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10 years ago
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For the past couple of weeks, the focus of the AFP Young Adult Music Program has been an in depth study of the basic mechanics of jazz. We have been working on Etta James’ “At Last” for the past couple of months, but we have now begun to break down the chord progression into a series of key changes, and to investigate how we can navigate those changes using scales. We have been breaking down the requisite parts of the chords into the bass movement, the harmonic color notes, and the melody notes, and observing how each note relates to the key, to the chord, and to the function of the chord in the progression.
Jason has been learning to walk the bass, playing the notes that clearly indicate the movement of the chords, while Raymond, Alex and Gabriel have been learning chord voicings on guitar and piano, observing the movement of the functional character notes from chord to chord. We have been identifying which notes change from chord to chord and which ones stay the same. This is helping to elucidate how the flow of the song works. We have also been looking at how the order and character of the chords indicate which key we can play in at any given time, and where to modulate to a new key.
With this knowledge, we can determine exactly what function each note of the melody plays from a diatonic harmony perspective. All of this is very analytical and confusing of course, but with the foundation of knowledge these guys have accumulated over the past four years, it is beginnin[...]
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10 years ago
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Like most Walk The Moon releases, the band’s newest album Talking Is Hard is easy to dance to. The band has continued with their goofy brand of synth-heavy pop songs, but for this their second full-length they have added a guitar-driven older edge. At times the record seems fit for a ‘70 discotheque or ‘80 dancehall; the band channels an older era (paired with what leadman Nicholas Petricca calls “cheese factor”) for songs like “We Are The Kids.”
“We Are The Kids” is like the synth-centered pop rock answer to Taylor Swift’s “22.” It has that same we-are-young-and-reckless vibe. However, instead of taking TSwift's route of making fun of exes and dressing up like hipsters, the men of Walk the Moon shout at cops, howl at the moon, rip holes in their shirts and get mud on their sneakers in this slower jam. The glittery guitar and overall underdog attitude make this one of the strongest tracks on the record. The album’s lead single “Shut Up and Dance” is equally as fun and bright. It’s also absolutely infectious. It indeed makes you want to shut up and dance. The boy-meets-girl storyline bares resemblance to “Anna Sun” off the band’s debut record Walk The Moon and proves that lyrically Walk the Moon can still be terribly sweet and charming. Musically, Kevin Ray, the band’s bassist, wrote a wonderfully potent part for “Shut Up and Dance” and the synth gets a great solo halfway through. The song has a great energy that makes you want to jam along, no matter how emba[...]
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10 years ago
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My husband Sean Sonderegger is a gifted musician and teacher. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Originally from Los Angeles, he lives with his wife (me) and toddler in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
Sean describes his style as "90s West Coast meets academia," pairing dress shirts with Dickies pants. He admits that he still dresses the same way that he used to when he was 20 years old in L.A., wearing blue jeans and novelty shirts. But always paramount in his choice of dress, the clothes must fit loose: "I've always worn baggy clothes, I like baggy clothes. If I could pull off wearing a caftan or some traditional clothes that were super-flowing, I would probably do it. But then again, I would probably gain, like, a hundred pounds because I just wouldn't give a fuck."
Click on link below to listen to some of Sean Sonderegger's music, and then find out more about this madcapper's most prized fashion items after the jump.
https://soundcloud.com/seansonderegger/sean-sonderegger-ensemble-eat-the-aircomposed-sean-sondereggerjoanna-cooper
Jacqueline Colette Prosper, @yummicoco
Novelty Tees
I like my novelty t-shirts, especially two from a Bill Laswell collection for Ropeadope Records, which includes a "Machine Gun" shirt from, I think, a Peter Brötzmann album.
It's not the original graphic that's used on the cover. People that don't know the record have no idea what it's about. Somebody came up to me[...]
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10 years ago
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Opened in the summer of 2013, Garis & Hahn gallery is one of the newest exhibition spaces that has popped up along the Bowery in recent memory. The gallery's most recent undertaking, a group exhibition entitled “Notes on Undoing” features the work of eleven artists and was curated by Branka Benčić. It is the first survey of contemporary Croatian art that has occurred at the the gallery and brings together eleven different artists including: Eškinja, Vlatka Horvat, Igor Grubic, Tina Gverović, Zlatko Kopljar,Dino Zrnec, Marko Tadić,Damir Ocko,Hrvoje Slovenc,Viktor Popović and Ljiljana Mihaljević.
A major theme that the show tackles is unraveling the way in which the viewer perceives the artist and the symbiotic relationship that is created when looking at work. These multiple perspectives are informed by the way in which each artist approaches the work and the conceptual projects they are engaging in. The press release for the show states, ”some show an interest in the experience of how the body or object relates to its environment.” As the title suggest, there is an element of this exhibition that is attempting undo the myth of the artist and the artistic process from various vantage points. This very sentiment is taken up in each of the pieces within the exhibition.
The work in “Notes on Undoing” is diverse and spans the conceptually gambit ranging from sculpture to performance. The exhibition takes up the two floors of the gallery's space. On the first floor there [...]
