Ah! I haven't posted in a week and I feel like I should be fired. What were all of you loyal readers doing during that time? God only knows. Anyway, I haven't totally been slacking. As you may have noticed I changed the look of the blog a little bit and that since the creation of the blog, my direction has changed from talking about shows to talking about new and exciting things going on in Brooklyn, the city, and the music world. In the coming weeks I hope to continue posting about all things music and to up the amount of show postings.
Two weeks ago I started my first piece of work for Showpaper. Showpaper is a non-profit organization that puts out a one page paper every two weeks with all-ages listings for the next two weeks on one side and an up and coming artist's work on the other. The paper is all over Williamsburg and Bushwick and can be found at various locations scattered throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. For Showpaper I have been helping with distribution and listings. While distro brings me to nooks that I otherwise would not have known about, working on listings has me running through hundreds of bands and checking out their show listings, all-ages and not.
The first show that I want to tell all of you about is happening this Saturday @ the House of Yes. Javelin, The Shivers, Dinowalrus, Ava Luna and Shark? will be playing. Javelin, a relatively recent Brooklyn baby (via Providence), combines beat machines and synths with sampled sounds and bizarre vocal samples. Bridging the gap between electronic mixes and the Brooklyn lo-fi scene, Javelin combines funk, video game synth, r&b, hip hop breaks, and new wave in a dancy, fun and innovative amalgamation of sounds.
The Shivers sport a more subdued sound. I would liken their tunes to a combination of The National, Modest Mouse and The Shins with some hidden roots in funk which surface only at the most appropriate times. Their music does, however, have a raw quality that keeps it interesting and defines them in the Brooklyn paradigm (they're from Queens). The Shivers' music is emotional, but not overly so, and decisive, but not brutish. They too border the lo-fi movement, but retain an element of clarity which is sometimes lost in the fuzz of lo-fi and noise groups.
Ava Luna is awesome! Something of an electronic outfit but hit a dark and mysterious note with deep beats and soulful and dissonant vocal harmonies. These guys might be my favorites of the night but I haven't seen them live so find out for yourself.
Shark? and Dinowalrus are provocative acts that will no doubt show up on their game.
Come to House of Yes! on Saturday, January 30 at 8 (bands start at 9) to here all of the bands and get free two boots pizza and see fire breathers and pole dancers and whatnot (not even kidding). There also be a series of video artists showing their work so this is an eclectic event that will attract all sorts of people. BYOB! House of Yes is located at 342 Maujer St. Brooklyn, NY - L to Grand St. See you there. [more info]
Here are some tracks from the bands playing
The Shivers - Just Didn't Need to Know
Come to House of Yes! on Saturday, January 30 at 8 (bands start at 9) to here all of the bands and get free two boots pizza and see fire breathers and pole dancers and whatnot (not even kidding). There also be a series of video artists showing their work so this is an eclectic event that will attract all sorts of people. BYOB! House of Yes is located at 342 Maujer St. Brooklyn, NY - L to Grand St. See you there. [more info]
Here are some tracks from the bands playing
The Shivers - Just Didn't Need to Know
Oh hellsss yah I'll be there dude!! Thanks for writing about Showpaper... hey I'm putting this in the spaper press archive right now and if you don't mind, I'd like to use this as a reason to introduce our press page to the other volunteers in the google group. That cool?
ReplyDeleteyea of course that's totally cool
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