memories :: Death By Audio > The Start Your Own Fucking Showspace Comp
Regular readers of GIMME TINNITUS know I was deeply moved by the closing of Death By Audio. So, when I heard about the Start Your Own Fucking Showspace Comp from Famous Class I reached out to some members of the Death By Audio community to share some memories of that amazing space…
– Steph Monohan (Clean Girls/Artist)
Matt and I had always had a high regard for Lightning Bolt, we’ve actually looked up old photos of the band playing in brooklyn where matt and i are standing right next to each other only we wouldn’t meet for a few more years, it was just a band we could always agree on so it was a no brainer to ask them to play the final set for us since they had meant so much to us even before we had a space for them to play. My mind was on fire for that entire performance, we had done it, we made it to the end of our party and no one tried to interfere, it was a success, the final chapter was being written as we danced. i remember walking around to everyone during that set and just yelling “Thank You!” into each of their faces, i got lifted high above the crowd and just started screaming as loud as i could, i thought i was going to explode, glad i didn’t.
– Edan Wilber (Death By Audio/Fuckton)
One of my favorite memories from Death By Audio was when Chris Johnson and Mack Moody decided to take all the left over television sets we had from a video shoot and throw them from the top floor to the bottom smashing them all in a pile at about 4am. They then lit the pile on fire of course while listening to one of Metallicas first 4 albums as loud as the stereo could go. We had a new roomate at the time and she went outside her room to tell the duo to turn it down and at the scene of Chris and Mack and the pile of burning plastic and rubble she only got blank stares back. They never did waiver from doing whatever the hell they wanted all the time and that was DBA. Unfortunately that roomate didnt like that and moved on quick.
– Oliver Ackermann (A Place To Bury Strangers/Death By Audio)
I don’t have a specific memory that stands out to me over the rest. I have a thousand little memories, some more prominent but none that I want to single out. Death by Audio was really the hub of my life for so long that picking one memory seems almost disrespectful (though it’s definitely not). But I will say that my favorite moments were almost exclusively NOT seeing a show in the show space; they were all really small moments like watching movie after movie/episode after episode in the movie room upstairs with a half dozen of my best friends, or working on new songs in the practice space, or busting ass to build pedals we needed to have done ASAP but always having fun even when it was fucking stressful, or discussing heavy ideas relating to depression or God/lack thereof with Mack (one of the original residents who built the place) at 3AM, or smoking and just dropping your ninth cigarette on the ground (and probably stepping on it, but maybe not), or arguing over the real name of the cat (it’s Honeybeans), or coming over with my cat to stay the night when there were hurricanes, or arguing with Edan about the music industry, or hearing Coin Under Tongue for the first time, or hearing George (another original resident) tell the same stories over and over, or knowing we were all in something together, or ordering a big Anytime order at 2AM with a bunch of people (while watching movies), or creating the artwork with Emily for our first album (which DBA put out), or playing volleyball on the roof, etc. All that. And of course there were great shows too.
– Travis Johnson (Grooms/Death By Audio)
Not a lot of venues want to take chances on bands that have fanbases in the single digits, but Edan was always cool and supportive and psyched on new artists, unlike a lot of people who run showspaces and get jaded quick. So my old band Quilty played several shows to less than 10 people at Death By Audio. And when Speedy Ortiz started picking up steam, we decided to do our first album release at DBA, too. The room was oversold and the A/C was broken and it was a sweltering day in the middle of July. The New York Times reviewed the show and complained that it was too hot. Well, yeah. But there was a great sense of community and support there regardless of who was playing or how sweaty things got.
The first time I saw Pile play “Prom Song” was at DBA for maybe 30 people and that shit felt religious. I probably cried.
– Sadie Dupuis (Quilty/Speedy Ortiz)
It’s hard to single out a favorite memory of Death by Audio, especially when I remember some of their final concerts in 2014. I’ve seen so many wonderful acts grace their stage that it’s impossible to choose one. I’ve met many friends there which have also created fond memories.
