these are not photographs

On Thursday, May 23, 2013, I attended the Red Bull Music Academy event called United States of Bass. Different US styles of bass dance music were featured on both floors of Santos Party House. Above are the favorite images I took that night of DJs Krampfhaft and Magic Mike, Egyptian Lover, Big Freedia and some of the dancers from the event.

More photos are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

Eric and I traveled to Chicago on May 16th in order to cover this year’s edition of Hozac Blackout Festival for Impose. We saw a ton of bands (only managing to miss two sets the final night) all four nights and some of my images from the second night appear above. My favorite sets from that night were from Unnatural Axe (who were on the receiving end on a protest from a Christian church) and Make-Overs, who are from South Africa and are playing Cake Shop on June 4th.

More photos are on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Saturday, May 25th, Vår and Pharmakon performed together playing selections from their respective albums, No One Dances Quite Like My Brothers and Abandon at The Rink in Brooklyn. I found the show extremely difficult to shoot due to the lack of natural light and being prohibited from using my flash when Loke Rahbek of Vår and Pharmakon would roam around the stage area (I was able to take a couple of photos of Loke before being asked not to use flash). Despite this, I’m quite happy with the results since I started to experiment using lights from other people’s cameraphones (this was done in the first image above).

More photos from the performance are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Tuesday, May 21st, Majical Cloudz celebrated the release of their record Impersonator, with a record release show in Brooklyn, NY at Glasslands Gallery. The band performed the album in track order and closed the show with a special DJ set by Grimes.

Additional photos are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Sunday, April 29th, Hilly Eye and Emily Wells performed at Caponegro Urological Associates (a former urology clinic) for a potluck brunch session organized by Impose Magazine.

More photos from the show are available on Impose and Flickr.

On Tuesday, April 30th, Red Bull Music Academy presented a show in conjunction with Brainfeeder, the record label imprint that’s run by Flying Lotus. The night featured performances by Brainfeeder artists such as Azizi Gibson, The Underachievers, Teebs, PBDY and the mysterious Captain Murphy (who is actually an alias of Flying Lotus). The night ended with a DJ set by DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown, who is none other than Erykah Badu.

More photos from the show are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Tuesday, March 19th, Savages performed at Music Hall of Williamsburg with No Bra.

Additional photos are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.

On Saturday, March 2nd, San Diego’s The Night Marchers finally returned to Brooklyn. I last saw the band in July 2010 at Village Voice Siren Festival and I was extremely excited to cover them for Impose.

Opening the show was Mrs. Magician, also of San Diego, CA. The band was setting up as I arrived to the venue so I didn’t miss any of their performance. They were pretty great and I felt bad that not many people were around to catch their set. Up next was Birmingham’s Dan Sartain who pummeled through his set, barely taking any breaks in between songs. When he did speak in between songs, he raved about the other bands on the bill and said that he was terrible. That was not true. I ended up picking up one of his CDs before I left Glasslands.

The Night Marchers were fantastic. This was my third time seeing the band and probably my favorite performance of theirs. I’ve been a fan of John Reis for years and each time I see him play, I always wish that I could see him live more often. He’s a funny motherfucker. I’ll leave this post with some of the things he said Saturday night that I managed to jot down on my phone.

• LEDs are the mp3s of lighting
• We have Bjork’s wedding dress above us.
• It’s as if Paul Bunyan shot a mega load inside the club.
• You are our prisoners for the next 35 minutes.
• We are so horny to play for you tonight, New York.
• You, with the high tech earplugs, I’ve been wanting to pull them out of your ears and shove them up your ass.

More photos and the Night Marchers’ setlist are available on Impose and Flickr.

The So So Glos and The Orwells performed at Santos Party House on Friday, March 1, 2013. Radkey were also on the bill but they literally finished their last notes after I got my bag searched by security so I missed them completely. All three bands on the bill have brothers in their lineup. “Isn’t that cute?” said Ryan of The So So Glos. It was. It really, really was.

More photos from the show are available on Flickr and Impose Magazine.

Autre Ne Veut and Majical Cloudz performed at Santos Party House on Wednesday, February 27, 2013. I covered the show for Impose Magazine and more photos are available on the Impose site and on Flickr.

Photos from Chelsea Wolfe, King Dude and Starred performing at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Saturday, January 26, 2013.

Additional photos are available on Impose and Flickr.

I spent the day before Christmas with comedians and the day after Christmas with rappers at Brooklyn Bowl. Despite being exhausted (I cooked and cleaned for Christmas plus went to work the day afterwards), the show at Brooklyn Bowl was an insanely fun time albeit difficult to shoot (despite having access to get on stage, I stuck with one spot the entire night [with the exception of running to get a terrible photo of Bronson bowling] in one spot and got some great pictures from that one place).

Additional photos and a recap of the crazy night are available on Impose Magazine. Photos are on Flickr too.

One of the great things about being a native New Yorker is not having to leave town during the holidays. My mom came to over to spend Christmas with us and we ended up hosting other people on the holiday as well.

When the Monday night comedy show Night Train announced a special Christmas Eve edition, I purchased tickets to attend since I didn’t have any other plans. Tickets were only $5, the show sold out and I had a fantastic time.

Details and additional photos are available on Impose Magazine and Flickr.