Woods are both simultaneously surreal and natural. The mellow, undemanding melodies, accompanied by falsetto vocals and a raw, rugged mountaineer’s attitude, construct a strongly bound and cohesive sound. Woods play a lo-fi, fuzzy soundtrack to a series of mental trips, always creating sounds that are more than the sum of their individual parts. Because they give off such a hip vibe, it’s sometime easy to forget that at the core of the tracks are beautiful vocal melodies – and though they certainly have pop sensibility, it never sounds trite or cheap. Guitar lines and grooves sometimes perfectly matching the melodies, sometimes seemingly random, but always work – just like Brooklyn. – Paul Dunn

The story of Highlife carries many similarities to the one of The Drums: – and a bunch of painters from the early 1900: musicians stressed out by the city’s lifestyle escape to sunny marine location far from metropolitan madness in search of a way of life more conducive to musical creation, find inspiration, make great music and return to NYC with songs that sound like sun and sea – two things New Yorkers should be very familiar with, by the way (perhaps NYC’s sun and sea are not as inspiring as its other virtues…)
Highlife was born in 2008 when Shaw, along with White Magic collaborator Mira Billotte, retreated from New York to the small island of Gaspar Grande off the coast of Trinidad, at the southernmost point of the Caribbean trail. The pair spent long, wandering nights chanting and inducing trance, recording on a portable setup that Shaw had lugged along. The rough demos were brought to a London studio, where Shaw and Billotte re-recorded them and finalized them with the help of producer Harvey Birrel (Crass, Sir Richard Bishop, Buzzcocks). Now back in NYC, the band is readying the launch of the band’s debut EP "Best Bilss" scheduled for the end of September.

Here’s an interesting story of creative Rock’n’Roll marketing… NYC band Julius C doesn’t go on the kind of tour most bands go on. For the last several years, the band has spent the hot months touring summer camps. Band leader Jay Stollar developed the “Rock Star Camp” program to bring more arts activities to summer camps after spending his youth hoping for such an experience. Five years into the program, the band is now sponsored by the Crocs brand of footwear and is traveling to more than two dozen camps on the East Coast where they spend the day with the campers teaching them cover songs and staging a concert with the young singers and musicians.
This year, Julius C expects to perform to almost 15,000 campers and staff. The band returns to NYC at the end of August where they will begin a residency at Rockwood Music Hall to be followed by the release of the band’s "OK, OK" album in October.

For obscure, probably yin yang related reasons, these days we don’t stumble very often upon acts that – like Weep – are inspired by the sound of stylish acts like David Bowie, Roxy Music and Air. It seems like in this musical era the scruffy sound of DIY is WAY more – pardon my French – en vogue. But Weep isn’t afraid of style – how passe`! But isn’t passe` the future, really? Weep just release their debut CD "Worn Thin", check out some streaming songs here – When I’m Wrong in particular..

Music obsessed NYC-ers,

The 23rd issue of The Deli (pictrured) was delivered to the most rocking NYC neighborhoods yesterday – did you see it?
If you didn’t, here is a shortlist of the location that carry it:

LES: Mercury Lounge, Pianos, Cake Shop, Arlene’s Grocery, The Delancey.
East Village: Webster Hall, Bowery Electric, Rivington Guitars, 1st Flight Music, Otto’s Shrunken Head, Banjo’s Jim, The Library.
Chelsea: Music Buildings on 30th St. and on 8th Ave at 39th street, Funkadelic, S.I.R., Smash Rehearsals, 30th Street Guitars, Rogue Music, News Cafe.
West Village: Other Music, Rebel Rebel Records, My Generation Records, le Poisson Rouge.
Williamsburg: Main Drag, Southside Guitars, Earwax Records, Beacon’s Closet, Soundfix, Public Assembly, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Trash Bar, Bruars Falls, Flood Rehearsals, Glasslands, Monster Island, Union Pool, Sweat Shop rehearsals.
Greenpoint: Matchless, Coco66, Rehearsal Studio on Franklin, Europa, Permanent Records.

We will hit locations in Park Slope/Gowanus and Bushwick early next week.

YOU CAN NOW ALSO SEE IT ONLINE HERE!!! With interactive liks, dudes!

CHAIRS!

