Last year’s block party at Joe’s Pub. (Photo: Erica Martin)
If you’re a live music completist, the next few weeks are going to be simply overwhelming. Not only does the Northside Festival kick off today, but on June 21, the first day of summer, Make Music NY returns with a mind-boggling 1,000+ free shows in public spaces. Highlights include a 90+-band punk rock marathon on Staten Island, a hootenany on Governor’s Island, and (God help us all) Billy Joel karaoke from the back of a pickup truck. More →
After dropping the delightfully surreal video for “Hop” in January and following up with another trippy one, “Children,” in February, Brooklyn synth-pop act The Henry Millers released a single, “Posies” — off their forthcoming LP of the same name — last month. More →
It’s no wonder Detroit came up time and time again as an alternative to rapidly gentrifying NYC during our conversations at the Newsroom. Those abandoned buildings are often the site of epic dance parties and roving clubs, hosted by the city’s best DJs – or so says Amy Braunschweiger, who grew up an hour outside of the Motor City. More →
While you party down this weekend, the club owners of North Brooklyn will be working hard to make that partying possible — and offering up a dizzyingly diverse array of cutting-edge music, to boot. (For starters, did anyone else catch John Carpenter’s soundtrack composer, Alan Howarth, doing the Halloween theme song at 285 Kent last night? Just beyond awesome.) Last week at the Newsroom, we spoke to some of our favorite nightlife impresarios: from left to right in the video above, you’ve got Peter Shapiro of Brooklyn Bowl, Jify Shah of Cameo, Jake Rosenthal of Glasslands, John Barclay of Bossa Nova Civic Club, and Todd Patrick of 285 Kent and Market Hotel. More →
CMJ seems to have been a success this year — or at least, that’s what a handful of Brooklyn club owners said when we spoke to them earlier this week. Peter Shapiro said Steven Spielberg dropped into Brooklyn Bowl, Jake Rosenthal said Glasslands was sold out every night, and Todd P seems to have come around to the fest. More →
Sure, it’s fun to sit around remembering CBGB and the Mudd Club, but what about the great clubs and creative hubs of today? Join us Monday at the B+B Newsroom as five trailblazers of North Brooklyn nightlife discuss the state of play circa 2013.
Barclay operated 285 Kent before legendary DIY promoter Todd Patrick (aka Todd P) turned it into a nightly destination for all-ages indie rock shows. Patrick, also the founder of Showpaper, is now in the midst of reopening beloved underground spot Market Hotel as a fully licensed indie music venue; last month he announced he was also reopening the original location of Silent Barn as a yet-to-be-named artist’s studio space and an all-ages venue for avant-garde and experimental music.
Also joining us will be Peter Shapiro, who owned celebrated Tribeca club Wetlands before opening Brooklyn Bowl in 2009. A couple of months ago, the bowl-o-drome announced its expansion to London and Las Vegas. Shapiro, also the publisher of Relix magazine and a founder of the Great GoogaMooga, recently relaunched Lower East Side burlesque mecca The Slipper Room and the venerable Capitol Theatre in Port Chester.
Jify Shah will be coming off of a blockbuster week at his Williamsburg venue, Cameo, which just hosted CMJ showcases by some B+B favorites (Mexican Summer, Cascine, Wild Honey Pie, etc.). In addition to attracting some of Brooklyn’s most exciting indie-rock and electronic acts and DJs, Cameo is New York‘s Best Stand-Up spot of 2010, thanks to house fixture Max Silvestri.
In 2008, Jake Rosenthal co-founded PopGun Presents, which produces concerts, parties, festivals and events around town. He and his partner Rami Haykal began booking Glasslands — one of B+B’s favorite places to catch a show — in 2009 and assumed ownership of the Williamsburg venue last year.
We’ll get the party started Monday at 7 p.m., at 155 Grand St., off of Bedford Ave., in Williamsburg.
Not every Brooklyn band is an overnight success story: it’s easy to forget that some have been chipping away at their craft for years.
Take Desert Stars. They’ve been on the scene with different lineups for almost five years now (full disclosure: my old band played their first show), but the album out today, “Habit Shackles,” is their first full-length release. And it’s a doozy: listen to the single we’ve secured for you below and you may find yourself canceling plans to get to the album release party at Cameo tonight. More →
