SHAMIR

What more do you want from Shamir? He’s still coming off the 2020 release of his acclaimed self-titled LP that cemented his legacy as a songwriting dynamo; he just dropped a 2021 release of a chapbook of essays which focus on his paintings; and he shepherded a 2021 collaboration between his Accidental Popstar Records imprint with the inimitable Macy Rodman out in the world… Now just 26, the polymathic Las Vegas native and current Philadelphia resident is releasing his 8th full-length album, Heterosexuality. His 2015 debut, Ratchet, focused on the prospect of youth; the following several records helped navigate difficulties with mental health. The new record is the first to confront head-on Shamir’s queerness explicitly in album form. Yet, instead of a pure confirmation of a certain gender politics, he chooses a radical refusal of any sort of categorization--at all. It’s a floating point of rebuff, erasing any ideological identification, further confirming Shamir as the everything-for-everyone antihero of the indie underground. 

On the soaring “Cisgender,” Shamir almost howls in his upper register: “I’m not cisgender/ I’m not binary, trans/ I don’t wanna be a girl/ I don’t wanna be a man/ I’m just existing on this god forsaken land/ And you can take it or leave it or you can just stay back.” Everyone’s invited, but Shamir isn’t putting up with bullshit. “I think this album is me finally acknowledging my trauma. Everyone knows I’ve been through so much shit and I kind of just rammed through, without really acknowledging the actual trauma that I do feel on almost a daily basis.” Among that trauma is the return to rapping on the unrelenting and confrontational “Abomination,” his first high-profile return to the form since the massive success of “On The Regular.” Yet that almost playful introduction is nothing when put up against the social rebuke of “Abomination,” where Tracy Chapman gets a multidimensional shoutout amongst a nightmarish critique of capitalism--this is the world of Heterosexuality. 

On the cover, Shamir appears in the horns and hooves of an almost Luciferian creature, an androgynous Baphomet, a “subhuman,” beautiful terror. Flashes of Nine Inch Nails break through the stereo field, as do moments of the earlier Death Grips records, early Bjork, Ministry, and even the Canadian artist Bif Naked. Yet Shamir still holds onto the stickiest hooks through all of that, somehow still verging into the world of The Haxan Cloak, The Weeknd or M83, continuing to expand the limits of his sound by sheer curiosity. 

Shamir worked with a new producer, Hollow Comet, aka Isaac Eiger, a member of the band Strange Ranger, after Eiger reached out. “His sound was something that honestly I was dreaming up in my head,” Shamir says, who was a fan of Eiger’s band, “but couldn’t find someone who could do it, nor could I do it myself. When I finally heard his work, I just thought… what the fuck, I finally found it.” Sounding as futuristic as it does nostalgic, the new sound wraps heavily distorted barbs of guitars, synths, and drum machines in the angelic nuance of Shamir’s unmistakable voice. The whole thing came together in a matter of a few months. Shamir writes very fast, but became so motivated by Isaac’s production that it bled into a feedback loop of inspiration, where the writing and production interlocked into the embrace of the raw and the real, both in life and in sound.

“I think this is my best record. At the least, it’s my favorite,” Shamir says. In the perspective of pure artistry that Shamir embodies, that seals the record as a success.  


Shamir

Doors 8:00 PM Show 9:00 PM MRG Presale: May 5 @ 7 AM PST On Sale: May 6 @ 7 AM PST  
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<li>Search for Shamir May 6 @ 7 AM PST </li>
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Biltmore Cabaret is a multi-purpose music and entertainment venue. For over 50 years, Biltmore Cabaret has been a fixture in the community as a platform for ground-breaking acts!

Biltmore Cabaret

Honesty is connective. When you dissolve barriers to the truth inside yourself, you also erode the walls that keep you separated from other people. There's a certain painful beauty in cutting back to yourself, in cleaving away layers of deception until the structure beneath your ego is laid bare. Scrutiny, the debut album from Moaning's Pascal Stevenson under her new solo alias Fashion Club, explores the mind's complex relationship to morality, and the way structures of power tend to replicate themselves through unexamined habits. Through lush, dense curtains of sound, the album unfurls a series of searing questions: What’s a lie you held too close? Can you justify your cruelty? Are you listening?

