This February, Brooklyn based rootsy rock band, Great Elk, will host a 4-week residency at Rockwood Music Hall. Each Thursday night they will be joined by local favorites, hand-picked by Great Elk themselves, including Tall Tall Trees, Kevin Johnston, Luke Wesley and Monuments. Each Thursday show will also see the band release a limited edition of hard copy singles, with a new track each week.

Mike Del Rio, one of New York’s brightest indie pop singer/songwriters, is headlining at The Bowery Ballroom on Friday, February 4th. Tickets are $13 in advance (and can be purchased here) and $15 at the door. Joining Del Rio on February 4th are TVTV, a New York City band putting a new twist on standard pop music; Samuel, an electro-pop solo artist with infectious energy; and Night Fevers, a pop-punk band that will get you moving for sure. All who attend the show at the Bowery Ballroom will receive a free copy of Mike Del Rio’s debut record, “The Mad World.” You can preview some of the tracks on his official website. The show begins at 8:00pm and it is 16+. – LT

Imagine a symphony orchestra that just took a couple hits of windowpane. The drummers start trying to kill invisible dragonflies and the strings begin to melt into themselves. Someone somewhere starts to sing…and the group pulls themselves together into a cohesive machine of beat and vibrato. First impressions matter, and Duchess Leo makes it work with their opening track, "Your Sweet Love." It’s powerful but not aggressive, pretty but still has substance. It also sets the pace for the rest of Golden Gray — a balletic audio trip into a sunshiney space – but there is just enough bite to keep it from being overtly pretentious. A dance record this is not, but the sonic prowess of Dan Ryan and Todd Buchler (the men of Duchess Leo) is clear. Buchler took composition and theory classes, while Ryan worked on the production side, mastering music software – and it paid off. Their effort is written all over Golden Gray with an elegant script and a steady hand. – allison levin

Duchess Leo – Bloom

She’s a Kiwi in NYC – by way of Ozland – and after an extended break from recording, Julia Darling is back with a new album that will surely delight the fans that have been turning out in droves at the Rockwood these past few years. In "Everything That Has Happened Since Then" Julia Darling polishes her acoustic roots with lush production offered by Ken Rich and Andrew Sherman. A continuation of stark, personal, and deeply revealing songs. See her live at Rockwood Hall on January 28. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

It was a tight race for our first Emerging Artists Poll this year, coming down to a tie for 3rd. Here’s a little more about the radical bands chosen by our jury and the fans.

1.DELETED SCENES

Voted to the absolute top of the chart is DC’s pop post-rock band Deleted Scenes, who’ve been playing gigs up and down the east coast year round in support of their 2009 debut LP Birdseed Shirt. As seen in the fan-made video above for "Fake IDs" off the debut, Deleted Scenes create intricate compositions that build up to raucous levels of emotional awesomeness, and then a couple tracks later, as heard in "Got God", they show their southern bar-friendly ‘Americana’ side with a touch of piano, slide guitar, and hand claps. The release has gotten major good words from the press, and one of our fav lines comes from the DCist: "Birdseed Shirt is a fantastic debut and it reinforces what we’ve been saying all along. It’s shocking that this band isn’t huge." Deleted Scenes will be playing live at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Feb 12.

2.THE TENNIS SYSTEM

DC’s shoegaze noise lords the Tennis System nearly dominated the chart, and with a wide spectrum of releases and shows coming up, 2011 will again be another good year for them. They’ve got a new single about to come out called “Hey, We Tried”; a show at the Black Cat on 1/27 (worth the trip through the snowy mess, for sure!); they’ve been invited to play at the 2011 Canadian Music Festival, and are finishing up their next release Teenagers, due out soon! Check out a past review of one of their gigs here.

3.KING GIANT (tied)

Representing NoVa on the list of winners is Arlington based southern/stoner metal band King Giant, who’ve recently self-released their first LP Southern Darkness. Check out the video above for “13 to 1” a track off that album and soak up dark and heavy hooks that made Heavy Planet say, “if Johnny Cash rose from the grave and started a metal band, this is what it might sound like… this is music meant to exorcize demons.” King Giant will be playing live at the State Theatre on 1/29.

3. DEEP RIVER (tied)

Tied for the same spot as KG, is pop folk act Deep River, based out of Northern Virginia, who’ve recently released their debut album Ten Mornings. And actually, they’ve described their sound as “Front Porch Pop” and Deli writer Jarrett had some more to say about them here. If you happen to be in the Leesburg area this weekend, check them out as they have a gig at the Exeter House on 1/29.

