Our Stories

Posts by and about the RFB community
Singer/Songwriter Jillian Dawn

Oct 6 2024

Jillian Dawn: 25-year-old singer/songwriter on a journey to the dream. 

Dawn talks to RFB about her latest track, performances, and plans for the future.
Read It
Dick Dale & Lana Dale

Sep 27 2024

What Shaped Dick Dale?

Dick Dale's Lebanese roots and connection to the Arab world layed the foundation of his innovative surf-rock sound.
Read It
Bono from U2 with an American flag inside a speech bubble

Sep 6 2024

Un-Accenting the Accent

Why has the American accent become de rigueur for artists around the world?
Read It
Saidah Blount

Aug 30 2024

Saidah Blount: The Face Behind the Music

BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn Executive Director talks about the challenges and successes of her first season.
Read It
Canibus

Aug 23 2024

Canibus’ Rip The Jacker: A Most Unusual Production

Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind and Canibus caught lightning in a bottle in a strange but successful way.
Read It
LA LOM and Thee Sacred Souls perform at Celebrate Brooklyn!

Aug 16 2024

A Night at the Bandshell with LA LOM & Thee Sacred Souls at BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn

California's LA LOM and Thee Sacred Souls bring the romantic allure and charm of classic Mexican Boleros and Cumbina Sonidera inspired music
Read It
Double album CD

Aug 9 2024

The Mysterious Allure of the Double Album

The double album is a dying breed, but the vanity and ambition needed to make them will never go out of style
Read It
Run DMC Performing in Long Beach 1984

Aug 3 2024

Why Are There No Rap Covers?

Rap covers succeed when they take a song with universal lyrics and give it a complimentary coat of new paint.
Read It
The Jam / Curtis Mayfield Mashup

Jul 26 2024

Did The Jam Have a Perfect Cover?

Where Curtis Mayfield lays back, The Jam lean forward.
Read It
The Greatest American Rock Band

Jul 5 2024

The Greatest American Rock ‘N’ Roll Band Is…

When considering the Greatest American Rock band, apply the three C’s: Critical acclaim, Commercial success, and Cultural relevance.
Read It
Yo-Yo Ma

Jun 28 2024

Yo-Yo Ma and the Impetuousness of Youth

Like wine, some musicians get better with age.
Read It
Bette Smith

Jun 21 2024

Local Artist Spotlight: Bette Smith

Bette Smith's new music sounds like a party
Read It
Train - Worst pop song ever?

Jun 14 2024

The Worst Pop Song of All Time?

"Hey Soul Sister" is a memorable, significant song, but for all the wrong reasons.
Read It
Comfort Club Fear of Moving on album cover

Jun 7 2024

Comfort Club Explores Distance, Defeat, and How to Disconnect Yourself from Your Ex

Colin Tracey discusses the feelings of those of us who love too hard, struggle to let go, and are afraid to be alone. 
Read It
Keith Moon standing on drum kit

May 31 2024

The Madness of Keith Moon

His timekeeping was sloppy, but his feel was amazing.
Read It
Caroline Shaw with Attaca Quartet

May 22 2024

Ringdown is a Let-Down, But Caroline Shaw Remains Refreshing

The music of Ringdown sounds more like the music Danni Lee, not Caroline Shaw, wants to make.
Read It
Jeff Beck and Stevie Wonder

May 17 2024

An Unintentional Cover: Jeff Beck’s Superstition

It’s still Stevie Wonder’s song, but Jeff Beck finally made it his for one night.
Read It
Charles Mingus holding his cat

May 10 2024

The Hidden Genius of Charles Mingus

Perhaps the inspiration to toilet train a cat is indicative of an expansive mind that was willing to experiment and take risks
Read It
Shuggie Otis

May 3 2024

Random Artist Memories: Shuggie Otis

Otis continues to perform sporadically but remains a talented, insular mystery.
Read It
Klaus Nomi

