, it promises to be full of the kind of pain and propulsion you rarely hear come together this energetically.

7. Yellowbirds
A Deli CD of the month in 2011, Yellowbirds blends psych-pop songs with country accents, creating entrancing songs which conjure up the warmest musical tones that recall the freewheeling spirit of the ‘60s. The complexities and layers of the songs make for an enjoyable, challenging listen, but the tracks are incredibly accessible pop songs. Butting guitars and bristling autoharp may create some stridency, but is always counterbalanced with calming acoustic guitar strums and Cohen’s Roy Orbison-esque vocals.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
These artists also had really good ratings from our jurors (over 7.5): Backlights, Behavior and Prospector.

Results are in for the HIP HOP/WORLD/OTHER Category peoples! And yes, we are talking about the submissions results related to our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists (we wish there was a shorter way to call it…)

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR HIP HOP/WORLD/OTHER
Jurors: Jason Behrends (Deli Chicago), QD Tran (Deli Philly), Mike Levine (Deli NYC)

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

1a. The Sway Machinery

The Sway Machinery have built an unlikely combination of Jewish Cantorial music with afrobeat grooves, and the result expresses a hidden energy common to both. Klezmer and Malian tribal music aren’t usually said in the same sentence, but this band made it their mission when recording with the legendary Timbuku songstress, Khaira Arby. This is a group that honors different traditions while bringing them together into something new.

1b. Xenia Rubinos

Offering an amalgamation of exotic sounding vocals and imaginative sonic ingredients, Xenia Rubinos could be described as the Animal Collective of Bossanova. Her tunes almost magically blend the warmth of South American music and the intellectual edge of the NYC avant-indie scene. Xenia’s debut album will be released on January 16.

3. Deathrow Tull

One half party time hip-hop, one half back-to-church soul, Deathrow Tull brings different worlds together to play in the same room. Broke MC and Dyalekt’s back-and-forth psychedelia is perfectly balanced by Ihsan Muhammed’s elastic vocal range, taking the seven-piece’s funk up to new heights with every hook.

– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (they all shared a final score between 7.330 and 7.66 out of 10) but won’t qualify to the next round of our year end poll.

4a. Argotec
Anyone complaining about El-P not releasing records fast enough needs to check out Argotec and quit whining. Here’s a post-apocalyptic rap duo that makes it their mission to cram as much information down your skull as the sonic spectrum will allow. Complete with glitchy laptops and punishing beats, Alex Argot and Rich Courage take technology, politics and culture and mainline it direct to your system. Dark and uncompromising, their debut LP Wherewithal showcases what’s great about NY’s hip-hop underground.

4b. Gabriel Stark
Gabriel Stark is the emcee next door. He doesn’t deck out in jewelry, he hustles his music old-school by adding his everyday lyrics to artists ranging from the Supremes to Taylor Swift. Stark’s released an enormous amount of material over the past couple years, and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Every bit as much a producer as rapper, Stark’s ambition and humour comes through in everything he touches.

6a. LiKWUiD + Gummy Bears & Champagne
Like it or not, Likwuid has written the Camel toe anthem of our generation. Nothing’s off limits for this Harlem-based femcee. From singing anthem ‘Go L’ in dollar vans, to challenging gender roles in Lyrically Andrageneous, her new record Gummy Bears & Champagne is not for the casual listener, but it won’t take you long to fall in love with her either.

6b. Max Burgundy
Emcee/producer Max Burgundy finds a place for all his emotions in his beats. A romantic at heart, the ups and downs of love are catalogued over immensely varied beats. His latest EP #Waiting marries bells and bird calls together in Hey Love!, and flanged out guitar loops to bumping glitch grooves in Max Don’t. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Burgundy builds a wide world of sound to house his enormous emotional range.

6c. Blue Belt
After listening through to wack wednesdays, (a group of b-sides the band released every Wednesday over the past year) it’s easy to think I know Brooklyn quartet Blue Belt pretty well. Dismissing with most hip-hop convention, the group discusses everything from Brian Eno to vocoded gchat conversations in their verses, while turning loops from Asian instruments like the koto and shamisen into a backdrop as smooth as anything Tribe Called Quest has produced. A welcome surprise of showmanship and detailed composition, listening to Blue Belt is an immersive experience. Come prepared to forget what you thought you could do with a sample.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
These artists also had really good ratings from our jurors: Try This at Home and MaG.