The Williamsburg Avant-Garde : Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront

In The Williamsburg Avant-Garde Cisco Bradley chronicles the rise and fall of the underground music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and the early 2010s. Drawing on interviews, archival collections, musical recordings, videos, photos, and other ephemera, Bradley explores the scene’s social, cultural, and economic dynamics. Building on the neighborhood’s punk DIY approach and aesthetic, Williamsburg's free jazz, postpunk, and noise musicians and groups---from Mary Halvorson, Zs, and Nate Wooley to Matana Roberts, Peter Evans, and Darius Jones---produced shows in a variety of unlicensed venues as well as in clubs and cafes. At the same time, pirate radio station free103point9 and music festivals made Williamsburg an epicenter of New York’s experimental culture. In 2005, New York’s rezoning act devastated the community as gentrification displaced its participants farther afield in Brooklyn and in Queens. With this portrait of Williamsburg, Bradley not only documents some of the most vital music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; he helps readers better understand the formation, vibrancy, and life span of experimental music and art scenes everywhere. "In The Williamsburg Avant-Garde Cisco Bradley chronicles the rise and fall of the underground music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and early 2010s. Drawing on interviews, archival collections, musical recordings, videos, photos, and other ephemera, Bradley explores the scene's social, cultural, and economic dynamics. Building on the neighborhood's punk DIY approach and aesthetic, free jazz, post punk, and noise musicians and groups ranging from Mary Halvorson, Zs, and Nate Wooley to Matana Roberts, Peter Evans, and Darius Jones produced shows in a variety of unlicensed venues as well as clubs and cafes. At the same time, pirate radio station Free103point9 and music festivals made Williamsburg an epicenter of New York's experimental culture. In 2005, New York's rezoning act devastated the community, as gentrification displaced its participants further afield in Brooklyn and Queens. With this portrait of Williamsburg, Bradley not only documents some of the most vital music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, he helps readers better understand the formation, vibrancy, and lifespan of experimental music and art scenes everywhere."-- Provided by publisher In The Williamsburg Avant-Garde Cisco Bradley chronicles the rise and fall of the underground music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and early 2010s. Drawing on interviews, archival collections, musical recordings, videos, photos, and other ephemera, Bradley explores the scene's social, cultural, and economic dynamics. Building on the neighborhood's punk DIY approach and aesthetic, its free jazz, post punk, and noise musicians and groups--from Mary Halvorson, Zs, and Nate Wooley to Matana Roberts, Peter Evans, and Darius Jones--produced shows in a variety of unlicensed venues as well as in clubs and cafes. At the same time, pirate radio station free103point9 and music festivals made Williamsburg an epicenter of New York's experimental culture. In 2005, New York's rezoning act devastated the community as gentrification displaced its participants farther afield in Brooklyn and in Queens. With this portrait of Williamsburg, Bradley not only documents some of the most vital music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, he helps readers better understand the formation, vibrancy, and lifespan of experimental music and art scenes everywhere CONTENTS 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: Locating the Williamsburg Avant-Garde 15 PART I UTOPIAN SPACES FOR SOUND 35 CHAPTER ONE The Emergence of the Williamsburg Scene: Warehouses, Squatter Parties, and Punk Roots, 1988–1994 35 CHAPTER TWO Pirate Radio and Jumping the River: The Williamsburg Loft Scene, 1997–2004 69 CHAPTER THREE Art Galleries, Clubs, and Bohemian Cafés: The Williamsburg DIY, 2001–2006 114 PART II COMMERCIAL DIY AND THE LAST UNDER- GROUND VENUES 159 CHAPTER FOUR A Point of Confluence: The Downtown Scene Comes to Zebulon, 2004–2006 159 CHAPTER FIVE A New Generation Emerges: Zebulon, 2005–2012 203 CHAPTER SIX A Fractured Landscape: The Last Avant-Garde Music Spaces of Williamsburg, 2005–2014 242 Afterword: Art, Experiment, and Capital 277 Notes 285 Art Sources for the Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Music, Film, Painting, and Television 349 Bibliography 357 Index 381 Cisco Bradley chronicles the rise and fall of the avant-garde music and art scene in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn between the late 1980s and early 2010s.