Double Dagger’s final New York show in October 2011 does stand out, however. I discovered the band thanks to my partner who encouraged me to listen to them. When DD announced they were playing a final show in Brooklyn at DBA, it was a no brainer for us to attend. Despite it being in October, the show was really hot. It felt like everyone was dancing, crowd surfing, and singing along to every song. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to one of my favorite bands.
– Edwina Hay (Photographer)
“There’s a gaping hole in South Williamsburg where Death By Audio once was. I can’t walk near the area without thinking about the space, Edan, and the many amazing shows I saw over there in my first four years living in Brooklyn. Many of my all time favorite shows I’ve seen were at Death By Audio, whether it was a local band playing their first sets or a touring act that probably should have been playing somewhere bigger, it was always a great time. Death By Audio was a place were everyone felt welcome. It was a great place to discover new music and I miss it dearly.”
– Dan Goldin (Exploding In Sound/Post Trash)
I had booked a Halloween cover show in 2012 with Acid Problem as The Ramones, Heaven’s Gate as Joy Division and us (Sleepies) as the Pixies. Hurricane Sandy had hit a few days earlier and aside from much of the city still being without power, the subways were completely shut down and Edan was stuck in San Francisco. We seriously considered canceling the show and I’m so glad we didn’t because it turned out that everyone was going completely stir crazy. People found their way to DBA from all over the city with almost no public transportation available and the show sold out immediately. It was crazy and amazing and my favorite show that I’ve ever had anything to do with.
-Josh Intrator (Sleepies/Death By Audio)
It was October of 2012. Sleepies asked me to join them for a Pixies halloween cover set. “Scott Bacula’s Dracula Spectacula” was scheduled for Oct 31 at Death By Audio… joining us was Heaven’s Gate (Joy Division), Acid Problem (Ramones), The Go-Guh’s (The Go-Go’s) and Mr. Dream (Siouxsie & the Banshees). The Sleepies boys & I decided to go as The Wizard of Oz crew… Fun right?
Hurricane Sandy hit a few days before the show… it was madness… thousands of people displaced, massive flooding in the streets, tunnels and subway lines, power cuts all around the city… we kept asking ourselves “what can we do?!”. And Fuck this show. People are homeless, injured, without power…. it was awful. After some intense discussions the show was not cancelled. All the money from the door would go to Hurricane Sandy Relief. We believed any amount could help. When Edan opened the doors on Oct 31, I expected like 20 or so people to show up…. I was massively wrong. The venue sold out and we raised a beautiful chunk of money. It was magnificent. I just can’t stress enough how terribly important venues like DBA are… they are literally lighthouses in storms. They do amazing things. They bring people together and blast out hope & love into the world. Thank you Edan, Matt, Ollie & the entire DBA crew for so many precious memories.
-Alyse Lamb (Parlor Walls/EULA)
And here are some pictures from that night (photos by Edwina Hay):
And here is some shaky video filmed by me…
I might be combining two memories here but I swear we did a show with a band once and the singer decided to do a stand up routine instead, taking off his pants yelling “SHOW BIZ!” while he ran around the audience. I was not expecting that.
– Andy Kinsey (Shark?/Fraidycat)
Back in 2009, Jon Flores and I had a super short-lived booking company called 4.5.6 productions and were given permission to have a “Punk Rock Flea Market” at Death by Audio. Jon was doing sound there at the time, and I had worked door there a few times so we were able to book the spot pretty easily. We had about 12 local vendors and booked Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Graffiti Monsters, Insouciant, and the Monte Vista. Jon made a really sick flyer for it, since he was part of Tingle Fingers, and they made incredible show flyers for everything back then. Unfortunately for us, only about 20 people came and hardly any of the artists sold anything. I’m pretty sure they never did a market there again.
-Lani Combier-Kapel (Advaeta/Weeping Icon/Warcries/Silent Barn)
Death By Audio was the first place I saw too many amazing acts to recount (thank you, Edan), the only place I made a photo of someone crowd surfing while eating a slice of pizza, and probably not the last place that I’ll have a lens broken in the midst of a crazy show. But more than any single occurrence, the most important thing to remember about Death By Audio is the promise that was realized there, and that continues to be realized in venues like it, in New York and beyond. The hope for any space like Death By Audio is not that it will live
forever, but that for a time, it will provide a place for people to connect and create meaningful work that endures longer than any physical structure, or any one of us.
