Published: May 7, 2009 11:47 PM EST
By: Isaac Davis Jr., MBA (Juniorscave.com)
New Music Spotlight May 2009 Edition
the Brooklyn What
the Brooklyn What
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 of their songwriting and their innovation. In addition, our influences spread all the way back to the jazz greats of the first half of the past century, early rock from the 50s and soul music. We are also hip-hop fans. The answer to this question could go on for pages and pages until you lost interest completely.
Jamie Frey: Artistically, my greatest influence is the music of the Replacements, specifically the songwriting of Paul Westerberg. Their music rocks, it's funny, it's simple but it has a tremendous amount of emotional weight. It's about as naked as Rock n' Roll gets. They never got the respect and success they deserved, partially sabotaged by alcoholism and partially because they might have too real for the music industry. I'd like to get back to the ambition of the early bands like the Stones and the Kinks who were constantly writing great songs, recording great records and expanding on their songwriting and musicality. Rock bands now are mostly constrained by genre or the novelty of their sound. However, there are some newer bands in the music industry that I am inspired by for their originality, energy and perseverance in this very difficult industry and time period. The Gaslight Anthem, World Inferno/Friendship Society, Gogol Bordello, The Weakerthans, The Constantines and Ted Leo and The Pharmacists help reassure me there is a place for us in music today.
Isaac: Let's talk about what you feel you will bring to the music industry?
BK What: Ultimately, we want to tear the status quo to bits, but we feel its best to introduce ourselves modestly, by being ourselves. There's enough overly ambitious crap out there already. We'd love a new scene in our borough, though, more open to everyone's participation.
Jamie Frey: I think that the reason Punk Rock was so great in the late 70's is that remind people what was great about Rock n' Roll in the first place. It's simple, it's fun, it's relatable, and you can dance to it. Young kids and old purists were both affected by it. I think that this is what music needs and I think that the Brooklyn What are fighting for that goal. Rock music has taken up my whole life and my whole mind since I was going through puberty and in a sense I feel like as artists, it is up to you to create your own future, start the band and make the scene that you always wanted growing up.
Isaac: If you had an opportunity to work with one artist or group, who would it be and why?
BK What: Very tough. We played with Joe Jack Talcum of the Dead Milkmen recently and that was really awesome, and we are playing with Mischief Brew soon. Ultimately, pick any east village dinosaur, and it would be a pleasure. It would have to be one person though, because there are six of us.
Jamie Frey: I used to have a dream that Lou Reed would come onstage with us and play "Sweet Jane." Other dream collaborations include Elvis Costello, Gordon Gano, Tom Verlaine, Patti Smith, Ray Davies, Eugene Hutz, Nels Cline, ?uestlove, Kim Deal, Tom Waits, Sharon Jones and Ghostface Killah.
Isaac: How would you describe your music to others?
BK What: Raw, loud, smelly, often humorous, but also carefully written, explosively performed, early punk influenced, tuneful and at the same time unpolished, in a good way...
Jamie Frey: I usually simply say rock n' roll, and I might mention that it's kind of like punk. If people ask to relate it to other bands, I say we're in the Ramones/Clash/Replacements territory, which I think is somewhat accurate.
Isaac: What is your definition for Punk and Rock Music?
BK What: Everybody thinks they know what Punk is, they can't all be right. Rock is music about the eruption and expression of suppressed urges, be it sexual, destructive, emotional, or pure insurrection. The aggression is not necessarily focused, however. The magic is in the uncontrolled outpouring. Punk is a return to basics, valuing concise songwriting and a certain level of simplicity and a love for the more dangerous side of what rock has to offer. That's as much as anyone can say. If your favorite indie-rock band doesn't fit this definition, then they aren't a rock band.
Jamie Frey: Rock n' Roll, to me, is the seed planted by Chuck Berry's fiery libido, wild guitar and songs about love and restlessness and all of its descendents. Defining punk is hard because the first Clash record is punk but is Sandanista? The Ramones were punk but were Television, Blondie and Talking Heads in the same scene? And now "Punk" bands sport the visual and sonic signifiers of punk music but don't have anything to do with the original points of the genre. To me, punk is about where you started, raw, youthful, weird, do-it-yourself, antagonistic, challenging music that favors ingenuity over skill. I think the point was to come as you are, to be true and all the acts in the original generation had that to them and the conventions of what punk sounded like had not been set, so it was basically anything weird. It wasn't a look or a style; it was something that didn't fit in. There was reason person though Elvis Costello was different from Tom Petty and Steve Miller, he was a punk! People thought he was weird and he was, his music was weird, his lyrics were angry and sardonic. I think we're punk in a lot of ways, but it'd be hard to categorize us as "punk" to most American audiences because they think that it's what the bands on the Warped Tour sound like, and that's not us.
Isaac: What is the inspiration behind your CD, The Brooklyn What For Borough President?
BK What: The first year or two after you graduate from high school in Brooklyn, New York, and you don't know what the fuck to do with yourself. Some of us went to college, it was bullshit. Those of us who stayed home and got a shitty job and got real depressed also. And then there's the experience of coming home every summer and seeing another glass condo building going up and the rent spiking. It was time to show some pride in our lives.
Jamie Frey: Our borough, our friends, growing up, angst, love, The Replacements, anger, gentrification, loneliness, The Clash, summer in NY, my parents' basement.
Isaac: What can fans expect from The Brooklyn What in 2009?
BK What: The Gentrification Rock EP, out in June on Pozar Records. Also, we are running for Borough President this fall. Marty Markowitz is going down.
Jamie Frey: We have a new EP coming out and we have written most of our next album. We will be playing more at bigger venues, maybe a record label, who knows? Like Joe Strummer said "the future is unwritten."
Isaac: Time for some shout outs to your family, friends, and fans…
BK What: Thank you to Bob Frey for putting up the money and putting up with the noise, Thanks John Sr. for being so supportive, thank you Yelena for all your help, thank you Tamara for the photos, Thanks Saruh, Emilie and Nadya, we love you.
Jamie Frey: Thank God for the good friends and families of the band because our shows would be empty and so would our hearts!
Isaac: Final words from The Brooklyn What…
BK What: Rock is on life support right now. Start a band that doesn't suck and we'll love you forever.
