Here are my top 5 picks for the G train song contest

Photo via www.communitybasedplanning.wordpress.com

In case you haven't already heard, Brooklyn Brewery recently held a contest calling for Brooklyn's best bands and singers to submit their G-train related songs in order for a chance to win a trip to a music fest in Brooklyn, Sweden. The beer people picked their top 10 favorites, and now there are 5 days for us to vote for the best (which you can do, if you so desire, on their Facebook page). In the meantime, I've narrowed down their top 10 to my top 5.

1. Abby & Chris: "We take the G"

I love the Moldy Peaches-esque sound of this song, not to mention their awesome construction paper animation. I actually listened to it several times, continually wanting to watch the stories unfold. Also, someone needs to make a "w/ lyrics" version of this and post it on youtube so that I can learn the words. Aside from the awesome clapping breakdown where the G train takes a tour through a psychedelic river, the recurring Pac-Man-faced paper guy that ends up screaming "G Train! You gon' wait so long!" really completes me.

Click to read more ...

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CELEBRATE BROOKLYN ARTIST: CALLE 13

via hispanicallyyours.com

Celebrate Brooklyn keeps the world music flowing after last week's Souad Masi show with an act a little closer to the US -- and a lot closer to NYC. This Friday, Calle 13 will bring some highly-acclaimed Latin American reggaeton/hip-hop straight from Puerto Rico. You've seen the triangle-encased, one-starred flag. You've heard reggaeton's characteristic (some might say annoyingly repetitive) "Dem bow" beat spewing from the MOST AWESOME cars in Brooklyn. These guys have won a record 19 Latin American Grammy awards, and New York is ready for them.

Calle 13, thankfully, expands on that sound, drawing on musical influences from across Latin America and beyond. In their more recent discs, you'll hear Mexican horns, Egyptian and Western strings, and West African music. Off of their 2010's album, "Entren Los Que Quieran," the single "La Perla" highlights the expanded Latin American influences, featuring Panamanian "sonero" singer Ruben Blade: 

Click to read more ...

What You Should Know About Celebrate Brooklyn Artist: Souad Massi

via noise.cz

It's not just the countless opportunities to pen passive-aggressive blog posts about strollers: we're lucky to live in Park Slope. Fr'instance, Celebrate Brooklyn brings to the steps of our brownstones one of the best world-music series in the country. That means if we're open to it, we get exposed to talented musicians who aren't even Minnesota transplants to Brooklyn! We get artists like Souad Massi, the genre-bending, courageously political singer-songwriter from Algeria who will occupy (vague political reference!) the bandshell Saturday (doors, 6:30, free show, $3 suggested donation per usual).

Let's start with the sound: Massi's got a malleable voice, stretching from the low, sultry whisper of a love song to stuff calling for some pipes. My female-singer-crush vibes got going pretty quick on first listen. Massi's vocal range works atop a perhaps even more impressive array of musical influences, with  instrumentation, rhythms, and sounds from across the globe -- Algerian and Andalusian musical foundations, Western classical strings, flamenco guitars, and flourishes of Indian and African traditions. Check out the sultry sound of 2003's "Ghir Enta," her vocals enriched by the mysterious quality of the deep drum sounds:

Click to read more ...

What You Should Know About Celebrate Brooklyn Artist: Trombone Shorty

pic from nativeorleanian.com

Lately it seems like Brooklyn's been morphing into the Big Easy by playing host to a wide-variety of reknowned New Orleans musicians. First we had Dr. John's two-week residency at BAM, which kicked all kinds of ass. And now NOLA's newest rising star, Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenu,e is playing this Friday night at the Bandshell in Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn Summer Concert Series. 

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews was born into a musical family from the Treme section of New Orleans, long considered the birthplace of Jazz. He got his knickname when his older brother and now famous trumpet player and bandleader James Andrews say him walking up and down the street at the age of 3 weilding a trombone that was bigger than he was. By the age of 6 Troy was in his brother's band, and soon became a leader of his group, Orleans Avenue. Here's a little docu short on the man himself:

Click to read more ...

A FiPS Guide To GreatGooga Moosic

via whatupdoe.com

It's Great GoogaMooga week, bitches! To prepare you for the upcoming 2-day food, wine and music orgy FESTIVAL, we here at FiPS are going to be talking about it nonstop from now 'til Saturday.

If you haven't heard, The Great GoogaMooga, at its core, is about food. Hence the internal rhyme (I assume). But to aid in digestion, a gaggle of musical acts will gently massage your intestines via sonic wave. And, OK, let's admit: save maybe the Roots (and, I suppose, Hall & Oates), these aren't big names. It's also heavy on NYC-based groups, and shame on us for not seeing more local musical talent in a city overflowing with it. Long-story-short, you'll be in a food coma anyway, so it's probably all gonna sound great. There will be two stages, and acts will go from 11:30AM-8PM Saturday, and 11:45AM-7:30PM Sunday. Here's the FiPS rundown of the two-day fest's ear food: 

Click to read more ...