-Walter Wlodarczyk (photographer)
(click to see bigger version!)
There’s this picture on my phone that I look at during my lowest moments, which seem to happen with increasing frequency as my 20s progress: It’s a scribble from the bathroom at Death By Audio (the one on the left) that reads, “everything is hard before it gets easy.†I used to stare at it, believing in its wisdom, every time I squatted over the toilet to pee. Seeing it used to fill me with hope and power and ambition, and even though Death By Audio is gone, I still have this tiny piece of it to keep with me.
Has shit gotten any easier? No! But it’s okay, because it will someday. Death By Audio said so. There’s the cliche` of falling in love at first sight with another person; maybe that’s not possible with a place, at least not in the same way, but if it is, that’s how I felt about DBA. I walked into its doors for the first time and I just knew. This is it for me. This is where I’m supposed to be forever. It could never lie to me, and I still believe it never will.
Of course, nothing good lasts forever, whether that’s a person, place, or thing. It’s better when it doesn’t. I’m glad Death By Audio ended. I miss it every day, but the thought of its bright, welcoming facade succumbing to the hedonistic chill that’s blanketed Williamsburg is far worse than the longing I feel for it. It’s like staying away from a person you miss desperately, because you know deep down they’re no longer the person you once knew. It’s better this way for the both of you.
Patio never played Death By Audio, but it’s where I gained my music industry sea legs. It’s where LP and I first met, at an Ovlov show, introduced by our friend Joe Romano, who plays in Spit (there was that one spring where Joe and I were at DBA practically every other night, and those are my favorite memories from our friendship). It’s where I covered local bands for local blogs, accumulating clips that would help me build a career in writing I wasn’t even sure would be possible (at the time, the idea of one day being paid to write about music seemed like pure fantasy). It’s where I first met Dan Goldin, after we’d been corresponding via email about my unhealthy Exploding In Sound obsession (he’d become an integral guiding hand in my career, both in writing and Patio, which I remind him of as often as he allows me). There was that one time I had a weird sort-of date at a Big Ups show. I had just interviewed Joe Galarraga and he put me on the list and when he gave me a hug, I felt like the coolest fucking person in the room (we’re now friends). I didn’t even care when that dude was a dick to me afterwards. Fuck dudes. Play music instead!
Ovlov, Washer, Kal Marks, Future Islands, Yvette, Priests, Future Punx, Bleeding Rainbow, Parquet Courts, Tyvek, Potty Mouth, Shark?, Yuppies, Criminal Hygiene, Big Ups; these are just some of the bands I had the pleasure of seeing at Death By Audio. Patio has since played with some of these bands, which feels too crazy and amazing to even think about, like some sort of DIY fairytale. And truly, DBA is a fairytale, because its ending was a happy one. It isn’t physically there anymore, but we still have it; in wisdom, in memories, in records on our shelves, in friendships, in love found and lost, in people we now miss but still exist in that time forever.
Maybe that’s the easy part.
– Loren DiBlasi (Patio/MTV News)
My first memory there was literally months after it opened in the summer of ’07. Went with an Englishmen I was collaborating musically with at the time by the name of Daniel Rudd, met Dorie(who was just starting out at the door), but also met this very cute 23-24 year old girl whom, unbeknownst to me, was married to someone in San Fransisco. That fact didn’t come up until we were about 3/4ths into our make out session…and for some reason it didn’t deter her, or us, either (*shrug* whatever: it was years ago).
Right after that, we went outside, and I proceeded to puke for about a half hour. Unrelated to the former revelation btw…..I was drunk. Getting to the point of beyond drunk actually. And throwing up mostly clear fluid. Being as nice as I remembered she was, she was concerned enough to head back inside on her own accord to get me water from the older version of their bar, which was located in the area that later became the broom closet in the back room(which also used to have their alcohol permit DUCT-TAPED to the wall on the left next to the metal bar table). She got me water, and that was the end of our make out session. Did get a number though. Oh, and Sunburnt Hand of Man played.
