CANT is a new super-collaboration between Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor and Twin Shadow – two bands that graced the cover of The Deli Magazine, 7 years apart (the Bears were on our very first issue’s cover in 2004, while Twin Shadow landed on our Spring 2011 issue’s glossy front page). CANT is about to release the debut album "Dreams Come True"on Taylor’s Terrible Records and Warp on September 13. You can listen to a couple of preview tracks from the record here.

Perpetually high fiving NYC guitar heroes Fang Island – featured on the cover of last year’s Deli’s first SXSW issue – are currently in the studio recording the followup to last year’s self-titled debut. Small hints of the recording process have been popping up on the band’s Twitter account. The band will take a short break from recording to hit the road in September for a series of East Coast shows, some of which will be with The Joy Formidable. Their next NYC show will be at Glasslands on October 5.

Attention all Washington, D.C. earthquake survivors! I know you’re all still in post traumatic stress disorder induced drunken stupors / hangovers at this point, but listen up! There is a remedy. You know as well as I do that the best possible cure for this madness is tables and tables full of delicious baked goods! And you, D.C., are in luck, rumor has it that a bake sale is brewing!

Oh, and, while you use this bake sale induced sugar high to cope with your unshakable (get it? earthquake? shakable? ahhh, forget it) fear of aftershocks, you can also feel awesome for helping send D.C. natives, the 1960s-esque indie poppers, Lightfoot on their inaugural European Tour.

The Bake Sale a la Fundraiser will be taking place this Thursday, August 25 at The Dunes in Columbia Heights from 8 – 11pm. There will be DJ’s, dance moves, cocktails, and the undoubtably sensual consumption of cupcakes for all to enjoy.

Come get down, get dirty, get your sugar-coma groove on, and support local music!

The Dunes is located at:

1402 Meridian Place NW
(Meridian Place entrance)
Washington, DC 20010

–Jarrett

Jonathan Wood Vincent lives in a world where you can do nothing but eat watermelon without threat of retaliation.  A world where businessmen hold meetings in glockenspiels. Consonance and dissonance collapse into a single point of miraculous possibility. Jonathan resides in an architectural landmark on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that maintains every idiosyncrasy, ideal, paperweight championed by its former occupants, who once sang opera for the Met.  This abode is aka Papacookie.  Want to see some Butoh?  Eat durian at a vegetarian potluck?  Sit on a 70 year old recliner and listen to the most radical sounds expounded in our current climate of experimental sound?  Go there.
Then there’s Jonathan at the piano, molting.  Spinning songs like faberge eggs.  Melodies are dissected, rerouted, segue paradoxically.  Listen to his songs and your eyes grow wide like new ears trying to grow where your eyes are.  His octaves translate a primal, guttural imperative to discover new terrain.  Here’s necessity.  Here’s the sensation of traveling by night. Technically, Jonathan plays the chords you least expect him to.  The top and bottom keys are redeemed.  Listening to him is deeply satisfying in a way that’s rare outside of honest reflection or marveling at Gothic Churches. Plus there’s an esteemed humor to it all.  See: his songs about CNN, Baltimore.  The mundane becomes extremely funny, there’s nothing ironic or defeatist about it. Listen carefully to what an artist who actively surprises themselves as well as the audience does to brainwaves, dream life, tomorrows’ commute… – Valerie Kuehne

Though they won’t actually be playing tonight, Heaven is tickled pink to be releasing their 7 inch at 200 Orchard – festivities begin around 9pm on August 23 (tonight). An emerging force in the dreamy New York psych/shoegazer scene (which appears to be getting hotter by the minute), Heaven is a group consisting of some of the local industry’s most influential heavyweights with Matt Sumrow (Dean and Britta), Mikey Jones (Swervedriver, The Big Sleep), Ryan Lee Dunlap (Fan-Tan) and Liz Lohse (ex-Runaway Suns). Crackling synth creates a hazy static against a steady rhythm and mellowing harmonies, in perfect Jesus & Mary Chain style. – Kristen Ferreira

Kevin Devine’s work is typically subdued and acoustic, but lately he’s been breaking through that trend with his newest record, "Between the Concrete and Clouds", featuring a full-band back-up, but not changing his characteristically observant lyrics on themes of human nature. Devine has opened for bands such as Bright Eyes and Manchester Orchestra, and he’s most known for his performances at Coachella and Bonnaroo last year. The new EP will be released on September 13. Until then, listen here. – Caitlin Clive

Bumbershoot is right around the corner.  Next weekend a smear of local talent will be on display near the 74-acre Seattle Center park, and the band I’m most hankering to see right now would be Yuni in Taxco.  After years of admiring each others’ work in various projects, the five-piece assemblage of brothers Ross (vocals, guitar) and Bryce (drums), Sean (vocals, guitar), Jim (bass, slide guitar) and Isaiah (backing vocals, electronics, percussion) found themselves in a collaboration.  The band has been together for over a year now and are still playing on their very strong self-titled EP containing some of Seattle’s most inspired, shimmering, sepia-toned pop.  Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs and Feels are a fairly obvious influence on the band, and in the track "Eduardo Kac’s Dream Song" you can hear a bit of Smith Westerns derived vocal patterns, but this band does more than enough to separate themselves from their influences, which can be a difficult task to accomplish in any medium (See Harold Bloom’s "Anxiety of Influence").  They play September 3 at 12:45pm on the Fisher Green Stage.

The New Jersey five-piece indie rock band, The Ugly Club, creates music that carries elements of psych rock, lo-fi and also garage-rock, with an added, strong textural quality. With two self released EP under their belt, the band these days isbusy in the studio, preparing a new release . The band has been making the rounds throughout the tri-state area promoting their "Visions of Tall Girl" EP, and played Cameo Gallery earlier this week with an impromptu acoustic sampling of their song, "Wasted on You", at Williamsburg Waterfront beforehand. – Abigail P. Devora

After a very good reception as a digital release, We Are Augustines‘ "Rise Ye Sunken Ships" will be released in CD format on Tuesday August 23. The band’s alt folk-rock has a visionary and passionate character, and hopeful tones with deeply meaningful, lyrics often flirting with mysticism. One of their premier tracks, "Book of James", is available for free download on their site (if you subscribe to their mailing list), while "Chapel Song" is streaming below. It’s just enough to sell you on the whole album: “He stood there in his boots unable to move, and I came here to tell you that I love you. And here lies my green eyes rolled back in my head, but they’re alive. And all these words can all get spoken: Just know we tried, and you’re forgiven.” – Caitlin Clive

After two years of work, Robbers on High Street will be releasing their newest album "Hey There Golden Hair" on September 13. This will be the first record they’ve made with their current line-up, still producing the piano-pumping, brass-rocking high energy rock as ever. Until fall, they’ll be playing at Brooklyn Bowl on Mondays in August, and pre-orders are available on PledgeMusic, where fans can receive prizes based on the size of the sum they pay for the new CD.