If your mom rocks and loves to laugh (if so, pretty cool mom you have!) we recommend this show next Sunday 05.08 for Mother's Day: local comedians Catherine Cohen and Steven Markow are hosting a live music event at the Mercury Lounge in honor of our birth-givers. Headlining for the night is Psychobaby (which, coincidentally, is how your mother affectionately called you when you were 2), an alt rock group that combines sharp guitar riffs with robust but overall poppy female vocals. Sharing the LES venue's stage that night will be the also lady-fronted lounge pop band Madam West, and a New JErsey based hip-hop band, Cook Thugless (pictured), whose latest full-length record could be found here.

Brooklyn based band Psychobaby broke into the NYC scene with an unapologetic banger in “Baby” and its accompanying video in December of 2015. A few weeks later, the band won our Best of NYC Readers’/Fans’ Poll for Emerging Artists in the Slacker Rock category (even though they are not really slackers, but it was the best fit by approximation). With the release of their new EP, "Rough Start," (premiered below) we are introduced to two new songs that give us a better idea of this group's sonic spectrum: second track "Believer" dabbles in dream pop territory, with Juliet Garrett’s polished vocals delivering her most uplifting melody to date. "Flower Hat Man" explores  post punk atmospheres through dissonant guitars and a more aggressive attitude, but doesn't come across as natural and accomplished as the first two tracks, which paint a picture of a band with potential. Psychobaby will be performing these and other songs on March 3rd at The Gateway in Bushwick, go check them out! – Adriana S Ballester

It's time to tackle the ALT ROCK category of our open submissions for the 2015 edition of our Best of NYC Poll for emerging artists - you can see the results we published so far here.

ALT ROCK/POWER POP 

Total submissions in this category: 21

Jurors: Jason Behrends (The Deli Chicago), Jordannah Elizabeth (The Deli SF) PDG (The Deli NYC).

Artists qualified to the next stage (i.e. the Readers' Poll, starting around 01.20):

1. The Chordaes - 7.66 (out of 10)

A just over one year old group of "Manhattan-born friends" (take that, Brooklyn hipster-immigrants, these guys are real New York, New Yorkers!), The Chordaes' music features elegant melodies, measured arrangements and a rather mellow approach, and may be best described as Alt Pop than Alt Rock - although the latter is the category they submitted for. But this doesn't really change the fact that this is a group of young and talented musicians with noteworthy songwriting chops, and a vocalist that can touch hearts in ways reminiscent of unforgotten NYC hero Jeff Buckley. Check out their single "Touch The Ground" and see them live at Rockwood Music Hall on January 30th.

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2. PSYCHOBABY - 7.5

The brainchild of fiery Brooklyn based singer songwriter Juliet Garrett and guitarist Godfrey Furchtgott, Psychobaby only released one song out at this (very early) stage of its career, but a song that - paired with an imaginative and well shot low budget video - bodes very well for the band's future. Sonic references to the riot grrl sound of the '90s are tempered by the lack of slacking: the band's sound is focused, Garret can sing, and the songwriting seems more inspired by artists from previous decades, like, for example, The Pretenders or even Exene Cervenka's X. Having attitude, character and a good song+video combo is a great start for an emerging band; Psychobaby's next challenges are prolificity, consistency of songwriting and a building killer live show. You can see the band live at Bowery Electric on February 13th.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS (rating above 7):

Mustardmind, Justin Baron, Warn The Duke, Sketchy, Bloody Your Hands.

More open submission results coming soon!

The Deli's Folks