The Brooklyn What

If you’re from Brooklyn, and you’re named after Brooklyn and you make innovative punk rock that sounds like Sha Na Na, you’ll definitely get a write up here.

What a terrific EP. A little Gaslight Anthem, a little shouting. A little mushmouthed Hold Steady, with the classic rock references but without pretension. Some cursing. Some spite. Some hard licks. A little “punk rock loneliness” (what a great line). And tons of fun.

A little bit of the BK, comin’ to ya from this Brooklyn exile in VA.

And it’s free at Bandcamp!

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=268962622/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/ - Berkeley Place

Laura Stevenson and the Cans (who have a free Daytrotter session you can listen to/download) played Europa on Saturday (8/13) with Wagers and The Brooklyn What. The show was one of a few US shows the band had scheduled before they head to Europe for a month long tour in September.

(band photos of Brooklyn What) - Brooklyn Vegan

The kids are all right. The grownups are gonzo.
And everybody had one heck of a time...

The Brooklyn What? got to book a Thursday night at Maxwell's. This almost always turns out to be a great idea, since you get bills that actually mesh not just musically but socially as well - and audiences to match. So don't think of this Saturday night as a show, but as a big party with too much beer, crazy dancing, a little vomit, a lot of moshing, and sweaty, shirtless dudes all over the place. For the record, the bands were Highway Gimpos, Groucho Marxists, The Brooklyn What?, and Wyldlife. Off the record, what we got was a night of raucous raunchy gutbucket rock 'n' roll where every band raised the bar (and average blood alcohol level in the room) a little higher. - Jersey Beat

The corporate media wants you to believe that New York is all master mixologists mixing $26 heirloom lobster cilantro mochatinis, with celebrity djs pumping up the bass while Shtuppi, Blandie, Faylor and the rest of the cast of The Real Housewives of LoHo poledance for the camera. That element does exist, and in greater numbers with every passing tax break for the ultra-rich, but those people don’t represent New York. They’re not even from here. And while we wait, and wait, and wait, for a high-profile murder or two to send them scrambling for the next charter flight back to Malibu or Lake Wayzata, the Brooklyn What write songs for the rest of us. Like the Clash, they use punk as a stepping-off point for a range of styles that span the history of rock, from the 50s to the indie era. This may be old news for those who’ve seen them live, but they’re not just playing crazed punk music anymore: they’re become a truly great rock band. They have five newly recorded singles out: the songs are complex, psychedelic, and socially aware without losing the in-your-face edge that made the band so compelling from the start.

I Want You on a Saturday Night has been a big concert hit for them for awhile. It’s punked out doo-wop, a Weegee snapshot of a random night out. Guy’s at the bar, got only half a buzz, annoyed by the annoying crowd, trying to drown them out with Johnny Cash on the jukebox. He could go to Williamsburg, or to the Village where he’d meet some people and “want to kill them,” or stay home, get stoned and listen to Springsteen. But he wants out. And like the Uncle Sam poster, he wants you.

Punk Rock Loneliness is the shadow side of that picture. The guitars weave a staggered tango beat, distantly echoing the Dead Boys but more funky. Jamie Frey’s lyric sets the stage: “Rain through your canvas sneakers, nervous breakdown in your speakers…” Who hasn’t been there? Down at the corner of Bleecker and Bowery, where CBGB’s used to be, he thinks back on the girl who’s gone now. “All the things you had to give her, first your heart then your liver, drowned in the East River.” And the world couldn’t care less: there’s no more Johnny, or Joey, or Dee Dee with a song that would dull the pain, and the club they made famous is just another stupid shi-shi boutique now. A classic New York moment early in the decade of the teens.

Come to Me is like punked-out Sam Cooke. It’s sly and it’s irresistible – the singer understands that the girl’s been working a twelve-hour shift, she has to smile when her heart’s a frown, but he’ll make her forget about the long day and how light her purse feels at the end of it. The brief doubletracked guitar solo at the end is pure psychedelia: Evan O’Donnell and John-Severin Napolillo make the best one-two guitar punch this town’s seen in decades. A more rocking take on early 70s psychedelic funk/soul a la Curtis Mayfield, Tomorrow Night is more abstract, floating in on a catchy yet apprehensive slide guitar hook, winding out with another nimble, incisive solo. The fifth song, Status Quo, evokes Black Flag with its furious vocal tradeoffs, then goes for an anthemic garage punk Stooges/Radio Birdman knockout punch on the chorus. “I’m so bored with the status quo/Everything here has got to go,” the band roar. “You get all your sense of humor from reality shows,” Frey taunts the latest wave of gentrifiers. At the end, they finally let it fly completely off the hinges. The Brooklyn What also have a monthly residency at Trash Bar, a Saturday night where they play alongside some of the best of their colleagues in the Brooklyn underground scene. This month’s show is this Saturday, December 18 starting at 8 with power trio New Atlantic Youth, the Proud Humans (ex-Warm Hats), the Highway Gimps (the missing link between My Bloody Valentine and Motorhead), the Brooklyn What, postpunk rockers Mussles and finally the new Pistols 40 Paces at midnight. Check with the band for these songs as well as their classic 2009 album The Brooklyn What for Borough President. - Lucid Culture

The corporate media wants you to believe that New York is all master mixologists mixing $26 heirloom lobster cilantro mochatinis, with celebrity djs pumping up the bass while Shtuppi, Blandie, Faylor and the rest of the cast of The Real Housewives of LoHo poledance for the camera. That element does exist, and in greater numbers with every passing tax break for the ultra-rich, but those people don’t represent New York. They’re not even from here. And while we wait, and wait, and wait, for a high-profile murder or two to send them scrambling for the next charter flight back to Malibu or Lake Wayzata, the Brooklyn What write songs for the rest of us. Like the Clash, they use punk as a stepping-off point for a range of styles that span the history of rock, from the 50s to the indie era. This may be old news for those who’ve seen them live, but they’re not just playing crazed punk music anymore: they’re become a truly great rock band. They have five newly recorded singles out: the songs are complex, psychedelic, and socially aware without losing the in-your-face edge that made the band so compelling from the start.

I Want You on a Saturday Night has been a big concert hit for them for awhile. It’s punked out doo-wop, a Weegee snapshot of a random night out. Guy’s at the bar, got only half a buzz, annoyed by the annoying crowd, trying to drown them out with Johnny Cash on the jukebox. He could go to Williamsburg, or to the Village where he’d meet some people and “want to kill them,” or stay home, get stoned and listen to Springsteen. But he wants out. And like the Uncle Sam poster, he wants you.