The Deli’s Staff

The end of the decade offers an opportunity to look back at how the NYC scene (and the music industry it fuels) changed in a time frame that will be remembered for many reasons. This retrospective about the NYC music in the first decade of the new millennium was published in our 22nd print issue, enjoy!

Some of what Fang Island has to say might be taken with a grain of salt – they are notoriously snarky in interviews, but that sort of goes along with the playful nature of the band’s powerful tunes. No matter what, they’re funny to read they’re even more fun to contemplate as the transcendent force of pure fun and happiness they envision themselves to be. I’d say they’re getting close to that vision – with a huge album (in sound and in impact) in the bag and a streak of luck that just can’t be paralleled (they found the very touring van that was stolen from them) Fang Island is poised for surfing some cosmic waves of joy in the next few months. – read Dale W Eisinger’s interview with the band here.

I went to see the last show of Talk Normal’s recent tour several days before the interview below took place. I had emailed Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro several times beforehand hoping to catch an interview with them that same night. Their answer, draped in exhaustion, was a very polite “hell no.” I went to their show at Secret Project Robot in Williamsburg and approached
them after the performance.

Andrew: “Hey Sarah, I’m Andrew, I’m interviewing you for The Deli.”
Sarah: [Zombie Face]
Andrew: So, how are you?
Sarah: [Black Hole]
Andrew: Um, how was the tour?
Sarah: [Death Shroud]
Andrew: Okay, see you on Tuesday.

Read Andrew Spaulding interview with the band here.
Don’t miss the band’s Prospect Park Show with Sonic Youth on July 30.

Fresh from their first sold-out Mercury Lounge date, Brooklynite Danny Ross and his band are taking over New York City venue Pianos for a July Residency on Tuesday nights. The man has chosen some great local bands to join him and kitschy themes each night with gratuitous outfits. Guest bands include Paracuta, My Glorious Mess, We Are Country Mice, Candy Claws, The Lesser Ghost, Megan McCormik, The Young Things, Eastern Conference Champions, Luke Wesley, Sasha Papernik, Lake Inferior, The Hoof and the Heel CMJ calls Ross’ debut LP One Way “Gorgeous…Immaculately arranged… I hope this album becomes a breakaway hit.” Stream it free and Pay What You Want for it here. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Brooklyn’s Telltale showcases an intriguing mix of experimental no-wave, reverb-soaked post-punk, and dark shoegaze. Featuring Eric Gilstrap, Laurie Ruroden, Stephan Cherkashin, and Lauren Andino, the quartet’s ear-splitting washes of guitar feedback, deadpan chants and ominous droning wastelands doesn’t so much blanket you as it does envelop you, overpowering you with Sonic Youth caterwauls and JAMC-esque walls of sound. The music churns in a slow burn, awash in effects, but there’s an aggression lurking just beneath the surface that maintains an uneasy atmosphere. There’s also a healthy dose of reverb to help wash down all the gauzy noise… – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Like a bolt of lightning ripping through the hazy summer sky, The Barrens are exploding back on to the scene with electrifying new music. Go here for 3 songs from their upcoming new full length. "Felt" is a Sabbath-soaked, guitar-fueled epic, ripping through your ear-drums with sonic precision; "Drop Sea" is a sprawling, groove-based psychedelic swim in beautifully unknown waters, and last but not least the electro-drum driven "Yellow Cigarette" which builds a smooth, thumping groove until it explodes into a summer-punky chant of youthful abandon. The debut album is coming in the Fall. Check them out at live at the DIY haven Party Expo, August 6th at 8pm. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Recently Stratosphere Sound, the Chelsea based recording studio owned by Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha and Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, gave 3 Deli readers in bands the opportunity to win 1 FULL DAY of free studio time each. Grammy winning producer Geoff Sanoff (the studio’s chief engineer who worked with Secret Machines, Nada Surf, and Obits among others) volunteered to engineer/produce these sessions for free – adding value to a package worth around $2k. We can now announce that the winners of the third and last studio time giveaway (chosen directly by the Stratosphere Sound’s staff) are pop’n’rollers Eytan & the Embassy – congrats to them!

P.S. Stratosphere Sound has a 30% discount on their studio rates for all those who will mention The Deli until the end of September.