Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweethearts in Bands,

As usual, The Deli's Year End Poll (for emerging artists) will assign the cover of our Spring Issue 2010. The polling process is as complex as rocket science (if you want to try and get your head around it be our guest and go here).

The submissions for the open contest that will select minimum 3 artists for the next phase is now closed. We are currently receiving the jurors' votes. The next phase will be the readers' vote, which will start on January 3.

All the bands that submitted to our open contest were also added to our chart system for indie artists - which will get them some exposure in the future.

Here we are taking a little bit of a holiday break - we'll still have some content up in the next few days, but not as much. We will see you back in early January - in the meantime Happy Holidays to you all!!

The Deli's Staff
www.thedelimagazine.com

On Saturday night, the [dog] and [pony] DVD Release Party was held at SPACE Gallery. [dog] and [pony] is a local filmmaker team that documents performances of local Portland bands and musicians and edits footage of them to capture the essence of their performances. [dog] and [pony] started in March of this year with an intimate performance by Dead End Armory, followed by one of Highway Jackson. If you know both of those bands, you'll understand that [dog] and [pony] is aiming to find the great diversity of Portland music, with Dead End Armory's alt-country/rock and Highway Jackson's southern rock style.

This release party celebrated [dog] and [pony]'s first DVD volume of 15 videos. Of the musicians and bands on the DVD, nine of them were there to perform—The Lobolly Boy, Samuel James, Dana Gross, Wes Hartley (of Dead End Armory), Chriss Sutherland, Jesse Pilgrim, Kris Rodgers (of Highway Jackson) and Jacob Augustine—along with Portland's hottest new rock band, Marie Stella.

One of the better moments of the show was when Samuel James performed his re-imagined Blues version of Michael Jackson's “Billy Jean.” As soon as people realized what song he was performing, a collective grin stretched across the audience. I find it alarming that there can be such a talented artist who still has to hold a regular job at Videoport to make a living. This is true for many of the musicians who performed tonight, but hopefully [dog] and [pony]'s exposure will help them reach the stardom and praise that they deserve.

Another exciting moment was Jesse Pilgrim's entire set. I had heard his voice had the likeness of Johnny Cash's smoky bass, but I didn't realize that he mixed his old country voice with punk-rock instrumentation. Jesse Pilgrim may have been the most exciting new voice I've heard in recent times.

Jacob Augustine was undoubtedly the crowd favorite of the night. His music was folk-based, infused with the incredible soul of his voice, all with a great backup band of piano, guitar, horns, and violin. Augustine was later joined by Aly Spaltro of Lady Lamb the Beekeeper for the final few songs of his set. Though the juxtaposition of the two figures was outlandish, the intensity and soulfulness of their voices were evenly matched. As a past enthusiast of Lady Lamb shows, it was exciting to see her perform with a full band behind her (she usually plays solo); I can only imagine how great her songs would sound with more instrumentation. You can pick up a copy of the [dog] and [pony] at all Bull Moose stores. A live CD recorded from the show will be released within the month. Follow the links below for video clips of [dog] and [pony]'s work:

Dead End Armory: http://vimeo.com/3553250

Samuel James/Chriss Sutherland: http://vimeo.com/4967713

Jacob Augustine video http://vimeo.com/5998694

--Dylan Martin

I caught my first punk show of the winter season this Saturday at the Middle East upstairs at one in the afternoon. Who knew you could do that? I couldn’t remember a show I’d ever been to that had started before 7 PM. Except for the time I saw Raffi, live (incidentally, one of the better performances I’ve ever seen. Even if it was only because I was a four-year-old with a funnel cake watching a Unibomber-lookalike play three chords).

The first act of the night was a Boston five-person folk-punk outfit The Swaggerin’ Growlers. The SGs came out with some real elephant-crushing energy that hardly relented during the course of their set and it wasn’t just one member of the group holding it all up. Whether it was lead vocalist Johnny Swagger contorting his body into some mean Hendrix-style lean-backs (which I’ve never, ever seen someone do at a punk show) or Fiddler/Tin Whistler/Accordionist Annie Growler getting mean on her tin whistle or even just the between-song banter, you could definitely tell that the SGs were there to have some goddamn fun up on that stage. Their fast folk-punk tunes in 4/4 time (with the exception of a 3/4 musical break where the lead singer shouted “WALTZ TIME!!!”), kept the crowd swinging and moshing through most of their set.

--Read the whole review by Dan Schneider HERE

The Jazz Guys are playing their final show this Friday at Muddy Waters on Main St, downtown Burlington. Part of the burgeoning indie rock scene, with a throwback style of with equal parts irony and smiles (a cover of Beyonce's "Single Girls" was floating around the interwebs earlier this year). They will also be joined by Burlington acts Missy Bly, Swale, and Kochalka.

Muddy Waters
184 Main St.
Burlington, VT 05401

--The Deli Staff