The Only Christmas Album You Need
Bad Religion's "Christmas Songs" celebrates a time when Christianity wasn’t merely performative.
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Posts by and about the RFB community
The Case Against Pop Christmas Music
Adam Carlson shares his thoughts on how pop Christmas music is ruining the holidays.
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New Jack Swing: The Subgenre That Revlolutionized R&B and Hip-Hop
New jack swing took over pop R&B for nearly a decade and pop music would never be the same.
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Who Writes a Song About a Car Crash?
The phenomenon remains a strange footnote in the history of American pop music.
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A Walk Through the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
RFB spoke with Brooklyn Museum's Jennie Tang about the Brooklyn Artists Exhibition for the museum’s 200th anniversary.
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United Sounds NYC Festival Kicks Off October 25th
The United Sounds NYC Festival kicks off its inaugural event Friday, October 25, and Saturday, October 26, in Red Hook at Pioneer Works
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Warm Weather Music 2024 – A Retrospective
Let’s take a moment to reflect on the music that made us hip this past spring and summer.
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Just a Man and His Two Guitars
His singular guitar and his unique approach to his chosen genres mean that he sounds like no one else.
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Jillian Dawn: 25-year-old singer/songwriter on a journey to the dream.
Dawn talks to RFB about her latest track, performances, and plans for the future.
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What Shaped Dick Dale?
Dick Dale's Lebanese roots and connection to the Arab world layed the foundation of his innovative surf-rock sound.
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Un-Accenting the Accent
Why has the American accent become de rigueur for artists around the world?
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Saidah Blount: The Face Behind the Music
BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn Executive Director talks about the challenges and successes of her first season.
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Canibus’ Rip The Jacker: A Most Unusual Production
Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind and Canibus caught lightning in a bottle in a strange but successful way.
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A Night at the Bandshell with LA LOM & Thee Sacred Souls at BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn
California's LA LOM and Thee Sacred Souls bring the romantic allure and charm of classic Mexican Boleros and Cumbina Sonidera inspired music
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The Mysterious Allure of the Double Album
The double album is a dying breed, but the vanity and ambition needed to make them will never go out of style
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Why Are There No Rap Covers?
Rap covers succeed when they take a song with universal lyrics and give it a complimentary coat of new paint.
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The Greatest American Rock ‘N’ Roll Band Is…
When considering the Greatest American Rock band, apply the three C’s: Critical acclaim, Commercial success, and Cultural relevance.
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The Worst Pop Song of All Time?
"Hey Soul Sister" is a memorable, significant song, but for all the wrong reasons.
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Comfort Club Explores Distance, Defeat, and How to Disconnect Yourself from Your Ex
Colin Tracey discusses the feelings of those of us who love too hard, struggle to let go, and are afraid to be alone.
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Ringdown is a Let-Down, But Caroline Shaw Remains Refreshing
The music of Ringdown sounds more like the music Danni Lee, not Caroline Shaw, wants to make.
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An Unintentional Cover: Jeff Beck’s Superstition
It’s still Stevie Wonder’s song, but Jeff Beck finally made it his for one night.
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The Hidden Genius of Charles Mingus
Perhaps the inspiration to toilet train a cat is indicative of an expansive mind that was willing to experiment and take risks
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Random Artist Memories: Shuggie Otis
Otis continues to perform sporadically but remains a talented, insular mystery.
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The Rarest Singing Voice
It’s a voice that can seem impossible but is often unforgettable. If you encounter one, cherish the experience. You don’t experience them often.
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Albums You’ve (almost certainly) Never Heard Of: Randy Savage’s ‘Be a Man’
The album is no more than a footnote in a life lived largely. But it is not a failure.
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When Pop Music Gets Weird: Christina Aguilera’s “What A Girl Wants”
It’s strange to hear a standard 4/4 pop melody get spun around like this. Music is more interesting when it makes your brain say, “Waitaminute - what just happened?”
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Brooklyn Royalty: The Dap-Kings
Their musical lane may have been narrow, but they drove it in a monster truck powered by James Brown’s hairspray.
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Albums You Might Not Know: Elvis Costello’s Spanish Model
Spanish Model may be another footnote in Elvis Costello’s career, but it’s a career more memorable for the chances it has taken.
