11.10 A wknd w/ BODEGA
Ahead of their TURKEY SLAMDOWN set this Saturday, the band on pedestrian detours, app deletion and some freestyle art instructions
As NYers, we all know and love the bodega—
Our go-to for coffee, stamps, cigarettes. Shampoo, socks, scratch-offs. A box of condoms, a can of soup, a paper bag-wrapped beer. And of course, the late-night mecca for a munchies-satisfying shopping spree when, to borrow lyrics from NYC rock band Parquet Courts, you’re feeling so stoned and starving.
And more importantly, as NY music fans, we all know and love BODEGA—
The New York post-punk/art-rock/indie-rock (genre classification c/o Wikipedia) act helmed by Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio, who released their latest album Broken Equipment last year.
While BODEGA may be a hometown band, they’re not exactly the kind of local group you’ll catch hitting Brooklyn basement stages every other Thursday. You might run into them, though, while they’re bouncing around the UK or touring Europe, perhaps at a festival in Scotland, The Netherlands or France. (It’s no surprise Europe loves them — in 2022, they released their song “Statuette On the Console” in English, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Ukrainian; listen to all nine versions here.) Or maybe you’ll catch Ben and Nikki at a screening of PVT Chat, the pair’s 2020 feature film that stars Julia Fox and Peter Vack and is scored by Austin Brown of the aforementioned Parquet Courts. (“Jack is an internet gambler living in NYC who becomes fixated on Scarlet - a cam girl from San Francisco. His obsession reaches a boiling point when fantasy materializes in reality and Jack sees Scarlet on a rainy Chinatown street.” - IMDB.) (Pulling out all the reference websites for this one!)
That’s all to say that despite what the name might indicate, as an artistic entity, BODEGA is certainly not a dime a dozen—and you won’t find one of these on every single street corner. That’s why we are ~extra excited~ to share that BODEGA will very soon be hitting a stage just down the street—serving up songs, not sandwiches—THIS SATURDAY at Rubulad for TURKEY SLAMDOWN!
Which, remember, is all benefitting Make the Road NY, an org that “builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice.”
(Oh and btw, entire preamble aside, if you insist on missing SLAMDOWN, you can also catch BODEGA at TV Eye w/ Big Bliss on December 6th.)
ALRIGHT! Now that you’re hungry for music—plus probably plantain chips, pork rinds and Bazzini Nuts or something of the sort—please proceed to pre-game with this video of BODEGA’s set at La Route du Rock (August 2023) and go forth and get your weekend started via the band’s simultaneously abstract and extremely specific recs below.
Yeehaw! It’s gonna be a very good one, for a very good cause.
Catch ya out there 🎉🦃🎉🦃🎉🦃🎉
[BUT FIRST: PRESS PLAY]
BODEGA WEEK END (SUGGESTS)
Delete your twitter
Go for a walk (take a detour)
Listen w/ yr eyes
Listen to yr thoughts as if they weren’t yr own
Listen to a familiar LP as if you were hearing it for the first time
Write a poem w/o judgment
Take a breezy POV ride through the woods :
Listen to the Proteus chapter from Ulysses while freestyle drawing (anything goes):
Bookmark bodeganyc.tumblr.com/
Itinerary above written + submitted by BODEGA. Follow the band at @bodegabk, buy music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!
Feature image (provided by the band): Pooneh Ghana
MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tunes n tats n tunes n tats // In more TURKEY SLAMDOWN news, there will be FLASH ON SITE, BABY! Check out the options below and DM your tattooist Tyler (of TVOD fame) at @tvv.tat to reserve your spot.
SURPRISE! We’ve got not one but two BdBK HOLIDAY PARTIES this year!
And both are serving as SOCK DRIVES FOR THE HOMELESS, so please bring new, clean (unworn!) socks to donate.
Flyers incoming, but in the meantime, mark your cals and buy your tix for:
12/6: Mary Shelley (single release), Wetsuit, BRODEO, Redbud, Go Home @ Our Wicked Lady - TIX HERE
12/8: Jelly Kelly, SKORTS, Wakelee, Tennis Courts, Redbud @ Arlene’s Grocery - TIX HERE
ALSO: These are two of three shows we’re doing with Austin-based act Redbud (who we met through a show at the always-rad No Hassle Castle) whom you’re destined to fall immediately in love with. As for the third show, well that would be…
12/5 : STRONG LITTLE SONGS ft. Redbud, Sam Zalta, Taylor Yancey (of Mary Shelley) and our co-host Arlo Indigo, this round benefitting Toys for Tots. As always, BYOB + donation-based, with BdBK matching the first $150 in donations this round. DM @bandsdobk 4 address.
Also: NEW CLASSIFIEDS ARE UP! As always, bands are looking for new members, musicians are looking to join/form bands, and some groups are looking for others acts to split their rehearsal spaces. Find details + contact info for all the listings here.
RELEASE RADAR
New(ish) stuff from local (+ occasionally, once-local) artists we love, listed in no order whatsoever:
“She” // Razor Braids
American Altar // Pan Arcadia
“Something More” // Grand Sun
“Jump In” video // The Upsides
“NY Trash” // Slut Magic
“Get Fixed” // Middle Part
IT’S HAPPENIN’
11.11 BdBK presents TURKEY SLAMDOWN w/ BODEGA, My Son The Doctor, Work Wife, Mary Shelley, SQORE — all benefitting Make the Road NY @ Rubulad - Tix here
12/6 HOLIDAY BASH + SOCK DRIVE ft. Mary Shelley (single release!), Wetsuit, Redbud, BRODEO, Go Home @ Our Wicked Lady - Tix here
12/8: HOLIDAY BASH 2 + SOCK DRIVE ft. Jelly Kelly, SKORTS, Wakelee, Tennis Courts, Redbud @ Arlene’s Grocery - Tix here
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