StereoactiveNYC

Sun, 8/1 – Songwriters Salon #7 – Fort Useless

Show Preview: Bel Air + Mama Bear + Holy Moly at Fort Useless // This Saturday + photos

We’ve had a good run of shows lately over at Fort Useless. And we’ve got another one this Saturday we’re excited for:

Holy Moly will get the night started at 8:30pm. They play conuntry/folk-rock tunes that rely on extremely well-crafted songwriting and have become sort of a de-facto house band for the venue.

Next up at 9:30pm (after a slight schedule change — they were originally going to be on at 10:30pm) will be Bel Air. They play nicely twangy pop songs and occasional ballads with an interesting dynamic going on between Allison Langerak’s and Jeff Mensch’s alternating vocals. We featured a review of their most recent release, Into The Sea, back in February and are really looking forward to hosting them for the first time at Fort Useless.

Rounding out the night at 10:30pm is Mama Bear, making their second appearance at Fort Useless. The band consistently impresses us with their fun, bouncy live shows and ain’t too bad in the studio either — we reviewed their recently released EP, How We Go, last month.

You can RSVP for the show on Facebook here.

Also, because we’ve been so busy with various projects, we’ve had less time to devote to editing and posting photos, but we have some shots taken of Bel Air and Mama Bear in recent months:

Mama Bear at their EP release part at The Studio At Webster Hall (more on Flickr):

And Bel Air at Mercury Lounge (more on Flickr):

And here are mp3s from each artist:

mp3: “What You Get” by Holy Moly

mp3: “Into The Sea” by Bel Air

mp3: “Old Man Trouble” by Mama Bear

Live This Week: May 11-16 /// mp3 Mix

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Here are mp3s by some artists playing live this week:

mp3: “History Lessons” by Dinosaur Feathers (Tuesday)
mp3: “Stand Where I Can See You” by She Keeps Bees (Wednesday)
mp3: “I’m An Animal” by Shark? (Thursday)
mp3: “L’amour (Or Less)” by Mancino (Thursday)
mp3: “Fifty Fourtenners” by Milagres (formerly The Secret Life Of Sofia) (Thursday)
mp3: “A Dream” (Lou Reed & John Cale) by Magnetic Island (Friday)
mp3: “Short Name” by Pet Ghost Project (Friday)
mp3: “Supernova” by Quilty (Friday)
mp3: “Summer Jam” by Miniboone (Friday)
mp3: “Doggy Head” by Drink Up Buttercup (Friday)
mp3: “What You Get” by Holy Moly (Saturday)
mp3: “Look Good Future, Part II” by Mama Bear (Saturday)
mp3: “Into The Sea” by Bel Air (Saturday)

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Also playing this week:

Hank And Cupcakes (Wednesday)

Visit our SHOWLIST for more information about these and other upcoming shows.

Photos: Raccoon Fighter + Boy Genius + Jared Friedman at Fort Useless

Our first show of the year was earlier this month at Fort Useless and featured co-headliners Raccoon Fighter and Boy Genius with Jared Friedman (of Holy Moly!) opening.

This was our first time seeing Raccoon Fighter live and we really enjoyed their set. The band, which seems to have a fluctuating number of members, played as a two-piece this particular night and really nailed it. Their energetic bluesy brand of rock was extremely entertaining and we look forward to hearing more from them in the future.

Boy Genius is a band we’ve covered in the past, but this was our first time actually putting a show together with them — a long time coming. They seem to get better each time we see and hear them and this night was no exception. It was our favorite set of theirs yet and we were extremely happy with how well their sound fit in at the new venue. They’ve got a new full-length coming out that we’ve been wrapping our ears around — a really nice piece of work produced with Mitch Easter, that we definitely recommend.

Jared Friedman is a close compatriot of ours that we’re always happy to hear and work with. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing and hearing him progress as a solo artist and with his country/folk rock trio, Holy Moly!, over the last couple of years and the guy just keeps getting better. He’s a gifted songwriter with an ever-growing voice.

Here are some photos from the night (with more on Flickr) and mp3s by the artists:

Jared Friedman
mp3: “What You Get” by Holy Moly!

