Bklyn Sounds 7/10/2025—7/15/2025
This week's events include David Virelles' 'Roots in Sound' Festival / Matana Roberts 'The Stone' residency / Sweater on Polo / L'Rain / Kalia Vandever / ZZK v. Names You Can Trust / and much more
As I write this, I am still out of town, on the road, so apologies that the Thursday-Tuesday listings may seem a little light. Hopefully my absence offers an opportunity for you to investigate other writers and aggregators of primarily independent and DIY live-music events, all of whom I regard as part of Dada Strain’s community network, and without whose work, this newsletter would be very different proposition.
If your interests veer in the direction of contemporary classical, creative music or jazz, I urge to you subscribe to and support Steve Smith’s Night After Night, Jim Macnie’s Lament For a Straight Line, as well as the monthly Extended Techniques newsletter. For full calendar directories of various DIY events, check out the indelible NYC Noise calendar, and the new-ish Cal.Red, whose live shows mingle with (decidedly lefty) community organizing and activist work being done around music culture in New York. If your interests veer in the indie, DIY and eclectic music territory, Caleb’s Concerts and the monthly show-sheet published by Gunk always have great options. And while there numerous dance-oriented IG/TikTok accounts making video-pivots and listing pretty much every DJ event under the sun, the shout-outs I most often investigate take place in the IG Stories of the mighty DJ Tara. Forever kudos to all these musickers and their projects
(Readers: Did I miss a site or account you trust, and believe I should know about? Either drop it in the comments or send me an email to dadastrinbklyn@gmail.com)
Two more notes from the road:
As announced earlier this week on The Lot Radio’s IG, Friday (7/11) will mark the re-opening of the station’s Williamsburg-Greenpoint yard/kiosk for public gatherings, events and parties. It had been closed since the beginning of the year, and The Lot Radio’s future was a little touch-and-go for a while. In fact, one reason that Jessica Co-sign and I did our (officially sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment) New York Music Month panel there a few weeks back, was to make sure that elements of the city government recognized its cultural value. Thankfully, this recognition was already in play, as, according to the note, The Lot Radio was in cahoots with the good folks at NYC’s Office of Nightlife, to assist in passing various city inspections and re-opening. There are some changes to the cafe’s menu, but the good news is The Lot Radio is open for business. Go drag your friends over there, to bask in one of the bastions o Bklyn musicking.
On a much sadder note: Mike Rubin reported on Tuesday that the city’s musicking community lost one of its quiet writing greats this past week, with the passing of Peter Shapiro from complications after a two-year battle with colon cancer. Peter was just 55 years old when he passed away on July 2nd. Shapiro was a local, growing up in Westchester—before wisely quitting the writing game to become a lawyer, he was a regular must-read byline in The Wire, Urb and other leftfield-music publications. Shapiro had a hand in authoring large chunks of numerous record guides for the Rough Guides series, but his masterpiece is 2005’s Turn The Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, a book-length study of the music’s early years through the lens of New York. It sits next to Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, and Tim Lawrence’s Love Saves the Day, as a great entry-point into the story of contemporary dance music, especially its NYC roots. On top of being a terrific writer and first-rate music thinker/listener, Shapiro was a mensch — and, after living for a spell in North London, a Gooner. (I can almost guarantee that over the past two decades we spent as much time commiserating Arsenal as chatting music.) I will miss Peter in a million different ways. My deepest condolences go out to his family and loved ones. (UPDATE: The Wire published this extended obituary of Peter.)
