We are always curious to see what local bands make it into the yearly NYC Popfest - a festival that deserves credit for scouting talented emerging pop acts and keeping things on a medium to small scale, which is what The Deli is all about. This year's edition will see three NYC based acts involved, and we are very intrigued in particular by Lake Ruth (pictured), a band that evokes aural specters of early Belle & Sebastian led by Trish Keenan of Broadcast. The trio is really, reall new, but its members have played in established acts like Enon and Holy Fuck, although they sound like a development of NYC's guitarist Hewson Chen's psych-pop project The New Lines - with a different singer. They have dropped two digital releases so far, for a total of three tracks, debuting in February 2016 with two stylish and mellow songs in 'The Inconsolable Jean​-​Claude' EP, followed just two months later by the more uptempo and summery 'Through The Lychgates,' streaming below. Singer Allison Brice's soprano is honey for the ears, and the band knows how to let it flow.

The other two local acts playing this year's popfest are garage pop trio Big Quiet, which we booked at one of our latest CMJ shows, and self-defined "freak-pop" band The Hairs, brainchild of Brooklyn songwriter Kevin Alvir, who are about to drop their first release since 2013, a n LP entitled 'While, I Hated Life, Barbarian.' Check out preview single 'Fave Shit 15.'

Most pop and rock fans are struck by the passion for music in their teens or early twenties, years that are emotionally rich and normally infused with optimism, excitment and some degree of rebellion. That makes them the perfect time to get high on rock'n'roll. We don't know if it's possible for adults to enjoy music as much as their teenager selves - we doubt it - but this adorable new song and video by Brooklinite garage pop trio Big Quiet awakened the teenager in us, and... well, it felt great! The song, entitled "Maura & Dana" is a super-catchy and uptempo power-dream-pop tune (with unintelligible lyrics) that's bound to set any indie fan's body in motion. The video, which appears to be shot in super-8, beautifully tackles the summer activities of two music loving young ladies, during the most fun filled years of their lives. You can find other songs by Big Quiet in their self titled debut album, and you can see them live at The Deli's Garage/Slacker Rock CMJ stage on Thursday 10.15 at Muchmore's.

Yes, we are finding lots of local bands to write about in the list of official CMJ bands overe here - which is getting larger and larger by the hour. The second half of 2015 has been rather prolific for NYC jangly garage pop trio Big Quiet, who released in June their self-titled debut cassette, following it up in September with a 7" entitled "Maura & Dana" (streaming below). The album/tape takes us through a lo-fi journey of rediscovery of the guitar pop of the '80s, quoting various influences ranging from early R.E.M. (Why Do We Bother?, Say Yes) to The LA's (Ghost), with the spectrum or The (early) Bangles lingering behind Marisa Cerio's melodies and harmonies. The 7", released under Unblinking Ear Records, is a more solid piece of jangly pop, with the title-track delivering their best and most open melody to date, and the early influences resulting less obvious.