NYMag's 40 Songs That Define The Brooklyn Sound

Welcome to your music meme of the week. Turns out there are bands in Williamsburg, and New York is all over it. It's far from the first time our neighborhood's been dressed up and packaged for a major print publication, but maybe it's the first time the scene's been distilled into a playlist everybody can argue about. The criteria for inclusion on this list isn't explicitly stated, beyond the "A highly subjective ranking of the songs that define the sound of right now" subheader. And subjective it is: Passing through its 40 tracks and 39 artists ("Knife" and "Two Weeks" are by the same band, after all), it seems there wasn't much criteria at all: an artist could call Brooklyn home, but also just have just visited (see: Neon Indian). A song could have been released in 2009, but also three years ago (see: the aforementioned "Knife"). But before we jump down NY Mag's throats about their fuzzy parameters, it sort of fits with what passes for the Brooklyn scene now, a neighborhood of transplants and myriad genres that share little in common aside from a 11211 postal code. Although that won't stop the mag from framing their top pick as its focal point. After all that we've been through, I know you'll guess it.

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Posted on 11/10/09 at 10:18 AM by amrit in List, MP3
Tags: Dirty Projectors | Grizzly Bear | MGMT

Comments (63) latest by babylost

New Grizzly Bear Video - "Ready, Able"

Grizzly Bear's Amazon-approved Veckatimst has birthed another aesthetically appealing video. (At the beginning of September it was Sean Pecknold's fencing vignettes for "While You Wait For The Others," but the one folks will likely remember most featured exploding choir boy faces.) Here, artist Allison Schulnik creates a smeary rainbow-dripped Claymation landscape for Late Night favorite "Ready, Able." It takes me all the way back to "Knife" for its surreal mix of sadness, repulsion, and a kind of otherworldly beauty.

Continue reading New Grizzly Bear Video - "Ready, Able"...

Posted on 11/06/09 at 12:47 PM by brandon in Video
Tags: Grizzly Bear

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Watch Grizzly Bear With The London Symphony Orchestra • The same night the Dessner brothers closed their three-day orchestral stand at BAM, Grizzly Bear performed a Halloween one-off with LSO at Barbican, UK. Watch an enveloping "Southern Point" at YouTube.

Comments (3) latest by ben

Grizzly Bear/Beach House @ Hollywood Palladium, LA 10/20/09

Tonight Grizzly Bear wrap up their five-month US tour with a sold-out Solana Beach gig before heading to Europe with St. Vincent. Yesterday we showed you a few pics from their Treasure Island set; today we've got a gallery from last night's party, a hometown gig for Dan Rossen. Openers Beach House explained that they were tired of playing their old songs, then delivered a handful of cuts from LP3 Teen Dream, out via new home Sub Pop 1/26. As expected, Victoria Legrand later joined headliners GB on "Two Weeks" and "Slow Life," a song from the controversially cool vampire movie soundtrack that failed to knock an Oprah-endorsed Bublé from the top of the charts. Andrew Youssef delivers these shots.

Posted on 10/21/09 at 06:01 PM by Scott in Concert, Photo
Tags: Beach House | Grizzly Bear | Victoria Legrand

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Treasure Island Fest 2009 In Photos

This past Saturday and Sunday was the third annual Treasure Island Festival, on San Francisco's Treasure Island. We sent Josh Bis to capture the weekend in photos.