The Brooklyn Rail
Critical Perspectives on Art, Politics and Culture
March 2007
Music
Party on the Gowanus
by Sergei TcherepninMusic
It’s a little after eleven on a Sunday night in mid-January as people crowd into the second floor of Issue Project Room, an abandoned silo overlooking the Gowanus Canal in industrial Carroll Gardens.
Because We Said So
by Grant Moser and Scott DamellMusic
This has been one of my favorite albums over the past few months. It’s food for my ears. Every time I listen to it, it’s like I’m hearing the songs for the first time. This band is noted for its use of digital bleeps and chirps, but their real strength is a generous use of lush choruses and rich guitar work.
Sad Songs for the Sad Parts
by Matthew OzgaMusic
Pop-music geeks are fickle, hyper-opinionated boys and girls whose idea of a good time is endlessly debating such heady topics as, What’s the best Smiths album?
The Subversive Script of Dalek
by Mike LupicaMusic
The phrase “underground hip-hop” has seen some tough times. Regardless of whether or not names like Wordsound, MF Doom, or Peanut Butter Wolf are in your daily lexicon, there’s little denying that, for the casual enthusiast, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish hip-hop’s underground from the establishment it purports to be a reaction against.
This Year’s Models
by Ray McDermottMusic
Sometimes a band takes large steps early in its career and finds the sound it wants right away. Sometimes it reinvents itself slowly over the course of a few phases. But it’s rare that a band proceeds, in the space of just a handful or releases, through a definitive arc that swings from meditative minimalism to lush improvisation.
