(Photo via Silent Barn / Facebook)
And we’re back… well, sort of. We’re at least moseying our way toward the holiday finish line. Not quite ready to let go of it just yet, but so, so over it at the same time. And since you’ve just got to be exhausted from all of it, we’ve done the heavy lifting in answering the most important question of the year: What are we doing for New Year’s Eve?
NYE Sousveillance 2016
10 pm at the Silent Barn: $10 before 11 pm, $15 after
I kicked myself for missing this one last year–I mean, surveillance, video installations, and live music? But life, bless her, gives us second chances once in a while. Why slap this theme of a paranoid future filled with menacing monitors and goggle-eye-view intimacy onto a New Year’s party, you ask? We can’t say for sure either, but the answer to that question definitely qualifies as more than intriguing.
Sousveillance is a multi-media event in its seconds year running, complete with future sounds to get you thinking about the important issue of surveillance, in all its crazy forms. Veronica Torres of saxxy psychonautic punk band Pill will aid in rotating the plethora of participating musicians. Psychoegyptian will share his hip-hop mapped over glitchy, psychedelic sounds while Heidi Sabertooth will be on be on deck to present her all analogue-sourced digital soundscapes made up entirely of her own samples.
Of course coz this is NYE after all, so chances are you’re gonna wanna shake it: Dadras, Plebian, and especially Hand of God– the house project of Godmode‘s Jeremy Krinsley– will guarantee a good time in that department. And to help explore that whole surveillance theme, several local artists will share their video installations, including EyeBodega and Julian Bozeman. Indeed “a lot has changed in the world of reflection technology” since we last convened for surveillance contemplation at the start of 2015, line up to meditate on how far we’ve come y’all.
Note: the organizers have indicated this event is going to sell out, so make sure to get your tix, like, now.
(Flyer via Palisades / Facebook)
New Year’s Eve at Palisades with Obey City, Photay, Sonnymoon, Shore, Nick Hakim
9 pm at Palisades: $15
While so much of what we’re hearing from Brooklyn electronic music makers these days seems to be the result of an emphatic push toward the future, producers like Obey City express a deep love for the past. Though it would be difficult to argue the Brooklyn DJ’s tracks are throwbacks per se. Instead, they’re twist ups of eclectic sounds–West African, funk, outta control auto-tuned vocals–and as soon as you interpret something as familiar, Obey City’s reimagined it, distorted and blended it to waters far from well-traveled ones.
Photay‘s mixes are a freakin’ joy to listen to. Just, please be advised, don’t go through all the ones you manage to find on the net too quickly because you’ll feel suddenly deserted without the Brooklyn-based electronic musician’s amalgamations of lesser-heard hip-hop, funk, soul, disco, and lost ’80s jammers to carry you through a day of not wanting to even glance at your iTunes. Which is why we’re not at all disappointed to see Photay taking a break from his usual synth-around to present a DJ set at this show, which usually is all sighhhh whatever, but in Photay’s case not so.
(Flyer via The Gateway / Facebook)
Glitter Bomb Ball
7 pm at The Gateway: $10 in advance, $15 at the door
This one’s for the spring chickens out there, or rather anyone who thinks they can handle the task of hoofing it upstairs and downstairs to see any one of the approximately ten million bands playing at The Gateway’s palace of rock– hence the lineup that largely skews guitar/drums/vocals, which is to say that the Glitter Ball defies the electronic expectations fulfilled by legit almost everything else going on around town. This one’s for the feedback girl in you.
As to be expected, the lineup includes in-house acts like Stuyedeyed (the booker’s garage psych band) and a DJ set from one of the co-owners, Rob Granata. Expect good time punk rock from the kids of Spite House and starry-eyed, sing-a-long rock from Shell Shag, who incidentally have a new record out on Don Giovanni, Why’d I Have To Get So High? Question of the ages, my friends. Speaking of really real rock, Heliotropes recalls the poppier psych edges of Elisa Ambrogio’s fantastic Magik Markers — a band that we haven’t heard a peep out of for way too long (save for solo efforts and the like) which, to be honest, is causing us some serious separation anxiety. If you’re feeling the same, you know which ball to select for this most magical last evening ever.
NYE @ Aviv
8 pm at Aviv: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
And if banya’s your thing, head to Aviv for their stimulating blend of steamy rock and ice-cold ‘lectronics and hip-hop. Ready your body for an explosive cacophony brought on by Lee Bannon. Hopefully they won’t let Yung Gutted in the door– the guy’s got a monopoly (in Brooklyn anyway) on the slippy, sludge-slow sounds of a bygone Houston– that is, without promising that he’s got enough lean (i.e. Tony Seltzer’s drink of choice: bubbly water and purple) on him to go around.
The biggest big deal of the night (as you’ve probably surmised from that lil flyer guy already) is Wiki of Ratking, proud scum bag who raps about living with his moms and getting beat up. And what’s the end of everything without an act like Show Me The Body who, yes, are just as nasty in person as they appear to be in this slick music video below. And the next band on the ballot’s there because, well because what’s a dead body without Spewing Cum?