Apr 26 2024

The Rarest Singing Voice

It’s a voice that can seem impossible but is often unforgettable. If you encounter one, cherish the experience. You don’t experience them often.
Read It
Randy Savage 'Be a Man' album cover

Apr 19 2024

Albums You’ve (almost certainly) Never Heard Of: Randy Savage’s ‘Be a Man’

The album is no more than a footnote in a life lived largely. But it is not a failure.
Read It
Christina Aguilera singing live

Apr 12 2024

When Pop Music Gets Weird: Christina Aguilera’s “What A Girl Wants”

It’s strange to hear a standard 4/4 pop melody get spun around like this. Music is more interesting when it makes your brain say, “Waitaminute - what just happened?”
Read It

Apr 5 2024

Brooklyn Royalty: The Dap-Kings

Their musical lane may have been narrow, but they drove it in a monster truck powered by James Brown’s hairspray.
Read It
Elvis Costello's Spanish Model album cover

Mar 29 2024

Albums You Might Not Know: Elvis Costello’s Spanish Model

Spanish Model may be another footnote in Elvis Costello’s career, but it’s a career more memorable for the chances it has taken.
Read It
Skorts Brooklyn Band

Mar 22 2024

Local Music Spotlight: Skorts

A new band making waves in the North Brooklyn/Lower Manhattan circuit have a heady sound that's both retro and refreshing.
Read It
Booker T. and the M.G.'s McLemore Avenue album cover

Mar 15 2024

Albums You’ve Forgotten: Booker T. and the M.G.’s McLemore Avenue

The album didn’t break new ground, but it's fascinating to experience four geniuses re-imagining the work of four other geniuses.
Read It
Elevator Rap - Image by SomatArt

Mar 8 2024

Elevator Rap: Hip-Hop’s Newest Subgenre

You can’t dance to it, and it’s so inoffensive that your grandma can vibe to it.
Read It
P.H.0 Silkpunk band from Brooklyn, NY

Mar 1 2024

Local Music Spotlight: P.H.0

Brooklyn's silkpunks subvert, reshape, and redefine what it means to be East Asian in a Western setting
Read It
Peter Svensson of The Cardigans

Feb 23 2024

One-Hit Wonders: The Cardigans

The Cardigans were fringe artists with a rich library who had one song cross over out of nowhere. It never happened again.
Read It
What if Wu-Tang Clan were a basketball team?

Feb 16 2024

Wu-Tang Basketball

If New York's Wu-Tang Clan were a basketball team, what would that look like?
Read It
Mingjia, Yaz Lancaster, and Andrew Yee perform at C'Mon Everybody in January 2024 (author photo)

Feb 12 2024

The Top 9 Places to Hear (and See) Experimental Music in Brooklyn, According to Musicians

The Brooklyn avant-garde music scene is no longer burgeoning; it is flourishing. 
Read It
Handwritten Kurt Cobain lyrics

Feb 9 2024

Lyrical Economy and the Art of Subtle Songwriting

Many songwriters are lauded for their descriptive lyrics. It’s rarer for a lyricist to do the same thing within a much tighter word budget.
Read It
Laura Branigan Self Control

Feb 1 2024

Self Control

Let’s take a trip back to 1984. Hair was big, pants were tight, Dallas was on TV every Friday, and two recording artists on either side of the Atlantic deployed a most unusual strategy.
Read It
Graffiti of "No North Brooklyn Fracked Gas Pipeline" in Greenpoint

Nov 30 2021

North Brooklyn Organizing for Climate Justice is Community and Environmental Resilience (Part 1)

For the past two years, a coalition of Brooklyn-based climate activists has been demonstrating in opposition to a fracked gas transmission pipeline project running from Brownsville to Greenpoint.
Read It
Gianluca Tramontana with Cuban musicians

Nov 4 2021

Radio Free Brooklyn presents: “Changüí, Music of Cuba”

Come join RFB on a musical journey into the heart of Cuba’s Changüí country with RFB host Gianluca Tramontana.
Read It
George Faulkner at the microphone

