Whew…the sound you just heard wasn’t a sigh. It was simply us catching our breath after tabulating the votes from our writers for the nominees of our second annual Newbie Awards, honoring the top new band, female, male and album of 2013. While there were some names that we fully expected to see—and did—there were others that
London – Since the release of their exceedingly well received debut album “Sistrionix” in June this year, much fuss has been made about Californian duo Deap Vally. After meeting at a needlework class (really!) in 2011, Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards have developed an unconventional sound which is mesmerising, yet hard to pin down. There’s
Our Best New Band of 2013 Newbie Awards nominees are nicely split among men and women (since one band includes both). While there’s no underlying message there, for our writers it just meant that 2013 was another kickass year for new bands.
Seattle – Toro Y Moi played Showbox at the Market to a very dance-happy crowd. When we caught Toro y Moi in Brooklyn this summer, our New York writer, Kelly Knapp, astutely summed up his sound as “A voice like velvet with beats that make you dance hard” and, yes, dance hard is what people
BestNewBands.com’s Best New Male Artist of 2013 Newbie Awards nominees reveals the tremendous musical diversity that’s being embraced today. Note to those hoping to establish themselves in 2014…get a stage name. And it apparently doesn’t hurt if you’re still in your teens.
Los Angeles – Lost in the noise of pop, top 40, or whatever indie group happens to be hot at the moment, the quiet harmonies of Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale persevere. Folk/Americana doesn’t get a lot of mileage in the mainstream these days, but it doesn’t matter much. The genre stands as a timeless
Nashville – Channy Leaneagh appeared on stage at Mercy Lounge through a haze of smoke. She’s beautiful in an androgynous way. Her presence is both pixie-like and commanding. She is the unwilling star of the band Polica, the electronic group who first raised hairs in 2011 with the evocative album Give You The Ghost. Leaneagh’s
It was a big year for young female singers and performers to establish themselves. BestNewBands.com’s Best New Female Artist of 2013 Newbie Awards nominees include a teenager and a pair of 21-year-olds and range, quite literally, from A-Z across a wide range of musical genres. Not surprisingly, many noteworthy performers received votes from our panel
Nashville – The rough-and-tumble blues rock of Houndmouth has been hot in Nashville lately. We figured we’d better catch their show at Mercy Lounge to see what the buzz is about and see if they’re ready to join ranks with other neo-blues players like The Black Keys and Kings of Leon. The four-piece band from
There’s something for everyone in our Best New Album of 2013 Newbie Awards nominees. Frankly, the diversity of our writers’ musical tastes made this category pretty wide open and it was thus hard to narrow the list down to a manageable number. We anticipate the final voting margin to be this close.