The Northside Festival kicks off tomorrow night at 5pm and if you haven’t checked the schedule out yet, I recommend getting on it quick as there are tons of options and many decisions that need to be made. While Northside has the official schedule, Tom, who writes the “What Ales You” column for The WG, posted his recommendations in an easily accessible Google Calendar, which you can check out here. Of Tom’s suggestions, one which I undoubtedly support is checking out Brooklyn-based soundscapist Julianna Barwick, who plays tomorrow night at Cameo, the new venue behind The Loving Cup. Barwick just released Florine, an EP of material that finds her taking the melodic vocal loops established on Sanguine to the astral plane. In addition to her showcase at Northside, Julianna is also in the middle of a residency at Piano’s, which continues tonight. If you haven’t heard Ms. Barwick’s music, you can do so for free over at Daytrotter, where “You Were Waiting” and other choice examples of her sentient above the clouds sound can be found. Ducktails, aka Matt Mondanile of Real Estate and Predator Vision, will play right before Barwick, making Cameo one of the premier destinations on the first night of the festival.

Photo: Verbunkos

Profile of Yoko Devereux store in Williamsburg. [NY Times]

Looking back on last weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair. [Greenpoint Craftworks]

READ MORE

Photo: Becca Eley

The Oakland condo’s on McGuinness advertised on Bedford. Weird. [new york sh*tty]

Interview with Mike Conklin on the Northside Festival. [Gothamist]

READ MORE

In preparation for the first ever Northside Festival, sponsored by The L Magazine, we thought it might be a good idea to get acquainted with some of the young and talented acts performing at the inaugural event. While the festival is a great way for neighborhood newb’s to stumble upon new venues, galleries and shops, it’s an even better way for people to discover emerging artists (many who call Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick home). One such artist is Bushwick-based chanteuse Sharon Van Etten, who has been breaking hearts in New York and around the world for a few years now. She recently completed a European tour opening for Beirut and Great Lake Swimmers. While Sharon has been a North Brooklyn mainstay for a while, often performing for free at clubs like Zebulon, she only recently released her first LP, Because I Was In Love, a bold collection of “sad prairie folk,” on Language of Stone. Sharon will be playing the Uncensored Interview showcase at Union Pool on Thurs, June 11th (with Olof Arnalds), as well as the Hooves on the Turf party at Trophy Bar. Take a peak at Sharon’s devastatingly intimate live performances below.

READ MORE

Seeing Vivian Girls, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Crystal Stilts on the same bill might not seem like such a big deal in Brooklyn, but when all three bands are playing to thousands of Catalunyas, 500 yards from the Mediterranean Sea, people get excited. While jaded hipsters might cry, “Ugh, I just saw Crystal Stilts last week at Don Hill’s,” which the band, whose stock has been rising over the past year, did just recently play, one cannot deny the power of seeing a local band whose buzz is skyrocketing, play on a big stage with smoke machines and strobe lights, et al. Fact of the matter is that three of North Brooklyn’s most impressionable acts were picked by indie-tastemaker and stage curator, Pitchfork, to play back-to-back-to-back on Friday afternoon in Barcelona.

Having recently seen both The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at the Mercury Lounge and Crystal Stilts at the Shank, a warehouse venue in Greenpoint, it was practically beyond my scope to even think about seeing each of these bands on a large stage with a big crowd. However, once in the moment, my skepticism went the way of the dodo, as each band had total command over the audience, making the best of their late afternoon sets, though each is probably better suited for darkness.

From the looks of it, the audience, which packed the Pitchfork set for each band’s set, and especially during The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, was absolutely thrilled to have Brooklyn in the house, and vice versa, as Vivian Girls bass player Kickball Katy got the crowd riled up with “Barca” chants, a reference to FC Barcelona’s recent Champions League victory over Manchester United. Fact of the matter is, if Brooklyn is an indie breeding ground, and Primavera Sound is an international coming out party, then Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are soon going to find themselves trading in used-Econoline vans for buses, and shitty amps for some serious audio equipment.

READ MORE