This summer, Lucy and I went to explore the jungle of Bushwick. If you’re reading this blog, you’re obviously one of the cool kids who know that Bushwick is the new Williamsburg. If you need an explanation: here is a fast one. Williamsburg has been the ‘cool’ neighbourhood of Brooklyn where most of the bands you loved in 2007 came from (Yeasayer, MGMT, Au Revoir Simone etc). Now, all the cool New-Yorkers are in Bushwick, which is further East in Brooklyn and where some of the dark alleys are as terrifying as the ones of Williamsburg 4 years ago. In the past 2 years, Bushwick has given us the Vivian Girls and many more.
But at 1234 Shoreditch, we realised that the Vivian Girls had become boring since that cool drummer made the best career move of 2010 and joined Best Coast – I mean, what a GREAT CAREER MOVE THERE! Anyway, so Lucy and I were in New York this summer and decided to see if there was anything good left in Bushwick. So, we went to one of Todd P shows. For the ignorant among you, Todd P is one of the best promoters of NYC, very DIY and the first on most of the bands, Upset the Rhythm style = I’m basically fucking jealous of him. After 10 minutes of walking into the middle of nowhere, slightly terrified (luckily by then, I had not heard the story of that guy from Bloc Party being attacked by a lion, otherwise, I would have really freaked out) and ended up on that dark street. Some hipsters hyenas with decked-shirts outside a warehouse: we were there. Weirdly, we got ID’d twice even though, as soon as we got in, one guy was smoking a massive spliff. Surely, if you don’t care about that, why would you care about underage drinking?
All the Bushwick fauna were there. That represents a pack of about 50 people. 2 supports acts played but I forgot about them, so I’m not going to talk about them ha! And about 20 min before the headliner band, the ginger tiger arrived: tattoos all out, little 60s dress, yep that’s the bassist of the Vivian Girls and we all know who is the hottest girl in the room = le tigre. A few minute after that, the blond lion turned-up: 2/3 of the Vivian Girls now in. All the little zebras and gazelles of the room started getting excited: old warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Bushwick, the new side-project of the singer of the Vivian Girls with some cats from Woods: it was meant to be good.
The Babies (that’s the band this post is about, I thought I should point that out) were on stage. It was of course too loud, all claws out but that’s what it’s all about. 3 minutes punk-songs are what you feed the jungle with. However, these guys are not just about the noise, they do have great melodies. On some of the tracks, the lion and one of the wild cats sang together and for some reason I REALLY LOVE it when 2 people sing on a punk song and their voices respond to each other. I think these guys are just starting, so some of their songs need more work but tracks like Breakin The Law and Meet Me In The City are fantastic songs.
The Babies on MySpace
The Babies are one of the first bands I wanted to book for the future Yeah Club! Nights (more about that soon) but Upset the Rhythm got there first, so because I’m not a hateful hyena, I’ll tell you that The Babies are playing on March 17th in London at CAMP and you can get your tickets on Upset the Rhythm website.
PS: I know I write overly long articles but you’ll just have to get used to it! Bisous.
The Babies - Meet Me In The City by frcmajeure
But at 1234 Shoreditch, we realised that the Vivian Girls had become boring since that cool drummer made the best career move of 2010 and joined Best Coast – I mean, what a GREAT CAREER MOVE THERE! Anyway, so Lucy and I were in New York this summer and decided to see if there was anything good left in Bushwick. So, we went to one of Todd P shows. For the ignorant among you, Todd P is one of the best promoters of NYC, very DIY and the first on most of the bands, Upset the Rhythm style = I’m basically fucking jealous of him. After 10 minutes of walking into the middle of nowhere, slightly terrified (luckily by then, I had not heard the story of that guy from Bloc Party being attacked by a lion, otherwise, I would have really freaked out) and ended up on that dark street. Some hipsters hyenas with decked-shirts outside a warehouse: we were there. Weirdly, we got ID’d twice even though, as soon as we got in, one guy was smoking a massive spliff. Surely, if you don’t care about that, why would you care about underage drinking?
All the Bushwick fauna were there. That represents a pack of about 50 people. 2 supports acts played but I forgot about them, so I’m not going to talk about them ha! And about 20 min before the headliner band, the ginger tiger arrived: tattoos all out, little 60s dress, yep that’s the bassist of the Vivian Girls and we all know who is the hottest girl in the room = le tigre. A few minute after that, the blond lion turned-up: 2/3 of the Vivian Girls now in. All the little zebras and gazelles of the room started getting excited: old warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Bushwick, the new side-project of the singer of the Vivian Girls with some cats from Woods: it was meant to be good.
The Babies (that’s the band this post is about, I thought I should point that out) were on stage. It was of course too loud, all claws out but that’s what it’s all about. 3 minutes punk-songs are what you feed the jungle with. However, these guys are not just about the noise, they do have great melodies. On some of the tracks, the lion and one of the wild cats sang together and for some reason I REALLY LOVE it when 2 people sing on a punk song and their voices respond to each other. I think these guys are just starting, so some of their songs need more work but tracks like Breakin The Law and Meet Me In The City are fantastic songs.
The Babies on MySpace
The Babies are one of the first bands I wanted to book for the future Yeah Club! Nights (more about that soon) but Upset the Rhythm got there first, so because I’m not a hateful hyena, I’ll tell you that The Babies are playing on March 17th in London at CAMP and you can get your tickets on Upset the Rhythm website.
PS: I know I write overly long articles but you’ll just have to get used to it! Bisous.