Stevenson began writing the songs that would become Scrutiny toward the end of 2018, as Moaning embarked on a European tour in support of their critically acclaimed first album. Connecting directly with live audiences night after night reinvigorated her relationship to making music. Between shows, in the back of the band's tour van, she traced early drafts of Scrutiny's instrumentals on her laptop, planting the seeds of what would bloom into her captivating solo debut.

In early 2019, about a year after getting sober, the Los Angeles-based musician began the process of threading lyrics into the songs she had written on tour. She found herself in the midst of a deeply generative period of self-reflection. "Not having that veil of intoxication all the time confronts you with an opportunity to inspect a lot of things about yourself," she says. The writing process also provided an opening for her to consider questions of ethics, responsibility, self-deception, and power more broadly -- questions about how deeply systems of social control can take root.

Throughout Scrutiny, Stevenson reflects on the ways that people tend to fortify hegemony while posing as if they are dismantling it – especially in social media spaces, which prioritize image-making over constructive change and genuine connection. "In arts communities, and in culture more broadly, you’re confronted with a lot of people who are performing morality surrounding social issues instead of actually caring," she says. "To be somebody that’s Black in a predominantly white industry like indie rock, you realize how what people project about who they are and how they treat other people is so at odds with how they actually feel."

While concocting Scrutiny's dreamlike art-rock palette, Stevenson drew inspiration from artists working during the incipient decades of the synthesizer’s lifetime, like Kate Bush, Brian Eno, and Wire's Colin Newman – musicians whose work bridges the gap between disarming experimentalism and pop pleasure. The album similarly channels the influence of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’s tactile, material production on Janet Jackson’s late ‘80s albums Control and Rhythm Nation 1814, records that exploded the potential of digital music-making and entwined the sounds of new technology with the currents of the body. 

Songs like “Phantom English,” balanced by a bright synth lead and cavernous bass line, and “Chapel,” whose echoing production evokes infinitely expanding space, transmute digital instrumentation into physical impact – sounds you feel deep in the bone. Bent treble patterns and a driving rhythm section propel "Pantomime," the album's opening track and thesis statement, toward its piercing hook, while the towering drumbeats and hypnotic chorus of "Feign For Love" recall the far-reaching, reverb-heavy arrangements of Spellling and Iceage. The album's swirling layers and unconventionally weighted instrumentation point to the reorientation of the psyche Stevenson tracks in her lyrics; the music's form skillfully illustrates its content.

Scrutiny marks the first time Stevenson has assumed the lead role in a musical project, and reflects her coming into her own as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. "I’ve been making music since I was 14, and I’ve never been the front person in a band until this one," she says. "Trying to take myself out of that behind-the-scenes role was uncomfortable at first. You have to imagine yourself completely differently. To make that shift in your mind is hard. Especially if you have built something up in your mind about how the person that fronts a band has to be perceived. It felt really good and freeing to be in control, because I trusted myself. When you get to a certain level of confidence, you can be more free."

Through Stevenson's adventurous arrangements and gripping pop peaks, Scrutiny follows the way a mind can come to know itself – to clear away its protective illusions and ease into greater attunement and clarity – and extends an invitation for anyone listening to pursue the same. 

