finally, finally, finally — the first glimpses of the super top-secret trailer for Karate. This video is going to be off the smuckers when it finally comes out. this is just the first step: tell us what you think!
Epic Rock of Le Yacht
(Wed 4/13. 11pm. Rockwood Music Hall)
really... just about says it all
…as far as exposition, i think Brian said it best:
Behold, We are Aabaraki. we are not of your world. But fear us not, we will do you no harm. Loan us your mind and we shall play with it. For nothing is good unless you play with it. And all that is good, is nasty!”
Join us this Wednesday Night…
the second week of our April Residency
for the Epic Rock of Le Yachts!
Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1 at 11pm
This will be a one of a kind set.
This we pledge by blood oath.
you will be able to tell your children,
and your children’s children…
hallplayermcdonaldchristopherfagenoatesmichaelcrossbeckerhallplay
christopherfagenoatesmichaelcrossbeckerhallplayhallplayermcdonald
mcdonaldchristopherfagenoatesmichaelcrossbeckerhallplayhallplaye
Four Weeks of Aabaraki
friends, foes, & lovers —
it is April and it is begun. Week One of the Aabaraki Residency at Rockwood Music Hall begins tonight. We begin with a warning shot over the bow. We are Aabaraki. We Demand Satisfaction.
in the coming weeks, we will elucidate further.
we’re playing at 11pm, but right before us (at 10) are some friends of ours and a great band, Live Society. So we’ll be around for the duration. What a great way to kick things off this month.
Live Society and Aabaraki... tonight!
peace.
friends. romans. countrymen.
Welcome to the beginning of Spring! Its a brand new season for the music of Aabaraki. Its been a minute since the Rockwood 2 show in February. We dearly thank all of you who came out to support us as we played after Emily King’s amazing band last month. We took the month of March to really get our heads around the album release, shooting videos, and organizing some tours for later in the year. That stuff is really starting cook now, but we miss playing. As such, we’re beginning a season of constant stutter-funkery ASAP.
And the first night is going to be this Thursday March 31st at Bar 4 [444 7th Avenue] in Park Slope at 10pm. We’re bringing back to the borough we were spawned from for one night of unrelenting music. On before, at 9, will be the wonderful Natalie John returned from a recent romp around the world and with quartet and beautiful music. We’ll be trying out some new material and also some rarely heard songs that have been around for a while. Come check us out in our natural habitat.
We’ll have our hair down.
Just a little something to hold you over. March is a slow month for reduction.stutter.funk — nonetheless — we are getting ready for a crazy April with shows every Wednesday night at Rockwood. We’ve already got gigs on the horizon for May and June as well.
The record is finished and the art work is in progress. And soon, my non-NewYorker-friends, Aabaraki may be rocking in your area. Word up.
Til then, this is just what we’ve got for you.
with the Rockwood II gig behind us, we’re burning on all cylinders for the EP. We’ve got album artwork to figure out, layout and all that jazz, and finding a good place for the record release party.
toward that end — and because we’ve got a photo shoot coming up on the 6th — it was time to go shopping. the transformation from schlub to slickster is one we know all too well. but we didn’t want to go into this shoot without stacking the decks in our favor. so with the help of our crack photographer, Jennifer Painter, and our intrepid stylist, Kendall Nash, we took to the streets in search of some good clothes.
***
[akie]
Ari and I arrived on the scene a bit late — my Ford Focus was feeling the strain that morning — with our requisite coffees and cigar (for me). if we look a little bleary-eyed, confused, distressed, or confused its probably because we almost never go shopping and couldn’t be certain what the day would hold.
however with a little help — and a great deal of supervision — from Jen and Kendall we were able to throw ourselves into the act with some gusto after a few minutes. the first round was sort of a warm up. we walked through the store, picked out some shirts, some ties, some hats and things. and we adjourned to the dressing room to try it all on. i think, of that first batch, there was only one keeper and particularly excellently brownish tie with quails (or pheasants, we’re not sure) on it. other wise, nothing really stuck. i’m sure it will feature prominently in a later post.
for the second round through Beacon’s Closet, we decided to go hard in the proverbial paint. Jen introduced me to something I can only describe as a shopping flux-state. just as with playing music where you enter a sort of hyper-consciousness when you’re playing dynamically in front of an audience, making thousands of little decisions at once and trying to maintain and overall sense of cohesion — such that your mind will either shatter from the pressure or jump up orbits like an excited electron — so: we did at the store.
we went rack by rack, quickly flipping the items on the hangars. pulling what caught our eye or otherwise moving one. so with dozens upon dozens (maybe hundreds) of options before us, we were able to get through everything in like ten minutes. i didn’t think i would be able to do it at first. but i did.
and we took all that stuff back to the dressing room and tried it on. again… not much that we really, really liked. i found a particularly interesting peach-colored shirt (again, it will have a post of its own, i’m sure).
we did find one last item, however, that we simply could not put back. a divinely pinkish cardigan. now, i don’t wear too many cardigans really, but everyone told me it was a great look. suffice it to say, i got it. and i can’t wait to wear it about town.
akie's new look (see it. believe it!)
