Sydney (Australia) to New York transplants Sherlock’s Daughter are set to begin a month long residency at The Knitting Factory for the next four Monday nights in May. Their sound is a fascinating hybrid of delicate female lead vocals and somewhat unsettling instrumentation, leaning towards the droney and the dreamy. "Song For Old People" emphases a chanting chorus vocal style, with primitive thumping on tree-stump percussion, then building out with pulsing keyboard undercurrents. "Reprise" gives off lullaby sensations via the lead vocal, while presenting an unsettling backdrop of uncertain instrumental accompaniment. “In The End” focuses even further on the gentle qualities of the bands lead voice. “Love can’t hurt us now” is a repeated lyric, as clackety percussion dances over top of deeper thumps and arpeggiated guitar patterns. An extended coda of rain and thunder sounds further establishes the intended mood. “Sons and Daughters” adds background vocals providing a call and response element found in early American spiritual folk music – however, droney guitar textures keep things very much rooted in the psych rock genre. The Knitting Factory shows are all ages and free to attend. – Dave Cromwell

Wyoming Exploded, a four-piece Baltimore rock band, performed at the Ottobar on Friday, 4/29. The 45-minute set, featuring songs from last summer’s At Our Worst EP and the band’s forthcoming LP, garnered praise from young and old and even impressed the bartender. Descriptions of the band’s music and performances have included comparisons to a Billie Joe Armstrong-fronted Guided By Voices (by author James Greer) and The Ramones on crack (by Friday’s headliners, Leadheart Deadbird). See the band perform at Bourbon Street Ballroom on Friday, May 27th.

On their debut album "Songs from the Bromley House", Lucius (who placed 86th on our latest Year End Poll for emerging NYC artists) shares their experiences of living in this century-old Bushwick residence. The album is filled with warm colors and folksy Americana, working well as a backdrop under the unrushed energy of singer-songwriters Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. It’s a beautiful thing to hear their voices tell each other’s stories together in perfect cadence. You feel the care and sensitivity these two share for one another with every delicate nuance. It’s nice to be invited into the Bromley House for a little while… – Mike Levine

Lucius will be playing the Folk/Singer-Songwriter Stage at the upcoming Deli 2011 NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artists Fest). Here’s the full lineup for that night (the fest will have 9 stages that same week):

The Knitting Factory – $8/12 – 18+
DELI’S B.E.A.F. FOLK/SINGER/SONGWRITERS STAGE
11.15 Turner Cody
10.45 TBA
10.15 Waking Lights
9.30 Bird Call (CD Release)
9.00 Norman Vladimir
8.30 Lacrymosa
8.00 Lucius
7.30 Huff This!
7.00 Fifth Nation

Brooklyn’s Quiet Lights have posted a new single "Simple Mechanics" on their bandcamp page! The band will be performing at Matchless on May 13th w/ 3 other great bands. It’s a lineup so good they created a compilation around it – listen ti it here.- (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.

Nostalgia of the 80s is the trend of the year as far a NYC pop is concerned. Living Days – who placed 87th in The Deli’s latest Best of NYC emerging artists poll – extract all the good bits from their new wave predecessors in their slick’n’rocking electro-pop embellished with sparkling synths and riddled with hooks. The band’s signature sound is Stephonik Youth’s low register voice, which darkens the mood of swirling electronic effects and effervescent keyboard lines that merge with dance-rock rhythms, fashioning music suitable for underground club dynamics. The band has a super fun live show and will be playing at Brooklyn Bowl on May 26th within The Deli’s own NYC 2011 B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artists Fest) with The Rassle and Ravens and Chimes).

Deli Artist of the Month Rachel Platten’s new CD “Be Here” was released last week, and it feels like it’s summer already. Filled with upbeat, pop-infused tunes, the new material showcases Platten’s sweetly unique, soulful voice, and honest, relatable lyrics. “Be Here” reads as a musical journey that every person who comes to NYC in search of love, success, and happiness can identify with. From the funky, sexy hit “We Don’t Care What Time It Is” to the raw, insightful “Remark”, Rachel creates an escape into a world where joy and pain coexist simultaneously and effortlessly. This record can be seen as a picture of the path that led her to this point in her career, in which she showcases her natural ability to bring light to everything she touches. Be sure to check out her record release show at Le Poisson Rouge on May 3, 7:00pm. –Christina Morelli