Punk Rock Loneliness is the shadow side of that picture. The guitars weave a staggered tango beat, distantly echoing the Dead Boys but more funky. Jamie Frey’s lyric sets the stage: “Rain through your canvas sneakers, nervous breakdown in your speakers…” Who hasn’t been there? Down at the corner of Bleecker and Bowery, where CBGB’s used to be, he thinks back on the girl who’s gone now. “All the things you had to give her, first your heart then your liver, drowned in the East River.” And the world couldn’t care less: there’s no more Johnny, or Joey, or Dee Dee with a song that would dull the pain, and the club they made famous is just another stupid shi-shi boutique now. A classic New York moment early in the decade of the teens.

Come to Me is like punked-out Sam Cooke. It’s sly and it’s irresistible – the singer understands that the girl’s been working a twelve-hour shift, she has to smile when her heart’s a frown, but he’ll make her forget about the long day and how light her purse feels at the end of it. The brief doubletracked guitar solo at the end is pure psychedelia: Evan O’Donnell and John-Severin Napolillo make the best one-two guitar punch this town’s seen in decades. A more rocking take on early 70s psychedelic funk/soul a la Curtis Mayfield, Tomorrow Night is more abstract, floating in on a catchy yet apprehensive slide guitar hook, winding out with another nimble, incisive solo. The fifth song, Status Quo, evokes Black Flag with its furious vocal tradeoffs, then goes for an anthemic garage punk Stooges/Radio Birdman knockout punch on the chorus. “I’m so bored with the status quo/Everything here has got to go,” the band roar. “You get all your sense of humor from reality shows,” Frey taunts the latest wave of gentrifiers. At the end, they finally let it fly completely off the hinges. The Brooklyn What also have a monthly residency at Trash Bar, a Saturday night where they play alongside some of the best of their colleagues in the Brooklyn underground scene. This month’s show is this Saturday, December 18 starting at 8 with power trio New Atlantic Youth, the Proud Humans (ex-Warm Hats), the Highway Gimps (the missing link between My Bloody Valentine and Motorhead), the Brooklyn What, postpunk rockers Mussles and finally the new Pistols 40 Paces at midnight. Check with the band for these songs as well as their classic 2009 album The Brooklyn What for Borough President. - Lucid Culture

Very possibly the best show of the year so far. The Brooklyn What look and sound like something you would have seen at CBGB around 1977, not a carefully coiffed, safetypinned-and-mohawked self-parody decked out in matching mallstore Ramones shirts, but just an average-looking bunch of guys playing blazingly energetic, loud, often hilarious rock with purist punk energy, intelligence and a spot-on, often vicious sense of humor. Frontman Jamie Frey is a big guy who looks like he doesn’t deprive himself of pizza or beer (although at this show he was fueled strictly by adrenaline, drinking only water). By the time the band had started their second song, his shirt had come off, “NEXT TOP MODEL” stenciled down his hefty torso. The band – who seem to be something of a revolving cast of characters – started out with three guitarists and ended up with two. Running their instruments straight through their amps as the PA was being used for just the vocals, they played smartly, tersely and tunefully although with enough looseness to provide plenty of menace.



They hit the ground running with a blazingly catchy, upbeat number, then a couple of songs later did what has become their signature song, I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg. If there is anyone alive 20 years from now, this song will be a classic, the little clique it ridicules a metaphor for a much bigger problem. The funniest thing about this song is that it’s already dated, namechecking both Northsix and Galapagos, the first of which is defunct and the second of which moved to Dumbo earlier this year. The band played it faster than the version on their myspace, giving it a vintage Black Flag feel: “I don’t wanna go to Galapagos! I don’t wanna hear the fucking Hold Steady!” On the chorus, it’s unclear whether Frey is being sarcastic or if he’s speaking for himself: “I just wanna play with the cool kids,” he hollered. If this is to be taken at face value, he’s definitely achieved his dream. This is the anthem we’ve been waiting for. As the Boomtown Rats said, watch out for the normal people: there’s more of us than there’s of you. If only everybody knew that.




They did two covers. Carol by Chuck Berry was transformed from happy Dick Clark rock to something casually but absolutely evil, like what the Dead Boys might have done with it. The version of the Kinks’ I’m Not Like Everybody Else was every bit as good as it could have been, in fact with the guitars roaring at full blast the classic nonconformist anthem might have been even better than the original. Among the other songs: a vaguely oi-punk number evoking the UK Subs, the band hollering their refrain after Frey reached the end of a verse; a slow, pounding riff-rocker; and a hilarious, backbeat-driven anti-trendoid diatribe possibly called Moving to Philly. Frey thrashed around, throwing himself to the floor, then on one number got up and took a sprint around the back of the stage – in his socks – before reemerging a couple of seconds later, picking up where he left off. The band closed with We Are the Only Ones, a defiant call to unity for all the cool kids who’d come out to see them, an almost predictably diverse mix of old and young (Frey’s grandmother among them), male and female, gay and straight, dancing around deliriously albeit without any violence. Like the Sex Pistols or the Clash, the Brooklyn What could spearhead a brand-new scene that has nothing to do with fashion, celebrity or inherited wealth. They couldn’t have timed it better. Watch this space for info about their next show and their upcoming cd The Brooklyn What for President. - lucidculture.wordpress.com

Their most recent gig was the best rock show we’d witnessed all year long: a fluke? No. At Don Pedro’s Friday night they battled through all sorts of trouble, none of it their own making, and to the extent they could, they slayed. And they did it with an almost totally different set. For a band that’s only been together as a fulltime unit for about six months, the Brooklyn What really hit the ground running. Their fan base is nothing if not devoted: when it became obvious that their Les Paul player’s input on his amp was shot, not one, not two, but three volunteers came out of the crowd, each taking turns holding his guitar cable so it wouldn’t slip out of place. Frontman Jamie Frey was out of his shirt in about five minutes, jumping and bounding all over the place as usual, but their Telecaster player was the star of this one. He’s good now and he’ll be sensational if he keeps playing. The guy has a seriously vicious surf edge, furiously chopping his chords with his reverb turned all the way up.



