Midweek Music: BODEGA
Photo by Mert Gafuroglu
While every corner in Brooklyn has a bodega, the all caps five-piece BODEGA is one of a kind. Mixing art rock with post punk influences, their debut album Endless Scroll is due out July 6th on What's Your Rapture. Until then, listen to a playlist of their favorite bands ranging from New York to Georgia curated by guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie. Featuring PILL, Omni, Mick Trouble and more.
"We Don’t Have the Time (To Fall in Love)" - Milk Dick
This is the last song off the last release from my favorite New York band. Featuring a clever drum break and Kate Mohanty on sax, this track hits all of the classic Milk DK emotions - it’s stoned, sexy, funny, and just a little bit sad.
"Miss Margaret" - Mick Trouble
A clever jangle pop nugget in the vein of TV Personalities. This lilting missive to M. Thatcher has so many good turns of phrase that you might wonder why it wasn’t an indie pop classic of the 80’s. The answer: it wasn’t released till 2017.
"Malibu Entropy" - Rips
Rips are a very solid Brooklyn four-piece rock unit that also had Austin Brown record their debut. This yearning shoe-gazer has a gorgeous melody that always makes me swoon.
"Piña Queen" - PILL
This is the last track off the last EP by Bushwick heroes PILL. It’s both their simplest and sweetest, a chill-out 90’s groover with a gorgeous vocal that is endlessly replay-able.
"EMT Police and the Fire Department" - Shilpa Ray
Shilpa’s fiercest cut off of last year’s concept LP about the highs (and mostly) lows of working at Piano’s in the Lower East Side. Here the low is indistinguishable from the high. She thrillingly uses her voice to emulate police sirens, revealing in the madness of a trashy night.
"Choke" - Omni
I’ve been obsessed with this Georgian three-piece the past year. Their mysterious lyrics and Southern jangle kind of remind me of IRS R.E.M. but the wonderfully herky jerky rhythms create an entirely different itch that I often need to scratch. Everything is in exactly its right place and did I mention how lovely those chiming guitars are?
"Excuse Generator" - Lithics
This Portland four-piece is one of my favorite bands Bodega has played with. I love when bands play like machines- every member a gear in the factory. You could call it no-wave or new-wave but don’t call it revival.
"Foundation (demo)" - Public Practice
An ontological question: if a band release a "demo" officially, is it still a demo? This tasty sneak-peak track from the brand new NYC band almost makes finger-tapping cool again. The rhythm section steals the show. I hear a lot of the T Heads here, a great place to start.
"Jz III" - New Fries
Bodega played with this fiery Toronto band in Berlin last month and were knocked out by their on-stage violence. Here it's hard to tell what is a guitar and what is a sample- a quality I quite like in rock bands. Their painterly ambiguity leaves extra room for the imagination.
"Toward the Omega Point" - Horse Lords
Hypnotic bliss. Me and Nikki have been replaying this record a lot over the past six months. When Bodega extends ideas live we try to hit a similar improvised repetition where time ceases to exist and certain aspects of the brain get unlocked.
"Louis Warship" - Mezzanine Swimmers
Mezzanine Swimmers is the side project from Mike G of Video Daughters, one NYC band still chasing novel psych sounds in the vein of Black Dice or Animal Collective. I love the running faucet-type sample that runs through this one.