Seeing NYC Opera’s Act 4 last Wednesday, April 20 has to be one of the more unique experiences I’ve ever had at Lincoln Center. Even Darren Aronofsky couldn’t make the David H. Koch Theater look cooler than Stephen Shwartz’s amazing opera did, coupled with beach rock band Small Black capping off the evening in the theater’s 4th ring.
While opera has a reputation of being impenetrable, Shwartz did a remarkable job of making his Seance on a Wet Afternoon immediately accessible to the relatively young and uninitiated audience. Despite the tragic plot, the characters were warm and relatable, and you couldn’t help getting caught up in it, though at times the mood felt more broadway than upper west side.
After the show, I took the elevator up to the 4th ring to enjoy free cocktails and the Cure-channeling lo-fi Small Black, who strangely fit in well with the dressed-up hipster crowd.
My one complaint with seeing the band at this venue was that the 4th ring is definitely not designed for its acoustics. Frequently, the instruments of the band’s 4 piece ensemble would project in isolated spaces across the floor, and I’d find myself hearing the drums at one end of the hall, and the keys at the other.
Overall though, this was a great experience. I felt like Lincoln Center opened its arms wide to embrace us high-art deprived Brooklynites, and its efforts were appreciated. Swing by this Thursday, April 28 to see the last Act 4 event of the year. The Secret Science Club plays after the show. – Mike Levine, photo by John Rogers.

Some people were born with a voice that screams for… singing in a rock band – Zak Smith is one of them. Zak plays well crafted pop-rock that sweats warmth and passion – think of Bruce Springsteen’s inner fire mixed with Tom Petty’s superior talent for melody. The man and his band will be playing two shows in Manhattan on the same day on May 5 – the first one at the Best Buy store in Union Square at 4pm, and then at Sullivan Hall at 7pm. Those of you who are constantly searching for a new forger of rock classics might want to mark your calendars – and, in the meantime, enjoy this video of the single "Under Your Possession".

When a band goes under the name Country Mice, you pretty much know what to expect from them – some kind of rootsy stuff. And as a matter of fact that’s what Country Mice deliver: very well crafted folk rock with some psych influences. Sure, go ahead and call it alt-country if you want, but it’s much country-er than Wilco’s alt-country material (why the press decided to coin that genre for those records by the way is beyond us, it was more like just… quality rock? Anyhoo, Country Mice really manage to instill new life into this genre – we love "A Good Old Fashioned Barn Rising" from their myspace profile, and also the single "Festival" (embedded here), a twangy rock’n’roll tune that would make Neil Young proud (or will if he ever got around to listen to it). The band is about to release their debut CD, due out in June. – Read a Deli interview with the bandfrom last year here.

From the nature-filled great outdoors of Anchorage, Alaska to the concrete roads and brights lights of New York City, The Lives of Famous Men have left their mark on the cross-country path to musical eminence. With their new album, Marigold Maxixe, this now Brooklyn-based indie pop band, sings honestly of their experiences of love and life on the road. Interwoven within the seven tracks are elements of smooth jazz, punk pop, and a bit of folk rock, appealing to wide variety of tastes and sounds. Written and performed by members of The Lives of Famous Men- Daniel Hall, Ari Katcher, Dylan Mandel, Andrew Totemoff, and Jason Wahto, Marigold Maxixe is a refreshing release that both fills you with energy and soothes your soul. – Read Christina Morelli’s interview with the band here.

Parody-Dance trio Tayisha Busay Tayisha Busay seem able to transform any song in the most fun and absurd thing ever. Just to give you an idea of the what’s going on with these guys, they seem to have a passion for not-so-toungue-in-cheek kind of jokes, like when for example they reveal that they just found out that the name of their single for an upcoming full-length is actually a slang term for an uncircumcised penis: it’s called "Covered Wagon,” but they apparently meant it to be about the Oregon Trail… The album art has a half-unicorn, half-mermaid on it — a mermicorn, if you will. What more can you want? Maybe this: in the music video for “WTF You Doin’ in My Mouth,” they drink and vomit… glitter. With lots of passion and a boatload of spunk, catchy electro-dance tunes, ridiculous ‘80s aesthetic and love of spandex, we can only hope Tayisha Busay will write and score their own version of “Flashdance” and star in it. For some seriously fun times see these guys at Santos on May 10. – Read Lauren Piper’s Q&A with the band here.