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10 years ago
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Though only in its fifth year, DOC NYC seems like a city institution already. The annual event, which ran from November 13 through 20, has become the largest documentary film festival in the country. This year’s DOC NYC encompassed 153 films and events, ranging from screenings of classic docs (Hoop Dreams) and high-profile films (Citizenfour) to premieres from first-time feature filmmakers (Opposite Field, Vessel, many, many others). There were also educational panels and master classes (Finish Your Doc) for aspiring auteurs. Opening Night Film was David Thorpe's funny, poignant Do I Sound Gay?; Closing Night Film was The Yes Men Are Revolting, which chronicles the prankster-activists' past five years, directed by Laura Nix and The Yes Men.
DOC NYC is a testament to the ever-growing popularity of documentaries, due to a number of reasons including an increase in movie outlets, the stylistic crossover between narrative fiction and non-fiction films, and accessibility of digital technology, now that practically everyone can make movies. (Imagine the various permutations that would exist of 1970 classic Gimme Shelter, had Altamont audiences owned smartphones.)
Festival screenings took place at Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas, IFC Center and SVA Theatre; in many cases filmmakers were present to introduce their work and answer questions afterward. Every sort of documentary was represented, broken down into categories including American Perspectives, International Perspectives, Cente[...]
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10 years ago
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Brassland recording artists People Get Ready will open for Blonde Redhead on upcoming dates including Tuesday (November 26th) night at The Bowery Ballroom.
The Brooklyn based band released a new album (Physiques) this past June to exciting reviews.
The band is known for high energy live performances which showcase a blend of rock and performance art. NPR's Bob Boilen, placing their performances among his top 5 concerts two years running, put it best: "No single show took my breath away the way this one did- part rock concert, part performance art, part dance, all perfectly melded together. Having seen so many dudes with guitars ... it was incredibly refreshing to find a group challenging and changing the norm."
The first thing I thought was- sounds like an Art for Progress event!
I caught up with Steven Reker from the band to learn more about these multidisciplinary artists, and here's what he had to say.
How did the band come up with the name People Get Ready?
I was at a play and one of the actors said ‘...people get ready...' in his dialogue - the phrase stayed with me. Then I named the first piece I did at The Kitchen (before the band was a band) People Get Ready and as the project developed we just kept the name.
Are the band members originally from New York or are they transplants?
We're transplants - mostly. Jen and I are from Arizona - James comes from California - and Booker is from Nyack, NY.
Which artists/bands have been the most[...]
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10 years ago
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The last couple of weeks have been have been a bit of a new chapter in the AFP Young Adult Music Enrichment Program. In addition to our normal regimen of band coaching, vocal exercises and singing work, and getting into some jazz chart analysis; the fellas ventured out with me for the first times to check out some live music. They came to my solo acoustic set at the AFP hosted Déjà vu show at the NoOSPHERE Art Space on the Lower East Side and to see my band, Bad Faces play at a loft party in Bushwick, plus, AFP Executive Director Frank Jackson took Jason, Alex, and me to Harlem’s Apollo Theater to a fantastic show by Brooklyn’s TV On The Radio!
We had a few nice sessions since my last entry, and Statik Vision is sounding better and tighter than ever, with the new songs gelling and settling into themselves. We have mostly been working on locking in tempos and the timing of transitions. We’ve also been working with the vocals to find the best placement of the lyrics. Interestingly, the sound of the band is evolving to be more stylistically broad, while at the same time crystallizing into it’s own unique thing. It was a refreshing change last week to have T-10 guitarist Wesley Payano show up to do some shredding as well.
We also continued our journey down the rabbit hole of jazz theory as Alex and I pursued an in depth analysis of the chord chart for “At Last”, defining the function of each chord and identifying key changes in the song form. We have a lot more work to do o[...]
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10 years ago
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The Bowery Electric played host to APF’s Homegrown show with Animal Talk, VHS Collection, Cheap Satori and goodbyemotel this past Wednesday night. The show celebrated the recent release of goodbyemotel's new album iF, which came out earlier that week, and was the band’s first gig post-album release. The record took two years to finish, but the wait was well worth it for the band returned to the stage with great new songs and as strong of a performance as ever.
Boston’s Animal Talk opened the night with indie pop that you can’t help, but dance to. Songs like “Mama Was A Teenage Rocker” and “Tie Me Up” had the audience shuffling along right from the start. There’s something truly infectious about their combination of pervasive drums and soft vocals that keep you bopping along. “Dirty Feelings,” which opened their set, showcased vocalist/guitarist Steven Kilgore’s impressive range. He floated up to the high notes in "Monster" with ease. The band's original work was a lot of fun to jam along to, but perhaps the unexpected highlight of Animal Talk’s set was their cover of “Poison.” It was a welcome surprise that drummer Greg Faucher gave away as soon as he began those telltale opening bars on the drum machine. Kilgore again rose to the occassion, singing the Bell Biv DeVoe classic with no difficulty.
Cheap Satori took the stage next to deliver PJ Harvey-esque piano-driven indie rock. It was a step down in energy when compared to Animal Talk, but the band showed potential[...]
