John Hughes is dead and gone, but the unshakeable melancholy of growing up is stronger than ever. Your dusty old VHS of The Breakfast Club doesn’t even have to leave the shelf to stand as a potent symbol of nostalgia and the loss that comes with the passing of time. Evan Hickman, the man behind Regatta, might or might not have any physical VHS tapes on his shelf, but he has a few figurative ones lodged in his spirit. His debut self-titled EP is a quick listen, clocking in at a snack-sized eight minutes with songs like sound-sketches, but what’s here is worth checking out.

The existential disenchantment is going to hit you one way or another, so you’d best just lean into it and hit the stream below. -Austin Phy

Thanks to all the artists who submitted their music to be considered for The Deli's Best of Chicago Year End Poll for Emerging Artists.

After tallying our editors' ratings for the Open Submissions stage, it’s time to release the results. Please note that to avoid conflicts no local editor was allowed to vote for bands in their own scene.

Total submissions from Chicago: 56

Acts advancing to our Readers/Fans Poll:

1. Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta (Cumbia) - 8.33 (out of 10)

2. Jamarcus (Jazz/Math) - 8.17

2. Radius (Trip Hop/Deep House) - 8.17

3. The Bribes (50's Revival) - 8

3. Burnside & Hooker (Americana) - 8

3. Bow & Spear (Post Hardcore) - 8

4. The Gold Web (80's Psych) - 7.67

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Honorable Mentions (ranked 7.5):

Static In Verona, Warik, Gross Pointe, Tiny Fireflies, Cornstar Farmer's Market Pornstar, Evasive Backflip, Melkbelly, Death By Icon

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WHAT’S NEXT: These results end the first phase of the poll. We will soon unveil the artists nominated by our local jurors, and then let our readers and our writers influence the poll with their vote. Keep creating, keep supporting, and stay tuned for your chance to vote!

—The Deli Chicago Staff

Six-Piece Post-Metal band Bloodiest is preparing to release their sophomore and self-titled album via Relapse Records this Friday, Jan. 15th. You can preorder the album here and stream three tracks from the album below.

You can catch Bloodiest at Empty Bottle on March 12th with Sweet Cobra and Electric Hawk.

Amid the terrorizing tragedies that have been involving ISIS recently, the lovely ladies of Is/Is have decided to change their name. In a statement (both emailed to me and now found on their Bandcamp page) the ladies give a little detail about the decision:

In light of realities far beyond our control, Is/Is will thus forward be known as “Candace.”

“Is/Is” (/iz-iz/) has metamorphosed from an intentional non-signifier to an unintentional reminder of what can be horrible in this world.

We hope that the new name will make room for us to be more of what we’ve always meant to be—a reflection of the good and small mysteries that make living worthwhile.

It's a respectful and understandable move for the band, and hopefully won't interfere with their future successess. All former Is/Is related pages and correspondance have been switched in observance of the new name. Their first show under the new moniker will be at the Know on January 16th with Ah God and Seattle's Dræmhouse. 

-Cervante Pope  

Wildcat Apollo is releasing 80s pop singles on us right now. Truly, we’ve been living in this time of all past eras of music being re-done and reproached by the contemporary kids as good as or better than they were originally were for a while, and Wildcat Apollo’s second single from their new album “Melt into the Ocean” is exactly that. It’s a Cocteau Twins influenced blast of a romantic pop track, but with the echoing choir indie thing of the early 2000s (itself a rehash of an 80s Paul McCartney kinda thing that itself goes back even further etc.) and a very 2016 approach to old sounds that says this is ours, and we’re gonna take it and make it like we want.

We live in the age of fast-moving everything, and one thing that’s moving so fast that it’s collapsed into itself is pop music, which has developed into music like “Red Roses” that comes off as a kind of retro-contemporary-future pop music all at one time. It’s weird that it does all these different pop things at once and doesn’t ask permission to do it. It might not be fully what many might want from pop music if we were asked to directly lay out the path we think good such music takes, and it isn’t perfect with its almost-too cutesy notes with the echoing choir shit, but it makes up for it by not caring that you might not like that and driving hard at everything the band wants the track to be. It ends up pretty endearingly done, and the track sticks in your head and gets your spirit going a bit upwards whether you'd like to admit it or not (and many will without a single problem).

Wildcat Apollo’s “Red Roses” is of the new rules pop, and it’s good fun, and you should and can listen to it below. Do that or be a stickler, hip kids of this site.