285 KENT was an "underground," all ages concert venue located at 269-289 Kent Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. [1] The venue was founded and operated by Todd Patrick aka "Todd P", beginning in 2010, [2] ultimately closing in 2014 to much fanfare and media coverage. [3] [4] [5] [6] The venue was initially booked and exclusively managed by Patrick, later in partnership with Ric Leichtung, who created the event promotion entity AdHoc.fm, an offshoot of a music journalism website of the same name, to book the venue. [7]
285 KENT operated under the DIY ethos and hosted acclaimed concerts and events spanning indie, punk, hip hop, electronic music, and other genres. [8] The venue strictly hosted only all ages events at affordable ticket prices. [9] [10] 285 KENT held a standing-room only capacity of approximately 400 persons. [9]
During its relatively brief tenure, Patrick and Leichtung sought to book 285 KENT to expand the community for DIY events beyond its traditional privileged, white, and straight audience; [11] by seeking performances and partnerships with artists and event organizers representing LBGTQ+ communities [12] [13] and people of color. [11] The venue hosted influential events such as the queer youth club night series "TOP 8," [14] multiple performances by Chicago Footwork pioneer DJ Rashad, [15] Blood Orange, [16] Mykki Blanco, [17] Grimes; [17] and secret shows by artists such as hip hop collective Odd Future, [18] queer R&B artist Frank Ocean, [19] Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky, [20] and others.
Previous to the opening of 285 KENT, the same unit housed the earlier creative spaces Bohemian Grove, a short-lived underground venue for electronic music events (operated by John Barclay who would later open the boutique Bushwick electronic music venue Bossa Nova Civic Club); [21] [17] and Paris London West Nile, a live/work loft and avant music and performance arts venue occupied communally by several artists and musicians. [22]
The Paris London West Nile collective became the first to lease the unit shortly after its creation through partitioning of a larger warehouse, via association with artist and composer Zeljko McMullen, who worked as an artist's assistant to the musician Lou Reed. Reed and McMullen initially scouted the location and negotiated a lease to house a work studio for Reed, with McMullen taking the lease after Reed declined to occupy the space. [23]
The larger warehouse 285 KENT occupied also housed the creative arts venues Death By Audio, Glasslands Gallery, Ran Tea House, [24] Windmill Studios, [25] the Muse, [26] IndieScreen, [27] and the Glasshouse Gallery, [28] among others. The building's community of creative venue spaces were displaced in 2014 and 2015 by Vice Media, who acquired a lease on the majority of the building to house their headquarters. [29] The building was constructed originally as a satellite structure to the historic Domino Sugar Refinery complex, located directly across Kent Avenue to the West. [30]
CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for Country, Bluegrass, Blues, Kristal's original vision for the club. But CBGB soon emerged as a famed and iconic venue for punk rock and new wave bands, including the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, Madonna and Talking Heads.
Queercore is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically society's disapproval of the LGBT community. Queercore expresses itself in a DIY style through magazines, music, writing and film.
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. It was an independent city until 1855, when it was annexed by Brooklyn; around that time, the spelling was changed from Williamsburgh to Williamsburg.
Todd Patrick is an organizer of independently produced concerts, based in New York City. Patrick was born in 1975 in Indiana, and grew up in Richardson, Texas.
Death By Audio was a warehouse space on the first floor of an industrial building in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The warehouse took its name from the boutique effects pedal company, Death By Audio, based in the space. The company was founded in 2002 by Oliver Ackermann, the lead singer of the New York City-based noise rock band A Place to Bury Strangers.
Chief Magazine was a free, monthly online arts and culture magazine based in Brooklyn. The magazine consisted primarily of interviews with underground musicians, artists and writers. Chief hosted parties and events, operating a music venue, Chief Bodega, and a record label, Chief Records.
Among "Boston's most prolific DIY venues," the Whitehaus was a non-traditional performance venue and artists collective located in an eight-bedroom home at 10 Seaverns Ave. in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Music and poetry made by "the hyper-prolific Whitehaus collective" is distributed under The Whitehaus Family Record independent music label. As described by one source:
One of the most prolific new DIY collectives in Jamaica Plain, the Whitehaus Family Record, brings together folk, indie, and experimental sound to produce a psychedelic world of music, love, and all that other punk/hippie crossover goodness.
Hunx and His Punx is an American punk band from San Francisco, California.
