Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC)
499 Van Brunt St.
June 10-12, $20 per day, $55 weekend pass
718-596-2506
www.brooklynfolkfest.com
Brooklyn’s vibrant grass-roots music scene is on display this weekend at the third annual Brooklyn Folk Festival, which will feature both old-school performers from the golden age of 1960s folk as well as newer acts, with styles spanning the folk spectrum, from bluegrass and old-time string band to jug band, acoustic blues, and world music from Africa, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. The festival got under way Friday night at atmospheric local hot spot Jalopy with a full lineup that included such legends as Peter Stampfel and Tommy “Uncle Monk” Ramone in addition to the prolific Feral Foster, host of the venue’s weekly free “Roots and Ruckus” series. On Saturday and Sunday the action shifts to the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, a spacious gallery located in a Civil War-era warehouse at the end of Van Brunt St. in Red Hook. The diverse roster of musicians appearing throughout each afternoon and into the evening reads like a veritable who’s who of local talent. Among the many acts performing are Brooklyn’s reunited Roulette Sisters, acclaimed bluesman “Blind Boy” Paxton, the infectious male/female amplified guitar ‘n’ drums duo Boom Chick, and North Carolinian banjo player Clifton Hicks, who specializes in traditional Appalachian mountain music. There will also be screenings of films by John Cohen and from the archives of Alan Lomax (free with day or weekend pass), a Hazel Dickens Singing Workshop, Beginning and Intermediate Old Time Jamming with Alan Friend, Songs of the Sea and Tavern group singing with Heather Wood, and Banjo: Tunings and Styles in Old Time Music with Down Home radio host Eli Smith, each an additional $10.
In 1961, Barry Mann and Gerry Goffin wrote, “I’d like to thank the guy / who wrote the song / that made my baby / fall in love with me.” The title of that be-bop song, “Who Put the Bomp,” inspired one of music’s first fanzines and later the punk record label Bomp! Records. In their 1999 song “Deceptacon,” the riot grrrl group Le Tigre flipped that question around, asking, “Who took the bomp from the bompalompalomp? / Who took the ram from the ramalamadingdong?” In the song they also dare, “Let me hear you depoliticise my rhyme.” Formed in 1998 by former Bikini Kill leader Kathleen Hanna, zine writer Johanna Fateman, and visual artist Sadie Benning, who was replaced in 2000 by DJ and projectionist JD Samson, Le Tigre challenged the male-dominated world of rock and punk, championing individuality and sexual freedom while redefining gender roles. In 2004, Hanna, Fateman, and Samson set out on a world tour in support of their third and final album, This Island, and asked their lighting designer, Carmine Covelli, to capture it all on film. The result is the engaging Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, in which Covelli and director Kerthy Fix go onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes as the influential trio heads across four continents and ten countries, playing exciting live shows, meeting the media, taking pictures with Slipknot, revealing what they pack in their luggage, exercising in the gym, and talking about facial hair. They also discuss more serious issues such as gender identity, lesbianism, and their DIY mentality, which flew in the face of the music industry. The seventy-two-minute film, which features live multimedia performances of such songs as “Hot Topic,” “Keep on Livin’,” “Viz,” and “Deceptacon,” is screening on June 7 at 7:30 as part of the Maysles Institute’s monthly “Under the Influence of” series and will be followed by a Q&A with Fix, Hanna, and Fateman.