Upcoming Events

The Collider series bids a tearful Adieu to the Burgy Grange with a stacked line-up featuring Noura Mint Seymali’s molten psychadelic Saharan funk from Mauritania, Brooklyn-blendered afropop from Antibalas alum Nikhil P Yerawadekar, and Turning Jewels Into Water’s beat-and-ritual-based electro-acoustic percussion project.

Tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door. Kids under 12 free. Doors open at 6:30PM and the show starts early at 7PM to fit all of the talent. Light refreshments and pizza by the slice will be sold downstairs. No alcohol permitted, per Grange rules. The Williamsburg Grange is not handicapped-accessible.

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Noura Mint Seymali is a nationally beloved star and one of Mauritania’s foremost musical emissaries. Born into a prominent line of Moorish griot (West African praise singers, poets and musicians) Noura began her career at age 13 as a supporting vocalist with her step-mother, the legendary Dimi Mint Abba.  From a very early age, she was trained in instrumental and vocal technique by her grandmother, Mounina, mastering the ardine, a harp reserved only for women, and singing at weddings with family.

“Noura Mint Seymali…comes from an ancient family of griots, and she has a commanding, wide-open voice…the pentatonic melodies of her songs had something in common with the blues. But her fusion was particular and selective…She only meets American music on her own terms.” -NEW YORK TIMES

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Multi-instrumentalist and producer Nikhil P. Yerawadekar creates propulsive new flavors with his Low Mentality project, delivering personal and uplifting original songs suitable for dancefloors, car stereos and headphones worldwide. The group plays organically cultivated styles drawing from Nikhil’s wide range of experiences, from his formative years as a teenage hip-hop junkie in Queens, NY, to later in his life when he found himself working closely with artists such as Hailu Mergia (Awesome Tapes From Africa), Zap Mama, Tony Allen, Cedric “Im” Brooks and Khaira Arby, and performing all over the world with Antibalas and collaborators such as Santigold, Sharon Jones, Billy Gibbons, Nels Cline and Esperanza Spalding.

“Nikhil P. Yerawadekar and Low Mentality make some of the best music coming out of NYC. Not the best Afrobeat, not the best post-highlife, not the best South African psychedelic disco. Some of the best music, period.” -Saxon Baird, AFROPOP WORLDWIDE

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Electro-percussive duo Turning Jewels Into Water make ancient drum music from the future. The duo finds inspiration in Val Jeanty’s Haitian roots and Ravish Monin’s fascination with N. African, Middle Eastern, and Indian musical traditions. Their collaboration is defined by improvisation, incantation, and the free fusion of jazz, ragas, Haitian voodoo, turntable beats, and acoustic + electric instrumentation. Join us in celebrating the release of their debut full-length recording, “A Map of Absences.”

“The project of Ravish and Val has penance in its name: Turning Jewels Into Water, transforming jazz into electronic music, turning dance into ritual and yes, turning realities into a single jewel, since talking about them also implies talking about the migration; of two people outside their country turning their talent into something as essential as water.” -ULTRAMARINO

 

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We are thrilled to showcase Tostan as our NGO partner for this event.  Tostan empowers communities to develop and achieve their vision for the future and inspires large scale movements leading to dignity for all. West Africa is experiencing a quiet, two-pronged social earthquake: rural women in patriarchal societies are being elected to local office, and Muslim religious leaders are emerging as champions of human rights — particularly for girls and women.
This is the result of a human rights-based, grassroots education program with proven impact in social norms change, including shifts in the beliefs about the role of women. Through its Community Empowerment Program, Tostan sparks inclusive and respectful dialogue between girls, boys, women and men, who align their own deep values with human rights and set out to achieve a new vision of wellbeing.

We just can’t wait to have Anbessa Orchestra back in our hood again — the dapper septet of Israeli Brooklynites wow’d a capacity crowd at the Brewery last August with their hard-hitting funk from the Golden Age of Ethiopian music. Get ready for some heavy jams inspired by the music of Addis Ababa in the 60s-70s, when the sounds of American jazz and James Brown-style funk rocketed through the clubs of so-called Swinging Addis and pollinated with Ethiopia’s own exotic scales and rhythms.

