On a Saturday afternoon in the hills of West Virginia, Deli Magazine sat down with Brian J, the lead singer and guitarist for the Brooklyn based funk band, Pimps of Joytime. Pimps of Joytime is: Brian J, Chauncey Yearwood, who brings personality to the congos and vocals, the beautiful Mayteana Morales, who holds it down on samples, percussions and vocals, and Clark Dark form the UK, who plays bass, moog and guitar. Since the level of drumming required to play in Pimps of Joytime is high in demand, the band havs numerous drummers – although their main man lives in New Orleans. The boys have been together for 5 years and have been living in Brooklyn since 1996. When they’re not touring, they spend their time tearing around on their bicycles and checking out new vegetarian restaurants. They’ve been on tour for most of the spring and summer playing numerous cities including Brooklyn Bowl’s SmileFest, High Sierra Music Fest and Zanaibar in Los Angeles and plan to play in Europe and the Caribbean for Jam Cruise. Read Courtney Boyd Myers Q&A with the band here.

There seems to be a common trend (not only in the NYC scene) to conceal poppiness under grating lo-fi recordings, quirky electronic sounds, "shoegazy" wall of guitars or a ton of reverb. Some bands even degrade that joyous melodic element through intentionally out of tune vocals/guitar parts. Mike Del Rio, instead, is not afraid to let his pop shine in all it’s melodic appeal. The NY based multi-instrumentalist has the songwriting chops and the vocal delivery to hit it big – take a listen to the songs "Mad World" and "The New Year" (both still in demo version, both potential summer hits) if you don’t believe us. Currently working on his debut CD, Mike Del Rio will play Urban Noise‘s Summer Festival at Brooklyn Bowl on 08.12 with other emerging NYC bands – NYC pop purists shouldn’t miss.

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list for emerging artists (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record store personnel, DJs, and our writers and readers).

It’s sometimes easy to forget that Real Estate is merely influenced by 60’s surf, pop, and psych, not an actual surviving innovator, somehow still creating new hybrid sounds today. High-pitched and fluidly bending guitars drive most tracks forward with an unquestionably dreamlike surf quality. Working with lo-fi fuzziness or super clean cuts, the band’s psychedelic quality lingers while remaining hazily poppy. Though easy-going breeze is certainly a common characteristic across the tracks, there’s a serious nostalgic reflectivity that serves to balance out the vibe. Lesser musicians couldn’t pull off some of Real Estate’s more sober moments — the care-free naivety, slowly sliding guitars, and patient, steady bass-grooving of “Basement” is good a example. One of the truly genius qualities of Real Estate is their ability to evoke emotions, often using only a simple riff or lyric. The juxtaposing sensations of joyful reminiscing and melancholy longing come together with an impressive ease. “Beach Comber,” a beautifully hazy tribute to painful introspection and falling short, somehow produces muted hope and delight through the repetitive breezy guitar riffs (“What you want is just outside your reach…You’re stealing from the lost and found/But what you find/Ain’t what you had in mind”). Even the instrumental tracks bring you back to whatever “that moment” was – even if it didn’t involve the beach, it surely involved at least one endless summer. – Paul Dunn

Some folks say you can’t be both a Bob Dylan and a Leonard Cohen fan, but I suspect Jesse Rifkin of The Wailing Wall would prove them wrong. His songs are flavored with Cohen’s biblical reference while his voice and folk influence borrowed from Bobby-D. His childlike singing voice softens the religion in his songs and offers access to the wisdom in his lyrics. The Wailing Wall’s new album, “Low Hanging Fruit” is filled with waltzing country tunes and songs for the people, but where exactly these people live changes from song-to-song. Tracks like “Fear No Apple, Fear No Flood” mimic a slow, Irish bagpipe ballad, while “Bones Become Rainbows” invokes Animal Collective’s quick-footed beat and clap tracks. Playing with a full band, The Wailing Wall is a rumpus on stage. Check them out at The Mercury Lounge on September 4. – Jenny Luczak

Brooklyn band Heliotropes unleashed a rather heavy debut EP entitled "III". The all-female trio plays a surprisingly bizarre blend of violin-laced psych-rock and dark, goth ditties — finding themselves conjuring up comparisons to Black Sabbath and Spiritualized. Though slightly at odds with their beached-out Brooklyn counterparts, the band plays frequently around their mother borough and Manhattan. Heliotropes plays 8/13 at Bruar Falls in Brooklyn with Poison Arrows (ex-Don Caballero), Heavy Hands, and Telenovelas. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record store personnel, DJs, and our writers and readers).

