Thursday night marks your last chance to catch the explosive live performance of avant indie rockers Sama Dams until the release of their long awaited third album in December. Via Fartbook the trio hinted that they plan to make the show a special one, and if any of their past shows serve as a variable of measure for an "un-special" performance (if that is even a possibility for them), then Thursday night should indeed be a magnificant spectacle. Sharing the stage with them at Bunk Bar are Zula, an experimental pop quartet from Brooklyn, NY, and Hands In, perhaps Portlands most irresistibly dancable one man act. $6 in advance or $8 at the door, the show starts at 9. 

- Travis Leipzig

With the release of their debut LP 'This Hopeful,' out on Inflated Records (Speedy Ortiz, Ava Luna)Psych Pop quartet Zula has become a band to be reckoned with. With songs about Upper West Side doormen and riding the subway, Zula’s surreal lyrical imagery could only be influenced by their hometown of New York City. The band has a string of local gigs scheduled in the next couple of months (see here for the full list), including one of The Deli's Northside showcases at Spike Hill on June 14.

LINKS: Sam Kogon's interview with ZULA

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

We gave Brooklyn based psych pop band Zula quite a lot of attention recently in this blog and we are glad to see that our non-NYC editors agree in seeing potential in this band. The quartet was voted by our editors as the best Psych Rock/Dream Pop artist to submit to our year end Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists. This is a band that's been churning out a lot of good material in the past two years, and the new album "This Hopeful" released in the fall of 2013 under Inflated Record's wing shows a reached maturity. Check out beautiful dream pop single NRGZ streaming below, and see them live at Shea Stadium on January 30 and at Baby's All Right on 02.06.

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

Whether you like your dreams sweet and beautiful or weird and lynchian, psych influenced music is sure there to facilitate your oniric activity. Producing some of the most creative and out there music around, these genres have a strong presence and history in an experimental city like New York.

A quick reminder about the fact that we already published Best of NYC 2013 Open Submissions results for Indie Rock, Songwriters, Electronic, Indie Pop, Alt Rock, Alt Folk, Hip Hop and Revival Rock results. Here are the results for PSYCH ROCK/DREAM POP - these artists submitted to be considered for our Best of NYC 2013 Poll for Emerging Artists.

Competition was furious in this category, with 21 bands out of 25 with an average score above 6.5 and 16 above 7!

Total submissions in this category: 25

Artists Qualified to the next stage (Readers' Poll, starting soon):

1. Zula - 8.16 (out of 10)
2. Butter the Children - 7.83
2. Golden Animals - 7.83

Honorable Mentions (scores above 7):

Dead Leaf Echo, Empty Chairs, Lazyeyes, Sondra Sun-Odeon, Malka, The Montauk Project, Belle Mare, Lapland, Two Seconds To Midnight, HOUNDSds, The Ugly Club, Winkie, n y t y l y, PURPLE SUNS.

Jurors: Dawn Reed (Deli DC Area), Ben Toledo (Deli Portland), PDG (Deli NYC).

Stay tuned for more results, and then for the readers' poll!

The Deli's Staff