We kept this for last people! Here are our Indie Rock selections and honorable mentions from the bands that submitted to ou Year End Poll for Emerging NYC Artists. This was the category with the most submission and it was truly painful having to stick with 6 bands... We had 22 bands with an average ranking above 7 out of 10. We'll announce the SonicBids and the jurors picks later today and then... everything will be ready for the readers' and fans' poll!
NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS FOR ALT FOLK:
Jurors: Annamarya Scaccia (Deli Philly), Jessica Pace (Deli Nashville), Erin D'Souza (Deli NYC)
- QUALIFIED TO THE POLL'S NEXT ROUND
The artists in this list qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.
Will Farr doesn't take long to drown himself in sweat. Spun from the same cloth as Bruce Springsteen or Ian Curtis, he routinely leads his homespun band to a blaze of glory, forcing his restless spirit and barbed hooks through anyone looking for a dose of excitement. Hurrah! builds each track of their heartland-brewed, rocking yet rootsy tunes to a frenzy, making believers of anyone looking for a rush of adrenaline chased down with a shot of big band frenzy.
The video for 'Cool Kids Cut Out of the Heart Itself' features the band MiniBoone take abuse in all its manifestations, from forced haircuts to facepaint almost as disturbing as their odd harmonies. The whole experience leaves you breathless and wondering what exactly you just saw, while making sure you never forget any of it. This group's Kinks-inspired dance grooves charge ahead with this same kind of intense art posture throughout their whole ouevre, making for an experience as absurdly delicious as Queen's 'Bicycle' in tracks like 'Chairs are For Lovers,' and as emotionally intense as At the Drive-In in my fave 'Liars + Hiders.'
As a three-piece band, Monogold can support catchy songs that extend beyond confined spaces or genres. Keith Kelly’s falsetto flirtatiously glides through twinkling keys in the album’s starting track, “Ivory Teeth Golden Tusk,” a cherubic welcome to the trio’s sensational, epic voyage through their 2011 album “The Softest Glow.” The tribalesque, frenetic rhythms feel exotic but ground the different sounds and textures, in an impressive debut that feels both foreign and familiar at the same time.
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4a. APPOMATTOX
This thunderous power trio - one of the best live bands in town - is taking indie guitar rock's format and cramming politically charged lyrics head-on down its throat. A welcome change from the usually passive temperament of contemporary rock, this band has found a way to stand out amongst Brooklyn's crowded backdrop by turning the form on its head and back to its roots as a counter-cultural force for change.
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4b. QUILTY
I think if Damon Albarn had fronted The Pixies, something like Quilty might have happened. A band with loud-soft dynamics that took a left turn somewhere along the way to britpop goofiness, singer/guitarist Sarah Dupuis twists Pixies-like formulas into pretzel-like jams that pour on the sweetness and grisliness in equal parts.
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4c. SNOWMINE
Meditative, melodic and spacious, Snowmine's music emplyos a sweeping array of pastoral tones which range from longing, drifting acoustics to electronic drum patterns that build in tension with soaring horn sounds. In their music we hear XTC's immense melodic talent and Tortoise's suspenseful and arty arrangements. Call it post-pop if you wish.
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- ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL'S NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (almost 8 out of 10!) but won't qualify to the next round of our year end poll. Dudes we are sorry but we must draw a line or this thing is going to be insane (and it will be anyway, with more than 100 bands qualified already!!!)
Not many bands do it like Bugs in the Dark. Here's a group that wrap their sound up tightly, and unleash it just as strongly. The three-piece places charging riffs under singer Karen Rockower's soul-shaking vocals to weave a punishing set together that takes no prisoners. No reason to miss the Sonic Youth of years ago, this band is every bit as devastating and noisy, but you'll love the abuse.
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7b. DIEHARD
There seems to be a trend of late that we certainly won’t complain about: local NYC/Brooklyn bands channeling earnest 90s music styles to match the Doc Martens and grandmother-inspired floral prints seen on the streets of Williamsburg. Obviously inspired to the indie sound of that decade, Diehard's music triggers a mental trip back to youth for 30 and 40 somethings like us, while sounding like a breath of fresh air to the younger hipsters.
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7c. LIGHTOUTS
It's about time Gowanus represented. Lightouts its two people with a love affair for the epic buildup. Taking drum machines and Michael Hutchence-minded vocals to a height where this town's canal will never reach. Something like Bowie backed by LCD Soundsystem's band, they have no trouble getting intense, but keep their feet in the dance floor throughout the show.
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7d. MOTIVE
In track 'Nobody Eats My Dinner,' singer Nick Wold is way too hard on himself. At first lamenting how nobody likes him, he eventually gets lost in the driving rhythm instead; taking the song to a loud, hard-jamming place similar to the destinations The Strokes used to take me. Like track 'Summer Solstice,' that takes you on a long ride but leaves you in about the same place it began, Motive deals with life's revolving frustrations the only way they know how: by channeling their angst through heartbreak riffs and confessional lyrics.
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7e. THE YOUNG THINGS
The Young Things are taking tried-and-true rock sensibilities and giving them an LES makeover. In 'All My Friends are Junkies,' the band takes an approach like Brian Jonestown Massacre or Oasis, forcing rock riffs usually associated with Beatlemania into a mold better suited for city dwellers. So Get off your ass. this is a sound as infectious as it's ever been.
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG
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