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LANDMARKS

The places, spaces, and monuments of

NYC's musical past, THE BRONX CROTONA present, and future. A column on PARK JAMS PAST FEATURED LANDMARKS the gear and 1 MA X NEUHAUS’ 12 D APTONE “TIMES SQUARE” RECORDS processes that inform a previous edition of this column focused on 2 T HE THING 13 T HE VILLAGE the music we make. Queensbridge Housing Projects, the largest housing de- SECONDHAND GATE!LIFE!LE velopment in North America and the onetime residence STORE POISSON ROUGE of hip-hop legends such as Marley Marl and Roxanne 3 THE LOFT 14 T HE ANCHORAGE parquet courts’ light up gold, one Shanté. If raw talent came from the projects, that talent 4 MARCY HOTEL 15 E LECTRIC LADY STUDIOS of 2013’s most celebrated rock albums, was re- was honed during park-jam sessions that would unfold 5 A NDY WARHOL’S corded in the band’s practice space on a Tas- in public spaces like basketball courts and parks across FACTORY cam 388 eight-track reel-to-reel. the city. 6 Q UEENSBRIDGE Jonathan HOUSES Schenke, who engineered and mixed the re- One such public-gathering place is Crotona Park 1 7 RECORD MART 6 cord, explains how the limitations of budget, in the South Bronx, a few miles to the northwest of 7 5 8 D EITCH space, and equipment forced him and the band Queensbridge. Crotona was a major locus for jams in 8 PROJECTS 5 QUEENS into a number of unique creative decisions. the ’70s and ’80s, but as hip-hop became a global phe- 9 A REA!SHELTER! 7 5 nomenon, the original park-jam scene faded. Christie VINYL RBMA: You do a lot of off-site recording. Z-Pabon, an events producer who came to New York 10 STUDIO B 15 2 11 MARKET HOTEL 13 in 1996 from the Pittsburgh suburbs, was determined 10 3 Jonathan Schenke: I started doing mobile to maintain the tradition; she and her husband, Jorge 9 8 8 recording out of necessity. My friends didn’t Fabel Pabon, founded Tools of War, a grassroots organi- MANHATTAN have money to rent a studio, so we’d record zation devoted to preserving and promoting early hip- 12 where we could. You can get solid sounds hop culture. This summer marks the tenth anniversa- 4 wherever, it just requires a slightly different ry of their Crotona Park Jams, a party for DJ pioneers 14 approach. I generally close-mic everything, that has featured Grand Wizard Theodore, Kool DJ Red 12 11 baffle the amps to cut down on bleed, and Alert, Grandmaster Caz, Biz Markie, Grandmaster Flash, ditch the room mics. Jazzy Jay, Kurtis Blow, and Afrika Bambaataa, among others. “I think we’ve done great for Bronx tourism,” LOGOS RBMA: Where did you track the Parquet says Z-Pabon. “People can see what a true old-school Courts record? park jam was like back in the day.” Why invite just legends? Z-Pabon says that, to her, it WHAT: CROTONA PARK JAMS JS: We recorded Light Up Gold in the band’s seems only right to do so. Tools of War hosts other, more The origins of practice space. We had the drums on one side intimate park jams in Harlem, such as Spanish Harlem WHERE: SOUTH BRONX of the room with the amps along the other, Hop in White Park, and Digger’s Delight in St. Nicholas WHY: HIP-HOP baffled with blankets and the other amps left Park, but Crotona belongs to what Grandmaster Caz, LEGENDS SPIN FOR A iconic images from NEW AUDIENCE in the space. We made a vocal-booth situation the event’s longtime MC, calls the “big-boy stage.” “We WHEN: 2003-PRESENT NYC's musical history with some blankets hanging from a lofted stor- give them space so that they don’t have to compete with age shelf, and I had my setup on a table in the Skrillex,” Z-Pabon says with a laugh. “Not that I’m invit- explained. corner. It was all live-to-tape, but we were able ing Skrillex.” to get enough isolation to do punch-ins and Z-Pabon and her husband host the Crotona Park STATEN ISLAND keep the mix tight. I was monitoring on head- Jams every Thursday in July (because of the Fourth of BROOKLYN phones, which was the hardest part. July holiday, the 2013 season begins on July 11), so that for original punk rockers Johnny, Joey, self-portrait. Punk magazine cofounder and you can personally witness history in the remaking. Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone, less was more. illustrator recalls RBMA: You recorded on the Tascam 388. How One thing has changed, however: “Grand Wizard Their economy of dress—tight tees, biker that image: “There was a vague feeling did the limitations of eight tracks affect your Theodore says that he looks out into the audience and process? sees all the people from back in the day, but now they jackets, ripped jeans, and canvas sneakers— of S&M about it, and its simplicity to me bring their kids,” says Z-Pabon. “We make it so everyone matched the efficiency of their sound: fast, defined the New York scene.” In JS: It forces you to commit to your decisions, feels welcome.” !ADRIENNE DAY compressed, unadorned rock ’n’ roll. An 1976, the bicentennial year, Vega decided whether it’s combining multiple things on one track or just choosing a take. I love it. It makes odd bunch from Forest Hills, Queens, the upon the eagle from the US seal, modified the us all work that much harder to get things Ramones banded together in 1974 as brothers iconography, and added the band members’ right. Most of the percussion and background in musical ambition (if not blood). But friend names (which would change with the lineup vocal takes are just one mic with everyone spaced around it to get a good blend. and artist visually communicated over time). The emblem first appeared on the Or we’d have multiple instruments on the a “more is more” approach in their logo, back of the Ramones second album, Leave same track but in different sections of the song, like background vocals in the chorus enlarging the Ramones name in a heavy, Home, released in January 1977. and a guitar solo in the bridge. It’s kinda cra- highly visible typeface and incorporating the “Using a national symbol was a perfect zy how much you can fit onto eight tracks if TOP 5… Great Seal of the United States. move back then, because the punk scene you really try. INFLUENTIAL NYC Vega designed many of the band’s graphics was trying to distance itself from the hippie RBMA: Would you say there’s a 388 sound? 1 2 3 4 5 NIGHTCLUBS THE MUDD CLUB THE ROXY LIMELIGHT TUNNEL APT throughout the Ramones’ 22-year career. scene,” says Holmstrom. “What better way to It was the cross- The roller disco The most notorious Mecca Sundays at the APT was one of the Born in Mexico, he was enamored with do so than embrace patriotism?” JS: The 388 definitely has its own sound, no roads of the uptown turned dance par- of Peter Gatien’s Tunnel are forev- last true Manhattan doubt about it. It’s a quarter-inch eight-track, and downtown scenes: ty supported hip-hop nightclubs, Limelight er marked in hip-hop spots to offer quali- symbols of power, specifically the bald For the band name, Vega wanted to be so you’re dealing with 1/32 inches for each punk rock, no wave, just as it was find- opened in a renovated history. Funkmaster ty music pre DJ-over- PRESENTED BY and everything in be- ing its voice and on gothic church in the Flex on the decks, load. It featured a eagle in US heraldry. “I always thought of simple and direct with an all-caps sans track to store sound. Like any other form of tween. Cultural icons its way to becoming a early ’80s. The club Mobb Deep, Jay-Z, and lineup of solid se- the Ramones as… an all-American band,” serif, eventually settling on Franklin compression, you start to lose detail in the such as Jean-Michel full-fledged cultural hosted the quintes- thousands of others lectors including our low and high frequencies as you cram sound Basquiat, David movement. sential ’90s club-kid in attendance every own Snack N Cmish, DJ Vega told the Fringe Underground site. In Gothic, the same font that would appear on into that tiny space. The 388 does it in a cool, Byrne, and Madonna scene. Techno, house, week. It encapsulates Spinna, Bobbito, In Though not a complete history of were all part of the and industrial drew the transition from Flagranti, and Lord a 2012 podcast interview with Going Off the Run-DMC logo a decade later. Most of unique way—really thick, compressed, and nightlife in New York, a handful of historical transi- the masses, but it Golden Era to jiggy Finesse sometimes all midrange-y. There’s also this little bump in clubs have impacted the music world tional period exem- was the drugs that in all its glory. in the same week. in such a way that their presence Track, he described modeling the eagle on the original Ramones have passed on, but the upper frequencies before they roll off that plified by the Mudd made the headlines. is still felt to this day. Here are Club. the Ramones t-shirt design from the reverse Ramones t-shirts are as present as ever. makes the cymbals on Light Up Gold sound Turntable Lab’s top five. side of an Eisenhower dollar. An early poster The logo, Holmstrom says, “has become so like static, this wild sounding ssshhhhh. It centers on Vega’s midsection and his eagle iconic, not just for the band but for all of sounds “wrong,” but in a really good way. belt buckle, blown up from a photo-booth punk rock.” !SUE APFELBAUM !NICK SYLVESTER

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