Ian Svenonius comes to Brooklyn on Monday, January 28th, for a presentation/performance/seance where he channels the spirits of dead rock stars to talk about some of the key issues regarding the genesis and evolution of rock ‘n’ roll music to celebrate the release of his book Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group: a how-to guide (with illustrations). The event is co-sponsored by Akashic and will feature an introduction by Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s Jason Diamond. Much more info to come. RSVP […]
Gonna Ride That Train
I used to have more time to myself, so it was perfectly acceptable for me to spend an extra day traveling simply because I wanted to ride an Amtrak train for seventeen hours rather than simplify things by taking a three-hour airplane trip to the same destination. The inconvenience was worth it for reasons I’ve never really been able to explain. While the ugly and cramped Amtrak cars weren’t much different from the airplane cabins I was forgoing, there was something I was trying to find […]
On December 11th, We’re Getting a Little More Metal
This December 11th at Public Assembly, our 3-Minute Story Series returns. This time out, the subject is metal. Heavy metal. It’s a subject near and dear to our hearts. And perhaps one of our editors will show up wearing corpsepaint, just to keep everyone on their toes.
Nicholson Baker Gives Us Two More Songs
A few days ago John Jeremiah Sullivan described one of Nicholson Baker’s sentences as “Bakerian (Bakeresque?)” in his New York Times review of Baker’s latest collection of essays, The Way the World Works. I’m starting to feel like “Bakerian (Bakeresque?)” might also be an adequate way to sum up the music the writer has been posting up on Youtube over the last few months, or it could serve as an appropriate title if Baker decided to put out a record.
On the Passing of David S. Ware
Today brings with it the sad news that David S. Ware has died. A decade ago, I decided that the best reading material when writing fiction would be books about other creative disciplines — which boiled down to me reading a lot of jazz criticism between 2000 and 2002. As a result of this, I began listening to the music made by the David S. Ware Quartet — Ware on saxophone, pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and several drummers, including […]
His Name’s Jamrod And He’s Here To Sign T-shirts
New York is home to far too many struggling musicians, but even within that world, far too many of them are white rappers just out of college. And sometimes it seems like they’re concentrated in Brooklyn, though it certainly isn’t hard to find struggling lyricists handing out CDs on the street corners of Midtown. They post flyers, create Facebook events for small-time gigs, and aspire to the fame of an Asher Roth, or Mac Miller, or Sammy Adams… the list […]
Announcing: Chris Ruen’s Terrible Idea at WORD
There’s been a lot of talk of indie-rock economics as of late, and Chris Ruen’s book Freeloading should make for a welcome addition to the debate. He’ll be doing a marathon reading of it at WORD on Saturday, October 20th — an event for which we are one of the sponsors. Here’s his description of what that reading will hold (bonus: free beer; free wine; free cheese): Joe Strummer of The Clash said that “origination is more instinct than intellect,” so […]
When Beck Remixed Philip Glass
It has been a pretty good 75th year for Philip Glass. Einstein on the Beach played at BAM, the Park Avenue Armory threw him a really big bash, and nearly every other big and small New York institution followed suit. The only thing left is an album full of younger artists remixing his music, including Beck’s 20-minute “NYC: 73-78,” which is available to listen to right now at NPR. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.