Ethiopian Groove is entirely its own kind of jazz-funk thing, and Anbessa approaches it with reverence and creativity; their original compositions pay homage to the genre rather than plagiarizing it. Their retro-African vibe is flecked with curious inspirations ranging from surf rock to reggae, Balkan to the middle-east.

Some very special guests from Argentina are also joing us! Mica Farías Gómez & Manu Uriona fuse LatAm rhythms with flamenco, hip-hop, funk, and other musical traditions. Their set starts at 8PM.

Tickets are $12 adv, $14 at the door. Children 12 and under free. Anbessa Orchestra plays two sets starting at 8PM. Thanks to our series sponsors Dean’s Beans, there will be $10 student tickets available at the door with ID.

Our Dean’s Bean’s Planetary Party cycle is made possible in part by our series sponsors and go-to coffee roasters Dean’s Bean’s!

The longer one listens, the harder it becomes to punt Luz Elena Mendoza’s Portland indie folk project into any kind of a genre. With her fifth record, Mujeres, the band seems ever more comfortable in its fascinating bilingual niche; the compositions tap into vintage ranchero and cumbia, craft new stories out of them; then sharpen the edges, heighten the contrasts, and go crashing into the next room. There is cynicism, optimism, wonder, and anguish in Mendoza’s singing and writing: a voice for Chicana feminism, immigrant coming-of-age, and a future dream of this country.

Join us for Y La Bamba’s Valley debut at New City Brewery. $10 adv / $12 door. All ages. Limited seating available.

“Mendoza’s voice is the X factor, ranging from forceful and strong to bright, sweet and vibrato-filled… global without sounding kitschy or like it’s lost its experimental edge.”

– The New York Times

“Y La Bamba suffuses their dream pop soundscapes with beguiling cumbia and mariachi rhythms”

– Rolling Stone

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Drop your dancehall records and your piña colada and get over to the Brewery. Its April and the Valley’s still not exactly hot, but NYC’s Caribbean Funk party is coming up for a Friday night partay with some scotch bonnet for you. The Brooklyn/Harlem-based Saturators melt a whole mess of genres together: hip-hop, dancehall, afrobeat, sosa, cumbia, reggae, and ‘70s funk into this thing they call “wet music”. Powered by Brooklyn basement parties, the vibrant Harlem hip-hop scene, and tropical Trinidadian island vibes, this crew might be the biggest dance party we’ve ever brought to the Brewery.

Deejay Theory hits before, between and after sets with his own expert take on island music. At the forefront of the global “tropical bass” movement (and now also back locally in the 413), Theory’s a top-ranking selector and well-seasoned producer with a deep catalog of of remixes, mixtapes, legendary bootlegs from dancehall to disco.

If you like: David Byrne’s ‘45 collection; Parliament-Funkadelic; J Dilla; Fela Kuti; Digable Planets; horns + hip-hop.

Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door (no advance ticketing fees, ever.) . All ages welcome, children under 12 free. Standing room only for this dance-centric event. (seating by special request)

Our Dean’s Bean’s Planetary Party cycle is made possible in part by our series sponsors and go-to coffee roasters Dean’s Bean’s!

Don’t be fooled. This is not your average Thursday. This Thursday is going to be way better than your Saturday, actually, because the legendary Peruvian band Los Mirlos are visiting us somehow and they’re going to play at New City Brewery. If you have no idea what this means…well, just trust us. Its going to be good. Considered one of the cornerstones of Peruvian Cumbia (also called Chicha or Cumbia Amazonica), Los Mirlos came together in Lima during the oil boom of the 70s and created a raging new kind of party music by mixing together Colombian cumbia, Anglo surf rock, and the delirious humidity of the Peruvian jungle they grew up in.

After a long hiatus, they came back onto the musical scene in 2014 and began touring worldwide in response to a revival in the genre and the collective clamoring of a global audience. We’re pretty sure this is their first time playing in the Happy Valley.

The Peace & Rhythm crew will be on the turntables before, between and after to keep you dancing with their highly relevant collection of vinyl from the golden age of Chicha.

If you like: Seeing legendary performers in a super-intimate venue; Car chase jungle music; Peruvians who dress like leprechauns; Locobeach (remember them from Millpond and Collider? They’re like the great-great grandchildren of Los Mirlos).

