The lead singer of Lesands has an amazing presence. He’s got this effortless dance thing going that seems neither contrived or rehearsed – there’s a spontaneity that can’t be denied. This guy might be a superstar. It’s my opinion this bands needs a bigger stage. The approach the drummer takes to filling the space with a wash of dark crash just really fills up the room – I can see this happening in an arena, with the lead singer dancing all over a much, much larger stage. I really want to see what kind of moves he could perform without so much constraint. They are showmen, but demure. The spotlight is on the singer for sure. Although there is a weird dynamic between him and the drummer, who, judging by his skill, is probably one of the stronger influences in the group. This is worth checking out! It sounds like Morrisey fronting a dubstep chill wave group. And that’s pretty cool. – Alex W. Eisinger – More CMJ Coverage on our NYC site here.

The independent music scene of the early 21st millennium will be remembered for its DIY modus operandi. The percentage of artists who release home recorded albums has been growing exponentially in the last decade, and some of these records did and do actually sell. Right now, the DIY revolution seems like a one way ticket, but there are some artists in NYC who are already a few steps ahead in terms of "doing it themselves".

One of our "early finds" we are most proud of (the band was featured on the cover of The Deli in the summer 2009) Buke and Gass in 2010 was signed to Brassland Records, toured North America and Europe respectively with Efterklang and The National (who also run that label), and released the debut album "Riposte", finally earning a well deserved "buzz band" status WITHOUT the help of Pitchfork, which at the time of writing still hasn’t spent a single word about this mind blowing project. But besides being one of the most original and edgy sounding indie bands around, the duo has the rather unique characteristic of building all the instruments they play. – Read an interview with Aron Sanchez about the Buke and Gass instruments on Delicious Audio, The Deli’s blog about Pro Audio.

Songwriter/singer, and inventor-genius Matthew Steinke used to stand behind giant towering drum robots, obscured like the man-behind-the-curtain by the machinery of his own creation. Under the name Octant, Steinke built a solid body of work, releasing accessible but experimental LPs. The records span a long career working with human beings and robotic inventions alike, but these days Steinke is focusing on his work as a poet and songwriter. The huge Octant drums, with show stopping robot-bodies built into road cases so large they can only fit in a van, have been benched. Octant’s maestro now plays guitar and sings through a harmonica mic, crafting tender, cerebral music, aided by tiny, idiosyncratic robot companions who truly feel more like supportive band mates than automated devices. I had the opportunity to ask Steinke a ew questions after his July 7th performance at The Tank NYC, an amazing art space in midtown Manhattan. We talked about gear, poetry, inspiration, on-stage dynamics, and the quest to build ever more “humanly” robots. – Read an interview with Aron Sanchez about the Buke and Gass instruments on Delicious Audio, The Deli’s blog about Pro Audio.

We are happy to announce that Shayna Zaid and the Catch (picture below) were added at the last minute to the Thursday Deli CMJ showcase at The Living Room. The bill will be opened by two truly DYI bands (see previous post) and then host a bunch of extremely talented artists all more or less influenced by roots music. Main attractions of the night will be 4AD’s Anni Rossi (top picture), Philly based Strand of Oaks (recently blessed by Pitchfork’s approval), and emerging Alt Soul singer Kendra Morris, but we recommend you check out all the artists on the bill because there’s some real talent there.

Here’s the night’s full lineup:

7:00 Octant
7:45 Buke and Gass
8:30 Kendra Morris
9:15 Daniel Wayne
10:00 Anni Rossi
10:45 Mc Alister Drive (Boston)
11:30 La Strada
12:15 Strand of Oaks (Philly)
01.00 Shayna Zaid and The Catch

Full Deli CMJ show schedule here.
The Deli Staff

NYC based independent record label MPress Records has a roster of interesting singer songwriters based – mostly based in the Big Apple and Massachussets. The lable will showcase its talents on 10.21 starting at 6 at Gallery Bar on Orchard St (just north of Delancey St.) Besides local rootsy pop stalwart Rachel Sage, we are curious to see singer Bostonian singer songwriters Lindsay Mac (in the picture above), a talented cellist singing intimate songs, and Melissa Ferrick (picture below), whose tracks reveal a more rocking attitude. On the bill also Walter Parks, who has forged a distinctive international carreer as the lead guitarist for legendary NYC folk innovator Richie Havens.

