The musical landscape of Car on the Moon is breezy, soulful and stripped down. Somewhere in the center of a Venn diagram of blues, folk, Americana, chamber pop, and singer-songwriter-acoustic, you’d find the sounds that most clearly captivate Elias and his partner-in-crime/percussionist Danny Festa. With Orling’s carefully parsed melodies, and Fest’s understated playing, the songs have a quiet reverence about them, but with enough drive and instrumental diversity (banjos, ukuleles, all the percussion instruments that can fit in a barn in upstate NY) to keep the party going. – Read Charlie Davis’ interview with the band here. The band will be playing Union Hall on December 14.

Formed in NYC in 2010, after playing a handful of well-received shows at Mercury Lounge, The Cake Shop, and Cameo Gallery, droney and somewhat emotional indie rockers The Archive headed to Chinatown’s Mavericks Studio this spring to record their debut album. Working with producer Bobby Lurie (The Billy Nayer Show), engineer Allen Farmelo (Talk Normal, Glenn Kotche), and mixer Karl Derfler (Tom Waits, No Doubt, Roky Erickson). The song “Disarm” (streaming below) is a taste of The Archive’s debut record, expected to be released early next year. The band will be playing Pianos on December 18 with Oh My Blackbird, The Ravages and The End Men. – (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.

CHAPPO is coming off a busy summer/fall, playing an array of sweaty, confetti covered clubs, releasing their inner moon shamans on the regular, recording and self-releasing their second concept EP as well tracking their debut full length album, which is due out in the spring 2012. Their first EP Plastique Universe was touted for it’s "excellently overstuffed garage psyche sound" by Pitchfork and the lead off track "Come Home" was featured on an Ipod touch commercial last fall. CHAPPO has also received much praise for their lives shows – they played for The Deli at CMJ 2010. Intense and engaging their music combines psychedelic flourishes with funky lighting, fog, feathers and… confetti! They are headlining their first show at Mercury Lounge on Saturday, December 17th. Also on the bill are good Jeff Taylor, Monogold and Lucius. Hear the new track "Island Opiate" from their latest EP "Plastique Universe II: Pisces Princess," streaming below. – (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.

At first blush, Erika Spring‘s solo work is a bit lighter than her fare with Au Revoir Simone. There appears to be the beginnings of a dance beat, which could bode interestingly for the future. Of course, many of the same electro-chill elements remain, her voice, after all, is her voice: Breathy, girly, powerful in a whispering, vulnerable fashion. The lyrics are vague and sad, but "6 More Weeks" isn’t depressing. In fact, it seems to be a promising start for Spring’s solo endeavor. The song will be released on a split 7" in July, so if you want to hear more, you’ll have to see her live. And you’re in luck, since she’s playing two gigs within the next 5 days, at Grasslands and Mercury Lounge on December 4 and 5. Listen to the track on her facebook, presented in an endless loop. – allison levin

Devilish slide guitars, howling distorted vocals and blues riffs out the wazoo define New York based duo and ex Deli Artist of the Month The Dead Exs (in the picture), comprised of David Pattillo (vocals/guitar) and Wylie Wirth (drums). Together, they have exhumed the sultriness of retro-rock with garage rock intensity on their album “Resurrection”, available now and for free here. Rock ‘n roll- inspired and NY music-devoted fashionista/designer, John Varvatos, will be presenting this pair of musicians at his store on Bowery on Thursday, December 1 as part of the John Varvatos Thursday Nite Live series, along with harmonica-heavy, rootsy, and bluesy Daddy Long Legs. There are free beverages for the 21+ only crowd and free admission with an RSVP to jv_pr3@vfc.com. Doors are 8pm and music starts at 8:30. –Meijin Bruttomesso

Prefix Mag apparently is about to join The Deli in the effort to highlight emerging NYC artists through a series of free shows at Cameo co-presented by Golden Ratio Presents. The first show will be at Cameo on December 2, featuring 3 artists we are familiar with and a group we haven’t covered yet: St.Lucia is a one man band by the way of South Africa who offers dancey electro with world and chill components – yes, "chill" is officially a musical genre people, so was decided by us. You can definitely hear some Africa in these tracks, and some reggae as well. Also on the bill Zula, which we did blog about a couple of times and have a new EP of remixes which rings awesome to our ears. What’s this, a gentler version of Soul Coughing with Elvis Costello influences or something? Fun! Check out the song streaming below, it’s worth a listen. Also on the bill 60 pop revivalists and Deli ex Artist of the Month Starlight Girls (who have a new song for streaming here) and Savoire Adore femme fatale singer/keyboardist DEIDRE (who has a new video here).

