When I arrived at Velo, the bike shop on Dekalb Avenue in Bushwick, I was directed down a dimly lit staircase to the basement. In a small room, the only one not stocked to the gills with bicycle guts, I found Rob Prichard and Tom Tenney, creator/producers of Radio Free Brooklyn. They’ve outfitted the room, which they rent from Velo, with turntables, microphones, mixing boards and computers in the name of launching Brooklyn’s own 24/7 online radio station.
Justin Dean Thomas and TJ Rosenthal of The Bowery Riots
As one might infer from their name, which comes from marrying the 19th Century gang the Bowery Boys with the Astor Place Riot of 1849, The Bowery Riots are not your run-of-the-mill downtown New York indie band. Their garage-punk-meets-blues aesthetic (both sonically and visually) comes from a heartfelt respect for the New York bands of yore and the history of the neighborhood they still call home (that neighborhood is now called “Nolita”). And it certainly doesn’t hurt their street cred that Andy Rourke of The Smith produced their first EP.
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(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Our love for Chances With Wolves is such that we’ve traveled into the putrid bowels of the earth to boogie down with them. Luckily we won’t have to do that tomorrow, as the East Village Radio DJs are posting up at a much finer location — the new beer garden at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club. From 7 p.m. onward, they’ll be joined by the High and Mighty Brass Band and DJ Stylus for a party so absolutely right we just had to mention it separate from our end-of-summer guide.
The nouveau newsstand at the Metropolitan stop just got even funkier — and we’re not talking about your typical subway-station funk. The guys from Chances With Wolves — the awesome and dizzyingly eclectic show on East Village Radio — will DJ there tomorrow at 7pm, so do take out your earbuds when you’re transferring from the L to the G. This is hands-down the best thing to happen to the subway system since countdown clocks.
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