The creation of noise pop duo Sleigh Bells resulted from an unlikely pairing of Derek Miller, a former guitarist for post-hardcore band Poison the Well, and Alexis Krauss, a member of the now-defunct teen pop group RubyBlue. Miller writes songs that radiate such a colossal impact that they make the speakers sound like they will melt at any moment. Audiophiles be damned: The duo purposefully creates a blown-out sound by disregarding levels and pushing them way over into the red.
Their demos boast a range of intense club ragers to melodic, buttery tunes. Often compared to Crystal Castles for their visceral energy and strong female vocals, Sleigh Bells’ music is more beat conscious and incorporates the creative use of guitar as a driving, almost obsessive force.
Their clipped, infectious songs and high energy performances elevated them to one of last year’s CMJ Music Marathon favorites. Not only they impressed the music media, but they also caught the ear of their sound sister, M.I.A. In early February Sleigh Bells helped produce M.I.A’s forthcoming album. M.I.A. returned the favor by helping co-release their debut album “Treats” through her NEET imprint with Mom + Pop Records. Of course this help make Sleigh Bells one of the most successful NYC bands of 2010.

The video by David E Beats was directed by Kristopher Rey-Talley, Drew Angle; and shot by Sam Wootton. It’s a fast fun and entertaining throwback to blaxploitation films starring actor Alex Goode and actresses Rebecca Hoetzel and Constance Victory. Everything was shot with crash zooms and flat lighting to emulate the 70’s low budget style and it was put through a thorough and intense color correct to degrade the HD quality to look like bad 1970’s film stock.  – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Even just signing to Warp Records (the mostly electronic label that hosts among others Grizzly Bear) brings its share of buzz – something that The Hundreds in the Hands have been enjoying for a few months. The Brooklyn band is set to release their debut CD on September 21 and will definitely be one of the hot emerging NYC acts at the upcoming CMJ Marathon. Check out the video of the single "Pigeons".

If cymbals do indeed diet on guitars, it’s not without a struggle from the latter if this Staten Island foursome is anything to go on. The guitars here aren’t just passive omnivores, simply serving as prey for the carnivorous drumbeat. Instead, every element sounds like it’s elbowing the others out of the way to take center stage. On Cymbals Eat Guitars‘ debut album "Why There Are Mountains" they manipulate their guitars to full effect. They act as melody carriers, provide emotional haze and even rip the occasion Prince-esque wiggle. In fact, from the crashing cymbals of ‘And The Hazy Sea’, a six minute “quiet-loud-quiet-loud” epic thrown into reverse to the feedback drenched haze and jaunty brit-pop melody of ‘Indiana’, Why There Are Mountains was one of the most confident guitar albums in recent memory, and one fully deserving of the good vibrations generated by the hype machine in first quarter of 2009. The band is currently touring Europe – their next NYC show (at Irving Plaza) is scheduled for mid October. – Dean Van Nguyen

Announced on Battles’ MySpace profile today:

"Battles and Tyondai would like to let their fans know they have chosen to follow their own musical paths. Due to Battles’ ambitions of finishing their second studio album followed by commitments to a full touring schedule in 2011, and Tyondai’s own commitments as a solo artist and his desire not to tour, both Battles and Tyondai have decided to move on without each other. It is a sad but amicable split.
Battles wishes Tyondai all the best"

In their debut EP, “Who’s Better Than You?” The Yes Way infuse their sound with versatility and mood. By incorporating different sonic elements – guitar riffs blended with smooth harmonies, heavy instrumentation carried by emotional vocals – this band has an admirable track list to offer. Songs like “When It Breaks” work for their inherent catchiness, with light, poppy drums, while in “Mets,” fuzzy guitars and a heavier rock sound are integrated in occasional bursts, taking us back the good old days of the loud-quiet-loud thing. The track that stands out for its uniqueness, is the Radiohead circa OK Computer/In Rainbows, “Where Was I,” which well represents that versatility this band is going for. Check them out on 08.07 at The Mercury Lounge. – Alex Daly