BLAC RABBIT (NYC)
https://www.blacrabbit.com/
SUN PARADE (Northampton)
http://www.thesunparade.com/
+ DJ JULIE (Bad Magic/Sensual World/Bad Kids Night)
https://badmagic.bandcamp.com/
Thursday June 28th, 2018
8PM Doors & DJ // 9PM Bands
$10 Advance // $12 Day of Show
18+
Tickets: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1694302
We love a good “discovery story” and up-and-coming NYC act BLAC RABBIT has a killer one. Twin brothers with influences ranging from 60s, 70s and 80s hip-hip, classic rock and more, they played their killer psych originals at clubs around town, but were living that double life underground in the city! They were “discovered” playing spot-on Beatles covers while busking in the subway and became viral sensations going so far as to make it on the Ellen Show as well as amass a ton of followers onto their amazing originals backed by a full band! Check out these links if you haven’t already and then get your tickets for these youngs blow up! Just added is Northampton, MA’s own SUN PARADE and the rock and roll DJ stylings of one of the hardest working heads in the RVA music scene, DJ JULIE (Karr) of Bad Magic, Sensual World, Bad Kids Night and so many more amazing events/bands/orgs in town!
ELLEN SHOW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-wPBTqn7ac
NEW YORK TIMES: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/nyregion/twin-brothers-beatles-subway-nyc.html
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BLAC RABBIT: Born and raised in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, identical twin brothers Amiri and Rahiem Taylor do not make the type of music that their borough of origin is usually associated with. Growing up surrounded by hip hop culture and all it’s glory, the Taylor brothers had more exposure in their house to pop, funk and soul music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. When they began writing songs in high school, they taught themselves how to play guitar and write songs based off of the Beatles. After high school they formed BLAC RABBIT, bringing in former metal and church drummer Patrick Jones, followed by resident shredder Josh Lugo on bass (and sometimes guitar) to play their original psychedelic rock tunes. In order to make some pocket money, Rah and Amiri decided to start performing music on the NYC subway. They soon discovered that people really enjoy hearing them sing Beatles songs, so they kept doing that, slowly building a reputation
around the city while also performing their original material at some of New York’s best venues for up and coming acts. They maintain that sort of dual life to this day. On December 23rd, 2017, the band release their debut self-titled EP, which was also self recorded and self mixed. On January 26th, 2018, they were
filmed performing Beatles songs on the train by New York Nico, the self proclaimed “Unofficial talent scout of New York City” who posted the video to his 121K followers on Instagram. Since then, the band has seen their fan base increase significantly and will be releasing new music, and hitting the road in 2018.
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SUN PARADE: Chris Marlon Jennings grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, busking on the streets. He met Jeff Lewis when they were high schoolers on summer vacation at a gathering of old friends and families in Maine. Lewis, a mandolin player and islander, was due at Berklee College of Music on scholarship. After a semester in Boston, he moved to Western Mass to work with Jennings. That collaboration is the core of SUN PARADE.
Jennings writes by and large in the language of existential howl, wherein life, love and the pursuit of happiness are a highway pile-up with the distinct possibility of dancing. Lewis spins ethereal, psychedelic glowing pop benevolence, songs sung into an old Fostex recorder and sent out into the world in strands of metaphysic werewolves and sunshine. The dichotomy between the two writers builds an outliers’ love fest, a condition Oscar Wilde once described as living in the gutter with stardust falling on us.
Over time Jennings and Lewis built the five-piece that is Sun Parade, with Karl Helander on drums, percussion, harmonies and ambient barking. [Helander is a powerhouse ideas force — the riffing at the end of “Tear” and the astral vocal descents in “Braindrain” were a couple of his contributions to the album.] Max Wareham (bass) and Eli Salus-Kleiner (keyboard) joined Sun Parade after Shuggy Mtn Breakdown was recorded.
Sun Parade’s personal obsessions and projects range from British folk ballads to Motown; collectively their music is most influenced by the mutineers’ pantheon — The Clash, Beastie Boys, Dr. Dog, Nirvana, The Beatles. Sun Parade has supported Lake Street Dive, Dr. Dog, Born Ruffians, and And The Kids. National Public Radio picked “Heart’s Out” — the title track of the band’s previous EP — for Songs We Love, and wrote that Sun Parade is “crafting the kinds of traditional guitar-pop songs that people might still be singing 50 years down the road.”