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10 years ago
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Chris Ofili has been producing paintings for the past two decades that have managed to captivate and bewilder audiences. A member of the Young British Artists-- a group of British artists who began exhibiting together in 1988, Ofili managed to distinguish himself from the rest early on. In “Chris Ofili: Night and Day” which on display at the New Museum through January 25 many works spanning his illustrious career are on display. The exhibition was organized by Massimiliano Gioni, the New Museum’s artistic director, its curator, Gary Carrion-Murayari; and assistant curator Margot Norton.
Ofili was Born in 1968, to Nigerian parents. At age eleven, he and his family moved back to Nigeria. Ofili went onto attend the Chelsea School of Art where he received his BFA in 1991 and then the Royal Academy of Art in 1993. It was these early experiences with living abroad and his art training, which would play an influence in the work he would create. In 2003, he was the recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize and also represented the United Kingdom in the Venice Biennale the same year. Much of Ofili's work deals with issues surrounding race, class and gender which is evident in the work featured in “Night and Day.”
The exhibition spans three floors of the New Museum's space and explores six distinct bodies of work that Oifli produced over the last twenty years. When you first enter the galley space, you are confronted by over seventy small framed paintings. These works entit[...]
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10 years ago
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This week, as Kim Kardashian's Paper Magazine cover attempts to #BreakTheInternet with her booty, I chat with Brooklynite Amber Jimenez Garcia, creative director and designer of Ambit NYC, about another kind of booty---the baby shoe variety. Her label, known for locally-produced, handmade designs, using quality materials, is currently undergoing an evolution with the birth of Jimenez Garcia's son. The designer has found that incorporating her little one into her career plans is helping her to find her balance as a first-time mother and designer. Discover more about her new venture after the jump.
-Jacqueline Colette Prosper, @yummicoco
Inspiration:
Some of the reasons why moccasins appealed to me for him: The shoes are soft so he can feel the ground, and they don't interfere with his balance. The bottoms are suede, which is better than keeping him in socks because they are more sticky, and have more movement in them. My son is learning to walk, and moccasins are really easy and functional. I had some leather, and thought, I can do that. Once I started, it became more complicated than that, because you have to think in a different way [when designing for a baby]. I'm used to making adult things. [In this instance] I had to think, considering what would be good for a baby, which I had never really done.
Challenge:
I didn't study shoemaking, I studied clothing. I've always been interested in making adult shoes but it feels a little inaccessible, because i[...]
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10 years ago
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Were you at this past weekend’s Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival? If not, you missed borough-load of great parties, soundtracked by scores of brilliant artists and DJs. One of the best was the Rinsed closing party, held in a Bushwick warehouse space and featuring guest sets from the inimitable Detroit producer Omar-S, the always-worth-catching Chrissy and the Basement Floor label’s Turtle Bugg. In case you’re not familiar with Rinsed, the soiree has featured iconic artists and DJs along the lines of Inner City, MK, MJ Cole, Juan Atkins and Todd Edwards; stars of slightly more recent vintage like Jackmaster, Jacques Greene, Ejeca, Ben Pearce and Chris Malinchak; local players like Juan MacLean, Justin Strauss, Morgan Geist, Populette and Aurora Halal; and a list of outliers that includes Actress, NGUZUNGUZU, Ital, Sepalcure and Jaw Jam. Oh, and a bunch of other people, too—not bad for a shindig that, when it debuted four years ago, hosted about a hundred people in the loft space above Public Assembly. Nowadays, resident spinners Dan Wender and Blacky II, along with Rinsed’s indispensable “visual aesthetician” A.Pop, are among those running the show in Kings County. We asked the core gang, Brooklynites all, what they loved about their home borough, and here are their wide-ranging replies.
A.Pop
Some things I love about BK:
That you can find cappuccino Lays chips in Bushwick, the best slice of your life in Midwood, 24-hour amazing tacos in Sunset Park, or blue ribbon[...]
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10 years ago
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The word “sweet” has appeared in almost every description of Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks), the feature debut from Brazilian director Daniel Ribeiro. (He used it himself during our conversation.) That might be off-putting to some, especially when describing a coming-of-age story with a blind protagonist.
But Ribeiro’s film isn’t all sentimentality and charm. His main character, Leonardo (beautifully portrayed by Ghilherme Lobo), while very likeable, is also stubborn, as are most teens. He also happens to be gay, something he discovers when he falls in love for the first time, with the new boy at school (Fabio Audi). There’s also jealousy (via Leo’s best friend Giovana, played by Tess Amorim), bullying and parental friction, all handled with admirable restraint.
The movie is a poignant, low-key drama from a filmmaker who describes himself as an activist. His first short was 2007’s Café com Leite (You, Me and Him); The Way He Looks is an elaboration on his 2010 short Eu Não Quero Voltar Sozinho (I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone) — which also starred Lobo, Audi and Amorim. Recently I spoke via Skype with Ribeiro, who was in his hometown of São Paulo, taking a break from his travels for international screenings and promotional duties.
Your film opened in April in Brazil and has been screening all over the world; do you get the same sort of feedback from people everywhere?
Yeah, it’s interesting; the reaction is usually the same, because it is such a [...]
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