Categories: Literature & Arts; Geek

New York Mix Tape

By mattfriedinNY
updated 3 months ago

Hey! Look at me! I'm a snarky New York writer with erudite music tastes and an uncomfortable fondness for Ira Glass. So most people may think. In these discerning times, it gets hard to be genuine in New York, especially with one's musical tastes. I'm not in the mind-blowing business (at least, not on purpose anyway), so I don't walk around bragging about what's on my iPod... that is until I decided to write a guide about it. It's my New York Mix Tape, made up of bands and musicians that not only had me dying to move to New York, but keep me going ga-ga that I even made it here at all.

The Ramones

Imagine Daffy Duck, on an glue-sniffing bender, taking a chainsaw to an electric guitar. Welcome to an introduction to The Ramones. Loud, intense, and very danceable. I first fell in love with Joey and his happy family during college and got more so into them after college. Something about a band that can write songs about being a prostitute and about the girl next door that’s just too damn charming to resist. The Ramones never got the recognition they deserved in their own time, but they are a definitive band of misfits that helped make the New York punk scene nothing short of amazing.

The Mercury Lounge

217 East Houston Street Frnt, New York, NY 10002

The current home in LES for every indie darling. Tons of groups like Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, TV On The Radio, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have cut their teeth in front of the crowds at Mercury. Different venue, always the same story.

Miles Davis

Leaving Miles Davis out of a conversation about New York jazz is kind of like having Christmas without Santa Claus, no matter what atheist will tell you otherwise. Miles came into the scene in the 1940s as a bebop musician not unlike Charlie Parker. Often temperamental and restless, Davis tooled around and innovated musical improvisation. He took traditional work to soaring new heights through re-interpretation, and would go onto do the same with electronic music. Miles Davis was many things outside of his music, but inside of his work – he was God.

Blue Note Jazz Club

131 W 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012

The fabled West Village jazz club still holds court six nights a week in an intimate setting and with a great menu.

Grandmaster Flash

Kool Kerc and Melle Mel may have (more or less) invented rap, but Grandmaster Flash created the persona of the MC. Flash was the first DJ/performer to experiment and expand the techniques of sampling and scratching. He would find a record’s breaking point, or hardest beat, and repeat and mix the beat with another sample or rap over it. His greatest creation being the seven-minute epic “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel.”

Joe's Pub

425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003

Flash is still known to do a drop-in set every so often at Joe’s Pub. Joe’s plays host to many resident New York performers, and is known as one of the hottest venues in the city.

LCD Soundsystem

James Murphy certainly can be an angry old man when he wants to be. The man who is LCD Soundsystem manufactures some of the catchiest beats one has ever heard. Of course, when he isn’t having fun behind the turntables with songs about bring Daft Punk to America, he’s usually ripping into all the young kids who have ruined New York City. Sure, his surly rants get a little tiresome after a while, but at least you can dance to them. Think about the last time grandpa said anything you wanted to listened to.

Cake Shop

152 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002

Everyone’s favorite organic coffeeshop, bakery, and record shop. Here, you can find underground vinyl, or actually go underground to their club and catch the new hotness.

Sonic Youth

What praise is left to say about alternative’s most famous marriage? Founded in the early 1980s – as punk was out and No Wave was in, below 14th Street – Sonic Youth carved out a legacy of noise, chaos, and rockability during the last 25 years. No one would have ever believed that grinding a guitar against an amp would’ve sounded good… until Thurston Moore started doing it on every single album. Listening to their music can either induce dancing or headaches, depending on how square you really are.

Rockwood Music Hall

184 Allen Street 198, New York, NY 10002

You may not find the hard thrashings of Sonic Youth at Rockwood, but you can still find some amazing acoustic groups, ranging in anything from rock to bluegrass to country. Check out Michael Daves who plays Rockwood every Tuesday night at 9:00.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

Um, how do you define New York sexy? Probably start with a word and a letter: Karen. O. The lead singer of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs has taken over the title from Patti Smith and Debra Harry for a new generation. YYY’s music in itself is something different: not quite punk or alternative, their thrashing chords and stripped-down melodies make for an amazing listen. Everyone seems to complain about how mainstream they’ve become, but they really don’t seem to care what everyone else thinks – thank God.

The Notorious B.I.G.

The Baller of Bed-Stuy, now and forever. Biggie Smalls was one of the greatest hip-hop talents to come out of Brooklyn, but what separated him from the rest was his rhyme technique. Never one to write anything down, Biggie was constantly refining and improvising new lyrics with a slower, deeper drawl. He was never as fast as 2Pac, but often times he was regarded as more intellectual, more humorous, and a better performer. Tragedy came when he was gunned down in a drive-by, only months after his West Coast rival, but to this day, no MC has ever been able to hold a candle to Biggie as a free-styler.

ARS Nova

511 W 54th Street, New York, NY 10019

ARS Nova has made name for itself for performers, comedians, and musicians. The space plays host to any and all alternative acts in the fields of hip-hop, pop, and whatever those crazy kids are doing with a synthesizer these days.

Tony Bennett

You’re probably thinking of crucifying me right now, because I should be writing about Frank Sinatra. There’s no question that Frank will always be the CEO, but Tony Bennett is a New York kid through and through. Since a career resurgence in the 1990s, Bennett has managed to keep a staying power and relevance that still makes his music incredibly endearing. Consider him among the best of his generation still working. Also, I hear he still plays bar mitzvahs. He’s got to make cab far somehow.

Birdland Jazz Club

315 W 44th Street, New York, NY 10036

The classic jazz club honoring Charlie Parker still plays host to some of the best jazz acts in the world.

John Coltrane

Mention John Coltrane and Miles Davis in the same sentence, and it’s like you’re talking about God and the Devil. Both contemporaries and both brilliant, Coltrane was fearless in his experimentations with the saxophone sound. Coltrane was an intense student of his instrument and found new ways to shape the sound of jazz. He brought relevance back to certain instruments that practically had become obsolete by the 1960s. Also, he bleated on the sax, he would bend notes, give fuller breath to create a harder, more intense sound that truly was something of his own.