Celebrating Community
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 […]
Notes From The Battlefield: 10 years of Baritone Army by Stefan Zeniuk 2008 seems like a lifetime ago. Eight years of the Bush administration were winding down, the economy was crashing, the country was embroiled in wars it didn’t know how to end, Obama was harnessing a lost sense of hope and idealism while the entire world was in the […]
Cover Songs – The Agony & The Ecstasy by Antony Zito You’re minding your own business one peaceful afternoon, silently arranging your sock drawer, and you make the fatal mistake of turning on the radio. Not the Pandora or the Spotify, but ye good olde-fashioned radio, with the waves and stuff. You’re just but a minute in, when you drop your […]
Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound to Play Hank’s March 29 Legendary garage rocker Greg Cartwright of The Reigning Sound will be playing a solo set on Friday, March 29 at the new Hank‘s Saloon in downtown Brooklyn. Cartwright got his start in Memphis, Tennessee as a founding member of The Oblivions. He has also worked with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Jack […]