Fashion Club

MRG Live Presents: Shamir

Satanic Surfers & No Fun At All

27 Years Of Their Classic Albums SATANIC SURFERS Performing Hero Of Our Time NO FUN AT ALL Performing Out Of Bounds 
Doors: 7:00PM Show: 8:00PM
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SATANIC SURFERS have already left quite a mark on the worldwide-scene, steadily increasing their position as a 90's version of the HARD-ONS. Having established themselves as one of the leading European melodic punk bands worldwide, yet being nowhere near mainstream popularity, the band has received massive underground success and a cult-status comparable to that of AGENT ORANGE or JFA - in Europe that is. And with their recent signing to Epitaph expectations for the U.S. are high.
Brought up on a mix of old timers such as SNFU, MISFITS, DESCENDENTS and RKL, the guys picked their hilarious name for it's references to two of their biggest influences; MISFITS and the HARD-ONS. 'Satanic' is for Glenn Danzig of course, and 'Surfers' to pay tribute to the HARD-ONS old school surf-punk attitude. Either way, the Satanic Surfers definitely succeed in their effort to create a memorable name.
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--
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Since the debut-MCD release of &quot;Vision&quot; in 1993, Sweden's premier hardcore pop-punkers NO FUN AT ALL has grow into a tight, intensive and frantic mean killing machine. Something which has been proved on hard-exercised tours all across the globe.
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Back in 1993, little did anyone expect that out of Skinnskatteberg, a small Swedish town of 4 000 inhabitants would arise a band that was soon to pave way for a Swedish punk and hardcore 'boom' and that would soon even be hailed, praised and 'adopted' in Southern California - the #1 stronghold for melodic punk.
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MRG Live Presents: Satanic Surfers & No Fun At All

Kid Francescoli

Doors 7:00 Show 8:00 PM
 
 Mathieu Hocine (Kid Francescoli) is an electro pop musician based from Marseille, France. He has secured a firm place in the pop universe with his unique sound, that he credits to the city in which he grew up in. He has worked with the singer songwriter Julia Minkin on multiple songs and albums including &quot;Play Me Again&quot;, &quot;Lovers&quot;, and &quot;With Julia&quot;.
 
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MRG Live Presents: Kid Francescoli

Covet

Doors 6:30PM Show 7:30PM
 
Characterized by complex song structures and guitarist Yvette Young's unique finger-tapping style, instrumental band Covet quickly earned a devoted following with their exploratory math rock sounds. Coming from a background in piano and violin, Young first developed her two-handed guitar-tapping style as a solo artist, but in 2014 she added a rhythm section and formed Covet. Young's virtuosic playing and the band's searching, organic-sounding instrumentals developed as their fan base grew, becoming more involved over the course of several EPs and reaching full realization with their 2020 debut full-length album, Technicolor.
 
Covet was formed in 2014 by California guitarist/composer/multi-instrumentalist Yvette Young. Young grew up playing piano and violin and eventually applied elements of technique for both instruments to guitar, coming up with a two-handed tapping style that incorporated different approaches from classical music and math rock. While living in Los Angeles in 2009, Young began uploading videos of herself playing online, slowly gaining attention and fans for her virtuosic playing. In early 2014, she released an EP called Acoustics under her own name, but started the band upon moving back to her home of San Jose in the fall of that year. Covet's original lineup included Young on guitar, bassist David Adamiak, and drummer Ben Wallace-Ailsworth. Unlike Young's gentle acoustic material (which sometimes included vocals), Covet's instrumental sound was derived from post-rock composition and math rock intricacy. The group played around San Jose for about a year, with Wallace-Ailsworth leaving the band, replaced by Keith Grimshaw.
 
The trio released their first EP, Currents, in December 2015. Touring and various promotional video sessions ensued, including a stop by Audiotree for a live session. Grimshaw left the band and drummer Forrest Rice took his place for the recording of a six-song album called Effloresce, which saw release in July 2018. The following year, Covet issued the three-song EP Acoustics, which featured a new song, &quot;Predawn,&quot; and acoustic renditions of two Effloresce tracks. &quot;Predawn&quot; would appear again in a more electrified reading featuring special guest Phillip Jamieson on Covet's first proper full-length, Technicolor. The album was released in June 2020 and featured ten songs, the longest and most involved collection of the band's music to be released up until that point.
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MRG Live Presents: COVET