THIS WEEK’S SHOWS:
The mighty garage-chooglers Sloppy Heads return to their monthly residency at Mama Tried, and again curate a massive headz’n’heads line-up to join them. First and foremost, there’s Holy Modal Rounders founder Peter Stampfel and his Atomic Meta Pagans band, likely pushing a variation of a psychedelic folk slop he’s been been cooking for six decades. There’s also the duo of synthestist Tom Hamilton and trombonist Peter Zummo, with a forever-future electronic music. A primal, pre-historic music kind of evening. (Thurs 7/10, 8p @ Mama Tried, Sunset Park - $uggested)
In case you aren’t familiar, the ex-Buenos Aires/now Los Angeles-based ZZK Records and Names You Can Trust (aka NYC Trust, very much Bklyn) are two of the better purveyors of contemporary cumbia sounds. Tonight, its respective label-head DJs — ZZK’s El G and NYC Trust’s Little Dynasty — go head to head in a “battle for vinyl supremacy.” If you like modern cumbia in all its wonderful mutations, this one’s for you! (Thurs 7/10, 10p @ Barbés, Park Slope - $10suggested)
At this point, it’s safe to say that saxophonist and mixed-media conceptualist Matana Roberts is one-of-one, wrapping personal and societal history around improvised solo sets that bring both beauty and pain to the fore, with a stream of words and love cries, holding a power unlike any I’ve experienced elsewhere. Their all-solo week at The Stone is split into topics: Trans rights, Immigrant Rights, Educational Freedom, Reproductive Justice/We Will Not Be Silent. Prepare to be emotionally untethered. Highest Recommendation. (Thurs 7/10—Sat 7/12, 8:30p @ The Stone, New School, Manhattan - $20). Those performances are followed by “Listening Through the Fire: A Town Hall with Matana Roberts & Friends,” an afternoon gathering where attendees are encouraged to be participants not audience-members. (Sun 7/13, 2p @ Issue Project Room, Downtown Bklyn - FREE)
Friday marks the closing of Evening Air, No Wave guitarist Loren Connors’ third show of oil- canvases at Blank Forms’ gallery space. He will celebrate this occasion with a duo set, that will also feature the immaculate guitar (and otherwise) sounds of David Grubbs. A top-level meeting of two Americana avant-garde’s great practitioners. (Fri 7/11, 6:30p @ Blank Forms, Clinton Hill - FREE w/RSVP)
Over the past decade-and-a-half, Cuban-born pianist David Virelles has become a central figure in New York’s improvised music community: stalwart experimentalist, rugged roots accompanist, student and mentor, a polymath comfortable taking his playing in almost any direction imagined. This makes Virelles a potentially great small-festival organizer, which is what he is trying with the weekend-long Roots in Sound. There are talks with the likes of Henry Threadgill and Rafiq Bhatia, solo sets by Andrew Cyrille, Melvis Santa, and Craig Taborn (among others), bands led by Eric McPherson and Brandon Ross (among others), and a closing jam featuring Melissa Almaguer. With Virelles threaded through it all, taking place in the intimate confines of the best new “jazz” club in Manhattan. Check prices on the cost of each set, or splurge for the festival pass if yr feeling ambitious. Highest Recommendation! (Fri 7/11 - Sun 7/13 @ CloseUp, Manhattan -$16-$31 per set/$$$ festival pass)
Honey’s is hosting the first Sweater on Polo live hardware set in NYC since April and, as always, I am here for it. (Literally coming back just in time…) If you like jacking house music, come dig one of the young princes of the New York sound. Also playing is the pop-electronic duo Muscle Memory (Steven Reker and Michael Tapper), whose hook-oriented songs scream “sign me.” Figure they will be very soon. (Sat 7/12, 9p @ Honey’s, Bushwick - FREE)
Speaking of royalty… I think L’Rain is, pound for pound, Bklyn’s best popular rock band, capable of power and transcendence, thoughtful words and thorny instrumental passages, plus none of the shlock. Taja, Ben and fam return to Union Pool’s great free Sunday concerts series, Summer Thunder (get there early even if you RSVP’d). Supported by the bass phenom and superior indie-minded singer-songwriter, 13th Law. (Sun 7/13, 2p @ Union Pool, W’burg - FREE first come…)
