Weathervane Music is a non-profit organization that create community funded projects to support and advance the careers of deserving independent musicians. They just release Volume 2, Episode 5 of their Shaking Through series – their music and video web series that documents “the birth of a song” by an emerging independent artist in a professional, high-end recording studio. The episode features NJ heroes Big Troubles (#26 in our 2010 Best of NYC Emerging Artists Poll). The song, “Phantom,” is the first full band recording since the album, Worry, and marks the first Big Troubles recording to be produced in a professional studio. Big Troubles will release “Phantom” as the B-side to the first single on their fall 2011 album produced by Mitch Easter (Pavement, R.E.M.), which will be licensed and released by Slumberland Records. The band will play the Bell House in Brooklyn, on May 20th and Maxwell’s in Hoboken on May 21st before leaving to tour Europe with Julian Lynch and Ducktails.

Interesting show at Electric Bowery on May 18 with two emerging NYC based bands. Fort Lean (top pic) is Bottle Up & Go’s Keenan Mitchell side project, also dwelling in Americana and Rock, but with a less aggressive, more melodic, sometimes even crooning approach. The Shining Twins (bottom pic), is a female fronted trio that sounds like a simplified version of The Pixies without Frank Black. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that whoever sings the song "Ted" is Kim Deal’s illegitimate daughter (with a better wardrobe). Other songs are more on the garagey side of things

The Deli sponsored 5th Annual LC Fest, organized by independent music community Local Correspondents, begins tonight Bar4 in Park Slope. Featured performers will play from 8 to 10 p.m., followed by an open mic, which will run from 10 p.m. until last call. Anyone wishing to perform at this always-packed open mic should be at Bar4 for the drawing and sign up, which begins promptly at 6:30 p.m. For the complete schedule of performers for all six nights of the festival, (from May 17th to the 22nd), visit the Local Correspondent website.

NYCers into real new music,

What in 2009-10 was called "Best of NYC Fest" is now "The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F." – as in Best of Emerging Artists Fest. Isn’t that a perfect acronym for a Deli festival?

The use of the word "Best" is not entirely arbitrary in this case. Most of the artists playing the fest were included in our latest Year End Best of NYC List, compiled polling la crème de la crème of the NYC music industry, including many local venue promoters, bloggers, music journalists and radio DJs.

Hitting Brooklyn for the third year running, this can only be described as the most underground and cross-genre showcase of NYC’s new talent. To make things even more exciting, The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F. 2011 will be promoted starting next week through the Spring 2011 issue of The Deli, which will be exclusively dedicated to the 106 artists in the Best of NYC 2010 list.

Full schedule with links can be found here!

The Deli’s B.E.A.F. is sponsored by BMI in collaboration with PreSonus and The Musebox

The Deli’s Staff

It may be a windy ten degrees on these New York City streets, but if you’re plugged into Dream Diary, your heart is in the warm sunshine. Their track, “Something Tells Her” belongs among the dream-pop elite the likes of The Clientele, Acid House Kings and Sweden’s Labrador records. The track features an upbeat, head-bobbing melody flourished with shimmering guitar and Jacob Sloan’s Morrisy-esque vocals, the New York Times even acknowledging their “Smiths-like tendencies.” And the story of their formation is a sweet song in itself and could be the trailer of the next great indie romance; Jacob Sloan and Madison Farmer literally bumped into each other on the street in New York, both dropping ipods, both playing The Smiths’s Queen Is Dead… (uhm, should we believe this? ) Be sure to pick up their brand new album, You Are The Beat (Kanine), and to see them live at The Deli’s NYC B.E.A.F. on Thursday May 26 with other great local bands like Invisible Days, Ravens & Chimes, Translations, Dinowalrus, and Prospector. – Katie Bennett

Bands and Artists based in NYC and NJ,

This June The Deli will participate to The L Magazine’s Northside Festival for the first time, and our organizers are looking for artists to book for our show at Spike Hill on Saturday June 18.
 

If your band is based in NYC or NJ and
doesn’t have a show booked at Northside yet
please compile this form HERE to get a chance to play!

Thanks and Good Luck!

