Brooklyn Voices-September 2015

September 15, 2015 by

Kid Cudi, whose career took off in 2008 after moving to Brooklyn from Cleveland, is putting the finishing touches on his latest album, Speedin’ Bullet to Heaven. He is reportedly eschewing synthesizers in favor for his own guitar and bass playing. A single from the album, Confused, garnered nearly 412,000 views on YouTube in the first six weeks of its release… Among Cudi’s favorite collaborators are Crown Heights techno-rockers Ratatat, whose fifth album, Magnifique, soared to the top of Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart three weeks after its July 17 release…The nine-piece, horn-filled power-pop-and-funk band Turkuaz has scheduled an Oct. 2 release date for its new album, Digitonium…Flatbush singer-songwriter Carolann Solebello is currently touring as one-fourth of the folk-Americana group No Fuss and Feathers Roadshow, who are also working on completing their first CD between gigs. Expect a November release. (Check out our 2013  interview with Solebello in Brooklyn Roads, Volume 3, Issue 2)…Also planning a fall album release is Gowanus, an eclectic rock quartet that hails from a certain Brooklyn neighborhood, the name of which escapes us…Rolling Stone’s recently published “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time” (individuals and writing teams) includes no less than 16 Brooklynites (14 native born) who collectively have crafted hundreds of Top 40 tunes. They are: Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Lou Reed, Woody Guthrie (long-time Coney Island resident), Hal David (in tandem with Queens-raised Burt Bacharach), Neil Diamond, Notorious B.I.G. (raised in Clinton Hill), Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman, Harry Nilsson, Jay Z, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weill and Otis Blackwell.
Notable Quote: “We just wanted to, I guess, sound alike … a gang or a bunch of brothers. So that was the whole idea of using the name Ramone.” –Marky Ramone (Marc Bell) on NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.