The opening night of our NYC B.E.A.F. 2013 at Spike Hill in Williamsburg won't be a very loud one, showcasing a selection of truly gifted emerging singer songwriters and rootsy acts featuring a gentle sound. A lot of women on this bill, headlined by St. Claire and Wilsen (pictured, Deli Record of the Month last September) and their beautiful dream folk. On similarly ethereal coordinates dwells the trio now known as Basinger (formerly Makeout Room), who will open the show at 7.15pm. Lora Faye will bring a darker vein to the night with her country ballads tinged with jazzy noir elements. Songwriters Lisa Jaeggi (and her new band So So Apropos), sami.the.great, and French import Kiddo, will bring their personal approach to the genre, featuring varying degrees of pop influences.

Times, ticket prices and full fest schedule can be found here.

sami.the.great should have added a "2.0" at the end of her new name, since her music sounds like a playful, semi-electronic evolution of the "pop singer songwriter" game. And we all know that versions 2 are always more intriguing than the first ones - kudos to learning and evolving! The lady doesn't lack a fair share of sass and character either, which makes things even more intereting. She'll be playing live at ZirZamin on February 5.

Brooklyn's reigning quirky-pop princess sami.the.great finds herself in the throes of an exuberant and incurable case of optimistim in latest video for "Hear Me Now." Part of her strong debut, 'Hear Me Now' is one of my favorites off the record. With so much druggy, after-hours dance music hitting the charts these days, it's refreshing to hear the Brooklyn singer/songwriter use hard-knocking beats for what they're there for: kicking shit down the road and celebrating how awesome you are. And with all these bright colors bouncing around the green screen for this production, you'll be able to bottle some of Sami's energy for yourself. The video is directed by psychedelic director Joel Fernando, and moves back and forth between trippy screensaver-esque visuals, and Sami herself conjuring various magic. Check it out below. - Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

The second best thing about the CMJ Music Marathon, after of course the opportunity to see tons of great bands for five straight nights in the greatest city for music, is the process of sorting through the seemingly endless list of bands in order to meticulously plan your personal schedule down to the minute. That feeling of invincibility concerning the laws of time and space is an awful like the one you get when you develop grand plans to start exercising and working out. That brief sensation of euphoria lasts right up to the minute you told yourself you were going to start. Then you realize you already walked something like three flights of stairs that day, so really there’s no need to exercise. - read the full report here. - (in the picture, Blonds)