…next we headed to Buffalo Exchange (right up the street, really). And there we found quite a few things we needed. something was lacking however: the consensus was, cool as we might look in our new stuff, we were rocking some inexcusably wack pants. now: no man wants to hear this kind of thing. but all i needed to do was look down and see Jen and Kendall were right.
as such, jeans became the ultimate mission of the day. i tried on a couple pairs at Buffalo… most didn’t make it past my kneecaps, but i did manage to get myself in to one pair in particular (it wasn’t pretty the things i had to do to myself to get IN those pants). and, after all that exertion, the response was mostly positive!
tight pants and plaid.
we were pretty happy with the take at Buffalo. so we headed back to the car with our new acquisitions!
the take, from Williamsburg...
now, if anyone has ever spent prolonged periods of time with me and Ari, they know it can be a bit awkward. we decided the last stop on the aabaraki-day-of-shop would have to be Uniqlo in SoHo so that we could get some jeans that really did the trick. Jen had her bike and actually rode off into the sunset. Poor Kendall had some quality awkward time with Ari and me.
…at Uniqlo
this is where it gets good. by the time we got to SoHo and found parking and made our way to Uniqlo we knew: it was great jeans or bust! and so we entered the store in full on shop-flux and in just a little while we had our hands FULL of clothes to try one. it was sight to see, to awkward men heavy-laden with clothing waiting in line to try them on.
i’m honestly not sure we’d have been able to sort through it all without Jen and Kendall. I mean, we probably would have given up before we even found the floor with pants on it. It was like the maze at the of the TriWizard Cup, i’m saying.
Ari -- with Jen (furthest right) and Kendall who were examining the threads
there was plenty for Ari to try on!
same here. oh the joy of dressing rooms!
i’d love to show you all the crazy stuff we tried on and what we eventually ended up with but I don’t want to spoil the surprise when the photos come out. so you’re going to have to wait just a little while longer to know how this whole shopping thing turned out.
after Uniqlo, we were completely tapped out. we didn’t know if we should get coffee, get beer, get food or what. eventually we all went our separate ways. still pretty excited for sunday… when everything comes together. O, synergy!
…post-script: regardless, music is everywhere
shortly thereafter, i found myself in Penn Station waiting to catch a train. Just as i was debating which horrible underground fast food establishment to get some victuals from i strode into the atrium of the Penn Station to find a trio ripping it up right by the Ticketing machines. For no good reason. And they weren’t just playing around.
interestingly, just as i stepped up close to them the drummer executed a very Aaron Steele-like fill (straight out of the reduction.stutter.funk handbook) and then popped out of his seat like he’d gotten stung by a bee.
it was then i knew: this is only the beginning.
we just want to thank everyone who made it out to the Rockwood gig this Wednesday. We really had a nice-size audience and it felt good playing for a receptive crowd. a lot of good comes from people getting together and enjoying each other company and music. With Arthur Lewis and Emily King and Nigel Hall and the Waking Lights — its was just a brilliant line up to be part of.
right now we’re looking forward to March. We’ve got a late-night photoshoot going on in Brooklyn and we’re hoping to finalize our album art for the EP. That means there will likely be a CD release party happening sometime in the near future. And in the meantime, we’re writing new songs besides!
the year is really starting off right for aabaraki…
excitement abounds!
just as the temperatures begin to rise here and the city is finally starting to thaw, it feels like 2011 is really beginning. The birds are singing, the cow are lowing — its a beautiful day in Brooklyn. And yet all we can think about is next week, Wednesday, when we take the stage with two of our favorite friends and musicians at Rockwood Stage II.
This coming Wednesday, we’ll be sharing a bill with Mr. Arthur Lewis [ www.arthurthefourth.com] and the illustrious Ms. Emily King [ www.emilykingmusic.com]. It will be a night of simply delicious music all around. Arthur & The Geniuses at 7pm (and if you look closely, you might recognize some of the folks in his band) and Emily et al will be the locus of the night’s centripetal force at 915.
at 1030, yours truly. with some special guests. some songs many of you have never heard. and all the music you can hold with two hands.
its going to be live!
aabaraki
hey all
thanks to everyone who came out to support the band last Friday. We had a blast and Rockwood was packed and it was steamy and balmy and hot and funky. Everything an Aabaraki show should be!
also want to give a shout out to reviewer Ace of iheardtheysucklive.com for checking out the band and posting a real, real nice review to the site. They took some awesome photos, too.
…in other news, we’re all gearing up for a photoshoot next monday at The Gallery (where we recorded the EP). Akie is very proud of his new preposterously large glasses, Ari has been working on his Tarantino impression, and Aaron has been running through his Robot moves (he is blackData, after all). The General, Brian, is going to lead the troops to certain victory. It has been said, many times (and often by Brian) that they don’t call him the General for nothing.
and the next gig is only a few weeks away, people! we’ll be back at Rockwood only this time: we’ll be at Stage 2. Going on right after the illustrious Emily King and her band. And we’re going to pull all the stops. Every single stop we can find. We’d love to pack that joint and have funky dropping hot from the rafters. So put February 23rd down in your calendars and reserve THAT thursday night for your most hardest of getting downs.
and with that: back to the grind.
stay up, Stutter-funkers.
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reduction.stutter.f*nk 