Culture Collide Festival, the brainchild of Alan Miller (co-founder of FILTER Magazine), returns for its sixth year of international music discovery. The festival partners with record labels like 100% Silk, Stones Throw, Sargent House, IHeartComix, and more to introduce over 40 fresh faces and nationally renowned acts to connoisseurs of the West Coast, spanning three days in several venues dotted across Echo Park: TAIX, The Champagne Room, The Echo/Echoplex, Echo Park's United Methodist Church, and Lot 1 Café.

Bands travel from their homes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Korea, France, Ecuador, Peru, and more to perform in the musical melting pot of Los Angeles. This year, Culture Collide has also teamed up with the Modern Sky record label to feature a special Chinese Indie Night at the Regent Theatre (10/9) with acoustic folk performer Song Dongye (宋冬野), synthpunk New Pants, and Miserable Faith (痛苦的信仰乐队). Purchase tickets or learn more about the bands here.

Not quite sure about going to Culture Collide? Here are six good reasons to make your mind up:

Nick Diamonds: The Canadian musician has fronted dozesn of bands including the notable Islands, collab'd with notables like Alpha Pup's Daddy Kev and Honus Honus (Man Man), even helping to pioneer a genre of music called Doom-wop. Now situated in Los Angeles, Nicholas Thornton reveals the great follow-up to his 2011 debut: the bedroom bummer, electro-noir full-length City Of Quartz. 

Cruising back from his recent tour through SF and Santa Cruz, Nick Diamonds will perform at the Echoplex on 10/9. Check out the single to City Of Quartz, "The Sting", below.

The Album Leaf: The solo project of Tristeza's original member James LaValle is among the most respected in post-rock circles, invigorated with glitch and ambient spirits that diverged from his guitar-centric peers. Since the release of A Chorus of Storytellers in 2010, LaValle has spent the last two years working on a new album, and he's bound to play some unreleased tracks at Culture Collide.

The Album Leaf plays at The Church on Friday 10/9. Heads up: a video for his newest single "New Soul" drops the same day. Listen to his last single featuring folk solo artist Peter Broderick, titled "Never Held a Baby".

The Grounders: Toronto's psych-y krautrockers celebrate the release of their self-titled debut LP, a sonic poptart with lo-fi noise crust enveloping a gooey synth filling. Following their 2013 EP "Wreck of a Smile", bandmates Andrew Davis, Daniel Busheikin, Mike Searle, and Evan Lewis got together to explore Zombies and David Bowie with a self-help guide by David Lynch and Meditation for Dummies. The result: a blissful and cogent series of recordings laid out in Davis' Toronto bedroom and a studio-converted garage stacked with vintage equipment. 

Listen to the single "Bloor Street And Pressure" and watch them twice at Culture Collide: 10/8 at Lot 1 Café and 10/9 at TAIX.

The Vim Dicta: Channeling glorious garage-y psychgroove from the LA basin, The Vim Dicta's Cori Elliot, Matt Tunney, and Chris Infusino were regarded by The Deli's staff as one of the Best New LA Bands in 2012 with their live-recorded debut EP "Lucky Strike". The 2013 follow-up "Von Tango", a five-song collection of guitar scuzz, jazz growl, and noir grit, furthered the notion that Los Angeles hadn't seen the last of devilishly soulful music — rock certainly is not dead, at least not for The Vim Dicta. With a new album in the works, the trio are currently performing a free spread-out residency at Harvard & Stone (next show on 10/21). 

The Vim Dicta plays Saturday 10/10 at TAIX. Listen to "Stallion" off the "Von Tango" EP below.

The Mynabirds: A previous Deli feature, The Mynabirds' Laura Burhenn fronts a blend a garage rock, pop, R&B, and soul that has turned the heads of every tastemaker across the coasts. We waxed poetic about her summer release Lovers Know, which was featured on NPR and reviewed positively by Drowned in Sound and The Line of Best Fit — need we say more?

The Mynabirds wrap up their US tour for Lovers Know at The Echo on 10/9, and if you haven't seen them perform yet, you can thank us later.

WYM: The solo project of modular synth artist Jun Hyung Byun, alias bjorn (뵤른) and one half of Seoul Disco's electronic duo MDS, makes his LA debut at Culture Collide. WYM's aesthetic is derived from careful manipulation of '80s patches to create prismatic soundscapes that combine dreampop, chillwave, ambient, electronica, and synthpop like his peers YUKARI, Clazziquai, and House Rulez. This isn't the K-pop that's been taking over the states by storm; it's a taste of Korea's electronic underground that your ears have been deprived of for years. Better late than never.