[VIDEO: Un Traguito de Ayahuasca] [VIDEO: Live]

The Brewery is handicapped accessible and all ages are welcome. Children 12 and under FREE. Tickets are $15 adv, $20 at the door. Thanks to our series sponsors Dean’s Beans, there will be $10 student tickets available at the door with ID. Standing room only for this dance-centric event.

Our Dean’s Bean’s Planetary Party cycle is made possible in part by our series sponsors and go-to coffee roasters Dean’s Bean’s Organic Coffee Company!

Vox Sambou is an MC, poet and multilingual performer who writes and performs in Creole, French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a founding member of Montreal-based hip-hop collective, Nomadic Massive. He performed across North America, France, Chile, Brasil, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, Colombia, Brasil, Morocco and Spain. His music focuses on the traditional rhythms of Haiti mixed with elements of afrobeat, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop, always committed to denounce injustices and social imbalances.

Vox hopes to bring back a sense of pride to his people by shedding light on their rich and unique cultural heritage. He feels, however, that although it is important to identify the issues surrounding the problem, it is equally urgent to find concrete solutions. He exercises this credo everyday as director of a youth community center in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges.

Vox Sambou took part in the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, Festival du Monde Arabe, Festival Urbain de Trois-Rivières, the Indie Unlimited Festival, The 2nd Annual Cuban Hip-Hop Symposium, Blackitude Vozes Negras da Bahia, Brazil, just to name a few.

Its July 3rd and you don’t have work in the morning, so make sure you don’t miss Combo Chimbita’s Valley debut in Easthampton. Now signed with the legendary ANTI- Records label for their second release Ahomale, this quartet of Colombian NYers is one of the hardest-hitting groups we’ve seen in years. Powerhouse vocalist Carolina Oliveros forges a path through thick jungles of psychadelic funk and trance; what the band calls Tropical Futurism or Cumbia-Not-Cumbia.

The band draws on “traditional music from everywhere: Panama, Caribbean, Colombia, tamboritos, ‘70s funaná from Cape Verde, kompa from Haiti, cumbia, dub and reggae from Jamaica. We try to incorporate it in a way that if feels ours, so you hear these influences there but they come from our background, and our background is heavy rock, psychedelic funk and soul,” says guitarist Niño Lento.

[VIDEO: Cachimba] [VIDEO: Pajarito]

Special guests Billy Wylder add their stirring synthesis of desert blues & spirited folk to this summer party.

Tickets are $12 adv, $15 at the door. Children 12 and under free. Thanks to our series sponsors Dean’s Beans, there will be $10 student tickets available at the door with ID.

Our Dean’s Bean’s Planetary Party cycle is made possible in part by our series sponsors and go-to coffee roasters Dean’s Bean’s!

 

The Nigerien band Tal National represents one of the most important cultural crossroads of modern Africa. The band’s members comprise Songhai, Fulani, Hausa, and Tuareg communities: different tribes co-inhabiting the former French colony and each with their own songs, traditions and languages. In the music we hear the rolling 12/8 rhythms in the Hausa’s Fuji percussion, the pensive aridity of the Tuareg’s assouf or “blues,” and the exquisite “griot guitar” of Mali’s Songhai, all delivered with virtuoso precision and unrelenting energy.

But fundamentally, they’re a rock n’ roll band.  Here’s Rolling Stone: “Tal National play rollicking, dizzying, high-octane grooves with the joie de vivre of afrobeat and highlife, but have a hard-rocking polyrhythmic tumble reminiscent of experimental rock bands like Battles, Horse Lords and Tortoise.”

Its a thrill and an honor to host them in the Valley as they swing through the US for another blistering run in 2019.

If you like: Desert blues; Bombino; West African guitar; ecstatic, high-energy sets; bands that can play for hours.

Tickets: $12 adv, $15 at the door. Children 12 and under free. Thanks to our series sponsors Dean’s Beans, there will be $10 student tickets available at the door with ID.

Our Dean’s Bean’s Planetary Party cycle is made possible in part by our series sponsors and go-to coffee roasters Dean’s Bean’s!