3.31 A wknd w/ Moonunitt
The band on breakfast pizza, the Brooklyn Museum and their Friday-night single-release show at Our Wicked Lady
GOOD AFTERNOON! While last Friday’s SETLIST focused on an individual extraterrestrial who touched down on stage early this week in Williamsburg, this round we’ve got a whole barrel of space-dwelling bandmates who are dropping down to Brooklyn from their home a whopping 238,900 miles away on (based on the band name) WHERE ELSE BUT THE MOON—
Or maybe more like 100 miles away… up in New Paltz, NY. Don’t believe everything you read.
ANYWAY! With that, we’d like to introduce you to this week’s SETLIST scribes, upstate’s one and only Moonunitt, who are playing Our Wicked Lady TONIGHT!
Grab your tickets here.
And as if being a band from (a little) afar wasn’t NOVEL or NOTEWORTHY or EXCITING enough, we’ve got two extra reasons to come out to celebrate with the band tonight:
A SINGLE RELEASE! Their newest track—“Young Dave”—is out TODAY!
Who is Dave you ask? Grohl? Matthews? That skeeball-lovin’ bastard Buster’s BFF?! Listen, ponder, please let us know in the comments.
A BIRTHDAY! Tonight’s show is doubling as a celebration of Moonunitt mastermind Evan Seligman’s latest journey around the sun… moon… whatever. Please join us now in singing along from your apartment/the sidewalk/the subway/the bathroom/the waiting room/wherever you’re reading this:
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Evannnnnn
Happy birtttthdaaaay toooooo youuuuuuuu (and many more)
Beautiful. Remind us all to start a band.
ANYWAY! Don’t miss Moonunitt serving up a sonic ~experience~ that combines psychedelic pop and rock in a performance that’s been previously compared to Phish, The Flaming Lips and The Beatles TONIGHT! (Best part: this one will only cost you 15 bucks.)
And for the rest of your weekend plans, scroll forth and prosper! Sending you all the love + wishing you the best three days anyone’s ever had in the history of all humankind.
(If not, well, there’s always next wk <3)
[BUT FIRST: PRESS PLAY}
Our weekend in Brooklyn is centered around our show tonight at Our Wicked Lady with Grampfather, Tula Vera, AVATAREDEN, and Thesaurus Rex!
We love Our Wicked Lady. For a band of our caliber, this is a desirable venue— solid backline, great sound, fun lights, and chill atmosphere.
While this is Bands do BK, in the spirit of transparency, it’s worth acknowledging that we actually hail from “up north.” 3/4 of us grew up together in Ossining, New York (about an hour north of NYC) before relocating to New Paltz (yet another hour further north, if such lands are believed to exist) to host our own DIY shows. As a gaggle of 19-year-olds without a web presence or any legitimate experience, most respectable performance spaces had no incentive to book us at the time. Hosting events in our basement was our attempt to take things into our own hands. After having learned from the experience and making so many great friends along the way, we now appreciate the opportunity to perform in spaces that are actually equipped to accommodate live music (instead of, like, a dusty boiler room).
New Paltz is a fun little college town, but we’ve more or less exhausted that circuit (shouts out to Snug Harbor Bar & Grill!), so we’re setting our sights on bigger and better things— namely The Big Apple, baby! New York City! Woooooohoooo!!!
The gig itself aside, today also marks the release of our new single, “Young Dave”, one of four songs culled from a weekend spent at Dreamland Recording Studios in Woodstock, NY. Produced and mixed by recording legend Paul Q. Kolderie (producer/engineer for Radiohead, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., and countless others), this is undoubtedly some of our most “polished” work to date and we’re excited to release it to the wind!
Moving forward. Our! Weekend! In! Brooklyn! Yeah!!!!
FRIDAY
Show day! We are so excited for this show. We’ll spend the day rehearsing and getting pumped by listening to selections from Grampfather, AVATAREDEN, Tula Vera, and Thesaurus Rex. All of these bands f’ing rule and we’re hyped to see them play tonight.
For lunch, we’ll probably grab a deli sandwich. We like King Central Deli because it’s around the corner from our friend Marisa, who’s been kind enough to host us!
5 PM load-in, soundcheck, doors at 6:30, and then Grampfather shreds the stage at 7 PM sharp. These are good friends of ours from “upstate” (Kingston; so no, not actually upstate for whoever’s keeping score). Killer riffs, thoughtful lyricism, and outstanding musicianship— they are not to be missed.
Also, this show has a pretty strict 10:30 PM curfew because there’s a (free!) DJ party scheduled immediately after. These times are real! Music really does start at 7!
After the show, we’ll grab a celebratory pint at Bushwick’s famous Bar Cornelia before heading back to our drummer Evan’s place for post-show hangs and jams.
SATURDAY
Evan is really big on the concept of “breakfast pizza” for some reason — basically an omelette cooked on pizza dough. Similar to a quiche in many ways. We go for brunch at Public Display of Affection in Park Slope because they offer this as a menu item.
Given that it’s April Fool’s Day, we’ll likely spend the day playing pranks on one another. “Haha! Gotcha!” We are so silly and endearing. We’re like The Beatles, or One Direction. (Please love us.)
Later tonight, we’ll make our way over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to see one of our favorite bands, Melody’s Echo Chamber!
SUNDAY
We wind down from the weekend’s festivities with a visit to the Brooklyn Museum. It’s really big and cool and there’s a lot of great art there. We'll stop by Colina Cuervo on the way for some coffee and delicious empanadas.
Around mid-day, we pack our bags and head back up I-87. Later tonight, we’ll lay in bed, dreaming wistfully of BK and the bands that did it…
Itinerary above written + submitted by Moonunitt. Follow the band at @moonunitt, buy music on Bandcamp and add songs to your Spotify playlists.
Feature image provided by the band.
MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
This week we announced the next STRONG LITTLE SONGS show, benefitting Food Bank for NYC! Come out to BdBK HQ for intimate sets from Raising Daughters, Edna, Torture and the Desert Spiders and our co-host Arlo Indigo. As always, BYOB, donation-based, with BdBK matching the first $100 in donations. DM 4 address.
As mentioned in a previous newsletter—but def worth repeating—the print show for queen of the scene, lady of the lens, and one of the kindest people and most talented photographers we know Michelle LoBianco (@brooklynelitist) is MONDAY at Arlene’s Grocery, complete w/ performances by Tea Eater, NEVVA and Jasno Swarez. Get your tix here.
RELEASE RADAR
New(ish) stuff from local (+ occasionally, once-local) artists we love, listed in no order whatsoever:
“Strobes” // A Very Special Episode
“Young Dave” // Moonunitt
“Wendy” // Sid Simons
“Ralph'“ // Stefan Alexander
“The Great Mistake” video // Dale Jr.
The Tower // Desert Sharks
“She’s So American” // Reclining Nude
IT’S HAPPENIN’
Here’s a look at the events we’ve got coming up. Mark your calendars and come hang!
4.9 Bands do BK Brunch ft. Sara Devoe, Caitlin Starr, Telescope Club @ Arlene’s Grocery - tix here
4.11 STRONG LITTLE SONGS w/ Raising Daughters, Edna, Torture and the Desert Spiders, Arlo Indigo - DM 4 address
+ ICYMI
Around the blog + on the radio + from the archives:
PREMIERE: ‘LPIII’ from Low Presh
PREMIERE: “All Your Lines” from The Sheer Currents
Thx 4 reading! Find more fun stuff at bandsdobk.com and @bandsdobk. <3
Order the Bands do BK BOOK (!) (out now via Lit Riot Press) here.