8.6 A wknd w/ Oceanator

Elise Okusami on Thai food, a tape fair and three shows in three days

Aug 06, 2021

!TGIF! DO THE DAMN THING W/ OCEANATOR

One year ago, we kicked off 2x Tuesdays, an Instagram livestream series, with a killer in-apartment performance from Elise Okusami (aka Oceanator), who blew it out of the water on both the performance and fundraising fronts, resulting in $520 raised for the Audre Lorde Project in just one hour.

Three weeks later, Elise unleashed her ridiculously good record Things I Never Saidon the world, and soon after the drop, the multi-instrumentalist announced that she’d officially joined the Polyvinyl party.

Oh, and FYI, she hasn’t just been working on her own music. All the while, the artist has also been helping other musicians deliver their work to the world w/ love via her “teensy” but mighty local label, Plastic Miracles.

That’s just a sampling of Elise’s resume + our personal experience with the artist, and this is all to say that if you haven’t discovered Oceanator yet… well, it’s about damn time. And SPEAKING OF TIMING, yours is good! Because you have THREE OPPORTUNITIES to catch a performance this weekend as Elise hits the stage in Gowanus on Friday, Ridgewood on Saturday and at the Plastic Miracles tape fair in Bushwick on Sunday. (For the record, we recommend attending all three.)

Ahead of this show-stacked weekend, we asked Elise to build us an NYC itinerary. Read on for three days of fun curated by one of the best in the biz. Your weekend starts now, and—hot damn—it’s gonna be a good one.

[BUT FIRST: PRESS PLAY]

FRIDAY

Daughter Coffee Shop - Get coffee and pastries here. They’ve got a really cool step like, desert-ish seating area, plus some seats outside. Get there early if you don’t want the pastries to sell out!

Go on the internet and pick up some stuff from your favorite bands on Bandcamp! It’s Bandcamp Friday!

Head to Prospect Park and aimlessly walk around. I like to just pick a random path and explore, sometimes you find cool little out of the way places to sit and read or write.

Go to Midwood Flats for beers and dinner. They have a really good beer list. Their burgers are super good. You have to get the potato nachos they’re the best thing.

Come to my Oceanator solo show w/ Stimmerman and Tiny Gun at Green Lung Studio in Gowanus! [Get tickets here!]

SATURDAY

Cafe Con Libros - Start off with some coffee and book browsing here.

Greenlight Bookstore - More books! Either the Prospect Lefferts one or the Fort Greene one, they’re both great. They do a really great job curating the display tables, too. It’s really hard not to leave with something new and great.

Another solo Oceanator set! This time at Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood w/ Teenage Halloween and Maneka! [Get tickets here!]

SUNDAY

Walk up to the window at Mixtape Bushwick and grab a coffee or pastry. They also sell mixtapes and random cassettes!

Plastic Miracles x ATC Record and Tape Fair!

2-8pm at Marco’s (1071 Broadway) in the backyard
Citrus City, Ghostie Recordings, East Branch Tapes, Plastic Miracles, and Sweet Tooth Tapes will be tabling
2 craft makers will be tabling as well!
Decades Pizza will be selling pizzas all day
8 bands performing! Oceanator, Haybaby, Long Neck, Goldwoman, Fusilier, Yeah Is What We Have, Bluish, and Smile Machine!

Mao Mao - A short walk from Marco’s. Cool place in a basement with Thai street food and sometimes movies.

Itinerary above written + submitted by Oceanator. Follow the project at @oceanatorband, grab music + merch on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!

Photo (provided by the artist): Alex Joseph