The Octagon‘s new album "Warm Love and Cool Dreams Forever" was recorded on 2 Tascam 4 track cassette recorders – which will force us to move them from our "indie rock" chart to the "lo-fi" one. But the band’s music has always been lo-fi even when it wasn’t so on a technical level: their songs are brief bursts of almost disorganized energy somehow tied together by Zachary Mexico’s concise pop songs. The new album – out in early January – will be supported through an extended East Coast tour starting in Philly on 01.05.

Bronx native Rene Lopez grew up is NYC’s salsa clubs. Despite being a relatively new solo artist, Rene has been writing and performing music in the New York scene since the late 80s. Rene will be performing tracks from his recently released EP, Johnny Wants to Be A Matador, as well as new material for his forthcoming full-length, coming in 2010.

Semi Precious Weapons (who graced The Deli’s 16th issue cover) just announced additional US dates with Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour through 2010! They will be performing all over the country, including a four-night stand at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall. Semi Presious Justin Tranter is (to date) the only musician to appear in stilettos on the cover of our magazine.

The Deli of course will also contribute to the pool of prizes for the Year End Best of NYC Poll, for both the Overall and  Readers’ charts.

Here’s the list:

Overall Chart Prize (winner only)
Cover of The Deli’s Spring issue (out in Arpil 2010)

Overall Chart Prize for 2nd and 3rd place
Smaller Picture on The Deli’s Spring issue’s cover

Readers’ Chart Prize (winner only)
Full Feature on a Deli issue

Extra Prize for all nominees
writeup in The Deli’s Spring issue 2010

So look out for the Spring issue in April, as it will be entirely dedicated to the Best of NYC Poll and to the upcoming Best of NYC Fest, which will happen in the Spring of 2010, involving many of the artists included in our Best of.

The Deli’s Staff

WORMBURNER are an Indie Rock five-piece from New York City who play rootsy, lyrical Powerpop with Punk and New Wave ingredients. After a couple of self produced releasestheir music made its way to David Lowery (frontman for Cracker & Camper van Beethoven) who ended up helping them craft a full length album, titled "A Hero’s Welcome" released on DIVE Records in the Fall of 2006. But the quintet, that sold out Mercury on Saturday 12.12, is not all crash and crunch, as proven by a CHRISTMAS tune, called "The Bells Of St. Ignatius," and you can download it here.

This is a new video from Peculiar Gentlemen that brings us right into the festive mood of da Holidaze Seez’n… definitely a peculiar video about… the original inventors of the Boom Box/iPod? The Gentlemen will play as a soundtrack to a burlesque show on December 19 at Jalopy (315 Columbia St. Bklyn).

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Josh Mease is a bit of an explorer. Originally hailing from Houston, Mease recorded his debut LP, “Wilderness,” in sessions that took him from Texas to Connecticut and back to his own bedroom a stone’s throw from the BQE. The most fruitful wanderings of his, however, take place within the confines of his imagination—the lush sonic dreamscapes of “Wilderness” recall, at times, the music of mid-century animated Disney films the elegant “Eleanor” in particular sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in Alice’s wonderland, sung by a chorus of harmonizing flora. “White Diamonds,” the album’s first single, is an impossibly infectious tune a delightful video for the song, as well as a clip for “Eleanor,” can be found online at his MySpace page or on Youtube. From the lovely opener “You Found Me” and laid-back “Days Like This” through the towering, ambient “Tall Trees,” “Wilderness” is a gorgeously breathtaking first record. The Deli caught Mease with his head out of the clouds long enough to discuss the creative process. – Read Toney Palumbo’s interview with Josh Mease here.

Musical peoples from LA and beyond.

A few weeks are left before the end of 2009, and the time has come for our end of year musical "summary". Yes, you got that right: The Deli’s "Best of (emerging) LA 2009 Poll" is upon us!

This year we’ll have an overall chart including the votes from Jury, Writers and Readers, and a Readers’ charts including only the readers’ votes. Once again The winner of the overall chart will be rewarded with the cover of the Spring issue of The Deli Magazine LA. But there will be other prizes in vouchers, software and studio time for all the top artists in both charts.

We have a lot to tell you about this, but as this poll couldn’t happen without sponsors, we’ll start by listing them all, and by thanking them for being part of this.

 Instructions about the poll coming soon!

PREMIUM SPONSORS

OTHER SPONSORS

Software

providing a total of 18 audio plug in for the pool of prizes (9 iZotope, 9 IK Multimedia)

Mastering

providing a total of 10 free mastered songs for the pool of prizes

If your company is interested in sponsoring "The Deli Year End Best of Poll" it’s not too late! Just contact us here.

The Deli Staff
www.thedelimagazine.com

Look UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT at Blip Festival 2009 and you might be awestruck by the lights and sounds surrounding you. This isn’t a vintage video game…this is all real.

Blip Festival 2009 is a festival celebrating the 8bit movement. Every year, people from around the world flock to New York to hear exhilarating music from nostalgic video game consoles (NES, Game Boy, Atari, etc.) accompanied by stunning (although rather "grainy") visuals. This year’s festivities will feature great local 8bit acts as Starscream, Nullsleep and Bit Shifter. The Festival will take place at The Bell House from Thursday, December 17 to Saturday, December 19. Tickets are $15/day or $40 for a 3-day festival pass.

I recently sat down with NYC musical artist Chromix and visual artist Jean Y. Kim. We talked about what one might expect from this year’s festival. – Read Nicholas Palumbo’s inerview here.

Adam Green (currently topping out NYC songwriters "Web Buzz" chart) is playing a surprise full-band show tonight at Lit, $6 cover – do not miss! His new album Minor Love will be out 2/16 on Fat Possum.

"Less is more" is one of those sayings that’s good for all seasons. The Ropes stopped incorporating other musicians in their live show in early 2008, feeling that finding permanent members who reflect their ideals was unrealistic. They have described their past experience with band members "a living hell" (NYC musicians, does that ring a bell?). They started touring with an unusual two-piece live setup: while vocalist Sharon Shy plays bass, the bands’ other half, Toppy, plays guitar, drums, and keyboards more or less simultaneously. The show is done 100% live. No drum machines or loops are used.
The band has announced details of their upcoming EP “Love is a Chain Store”, first available on the bands’ website for download using a Radiohead style "pay what you want" model (beginning on December 15) and then released "properly" on January 12, 2010. Produced by Nic Hard (The Bravery, The Church) and The Ropes, “Love is a Chain Store” expands upon the bands’ previous musings on isolation, individualism, and anti-romance.

The community arts space Artists Television Access (ATA) will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary this weekend with two evenings of fantastic entertainment. Friday, December 11, 2009, 7:30 pm at a FREE film & video screening party that includes work by founders, staff and associates from early 80s to the present – 29 different artists in total.

Sunday, December 13, 2009 will be the 25th Anniversary Fundraiser Party. An all-day event with live music from a slew of Bay Area musicians, performances, installations, bbq and a raffle to win stuff from a bunch of local businesses. Bands lined up for the day The Lambs, Jeremy Dalmas and Friends, Young Prisms, Bare Wires, Ash Reiter, Kacey Johansing, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma & Paul Clipson, Eats Tapes, Psychic Reality and Rank/Xerox. 11am-10pm, $10. Visit their site for a full schedule.

-Nicole

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