It’s not too often that an MTV piece catches my eye, but the video segment on the burgeoning Brooklyn music scene is worth viewing. Stereogum goes into a lot of detail about area venues and the growing musical divide between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Not only are there a variety of sounds in the Indie space (Yeasayer, A Place to Bury Strangers, MGMT), but Soul has it’s place in the same NY borough. The high-profile example is most definitely Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Thanks to a combination of charisma, talent and some great word of mouth, this band is on a boogie tour of the U.S. right now and things couldn’t look brighter for them.
There are some other outstanding Soul outfits in the NYC area who may be able to take advantage of this trend in 2008. One called The Dansettes disbanded late last year, but two groups were created in their wake: The Sweet Divines and The Nouvellas.
The Sweet Divines are a little more like Sharon Jones with a strong and determined soul sound adding female harmonies to sweeten things up in all the right places. On the other hand The Nouvellas have gone mod. They will be appearing at this year’s SXSW. And it looks like they might be on the same bill with The Black Hollies, so we may see some press on these guys as March approaches.
