Tom Gallo is the host of Look at My Records on Radio Free Brooklyn
Radio Free Brooklyn and Bushwick Daily are proud to announce a new weekly local-music column that will focus on artists that call Bushwick home. Each week, a Radio Free Brooklyn personality will pen a record or performance review of a different Bushwick based artist, with a curated selection of the best upcoming local gigs in the neighborhood for the following weekend.
2018 proved to be a milestone year for the Ridgewood, Queens-based dream-pop band Parrot Dream. The group released their highly anticipated debut album, Light Goes, in August on Good Eye Records, and continues to be a pillar in the New
York City music scene. With 2019 on the horizon, the band is finishing off the year with a very special benefit show for The Trans Women Of Color Collective on Sunday night at The Glove. The group will also be screening a brand new video for their record’s beautiful lead single, “Light Goes.” I recently caught up with Parrot Dream to chat about their new record, the show, and their plans for 2019:
Congratulations on a very eventful 2018! Tell us a little bit about your incredible debut record, Light Goes.
Thank you!! Light Goes was written during the period we were transitioning from life in Santiago, Chile to life here. It definitely reflects the range of experiences we had, and feels like a musical bridge between these two realities.
Parrot Dream originated in Chile, but you’ve been based in New York for the last several years. How have your surroundings influenced the evolution of your sound, if at all?
Yeah, we moved here four years ago now, and it has been a continuous explosion of influences and transformations both personally and musically. Influences like the city itself, the underground history of art, music and resistance, the streets, the chaos, the rawness, the noise and the people that are doing amazing things here. In a way, all those influences and feelings are shaping our sound, especially live, and we are trying to do our best to capture and translate that in our recordings.
You’re releasing a video for the title track, “Light Goes,” on Sunday. Why’d you decided to make a video for this song? What’s the concept behind the video?
While recording, we had decided on ‘Light Goes’ as the first single off the album, and around the time we were wrapping up the album, our friend Cristian Pino was visiting us from Chile. Pino is an amazing filmmaker and had already made a music video for one of our tracks off our EP. ‘Light Goes’ touches upon struggles of communication within close relationships tinged with grief and regret, and the idea was to create a storyline in which the protagonist is dealing with these struggles and emotions. Our friend Kai Pelton stars in the video as this protagonist, and we follow her through the city over a course of a day.
For your last performance of the year, you’ve organized a benefit show at The Glove here in Bushwick. All proceeds from the show benefit The Trans Women Of Color Collective. Why’d you choose this organization and what does their mission mean to you?
The film stars our friend Kai who is a trans woman of color, and supporting the trans community is incredibly important to us. Trans women of color are under attack, and as my trans sibling (who recommended TWOCC to us) says, ‘trans women of color deserve to be given their roses while they’re still here.’ TWOCC does incredible and radical work seeking to uplift and support trans and gender non-conforming people of color and their families. They help set up funds for members of the community to help build economic growth and create safe spaces. Here is a beautiful statement from their website: “We believe that everyone deserves to exist in a world where they are celebrated in their truth.” You can read more about the work they do and support them here via their website.
The show on Sunday at The Glove features Oceanator, No Swoon, Stefa, and Daphne. Tell us a little bit about these artists and why you selected them to perform on Sunday?
We wanted to put together a bill of friends and artists who make really amazing music and who would be excited about supporting TWOCC, and it was also really important to have a bill that was not dominated by white cis-dudes. Oceanator released their EP last year, which is so so good, and just got on OMR’s hardest working bands list. No Swoon just released their first EP in August, which we loved; we are big fans of theirs! Stefa also just released her EP in September and is an incredible performer! Daphne makes amazing art rock, and we know them through our sibling, Christian. We are so thankful to all the bands for playing the show, and are super psyched to see them perform!!
What are Parrot Dream’s plans for 2019?
Playing some wintry shows around town, then there’s a tour in the works to get down to SXSW, and we’re working on new music to hopefully record in the spring.
Parrot Dream is performing at The Glove on Sunday, December 16th with Oceantor, No Swoon, Stefa, and Daphne. All proceeds benefit the Trans Women Of Color Collective. Doors open at 8:00pm and the show starts promptly at 9:00pm.
You can purchase Light Goes on Blood Red Translucent vinyl via Bandcamp.
It’s getting cold and dark outside, keep your spirits up with all these awesome music events:
Curls, Fletcher C. Johnson at Elsewhere
Wednesday, December 12th at 8 p.m.
Curls, the new project of Girls founder Christopher Owens, released their debut EP Vante last year, and they’re finishing off 2018 with a brief tour of the East Coast. They’ll be at Elsewhere on Wednesday and in Manhattan on Thursday, and are worth checking out if you were a fan of the heavily melodic indie rock of his prior efforts. Also performing is Fletcher C. Johnson, a longtime New York City-based songwriter with lo-fi tendencies.
Star Rover, Toth, Masma Dream World at Secret Project Robot
Thursday, December 13th at 8 p.m.
Thursday night at Secret Project Robot promises to be an immersive artistic experience, as the performances of the three highly talented musical acts on the bill will be supplemented by the visual projections of Justin Randall. Tōth, the solo project of Alex Toth of Rubblebucket, shared two songs earlier this year, “Co-Pilot” and “No Reason,” while Star Rover shared a mesmerizing new video for their single “Peppermint Olive” last week. The show will begin with a sound bath by Masma Dream World.
Lazyeyes, Dinowalrus, Monograms, Low Anxiety at Alphaville
Friday, December 14th 8 p.m.
Local shoegazers Lazyeyes are wrapping up a big 2018 on Friday at Alphaville. The four-piece released their debut album Echoes on Egghunt Records back in June. They’ll be joined by two bands with psychedelic influences, Dinowalrus and Monograms. The latter trio just released their excellent debut EP Beekeepers in late October. Rounding out the bill is Low Anxiety, the garage surf-punk project of Brooklyn native Leau Anks.
Upper Wilds, Video Daughters, ESSi at The Glove
Saturday, December 15th at 9 p.m.
The Glove is the place to be this weekend, as the Bushwick venue is also hosting an exciting triple bill on Saturday night. Upper Wilds, an experimental psychedelic group, headlines a lineup that features Video Daughters and ESSi, two other acts with experimental, avant-garde leanings. Earlier this year, ESSi shared their highly captivating self-titled debut single, which features two noise-rock inspired songs, “I, I” and “Out Of Body.”