Along with childhood friend keyboardist/vocalist Yos Munro and guitarist Jesse Newkirk IV, drummer/vocalist Aaron Harris, formerly of the eccentric indie rock band Islands, craft sparse and magnetic rock songs with new wave and avant-indie flourishes under the Steel Phantoms moniker. The trio delivered a delightful second EP, "Forer," after fundraising it via Kickstarter. Evocative of The Magnetic Fields’ timeless melodies immersed in a more modern, electric and percussive musical context, the record is named after psychologist Bertram Forer, who developed a theory according to which "normal" people are more likely to believe positive things about themselves rather than negative ones (we couldn’t agree more, considering how stunning we are!) In an interview with BlackBook, Harris said that the songs that he wrote on “Forer” explored his fears and lack of confidence. Interestingly enough, a very confident record came out of this, and regardless of the EP’s introspective content, the band assuredly presents six diverse songs that stand on their own right but also maintain a cohesive balance. The "Forer" EP is available as a free download on Steel Phantoms’ site steelphantomsband.com. See the band play with two other Deli favorites Slowdance and Papertwin for a modest cover of $5 at Union Pool on Thursday, December 1. Coincidentially, Steel Phantoms and Papertwin are currently competing for our Artist of the Month poll. – Nancy Chow

Former lead singer of now defunct indie rock band Reiner Maria, Caithlin De Marrais is a Brooklyn based singer songwriter who doesn’t always sound like a songwriter, which is a good thing. In her recent album "Red Coats" the best songs blend gentle, never banal ballads with percussive, electric and ambient elements, in ways reminiscent of early Lisa Germano or Suzanne Vega from the 99.9 F period. Enjoy this gem entitled "Belong" (streaming below), check out the video of "Birds" here and go see the lady and her band live at Glasslands on December 2.

The delightfully chaotic live show offered by Brooklyn’s bad boy band Clouder is something that needs to be seen and experienced first hand to truly grasp it all. Frontman Eric Gilstrap already had a reputation for a loose Johnny Thunders-like presence in his previous band, Telltale. However, he has now put down the guitar and is fully focused on delivering his angst-filled vocal lines while the rest of the band masterfully rumbles on behind him. On "Broadcast Victim" some kind of Peter Gunn detective groove is churned out by the boys as Eric’s vocal tone and delivery resides in a place somewhere between The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten and The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. A wickedly tasty guitar solo (of sorts) leads the track to a madcap conclusion. "The Collapse" pitches delightful dual guitar and bass interplay against bright ride cymbal, as Eric wails on (in that Lydon-esque way) about how relationships fall apart. An even ruder guitar outburst takes this one to its tender conclusion. Two more glorious tracks can be heard on their bandcamp page from this, their "Serious Business" EP. Clouder will be releasing their debut full-length album on 12/20 in the digital realm. Physical copies are planned for late Jan/early Feb. They are playing a show at Party Expo on 12.02 and at The Charleston on the following day with Boston cult psych rockers 28 Degrees Taurus. – Dave Cromwell

Deli readers in bands,

Every year, The Deli’s Year End Polls highlight hundreds of the best emerging artists in the 11 local US scenes we cover – and reward them with prizes from our sponsors.

As you may know, the winner of the NYC poll will grace the cover of the spring issue of The Deli.

Now established artists like Local Natives, Yeasayer, Twin Shadow, Vampire Weekends, Vivian Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Girls, Kurt Vile, Baths, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Blank Dogs, Buke and Gass and many others won or did well in our polls months if not years before getting international recognition.

The end of the 2011 is quickly approaching and we are ready to go through the painstaking 2 month process involved in selecting the artists and processing the various votes. We are already asking our local jurors (mostly venue promoters, bloggers, record store and radio personnel) to cast their vote for their favorite local emerging artists. But of course, our polls are open to all bands who want to be considered: free submissions are open from now until December 4th HERE – after that date we’ll have $5 submissions through SonicBids for another couple of weeks. All these submissions will be grouped by genre and filtered by The Deli’s local editors and some Deli writers.

To submit for consideration and for more info about our year end polls please go HERE.

Good Luck
The Deli’s Staff