Sep 19 2021

#RFB Host Profile: George Faulkner and “Metrowave”

George Faulkner spills about his favorite childhood band, the unexpected delight of creating music remotely—and internationally—during the pandemic, and why Sunday nights are Funday nights!
Read It
Kaitlyn DeTrinnis

Aug 16 2021

#RFB Host Profile: Kaitlyn DeTrinis & “Mixed Signals”

The Power of One: Kaitlyn DeTrinis of "Mixed Signals" wants to make us think more ethically about the way we all consume music.
Read It
Jim Melloan in a 70's photo

Aug 8 2021

#RFBMilestones: Jim Melloan and “50 Years Ago This Week”

Jim Melloan of “50 Years Ago This Week” has been bringing popular music from the 20th century to new audiences since RFB began. Read on for the method (and memories) behind his music madness! (That's Jim on the left with his sisters 50 years ago, in 1971.)
Read It
happy anniversary monkeys

Aug 8 2021

#RFBMilestones: Happy RFBversary!

There hasn't been all that much to celebrate lately...but check out these Radio Free Brooklyn shows that reached milestones this summer! Shout-outs and congrats to all!
Read It
improbable confetti playing music

May 12 2021

“Improbable Confetti” hits Episode 100!

”Oh wait, I thought we were doing costumes for the 100th?! So I just bought this Jorge Luis Borges full-body suit and mask for nothing? Seriously, we talked about it and everything!”
Read It
Millie Small

May 10 2021

#RFBinTribute: Millie Small

In the mid-1960s, teenage Millie Small's hit song, “My Boy Lollipop,” helped pave the way for Jamaican music and musicians (especially ska), to become internationally popular.
Read It
Noah Dreiblatt

May 6 2021

RFB Artist Interview: Noah Dreiblatt

“I’ve always thought if you can’t laugh into the abyss, it’ll laugh into you.” Experimental pop artist Noah Dreiblatt talks to RFB's Girl Wunder about his debut solo album, Doomscrolling, on the eve of his appearance on this week’s (05/07) Virtual Voyager!
Read It
LoveHoney band photo

Feb 13 2021

RFB Artist Profile: LoveHoney’s New Album Release

Lovehoney frontwoman Aly Quiñones on what it was like for the band to create their new album (releasing 02/14/21) while the Covid-19 pandemic is still, sadly, a thing, being a little brown grrrl in a band making noise — and the William Burroughs quote she lives by.
Read It
Francesca D'Alessio in a radio studio

Feb 7 2021

RFB Host Profile: Francesca D’Alessio and “Love Me or Leave Me”

“Love Me or Leave Me” host Francesca D’Alessio on her lifetime love of radio, why Nina Simone is her muse and how RFB’s “Wall of Lies” led to doing her show.
Read It
Adam Schlesinger

Jan 26 2021

#RFBinTribute: Adam Schlesinger

RFB editorial star Emily Scott penned this poignant tribute to the Fountains of Wayne frontman, who died from complications of COVID-19 in April 2020 at age 52.
Read It
Dan Fireberg in front of chain link fence

Jan 18 2021

RFB Artist Profile: Dan Berg interview with Girl Wunder

Jessica Wu (a.k.a Girl Wunder of RFB’s Virtual Voyager), chats with electro-soul-jazz-house music producer Dan Berg (a.k.a. Fireberg) on the debut of his latest mix, “Supernova,” making music during a global pandemic — and the sounds you might find in outer space.
Read It
Alex Jones

Nov 30 2020

RFB Host Profile: Alex Jones of “Alex Jones’ Planet of Sound”

Broadcasting from Manchester, England, Alex Jones shares his love for psychedelic music and breathes new life into a genre associated with the turbulence and social changes of the 1960s.
Read It
Stranger Than Christian on Radio Free Brooklyn

Nov 29 2020

RFB Host Profile: Christian Carrion of “Stranger Than Christian”

