Saturday, February 02, 2013

They Didn't Care If They Sucked.

TheBuskingLife
ShortBusVille


The Felice brothers grew up in the Catskills.

But they developed their chops in the subways of Brooklyn.

The Guardian's Amy Fleming had that story awhile back:

...After busking around New York State, the brothers decided to try their luck in the city, where they rented a tiny flat in Brooklyn. They would sleep on the floor and wake up early to play on the subway. "On a good day," says (now departed brother) Simone, "we'd make 200 bucks. We'd put it all in the kitty and it'd go on the bus and gas, and we'd drive around and play more. We sucked so bad, but people still liked us. We didn't care that we sucked. And we still don't. We like to suck a little bit. We're like a disgusting jazz band."...

They now travel around North America in the 'short-bus' held together with spit and duct-tape shown above.

And they are much, much more than a disgusting jazz band, despite the fact that they still suck so bad (in all the best ways possible).

But here's the thing...

This week they will play for eighteen or twenty thousand (mostly) hipster kids in the fancy schmancy Barclay's Center in (the new, new) Brooklyn, none of whom will be coming to see them.

But I bet you at least a thousand of those kids will leave that extravagance palace at the end of the night knowing that they have seen, and maybe even sung along with, the real thing.

Which, if you ask me, is what really matters.


.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My fave:
The Felice Brothers - Frankie's Gun [Live]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcVku6bFe-U

RossK said...

Anon--

Absolutely! (that version especially)

Bigger E and I even try our best on that one occasionally (although I'm crap at that crazy-assed walkdown of Ian's on the chorus...Harpoon fills in pretty well for the accordian though).

Interestingly, if you click through on the LincCont version pasted-in here, and then go to the guy's channel you can find Simone playing with them at the just past New Year's show it was taken from.

.

paul said...

This is truly weird. Twenty minutes ago, I coerced Jody into joining me on a raucous, badly strummed version of Frankie's Gun, here in Copan Ruinas, before she went to do real accordion playing..
There is some sort of synchronicity at play.

RossK said...

Paul--

Wow!

The whackadoodle and I did a poorly strummed version at the beach this morning.

And I wonder if E. was heading down to the Metro at precisely the same time.

I rarely do this, but... I think the first comment came in on the wings of the googlebird from rural New York...Truly weird, indeed.

(tell Jody that the merch package for the kids is coming...littler e and I are just a little slow these days)

.

Anonymous said...

not from rural New York...

True North Strong and Free!

RossK said...

Woops!

Hooked it to the wrong IP.

Thanks Anon.

.