Monday night was the start of the ridiculousness most commonly known as the Deli’s CMJ Music Marathon (i.e. covering 26 emeriging bands playing CMJ for The Deli – 26 as in the miles in a marathon.) Luckily (or unluckily?) my first night out on the town was not an insane drunken debauchery. But let’s be serious, there are still four days left for that! What’s good about CMJ, and the relatively small size of New York, is that you can hop from one place to another to check out a bunch of great shows. And this is precisely what I did last night in LES. Per my fellow Deli writer’s recommendation, I started off at the Deli Magazine Showcase at the Delancey to check out the Brooklyn-based Telenovelas (below, a photo of their Fender Jaguar). From the start, these lo-budget, hi-fi, darlings set the mood at the barely lit lounge with their guitar-thickened music. I was definitely digging both the coolness and shoe-gazyness of their music. Great warm up for the night ahead.

I decided to stay around for the next act, another Brooklyn band, Baby Alpaca. Again, the Delancey ground floor is pretty much a perfect fit for this group. The lead singer has a lonesome and heavy emotionality in his voice and the songs kind of melt into themselves, filled with dark and droning qualities. Before I started crying my face off due to these semi-depressing sounds, I headed over to Cake Shop to check out yet another band from BK, Dinowalrus (pictured below), for the Panache showcase.

Before seeing them live for the first time, I decided to listen to their tracks on Myspace and picked up that a rock-turning-pyschedelic pop vibe (kind of). When I saw them live, though, I realized that although the pop sound might be what they are going for – think electronic, bouncy beat openers – it’s not so psychedelic as much as guitar screeching, chaotic rock. These guys are LOUD. But fun. They have this punkish attitude going on, heavy on the instrumentals, not so much on the vocals. I definitely enjoyed their-in-your-face musical enthusiasm, and the lead singer is super entertaining with his goofy antics. Might need some plugs next time so my ears don’t bleed.

I stuck around for a bit to catch a bit of the set by the Parisian DJ, Onra – very nice – then headed LITERALLY next door to the Living Room to catch the LA-based Chapin Sisters – read my review on the Deli LA.

Following the Living Room, I skipped on over to Fat Baby to hear Brooklyn boys, Goes Cube (dudes in picture above pretending to be… rain?) do a set later on in the night. Talk about a shift in musical tone. Again, I was enveloped in some LOUD music. The band’s been described as having a “sledgehammer assault.” My ears concur! The music (feel free to call it metal) was heavy, powerful and all pretensions aside, seriously intense. They smashed, they banged and they made quite the impression.

I’m not really into the whole folky-southern-soft rock thing but decided, in the spirit of good music and CMJ, I would check out the Chapin Sister. Just to give a little back up story, the two lead singers, AKA the sisters themselves, are the beautiful, waify offspring of three time Grammy winner singer-songwriter, Tom Chapin (if that’s any indication of their musical chops). Their sound is soothing, subtle and ethereally sincere. Though there were points in which the songs came off just a little country for my liking, I really enjoyed their short set, which was infused with soft textures and very pretty vocals. – Alex Vann

Midnight Spin, Quintet, Mercury Lounge,
“Welcome to CMJ,” the leade singer said right before plunging us into the Brooklyn-based band’s brand of power pop and rock, riding on the heels of Fang Island’s ultra-concentrated layered sound, the kind of rock that would be comfortable on the playlist of either a 12-18 or 40-60 y/o (BIG selling point, as those seem to be the only age brackets buying records these days!). Pure viscera. As hard as these guys are trying to rock, they are actually quite controlled, with leading dynamics on the drums. It sounds like John Dolmayan on the drums with melodrama on the guitars, a cushy synth, driving bass lines and warm harmonies circling the entire fray.

Luluc, Duo, The Living Room
This black-clad genial pair do flawless harmonies that keep their lead performer in the spotlight through nuanced dynamics. Absolutely perfect tuning, which is worth note because of the old and beautiful, yet finicky instruments they choose. If I don’t mention Simon and Garfunkel I’m ridiculous. Similar in both sound – nylon guitar ostinatos with complimenting lead – and lyrical approach. Sheer and soft harmonies. Her voice carries so much presence. His is perfect match by be unremarkable. Luluc would be good music for road trips in greenery, black clad. Dude gets a solo, with the same kind of subtly that this music seeps in. The New York based band (Austrailian transplants) take up the topic of travel quite a bit, telling tales of road trips next to the very serious metaphor of real poetry. Absolutely stunning voices. Sounds replicated. Sounds perfect. She makes it look so effortless. – Luluc will play at the CMJ after party on 10.24 at Cyber PR Headquarters (389, 12th Street) – be there.

