The term “Poser Pop” shows up sometimes in the words Austin’s future-leaning Your Plastic Toys have written about themselves. Check their online shit, and you’ll see those two words more than once, those two descriptors that aren’t really a genre as such, but more a stance by Your Plastic Toys on their own place in music. In our estimation, the idea is that Your Plastic Tree poses at pop, refusing to make the standard plays while still fully playing a pop game. They are as art-aware as they are pop-aware as they are experimentally on point, and their music is at once a serious approach to pop music making and a bit of a mockery of the pop that’s already out there (in the fine tradition of acts like Talking Heads, The Fugs, or the very contemporary PC Music label out of the UK). A band that views the pop rulebook through half-broke virtual reality goggles.

In that same vein, you’ll also see a lot of abstractions and hyper-modern shit on Your Plastic Toys’ various web profiles, like glitchy saturated pixel-heavy images created by the band itself, short thoughts and quotes decoupled from their source and presented as something to be considered on their own, and not a single clear photo of the band to be found. This digital obfuscation of the band, its image, its motives, its views, evokes a highly modern feeling of existing in a never ending swirl of bit-noise and net fuzz, and it’s exactly what Your Plastic Toys’ sound is like.

On the just-released album OOO, shoegaze-gone-modern swells and currents of sound layer over tight digital beats and the vocals are threaded in and out heavily tweaked and disaffected, sometimes even disdainfully so (to great effect, it must be made clear). Your Plastic Toys comes through like a band seen and heard through a diabolical storm of TV snow on a channel that’s shakily fading in and out of a 1990s tube TV in a busted up apartment with a courtyard pool in the summer. It’s music that rides on that bright burning edge of culture just curling out from the future and into the present, and that throws back a tech-addled vision of what it sees to those still lingering in the cultural past. Take a listen to one of Austin's most forward-thinking bands below, and inject their entire new album here.

Boston pop-punk rockers Rebuilder will be releasing their debut album, Rock & Roll in America, on April 3 at O’Brien’s Pub in Allston, MA. Local punks Choke Up and Bundles will be joining-in on the raucous fun, along with solo artist/effects loop-maker extraordinaire Sun Dog. DJ Mateo Williams (WMBR’s Late Risers Club) will supply some tunes in between sets to save you from having to awkwardly interact with fellow concertgoers while the bands set up. Oh, and did I mention the festivities will be brought to you by our pals over at Bishop and Rook? Well, now you know; and knowing is half the battle.

If you’re curious about what the new Rebuilder material sounds like, you can stream “The National Bohemian”, the first track off of Rock & Roll in America, here.

For more info about the album release show, click here. For more info on Rebuilder, visit their Facebook page.

-Dan McMahon (@dmcmhn)

 

The fourth annual Treefort Music Festival is proving to be the biggest one yet. Not only is it their first year as a licensed LLC, but this year’s lineup is larger than any previous year with over 400 musical acts, not to mention whole mini-festivals dedicated to comedy, performance art, technology, yoga, skateboarding, beer, and then some.

With massive national musical acts headlining the festival like TV On The Radio, Built To Spill, Foxygen, Yacht, Viet Cong, Of Montreal and !!!, just to name a few, the $139 price of a full-weekend pass is pretty much already god damned steal, and that’s barely 1.5% of the full 2015 lineup. Adding to the glory of this year’s festival, the vast array of amazing Portland bands making the trip to Boise makes Portland one of the most represented cities of the festival. Think of it as a huge rager with all your favorite Portland bands and friends, just in a new, way more fun location.

To help you sort through all of the madness, here is a quick list of some of the Deli Portland’s favorite Portland bands who will be performing at this year’s Treefort Music Festival. Find out exactly where and when they will be playing during Treefort, here. 

The first day of spring brings with it flowers, warm weather and dreams of summertime beach hangouts--unless you live in New England; then it brings 25 degree temperatures and forecasts of snow for the weekend. Fortunately for all of you readers (within and without the Northeast), I’ve got just the thing to usher in the spring season: a new track from Boston’s beloved electro-pop duo Miss Geo. “Mouse on The Moon” is off their forthcoming EP, Shapes, due out April 19. I’ve been a fan of Miss Geo for awhile, and “Mouse on The Moon” certainly lives-up to my expectations. The track gives off a very open sound, with the listener feeling as though they’re floating in space, watching synth notes pass by on their way to a trendy intergalactic dance party.

If you’re as anxious as I am to hear the rest of the new EP, check out Miss Geo’s EP release show on April 19 at the Middle East Upstairs. The show, presented by Lysten Boston, also features ColorGrave, Casey Desmond and Child Actor.

For more updates about Miss Geo, click here. For more info about the April 19 show, visit the Facebook event page.

-Dan McMahon (@dmcmhn)
Photo credit: Chikage Imai

Yet another poll hath gone, and the people have spoken: Wildfires is your Austin Deli Artist of the Month, coming in hard with a big push in the last few days that rocketed them straight into first. We've got a pretty good idea where Wildfires' roaring race to the win got its fuel, as this dreamy and deceptively-named indie outfit had a recent EP release at Cheer Up Charlies on March 11. Wildfires has transitioned over the years from a more acoustic-heavy American roots sound to poppy indie with a hazey shoegaze bent, which is what you'll get from single "Sad Wolverine" off the new EP and found below. The digital release of the album is said to be available soon, and we think it's a pretty cool coincidence that the band was able to time its release to match so perfectly with the weather, as this airy indiepop entry goes quite lovely with the light spring weather we've got in Austin right now. We suggest making Wildfires your spring soundtrack for all the hours of driving about looking for parking you're about to do this fest, so get listenin' and happy goddamn SX, y'all.