The Deli’s Staff

From a quick internet search, we learned today that "Pine Mouth" is a bitter or metallic taste some people develop after ingesting pine nuts. But there isn’t really much bitterness (and no metallic-ness whatsoever) in this NYC based quartet’s music, a sugar-coated folk-pop rich in charming melodies, twangy arrangements, and big melodic openings – you’ll find all this in the embedded single "Animals". The band is brand new and will perform their first show on Tuesday May 17 at Rockwood Music Hall (stage 2). The show will also double as release party for their self titled digital EP.

Clare Burson plays simple, twangy ballads that subtly reinvent Americana, standing clear of sterile country cliches, and instilling in the genre a powerful dose of melancholy. So powerful that the song "Goodbye My Love" (embedded here) may prove to be a dangerous listening experience on a rainy day like this… But, unlike many other pop-obsessed blogs out there, The Deli is – and always will be – proud to celebrate the beauty of sophisticated sad music (our recent Lia Ices cover can testify that once for all). Clare’s melodies are supported by her gentle alto, at times reminiscent of an early Joni Mitchell with a slight lower register. Clare is currently playing a residency at Rockwood Music Hall (see her there on May 25 and 29th.)

Shenandoah Ableman has the rare ability to turn any genre into sexy time. Comfortable singing in front of styles ranging from German cabaret to doo wop, her quintet Shenandoah and the Night are bringing sexy back… one sultry style at a time. The band’s new self-titled debut EP showcases this sensuality with deep confidence, but the best way to really feel the heat is to see the band live. Along with Melati Malay, Electric Child, Beast Make Bomb, Yankee Bang Bang and 5 hours of other up and coming female fronted NYC emerging bands, Shenandoah and the Night will be playing as part of the Deli’s Best of NYC Fest May 28 at Spike Hill – this will also double as their EP release party. Their next show isn’t scheduled until July, so show some love and come on out. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)

Tuesday’s show at Mercury Lounge might be just what you need to get distracted from this unexpected, S.A.D. syndrome inducing week of dreadful weather. Project Jenny, Project Jan and Murder Mystery (pictured), two of the most unapologetically upbeat and fun NYC pop bands, will perform at the best sounding LES venue and then share a trip through the east coast for 3 dates tour. Murder Mystery will also perform at 3rd Ward’s 5th year anniversary party on May 21 at 4 pm.

Mp3: Murder Mystery – Problems

"Verisimilitude" is what Brooklyn’s Dead Leaf Echo calls their soon to be released EP of high profile remixes. Allowing other noteworthy musicians to re-imagine some of their more well know tracks, the results are creative and dynamic. The Elika mix of "Half Truth" emphasizes a sparse industrial percussion track with rising and falling background vocals, and features an added phrase at the end – “it’s calling out to me – so silent you can see – you tore apart, tore apart – you went through my heart”. “Woogathering” Mark Van Hoen remix opens sans any percussion at all, focusing on a buzzing background while lead vocals are pushed through a similarly buzzy filter. Clean, clock-meter percussion and pulsing synths create further audio motion for the listener. "Half Truth" Spry! remix rises from the misty depths as synth lines trade playfully with cut up and repeated vocal snips. "Act of Truth" Rx Gibbs falling away dub mix presents a full on wall of background vocals with driving percussion front and center. Slithery bass guitar creates an alternate motion while vocals faded in and out of the mix join with rushing synth pads. The EP will be relased on May 31st on Custom Made records, and the band play a release party at Pianos on May 19. – Dave Cromwell

It’s been a long time coming. The East Coast / West Coast / Dirty South rivalry in the hip hop game has been a tool of media sensationalism and a catalyst for violence for long enough. The time has come for the styles to merge, the characteristics defining each area code bleeding into each other generating an era of hip hop where artists are finally celebrated for their individual skill and artistry. Max Burgundy is one of these prospectors braving the new frontier. From his West-coast delivery and pronunciation you would never imagine that he was born in the Bronx and now lives in Brooklyn. However, his East-coast beats bump with a levity that sets them apart from the scores of “hard” beats prevailing in the NYC scene. He’s like the missing member of Living Legends transplanted to the birthplace of the art, his deep baritone calling out to the masses to join him in the march towards global unification. He rocked Arlene’s Grocery last week, check out his twitter profile for upcoming gigs.

Mp3: Max Burgundy – "Hey Love"