Ill Ease, Solo, Cakeshop
Ill Ease is the one-man dance-loop-poppy-repetitive-minimalism project of Brooklyn’s own Elizabeth Sharp. Sharp gets down and dirty with a towering stack of loops she makes live. Melodic movement is limited – it comes with the order and manner in which the loops get stacked. "I don’t know what I want, I don’t know what I like." She sings during her opener. Well, maybe that’s why she has to play everything. She makes a bass loop, puts that down, makes a guitar loop, puts that down, and then sits behind the kit while singing. It builds into this raucous guitar dude, then crashes back into this funk bass line, not exactly dependent on phrase… Although she probably knows exactly what’s she’s doing. Sassy vocals, relaxed, I don’t give a fuck, this is how I am attitude. Classic metal riffs without being derivative, trying to get folky a little. She actually has good technique on all of it!! Tone and control and tempo. Exploits the limits of the loops by murdering linear notions of time on top of the loop. Wow. Exuberant. And then sure enough, during the awesome “New York London Paris: "I don’t give a fuck." This made me smile and laugh and care about her a little bit too. Cause I think I gave a fuck.

Tonight (Wednesday October 10) Brooklyn Bowl will host The Deli’s flagship CMJ show with Bear Hands (who graced the cover of ourNYC mag’s 23rd issue), Keepaway (on the cover of our latest, 24th issue), Brahms and Oberhofer. These are definitely some of the most interesting emerging artists emerging from the NYC scene in 2009, playing in one of the best venues in NYC – we hope to see you there!

Here’s the schedule:
08 .00 Oberhofer
09.00 Keepaway
10.00 Brahms
11.00 Bear Hands

Full Deli CMJ show schedule here.
The Deli Staff
 

Alt Rockers from every corner of the world gathered in NYC for CMJ shouldn’t miss our Alt Rock show at Arlene’s Grocery this afternoon (10.20). Here’s the full lineup:

1.30 The Courtesy Tier
2.10 Decibel.
2.50 Frontier Brothers  (Austin)
3.30 Black Taxi
4.10 Blackbells
4.50 Am to Am  (bottom pic)
5.30 Lights Resolve (top pic)

Full Deli CMJ show schedule here
The Deli’s Staff

Atlantic/Pacific, signed to LA based No Sleep Records, will be performing at the label’s CMJ showcase at Party Expo on Wednesday 10.20. The Brooklyn based band plays hazy, discreet folk with sober psychedelic influences. "Sober" in this case means that the reverb dial is under control and the overall arrangement isn’t taken hostage by a crazy production – quite the opposite… We are digging the two songs available on their myspace page, this is what Brits call a "perfect hangover band" – yeah, in the UK that’s actually an established musical genre: "Hangover Music".

Murder Mystery boasts a quote from Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch on its MySpace page amid favorable lines from reviews in The New Yorker and The Village Voice. The king of twee says, “The kids will eat them up.” Whether or not the compliment was nabbed from someone coincidentally named Stuart Murdoch is irrelevant, because the statement still rings true. Murder Mystery is comprised of a set of siblings, Jeremy and Laura Coleman, who switch off vocal duties and two buds, Adam Fels and Graham Roberts. Together, they write songs that are not quite sickeningly twee, but have an endearing sense of innocence set to incredibly infectious hooks. These tunes would have made a killer John Hughes soundtrack with the ‘80s synths and sweet lyrics. After listening to Murder Mystery for the first time, I was convinced that they traveled back to the future to bring the sounds from the ‘80s in immaculate form, but there are modern touches that distinguish the band from being a mere throwback group. Eat up the quartet’s luscious tunes with the free downloads on its site. If you’re not going to The Deli’s showcase at The Living Room, which you should be at and we hope to see you there, you better be checking out Murder Mystery at Trash Bar on Thursday. They will be hitting the stage at 11 p.m. – Nancy Chow

Charlene Kaye is an charming and talented emerging NYC chanteuse that mixes jazz, folk and rock. The lady, together with her band "The Brilliant Eyes", has been working hard in the past few years and is finally getting noticed by a growing local audience. She just released this video directed by Saela Davis that our fatigued years – after our first night of CMJ "sonic pollution" – are really enjoying. See Charlene Kaye and the Brilliant Eyes play CMJ at Bar Matchless in Greenpoint on 10.21 or at the Googie’s Lounge above the Living Room on 10.23.