On Saturday December 5 local music blog Guilt Free Pleasures is presenting an intimate night of folk/alt-country performances at a private art space in Brooklyn, NY, featuring fine Brooklyn folkster  Reverend John Delore among others. His blues-tinged alt-country rumbles with wistful tales of yearning. His gritty vocals have been likened to those of Hayes Carll, Mason Jennings and Steve Earle. Full line up and more info about this even can be found here.

A musician since the age of 3, Elaine Lachica first knew she wanted to be a singer when she heard Liz Fraser sing “Blue Bell Knoll” by the Cocteau Twins. It was then she started songwriting, and she hasn’t stopped since. "I think I Can See the Ocean" is her third full-length, and her first label-backed one. The release is scheduled for February 23 on Stunning Models On Display Records. Contributing musicians on the album include drummer Mark Stepro (Ben Kweller), bassist Rob Calder (Ari Hest), guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan (New York Dolls), a string quartet led by violinist Rob Moose (Sufjan Stevens, Antony and the Johnsons) and brass section led by trumpeter Jon Mizrachi (Essie Jain).

After finishing a US run with Neko Case, Deer Tick started a three week European tour last week – upon their return to the US on Dec. 13 the band will be entering the studio to put the finishing touches on its as-yet-untitled third album, which will be released in the first half of 2010.  The band will again be touring relentlessly in 2010, to SXSW and beyond. Taken mostly from a month-long recording session in upstate New York nicknamed "The Black Dirt Sessions", More Fuel for the Fire features three new studio tracks as well as a live version of "Straight Into A Storm" (from Born on Flag Day) recorded in Charlotte, NC at the Visulite Theatre.

Langhorne Slim sings Pavement songs in the shower. I learned this while drinking Yuengling with him at a Holiday Inn Express a few hours before his sold-out show at The Bell House in Brooklyn. – Read Ryan Henriquez’s interview with the man here.

Living about 1700 miles apart (namely in Austin and Brooklyn) doesn’t prevent brothers Jared and Michael Bell from conjuring up beautiful instrumental music. Ah, the miracles of inspiration (and of the internet)! Apparently though, also the good old telephone played a role in Lymbic Systym‘s latest CD called "Shutter Release". After touring with acclaimed bands like Broken Social Scene, The Books, Crystal Castles, the band is about to embark on a west coast tour, scheduled for early January. Definitely a good time to spend a few days in San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Tucson and Austin… The band also released a free download of the song "Bedroom Anthem" – check it out here.

Yes we have a weak spot for Chris Garneau – here’s his new video "Fireflies" from his latest album "El Radio"

On Thursday, Dec. 3rd, The Shake will celebrate the release of their new album, "The Shake Go Crazy," at the main room at Santos Party House. The New York 4-piece will be joined by fellow City rockers Milo & The Fuzz, Reckless Sons and Black Taxi. The band also just announced the release of their new music video for their single, "Got No Soul" – here it is – directed by Anders Urmacher (you guessed it, another New Yorker). Those who love fine rock’n’roll done the right way shouldn’t miss this show.

Webster Hall – which in the 1950s and 60s was the recording home of RCA records and hosted legendary recordings of Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan among others – has lately been doing interesting things to help emerging local artists. The East Village venue staff started recording local emerging bands back in January 2009 and ended up gathering enough material to put together a compilation of of new up-and-coming artists recorded during their Webster performances. The resulting CD is called "Live At Webster Hall – The Sounds From New York City Vol 1”. It features 10 artists; some of which we have often covered – The Subjects, Bear Hands, Young Love, Tiger City, Asa Ransom, Static Jacks – plus others we never heard of that we are going to check out pronto; Jump Into The Gospel, US Royalty, The Royal Chains and Young Lords (in the picture). Best Buy (keen to promote their new musical instrument store in Manhattan) has jumped on board and is sponsoring this operation, agreeing to sell the CD in its stores. You can preview some tracks here.

We are sure Brooklyn Psych Rockers Bear in Heaven are not feeling too blue for placing second in last week’s Deli’s Artist of the Month poll – as Flavorpill just announced that they actually won the site’s "Open for Mew" contest. The band is getting quite a lot of attention, in particular after Pitchfork Media assigned the "Best New Music" tag to their new records. See Bear in Heaven open for Mew on December 4th at Webster Hall.

Sunday December 6th, 8pm $5, Fat Free presents: An Evening of Mental Unity. Fat Free has created a celebratory smörgåsbord of art, music, spoken word, poetry and otherwise hard-to-describe oddball entertainment. For music lovers who want to explore something different, an evening of Mental Unity can provide a good time for all involved. Hosted by Alethea Rivera, there will be performances by Fat Free, Beatbox Guitar, Life Occurs, Bobby Oats Jen Upchurch, and Top ten lovers (in the picture). Glasslands Gallery is on 289 Kent between South 1st and Grand Williamsburg, Bklyn. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).

Gold Streets released their new EP entitled "GO" on November 22nd with a show at at Mercury Lounge. To celebrate, they also presented their latest video, "Red." This project is a collaboration with Director/DP Brad DeCecco and premiered at Music on Main at The Sundance Film Festival. Brad De Cecco took 4 pictures for The Deli covers in 2008. – (as posted in The Deli’s Open Blog – post your band’s entries, videos, and Mp3s here).