Celebrating Community
Garland Jeffreys, the Brooklyn born rock and roll singer and songsmith, is hanging up his spurs. His retirement, hopefully an opportunity for him to relax with his family and enjoy the rest of his life, is our loss. I know Garland Jeffrey’s music very well, having stumbled upon his records perchance somewhat earlier on (for me at least) in his […]
BIG|BRAVE A Gaze Among Them (Southern Lord) Helium Horse Fly Hollowed (Dipole Experimental Records) It’s little wonder that the bone-crushing Montreal trio BIG|BRAVE attracted the attention of the dirge merchants at Southern Lord. Founded 21 years ago by Sunn O))) guitarist Greg Anderson, the label has become an emblem for the droney, doomy, stoner side of experimental metal. After […]
In 2008, a bearded and tatted up Alabama man named Jamey Hamm founded Roots Café in Brooklyn’s South Slope. The goal: bring back the grungy community center that was the typical indie coffeehouse of yesteryear. The shop still hides between a pharmacy and a cell phone store at the corner of 5th Ave and 18th street. An old-country rock’n’roller, Jamey […]
In May, Record Union released the 73% Report, so named for the 73% of surveyed musicians who reported suffering from “…negative emotions such as stress, anxiety and/or depression in relation to…music creation.” Though this number would set off alarm bells in any other industry, it does not register the same shock in the music world. Sure, we grieve the untimely […]
A talented multihyphenate is accurately one way to describe Valentin. Lamar Stephens, known to his listeners and fans as Valentin Lamar, answers the phone at 9:30 pm. I can hear the sound of utensils tumbling around a plate, the chaotic rustling of bagged chips — he’s having dinner, and we begin our interview. Valentin is a Brooklyn based DJ, Producer […]
THE ZONELORD We predicted long ago that the mayor was using his term of office to curry favor with the capital-concrete lobby in pursuit of a job that paid better. So when we read that Warren Wilhelm de Blasio announced May 16 he’d entered the race for president of the Real Estate Board of New York we felt vindicated. Why […]
I’ve never been to Africa And it’s your fault – Swamp Dogg In 1970, the black American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter Jerry Williams, originally from Virginia, changed his name to Swamp Dogg. Recalling this transformation, he wrote, ”I wanted to sing about everything and anything and not be pigeonholed by the industry. Since then I have sung about […]
Three great bands for $5 in a beautiful, old-school venue in Brooklyn is almost unheard-of these days. However, that’s just what Jeannie Fry and the good folks of Red Hook Roxx offer every Friday night at Rocky Sullivan’s. Fry first set foot in Rocky’s about three years ago, when the bar was still at its old location, just a […]
There was a time when Brooklyn was an artist’s bedroom community: many musicians only moved here to flee the oppressive Manhattan rents. In the ’80s and ’90s, you and your significant other would tell everyone you were moving out to Brooklyn to a great place with a huge backyard. Friends would come to your first party, agree how cool it […]
Hip-hop-country is a musical genre. That statement may seem unusual, but it should shock no one. Both country music and hip-hop have roots in folk music and blues – slaps, chants, rhyme, melody, and rhythm are all intrinsic qualities of both genres. It was only a matter of time before these distant cousins joined forces and skyrocketed to massive, worldwide […]