Northside Festival 2016 Preview

Brooklyn Weekend

This weekend brings us another installment of Brooklyn's Northside Festival. While it's not quite South-By-South-Westian in scope (which is a feature not a bug), Northside does get 400+ bands playing in venues all over Brooklyn from morning until night for the whole weekend. I've attended at least part of it for the last couple of years, and the festival has introduced me to several new people and bands. I always set out to squeeze in as many of the acts on my must-see list as possible, but what invariably ends up happening is that I park myself somewhere and end up discovering stuff I never planned for. That's what I've found to be the beauty of the whole thing.

I'm gonna stick with tradition, though, and list a whole bunch of bands that I would like to see if I could. You can find the entire Northside Festival lineup / schedule here. If there's anything there that you really think is an absolute must, feel free to leave a comment or to shoot me a note.

Familiar Faces

Big gatherings like this are an opportunity for discovery, but I also find them to be a great chance to see some of my friends and favorites playing in a new place to a new crowd. Lots of familiar names have shows scheduled for Northside; and, if you're in Brooklyn this weekend, you should try to squeeze them in.

Sharkmuffin, Thursday, June 9th at Shea Stadium

Sharkmuffin are the band that I saw more than any other in March at South By Southwest. The Little Dickman recording artists deliver a mix of grunge, surf, and pop in the form of short blasts of danceable noise. Shea is kind of like a home base for them, and the other bands on this bill (especially Don Giovanni political punk band Aye Nako) make this a great show.

Sharkmuffin

NO ICE, Thursday, June 9th at Muchmore's. June 10th at The Gutter

I recently reviewed NO ICE's debut, Come on Feel the NO ICE. The band call on influences as diverse as Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement, and The Shirelles. Somehow it all works.

Darkwing / Psychiatric Metaphors / The Off White / Rosebug, June 10th at Baranquilla. 

Darkwing / Psychiatric Metaphors / The Off White / Rosebug / Fruit & Flowers, June 11th at Gold Sounds.

Psychiatric Metaphors, June 11th at The Gutter

Darkwing / The Off White / Dentist / Fruit & Flowers / A Deer A Horse, June 12th at Muchmore's

A whole bunch of our Jersey / Little Dickman / South By Southwest friends reconvene for several shows at Northside Festival. Psychiatric Metaphors and The Off White should be familiar to any of you who spend any time in and around Asbury Park. A like-minded pair of dirty, gritty garage bands, they both have rigorous Northside schedules.

The Off White

They'll be joined in various permutations by fuzzed out psych poppers Darkwing, dreampop group Rosebug, or surf / psych rockers Fruit & Flowers. On Sunday, there's also the opportunity to catch the urgent rock and roll of A Deer A Horse and our brothers and sister in Dentist.

Dentist

Any one of these shows will make your day / evening.

BOYTOY, June 11th at Our Wicked Lady

Carousel alums and a band destined for bigger things, BOYTOY sit somewhere at the intersection of garage rock and bubblegum pop. They play a Papercup Music showcase that also features The Teen Age.

Teenage Halloween, June 12th at The Grand Victory

Ocean / Asbury Park DIY power pop / folk punk collective Teenage Halloween are one of the hardest-working bands in our little local scene, and it's great to see them getting the recognition they deserve. Their show at Grand Victory on Sunday also features great New York City band Cutters.

Bands I'd Love to See but Who Are All Probably Playing at the Same Time Really Far Away from One Another

If I've learned anything from Northside Festival, it's that I have to understand that I simply won't be able to see everything I want. It's physics. But I'll list out the acts that caught my eye as I went through the schedule and hope for the best.

Wolf Parade

Wolf Parade returned from indefinite hiatus in 2016, and their recent residency at Bowery Ballroom received rave reviews. I missed that, sadly. But Spencer Krug, Dan Boeckner, and company basically kick off the official Northside Music proceedings with a show in McCarren Park on Thursday night. The band released one of my favorite albums of all time in 2005 with the (mostly) Isaac Brock-produced Apologies to the Queen Mary, and I'm excited about finally getting the opportunity to see their live show.

Diarrhea Planet

I've seen this Nashville guitar army several times, and the shredding and overall exuberance of their shows never fails to disappoint. They play Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday night. It's the eve of the release of their third full-length Turn to Gold and should be a party. Acid Dad, another band I'd like to see, are also on that bill, but.. Wolf Parade.

Diarrhea Planet

Slonk Donkerson

Slonk Donkerson are one of those bands that I feel like I almost always have in one of these previews, and I've never actually managed to see them. They combine some of the college rock influences (R.E.M., The Replacements) of my childhood with big 80s rock into something I find irresistible. They play Friday at Grand Victory.

Colleen Green

Colleen Green's 2015 LP, I Want to Grow Up, and recent self-titled cassette EP are two of my favorite things from the last couple of years. Simple pop songs with what I like to call a "slow Ramones" aesthetic. Green plays in the wee hours of Saturday morning at Baby's All Right.

King Khan & The Shrines

The mighty King Khan and his band of Shrines are well and truly one of the greatest live acts I have ever seen. I reviewed one of their shows at Asbury Lanes in the early days of CoolDad Music and that show still stands as one of the major inspirations for why I do this. This is not to be missed. King Khan plays Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday.

King Khan

Priests

I haven't gotten a chance to see Washington, DC's Priests since February of 2015 when they played the Don Giovanni Records showcase at Knitting Factory. The live delivery of their politically-charged punk rock is just as much performance art as incendiary live show. Priests play St. Vitus on Saturday night.

Priests

Ovlov

Ovlov's am and it's combination of shoegaze and indie rock was one of my favorite records of 2013. It hits all of the right points for me from MBV to Dinosaur Jr. I feel like this band has broken up and gotten back together a couple of times since then, but they're definitely back now. I hope I can get to this one. They play Shea Stadium on Saturday. That show also features recent Wonder Bar performers Two Inch Astronaut.

WALL

I don't know much about NYC's WALL other than I saw them at South By Southwest, and they blew me away. They call themselves post-punk or no wave. Whatever. Great band. They play Saturday at Union Pool and Sunday at Aviv on a show that also includes Haybaby, Mannequin Pussy, Stove, and Caddywhompus.

Brian Wilson

The master of pop perfection plays Pet Sounds in McCarren Park on Sunday. What else is there to even say about that? Well, I could also say that ROSTAM, formerly of Vampire Weekend, and South By Southwest standout from Madrid, Hinds, open that one.

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So that's a quick list. I will, without a doubt, miss much of this and see and love some things I never expected. Keep it tuned here and to all the CoolDad Music social media outlets (especially instagram.com/cooldadmusic) to see what I get up to. I'll try to post reviews and photos daily.