Psychedelia signifies very different ideas to different bands. For Montreal’s The High Dials, it’s a throwback to the swirling, technicolor guitars of the 60s. For local act Weird Owl, it sounds like the epic arena rock of Neil Young and early Black Sabbath. For personal faves, the Brooklyn Raga Association (in the picture), it’s mystical tablas, sitars and harmoniums overlaid with obscure film samples.
Fortunately, you won’t have to choose between any of these sounds… see these and 5 other trippy acts Jan 29 @ Brooklyn’s newest DIY venue, Party Expo, where these bands will be in attendance for the lady Bree-organized Psychfest #2 running from 5pm to 1am(ish). Visual Projections will touch up the otherwise drab interior of Party Expo, and DJs Paul Dillon (Perfect Prescription) and Captain Heartlock will keep things moving between bands. Beer will be provided from Brooklyn Breweries from 8:30 to 9 so be sure and get there early! – $10 21+. – Mike Levine

Washington DC and Baltimore readers,

After some serious number churning and link pasting we are finally able to give you the results of our Best of Washington/Baltimore Emerging Artists 2010 poll. This chart is the result of a combined vote involving local scene makers (i.e. our jury, listed here), Deli writers and music fans (fans poll results here).

If you wonder how all this works you can try to figure it out here (2 and 1/2 words of warning: it’s complicated!).

Congrats to Deleted Scenes (in the picture), winners of our combined chart – and to all the bands who made the list!

Artist J OS W F TOTAL   1 Deleted Scenes 8     0.027 8.027 2 The Tennis System 4   1 0.008 5.008 3 Deep River 3   1 0.5 4.5   King Giant 3     1.5 4.5 5 US Royalty 3   1 0.029 4.029 6 The Chance 3 1   0.019 4.019 7 Screen Vinyl Image 4     0 4 8 Thee Lexington Arrows 3 0.75   0.001 3.751 9 The Silver Liners 0.5     3 3.5 10 Imperial China 3     0.019 3.019 11 Cotton Jones 3     0.003 3.003 12 Caverns 3     0.002 3.002   True Womanhood 3     0.002 3.002 14 BlueBrain 3     0.001 3.001   Maybe, Baby 3     0.001 3.001   Rattler 3     0.001 3.001 17 Dope Body 3     0 3   Loving the Lie 3     0 3   Suns of Guns 3     0 3   Caustic Casanova 1     2 3 21 Lions & Tigers & Whales 2     0.003 2.003 22 J Roddy Walston and the Business 2     0.001 2.001   Salome 2     0.001 2.001 24 David Correy 2     0 2   Justin Jones and the Driving… 2     0 2   Painted Face 2     0 2   Title Tracks 2     0 2   The Downtown Fiction 2     0 2 29 The Furries 2     0 2 30 The Shirks 2     0 2 31 Triac 2     0 2 32 Kentavius Jones 1     1 2 33 The Quarantines 1     0.028 1.028 34 Beasts of No Nation 1     0.008 1.008 35 Lower Dens 1     0.006 1.006 36 Animals as Leaders 1     0.003 1.003   Body Cop 1     0.003 1.003 38 Beautiful Swimmers 1     0.002 1.002   The Dialouge 1     0.002 1.002 40 Atari Blitzkrieg 1     0.001 1.001 41 Chelsea Lee 1     0 1   Lotus Fucker 1     0 1   Matt Hemerlein 1     0 1 44 Ally Way   0.75   0.002 0.752   Cobra Collective   0.75   0.002 0.752 46 The Last Monarchs   0.75   0.001 0.751 Legend: J = Jury – OS = Open Submissions – W = Deli Writers – F = Fans

The Deli’s Staff

Congrats to The Silver Liners (pictured), who won The Deli’s Best of Washington/Baltimore Emerging Aritsts Fans’ Poll 2010, followed by Caustic Casanova and King Giant. The full results of the fans’ poll can be found here. We’ll soon publish also the results of the composite chart including the jurors’ and Deli writers’ votes – stay tuned! (photo © Jeff Johns, 2010)

Congrats to Ravens & Chimes, who won the fans section os our The Deli’s Best of NYC Emerging Aritsts Poll 2010. The intense, NY based indie pop quartet was followed by rootsy noisemakers The Loom and funksters Turkuaz. We embedded the top 20 at the bottom of this blurb – check all these bands out, this year we have some great variety!