This time they opened with an ominous, pounding minor-key punk anthem evocative of the Dead Boys, blasted through a sort of oi-punk number with Frey leading the band in a roaring call-and-response, then brought the volume down with a surprisingly funky, upbeat song and an evil, minor-key 6/8 blues with echoes of the early Stooges. Of the stuff they played at their previous show, they blazed through a punked-out version of the Kinks’ garage classic I’m Not Like Everybody Else, a pummeling version of their big crowd-pleaser, the snide anti-trendoid broadside I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg, and eventually the catchy but equally snarling, sarcastic The In Crowd. The only problem was that the vocals were barely audible (not that Frey wasn’t roaring at top volume). Don Pedro’s is a great place but…memo to soundman: there is NO NEED to mic the drums in that room. The Brooklyn What’s next gig is at Fat Baby on Oct 2 at 10. Go see them now before it costs you twice as much at some big batcave, bands this fun only come along every few years.


- lucidculture.wordpress.com

An hour of power after power hour Friday night. Actually, the power started during power hour (at Trash Bar, they have free drinks in the back for an hour starting at 8 PM – with a deal like that, who needs to pregame). Play It Faster sound like the Subhumans, but if that band listened to Social Distortion instead of reggae – interesting song structures, smart politics, loud, roaring vocals and guitars. And a Rickenbacker for some unexpectedly sweet guitar textures. Memo to the Rick player: if you’re going to keep taking solos, you need at least a cheap Boss pedal so they can cut through every time.

“I can’t remember when we played a set this early,” Brooklyn What frontman Jamie Frey told the crowd (they hit the stage a little after nine this time; showtime for these guys is usually around midnight on a Saturday). There are louder bands in New York than the Brooklyn What – a few anyway – but there are none better. Their new songs are so strong that they don’t have to fall back on last year’s hits, or the ones from the year before. It’s amazing how much this band has grown – people don’t realize how young they still are. Lead guitarist Evan O’Donnell just graduated college. “He’s ours all the time now,” Frey grinned. Gibson SG player John-Severin Napolillo – who also leads first-rate powerpop band John-Severin and the Quiet 1s – joined O’Donnell in locking into a murkily beautiful, melodic, punk-inflected roar, reminding of nothing less than the Dead Boys, but without the drugs. Frey knows that hits are simple; this set was one after another and they all packed a wallop. And they did it without I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg, or We Are the Only Ones, or Planet’s So Lonely. Like the Clash, the Brooklyn What leap from one genre to another with gusto yet without ever losing sight of the social awareness that defines them. How ironic that they’d play this show in what has become the neighborhood most antithetical to everything they stand for.

They opened with a characteristically cynical, scorching version of Gentrification Rock, title track to their most recent ep, bringing it down to Doug Carey’s growling bass for a couple of measures at the end. “I don’t mind if you put a hole right through me,” Frey sang sarcastically on the snarling midtempo rocker they followed with. This is a guy who obviously loves oldschool soul music, and he’s developed into someone who can deliver it and make it his own without sounding derivative or fake. There was a lot of longing in those vocals all night. Their best song was another new one, Punk Rock Loneliness, a bitter and angry memory of Bowery and Bleecker before CBGB became just another overpriced clothing boutique for tourists: “You wanna be a dead boy?” Frey taunted. As charismatic as Frey is, he’s generous with his bandmates, giving Napolillo a turn on lead vocals on a handful of cuts including a new one with a swaying Guns of Brixton flavor. The first of the encores was a delirious crowd-pleaser, I Want You on a Saturday Night, more doo-wop than anything the Ramones ever did (that these guys, like the Ramones, know what doo-wop was, speaks volumes).

And now comes the sad part of the evening, at least for us. Tri-State Conspiracy were next. Ten years ago they were a killer ska band, just busting out of the small club circuit. These days they still play ska, but they’re way more diverse than that, and even more gleefully noir than they were in 2000. One of their early songs sounded like the Yardbirds. Their trumpet player sang; their two guitarists traded licks better than any jam band in recent memory. So it hurt to walk out on what was obviously going to be a killer set – and hurt equally to miss the Highway Gimps, whose snarling post-Gun Club glampunk songs sound like they’d be even better live than what’s on their myspace. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. - http://lucidculture.wordpress.com

An hour of power after power hour Friday night. Actually, the power started during power hour (at Trash Bar, they have free drinks in the back for an hour starting at 8 PM – with a deal like that, who needs to pregame). Play It Faster sound like the Subhumans, but if that band listened to Social Distortion instead of reggae – interesting song structures, smart politics, loud, roaring vocals and guitars. And a Rickenbacker for some unexpectedly sweet guitar textures. Memo to the Rick player: if you’re going to keep taking solos, you need at least a cheap Boss pedal so they can cut through every time.

“I can’t remember when we played a set this early,” Brooklyn What frontman Jamie Frey told the crowd (they hit the stage a little after nine this time; showtime for these guys is usually around midnight on a Saturday). There are louder bands in New York than the Brooklyn What – a few anyway – but there are none better. Their new songs are so strong that they don’t have to fall back on last year’s hits, or the ones from the year before. It’s amazing how much this band has grown – people don’t realize how young they still are. Lead guitarist Evan O’Donnell just graduated college. “He’s ours all the time now,” Frey grinned. Gibson SG player John-Severin Napolillo – who also leads first-rate powerpop band John-Severin and the Quiet 1s – joined O’Donnell in locking into a murkily beautiful, melodic, punk-inflected roar, reminding of nothing less than the Dead Boys, but without the drugs. Frey knows that hits are simple; this set was one after another and they all packed a wallop. And they did it without I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg, or We Are the Only Ones, or Planet’s So Lonely. Like the Clash, the Brooklyn What leap from one genre to another with gusto yet without ever losing sight of the social awareness that defines them. How ironic that they’d play this show in what has become the neighborhood most antithetical to everything they stand for.

They opened with a characteristically cynical, scorching version of Gentrification Rock, title track to their most recent ep, bringing it down to Doug Carey’s growling bass for a couple of measures at the end. “I don’t mind if you put a hole right through me,” Frey sang sarcastically on the snarling midtempo rocker they followed with. This is a guy who obviously loves oldschool soul music, and he’s developed into someone who can deliver it and make it his own without sounding derivative or fake. There was a lot of longing in those vocals all night. Their best song was another new one, Punk Rock Loneliness, a bitter and angry memory of Bowery and Bleecker before CBGB became just another overpriced clothing boutique for tourists: “You wanna be a dead boy?” Frey taunted. As charismatic as Frey is, he’s generous with his bandmates, giving Napolillo a turn on lead vocals on a handful of cuts including a new one with a swaying Guns of Brixton flavor. The first of the encores was a delirious crowd-pleaser, I Want You on a Saturday Night, more doo-wop than anything the Ramones ever did (that these guys, like the Ramones, know what doo-wop was, speaks volumes).