Rone

Doors 7:00 PM Show 8:00 PM
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February 9, 2022 &ndash; Rone will tour North America this coming June, with a series of concerts kicking off on June 10th in Vancouver and ending on June 23rd in Washington DC.
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The French electronic music producer Rone was born Erwan Castex in 1980 near Paris. Spotted by the InFin&eacute; label, Rone released his debut 'Spanish Breakfast' to critical acclaim in 2009 and has since released another 6 studio albums,exploring a sound that Pitchfork described as &quot;Existing somewhere in the intersection points of an imagined venn diagram between dance-y beatmaking, ambient composition, and neon-tinted synth-driven film scores&rdquo;. A climate activist, Rone has collaborated to the short film &ldquo;Nature Now&rdquo; featuring Greta Thunberg and tackled civilizational collapse with his 2020 album &ldquo;Room With A View&rdquo;.
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Throughout his career, Rone has demonstrated an ability to combine his music with other art forms such as literature with Alain Damasio, photography with St&eacute;phane Couturier or contemporary dance with the collective (LA)HORDE. As for moving images, he composed the soundtracks of 3 of Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka&rsquo;s animated films and in 2020, he won the French Academy Award Cesar for Best Original Score for his work on Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Farrucci&rsquo;s &quot;Night Ride&rdquo;. His second soundtrack is for Jacques Audiard ́s &quot;Paris, 13th District&rdquo;, which will see release in US theaters this spring.
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MRG Live Presents: RONE

Jeff Bernat

Doors 7:00PM&nbsp; Show 8:00PM Jeff Bernat VIP includes: general admission ticket, pre-show meet &amp; greet, early access to merch and signed poster.
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Jeff Bernat is a Filipino-American singer, songwriter and record producer. He debuted in 2012 with the album, The Gentleman Approach, and developed a significant fan base in South Korea after the album track, &quot;Call You Mine,&quot; was featured on the 2014 Korean drama, You Are My Destiny.
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MRG Live Presents: Jeff Bernat