And even more royalty… The mighty trombonist Kalia Vandever is playing as part of LC’s Summer in the City program — a solo set I think, but am unable to confirm. And there’s a lot to be said for Vandever’s horn+electronics sets, though I am not sure words always make sense when it comes to her textures, grandiose but supple. Over the past couple of years, these performances have helped redefine how I hear “ambient” music. (Sun 7/13, 6p @ The Underground at Jaffe Drive, Lincoln Center, Uptown - FREE)
A massive bill at the next installment of the Striped Light series organzied and curated by veteran NYC musicians/musickers Ian Douglas-Moore, Jessica Pavone and David Watson. Sam Kulik celebrates the release of his solo trombone+electronics+field recording album, Putting a Hand on the World. Then come two magnificent ensembles. One is a quintet of saxophonist Michael Foster, guitarist Webb Crawford, bassist Sean Ali, drummer Ryan Sawyer, and Steve Swell on trombone. The other is a trio of Samantha Kochis on flute, Luke Stewart on bass and Melissa Almaguer tap dancing. (Mon 7/14, 8p @ RSVP for location, Long Island City - $20suggested)
A wonderful triple-bill of indie experimentalists who love writing a kind of pop: Pink Must is a collaboration between Mari “More Eaze” Rubio and Lynn Avery, which on their great debut gives lo-fi prog (with vocoder and drum machines) vibes, but which at January’s record release show, performed as a quartet, had classic Low and Flaming Lips drone-psychedelic energy. alice does computer music is the poetic bedroom project of cellist/multi-instrumentalist Alice Gerlach, which at times turns gloriously hi-fi. There’s also Peruvian-American vocalist Brian Marela, whose first album in a decade features a dozen electroacoustic songs played live in the Mills College concert hall. (Tues 7/15, 10p @ Nightclub 101, Manhattan - $17-$23)
MORE RECOMMENDED EVENTS:
Big Freedia (Thurs 7/10, 7p @ Herbert Von King, Bed-Stuy - FREE) - Summerstage brings the Queen of New Orleans Bounce’s “gospel revival” show to Bed-Stuy, featuring legendary ballroom mother Courtney “Balenciaga” Washington and the MasterZ at Work Dance Family, as well as Bklyn's Resistance Revival Chorus.
Andy Boay + Arian Shafiee + Eye of the Penguin (Fri 7/11, 8p @ Union Pool, W’burg - $19) - Two solo turns by members of wonderful modern psychedelic (read: not jam) bands — Boay, who is one-half of the Kraut-y Tonstartssbandht; and Shafiee, who helped found maniacal dance-punks Guerilla Toss.
Jitwam + Marco Weibel + Ladiez Drink Free (Fri 7/11, 10p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $15-$20) - Joining Darker Than Wax’s man in NYC Weibel, and the excellent trio of young free-drinking, DJ Ladiez, is one of the most globally informed jazz-house heads around.
Maker Park Radio Festival (Fri 7/11 & Sat 7/12, 5p @ Maker Park, Staten Island - $20adv/$25) - The Staten Island community radio station celebrates its anniversary with a two-day music and art festival that includes Dan Deacon, Jon Spencer, The Thing and others.
Standing on the Corner presents… (Fri 7/11 & Sat 7/12, 10p @ The Glade, Little Island - FREE) - For the second year running, Gio Escobar has been invited to contribute to Little Island’s free programming: for Friday, he curated “2nd Annual East Coast Bomba Players Convention,” and on Saturday, hosts a live recording of his monthly radio show, “Puerto Rican Rumble Rock Radio Offensive.”
Bunny Jr. Tapes 10 Year Anniversary Festival (Sat 7/12, 2p @ Union Pool, W’burg - $24) - this daylong celebration of Jezenia Romero’s tape label includes a long and gob-smackingly diverse line-up of performers, among them Black Bananas, UMFANG, MHYSA and many others.
Modupe Onilu (Sat 7/12, 9p & 10:15p @ Bar LunÁtico, Bed-Stuy - $10suggested) - massive Trinidadian percussionist Onilu leads a sextet (with a steel-pan player, Damoi Morgan) into LunÁtico.
Love Injection + Dope Jams (Sun 7/13, 3p @ Public Records, Gowanus - $20-$25) - Barbie & Paul’s Public Records residency continues, with special guest Paul Nickerson, whose classic house game is heavy AF.
Public Service (Sun 7/13, 3p @ Maria Hernandez Park, Bushwick - FREE) - Mickey + Toribio + Karlala + a cast of thousands* at the best free park jam in Bklyn. (*prolly less…)
Lollise + Rule of 3 (Sun 7/13, 4p @ Bunna Cafe, Bushwick - $20) - Lollise and Morgan return to the Bunna backyard for another live Afro-future electronic folk-pop session, supported by the new all-star DJ trio, Boni Traxton (aka Domenica Underground System), DJ Mayday and m♤rí♤.
i think this is the first time anyone has ever mentioned me lmao