Gentle Brooklyn lo-fi-shoegaze-poppers Dream Diary just released this home made video of their single "El Lissitzky", the band recently released their debut CD, "You Are The Beat" on Kanine records.

–Photo by Adrie Smith

I first heard Margot MacDonald singing entirely by accident. I was walking through the Reston Town Center during one festival or another – who can keep track of how many festivals are held there? In the distance, I heard the familiar heartbeat rhythm from my days of programming computers while listening to Massive Attack records on headphones. Someone was covering "Teardrop" in a semi-a-capella fashion, apparently with the aid of some digital loops. I pushed through crowds of suburbanites to work my way closer to the heartbeat. When I finally found the makeshift stage setup, I was surprised to find a petite red-headed teenage girl absolutely wailing the lyrics by herself in perfect harmony with her own voice, which was pulsing through the loop pedal on the ground. There were at least three photographers with expensive, telephoto rigs photographing her performance as if this Reston festival were Lollapalooza.

I’ve found this to be the curious paradox of Margot MacDonald. On one hand, she has been massively successful in her music career, especially considering she is only 19 years old. She began singing with the Washington National Opera when she was 10 and was recording her first album with a Grammy-nominated producer by age 12. She was the 2010 Washington Area Music Award "Artist of the Year", her seventh "Wammie" award to date. And yet, to my knowledge, as of this publication, she is yet unsigned.

To be fair, MacDonald wasn’t interviewed for this piece, and maybe she isn’t looking to be signed right now. To be even fairer, she is extensively involved with non-profit organizations and is constantly playing out at these local festivals and seems nothing short of thrilled to do so. And to be beyond fair, she has graced stages no less prestigious than the 9:30 Club and even the Kennedy Center itself and doesn’t have a thing left to prove to anybody. But, honestly, it’s hard to hear a voice so refined, so bold, so versatile, and so fresh being showcased at a quaint, town festival and not have that old "Piano Man" thought, "Girl, what are you doin’ here?"

I feel like I’m sounding negative, so let me clarify my stance: Margot MacDonald is an absolutely bad-ass singer. And I am nothing if not a sucker for her obsession with (and mastery of) the loop pedal she’s become so associated with. And, I love that I can find her singing her heart out at a cute little festival just as hard as she would on a huge stage. She writes great original songs and has an arsenal of unique, gutsy covers, like Imogen Heap’s "Just for Now." To me, the detached observer, it seems like you can almost see her true artistic soul and edginess in the way she plays those cover songs than even in her own original music. But, there’s no doubt that her original songwriting is moving rapidly in a direction that is unmistakably her own and in a direction that really highlights her unstoppably strong voice that seemingly is unbounded by range limitations.

Margot is definitely an artist to watch, and I suspect we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg that is her music career. And, speaking of watching her, why not check her out while she’s still playing local festivals? Her next appearance is Friday, July 15, at the Wheaton TGIF Series.

–Jarrett

Radical Dads was founded in 2008 along the banks of the (famously polluted) Gowanus Canal. Lindsay Baker sings and plays the guitar. Robbie Guertin (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) sings and plays the drums. Chris Diken plays the guitar and does not sing. The band released its self-titled EP in May 2009 and the Recklessness 7-inch in December 2010. Their first full-length album, "Mega Rama", was released today by Uninhabitable Mansions, an art collective and record label based in Brooklyn, NY. Radical Dads’ interests include disaster, piracy, land use, feedback, distortion, and feedback-laced distortion, and probably even doing silly things – which is the main theme in their latest video below. – Read Mike Levine’s interview with the band here.

At 23 years old, Michigan born Alex Winston has already been featured in a Hyundai commercial, toured the world and released a couple of critically acclaimed recordings (she’s currently on an extended European tour). With this year’s beat-driven EP "Sister Wife" (which was Deli CD of the Month in February), Winston is exploring very different territory from her past two releases. With New York producers The Knocks taking the helm this time around, coupling their beat-making genius with Winston’s operatic soprano, Alex sounds like we might see her tour with Janelle Monae in a couple years. Whereas, just last year on her Basement Covers album we got a Jon Brion-inspired EP filled with her imaginative takes on classics from The Rolling Stones’ "Play with Fire" to Mumford & Sons’ "Cave." She’s come a long way in a short time, and it’ll be fun to keep an ear to this artist and see what happens next. – Read Mike Levine’s interview with Alex here.

