First Shout: New York acts to see before everyone else does, fall 2026

First Shout is our running list of New York artists we think you should see now, while the rooms are still small enough to matter. The rule is simple. Everyone here lives and works in the city, has put out music or drawn real press in 2025 or 2026, and is still playing places where you can stand close. Some are brand new. A few are a step ahead and about to become unavoidable. All of them are better live than on your phone.

This fall's list tilts toward noise and nerve. There is a lot of guitar, some very loud electronics, a jazz-trained songwriter, and a Harlem rapper who is making the old New York sound feel new. Start anywhere.

The list

Liim

Harlem · Rap, soul

Born and raised in Harlem in 2003, Liim taught himself on phone demos and turned that into one of the most talked-about New York rap debuts in years, Liim Lasalle Loves You, released in September 2025. His second album, A Sunflower Garden In Harlem Is Hard To Find, followed in late summer 2026, with singles like "1980" and "R.I.P. Peace." The sound is old-school New York in its bones, filtered through soul, funk and the looser songwriting of artists like Steve Lacy and Blood Orange. Tyler, the Creator has praised his work publicly, The FADER put him in its GEN F series in September 2026, and he is on the Camp Flog Gnaw lineup in November.

Where to see him: Baby's All Right in Williamsburg has been his New York room, and he has a date listed there in late November. Buy early.

Mei Semones

Brooklyn · Jazz-pop, bossa nova, indie rock

A Berklee-trained guitarist who writes in English and Japanese and plays with a jazz player's precision and a rock band's volume. Her debut album Animaru came out on Bayonet Records in May 2025, and the Kurage EP followed in April 2026. The songs move from bossa nova to math-rock without feeling like a genre exercise, and her guitar playing live is worth the ticket alone.

Where to see her: she played Central Park SummerStage in September and was listed for a free show at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium on October 15. Atrium shows are first come, first served. See our free concerts guide.

Lip Critic

Brooklyn · Electropunk

Two drummers, samplers and a frontman who treats every show like a fight he intends to win. Lip Critic formed in 2018, broke out with Hex Dealer on Partisan in 2024, and returned with Theft World on May 1, 2026, an album built around the unsettling true story of frontman Bret Kaser's identity being stolen by a fan. To promote it they played a Brooklyn laundromat and a boxing ring. Live, it sounds like a hardcore show happening inside a rave.

Where to see them: they sold out Music Hall of Williamsburg in July and are listed at Webster Hall in mid-October with Show Me The Body. Stand toward the back unless you want to be part of it.

YHWH Nailgun

New York · Experimental rock, noise

Formed in Philadelphia during lockdown and now based in New York, YHWH Nailgun makes some of the most exciting and abrasive rock music in the country. Drummer Sam Pickard's rototoms drive everything, and Zack Borzone's vocals sit somewhere between a chant and a scream. Their debut 45 Pounds came out on AD 93 in 2025, and Magazine, a ten-song record that runs about eleven minutes, arrived on 4AD in June 2026.

Where to see them: a show at Warsaw in Greenpoint is listed for late October. It will be short and it will be loud.

Hotline TNT

New York · Shoegaze, alt-rock

Will Anderson's band makes a huge, warm wall of distorted guitar without, famously, relying on pedals. Anderson layers guitars in the studio and the live band recreates it with three guitarists. Cartwheel came out on Third Man in 2023, and Raspberry Moon followed in 2025. The songs underneath the noise are sweet, direct and full of named characters, like a 1990s college radio station that never went off the air.

Where to see them: they played Rough Trade's free iNDIEPLAZA Record Store Day show at Rockefeller Center in April 2026 and have more New York dates listed for November.

Chanel Beads

New York · Dream pop, art pop

The project of Shane Lavers, often with singer Maya McGrory and violinist Zachary Paul, Chanel Beads makes melancholy, collage-built pop that recalls The Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout by way of manipulated audio and sound collage. After a 2024 debut on Jagjaguwar, Lavers released a second album, confusingly also titled Your Day Will Come, in June 2026, recorded in Brooklyn. He opened for Lorde on part of her 2025 North American tour.