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Local Music Spotlight: Skorts
A new band making waves in the North Brooklyn/Lower Manhattan circuit have a heady sound that's both retro and refreshing.
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Albums You’ve Forgotten: Booker T. and the M.G.’s McLemore Avenue
The album didn’t break new ground, but it's fascinating to experience four geniuses re-imagining the work of four other geniuses.
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Elevator Rap: Hip-Hop’s Newest Subgenre
You can’t dance to it, and it’s so inoffensive that your grandma can vibe to it.
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Local Music Spotlight: P.H.0
Brooklyn's silkpunks subvert, reshape, and redefine what it means to be East Asian in a Western setting
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One-Hit Wonders: The Cardigans
The Cardigans were fringe artists with a rich library who had one song cross over out of nowhere. It never happened again.
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Wu-Tang Basketball
If New York's Wu-Tang Clan were a basketball team, what would that look like?
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The Top 9 Places to Hear (and See) Experimental Music in Brooklyn, According to Musicians
The Brooklyn avant-garde music scene is no longer burgeoning; it is flourishing.
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Lyrical Economy and the Art of Subtle Songwriting
Many songwriters are lauded for their descriptive lyrics. It’s rarer for a lyricist to do the same thing within a much tighter word budget.
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Self Control
Let’s take a trip back to 1984. Hair was big, pants were tight, Dallas was on TV every Friday, and two recording artists on either side of the Atlantic deployed a most unusual strategy.
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North Brooklyn Organizing for Climate Justice is Community and Environmental Resilience (Part 1)
For the past two years, a coalition of Brooklyn-based climate activists has been demonstrating in opposition to a fracked gas transmission pipeline project running from Brownsville to Greenpoint.
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Radio Free Brooklyn presents: “Changüí, Music of Cuba”
Come join RFB on a musical journey into the heart of Cuba’s Changüí country with RFB host Gianluca Tramontana.
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#RFB Host Profile: George Faulkner and “Metrowave”
George Faulkner spills about his favorite childhood band, the unexpected delight of creating music remotely—and internationally—during the pandemic, and why Sunday nights are Funday nights!
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#RFB Host Profile: Kaitlyn DeTrinis & “Mixed Signals”
The Power of One: Kaitlyn DeTrinis of "Mixed Signals" wants to make us think more ethically about the way we all consume music.
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#RFBMilestones: Jim Melloan and “50 Years Ago This Week”
Jim Melloan of “50 Years Ago This Week” has been bringing popular music from the 20th century to new audiences since RFB began. Read on for the method (and memories) behind his music madness! (That's Jim on the left with his sisters 50 years ago, in 1971.)
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#RFBMilestones: Happy RFBversary!
There hasn't been all that much to celebrate lately...but check out these Radio Free Brooklyn shows that reached milestones this summer! Shout-outs and congrats to all!
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“Improbable Confetti” hits Episode 100!
”Oh wait, I thought we were doing costumes for the 100th?! So I just bought this Jorge Luis Borges full-body suit and mask for nothing? Seriously, we talked about it and everything!”
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#RFBinTribute: Millie Small
In the mid-1960s, teenage Millie Small's hit song, “My Boy Lollipop,” helped pave the way for Jamaican music and musicians (especially ska), to become internationally popular.
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RFB Artist Interview: Noah Dreiblatt
“I’ve always thought if you can’t laugh into the abyss, it’ll laugh into you.” Experimental pop artist Noah Dreiblatt talks to RFB's Girl Wunder about his debut solo album, Doomscrolling, on the eve of his appearance on this week’s (05/07) Virtual Voyager!
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RFB Artist Profile: LoveHoney’s New Album Release
Lovehoney frontwoman Aly Quiñones on what it was like for the band to create their new album (releasing 02/14/21) while the Covid-19 pandemic is still, sadly, a thing, being a little brown grrrl in a band making noise — and the William Burroughs quote she lives by.
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RFB Host Profile: Francesca D’Alessio and “Love Me or Leave Me”
“Love Me or Leave Me” host Francesca D’Alessio on her lifetime love of radio, why Nina Simone is her muse and how RFB’s “Wall of Lies” led to doing her show.
