We are gearing up for Meeko Cheech’s latest EP out this Saturday June 27th. Toronto’s weirdo rockers give their listeners a heavy cognet dark progression of their multi-instrumental synth-psycho rock with their latest EP, Miss Bolivia. The single is an epic tale of sound with a stereophonic vocals that whisper to a dark adventure of guitars & drums that fold in and out to wicked synths & organs. We are totally hooked! See them Saturday @ Handlebar bring it all in! Go to their bandcamp on Saturday and hear the entire EP.

As a fuckoff big Urban Outfitters goes up on the drag, and as a seemingly endless series of articles about the death of the Austin creative class at the hands of the Big Dollar swarms at us like a nonstop sandstorm of hurtytruth, it's nice that we at The Deli keep gettin’ an equal if not even psychically stronger swarm of good Austin music flowing at us from the other sociological direction. It helps to keep our souls from burning out, and it's especially cockles-warmin' (oh them neglected cockles) to know that there are still some Austin creatives out there succeeding at that most oldschool Austin of tasks, in that they’re able to both continue to make awesome shit and actually make a functioning business of it.

Among those makers who keep the good light burnin' and the money comin' in to the ATX the right way (and for the right people) is one Paul Grant- Record Label Manager at the stellar Raw Paw records, and the creative force behind Eyelid Kid, an electronic pop music act that just released an excellent new track of bouncy, tempo-changing beats called “Shadow Talk.”

“Shadow Talk” is a bit of a conundrum in this celebration-obsessed city, in that its very “now,” airy, thoughtful electronic production is complemented by lyrics that are all about frustration with dating someone who is all party all the time, a sentiment that you don’t hear expressed out loud that much here in Party City, Texas. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being in the situation it discusses, “Shadow Talk” gets the feeling of being dead into someone while also being quite aware that they’re far more into themselves and The Party than is healthy just dead to rights. Lines like “But it’s just like you to blow me off” are almost painfully accurate that lopsided, always-doomed (but pretty thrilling while it lasts) dating set-up, but even if you’ve never been in that weird (and perhaps more Austin than we’d all like to admit) sexual limbo, the track itself is also just one gorgeously constructed piece of future pop music that should find itself buried deep in that part of the brain where ear worms live for any listeners who are into artful pop music.

Eyelid Kid himself calls it “frosting pop,” a moniker that encapsulates the “very bright and pretty and feels good right now” vibe of the track, though perhaps it undersells the somewhat outside-the-typical-pop-box thoughts in the lyrics. That fully pop-ness that also undermines pop expectations (lines could be maybe be drawn between Eyelid Kid’s approach and that of pop confusers PC Music) extends even to the album art, a manga-influenced piece by Blake Bohls that is very much in the realm of pop art but also very unlike most pop music record covers.

“Shadow Talk” is just one more piece of proof that Austin has a burgeoning pool of pop talent that is indie only in their disassociation with big labels and which fears no beat, and it is a wonderfully welcome piece of future-leaning pop music that is good for the Austinite’s soul, as it is for the soul of Austin itself. Eyelid Kid has only been performing since September, but it’s said that his shows are something magical to behold and more have been coming up of late (including a show at Empire Garage June 26th with The Deli Austin favorites Slooom and Shmu along with Hikes), so keep an eye on this entrepreneurial creator and embodier of the spirit of this city as it is when its being its true self at his Facebook page, and listen to the poplovely “Shadow Talk” below.