Remember the Vuvuzelas? Their constant trumpety drone made them (in)famous in South Africa during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Well, it looks like since then somebody has been working in the dark to clear their name… Saturday night at 285 Kent, BKLYN from 8pm till PARTY is the "Viva La Vuvuzela!" Music Fest, bringing out "an explosion of eclectic sounds from Brooklyn to Bangalore." The lineup features a spread of Afro-influenced music, including Nomsa Mazwai (winner of South African Music Awards), international world music collective Osekre & the Lucky Bastards (picture above), and Shinobi Ninja (video below), whose power-reggae will surely make you bang your head in a metal-inspired rasta sort of way. The event is nine acts long, fully charged, and gives attendees first pick at a few free downloads. See you at VIVA! – Caitlin Clive

Coming in at number 26 on the Deli’s Best New Emerging Artists of 2010 poll (the full results can be seen here) Ridgewood, New Jersey based Big Troubles is comprised of Alex Craig and Ian Drennan, friends from high school, and Luka Usmiani and Samuel Franklin. Craig went to college in New York (where he met Franklin, the two had a class together), Drennan in Boston, and the two decided to record last summer after losing touch for a while. Talking about the interest focused on music from their county (Bergen County), Drennan says, “[Big Troubles] sort of tries to counter that by maybe not playing into what’s understood to be the ‘New Jersey sound." Despite this counter, Craig says that living in New York was a “soul-crushing, horrible experience” and that he would much rather live in Ridgewood. Big Troubles’ music is filled with references to 80’s synth pop and 90’s shoegaze, and Craig admits that it was almost a bonding experience, the two of them getting into the same music together. Their debut, Worry (full listening is enabled here), has vaguely hazy production skills but still manages to blow listeners away with their catchy tunes.
The band will be releasing of a new album in late August and is just announced a tour in support of Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Check out the tune from the upcoming album entitled "Misery" – some kind of shoegazer-pop song with Smashing Pumpkins and The Jesus and Mary Chain influences.

Mp3: Big Troubles – Misery

Mahogany is one of the most interesting "shoegazy" NYC bands (although they are partly based in Philly as well), blending the genre’s typical droney and reverbery atmospheres with gentle electronic elements and loungy pop vocals reminiscent of Stereolab. From what we heard, the band went through a rough period involving line up changes but also new material, which will be showcased live tonight during the show at The Studio at Webster Hall in Manhattan

Rewards (brainchild of multi instrumentalists Aaron Pfenning, Co-Founder of Chairlift) has announced the release of his forthcoming single, "Equal Dreams", featuring Solange Knowles and Blood Orange, aka Lightspeed Champion. Quite interestingly we were just saying the other day how Blood Orange "sounds like an alt-soul version of Chairlift playing late Roxy Music songs". Set for a July 25th release on DFA Records the single will be available in 12" vinyl and digitally. Less opaque and murky than its predecessors, "Equal Dreams" starts with upbeat percussion, great big handclaps and a creeping bassline that sounds anything but melancholic. Rewards will be playing live at Cameo on August 18 with Suckers.

Milagres (ex The Secret Life of Sofia) writes catchy, melodic songs garnished with airy synths that are elevated by Kyle Wilson’s mesmeric falsetto. The slow builds drum up a voracious anticipation that is graciously rewarded by satisfying releases that warrant repeat listens. The band – signed to Kill Rock Stars Records, will be releasing their second album Glowing Mouth on September 13. Milagres have just announced a fall tour with Peter Wolf Crier. The band (voted #20 best emerging NYC artist in our latest Year End Poll) has released a free track from the upcoming album, which you can stream below.

Brooklyn-based Cinema,Cinema, an amalgamation of Ev Gold (vocals/guitar) and Paul Claro (drums), explodes into aggressive, grungy garage punk on their grumbling and demonic EP, “Shoot the Freak.” Frantic screamer, “Lady Abortion” surges with distortion and high speed drums. The EP continues the medical motif with “Pleased to Meet You, Anesthesia,” which features parallel melodies in vocals and instrumentation, losing control in sirens of guitar feedback. Banging drums and guitar riffs set Day-Leash” off in a progressive rock frenzy, eventually returning to the opening measures which fade into silence to close “Shoot the Freak.” Cinema Cinema’s music sounds explosive on record also because of the sound engineering help of Don Zientara, producer of crucial punk/hardcore records by Minor Threat, Fugazi, Bad Brains, and Bikini Kill, to name just a few. The band will be playing a series of dates in the NYC area, the first one at The Charleston (174 Bedford, Williamsburg) on July 15. – Meijin Bruttomesso