8.12 A wknd w/ Plastic Picnic

The band on baseball, banh mi and their Saturday-night album-release show at Baby's All Right

Aug 12, 2022

Sure, you’ve spotted a band you love at a bar, but have you ever stuffed down a sloppy joe while sitting next to them in a mess hall? Enter The Wild Honey Pie’s Welcome Campers: a summer camp meets music festival where you might be playing dodgeball or drinking on the dock or making friendship bracelets next to an exceptionally cool-looking group of people and then at some point they stand up, conjure guitars from behind nearby bushes and you realize, oh… that’s the band.

Welcome Campers 2019 was our first experience seeing/hearing/tie-dying in close proximity to PNW-born, BK-based band Plastic Picnic, who headlined the “dance” portion of the event on the final night of the festival. And while we’d never been to summer camp, the group’s music served as the perfect dreamy/sexy soundtrack for an evening that was jusssst like how we imagined it would be based on the movies… except boys and girls didn’t stand on opposite ends of the gym, the punch already came spiked and everyone in attendance had definitely hit puberty like one or two decades ago.

Fast-forward to fall 2020, and we were sitting down to interview drummer Gordon Taylor and guitarist Lincoln Lute of the band in an exact-opposite-of-music-festival format—over Zoom, during a pandemic—for the BdBK book, during which they sang the praises of Sunny’s, Prospect Park, Do or Dive and a particularly special bodega where they’d eat cheap sandwiches after band practice. Fast-forward a bit more to June 2022, when we got to enjoy them IRL during their Governor’s Ball late show at Mercury Lounge. Thennnnn fast-forward one more time to just last week, when the group released their brand-new album As Long As You Need, which they’ll be celebrating THIS SATURDAY—aka tomorrow!—with a release show at Baby’s All Right. (Tix avail here!)

SO… we hope you enjoyed that relationship timeline. (Scrapbook coming soon!!!) Now, much more importantly, a word from Plastic Picnic’s Emile Paneiro on the new album:

“As Long As You Need is a daily fitting title — the album is a very sincere and vulnerable large chunk of our personal experiences over the past decade. I wanted our first LP to really feel like getting to know us, what we’ve experienced and what we’re learning as we age together. A big theme was confrontation — things I personally avoided for most of my twenties — past traumas and unhealthy coping mechanisms.”

While we personally have enjoyed a nice 33+ year streak of desperately avoiding confrontation (#HEALTHY), we have to admit that facing things—rather than fleeing from them—probably does make for far better art, and As Long As You Need is, as expected, a very excellent album.

SO! Snap up the record now, celebrate it tomorrow and read ononon for a small stack o’ wknd plans crafted by Plastic Picnic—an itinerary which might not involve archery or tug-o-war or anything remotely resembling the Blob butttt still seems pretty sweet anyway.

Wheeeeeeew, it’s gonna be a nice one! As per every Friday: go forth, have fun & and plz enjoy enjoy enjoy it all~

[BUT FIRST: PRESS PLAY]

FRIDAY

Look on the app See Saw to see what shows are available at art galleries around Manhattan. Stop at Bahn Mi Co Ut for a cheap and delicious Bahn Mi sandwich. Finally grab some Picnic Pale Ale from Strong Rope Brewery and head to a park for an evening picnic and movie.

SATURDAY

Head to brunch, come to Baby's All Right for our release show with Bloomsday and buffchick, stick around for our afterparty featuring DJ sets from Starchild and Triathlon.

SUNDAY

Head to Citi Field for Mets v Phillies, catch the sunset at Domino Park, and grab a nightcap at Do or Dive.

Itinerary above written + provided by Plastic Picnic. Follow the band at @plasticpicnic, buy music on Bandcamp and add songs to your Spotify playlists!

Feature image provided by the band.

MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS

THURSDAY! Cross two rivers to hit up Pet Shop in Jersey City for SHOW UP FOR UKRAINE, an event presented by our friends Look At My Records! with performances from High., LAPÊCHE and Two-Man Giant Squid, and proceeds benefitting Ukraine Mutual Aid. Info here.

RELEASE RADAR

New(ish) stuff from local (+ occasionally, once-local) artists we love, listed in no order whatsoever:

All Good Things // b3cca

Who Would Notice? // LUCID LIP

Been Stellar // Been Stellar

Rat Corner // Grassbrothers

“Keep Away” // AMFM

IT’S HAPPENIN’

Here’s a look at the events we’ve got coming up. Mark your calendars and come hang!

8.14 BdBK x New Colossus Summer Sunday w/ Elizabeth Wyld, Moonglow, Atlas Engine, Stranger Waves, Two-Man Giant Squid @ 18th Ward Brewing (FREE!) -Deets here.

9.6 BOOK RELEASE-DAY EVENT presented by WORD Bookstore: Sam Sumpter x Rich Weiss of Bloodless Management w/ a Q&A + performance by Atlas Engine (free!) at Saint Vitus - RSVP HERE

+ PLZ SAVE THE DATE for two very special release shows (TBA): 9/17 and 10/8.

A LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK

Leading up to the 9/6 release of Bands do BK — THE BOOK (avail for pre-order here), we’ll be dropping in *short* snippets from the 18-chapter ~manifesto~ that’s equal parts Brooklyn guidebook (by bands), oral history and music-fan memoir.

“The Graham Bar. The holiest of unholy places. I mean, The Graham is an institution. It’s like the degenerate version of Cheers. Everyone knows your name, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff about you too. I love it…
The place is usually filled with a rotating cast of characters, and it’s nearly impossible not to strike up a conversation and make an acquaintance if you’re so inclined. The marketing analyst, the tattoo artist, the art dealer, the reporter. Musicians, comedians, the burned-out sound engineer who just got off the job, all my fellow creatures of the night, all there. There’s even the Irish bartender from the joint down the street who will, without fail, invite you outside for a cigarette and then proceed to tell you several hilarious tales concerning living in the McKibbin Lofts alongside an elderly woman and her talking parrot…
Sometimes I’d go down there just to break the monotony of whatever day it was. I’d go to the Graham, order a drink at the bar, and wait. Something would happen. There are always shenanigans, there is always a story, and they always read like episodes from a sitcom. The Concert. The Photo. The Standoff. The Necklace. The Fire.
You know those places that are officially open ’til 4 a.m., but that you always seem to wind up leaving only well after the doors have been closed? Yeah, that’s The Graham.”

[Scott Martin on (obviously) The Graham]