Quick, let your hot date know there's a change in plans tonight because at 9:30 at The Penthouse Baltimore's total dreamboat Wildhoney will be playing a show on a diverse lineup with bands from Baltimore, North Carolina, and Britain. It's kind of your chance for one of those summer of love dance scenes you've always sneered at in movies but secretly practiced in your bedroom. But if you don't catch them tonight before they continue on their U.S. tour with Spook School, you'll have more chances when they play DC9 Nightclub in DC on 6/25 and Metro Gallery in Baltimore 10/07 (plenty of time to plan for that one). Wildhoney's latest 3-song record, "17 Forever", gets pretty and gritty with the band's swooning, atmospheric blend of lo-fi shoegaze and post-punk. The title fits a collection of songs that glitter and brood through a teenage girl's daydream. Airy vocal harmonies delightfully steer through surrounding storms of percussion, warm fuzz/bass, distancing reverb, and slicing guitars. They've been killing it in the past few months : a tour with Whirr, a new music video, and they've announced their next EP is due out later this year. Keep at it guys, we'll be keeping an ear out!

- Leora Mandel

Two men, a galaxy of sound. From jazz-fusion to electronic fuzz-rock and back, Huge Cosmic is who you call for ambience and acuity. With songs called “Let’s Talk About The Weather” and “Interviewed By Nardwuar”, the eclectic and electric nature of the band is accepted and accentuated by the energy and intelligence of the music. “Weather” is a prime example of their blending influences and minds. Between the notes of the vocal melody is where the chops of the two take over, switching from tight progressive groove into serene rock’n’roll walls of sound and back again. Serious music listeners would take care to take notice, and keep their eyes peeled. Huge Cosmic is bringing their experimental sound to the Cavern on Saturday, May 30th, so get yourself in front of that stage.-Cody Wright

Those'd be some seriously 80s, seriously British reverbed chords we're talkin' about, and they come slinking out of popgazers Single Lash, them of the perhaps most perfect pop goth band name what has ever been, on their new eponymous album. Released this April, "Single Lash" follows up on 2014's intriguing "Soft as Glass" with 12 cacophonous tracks with one or two word titles, those sparse words more often than not being from the gloomy romantic side of the dictionary (“Bitemarks,” “Keep It,” “Drown” and “False” start the album off, just to name a few). In fact, a flavor of gothic influenced “lovely, but with death on the mind,” thorned-rose notes percolate through and from the music itself through all of the album, the sound of which comes from the art poprock side of the dark music genrescape.

“Single Lash,” and Single Lash the band itself, are well-done breaks from the idea that dreary must always be dark (or is it vice versa), with the satisfying and even at times near ecstatic prettiness of the album pairing perfectly with the goth- and general 80s-British-Music-informed melancholia of the songs here. Which, truth be told, is just the way any good pain + pleasure thing should go (I guess in a way what I’m saying is that “Single Lash” is the consensual rough sex where everyone involved leaves bruised but happy of music).

As an example of this sweet and sour sound I’m talking about, take track “False,” one of the more outwardly happy, more upbeat sounding tracks on the album. Soaking in the waves of bright, quick shoegaze that wash out of the drack (and not drowning in them, as can happen with many -gaze tracks), one can just make out the words of the song, “There’s nothing here to want/Just bitter nostalgia-/There’s nothing here that’s true.” Second track “Keep It” nails the sentiment in one line, “I am spellbound as the stars go out.“

Speaking of nostalgia, that feeling is an excellent touchstone for this music, the word coming from the combination of the Greek words for “return home” and “pain (apologies to Don Draper fans). When that word was coined, real life medical people actually thought you could die from nostalgia, and listening to Single Lash, you get the sense that the band might not find that concept too outlandish. They pine, they remember, they query the universe about why things are the way they are in most tracks. However, from the bright sounds they blend into their laments and existential requests, I also get the sense that Single Lash is less interested in the idea of despair alone, but maybe more of just a heaviness of all emotion. I get the feeling that if their members died because of grief or existential uncertainty, it would be more of a chosen and beautiful event than a perishing one.

All of that, of course, is just speculation (maybe super happy people are great at sad music? you never know), but what is nothing but sure is that “Single Lash” is a deadly gorgeous album that does not tire from track to track despite its drone-heaviness and which is both fully versed in its influences and yet has also drifted away from them to a nearby space all its own. Listen below, especially if it’s still fucking raining when you find this piece. You could do much worse for rainy day music.