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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys wound up with a strong third-place finish in Deli Magazine’s poll of the best emerging artists in New England — 602 votes representing 13 percent of the vote.

Below the Somerville-based band, votes dropped off precipitously; only Blue Button, of Boston, came anywhere near, with 397 votes representing 8 percent of the votes. Great area newcomers such as Gem Club and stalwarts Ad Frank & the Fast Easy Women clearly didn’t bother to compete (without asking fans to vote, the bands got six and 10 votes, respectively).

The curve above was also steep: First place went to Brothers McCann (1,108 votes, or 23 percent of the total) and second to The Wandas (973 votes and 21 percent), both Boston bands.

While Deli’s editors described Brothers McCann as a “soulful quintet” and The Wandas as “indie popsters,” they went a tad astray in calling Sickert and his performance-art troupe “mellow psych folkers.” A better description comes in a Boston Phoenix piece posted in advance of the band’s Thursday show at T.T. the Bear’s Place.

The independent Deli website describes the contest process, which began at the end of January, as: “A pool of 50+ artists were selected in December 2010 mostly by local scene makers (concert promoters, bloggers, DJs, etc.) and part of them through an open submission process.” Then, they said, “We let the fans vote.”