And now comes the sad part of the evening, at least for us. Tri-State Conspiracy were next. Ten years ago they were a killer ska band, just busting out of the small club circuit. These days they still play ska, but they’re way more diverse than that, and even more gleefully noir than they were in 2000. One of their early songs sounded like the Yardbirds. Their trumpet player sang; their two guitarists traded licks better than any jam band in recent memory. So it hurt to walk out on what was obviously going to be a killer set – and hurt equally to miss the Highway Gimps, whose snarling post-Gun Club glampunk songs sound like they’d be even better live than what’s on their myspace. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. - http://lucidculture.wordpress.com

The Brooklyn What’s debut cd is a lot like London Calling. All the songs are different, but a consistent vision connects pretty much everything. Although this band’s roots are punk, they’re not deferential to their influences. And while many of the songs offer scathing, often hilarious social commentary, the band doesn’t look back to any romanticized glory days: the Brooklyn What want to create something new. They’re the voice of the here and now and for that reason alone - forget the laugh-out-loud jokes that would do Joe Strummer proud - this is an important album, something you should hear if you’re part of this generation.

There are echoes of a lot other bands here, but no cliches. They come out swinging with their signature song, a real current-day classic, I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg. The funniest thing about it, as it namechecks every fashion, fad and Brooklyn hot spot that have defined the trendoid esthetic at one time or another is that half of them don’t exist anymore. “I don’t wanna wear a tweed blazer!…I don’t wanna go to Northsix!” That was so, hmmm, 2004? Whatever. “You know what the awful truth is? I just wanna play with the cool kids,” gripes frontman Jamie Frey - if he’s not being sarcastic, he’s achieved his dream.

Summer Song is a striking change, and a gorgeously evocative, wryly Beatlesque account of a guy hoping to end up with “a decent job, hopefully one that doesn’t involve standing in the street all day,” and hoping his crush will make an appearance. Then it’s back to the ferocity with The In-Crowd, both a taunt to the trendoids (”Suburban kids are the hipster new recruits”) and a call to nonconformists everywhere to unite and create a real scene (this theme recurs powerfully throughout the cd). As with many of the songs here, the satire of No Chords is both lyrical and musical, a rip at the sad consequences of gentrification, a neighborhood’s working-class kids coming uncomfortably face to face with their smug, moneyed replacements as the band lazes aimlessly in the background like Pavement or any other off-key indie group:

Fashion victims of circumstance
Caught up in a middle class war
Radicals but only on the dance floor

A few tracks later, Soviet Guns creates a dark, mysterious spy movie ambience with a dark, Radio Birdman-esque melody. Musically, the cd’s high point is a scorching, anguished minor-key 6/8 blues, This Planet’s So Lonely. “This planet’s so vile, I’d rather have Mars,” Frey offers in characteristically dismissive style. “Get ‘em off, Evan,” he cajoles lead guitarist Evan O’Donnell, who responds with a wildly flailing, lightning-fast chord-chopping solo. The cd closes with the Brooklyn What’s most visionary song, We Are the Only Ones, an anthem that’s as apt for kids this decade as Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United was thirty years ago. Over a catchy, Ramonesy melody flavored with vintage 70s synth from Frey, the band state their case for a new world order that has nothing to do with the last one:

They are out to destroy you
Kill all the girls and boys who
Are too smart to believe them
Intellects supersede them…
But I’m not scared of anything at all
Divided we stand UNITED THEY WILL FALL
As with London Calling, there’s also some lighthearted stuff here. Robert Pollard pays homage to the noted beer enthusiast, all the kids waiting anxiously “for GBV to come and save them.” Sarcastic? No. Dunno about salvation, but the band definitely could be counted on for a good show. Break Up With Your Boyfriend is an amusingly tongue-in-cheek ska-punk number, and She Gives Me Spasms is the requisite punk rock sex song, playfully nicking a classic Clash riff. If this is the only album the band ever does, at worst it’ll be a cult classic, a vivid look at what New York was like at the end of the decade from the point of view of an everyday crew who “just want to play with the cool kids.” And if the scene they want so badly gets any more momentum and starts to take over the city - things are starting to look good, right about now - this will be the start of something really big. It’s awfully early in the year, but it looks like this is the best album of 2009.

So the Brooklyn What really want to be Borough President (not a bad idea - they’ve got considerably more brains than the sum total of pretty much everybody who’s ever held the position). Let this be our unpaid political endorsement: buy the cd (it’s no more expensive than ten bucks) and help them build a war chest for when they announce their Presidential bid and go on tour. There’s no stopping these guys. The Brooklyn What play Fat Baby at 9 tomorrow, Jan 15.

- Lucid Culture

The Brooklyn What’s debut cd is a lot like London Calling. All the songs are different, but a consistent vision connects pretty much everything. Although this band’s roots are punk, they’re not deferential to their influences. And while many of the songs offer scathing, often hilarious social commentary, the band doesn’t look back to any romanticized glory days: the Brooklyn What want to create something new. They’re the voice of the here and now and for that reason alone - forget the laugh-out-loud jokes that would do Joe Strummer proud - this is an important album, something you should hear if you’re part of this generation.

There are echoes of a lot other bands here, but no cliches. They come out swinging with their signature song, a real current-day classic, I Don’t Wanna Go to Williamsburg. The funniest thing about it, as it namechecks every fashion, fad and Brooklyn hot spot that have defined the trendoid esthetic at one time or another is that half of them don’t exist anymore. “I don’t wanna wear a tweed blazer!…I don’t wanna go to Northsix!” That was so, hmmm, 2004? Whatever. “You know what the awful truth is? I just wanna play with the cool kids,” gripes frontman Jamie Frey - if he’s not being sarcastic, he’s achieved his dream.

