I caught Oliver and Adam from local band Pass Kontrol between shows this weekend, and spoke with them a bit about the Bushwick compilation album they produced and recently released. The album is titled “Welcome to Bushwick,” and features 14 tracks from 14 local bands/artists. I listened to it all weekend and am now officially a fan of 13 more bands than I was last Friday.

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Love is All delivered a wildly entertaining set Saturday night at Market Hotel. The scene was sticky, hot, and sweaty — a sauna full of jubilant fans who made their way out in the thunder and lightning to see the band from Sweden play in Brooklyn. The storm brought significant downpours, but that did nothing to cool off the steaming temperature at Market Hotel.

Cause Co-Motion! and the excellent Vivian Girls opened up the show. Both bands turned in short and tight sets, equally showing significant promise in what led to a rather amazing night of music. Cause Co-Motion! reminded me of a cross between Elvis Costello and Gang of Four with their angular changes and tight syncopation. Vivian Girls are a three-piece from Brooklyn who have been described as sounding like “The Ronettes produced by Kevin Shields“. I am all about these girls. Expect a lot more about them in the very near future.

Friday March 14 | Pass Kontrol at Goodbye Blue Monday

We checked out local fave and (full disclosure) friends Pass Kontrol at GBM Friday night.

The boys did not disappoint — nor did their opening acts: Buffie Gilbert and Mike Visser. After their last show at the Bushwick Starr (a seriously raucous affair with Lady Magma) they took it down a notch with “an evening of gentility and civility.” The guys were dressed in turn of the century outfits (I’m not gonna lie — they were totally rocking the “hot newsies” vibe) and Pat Nugent joined them onstage for a poetry reading and trumpet solo. The cool kids were out — the fashion and themed facial hair was pretty amazing.

Although it was certainly a distinguished event at a hallowed Bushwick institution; Adam, Oliver and their crew (including Mike, Buffie, Pat & Tony DiLorenzo) did crank out some PK standards. (”Suzie Lou” and new new hit “Love is a Dog From Hell” are personal faves).

Socks were rocked.

Next:
Pass Kontrol at Pete’s Candy Store
April 3, 709 Lorimer Street

As some of you may know, Steve, the owner of Goodbye Blue Monday, has a ton of bills from his recent cancer treatment. The Village Voice did a bit on his problems and hopefully a big part of the solution to them: the big benefit at Silent Barn this past Saturday.

Eric wrote this up for us on the re-emergence after many decades of burlesque in Bushwick. It is probably the first and last time you’ll see both “the ‘Wick” and “nabe” on this blog. –Jeremy

I’ve been doing research into the New York Burlesque scene for about a year. I know. Roll your eyes. “Riiiiight. Research.” Yeah, and you may punctuate this by miming that air quote thing. ‘Cause, like, they take off their clothes and stuff. But let me put this into some sort of perspective. I have a background in theater and graphic design. So I like to think I have a strong, er, visual acumen. When I went to my first burlesque show I was surprised at how polished, how well performed, how theatrical the whole thing was. And then there’s that participatory response of the audience. This ain’t no stripper crowd. It is a happy mix of hipsters, goths, the Indie Rock and a dash of rockabilly. When a journo friend of mine asked me to sum up in one visual what the New York Burlesque scene is like I replied, “Think: Bettie Page. With tattoos. And maybe some body piercings.”

I was doing this “research” for a documentary I’m co-producing. I also moved to Bushwick around the time I had decided to take on the project. I was skittish about the prospect at first. I was a Manhattan snob, having lived in Chelsea and the East Village. But the rent was more than reasonable for the apartment’s size and the commute was a breeze. One year later I have not only grown more comfortable with my neighborhood, but I’d discover that two topics prominent in my life — Burlesque and Bushwick — would ultimately be reconciled. more »

I used to hear jokes that seeing a white girl in Bushwick was as rare as finding a unicorn. While the recent influx in hipsters might make that term no longer applicable, there is still one genuine unicorn to be found in Bushwick.

Natalie Weiss, aka Unicornicopia, has been living and performing in Bushwick since 2005. At 5′10″, with almond shaped eyes and and a huge smile, Natalie could be confused for a fashion model, a fact Vice magazine took notice of. But Natalie’s mission is not to stand around and look pretty for the cameras; rather she spreads her message through “experimental worship-tunes” that sound like a cross between Laurie Anderson, The Magnetic Fields (when the chick sings), and a 1950’s musical. Not surprisingly, Natalie accredits some of her earliest influences to musicals and has even written a couple — but it wasn’t till a 2001 trip to Africa as an AIDS educator that Unicornicopia was formed. “I was filled with the joy of the lord” Natalie says, smiling widely with no trace of irony. Natalie takes that joy wherever she goes, even when she was transplanted to the Halsey stop on the M J train in 2005 when she moved from Florida to try to have one of her plays performed off-Broadway.

Though the play fell through, Natalie stayed in Bushwick, and though she described her initial experience as scary — always a friendly face, Natalie found it hard to meet people in an area she saw as “more industrial than community-oriented.”

It was only after moving above Goodbye Blue Monday on Broadway and Dodworth that Natalie found the community spirit she was looking for. She accredits the change of Bushwick addresses with the shift of her perspective on the neighborhood. Far from finding the noise of the overhead J and the populated streets a detriment, Natalie finds her music influenced by her scenery, “I’m much more into a noise-oriented sound these days!” she exclaims, ever the optimist.

Her outgoing nature has finally found a home beneath the train, as one can often spy Natalie on the streets outside her home or in GBM, chatting with older residents. “I prefer the old men in this neighborhood to the hipsters,” she sniffs, “at least when you make friends with the old guys, they stop objectifying you!”

Good point — and one she plans to live by — as she is now having to plan a sudden relocation. Though she won’t be living above me anymore, Natalie plans to stay in the neighborhood while doing a back-up singing gig for Fischerspooner. She loves the neighborhood, and as she says on one of her songs, “It is so important to feel cared about.”

–Unicornicopia will be performing live at Monkeytown on Wednesday, September 26th.