Burger Records was an American independent record label and record store in Fullerton, California, United States. The label was founded in 2007 by Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard, members of the power pop band Thee Makeout Party. The record/video store, co-owned by Bohrman and Brian Flores, was opened in 2009. The label ceased operations in July 2020, following sexual assault allegations leveled at many of their artists and staff members.
Northern Spy Records is a record label in Brooklyn, New York that specializes in avant-garde music, noise rock, and experimental jazz. The label was founded by Tom Abbs and Adam Downey in 2010 after working for ESP-Disk.
Tenement is an American three piece rock band from Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, formed in 2006. They are often associated with the American hardcore punk scene. Their recorded output has been described as everything from "noise pop" to "fuzz punk", while in a live setting they are often known for experimentation, improvisation, and high-energy performance. The visual art of singer/guitarist Amos Pitsch is associated with most of their records, as well as several records by other notable punk and hardcore bands. In January 2013, NME included Tenement in their "rising stars of 2013". CMJ called Tenement a "breakout artist to watch" in 2014. In 2015, Tenement was included in Spin 's "The 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now". In 2016, they were included in Rolling Stone 's "10 Great Modern Punk Bands".
The SideWalk Cafe was a music venue and restaurant/cafe in East Village, New York City founded in 1985. It became a known venue for its underground music scene, and in particular, was known as being the center for Anti-folk in the United States. It offered an eclectic mix of local and national acts ranging from DIY, avant garde music, indie rock, and jazz to pop music and electronic music. The venue also hosted poetry readings, comedy and live-band karaoke. The Local East Village, at the time part of The New York Times, referred to the SideWalk Cafe and its music scene as a "gift to the neighborhood".
Cali DeWitt (born Michael Andrew DeWitt is an artist, designer, and blogger who lives in Los Angeles.
Glasslands Gallery was a music venue, dance club, and art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Glasslands was founded by Brooke Baxter and Rolyn Hu in 2006, as a relocation of Baxter's earlier art space in the same building, Glass House Gallery. Hu and Baxter held the lease on the Glasslands space until 2012 when they made a turn-key sale to Rami Haykal and Jake Rosenthal of PopGun presents, who had been managing bookings since 2009, and day-to-day operations since 2010. PopGun owned the business and lease for two years until the venue was displaced to be converted into Vice Media‘s office headquarters. As a concert venue, Glasslands was one of the longest-running of several 2000s independent creative venue spaces in the vicinity of the Williamsburg waterfront, which included 285 KENT, Death By Audio, Secret Project Robot, Monster Island Basement, B.P.M., Live With Animals Gallery, the Rock Star Bar, and many others.
The Silent Barn was a collectively directed community art space in Brooklyn, NY. The initial iteration of the Silent Barn, an underground performance space, opened in 2006 in Ridgewood, Queens. The Silent Barn collective relocated to a new space in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2012. The Silent Barn closed its Bushwick location in April 2018, citing financial difficulties and individual burnout as reasons for closing the space.
PopGun Presents is an events production/promotion, music curation and venue management collective based in Brooklyn, NY. It was founded in 2008 by Rami Haykal and Jake Rosenthal.
DIY Space for London was a volunteer-run social centre, music venue, rehearsal space, and creative hub formerly located at 96-108 Ormside Street in South Bermondsey, London.
Seth Davis Bogart is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician, he is known for his solo career, as well as Hunx and His Punx and Gravy Train!!!!. As a visual artist, Bogart's paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, and he has created the World of Wonder web series Feelin' Fruity. He also runs the streetwear line Wacky Wacko.
Desert Island is a comic shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The store focuses on underground and alternative comics, as well as independent and self-published comics sold through consignment. Desert Island also hosts the annual comic book festival Comic Arts Brooklyn, and publishes Smoke Signal, an independent comics anthology that has been nominated for an Eisner Award.
The Lot Radio is an online radio station founded by Francois Vaxelaire in Brooklyn, New York. It is operated by Vaxelaire and Pauline Le Mell. The station is based in a shipping container in Williamsburg. Notable guests include Four Tet, Busy P, Floating Points, Hot Chip, Ellen Allien, Fred P, Louie Vega, Jennifer Cardini, Ben UFO, Octo Octa and Eris Drew, Moxie, Nina Kraviz, Falty DL, Kim Ann Foxman, Perel, members of the collective Discwoman and many others. Each broadcast features live DJ sets with an emphasis on electronic music, disco, and soul music. Broadcasts are archived on lot radio's Mixcloud.