I was in NY for meetings this past week but managed to poke around
a bit to see what is happening musically.
Went to a loft party in Brooklyn on Friday night, one room upstairs
in a nondescript part of town with a keg, a small sound system,
a good crowd, a couple stage lights and one red light :) A couple
guys were tag-teaming and the tracks were pretty good, lots of
1989-ish NY and Chicago stuff.
Saturday I went down to Coney Island (first time ever there) and
watched the annual Mermaid Parade for a bit, not overwhelming
but good fun.
Then visited Halcyon now in their new location in DUMBO. and when
they say "under the bridge" they just about mean it. I had been
to the old store several years ago and was impressed, but the new
one is really cool, the stock highlights local releases (including
Adam X's Traversible Wormhole project on vinyl!) and they have
a militant attitude about vinyl and keeping it real that I fully
endorse.
They are hardly stick-in-the-muds, you can order MP3s there too --
as they say, "if you're gonna do it, at least buy 'em from a real
record store." And yeah, you can buy dubstep but I noticed one
of the section dividers is labeled "bro-step"... {grin}
Got an old Meters album, Doug Lazy's "H.O.U.S.E." (I collect
hip house), and some new releases. Highly recommended -and-
their web site features this year's Detroit festival front and center:
http://halcyonline.com
Last night I stopped in to 25A, a long-running place at 2nd and A with
bars on two levels and the DJ on the upper one with wrap-around
windows. They still project movies on the wall of the building across
the street -- last night it was Spanky and Our Gang. The DJ was
pretty decent, playing Latin-tinged tech-house to a small crowd.
I wandered around the neighborhood for a while later on but it is
long past its edgy Alphabet City days and the bars and sidewalks
were overflowing with drunk college kids.
Sunday I wanted to see Bang on a Can, the superlative experimental
music festival, but it was at the World Financial Center in a hard to
reach part of downtown (especially given the severe restrictions on
subway travel for the weekend while the MTA does upgrades), I had
limited time before my flight and didn't want to pay for a couple of
very spendy cab rides. But just look at the program:
http://bangonacan.org/
Anyway I barely scratched the surfaced but it's evident things are
happening (as always) in New York and especially Brooklyn, now that
the "scene" around electrocl### has pretty much died out. Some
OK club nights, good one-offs and lots of interesting local productions
in various genres, and I think Atomly was floating around town this
weekend too. Resident Advisor is an excellent source for all
things NY....
fh
