Back in March, Kool Stuff Katie dropped their indelible sophomore effort, It's Fine. The top notch follow up to their self titled debut holds as a true definitive of the duo's pleasant mashup of garage, pop and indie rock influences.

Saren Oliver's candy sweet vocals and drum pounding pleasantly pair with Shane Blem's chill shred and croon, to result in an infectiously catchy output of rock tinged pop. Their latest to drop off It's Fine, titled "You Found a Friend," premiered in video form yesterday afternoon. The cleanly shot video perfectly matches the song's theme, showing Blem and Oliver as friends just hangin out.

Kool Stuff Katie played tonight at Kelly's Olympian with Comanche Joey and Trick Sensei. Check out the video below to get your fix if you didn't make it to the show!

Deli Readers,

The Deli Portland's Best of 2014 Readers and Fans' Poll for local emerging artists is over, thanks to all those who cast their vote in support of the emerging local bands and artists in our list of nominees. 

We happily announce our top three local emerging artists Mermaid in China, Kool Stuff Katie and Dirty Revival!

Stay tuned for the composite chart, to be released soon, which will include details about the point nominees accumulated from the jurors and Deli writers' votes, and will crown The Deli's Best Emerging Portland Artist of 2014.

1. Mermaid in China

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2. Kool Stuff Katie

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3. Dirty Revival

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Here's this poll's top 10 chart, full results can be found here. 

BEST OF PORTLAND 2014 - READERS' POLL RESULTS   Artists Votes   1 Mermaid in China 683 2 Kool Stuff Katie 623 3 Dirty Revival 274 4 Jackson Boone 98 5 Just Lions 73 6 The Domestics 36 7 The Ghost Ease 33 8 Talkative 27 9 The Fourth Wall 27 10 Bubble Cats 23

The Deli's Staff

Like most textbook romances, garage pop duo Kool Stuff Katie formed when Shane Blem and Saren Oliver met over Craigslist. The rest is history. Well, history in the making for now I suppose. The duo's debut self-titled album released this past October doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel per se, but they create an infectious blend of pop infused primitive rockers, reminiscent to the White Stripes. 

Today, we're proud to present the world with Kool Stuff Katie's brand new music video for the track "Cars." Get a load of the car they're noodling around in! It's a Ford / Lotus collaboration that was 1 of 200 ever sold in the US. The specific car in the video was was actually purchased and restored on the tv show Fast N Loud and then sold for $115,000 - how KSK lined up borrowing the rig for this shoot is completely beyond me, but totally awesome. At any rate, enjoy their tune and the cool footage of the duo driving around various landmarks of Portland and the surrounding areas. 

Written by Travis Leipzig

Photo by Jon Currier

Thanks to all the artists who submitted their music to be considered for The Deli's Best of Portland Year End Poll for Emerging Artists. We had a record number of submissions from Portland (70!) thanks so much for the overwhelming response!

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 her/his own scene.

Total submissions from Portland: 70.

Jurors: Jurors: Michelle Bacon (The Deli KC), Roxy Morrison (The Deli Toronto), Paolo De Gregorio (The Deli NYC).

Acts advancing to our Readers/Fans Poll:

1. The Lower 48 - 7.8 (out of 10)

2. Just Lions - 7.6

2. Jackson Boone - 7.6

4. Dirty Revival - 7.5

4. Jeffrey Martin - 7.5

4. The Binary Marketing Show - 7.5

4. Anna Tivel - 7.5

8. Kool Stuff Katie - 7.3

8. Mermaid in China - 7.3

9. Mothertapes - 7.16

Honorable Mentions (scores above 6.5) 

Future Historians, Dogheart, Souvenir Driver, Foxy Lemon, Talkative, LiquidLight, Ezza Rose, Neka & Kahlo, The Adaptive.

WHAT’S NEXT: These results end the first phase of the poll. We have already unveiled full list of nominees that also includes the artists nominated by our local jurors (see left column here). It's now time for our readers to influence this Year End Poll for Emerging Portland Artists with their vote - look out for th readers' poll on the right column of this same page!

The Deli Portland