New Bklyn Sounds 5/21/2026—5/26/2026 + A Personalized Guide to NYC Music Listings 2026

This is for Peter Shapiro

Absolutely gutted for Hearts and all their supporters.

Kurt Vonnegut

Bklyn Live Music PSA! dadastrain.substack.com/p/dada-strai...

Criminalization is the fuel of fascism.

!!!!!!!!

House music

if you ever feel constrained by the dictum not to speak of ill of the dead, this is a great moment to share your memories of what an abomination Rudy Giuliani is — as in this reminder of his consumate awfulness long before he made himself an absolute grotesque for Trump

The NYC Tape Fair is back in Bushwick on May 3 with cassettes, VHS tapes and vinyl galore. www.brooklynpaper.com/nyc-tape-fai...

Today is a reminder that except for a brief period running roughly from Brown v. Board to Roe v. Wade, throughout its history the Supreme Court has been a reactionary force protecting the wealth of the wealthy and the power of the powerful, almost always hostile to equality and justice.

as long as john roberts has his majority, there is simply no pro democracy reform that will survive the supreme court. none.

The artist, curator and musician was initially given a one in four chance of survival after suffering a bilateral pulmonary embolism and heart attack in 2021, but her health has grown more robust and she now records new music at home... Kristen Gallerneaux on Surviving Near Death buff.ly/9GSYzf3

RIP to the American Mavericks (photo by Bob Minkin, 1996) | Read George Grella's eloquent remembrance of Michael Tilson Thomas, "What MTT Taught Me," on his indispensable Kill Yr Idols newsletter killyridols.substack.com/p/what-mtt-t...

New Bklyn Sounds 4/23/2026—4/29/2026 + In Praise of Saint James Joy - Wrote about the importance of the Saint James Joy block party and of the Vill family's cultural and social generosity, helping many Bklyn dancers and musickers survive the pandemic

Timeline cleanser

10 Years of #PurpleTears | Here is something I wrote ten years ago, in the immediate aftermath of hearing the news from my friend Joseph. Because everything about a name is important. And his should never be—will never be—forgotten.

Must Read | Damon Krukowski’s short essay is not a pro-/anti-Geese jeremiad, or payola history lesson. It points to something floating around my brain since around 2017-18, the initial recognition that all platforming of creative monetization may be, essentially, built on fake data - on lies.

Great Read | George Grella’s piece is ostensibly about the similarities between Charles Ives and Sun Ra; but it's about far more than that. Pull Quote: “American culture needs mavericks, not conformists.”

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

New Bklyn Sounds 4/17/2026—4/22/2026 dadastrain.substack.com/p/bklyn-soun...

Great Listen | The logical next stop on Cécile McLorin Salvant’s electronic rhythms odyssey. Her quartet (w/Sullivan Fortner, Kyle Poole + Yasushi Nakamura) marrying 2025’s magnificent banger “Oh Snap” to Summer & Moroder’s timeless “I Feel Love.” [h/t Christina Wheeler]

Again: for any big liberal donor who wants to funnel millions into fixing this country's politics, the ROI on buying any struggling paper and simply tasking it with doing real reporting on local news is vastly higher than the same $$ given to some group that does mass ad buys every election year.

What a fucking nightmare. The current music industry only serves the billionaires and tech bros. Musicians and music workers can take back the power from these massive corporations if we ORGANIZE!

NYCentric | Save Jimmy's Corner!

"We're not really out to make a ton of money. We just want to support our production, pay our bills, and just have fun." hellgatenyc.com/nytv-launch-...

all the aadam jacobs recordings have been included in the @livetapes.heads.social.ap.brid.gy feed since they launched the project (or via @ajcproject.mas.to.ap.brid.gy, if you only want the AJC collection)

New Bklyn Sounds 4/9/2026—4/15/2026 dadastrain.substack.com/p/bklyn-soun...

Gutted that jaimie branch is not around to witness this great day in MLB shwag and her favorite team people.com/white-sox-of...

American journalism is so comprehensively unequal to this moment that it beggars belief

Great Bklyn Sounds Community Video | For the upcoming TAK Ensemble album, Between the Air, Tyshawn Sorey composed a glacial piece about our dear fallen comrade. Then Christopher Smith shot a video of the TAKs performing it at the mighty 360 Record Shop. Miss you Breezy, think of you every damn day!

I’d heard about it, but tonight I finally sought it out. Chills.

wandered/stumbled into this zone while tripping with some friends once many years ago & it was so weird & mysterious & ancient feeling. never knew its actual name (or how to find it again) until just now.

Heartbroken to hear of yet another great business folding because of tariffs. RIP Unison Home, Osei Duro, Areaware.

New Bklyn Sounds 4/2/2026—4/8/2026 dadastrain.substack.com/p/bklyn-soun...

New Dada Work | "How to Gentrify a Park: bidding farewell to Bklyn's green DIY music destination" A few words about the family-oriented make-over of Prospect Park’s Vale of Cashmere, and how its loss is the latest example of the city absconding public third spaces that hosted culture.

if nothing else, there is something to be said for spending time outside in the sun with thousands of people who share your anger at the state of things

Etran de L’Aïr has to cancel US tour do to visa restrictions on citizens of Niger. Heartbreaking for US fans of this amazing band. Devastating for the band themselves who say that US tours comprise about 70% of their income. Help these guys out and buy a record: etrandelair.bandcamp.com/music

Great Read | Hugo Lindgren's piece on starting a ‘zine about starting a band and the motivations powering the urge to get into a room with other people and make some noise is some wonderful humanism. Favorite Quote: “Stop chasing what everybody else is chasing. Create your own center of gravity.”

IMPORTANT!!!

New Bklyn Sounds 3/19/2026—3/25/2026 dadastrain.substack.com/p/bklyn-soun...

You’re going to want to log off right now.

Black music has accounted for a massive 80 percent of the UK’s revenue from recorded music over the past three decades.⁠ Wow!

The Best!!!! Congratulations @jawnita.bsky.social

The disco ball was patented in 1917. It's older than chocolate chip cookies or commercial flight. We can go back.

Remember Sunday Best at Gowanus Grove? I will have this photo for sale at the Arts Gowanus booth, Affordable Art Fair next weekend 3/18-22 at the Starrett-Lehigh Bldg in Chelsea. Cash + Carry!

New Bklyn Sounds 3/13/2026—3/18/2026 + On 'Dada Strain @ L&SD'

34minutes of WHOAH!

as a music listener you will be rewarded tenfold spending $15-$20 to see a local act at a local venue. make live music a regular thing, not one more unreasonable facet of our profiteering corporate hellscape