Celebrating Community
On June 12, Pamelia Stickney (formerly Kurstin) and Brian Dewan will be playing at Barbes, in Park Slope, at 8pm. This duo, collectively listed as Night Pollution, promises to give a unique performance, to say the least. Stickney is one of the world’s leading performers on the Theremin, the bizarre and otherworldly electronic instrument known for its schticky use in […]
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 […]
Littlefield, the performance space located at 635 Sackett St. in Gowanus, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a week-and-a-half-long festival that featured live music, comedy shows and dance parties. “We couldn’t fit all our history and programing into one week; there were so many people we wanted to work with,” said co-owner Julie Kim. “We hoped we covered all the […]
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 […]
It’s been 20 years since Eric Ambel, aka Roscoe, first opened his recording studio in South Brooklyn with his musical partner Tim Hatfield. Since then they’ve moved shop several times, and today are located at 231 Norman Avenue in Greenpoint under the name of Cowboy Technical Services (CTS). Though it appears to be a fairly simple room, Ambel states, “We’ve […]
Here’s something great I can almost guarantee you haven’t heard. Anti-folk busking band Slack Mallard are a brilliant bunch of “lazy ducks” from deep southwestern England. They pick up phonetically and musically where their former group Phat Bollard left off. These rag tag lads first met in Calstock, a town by the Tamar River in the lush and wild region […]
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn – Long known as a charming but quiet enclave better suited to families with children than rockers, Carroll Gardens has recently gained new musical offerings. Just off Hamilton Parkway near the corner of Clinton Street is a shop with altruistic aspirations: Orphan Guitars. Musician and proprietor Dwight Weeks has a vision: to sell cool guitars at a […]
On May 15th, John Carlson’s “Buzz” will be performing at Public Records. One of the newer and more promising rooms in a city that continually refuses to be put down by the exploding real estate development, it’s a room that fuses experimental and progressive programming with a love of, well, records and recorded music. Long ago, in another time, the […]
Girls On Grass is a four-piece rock band based in Brooklyn, NY. They have a 50/50 male-female lineup, a radio-friendly, garage-rock sound with jangly guitars, pop hooks, and smart songwriting. The group recently recorded an 11-song LP titled “Dirty Power” at Cowboy Technical Services in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I spoke to lead singer-songwriter-guitarist Barbara Endes and drummer Nancy Polstein about their […]
In the 19th century, Brooklyn was home to more than 48 breweries. Sadly, most of that dried up in the 1970’s, but with the nationwide resurgence of all things local, cheese, beer, and music are all making a big comeback with Brooklyn being a hot spot. Once used by Nassau Brewery as tunnels for fermenting and cooling beer, today Crown […]