A pool of 100+ artists were selected in December 2010 mostly by local scene makers (concert promoters, bloggers, etc, full list here) and part of them through an open submission process. We let the fans vote and these are the results as far as the top 20 positions. We will soon publish the other results, including the jurors’ top 10s and the full composite charts wich will assign the cover of our spring issue of The Deli Magazine.

1 Ravens & Chimes 2 The Loom 3 Turkuaz 4 Shake The Baron 5 Hannibal Montana 6 Lily & The Parlour Tricks 7 Waking Lights 8 Zongo Junction 9 Kagero 10 Arpline 11 Huff This 12 Bird Call 13 Submarine Bells 14 Oh Land 15 Dede 16 Norman Vladimir 17 Yankee Bang Bang 18 Milagres 19 Shelley Nicole’s blaKbüshé 20 Sonia’s Party

The Deli’s Staff

Here is the top 10 (or, rather, the top 9) of the Juror’s vote section of The Deli’s Best of NYC 2010 Emerging Artists Poll.

This poll was EXTREMELY fragmented: 29 jurors (out of the 40+ we contacted) expressed their vote for their 3 favorite emerging NYC artists of 2010, and only 9 of these artists – the ones in this list – received multiple votes.

1 Games   Twin Shadow 3 Oberhofer   Lia Ices 4 Ava Luna   Buke and Gass   Fang Island   Dream Diary   Oh Land 10 25 bands tied on 10th!

Twin Shadow (pic below) is a rather predictable winner – the mustoachoed Brooklynite came out of nowhere in 2010 with a record produced and released by Grizzly Bear’s own Chris Bear, that was met with widespread critical acclaim.

On the other hand, it’s rather unexpected the result of the faceless, 80s inspired dance outfit Games – tied on #1 – who were also the only band, together with lo-fi heroes Oberhofer (3rd in this chart, pic below), to receive 3 juror votes.

Lia Ices, tied on 3rd place with her ethereal and haunting songs that recently found home at Jagjaguar records.

Tied at #4 five very original indie bands, including the brutally innovative Buke and Gass, Dream Diary‘s beautifully blurred melodies, Ava Luna‘s doo wop infused indie pop, Fang Island‘s "indie arena rock", and Oh Land‘s Scandinavian sophistication.

SPEND THE NIGHT WITH GAMES – Side A by Games

The Deli’s Staff

Ok guys and gals,

Finally you can all vote for your favorite emerging NYC artist of 2010 from the list on the right! 

I know, it’s a long list, but that’s what our jury of scene makers (see list below) passed us – there was hardly any consensus amongst them, they almost all voted for different artists, and that’s why the list is so long.

As you may know, the artist from this list that will win the poll’s composite chart (i.e. jurors + Deli writers + fans’ votes) will land on the cover of our Spring issue of The Deli. Right now all the artists in the list have accumulated some points from the votes cast by jurors and writers, now it’s the fans and readers’ turn!

JURORS:
Here’s the list of jurors in random order: Karen Soskin (Other Music), Chris Diaz (Knitting Factory), Jay Belin (Bowery Presents), Rami and Jake (Popgun Presents), Billy Jones (Pianos), Andy Bodor (Cake Shop), Will Griggs (Brooklyn Bowl), DJ MOJO (Independent Promoter, Break Thru Radio),Jify (Cameo Gallery), Christopher R. Weingarten (Village Voice), Brice Rosenbloom (Le Poisson Rouge) Claire McNamara (Oh My Rockness), William Schmiechen (Union Pool), Doug DeFalco (Southpaw), Julia Darling (Arlene’s Grocery), Darrel McNeil (BAM), Trevor Silmser (Webster Hall), Zack Dinerstein (Spike Hill), Max Brennan (Lit Lounge), Brandon Haas (BMI), Jamie Dominguez (SESAC), Tammy Sprinkle (Soundfix Records), Marc Hutner (ASCAP), Steve Trimboli (Goodbye Blue Monday), Greg Cayea (LLC- Black Apple), Jack McFadden (The Rock Shop/Littlefield), Jennifer Gilson (Living Room), Daniel Selzer (DJ), Free Williamsburg (Best of 2010 list on their site), Diane (Bowery Electric), Paolo De Gregorio (The Deli).