Summer Song is a striking change, and a gorgeously evocative, wryly Beatlesque account of a guy hoping to end up with “a decent job, hopefully one that doesn’t involve standing in the street all day,” and hoping his crush will make an appearance. Then it’s back to the ferocity with The In-Crowd, both a taunt to the trendoids (”Suburban kids are the hipster new recruits”) and a call to nonconformists everywhere to unite and create a real scene (this theme recurs powerfully throughout the cd). As with many of the songs here, the satire of No Chords is both lyrical and musical, a rip at the sad consequences of gentrification, a neighborhood’s working-class kids coming uncomfortably face to face with their smug, moneyed replacements as the band lazes aimlessly in the background like Pavement or any other off-key indie group:

Fashion victims of circumstance
Caught up in a middle class war
Radicals but only on the dance floor

A few tracks later, Soviet Guns creates a dark, mysterious spy movie ambience with a dark, Radio Birdman-esque melody. Musically, the cd’s high point is a scorching, anguished minor-key 6/8 blues, This Planet’s So Lonely. “This planet’s so vile, I’d rather have Mars,” Frey offers in characteristically dismissive style. “Get ‘em off, Evan,” he cajoles lead guitarist Evan O’Donnell, who responds with a wildly flailing, lightning-fast chord-chopping solo. The cd closes with the Brooklyn What’s most visionary song, We Are the Only Ones, an anthem that’s as apt for kids this decade as Sham 69’s If The Kids Are United was thirty years ago. Over a catchy, Ramonesy melody flavored with vintage 70s synth from Frey, the band state their case for a new world order that has nothing to do with the last one:

They are out to destroy you
Kill all the girls and boys who
Are too smart to believe them
Intellects supersede them…
But I’m not scared of anything at all
Divided we stand UNITED THEY WILL FALL
As with London Calling, there’s also some lighthearted stuff here. Robert Pollard pays homage to the noted beer enthusiast, all the kids waiting anxiously “for GBV to come and save them.” Sarcastic? No. Dunno about salvation, but the band definitely could be counted on for a good show. Break Up With Your Boyfriend is an amusingly tongue-in-cheek ska-punk number, and She Gives Me Spasms is the requisite punk rock sex song, playfully nicking a classic Clash riff. If this is the only album the band ever does, at worst it’ll be a cult classic, a vivid look at what New York was like at the end of the decade from the point of view of an everyday crew who “just want to play with the cool kids.” And if the scene they want so badly gets any more momentum and starts to take over the city - things are starting to look good, right about now - this will be the start of something really big. It’s awfully early in the year, but it looks like this is the best album of 2009.

So the Brooklyn What really want to be Borough President (not a bad idea - they’ve got considerably more brains than the sum total of pretty much everybody who’s ever held the position). Let this be our unpaid political endorsement: buy the cd (it’s no more expensive than ten bucks) and help them build a war chest for when they announce their Presidential bid and go on tour. There’s no stopping these guys. The Brooklyn What play Fat Baby at 9 tomorrow, Jan 15.

- Lucid Culture

The Brooklyn What is making music fun again with their fusion of Punk, Rock, and Soul into melodious tunes, catchy lyrics, and dynamic funky sounds. If you are a fan of bands who know how to entertain, then the Brooklyn What will win over your heart. In this recent spotlight with our Webzine, the band, the Brooklyn What, talks music with our magazine.

Isaac: How do you sum up 2008 for The Brooklyn What?

BK What: 2008 was the year we began playing regularly, switching from a summer band to a full time project. We released our first full-length record and began playing better venues.

Jamie Frey: For the first time, enough of the band was in the same place and time to gig and write music more regularly. I started this band going to college in Brooklyn and most of the other guys were out of town so the band existed during summer vacation and on breaks and the functionality of the band was limited. So 2008, we really got to get serious, do the album and get in the groove of being a full-time working rock band. Also, playing with one of our heroes Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen and being onstage with him was an honor and a dream for me and the rest of the guys.

Isaac: Describe the music scene in Brooklyn, New York.

BK What: Brooklyn is incredibly diverse. We are one of the birthplaces of hip-hop, and also doo wop way back in the day. We have people from all over the world living here, resulting in a lot of cross-pollinated world music, like the dance music of the Hasidic Jews, and Caribbean/hip-hop hybrids, and anything you could imagine besides that. There are a lot of hardcore and metal bands in the borough, as well as a 'scene' run mostly by hipsters and art school kids in old warehouses. The latter is what Brooklyn is known for right now, but that's a real shame because it is mostly out-of-towners and the music is mostly pretense, despite the attention it gets. We were here first, and we are looking to have our say.

Jamie Frey: Almost all the national acts that anyone gives a crap about play venues owned by the Bowery Presents, who bought North 6, one of BK's best indie venues and turned it into the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Williamsburg scene seems to focus on gentrifies with synthesizers, retro-garage rock and singer-songwriter pseudo folk. There aren't that many clubs that garnered our interest, we started out playing for free at Freddy's Bar on Dean St. until they stopped letting us play there because the shows got too wild. The place we love now is Don Pedro's on Manhattan Av. where they actually have book great punk and rock n' roll bands, charge $5 to get in, has cheap drinks and has a crowd of cool people who go there to check out bands. I've discovered great bands like Beluga, Davilla 666, The Back C.C.s and The Organs from seeing them or ending up on the bill with them at Don Pedro's. Mostly clubs just stack you on a bill with a bunch of other bands with nothing to do with each other in hopes that they will draw separately and that you'll buy their overpriced drinks. Jake Noodles (Don Pedro's booker) makes an effort to find great bands and put together bills that work and god bless him!

Isaac: What is the concept behind The Brooklyn What?

BK What: A return to the original energy of rock and roll, a response to the pretension of indie rock and a voice for what the future of the genre should hold. We're trying to take rock in a new direction by getting back to basics and fighting against the self conscious irony that is strangling music today. This decade is almost over, it's time things changed and got a bit rawer and more rebellious and more dangerous.

Jamie Frey: Fun, rebellious, honest rock n' roll, the kind that's been missing from music since as long as I can remember, with heart and soul and the willingness to be un-cool, old-timey and romantic.

Isaac: What do you feel was your biggest accomplishment for 2008?

BK What: Unquestionably the release of our first record. We've managed to put everything we had to say in our earliest days in a concise package, and now we are able to move on and refine our sound and our message.

Jamie Frey: The Brooklyn What For Borough President album is the definitely the best thing I've ever done in my life. Also, having our music in other people's CD players and iPods and playing shows and looking out in the crowd and seeing a big crowd full of people, I love always makes me feel accomplished.

Isaac: Elaborate a little about whom were your biggest influences in the music industry and why?