An Evening with Daniel Rossen

Daniel Rossen has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 per ticket goes to supporting the Climate Justice Alliance and their work uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force in the climate movement.
Doors 7:00 PM Show 8:00 PM
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Daniel Rossen knew there was a lot to learn if he was finally going to finish his debut solo album. For nearly two decades, Rossen had been a crucial component of Grizzly Bear, the era-epitomizing act whose shared harmonies and interlaced textures meant he was responsible for only part of a whole.
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But Rossen left the close-knit nest of Brooklyn many years ago, first for an isolated patch of land in upstate New York and then for the high desert climes of Santa Fe. The whole, as it were, was now his. So Rossen bought an upright bass (one of his instruments as a kid) and played all the parts himself, along with the cello. Best known as a guitarist, he took up woodwinds, too, buying several cheap student models and learning just enough to understand the rudiments. And then, largely at home in Santa Fe, he slowly built the world that is You Belong There, a riveting 10-song reintroduction to a voice that sounds both entirely familiar and fully reenergized by the act of unfettered expression.
 For all the benefits of being in a successful band, individuality is not always one of them. Impulses are subsumed by the organization; choices are bound in compromise. As formative as Rossen&rsquo;s experiences in Grizzly Bear were, he recognized what was lost in that equation or even the contemporaneous and often-playful duo Department of Eagles. His 2012 EP, Silent Hour/Golden Mile, felt like pure energetic effusion, a welcome declaration of self soon after Rossen left the city. Like a slow-motion magpie, he gathered more ideas of his own there, sometimes living with and turning over a riff or a melody for years while embracing the routines of rural life and, eventually, the adventures of parenthood. Self-reliance became a way of life, a mode of mature expression.
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That is the landscape surrounding You Belong There, Rossen&rsquo;s sophisticated and visceral consideration of what comes after the restless enthusiasm and public fanfare of your 20s and early 30s. These songs explore the personally uncharted territory of adulthood, including the troubles left behind and the possibilities that wait ahead.
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Rising from a solitary acoustic guitar into a tense orchestral tangle in miniature, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll Wait for Your Visit&rdquo; reckons with a family history of what he calls &ldquo;unbridgeable distance,&rdquo; of feeling perpetually out of place. Exquisite but urgent, &ldquo;The Last One&rdquo; turns to look back at the uneasiness of youth and then ahead to recognize that strength can be swapped for stability. The dashing &ldquo;Unpeopled Space&rdquo; reflects Rossen&rsquo;s time in upstate New York, where he built a life amid wilderness that always tried to close in around him. However futile could feel, it was &ldquo;our work for work&rsquo;s sake,&rdquo; as he sings over strings he mostly learned to play for the occasion and harmonies that shift like a series of interconnected see-saws. In their way, these are the true coming-of-age anthems, testaments to the value of continuous growth.
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Rossen long studied jazz and classical music, developing the sort of craftsperson&rsquo;s skills that were so apparent in every intricate fold of his former projects. But there is an unfussy hardiness to You Belong There, plus a punchiness supplied by his newfound self-sovereignty. It&rsquo;s there in the roiling piano and clattering drums (played by Chris Bear, one of very few guests here) and gnarled guitar of &ldquo;Tangle,&rdquo; a broken waltz that arrives in multiple mighty waves. It&rsquo;s there in the skittering rhythms and darting strings and winds of &ldquo;Shadow in the Frame,&rdquo; a tremendous and riveting contemplation of mortality amid the ancient and enchanting landscape of the American Southwest. It&rsquo;s there in the deceptive simplicity and keyhole dynamics of opener &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Passage,&rdquo; a magnetic tune whose scenes of wintry idyll and existential confusion perfectly suit its velvet-gloved power. These songs balance finesse and force without compromising either &mdash; or anything at all, for that matter.
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When Rossen talks about the music he has made, even that of You Belong There, he is appreciably modest, perhaps to the point of self-deprecation. But after a lifetime in the making, the 44 minutes of his debut LP crackle with the resolve and assuredness of a musician empowered by the act of sounding only like himself. There is turmoil, woe, anxiety, and frailty bound up in these songs, feelings we inevitably navigate as we age. But there is also the ineffable splendor of self-expression, a thrill reserved for those bold enough to pursue it. &ldquo;Can you see me now?&rdquo; Rossen sings slowly near the end of the title track, marveling at each syllable as though it were some previously unknown treasure. At last, absolutely.
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&nbsp;
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MRG Live Presents: An Evening with Daniel Rossen

Bishop Nehru

Doors 7:00 Show 8:00 PM 
Presale: APRIL 21 @ 10 AM PST On Sale: APRIL 22 @ 10 AM PST
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Markel Scott, otherwise known as Bishop Nehru is an American rapper and producer, famed for bringing a fresh sound to the hip hop table. His passion for music surfaced as soon as he reached 13, writing jazz music and creating hip hop beats. By the time Bishop Nehru was just 15 years old, he dropped the debut mixtape, Nehruvia. Comprising 13 tracks, it boasted productions from J. Dllla, MF DOOM, DJ Premier and Madlib.
Since Bishop&rsquo;s signing to Nas&rsquo; label, Mass Appeal Records in 2014, he has gone on to release music at an incredibly consistent rate. By 2014 he collaborated with MF DOOM on NehruvianDoom and in 2016 he dropped an entire LP, titled Magic 19. In 2017, Bishop Nehru released a string of albums, including Emperor Nehru&rsquo;s New Groove, Strictly Flowz and Nehruvia on all streaming platforms.
Having performed the opening for Wu-Tang Clan&rsquo;s 20th Anniversary, Nas, DOOM, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q &amp; many others Bishop Nehru is a fresh rapper who is earning the respect of some of the greatest in the game.
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MRG Live Presents: Bishop Nehru

Health

Doors 7:00 Show 8:00 PM 
The last two years changed music for everyone. They might have changed HEALTH for the better.
 
Three years after VOL.4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR, the L.A. trio’s ferocious entry into the world of heavy music, HEALTH return with the second half of their DISCO4 series. On the first installment in 2020, they swapped remixes for original collaborations with Perturbator, 100 Gecs and JPEGMAFIA.
 