He’s been a game show contestant, podcast host and co-founder of a game show marathon charity. Now, Christian Carrion adds “unscripted radio show,” to his considerable credits.
Read It
Jesse Roth

Nov 29 2020

RFB Host Profile: Jesse Roth of “The Mess”

Jesse Roth brings her comedic chops to a new medium with her new show lauding (and loving) all things Pop.
Read It
Giants Among Men logo

Sep 30 2020

RFB New Host Profile: Brian and Scott of “Giants Among Men”

Brian DiMenna and Scott Ishii have been shouting their hot takes on New York sports at each other since childhood. Now, you’ll get to hear them, too.
Read It
Kevin Rooney and his cat Eric

Sep 26 2020

RFB New Host Profile: Kevin and Eric of “The Daily Echo”

Multispecies host duo Kevin and Eric of “The Daily Echo” give their unique perspectives about... what it’s like to be a multispecies host duo.
Read It
Dead Air Logo

Sep 23 2020

RFB New Host Profile: Cookie Puss of “Dead Air”

Universal Pictures had E.T.; NBC had ALF. Radio Free Brooklyn has Cookie Puss — its new resident alien host who promises to be very tasty (if not exactly tasteful).
Read It
Private Party logo

Sep 22 2020

RFB New Host Profile: Mr. Funkopops of “Private Party”

SoCal DJ Mr. Funkopops hosts a smooth and sensual “Private Party” where everyone (or at least RFB listeners) is/are always on ”The List.”
Read It
Give to Grace

Sep 21 2020

Securing Their Future: Grace Exhibition Space Celebrates Its Evolution with #Give2Grace

From September 22–28, Grace Exhibition Space presents a week-long virtual art event and fundraiser to celebrate its evolution — and survival as a dedicated home for performance artists.
Read It
Manu Dibango

Sep 15 2020

#RFBinTribute: Music in Memoriam “Big Blow — The Loss of Manu Dibango”

Kent Koren, RFB’s host of “The Mothers of Connection,” penned this tribute to the great and prolific Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango, who died this spring from COVID-19 at the age of 86.
Read It
4 hurdy gurdy players

Sep 14 2020

Hurdy Gurdy Songs Celebrates 100 Episodes of Music, Truth Telling and Memories

Jorge Arevalo Mateus and RFB’s Hurdy Gurdy Songs celebrates its 100th episode on Tuesday, September 15 with a calvacade of truth-telling musical talent from around the world.
Read It
Hallie Spoor

Aug 7 2020

RFB Artist Profile: Brooklyn singer-songwriter Hallie Spoor’s new video: “City Angels”

Vivian Bossieux-Skinner of RFB's Art Corner revisits with Brooklyn singer-songwriter Hallie Spoor as she releases a new video of her song, “City Angels.”
Read It
The Oral History of New York logo

Aug 6 2020

RFB New Host Profile: Brad Bailey of “The Oral History of New York”

Not many people would choose to debut a new radio show in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, but Radio Free Brooklyn — and all of New York City — should be real glad Brad Bailey did.
Read It
girl wunder jessica wu

Jun 3 2020

#RFBhostprofile: Jessica Wu is the “Girl Wunder” behind “Virtual Voyager”

RFB’s “Girl Wunder” debuts her new show “Virtual Voyager” in the midst of a global pandemic... and the worst civil unrest the U.S. has experienced in our lifetimes.
Read It
Time to be Useless show logo

May 28 2020

#RFBhost profile: Eric Speck and the fresh sounds, hidden treasures and lost gems of “Time to Be Useless.”

Many people love music, but to Eric Speck, letting it render you “useless” is an even higher calling.
Read It
Fraser Tye

Apr 30 2020

Fraser Tye of Radio Free Brooklyn’s “Brooklyn Vignettes” podcast

Australian expat Fraser Tye on why “Brooklyn Vignettes” is Brooklyn’s ultimate “bedtime story.”
Read It