He plays two shows at Culture Collide: one on Thursday 10/8 as part of SeoulSonic's showcase, and another on Saturday 10/10 at Lot 1 Café. Listen to the title track off his debut album After Moon. - Ryan Mo

Our first ticket giveaway of 2013 is here. As proud sponsors of the What Cheer? Fest this Saturday, March 2, as announced here, we are excited to be giving away two pairs of tickets to some lucky hopefuls. If you’re as obsessed with locals Criminal Hygiene, Cotillon, Feeding People, Vinyl Williams, Colleen Green, Summer Twins, Body Parts, The Vim Dicta, and Fort King as we are, then you won’t want to miss this. The line-up is stacked and the Fest is planning to run from noon to 5am. Epic doesn’t begin to describe it. Tickets are $10 a piece and only available for Pre-Sale here. If you’d like a chance to win a pair, then head over to twitter and send a DM to @thedeliLA with your full name and e-mail, along with the band you’re most excited to see. Only those who also tweet “I want a pair of tix to the @thedeliLA sponsored What Cheer? Fest” will be eligible. Winners will be announced here on the blog on Friday afternoon. We will send out e-mails with all the information you need to redeem your prize. Good luck!

Deli Readers,

We are proud to announce that The Deli’s Best Emerging Los Angeles Artist of 2012 is Zig Zags! With a recent Iggy Pop collaboration and a cassette release on Burger Records, the psych-leaning punk act held a solid lead over trippy, psychedelic rock band, The Vim Dicta.  Taking third place is gritty singer-songwriter, Meg Myers. 

You can catch Zig Zags live at The Fonda on February 14. A perfect way to spend Valentine's Day - check out their track streaming at the bottom of this post. 

BEST OF 2012 POLL FOR EMERGING LA ARTISTS - FINAL RESULTS -   ARTIST J W   R OS TOT   1 Zig Zags 6   0.016   6.016 2 The Vim Dicta 3   1.5   4.5 3 Meg Myers 4   0.216   4.216 4 HOTT MT 3 1 0.067   4.067 5 NO 4   0.014   4.014 6 Gavin Turek 4   0.001   4.001 7 Zaptra 3   1   4 8 Thrown Into Exile 3   0.5   3.5 9 Kan Wakan 3   0.5   3.5 10 Father John Misty 3   0.021   3.021 11 Cotillon 2   0.013 1 3.013 12 Little Red Lung     0.013 3 3.013 13 Haim 3   0.01   3.01 14 Busdriver 3   0.01   3.01   LA Font 2 1 0.009   3.009 16 The Ross Sea Party 3   0.007   3.007   Mind the Gap 3   0.006   3.006   Nightmare & the Cat 3   0.006   3.006 19 Criminal Hygiene 3   0.006   3.006   Silent Servant 3   0.002   3.002   Pangea 3   0.002   3.002 22 Cold Showers 3   0.001   3.001   IAMEVE     2 1 3 24 The Black Heartthrobs 2   0.01   2.01 25 True Press 2   0.009   2.009 26 Fake Furs     0.009 2 2.009 27 Dante Vs Zombies 2   0.008   2.008   Regal Degal 2   0.004   2.004 29 Raw Geronimo 2   0.003   2.003 30 Hands 2   0.001   2.001 31 Vatican Shadow 2   0   2   The Morning Birds     0.055 1.5 1.555   Nightmare Air     0.176 1 1.176 34 So Many Wizards     0.12 1 1.12  35 Zak Waters 1   0.08   1.08   Dark Furs     0.056 1 1.056   Dustbowl Revival 1   0.039   1.039   Them Guns 1   0.026   1.026   The Abe Lincoln Story 1   0.023   1.023 40 The Vivids 1   0.019   1.019   I Hate You Just Kidding     0.016 1 1.016   Jimmetta Rose 1   0.009   1.009 43 Wildcat! Wildcat!   1 0.009   1.009 44 Flaamingos 1   0.008   1.008 45 Gothic Tropic 1   0.006   1.006 46 Pageants 1   0.005   1.005 47 The Reflections 1   0.003   1.003 48 Champagne Leader 1   0.003   1.003  49 yOya 1   0.002   1.002 50 Harriet 1   0.001   1.001 Legend: J = Jurors, W = Deli Writers,  R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

Take a look at our chart of 50 Los Angeles area bands below. The highest value of votes came from our jurors, who included individuals involved in local music. This includes promoters, venue owners, press, record store owners, and other music experts. The remainder of votes was compiled by The Deli LA contributors, readers, and open submissions voted on by national Deli editors. 

Congrats to everyone who made the list and thanks to all those who voted!

The Deli LA's Staff

Boasting two stages and over 20 bands, the First Annual What Cheer? Festival is kicking off the season of outdoor jubilance in style. The Deli LA is proud to be sponsoring the event along with Burger Records, Rollo & Grady, Lo-Pie, Comune, Bandwidth Mondo, underStory, and LA Phun. An inspiring effort to showcase an immense amount of local talent, the line-up is a solid collection of psych, garage, surf, folk, and indie rock. Quite a few of our past poll winners, and even Best of 2012 runners-up, The Vim Dicta, will be gracing the stages, including Cotillon, and Criminal Hygiene. Tickets are on sale now, and won’t be available at the door. For only $10 you better get them while you can. While you’re at it, spend some time perusing the line-up on the flier, and give a listen to one of the headliners, The Abigails - streaming below. - Jacqueline Caruso