Toronto is under the national spotlight with Drake and his beloved Raptors in the NBA finals and consequently all over our television screens - yet some of Toronto’s chosen children slipped into Austin, under the radar, with a show at Barracuda on Saturday. Dilly Dally has a signature serrated grunge sound with idiosyncratic vocal affectations that coalesce into a table saw of vicious melodies and chord progression bliss. 

 Lead singer, Katie Monks, has all the attitude and humility that you can handle from a Canadian rocker, and then some, but while the crowd wasn’t the largest i’ve seen them play for - they still went about eviscerating mediocrity with wanton abandon. Hits from their debut album, Sore, are still as magnetizing as they were when they arrived in the national consciousness four years ago. “Desire” and “Candy Mountain”  are anthemic in a way that makes pop and rock  music writers green with envy.

The Canadian quartet would cover Drake’s “Know Yourself” in calamitous and thundering fashion, while also making their way through hits from their 2018 album, Heaven.  A gem that fell out of the pocket of 90’s grunge band influences and rolled into the late 2010’s with unrelenting ferocity, Dilly Dally is showing that the fire that burned in rock audiences twenty years ago is roaring back to life with uncompromising sound and authentic attitude.

Dilly Dally exploded a couple years back with their hit tune “Desire” from the album “Sore”. They toured the world for a long time off that record then got quiet for a bit. Luckily it was a productive quiet and they have just released their follow up record “Heaven” which features this tune “Doom”. It begins with a dark, slow pace and a heartbeat like drum beat. The track ends up blending those eerie vibes along with catchy grunge driven melodies. If anything could be a mix of Nirvana and Alice in Chains this would be it. Dilly Dally comes home to Toronto to play Lee’s Palace on December 6^th. – Kris Gies

Dilly Dally is not a new band in the Toronto scene (they were born in 2009), but it's one of those rare ones that get better with time. 2015 was their year, thanks to their deliciously noisy debut album 'Sore,' a record that aims straight at the hearts of those who can relate to a perfect balance of fuzz, melody and slacking attitude - as well as those who, like us, miss like crazy the early Pixies (in this regard, check out single 'Desire'). To celebrate our upcoming Toronto Stompbox Exhibit, we asked band's songwriter (and lead guitarist) Katie Monks a quick question about pedals, here's what she had to say in our Delicious Audio piece! Oh, and don't miss them live at Lee's Place this Saturday May 7th!

Deli Readers,

Our Best of Toronto Poll for Emerging Artists has been - as usual - a lengthy and painstaking journey which took us through prairies of numbers, horizons filled with band names, and a dense, (mostly) joyous rain of music. We have finally reached our destination and we can announce the final results!

1. SATE
Hitherto, the husky soul voice, applied to hard-rock production, has been a forced aesthetic. An argument could be made for solo artist Sate - our Toronto Best Emerging Artist of 2015 - having rectified the situation. Unhinged rockers like "What Did I Do" and "Warrior" (streaming)convince the longer (and more fiercely) she sings.

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2. Dilly Dally
Dilly Dally are generating a serious buzz all over right now. They toured through the USA last year and even cracked Rolling Stone's List of Bands You NEED to know. 2 guys and 2 gals in this band...so they're like ABBA...except with Pixies-esque rhythms and undeniable melodies over perfectly constructed grunge tunes. They were just announced as a headliner for CMW in May. This track "Desire" is the real deal!

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3. Ol'CD
Ol'CD is gettin' mad love from everyone involved with the Deli these days. They were #1 on the Readers Poll and a bronze medal for the FINAL results ain't too shabby. These fellas have catchy-ass garage rock tunes infused with some surf elements. A real party band. Don't miss the chance to hop along at one of their upcoming shows.

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Check out our poll's top 10 below, and don't forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:

ALT ROCK - ELECTRO+HIP HOP - GARAGE ROCK - INDIE POP/ROCK - POST HARDCORE/90'S ROCK - PSYCH/NOISE ROCK - ROOTS MUSIC

BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR EMERGING TORONTO ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS - TOP 10 ******

ARTIST J OS R TOT   1 Sate 7.5   0.01 7.51 2 Dilly Dally 4.5 3 0.003 7.503 3 OL'CD 3   2 5 4 Cardboard Crowns 2   1.5 3.5 5 Fat As Fuck 3   0.5 3.5 6 Spells of Vertigo   3 0.034 3.034 7 Sumo Cyco 3   0.02 3.02 8 Jazz Cartier 3   0.006 3.006 9 Bossie 3   0 3 10 Kurt Marble 2   0.042 2.042 Legend: J = Jurors, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

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If you wonder how this chart came into existence, here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ Toronto scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each (3 points for the top choice, then 2 and 1). Then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.

If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music Toronto produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

Many Thanks to our Jurors: Mike Roth (Artist Manager for Dala), Kiran Singh (Drake), Adam Bentley (Auter Research), Mike Religa (Indie88), Ben Pearlman (Collective Concerts), Craig Laskey (Horse Shoe Tavern), Denholm Whale (The SMiling Buddha), Justin O'Heir (Artistik Management), Mar Sellars (CIUT), Adam Carter (Homegrown Hamilton), Rivoli Booking Team, Yvonne (El Mocambo).

Hope you'll find some awesome new artists you weren't aware of!

The Deli's Staff

Welcome one, welcome all! The time has come to present who is advancing on to the next phase of our poll for Toronto's emerging artists. Infinite thanks to all the bands that submitted; it was a pleasure listening to their tracks!

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.

Now without further ado, drom roll please... 

Total Submissions from Toronto: 15

Jurors: Michelle Bacon (The Deli KC), Cervante Pope (The Deli Portland), Paolo De Gregorio (The Deli NYC)

Acts advancing to our Readers/Fans Poll:

1. Spells of Vertigo (Noise Rock) – 7.8

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1. Dilly Dally (Indie Rock) – 7.8

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3. Terrorista (Pop Punk) – 7.33

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4. Rolemodel (Electro-Pop) – 7.16

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4. HIGHS (Indie Pop) – 7.16

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6. Shallow Waves (Psych Rock) – 7

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Honorble mentions (rating average above 6):

The Dearly Bereft, New Design,Bile Sister, Ready the Prince, The Alpacas, The Honest Heart Collective

Stay tuned for the Readers' Poll, to start within the week!

The Folks at The Deli