A whole lot went to hell in the meantime, forcing the band to re-invent how they wrote music together. For DISCO4 :: PART II they cut it fast and mean, recruiting both legends and nascent contenders of heavy music and its many peripheral genres.
 
The centerpiece of DISCO4 :: Part II is the Nine Inch Nails collaboration “ISN’T EVERYONE,” which re-unites HEALTH with their early-career arena tourmates. The mesh between Trent Reznor’s growls and Jake Duzsik’s gossamer melodies—all over a gigantic synth barrage—feels like a new moment in industrial music.
 
On “COLD BLOOD,” their latest single with metal titans Lamb of God, HEALTH show they can devote themselves to a genre and detonate it all in the same track. Its blistering heaviness juxtaposed against album cuts like the raucous “GNOSTIC FLESH/MORTAL HELL” (with noise-rap banshee Backxwash and the virtuosically scabrous trio Ho99o9) or the contemplative “STILL BREATHING” (co-piloted with teenage post-punk experimentalist Ekkstacy), demonstrates the breadth of HEALTH’s sonic palette and ability to incorporate what heavy music looks like today and going forward.
 
From their twitchy 2007 debut, through the groundbreaking 2012 score for Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3 and 2015’s DEATH MAGIC, multi-instrumentalists/producers Jacob Duzsik and John Famiglietti, and drummer Benjamin Miller, snuck beauty and rigor into blinding noise. They draped moody violence over trap beats and warehouse rave sounds alike.
 
HEALTH are not only making the heaviest, most genre-obliterating music of their career. They’re documenting just how insane it feels to be alive right now.
 
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MRG Live Presents: HEALTH

Slenderbodies - Plastic Parts Tour

Doors 7:00 Show 8:00 PM
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MRG Live Presents: Slenderbodies - Plastic Parts Tour

Cola

Doors 7:00PM Show 8:00PM 
Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy (ex-Ought) are announcing the formation of a new band called Cola, formed with US Girls drummer Evan Cartwright, and sharing their first single &quot;Blank Curtain&quot;. The track provides an exciting hint of the way the new project picks up some of the threads of the pair's earlier work and weaves them into engaging new shapes, constructing a driving tangle of guitars around an arresting performance from Darcy. &quot;What started as stripped-down open D songwriting with a CR-78 soon became a full album and new band. We wanted to see how far we could stretch our compositions with just drums, one guitar, one bass, and one voice. ‘Blank Curtain’ is a quarter note kick drum pushing 240 bpm, a drone-like chord progression, and declarative vocals cutting through the haze. If you could invert the color of the ‘Blank Curtain’, you might have something like a Chicago house track that sounds like a band in a room.&quot;
 
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MRG Live Presents: COLA

The Beths

Doors 7:00PM Show 8:00PM 
Artist Presale: May 4 @ 10 AM PST MRG Presale: May 5 @ 10 AM PST  On Sale: May 6 @ 10 AM PST 
 
The Beths return with “A Real Thing,” their first new song since the release of 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers. “A Real Thing” comes as The Beths begin their long-awaited North American headline tour, which has been rescheduled twice due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Last year, the band released Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, a live concert recording that showcased the infectious energy The Beths bring to every performance, and what audiences have been so dearly missing.
 
“‘A Real Thing’ is a kind of anxiety dream. It’s a bit muddled, a bit frantic, a bit sinister,” says lead singer Liz Stokes. “It’s what came out of my guitar in late 2020, post NZ election (and U.S. election). I was limply reaching for optimism about the future, but was really just marinating in dread.” Ultimately playing more apocalyptic scenarios of climate change in her head, Stokes’ lyrics include specific references to how New Zealand has dealt with sea level rise in the past: “In NZ people sometimes use tyres and cement to build retaining walls by the water, to try to stop the land being eroded away as the sea encroaches. It doesn’t really work.” It’s a poignant image for a band that has had to navigate the constant changes in our present moment.
 
