The New York-based trio Sons of an Illustrious Father - comprised of Lilah Larson, Ezra Miller and Josh Aubin - are making their SXSW debut this year on the heels of their new album "Revol," released on March 9 - check out their video for single "Post-Future" below, and if you are going to be in Austin next week, you can see them at Maggie Mae's on 03.16 and at Cheer Up Charlie's on 03.19 - more info here.

For their last few singles, Sons of an Illustrious Father have released narrative album covers showing the thinning space between two nude women - it began with a strained handshake, then became a lunging touch. In the cover of their spring 2015 EP “Sons” (which simply gathers in a physical release those two digital singles), the two women share a passionate kiss. These images are excerpts from a film roll designed by band member Lilah Larson. Curiously, one last erotic segment is left, perhaps saved for a future release. The EP begins with talk of death and afterlife and travels back to the world of the living with doubts and anxiety over the state of the planet. Although decidedly alt rock, their style marries snippets of musical and verbal ideas saved from long improv sessions, including funk and Americana influences. The New York based trio is busy finishing up an LP and setting sail on the "Marty Loser Kingdom Tour" this spring with Saul Williams. They will stop home to play a show at The Brooklyn Bowl on May 7th. - Leora Mandel

Deli-rious readers,

In the insanely convoluted (but SUPERBLY accurate) system governing our Year End Poll for Emerging NYC Artist, our writers have a rather influential vote. Here are the results of this specific poll.

Well... you should know by know how much The Deli's staff loves avant-indie trio Celestial Shore, so I guess no surprise there! Check out their latest awesome video below. Beverly, Sons of an Illustrious Father and Dead Stars also made an impression...

BEST OF 2014 FOR EMERGING NYC ARTISTS - DELI WRITERS' POLL RESULTS -

ARTIST VOTES   1 Celestial Shore 4 2 Beverly 3 3 Sons of an Illustrious Father 2   Dead Stars 2

The Deli's Staff

Deli Nation,

Our most faithful readers know that January, here at The Deli, is the month of our Year End Polls for Emerging Artists, a painstaking survey we run in each of our local branches to identify all the most promising musical acts across all genres (last year's result can be found here).

To give this poll more credibility, a good portion of the nominees are picked by a jury of local scene-makers (mostly comprised of venue booking agents) who get to nominate their three favorite local artists of the past year. But to involve all possible artists - even the most unknown, in December we had an open submission form that allowed any act to submit to the poll. These entries were ranked by The Deli's own branch editors, and this is what this post is about.

Since we always get hundreds of submissions for the NYC year end poll, we organize the open submission results by genre, and this year we'll start with the ALT ROCK/POWER POP category, two genres that share a rather muscular guitar based sound.

As always, we wish we could let more artists through to the next stage, but unfortunately we have to put a limit to the bands that qualify (we already have too many!). Here we go then: 

ALT ROCK/POWER POP 
Total submissions in this category: 37

Jurors: Michelle Bacon (Deli KC), Roxy Morrison (Deli Toronto) Paolo De Gregorio (Deli NYC).

Artists Qualified to the next stage (i.e. the Readers' Poll, starting around 01.15):

1. STRNGRS - 8.33

2. Sons of an Illustrious Father - 8

3. Late Cambrian - 7.83

Honorable Mentions (scores above 6.5) in order of high score:
j and the 9s, Millsted, Courtesy Tier, Kung Fu Crimewave, Sunny Gang, Sepoy, The Freaky Baby Daddies, Kevin McWha Steele, Mind Over Time, Eli Whitney & The Sound Machine, The Como Brothers Band, Mals Totem, Saturday Drive.

Stay tuned for more results, and then for the final poll - this is just the beginning of a month long process!

The Deli's Saff

When you talk about Sons of an Illustrious Father, you have to speak of the band in terms of eras. Their initial recordings were folky, even vaguely alt-country, as if exhumed, dusted off, and brought down from the mountain. The vocals on these songs are beautifully breathy and cigarette stretched, the drums play a lithe shuffle, and are accompanied by banjos and the echo of an electric guitar. The music the band produces in its current iteration retains many of these facets, but has also noticeably evolved. Their latest two singles, “Very Few Dancers" and "Strange Home,” carry influences as disparate as folk, psychedelic rock, and contemporary hip-hop, and rely heavily on electric instrumentation. Still present though is that singular voice, which hopefully the band never outgrows.

Read Emilio Herce's interview with Sons of Illustrious Father
See the band live at The Deli's CMJ Roots Stages at Rockwood on 10.22.