Where to see them: a fall tour brings Chanel Beads to Knockdown Center in Maspeth, listed for mid-October.

Momma

Brooklyn · Indie rock, grunge-pop

Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten write big-riff, heart-on-sleeve rock songs that sound like the best parts of 1990s alternative radio. Welcome to My Blue Sky came out on Polyvinyl and Lucky Number in April 2025, with a deluxe edition in November. They are right on the edge of breaking big, which is exactly when you want to see a band.

Where to see them: they played Rough Trade's iNDIEPLAZA in April and are listed at Brooklyn Paramount in early October, their biggest New York room yet.

Model/Actriz

Brooklyn · Post-punk, dance-punk

Formed in Boston and based in Brooklyn, Model/Actriz blends noise rock, industrial and dance music around Cole Haden's theatrical vocals and queer, confrontational lyrics. Dogsbody in 2023 got an 8.2 from Pitchfork, and Pirouette followed on True Panther and Dirty Hit in 2025, led by the single "Cinderella," a Pitchfork Best New Track. A three-song EP, Swan Songs, came out in March 2026. Their shows are loud, sweaty and communal in the best way.

Where to see them: watch the Brooklyn rooms, since their hometown shows go quickly.

Frost Children

New York · Hyperpop, synth-pop, punk

Siblings Angel and Lulu Prost moved from St. Louis to New York and built a reputation on chaotic, meme-literate electronic pop that can also be surprisingly tender. After two self-released albums in 2023, Sister came out on True Panther and Dirty Hit in 2025. In July 2026 they released the Tweaker Poem EP on RCA, a six-track record made in a single sleepless session in Tokyo. They are the most fun band on this list, and the most unpredictable.

Where to see them: check Elsewhere and the Bushwick club rooms, where their DJ-heavy sets make the most sense. For more late nights, see where to dance.

Sarah Kinsley

Brooklyn · Baroque pop, indie pop

A classically trained songwriter and producer who arranges everything herself, Kinsley makes sweeping, cinematic pop with piano at its center. After her song "The King" took off online in 2021, she signed with Verve Forecast in the US and Decca in the UK. Her Fleeting EP came out in February 2026, with a piano-versions companion later in the year. She played Baby's All Right in November 2025 and Brooklyn Steel in April 2026, which tells you how fast the rooms are growing.

Where to see her: the next New York show will likely be bigger. Watch for the announcement.

How to catch them early

Follow the rooms, not just the artists. Baby's All Right, Mercury Lounge, Night Club 101, TV Eye and The Sultan Room announce shows weeks ahead on their own calendars, and small New York dates often go on sale before the wider tour does. Our small venues guide has the full list.

Watch the free stages. Rough Trade at Rockefeller Center runs in-store sets and a free Record Store Day party, and Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium books rising artists at no cost. Two acts on this list played one of those in 2026.

Go to the opener. Several artists here spent 2025 and 2026 opening for much bigger names. The next First Shout list is somewhere on the undercard of a show you already have tickets for.

Buy early, sell never. When a New York act starts getting written up, the 300-capacity hometown show sells out first. If you are on the fence, buy the ticket and give it to a friend if you cannot go.

Why these ten

We looked for three things: New York roots, real 2025 and 2026 activity, and a live show worth leaving the house for. We left off artists already filling arenas and anyone whose New York base we could not confirm. A few acts that just missed the cut, like the New York rock trio Hello Mary, are ones to keep watching.

The Shout NY take

The best way to use this list is to pick the one you have never heard of and buy the ticket before you listen. Then show up for the opener, too. Every act here played a room with 200 people in it not long ago, and a few of them still do. For more rooms to find the next ones, see our small venues guide and our October events calendar.