The deep bond between Stokes, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck, has allowed them to overcome challenging circumstances and that’s present in the upbeat urgency of “A Real Thing.” It’s palpable from the very start and paired with the band’s signature bright, raucous guitar hooks and cooing harmonies; the song races and soars, much like an increasing heart rate. The Beths’ infectious and insightful songwriting on “A Real Thing” is an exciting marker of more excellent work to come, and the perfect way to mark the beginning of tour.
 
Have an MRG Credit/Gift Card? Redeem for tickets <a href="https://mrglive-redeem.square.site/s/shop">HERE</a>
<ol>
<li>Search for The Beths May 6 @ 10 AM PST </li>
<li>Add tickets to your cart and go to check out (do not enter your gift card into coupon code)</li>
<li>On the check out page there will be a place to enter in your gift card under the order total</li>
<li>No pick up required. Tickets will be emailed to you.</li>
</ol>

MRG Live Presents: The Beths

Bodega

Doors 7:00PM Show 8:00PM
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The follow-up to the band's acclaimed debut album, Endless Scroll (2018), and 2019's Shiny New Model EP, Broken Equipment was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. Passionate debates lasting long into the night became a regular occurrence, motivating the band to become as ideologically unified as the weighty tomes they were reading. Broken Equipment is BODEGA&rsquo;s attempt to interrogate the external factors that make them who they are, propelling existential quandaries with tongue-in-cheek humour, highly personal lyrics, and irresistible grooves.
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Since BODEGA&rsquo;s formation in 2016, Ben and Nikki (who previously played together in the band BODEGA BAY) have experienced a rare meteoric rise. The duo double as filmmakers, earning acclaim for their 2020 erotic drama PVT Chat starring Peter Vack, Julia Fox, and other recognizable faces from the Safdie Brothers&rsquo; cinematic universe. When the pandemic forced them to hit pause, they used the opportunity to regroup with drummer/performance artist Tai Lee, bassist/philosophy professor Adam See, and lead guitarist Dan Ryan. Broken Equipment was produced by Ben himself with Bobby Lewis, BODEGA&rsquo;s NYC live sound mixer. The record was mixed by Bryce Goggin, whom the band sought out for his work with Pavement, and Adam Sachs (WIVES).
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The album&rsquo;s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. On 'NYC (disambiguation)', they break down how the Big Apple was &ldquo;founded by a corporation&rdquo; and history remains alive in the present. The poetic 'Pillar on the Bridge of You' is the first love song Ben ever wrote for Nikki, while 'All Past Lovers' gazes back to the &ldquo;southern belle&rdquo; and &ldquo;chat room suitor&rdquo; who still live inside him today.
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To accompany the propulsive pace of 'Statuette on the Console' and its lyrics about switching perspectives, Nikki recorded alternate versions in eight different languages. &ldquo;I used God in that song as this arch overlord character, but it could also be a real estate developer,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around.&rdquo; In that song, Nikki also wryly states that although she doesn&rsquo;t have faith in this particular &ldquo;God,&rdquo; she is still &ldquo;living life with (my) platitudes.&rdquo; On 'Territorial Call of the Female', Nikki playfully quips that &ldquo;when the man is around that&rsquo;s when I&rsquo;m putting you down,&rdquo; highlighting how in the past she unknowingly reinforced patriarchal values by turning against other women to attract men. It&rsquo;s moments like these where BODEGA most exemplifies their self-professed motto that &ldquo;the best critique is self critique.&rdquo;
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Have an MRG Credit/Gift Card? Redeem for tickets <a href="https://mrglive-redeem.square.site/s/shop">HERE</a>
<ol>
<li>Search for Bodega&nbsp;</li>
<li>Add tickets to your cart and go to check out (do not enter your gift card into coupon code)</li>
<li>On the check out page there will be a place to enter in your gift card under the order total</li>
<li>No pick up required. Tickets will be emailed to you.</li>
</ol>
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<a href="https://mrglive.com/covidfaqs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://mrglive.com/covidfaqs/</a>
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19+ only

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