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Chris Carr, Brooklyn Wildlife producer (right) and friend Tyquan Sounds. Photo by Ventiko
By Gloria Fox
Alongside a massage table, crafts and t-shirt vendors, as well as immersive dance troupes, including Sans Limites Dance, there was the music… excellent music coming from independent bands and singers, all part of a music scene that is cresting with powerful energy and talent in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Someday I expect to say about a few of these bands: “I saw them back when….”
City Council District 33 Primary
Stephen Pierson
Your City Council Member really does have palpable influence over the destiny of our neighborhoods and quality of life. District 33 Council Member elections also present a difficult choice, because there has only been one political debate, and Stephen Levin, former Vito Lopez Chief of Staff, has been fuzzy about some of the remedies proposed. By contrast Stephen Pierson has put forward some ideas to address issues that have been raised about the 2005 rezoning. Such as taking a stand to downzone, because the current zoning allows segregated housing by economic status, ie., the “poor door,” and ushers in outrageously oversized developments (that are approximately twice the density of Stuyvesant Town). Levin says, he’ll look into it.
“When you die, and then open your eyes, if there isn’t music, something like this playing in the distance, you’re probably on your way to the wrong place.”
In old British legend, if you can hear the sound of the bluebell’s knoll, then death is upon you. Those of us who are still alive may gather on Wythe Avenue at Output’s Panther Room on Sunday, September 8, for the
Classic Album Sunday play of The Cocteau Twins’ 1988 pressing of Bluebell Knoll.
The inauguration and “unveiling” of Brooklyn Finery — an evolving mural on Grand Street (at Berry) will be celebrated with a reception on Tuesday, Sept. 10 from 5:30-7:30 pm.
The artists have been hard at work for several months, in all kinds of weather. All the while, neighborhood residents and visitors have had the benefit of watching the wall progress day after day into a wonderful public work of art, rich with social and cultural references.
Sixty bands and a slew of DJs will be featured in a one-day rager at Paper Box on Saturday, Sept 7. Simultaneous performances will take place on three separate stages, including one outside, starting at 3pm and running ’til 3am. Music ranges from rap to rock. Headlining bands include Brooklyn rapper Buckshot of the group Black Moon, electronic songstress Suzi Analogue, and string composers Charly and Margaux.
This festival represents the best of Brooklyn’s independent talent with a heavy focus on Bushwick, and its cultural mix. Bands on the rise include I am the Third with a neo soul sound. Rebelmatic, just having played the Afropunk Fest, come with their “unrelenting, brutal and touching” hip hop skater punk noise, and released their second album Elephant Amnesia this year.