Well alright, alright, alright y’all. We’ve reached the end of our open submissions for artists looking to be considered for The Deli's Best of Austin Year End Poll for Emerging Artists. Many thanks and tacos to all those that submitted their work; we took a listen to it all.

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 Austin: 25

Jurors: Jurors: Cody, Dan, Paolo

Acts advancing to our Readers/Fans Poll:

1. Hard Proof (Afrobeat) – 8.17 (out of 10)

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2. Madisons (Folk/Americana) - 7.5

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3. The Cover Letter (Alt Folk) - 7.5

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4. Jackie Venson (Blues Rock) - 7.33

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5. Tennessee Stiffs (Alt Folk) - 7.33

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6. COSMS (Post Rock) - 7.17

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7. Molybden (Folk/Americana) - 7.17

Honorable Mentions (ranked above 6.5):

Bazile, SIGNY, Booher, Paula Maya, Steady Legend, Wildcat Apollo, Indoor Creature

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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 Austin Staff

The Bishops might sound like the name of a snarky irreverent indie rock outfit, or maybe a math rock group named after the third-most fun chess piece (this is inarguable, and we’ll challenge anyone who says otherwise to a match), but in fact, this brand new Austin act is something far more rare: It’s a hip-hop supergroup made up of people who are real-life family members each with their own career outside of this new collaboration.

And an exciting, badass collaboration it is, coming in the form of synth-ed up single “Blood Ring.” As crooner Cara Bishop says, you get “Not one, not two, but three” Bishops merged together on the track for a hella fun single with equal roots in hip-hop, RNB and modern dancefloor music (especially trap and deep house on the snares and melody respectively).

Cara herself provides the hook and her verse with an RNB smoothness by way of a bit of a Rihanna Barbados structure, while Luv Bishop opens the track with his own bars done in that highly contemporary way of conscious-leaning youthful rappers like Frank Leone with references to big concepts like the third eye and not living “like we should” peppered into a solid modern flow with an edge.

Holding the whole thing together are the bouncing synth-made steel drums and arpeggios and steady trap-influenced beats of the third prong of this killer trident, producer Troy Bishop, who is a pretty prolific and future-looking producer in his own right outside of this collaboration (as well as in it) and one you should definitely get more familiar with.

This is actually what makes “Blood Ring” so damn exciting and fun to come across: it’s not only a stellar track from three members of that youth hip-hop thing that’s making the future of this genre look so bright, it’s also an introduction to three individual artists with impressively deep and deeply impressive catalogs each their own. The Bishops know this too, with the full lyrics to one version of the song’s hook (of a few) saying, “Not one, not two, but three/You can meet me and the Bishops in the ring/Not one, not two, but three/Our blood runs stronger than you could ever be.”

As a track and as an introduction to these talented kids, “Blood Ring” is immensely successful and is restrained in a way that belies the youth of both its members and this group as an existing thing, and it’s the most promising and exciting thing we’ve heard in Austin hip-hop in both this young year and the last. Check it out below, and then peep each Bishop’s personal Soundcloud below, and be prepared to fall deep into a hole of binge-listening your new favorite ATX hip-hop group, like the one we still haven’t crawled out of yet.

Big, bright things on the horizon for 2016 ATX hip-hop with music like this being made, y’all.

Cara Bishop- https://soundcloud.com/cara-bishop-1

Luv Bishop- https://soundcloud.com/luvbishop

Troy Bishop- https://soundcloud.com/troybishop

After a thoroughly solid indie rock album release in 2015 with Cokomo, that was itself a quick follow-up to a spectacular split with influencer and fellow Austin rocker Britt Daniel of the legendary Spoon, few Austin bands enter this new year as hot as Sweet Spirit. To add fuel to that fire, the act has just released a new, gripping music video for Cokomo track “Baby When I Close My Eyes” that joins Anomalisa in the surprisingly fast-growing “Early 2016 Super Artsy and Emotional Puppet-Based Films” subsection of pop culture.

That upcoming movie with its realism+puppets thing is more of a touchstone to go with when understanding what hitting play on this music vid than something like the Muppets, because this here video is dark and serious, including a good, healthy heaping of violence both puppet on puppet and human on puppet.

Both the video and the track discuss modern life and its troubles, with director John Valley saying about the various storylines in the video, “We weren’t preoccupied with the three plots leading you to a final message, yet the characters all go through a life-altering experience and come out the other end scarred but still in love.”

Singer Sabrina Ellis says about it that “People will either love it or hate it and that excites me,” and you can decide for yourself which way it makes ya feel by taking a peep below.

The Main Squeeze have released a '70's funk-infused video from the first single, "Angelus", from their forthcoming sophomore album, Mind Your Head. The new album was produced by Randy Jackson and could propel this hard working band into a brighter spotlight. The band has departed for California to perform this month. However, they have announced that they will not be returning to Chicago but setting up shop in LA.

Lurvely Deli Readers,

We are proud to introduce you to our Winter 2016 issue of The Deli NYC, featuring on the cover Brooklyn songwriter, producer and multimedia artist Brittany Campbell, portrayed by NYC comix artist Lale Westwind. Inside the issue - besides dozens of talented emerging NYC bands and artists - you'll also find a feature about the undiscovered genius of Captain Baby and the ongoing saga of Manhattan DIY art space and venue ABC No Rio. 

READ IT ONLINE HERE! It will be out in print around January 15.