In september this year i made another trip over to New York to immerse myself in that city's awesome community of young musicians/ creative people. well, actually i guess that was more the side project to the US visit, objective numero uno would be taking my mum on holiday. but in between the shopping trips to bloomingdales and sightseeing (no we didn't go to ground zero) i managed a night out, got totally wasted, alone, and saw some wicked bands.
so i head to a warehouse bordering queens and brooklyn, downstairs is bar and array of diy computer games (!?), upstairs was wall of sofas and floor space for bands, backdrop was giant murals of monstrous creatures, of course. this place was trendy to fuck but pretty dead. a chance meeting a few weeks later, in london, with one of the guy's that lives there goes a ways to explaining it's apparent lack of a crowd, as despite being well known amongst bands and musicians as one of the places to play an awesome diy show in new york, it never quite caught the attention of the natives being as it was almost outside of brooklyn!
anyway, i'm settled on the sofa-wall, post first band, pouring another whiskey into my already 2/3rds whiskey filled bottle of diet coke when MIRROR MIRROR take to the floor. These three guys are really great live, recordings on the website/spotify in no way do them justice, they're really involving and electric live. and really seemed to give a fuck, despite literally a max of two rows of people watching them at the height of the crowd's interest. killer.
Following them were... FOLLOWER. i was totally out of it by their set but this duo almost brought me back to a state of lucid consciousness with their heartfelt, demanding but minimal electronic hip hop.
the music cut through the fog of whiskey and weed that was my mind, just enough so that I might force myself to remember their name.
and that's all I remember... that and the sense that i've just seen a fucking incredible new band.
download a song here;
DOWNLOAD FOLLOWER - Ghost Ride
