The ladies over at Hypnocraft certainly got us hypnotized with this weekends lineup for the upcoming appointment of The Hum (the weekly, female-artists-only, collab night that The Deli sponsors) and it’s definitely not the first time., since it's showcasing mostly local artists we ourselves love and have covered in this very blog.

At this week’s show on Sunday (4.10) the first pair kicking off the night is Casey Dienel (White Hinterland) alongside the lovely and talented ladies of Gracie & Rachel. With beautiful vocals and a keen ear for strong melodies we can almost hear the entrancing, orchestral performance from these gals already. Followed by Julia Easterlin and Hannah Epperson we can already hear a track built up solely by vocal loops and smooth violin chords, something sweet to get us dreaming. For the final performance we can expect to be enticed by solid drum progressions and synth ambiance courtesy of Dani Markham (Tune-Yards), Maia Friedman (UNI IKA AI) & K. Marie Kim (BLANK PAPER).

So stroll on over to Manhattan Inn this Sunday, April 10, for some some great performances in a cozy and intimate environment!

On Thursday July 23rd, The Deli sponsored and helped book a Sofarsounds.com show in NYC. Since the Sofar Sounds shows are always secret, we couldn't promote the participating bands, therefore we'll take the opportunity to blog about them today.

The show was hosted in a beautiful apartment in Manhattan's Battery City by the west river, with gorgeous view of New Jersey. NYC's folk duo Laura & Greg - pictured above minutes before their performance - opened the show with their delicate and intimate songs, featuring a simple acoustic guitar and two way harmonies that took us back to the glorious days of Simon & Garfunkel. The band released a full length album entitled 'Forever For Sure' - you can stream the title track below.

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We were very familiar with the second band on the bill, since they performed at our Best of NYC Fest in June. The Cabana Kids played a stripped down set without giving up the electric guitar, a signature instrument of their dreamy, surf influenced sound. The absence of drums conveied a more folky vibe to their song, allowing their catchy melodies and harmonies to shine.

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Last on the bill, a duo we wrote about a few years ago and we recently re-discovered: Gracie and Rachel (in the top picture). After two guitar based, drumless acts, the two ladies switched things up a little, introducing the audience to their instruments: a piano, a violin, and a kick drum turned on its back, and taken care of by a (charming) dude. What followed could be described as some kind of avant-orchestral bliss: in this music, Gracie Coates's peculiarly moody songwriting and percussive piano style feeds the imagination of Rachel Ruggles' classically trained violin. The two also harmonized flawlessly on occasion, displaying an impressively well-rounded talent. Check out their latest single 'Tiptoe,' streaming below.

We added this song to The Deli's playlist of Best mellow songs by emerging NYC artists - check it out!

A mountainous piece of shrill piano presses, thick string plucks, and violins that skitter only to soar... “Go” by Gracie and Rachel is simply beautiful. Apparently a song off a forthcoming album of the same name by the Berkeley-raised, Brooklyn-based duo, “Go” awes in its ability to make technical mastery into something moving and potentially transcendent. “It’s okay, it’s okay/To let your heart race, heart race,” goes a silky-voiced lyric, wondrous assurance sliding through. Gracie and Rachel will open for Porcelain Raft this Thursday (6.25) at TT The Bear’s Place Inc. in Cambridge, Massachussetts and will perform at Rockwood Music Hall on Monday, 6.29. In the meantime, listen to “Go,” and watch its ponderous black-and-white music video, below.

We added this song to The Deli's playlist of Best mellow songs by emerging NYC artists - check it out!

No one ever taught Gracie and Rachel how to hide their feelings away, and we're the beneficiaries of that innocence. Soaring tracks like '(un)comfortable' and 'faster' will challenge the heights you've come to expect from an otherwise soft-spoken piano/singing duo, and ease you into the apparent comfort the duo has in expressing vulnerabilities. The girls may suffer through life's travais, but these gorgeous textures transcend any question of calling them victims. - Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)