The next installment of Willamette Week's quarterly showcase, Pulse, is coming up tomorrow with a lineup that's set to liven things up. WW's Best New Artist Last Artful, Dodgr will be headlining the event with her lit, trappy beats and a tone of voice that brings even more intrigue to her flow.

Current Deli Portland Artist of the Month nominees Pleasure Curses will be mixing up the night with a bit of electronica just after the new musical project from Ripley Snell and Grape God, Wine+Coffee, opens up the night with their experimental hip hop outlet.

Pulse is a free, quarterly 21 and over event that's meant to feature some of Portland's best in the underappreciated hip hop and r&b scene. With lineup's like this and of Pulse's past, they're doing a damn good job at it.

We had an incredible pool of talent submit this year! Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word and give bands a chance to have their music heard by critics all over the country. After tallying the votes for the Open Submissions stage of our DC Year End Poll, it's time to release the results.

Please note that no editor was allowed to vote for bands in their own scene. The editors that voted on the DC scene were: Charise (Deli Austin) and Paolo De Gregorio (Deli NYC, Editor-In-Chief). In the coming weeks we will release the list of nominees chosen by our local "scene expert" jurors and it will be up to you to pick your favorite Emerging DC Area Artist of 2013.

Acts advancing to our Readers/Fans Poll with a ranking above 8:

1. Kindlewood - 9
2. Margot MacDonald - 8.75
3. The Sea Life - 8.5
4. Pleasure Curses - 8.25
5. The Raised By Wolves - 8.25
6. Me and Karen - 8
7. The Mellish - 8

Total submissions from the DC Area: 36

WHAT'S NEXT: These results end the first phase of the poll. In the next few days we'll unveil the artists nominated by our local jurors (mostly venue promoters and other industry people who know the DC/MD/VA scene inside out), and we'll let our readers and writers influence the poll with their vote.

Thanks to all the acts who submitted to us. Our open submissions pool was truly a celebration of the diversity and richness of the DMVs talent. Keep creating, keep supporting and stay tuned for your chance to vote!

-Dawn

DC's post-punk eletro duo Pleasure Curses have recently released a cleverly creative video from Parisian director Guillaume Thuillier for their synth-wave track "PNKLKR." PC lays down a chill-pop score while life moves in reverse around the actress. Check it out...

See Pleasure Curses live Aug 24 at Comet Ping Pong and Sept 5 at DC9.

(by Natan Press) Jan. 12, Pleasure Curses played their first gig at the Velvet Lounge to a packed room. The crowd head-bobbed, foot-tapped and drunken-jiggled through the entire set by the electro-punk duo of Jahn Teetsov and Evan Grice. Pleasure Curses is an example of the serendipitous circumstances that surround so many successful acts.

The Virginia natives first met in music camp as children, and reconnected after Jahn returned from college in Manchester, England (Evan is still attending JMU), absorbing the Madchester sound while playing in local bands. The young Pleasure Curses do the older Brits justice, mimicking the Northern sounds of the decade before they were born with the control and precision of true admirers. Harnessing the powers of a Korg, a Kaoss padd and the Abelton music sequencer, Pleasure Curses self-recorded their first EP Stripes.

For the show, Evan deftly handled the devices while playing his bass. Jahn’s voice channels Bernard Sumner, though at this point he’s a bit uncomfortable playing guitar while singing in a live setting. Despite this confession, Jahn’s an able frontman, speaking comfortably to the crowd, and singing as if well practiced. One assumes it won’t take long for him to add the guitar to his performance. Pleasure Curses is also looking for a drummer, though they’re legitimately worried that a third member could disturb their already effective chemistry. If the crowd at their first show is any judge, they don’t need to change a thing, and if they do want to increase their stage presence, they’ll have no difficulty finding willing participants.

The results are in from the Open Submissions stage for our DC/Baltimore Year End Poll for Emerging Artists. All of the submissions were ranked by Deli Editors from other scenes and the list of acts that have advanced to our Readers’/Fans’ Poll phase are below. We will also be releasing the list of nominees chosen by our local "scene expert" jurors very soon.

Thanks to all the amazing bands and artists who submitted this year. It was an overwhelming response, which just goes to show how awesome our DC/Baltimore scene remains to be.

Total Submissions from the DC Area: 44

Qualified to the final phase of the Best of DC/Baltimore Poll (having scored above 7):

1. Dance for the Dying 8.5 (out of 10)

2. Masked Superstar 8.33

3. M.H. & His Orchestra  7.66

4. Brooks Long  7.66

5. The WeatherVanes 7.33 

6. Ghost Hotel 7.16

7. Alex Vans 7.16

8. Pleasure Curses 7.16

9. The Young Rapids 7.00

10. Mission South 7.00

11. Sun Club 7.00

Honorable Mentions:

Jurors: Chrissy Prisco (Deli New England), Brianne Turner (Deli Nasville), Paolo De Gregorio (Deli NYC).