BK What: For each of us, the answer to this question is different. In general, bands like the Ramones are a huge influence because they represent simple, to the point songwriting, high energy and sense of humor geared toward everyday life as a frustrated kid. The kind of persistence and dedication that they represent is also important to us. We also look up to newer bands like Sonic Youth and Wilco for the strength - Junior's Cave

The Brooklyn What is making music fun again with their fusion of Punk, Rock, and Soul into melodious tunes, catchy lyrics, and dynamic funky sounds. If you are a fan of bands who know how to entertain, then the Brooklyn What will win over your heart. In this recent spotlight with our Webzine, the band, the Brooklyn What, talks music with our magazine.

Isaac: How do you sum up 2008 for The Brooklyn What?

BK What: 2008 was the year we began playing regularly, switching from a summer band to a full time project. We released our first full-length record and began playing better venues.

Jamie Frey: For the first time, enough of the band was in the same place and time to gig and write music more regularly. I started this band going to college in Brooklyn and most of the other guys were out of town so the band existed during summer vacation and on breaks and the functionality of the band was limited. So 2008, we really got to get serious, do the album and get in the groove of being a full-time working rock band. Also, playing with one of our heroes Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen and being onstage with him was an honor and a dream for me and the rest of the guys.

Isaac: Describe the music scene in Brooklyn, New York.

BK What: Brooklyn is incredibly diverse. We are one of the birthplaces of hip-hop, and also doo wop way back in the day. We have people from all over the world living here, resulting in a lot of cross-pollinated world music, like the dance music of the Hasidic Jews, and Caribbean/hip-hop hybrids, and anything you could imagine besides that. There are a lot of hardcore and metal bands in the borough, as well as a 'scene' run mostly by hipsters and art school kids in old warehouses. The latter is what Brooklyn is known for right now, but that's a real shame because it is mostly out-of-towners and the music is mostly pretense, despite the attention it gets. We were here first, and we are looking to have our say.

Jamie Frey: Almost all the national acts that anyone gives a crap about play venues owned by the Bowery Presents, who bought North 6, one of BK's best indie venues and turned it into the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Williamsburg scene seems to focus on gentrifies with synthesizers, retro-garage rock and singer-songwriter pseudo folk. There aren't that many clubs that garnered our interest, we started out playing for free at Freddy's Bar on Dean St. until they stopped letting us play there because the shows got too wild. The place we love now is Don Pedro's on Manhattan Av. where they actually have book great punk and rock n' roll bands, charge $5 to get in, has cheap drinks and has a crowd of cool people who go there to check out bands. I've discovered great bands like Beluga, Davilla 666, The Back C.C.s and The Organs from seeing them or ending up on the bill with them at Don Pedro's. Mostly clubs just stack you on a bill with a bunch of other bands with nothing to do with each other in hopes that they will draw separately and that you'll buy their overpriced drinks. Jake Noodles (Don Pedro's booker) makes an effort to find great bands and put together bills that work and god bless him!

Isaac: What is the concept behind The Brooklyn What?

BK What: A return to the original energy of rock and roll, a response to the pretension of indie rock and a voice for what the future of the genre should hold. We're trying to take rock in a new direction by getting back to basics and fighting against the self conscious irony that is strangling music today. This decade is almost over, it's time things changed and got a bit rawer and more rebellious and more dangerous.

Jamie Frey: Fun, rebellious, honest rock n' roll, the kind that's been missing from music since as long as I can remember, with heart and soul and the willingness to be un-cool, old-timey and romantic.

Isaac: What do you feel was your biggest accomplishment for 2008?

BK What: Unquestionably the release of our first record. We've managed to put everything we had to say in our earliest days in a concise package, and now we are able to move on and refine our sound and our message.

Jamie Frey: The Brooklyn What For Borough President album is the definitely the best thing I've ever done in my life. Also, having our music in other people's CD players and iPods and playing shows and looking out in the crowd and seeing a big crowd full of people, I love always makes me feel accomplished.

Isaac: Elaborate a little about whom were your biggest influences in the music industry and why?

BK What: For each of us, the answer to this question is different. In general, bands like the Ramones are a huge influence because they represent simple, to the point songwriting, high energy and sense of humor geared toward everyday life as a frustrated kid. The kind of persistence and dedication that they represent is also important to us. We also look up to newer bands like Sonic Youth and Wilco for the strength - Junior's Cave

Don't sit down in a comfy chair for this one...its unfiltered and unrelenting indie-punk-rock with a euro twist. As a matter of fact, I can't imagine listening to this CD alone - it needs the group/gang atmosphere to fully appreciate it. The Brooklyn What For Borough President is the cumulative force of 6 New York natives.

The album opener, I Don't Wanna Go To Willimasburg, grabs you quick with lines like, "I just wanna' play with the cool kids," and doesn't let go until its over. And in tracks like For The Best, The Brooklyn What uses catchy-riffs to drive home the song and mood with success.

Overall, the production could use a bit more delicacy and focus, but their intensity will be hard to be matched by just about anyone. I would imagine that the live show is even more intense. Check The Brooklyn What out and enjoy the find: www.thebrooklynwhat.com - Awaken Music

Don't sit down in a comfy chair for this one...its unfiltered and unrelenting indie-punk-rock with a euro twist. As a matter of fact, I can't imagine listening to this CD alone - it needs the group/gang atmosphere to fully appreciate it. The Brooklyn What For Borough President is the cumulative force of 6 New York natives.

The album opener, I Don't Wanna Go To Willimasburg, grabs you quick with lines like, "I just wanna' play with the cool kids," and doesn't let go until its over. And in tracks like For The Best, The Brooklyn What uses catchy-riffs to drive home the song and mood with success.

Overall, the production could use a bit more delicacy and focus, but their intensity will be hard to be matched by just about anyone. I would imagine that the live show is even more intense. Check The Brooklyn What out and enjoy the find: www.thebrooklynwhat.com - Awaken Music

The Brooklyn What have just put out their first album, The Brooklyn What for Borough President (reviewed here recently). It’s only January, but it might just be the best album of the year by any New York band. And if it isn’t, it’s definitely the funniest cd that’s come over the transom here in a long time. The Brooklyn What play Trash Bar on Saturday, Jan 31 at midnight: if you don’t know them, it’s hard to imagine a better way to get to know this crazy, excellent band:

Lucid Culture: Where does the name the Brooklyn What come from? Were you originally called the Brooklyn Child Molesters or the Brooklyn Luxury Condos - notice the juxtaposition – and somebody said, whaaaat?