Boy Genius
mp3: “Radio Silence” by Boy Genius

Raccoon Fighter
mp3: “Rollin’ Wheel” by Raccoon Fighter

Sat, 1/9 – Boy Genius
+ Raccoon Fighter
+ Jared Friedman (of Holy Moly!) – Fort Useless

We’ve been busy: Fort Useless, Show on Saturday, CMJ Showcase Info Soon!

Perhaps you’ve noticed that updates on this website have been sporadic for the last few months? Or perhaps you didn’t? Who knows?

The reason updates here have been less frequent than they used to be is that we’ve been in the process of setting up our new headquarters at Fort Useless. Fort Useless is a new DIY-ish space in Bushwick organized to feature live music, as well as other sorts of performances and art. StereoactiveNYC put together the first show there back at the end of August, featuring some amazing local musicians playing: Sharon Van Etten, Jared Friedman (of Holy Moly! and Man In Gray), Gabriel Miller-Phillips, El Jezel, Kristies Redfield (of The Song Corporation and a new forthcoming project), and Manny Nomikos (of Coyote Eyes). It ended up being a very special day for us that exceeded all expectations we had going in… We took some photos of all the musicians, but, unfortunately, one negative consequence of our move is that some things have gone missing (temporarily, we hope), including cables for our camera that we use for transferring photos. Luckily, the wonderful Maryanne Ventrice was there and took some great shots.

We also, just last week, featuring a listening party for Gold Streets‘ new EP, Go, which also featured some interesting performances by the band and special guests El Jezel with new and varied arrangements of some of their music.

The next show at Fort Useless is this Saturday featuring a couple of bands we’ve really been enjoying a lot lately, The Binary Marketing Show and Dinosaur Feathers, along with Andrew St. Aubin (of old SANYC-favorite Aldenbarton). Here are details for the show:

Saturday, October 3rd
at Fort Useless
36 Ditmars Street / Brooklyn [map]
8:00pm – DOORS
8:30pm – Andrew St. Aubin
9:30pm – The Binary Marketing Show
10:30pm – Dinosaur Feathers
RSVP on Facebook

Here are a few mp3s for you to sample, and a flyer for the show:

mp3: “Shape of Your Head” b y The Binary Marketing Show

mp3: “History Lessons” by Dinosaur Feathers

mp3: “I Am New Yorker” by Aldenbarton

Also, we want to make sure you know that even when we’re not generating our own content here on StereoactiveNYC.com, we’re usually featuring a rather steady flow of news and interesting items we come across on the StereoactiveNYC Tumblr and you can also get updates via our Facebook page and ourTwitter updates (there’s also the MySpace profile, but we’ve been dealing with that less frequently).

Finally, we’ll be sponsoring a showcase as part of the CMJ Music Marathon for the third year in a row and will be announcing details for that very soon!

Sat, 7/18: Holy Moly! @ Pete’s Candy Store

Live This Week July 13-19 /// mp3 Mix

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Here are mp3s by some artists playing live this week:

“Call Me” by The Naked Hearts (Tuesday)
“Particle Beam Dream” by JEFF The Brotherhood (Wednesday)
“Highway Scratch” by Sisters (Wednesday)
“Sleepwalking” by The Jaguar Club (Wednesday)
“Keep It To Yourself” by The Sundelles (Wednesday)
“Slow-Wave” by Monster Eiffel Tower (Wednesday)
“Short Name” by Pet Ghost Project (Thursday, Sunday)
“History Lessons” by Dinosaur Feathers (Friday)
“Dreamsucker” by Grooms (Friday)
“Know Too Much” by Turbo Fruits (Saturday)
“What You Get” by Holy Moly! (Saturday)
“No Blood” by The Beets (Saturday)
“Please Visit Your National Parks” by Oxford Collapse (Saturday)
“My Weakness” by A Place To Bury Strangers (Saturday)
“Randy Described Eternity” by Built To Spill (Saturday)
“Dead Sound” by The Raveonettes (Saturday)
“Kiss The Lawn Goodbye” by Spanish Prisoners (Sunday)
“Saw Edged Grass” by Alina Simone (Sunday)
“U & I” by Pink Noise (Sunday)

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Also playing this week:

Telltale on MySpace (Thursday)
Denney And The Jets on MySpace (Friday, Sunday)
Libel on MySpace (Friday)
Bear Hands On Myspace (Saturday)
Quiet Loudly on MySpace (Sunday)

Visit our SHOWLIST for more information about these and other upcoming shows.