Sheila Sobolewski’s brainchild, LUFF, is a Brooklyn based band that fills the gap between shoegazer and post rock with its mid tempo, moody tracks featuring Sheila’s pensive vocals and electric guitar arrangements that range from the intricate and slightly dissonant to the full on, power-chord-fueled wall of sound. They are going to celebrate the pre-release of a new EP tonight (11.11) at Union Hall; if you are into luscious noise and (truly proficient) all female bands, don’t miss this one.

Blaze McKenzie loves his toys. His solo project puts vocals through the meat grinder, and his production work with Sydney Wayser finds the artist surrounded in sharply resonating chimes.
But for his own group, Blaze dials the textures back. He describes The Can’t Tells as ‘the only Non-Noise band in Brooklyn.’ But one could reasonably disagree. On their self-titled debut, the song ‘You’re Not Listening’ taunts the listener with the lyrics: ‘You’re not listening, cuz I’m not saying it right’ for the last half of the tune, sandwiched between layers of feedback that build to frenzy, whether he’s saying ‘it’ right or not.
Similarly, listen to the desperate lover portrayed in ‘Whipping Boy’ fall down a well of jagged guitar sounds, never quite reaching the bottom before the song abruptly ends, and you’ll start to get the picture… this is some well-thought out stuff, noise and all. A lo-fi tinkerer cut from the fabric of Atlas Sound, Blaze never reaches the bottom of his toolbox; placing mellotron, chimes and violins on the same team. But while he’s tinkering away in the background, he’s waxing poetic in the foreground. Blaze possesses an unassuming voice made to deal with a lot of these moving parts, always placing texture in service of testimonial.
There’s a lot going on here, and the way the three-piece is able to bring it all to bear in this cohesive and well-rounded effort, makes me more than happy to play in their sandbox a little while. See them play Piano’s Nov 22nd with Fete and Ego Puppets. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)

We stumbled upon this NYC band called "Ego Puppets" while working on the next blog entry about The Can’t Tells (with whom they’ll share the Pianos’ stage on 11.22) and really liked this "Vibration" song. Checkerout!

Admittedly, I sometime search for coverage of emerging local bands I like on other (more) established music sites like Brooklynvegan, Stereogum and Pitchfork. When I do this, I secretly hope I won’t find any, so that one day I’ll be able to proudly say: "we were the first ones to cover these guys!"
Ah, the vanity of pride…
Today I decided to do the same with Pearl & The Beard, a band that’s not very new, but that has been – without any doubts – one of the most interesting, entertaining and followed NYC based alt-folk acts for at least 2 or 3 years now. To my surprise, neither Pitchfork nor Stereogum ever published anything whatsoever about them, which in my book is almost a scandal. This not only makes us proud of the coverage we’ve been giving to them, but is also very telling about how quality is not always rewarded in the online publications perceived as the "truth holders" of indie music. Luckily there’s NPR, who premiered the band’s beautiful new video, check it out here.

Brooklyn electro-psych-pop band Papertwin is about to release "Porcelain EP", their debut. To celebrate the event they’ll be throwing a party at Glasslands on Nov. 13th in collaboration with Popgun booking. Guests include Deli favorite Psychobuildings, Modern Rivals, Robotdrummer and a DJ set by the MDNR girl and DJ Momo from Slowdance. Show starts at 8:30 – sounds like a super fun party. – (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.

With their new EP "Bleed Me" the guitar/vocalist and drummer grrrl tandem Clinical Trials steps up the noise-rock formula through the addition of orchestral and industrial elements, boosted by confident performances and songwriting.
In the record’s highlight track, the suspenseful and almost scary "Whip It", the band takes the bold step of adding an unnerving brass section to the more traditional harsh guitar and rumble-crash drum sound. The soaring female vocals start out in a controlled manner but by song’s end have progressed to throat shredding screams, in an ever-growing, cathartic tension buildup. That’s what rock’n’roll is all about right there… The second track "American Girl" – as tense as the previous one – touches on middle-eastern rhythms for the verses, adding alienating low-toned synth bends to the mix. "Sweet Machine" is more bass guitar heavy, with a clean lively drum sound positioned against breathy come-hither vocals. References to "beauty queens" and "satisfaction guaranteed" completes the sex-for-whatever scenario. "White Fence" makes use of found audio vocal snippets (made to sound like radio transmissions) leading into a vocal delivery that pays homage to Kurt Cobain’s more confessional moments. Rich organ textures pad the sonic space as lyrical points are made about "cyanide moments." If only Frances Bean would make up with Courtney – they would probably enjoy checking out this band together.
Clinical Trials will be playing at The Studio at Webster Hall this Friday 11.11 in support of Texas indie grrls trio Girl In A Coma. – Dave Cromwell.

Sometimes a record hits you just at the right time to make you feel like writing about it. Lizard Kisses‘ music is the perfect listen at this time, 5.24pm, after a rather busy day. This is music so sparse and so slow that it could be discribed as "almost silence". But the few things that aren’t silence in here, the slowly plucked acustic guitar, the slide guitar effects in the background, the beautiful melody and filtered backing vocals, create a blissful aura you want to carry home with you. This seems like a very very new project (7 facebook friends, 8 now…) but one that deserves to be followed with interest. – Lizard Kisses submitted their music for consideration through this link.

Noise lovers, rejoice! The noisiest Brooklyn band is back with new material, and a free download that, after one listen, is already blowing our little minds. A Place to Bury Strangers will release the EP "Onwards to the Wall" – their debut on Dead Oceans Records – on February 7, but, if your can’t wait that long to ruing your eardums, you can download the single "So Far Away" (below) to your iPod and turn up the volume to exceptionally damaging levels… great song.

Download Mp3: A Place to Bury Strangers – "So Far Away"
Read an old interview with the band here.

Sounding like a mix of two of the most intriguing and beloved bands of the 90s (Lemonheads and Dinosaur Jr.), 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. Their new debut full length "The Times We Didn’t Have Fun" shows great improvement in all department, with casually sung catchy melodies floating on that awesome, powerful but unpretentious pre-grunge wall of guitars we grew up to love. Check them out live at Dead Herring (141 S. 5th St. 11211 Brooklyn) on 11.12.

Brooklyn born folk singer Daniel Goodman is playing The Living Room November 14th to celebrate the release of his latest LP "Cold Wind", out now. The album, produced by Anton Fier (Jeff Buckley, Mick Jagger, John Yorn) showcases Goodman’s trademark rootsy folk and Americana sound, but also shows a very NYC experimental and jazzy side of the artist, which according to his biography was developed while in college at Berklee School of Music. Nostalgic and powerful, Cold Wind features collaborations from Anton Fier on drums, guitarist Adam Levy (Norah Jones), jazz bassist Arthur Kell, and guitarist Larry Saltzman (Paul Simon). – Amanda F. Dissinger