Billy Cohen (guitar): I don’t remember who came up with it. I think Jamie [Frey, lead singer]. Some of us liked it at first and the rest of us agreed to it at some time. I think we’re all happy with it now.

Doug Carey (bass): There were some really terrible names while we were trying to think one up. I remember the Black Typewriters which is awful, and the Letter 4 which is also awful. I don’t remember who made it up first, I think it was Evan, but I think we’d all agree we could no longer imagine being called anything else.

Evan O’Donnell (lead guitarist): It definitely wasn’t me who thought of it. We were all in Yummy Taco on Church Avenue during a break. I think Yummy Taco is most responsible.

Jesse Katz (drums): I dunno, I just learned how to read.

LC: You guy are local – almost all of you went to Murrow together, right? But no Brooklyn accents. Can you comment on that for the sake of the out-of-town crowd?

Jamie Frey (lead singer): Hey-ooh, watchu’ talkin ’bout, no Brooklyn accent?

BC: I know I have a Brooklyn accent but it’s not very thick

John-Severin Napolillo (guitar): I went to college in Ithaca, NY and my friends up there claimed the accent only came out if I got really mad.

DC: People make fun of my Brooklyn accent all the time, but I’m from South Brooklyn where everyone talks like the stereotypical Brooklyn asshole, so thats how I speak. “Shaddap Maria, I went to da fuckin store to get some fuckin milk, and now I’m back, fuck you ya skank.”

EO: I for one come from a neighborhood that has been gentrifying for almost 20 years. It’s a real pioneer white people place, and it’s called Park Slope and it gets scarier every year. I had an accent when I was eleven, but adolescence in that neighborhood made me sound like a California surfer dude for a while. I’ve gotten over it, but now I only sound like a Brooklynite when I’m pissed off. People forget that in the 21st century there is so much media overdose that regionalism tends to disappear easily. That’s why these out-of-towners moving in scares me.

JK: Forgive me father for I have sinned, I’m from Manhattan. And I’m Jewish. But my mom’s from East New York and my Dad’s a mix of the LES and Flushing, Queens so I’m not sure exactly what that makes me. My accent is Slavic – Ashkenazi tho I think. Yentas and shmendricks and all that. As in “Achhh vegalech! Get me some lemon vater, I gotta little diaspora in my throat!”

LC: Are you surprised that with the popularity of the borough, more bands don’t call themselves the “Brooklyn something?”

JF: There are about 1,000 rappers on myspace called “Brooklyn” and I think a French hipster band also.

BC: I’ve noticed a trend with bands if their music doesn’t have anything to do with their name then the writing probably isn’t very good. Or if it sounds good, it’s an aural sensation but the composition probably won’t make sense.

DC: I think there is an R&B artist named Brooklyn, and I think she sucks.

LC: True! But I wouldn’t call her an artist…Again, for the sake of people outside the five boroughs of New York City, a lot of people I think very unfairly get the picture of Brooklyn being this lily-white, gentrified, playground for trendoids who’re trying to put off adulthood as long as possible. Other than Williamsburg which has for a long time been indie rock central, what’s coming out of the other neighborhoods, are there other bands from the borough that you admire? Now’s your chance to give a shout out….

JF: At Freddy’s Bar I discovered Box Of Crayons, who are a Irish folk punk band of older dudes who are fuckin brilliant and we played with them recently, one of the dudes lives in Bay Ridge and works for the ATM. These guys are real veterans and wrote a this song Punk ATM which is the best retrospective on punk I’ve ever heard. Also, they’re not together anymore but the Saudi Agenda were the best Brooklyn punk band that nobody ever heard.

LC: The Saudi Agenda were great and we reviewed them!

BC: For a while I didn’t know too many bands at all. After we got acquainted with Jake Noodles [who runs Don Pedro's], he started booking us with good bands for the most part. Beluga is a great garage rock band with foxy ladies, and the Back C C’s are a great skilled punk band - Lucid Culture

The Brooklyn What have just put out their first album, The Brooklyn What for Borough President (reviewed here recently). It’s only January, but it might just be the best album of the year by any New York band. And if it isn’t, it’s definitely the funniest cd that’s come over the transom here in a long time. The Brooklyn What play Trash Bar on Saturday, Jan 31 at midnight: if you don’t know them, it’s hard to imagine a better way to get to know this crazy, excellent band:

Lucid Culture: Where does the name the Brooklyn What come from? Were you originally called the Brooklyn Child Molesters or the Brooklyn Luxury Condos - notice the juxtaposition – and somebody said, whaaaat?

Billy Cohen (guitar): I don’t remember who came up with it. I think Jamie [Frey, lead singer]. Some of us liked it at first and the rest of us agreed to it at some time. I think we’re all happy with it now.

Doug Carey (bass): There were some really terrible names while we were trying to think one up. I remember the Black Typewriters which is awful, and the Letter 4 which is also awful. I don’t remember who made it up first, I think it was Evan, but I think we’d all agree we could no longer imagine being called anything else.

Evan O’Donnell (lead guitarist): It definitely wasn’t me who thought of it. We were all in Yummy Taco on Church Avenue during a break. I think Yummy Taco is most responsible.

Jesse Katz (drums): I dunno, I just learned how to read.

LC: You guy are local – almost all of you went to Murrow together, right? But no Brooklyn accents. Can you comment on that for the sake of the out-of-town crowd?

Jamie Frey (lead singer): Hey-ooh, watchu’ talkin ’bout, no Brooklyn accent?

BC: I know I have a Brooklyn accent but it’s not very thick

John-Severin Napolillo (guitar): I went to college in Ithaca, NY and my friends up there claimed the accent only came out if I got really mad.

DC: People make fun of my Brooklyn accent all the time, but I’m from South Brooklyn where everyone talks like the stereotypical Brooklyn asshole, so thats how I speak. “Shaddap Maria, I went to da fuckin store to get some fuckin milk, and now I’m back, fuck you ya skank.”

EO: I for one come from a neighborhood that has been gentrifying for almost 20 years. It’s a real pioneer white people place, and it’s called Park Slope and it gets scarier every year. I had an accent when I was eleven, but adolescence in that neighborhood made me sound like a California surfer dude for a while. I’ve gotten over it, but now I only sound like a Brooklynite when I’m pissed off. People forget that in the 21st century there is so much media overdose that regionalism tends to disappear easily. That’s why these out-of-towners moving in scares me.

