Light reflected brilliantly from Jack Kilmer's wavering tremolo arm as Glimmer dipped into the Non Plus Ultra last Saturday. Oxford shoes, white kicks, and the cowboy hat that had loitered under the haze of cigarettes, drew into the swirl of stretched-out, torrid chords. The first intermission allowed a quick survey of the room: there was spilled beer and little space to move. The audience tripled in size as Golden Daze gave more than a taste of their narcotic, new self-titled debut, even revealing an unreleased track "Within" to closed eyes and mesmerized ears. The night was still young as FYF veteran and self-proclaimed "biggest trashcan" Evan Weiss (ex-Wires on Fire) stepped up with JUNK for some innocent, destructive fun.

You did miss out; but you can still catch Ben and Jacob next week as they support Fell Runner's March residency at the Bootleg, presented by KXLU. As always, check our Instagram @TheDeliLA for more pictures of the night. - Ryan Mo

Deli Readers,

Our Best of Toronto Poll for Emerging Artists has been - as usual - a lengthy and painstaking journey which took us through prairies of numbers, horizons filled with band names, and a dense, (mostly) joyous rain of music. We have finally reached our destination and we can announce the final results!

1. SATE
Hitherto, the husky soul voice, applied to hard-rock production, has been a forced aesthetic. An argument could be made for solo artist Sate - our Toronto Best Emerging Artist of 2015 - having rectified the situation. Unhinged rockers like "What Did I Do" and "Warrior" (streaming)convince the longer (and more fiercely) she sings.

---

2. Dilly Dally
Dilly Dally are generating a serious buzz all over right now. They toured through the USA last year and even cracked Rolling Stone's List of Bands You NEED to know. 2 guys and 2 gals in this band...so they're like ABBA...except with Pixies-esque rhythms and undeniable melodies over perfectly constructed grunge tunes. They were just announced as a headliner for CMW in May. This track "Desire" is the real deal!

---

3. Ol'CD
Ol'CD is gettin' mad love from everyone involved with the Deli these days. They were #1 on the Readers Poll and a bronze medal for the FINAL results ain't too shabby. These fellas have catchy-ass garage rock tunes infused with some surf elements. A real party band. Don't miss the chance to hop along at one of their upcoming shows.

---

Check out our poll's top 10 below, and don't forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:

ALT ROCK - ELECTRO+HIP HOP - GARAGE ROCK - INDIE POP/ROCK - POST HARDCORE/90'S ROCK - PSYCH/NOISE ROCK - ROOTS MUSIC

BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR EMERGING TORONTO ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS - TOP 10 ******

ARTIST J OS R TOT   1 Sate 7.5   0.01 7.51 2 Dilly Dally 4.5 3 0.003 7.503 3 OL'CD 3   2 5 4 Cardboard Crowns 2   1.5 3.5 5 Fat As Fuck 3   0.5 3.5 6 Spells of Vertigo   3 0.034 3.034 7 Sumo Cyco 3   0.02 3.02 8 Jazz Cartier 3   0.006 3.006 9 Bossie 3   0 3 10 Kurt Marble 2   0.042 2.042 Legend: J = Jurors, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

---
If you wonder how this chart came into existence, here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ Toronto scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each (3 points for the top choice, then 2 and 1). Then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.

If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music Toronto produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

Many Thanks to our Jurors: Mike Roth (Artist Manager for Dala), Kiran Singh (Drake), Adam Bentley (Auter Research), Mike Religa (Indie88), Ben Pearlman (Collective Concerts), Craig Laskey (Horse Shoe Tavern), Denholm Whale (The SMiling Buddha), Justin O'Heir (Artistik Management), Mar Sellars (CIUT), Adam Carter (Homegrown Hamilton), Rivoli Booking Team, Yvonne (El Mocambo).

Hope you'll find some awesome new artists you weren't aware of!

The Deli's Staff

Beneath heroic guitar dynamics and somewhat lax vocals, "Doug" is a song that shows a lot of heart. The new track by Worn-Tin, lead by Warner Hiatt, is a lo-fi anthem that does take its dear time to unfold, eschewing any choruses altogether to deliver a streamlined jam coupled by a lively, sustained hook that will leave you humming once it's over. Now accompanied by a wistful video that takes one back to those days of shooting footage on VHS camcorders, "Doug" further emphasizes Hiatt's playful antics as he mingles with friends on what seems like an ideal summer roap trip.

"Doug" is the first single off of his just-released full length Thanatophobia, an album inspired by a near-death experience he had with two close friends after the car they were on flipped and almost caused a devastating effect on their lives. Nevertheless, "Doug" is gushing with joy, portraying a songwriter who's relishing life's simple pleasures; to be fully alive and to drum up vibration in the moment. 

You can catch Worn-Tin play at the Bootleg alongside Kississippi and Bobby T. on March 26. - Juan Rodríguez

Lots of good rock comes out of the whole “suburban youthful malaise” thing, and one of our recent Artist of the Month winners Paperback brings a damn good entry into that subgenre of indie with their hard guitar album Nervous Energy. It’s a bit Weezer in the subjects and guitar, a bit Sparta in the energy and structure, a bit Neutral Milk Hotel in the vocals, a taste of Pixies artiness and a whole lot of good indie rock fun overall. The tracks are often about relationships, but in that post-pomo, beyond cynicism and nihilism space where there’s a mature and thoughtful tiredness that you often get in that 90s/2000s era in indie that Paperback builds on. The songs are about just trying to scrape out a good relationship in a tiring, weird reality, and they do a fine job of it with ballsy-honest looks at romance and the world it tries to live in, an approach that isn’t hurt one bit by this band’s aptitude for vivid imagery and description. The suburban anthem-loving crowd is sure to dig Paperback’s newest output here, as is anyone with a thing for oldschool indie that really does rock. Track “Cat” is a real standout of “Teenage Dirtbag”-esque angsty awesome, so make sure to give that a listen below y’all, and let the fuzzy, screaming guitar and slacker lyricism back into your indie rock.

John Valley is on a roll. The local videographer and producer recently made two stellar videos for Sweet Spirit with “Baby Doll” and “Baby When I Close My Eyes," and John's kept the momentum rolling with his work on another equally captivating video, this time “Sex & Drugs”  just released by A Giant Dog. The video portrays the band as wintery minstrels stuck in a snowglobe at the mercy of a maniacal child who wreaks havoc by violently shaking the globe, a subtle allusion to the song’s lyrical theme of lost youth. Valley seems to relish in creating videos that portray the beautiful, glamorous, and alluring, and he then injects diabolical twists that turn the picturesque quickly awry. The track here is a lot of fun as well, very punchy and self-aware indie with a punkish vibe and a nonstop, frantic drive that is one to really jam out to, and hard. It's an excellent showing from both band and Valley, and it's a perfect example of what a music video really should be. Check it out below.

-

Lee Ackerley
@slackerleemusic