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#RFBinTribute: Adam Schlesinger
RFB editorial star Emily Scott penned this poignant tribute to the Fountains of Wayne frontman, who died from complications of COVID-19 in April 2020 at age 52.
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RFB Artist Profile: Dan Berg interview with Girl Wunder
Jessica Wu (a.k.a Girl Wunder of RFB’s Virtual Voyager), chats with electro-soul-jazz-house music producer Dan Berg (a.k.a. Fireberg) on the debut of his latest mix, “Supernova,” making music during a global pandemic — and the sounds you might find in outer space.
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RFB Host Profile: Alex Jones of “Alex Jones’ Planet of Sound”
Broadcasting from Manchester, England, Alex Jones shares his love for psychedelic music and breathes new life into a genre associated with the turbulence and social changes of the 1960s.
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RFB Host Profile: Christian Carrion of “Stranger Than Christian”
He’s been a game show contestant, podcast host and co-founder of a game show marathon charity. Now, Christian Carrion adds “unscripted radio show,” to his considerable credits.
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RFB Host Profile: Jesse Roth of “The Mess”
Jesse Roth brings her comedic chops to a new medium with her new show lauding (and loving) all things Pop.
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RFB New Host Profile: Brian and Scott of “Giants Among Men”
Brian DiMenna and Scott Ishii have been shouting their hot takes on New York sports at each other since childhood. Now, you’ll get to hear them, too.
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RFB New Host Profile: Kevin and Eric of “The Daily Echo”
Multispecies host duo Kevin and Eric of “The Daily Echo” give their unique perspectives about... what it’s like to be a multispecies host duo.
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RFB New Host Profile: Cookie Puss of “Dead Air”
Universal Pictures had E.T.; NBC had ALF. Radio Free Brooklyn has Cookie Puss — its new resident alien host who promises to be very tasty (if not exactly tasteful).
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RFB New Host Profile: Mr. Funkopops of “Private Party”
SoCal DJ Mr. Funkopops hosts a smooth and sensual “Private Party” where everyone (or at least RFB listeners) is/are always on ”The List.”
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Securing Their Future: Grace Exhibition Space Celebrates Its Evolution with #Give2Grace
From September 22–28, Grace Exhibition Space presents a week-long virtual art event and fundraiser to celebrate its evolution — and survival as a dedicated home for performance artists.
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#RFBinTribute: Music in Memoriam “Big Blow — The Loss of Manu Dibango”
Kent Koren, RFB’s host of “The Mothers of Connection,” penned this tribute to the great and prolific Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango, who died this spring from COVID-19 at the age of 86.
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Hurdy Gurdy Songs Celebrates 100 Episodes of Music, Truth Telling and Memories
Jorge Arevalo Mateus and RFB’s Hurdy Gurdy Songs celebrates its 100th episode on Tuesday, September 15 with a calvacade of truth-telling musical talent from around the world.
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RFB Artist Profile: Brooklyn singer-songwriter Hallie Spoor’s new video: “City Angels”
Vivian Bossieux-Skinner of RFB's Art Corner revisits with Brooklyn singer-songwriter Hallie Spoor as she releases a new video of her song, “City Angels.”
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RFB New Host Profile: Brad Bailey of “The Oral History of New York”
Not many people would choose to debut a new radio show in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, but Radio Free Brooklyn — and all of New York City — should be real glad Brad Bailey did.
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#RFBhostprofile: Jessica Wu is the “Girl Wunder” behind “Virtual Voyager”
RFB’s “Girl Wunder” debuts her new show “Virtual Voyager” in the midst of a global pandemic... and the worst civil unrest the U.S. has experienced in our lifetimes.
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#RFBhost profile: Eric Speck and the fresh sounds, hidden treasures and lost gems of “Time to Be Useless.”
Many people love music, but to Eric Speck, letting it render you “useless” is an even higher calling.
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Fraser Tye of Radio Free Brooklyn’s “Brooklyn Vignettes” podcast
Australian expat Fraser Tye on why “Brooklyn Vignettes” is Brooklyn’s ultimate “bedtime story.”
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