JK: Forgive me father for I have sinned, I’m from Manhattan. And I’m Jewish. But my mom’s from East New York and my Dad’s a mix of the LES and Flushing, Queens so I’m not sure exactly what that makes me. My accent is Slavic – Ashkenazi tho I think. Yentas and shmendricks and all that. As in “Achhh vegalech! Get me some lemon vater, I gotta little diaspora in my throat!”

LC: Are you surprised that with the popularity of the borough, more bands don’t call themselves the “Brooklyn something?”

JF: There are about 1,000 rappers on myspace called “Brooklyn” and I think a French hipster band also.

BC: I’ve noticed a trend with bands if their music doesn’t have anything to do with their name then the writing probably isn’t very good. Or if it sounds good, it’s an aural sensation but the composition probably won’t make sense.

DC: I think there is an R&B artist named Brooklyn, and I think she sucks.

LC: True! But I wouldn’t call her an artist…Again, for the sake of people outside the five boroughs of New York City, a lot of people I think very unfairly get the picture of Brooklyn being this lily-white, gentrified, playground for trendoids who’re trying to put off adulthood as long as possible. Other than Williamsburg which has for a long time been indie rock central, what’s coming out of the other neighborhoods, are there other bands from the borough that you admire? Now’s your chance to give a shout out….

JF: At Freddy’s Bar I discovered Box Of Crayons, who are a Irish folk punk band of older dudes who are fuckin brilliant and we played with them recently, one of the dudes lives in Bay Ridge and works for the ATM. These guys are real veterans and wrote a this song Punk ATM which is the best retrospective on punk I’ve ever heard. Also, they’re not together anymore but the Saudi Agenda were the best Brooklyn punk band that nobody ever heard.

LC: The Saudi Agenda were great and we reviewed them!

BC: For a while I didn’t know too many bands at all. After we got acquainted with Jake Noodles [who runs Don Pedro's], he started booking us with good bands for the most part. Beluga is a great garage rock band with foxy ladies, and the Back C C’s are a great skilled punk band - Lucid Culture

The second release by New York’s most exciting band right now has all the fun, fury and intelligence of the Brooklyn What’s debut The Brooklyn What for Borough President (which remains at the top of our list for best album of 2009). Frontman Jamie Frey is possibly even more charismatically and ferociously amusing than ever here, and the band careens along behind him, flailing at everything in their way. When these guys have the three electric guitars going, live, the resulting pandemonium is completely out-of-control, giving their catchy punk songs a crazy, noisy, occasionally no-wave edge. This is a concept album of sorts, proceeds being donated to the esteemed grassroots organization Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn who continue to lead the community resistance to the well-documented Atlantic Yards luxury condo/basketball arena scam. Remember the days when Brooklyn musicians fought against the destruction of New York by suburban invasion rather than being part of it? The Brooklyn What do, even though most of them weren’t even born yet when New Jersey developers began tearing down perfectly good brick brownstones and replacing them with cheap plastic-and-sheetrock future crackhouses back in the 80s. This is a powerful contribution to that battle.

This ep has two versions of the title track, in the studio and live, one as intense as the other, the band’s caustic dismissal of the suburbanites who “wanna make the world one big mistake.” Another new recording, Movin to Philly has more of an over-the-edge anthemic feel than the countryish way they usually play it live. This one’s not an anti-trendoid diatribe but the anguished tale of a guy who’s been priced out of the city where he grew up and dreads every minute of the move and what lies ahead after that. “All my dreams are over there…take one last walk through Tompkins Square,” he muses. There’s also a characteristically snarling, defiant live version of the Kinks’ classic I’m Not Like Everybody Else and another original, I Want You on a Saturday Night, a self-explanatory, Ramones-ish punked out doo-wop tune. Get the album and contribute what you can if you can (DDDB’s funds are perennially in short supply, unsurprising since they’re not bankrolled by developers), and count this among the year’s best albums along with the Brooklyn What’s first one. The Brooklyn What play Trash Bar this Friday August 7 on what might be the best straight-up rock bill of the year with the Warm Hats, Palmyra Delran and Escarioka: the Brooklyn What hit the stage at 11.


- Lucid Culture

The second release by New York’s most exciting band right now has all the fun, fury and intelligence of the Brooklyn What’s debut The Brooklyn What for Borough President (which remains at the top of our list for best album of 2009). Frontman Jamie Frey is possibly even more charismatically and ferociously amusing than ever here, and the band careens along behind him, flailing at everything in their way. When these guys have the three electric guitars going, live, the resulting pandemonium is completely out-of-control, giving their catchy punk songs a crazy, noisy, occasionally no-wave edge. This is a concept album of sorts, proceeds being donated to the esteemed grassroots organization Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn who continue to lead the community resistance to the well-documented Atlantic Yards luxury condo/basketball arena scam. Remember the days when Brooklyn musicians fought against the destruction of New York by suburban invasion rather than being part of it? The Brooklyn What do, even though most of them weren’t even born yet when New Jersey developers began tearing down perfectly good brick brownstones and replacing them with cheap plastic-and-sheetrock future crackhouses back in the 80s. This is a powerful contribution to that battle.

This ep has two versions of the title track, in the studio and live, one as intense as the other, the band’s caustic dismissal of the suburbanites who “wanna make the world one big mistake.” Another new recording, Movin to Philly has more of an over-the-edge anthemic feel than the countryish way they usually play it live. This one’s not an anti-trendoid diatribe but the anguished tale of a guy who’s been priced out of the city where he grew up and dreads every minute of the move and what lies ahead after that. “All my dreams are over there…take one last walk through Tompkins Square,” he muses. There’s also a characteristically snarling, defiant live version of the Kinks’ classic I’m Not Like Everybody Else and another original, I Want You on a Saturday Night, a self-explanatory, Ramones-ish punked out doo-wop tune. Get the album and contribute what you can if you can (DDDB’s funds are perennially in short supply, unsurprising since they’re not bankrolled by developers), and count this among the year’s best albums along with the Brooklyn What’s first one. The Brooklyn What play Trash Bar this Friday August 7 on what might be the best straight-up rock bill of the year with the Warm Hats, Palmyra Delran and Escarioka: the Brooklyn What hit the stage at 11.


- Lucid Culture