After a month of intense deliberation, polling and exactly 500 million emails sent on the subject, The Deli Austin announced our Emerging Artist of the Year a few weeks ago. This year's edition is Löwin, a rising rock act that just about ran away with the whole contest. We had a chat with the newly crowned Artists of the Year for 2014, and that's what we've got for you to get yer eyes on today:

Löwin is The Deli Austin's 2014 Artist of the Year. Our jurors and readers handily voted you into the winner's spot, how do you guys feel about that?

S: It feels pretty awesome considering we didn't even have a record out in 2014! To me that just means we won people over with our live show which is a wonderful feeling for a band...especially one as new as we are.

C: Yeah, the response at our shows has been great every time we play out, and when people are into you it just makes you want to perform that much harder for them.

N: Feels great, there were a lot of awesome bands in the poll.

K: Very awesome. Its a great feeling knowing the shows are making noise and it just makes the EP release that much more exciting.

[Click here for the full interview!]

Deli Nation,

Our Year End Poll for Emerging Austin Artists was - as usual - a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process, but we pulled it off with remarkable flair!

Kudos to intense rockers Löwin (pictured and streaming) for winning the poll, check out their noteworthy last single "Best Laid Plans," released just a month ago.

Thumbs up also to wicked electro-choral trio Keeper (we featured them in this blog a few days ago) who placed second, and to textural and adventurous post rockers Chipper Jones, who came in third. Here's some of these folks music:

Here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ Austin scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each. Then we polled our writers, then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.

If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music Austin produced in the year 2013, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

BEST OF 2014 POLL FOR EMERGING AUSTIN ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS ******

ARTIST   J OS R TOT   1 Löwin   7.5   0.5 8 2 Keeper   4.5   0.014 4.514 3 Chipper Jones   4.5   0.005 4.505 4 Skyline   2   2 4 5 Comforter   2   1.5 3.5 6 Grace London     3 0.5 3.5 7 Illustrations   3   0.019 3.019 8 Sphynx   3   0.013 3.013 9 Robert Banta   3   0.009 3.009 10 Other Lovers   3   0.003 3.003 11 The Golden Dawn Arkestra   3   0.002 3.002 12 Applied Pressure   3   0.001 3.001 13 Modern Medicine   3   0.001 3.001 14 Eyelid Kid   3   0 3 15 The Boxing Lesson   3   0 3 16 Zettajoule   3   0 3 17 Leah Nobel     1.5 1 2.5 18 The Stargazers   2   0.027 2.027 19 Popper Burns   2   0.017 2.017 20 A. Sinclair   2   0.009 2.009 21 Timberos Del Norte   2   0.008 2.008 22 Kalu James   2   0.007 2.007 23 Casual Strangers   2   0.006 2.006 24 Night Drive   2   0.005 2.005 25 Crooked Bangs   2   0.004 2.004 26 Roger Sellers   2   0.004 2.004 27 Peterson Brothers Band   2   0.003 2.003 28 Sweet Spirit   2   0.003 2.003 29 Other Lovers   2   0.003 2.003 30 Beat Imprint   2   0.002 2.002 31 Tameca Jones   2   0.002 2.002 32 Tele Novella   2   0.002 2.002 33 Holiday Mountain   2   0.001 2.001 34 Magna Carda   2   0.001 2.001 35 Taylor & the Wild Now     2 0.001 2.001 36 Hard Proof   2   0 2 37 The Ghost Wolves   2   0 2 38 Whiite Walls   2   0 2 39 Anya   1   0.02 1.02 40 The Nightowls   1   0.007 1.007 41 Molybden   1   0.005 1.005 42 Emily Wolfe     1 0.001 1.001 43 Gold Beach   1   0.001 1.001 44 Gumbo Ce Soir   1   0.001 1.001 45 Young Tongue   1   0.001 1.001 46 Ben Ballinger   1   0 1 47 Dark West   1   0 1 48 Que Pasa   1   0 1 49 Wrenfro   1   0 1 Legend: J = Jurors, W = Deli Writers, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

Jurors List: Tyson J Swindell (Red7), Howdy Darrell (White Horse), Dianne Scott (Continental Club), John Laird (Side One Track One), Adam Mason (Scoot Inn), Amanda Garcia (austintexas.org), Brian DiFrank (Wet Stone Audio), Marcus Lawyer (Mohawk), Margaret Galton (C3 Presents), Gillian Driscoll (Sound Dessert), Eva Mueller (Spider House Ballroom), Jeff McCord (KUTX), Maggie Lea (CheerUp Charlie's), Brittany Campbell (The Parish).

Hope you'll find some awesome new artists you weren't aware of!

The Deli's Staff

Löwin is more than just the basic formula of three guys with a front woman. Sara Houser is said front woman with a voice and spirit of a hipster incarnation of a young Chrissie Hynde, but with blonde hair. Chris DeGeorge, Kyle Durst and Nathan Ribner respectively round of the rest of the band. Their sound is a mix of Rilo Kiley-esque sweet indie pop with the alternative-rock styling of Paramore. It’s a good combo that shines in their track “Lobo.” Houser’s innocent delivery over the clash of guitars and drum crashes pairs well on the track without over doing it. ATX rock and roll done right. Catch them at Cheer Up Charlies this Thursday Oct. 2 at 9p.m. -Allison Mayoral