– Andrew Clark (FREECARE)
By the time it closed, DBA had become something of a sacred space. It felt like a secret clubhouse, but anyone was welcome. In the last few years, I remember it wasn’t uncommon for random tourists to drop in. Either they’d heard rumors about the place, or they naively happened upon it while strolling around the neighborhood. They’d endearingly inquire Is there live music tonight? or What kind of music will be performed? Anywhere else, these people might receive a cold shoulder or dirty look. But here, whomever they approached would do the best they could to explain the lineup and encourage the newcomers to stick around. There really was a sense of inclusivity.
Death By Audio was a chemistry lab – a safe, positive, welcoming chemistry lab. You went there to learn, to absorb, sure; but you could also run experiments of your own. It was an immersive education. Whether I was watching friends play or witnessing a performance I’d never encountered before, I always found myself overwhelmed with inspiration and energy. Standing there in the audience at Death By Audio, watching a band play made me think not only Hey, I want to do that but also Maybe I could even play *here* one day. So I went from being a passive student to becoming an active one, forming a band and playing one of our first-ever shows at DBA. It was a safe space to experiment as a musician, and I quickly realized DBA also afforded a great many opportunities for new bands like mine to share bills with bands of a much higher caliber. In this beautiful way, DBA supported a wide range of local and touring musicians, always welcoming in new bands, too, and in the process cultivating a small but dedicated community.
If you attended or played shows there often enough, you came to know everyone who lived and/or worked at the space. Not just Edan, Matt, and Oliver, but also folks like Dorie, Gavin, Tara, Josh, Burgers, Mark, Stephanie, and many others. These were friendly faces who might greet you at the door, or serve you a beer, or take a break from mopping the floor at 1 a.m. to wave goodbye as you were leaving with the last of your gear. A shared affinity for DBA and its mission brought me close with so many people I might have never met otherwise. On any random night, I could expect to show up and see these friends. It’s no wonder that when we all find each other in the same place nowadays (unfortunately rare in these post-DBA times), it feels like a family reunion.
I’m saddened to think we are, years later, still deprived of a venue and positive community around it, where up-and-coming artists can have just as good an experience and feel just as welcome as established, in-demand ones. But when I recall all of the inspiration and ideas and human connections that came out of Death By Audio, I feel that same burst of energy I experienced when I saw my first show there. And that gives me hope.
– Noah Kardos-Fein (Yvette)
You can purchase the Start Your Own Fucking Showspace Comp at famousclass.com.
The options:
- $38– 3xLP Black vinyl
- $38– 3xLP LTD Clear with Opaque Blue & Red vinyl (edition of 1000)
- $53– Deluxe Bundle – LTD colored 3xLP + Bonus Ty Segall live at DBA 9/28/08 on mystery colored vinyl (edition of 1000)
- $73 – 3xLP Black vinyl + We’ve Come So Far by Ebru Yildiz – 200 page hardcover photo book
The tracklist:
Dirty On Purpose – Ways to Drown
Deerhoof – Paradise Girls
Tyvek – Wayne County Roads
Parquet Courts – Sunbathing Animal (Not available digitally)
Coasting ft. Patty Conway – Shopping for a Smile
Shellshag – Destroy Me I’m Yours
Pujol – Black Rabbit
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – Bottled in Cork
Screaming Females – Wishing Well
Pampers – Monkey Drip
Dan Deacon – Learning To Relax
The Numerators – Bill
Ty Segall – Wave Goodbye
YVETTE – Mirrored Walls
Downtown Boys – Wave Of History
Future Islands – Balance
Thee Oh Sees – Turned Out Light
Natural Child – Crack Mountain
Sleepies – All Over the Years
Nots – Strange Rage
Protomartyr – Free Supper
Metz – Get Off
Grooms – Tiger Trees
Jeff: The Brotherhood – Heavy Damage
A Place To Bury Strangers – I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart
Lightning Bolt – The Metal East
If you want to find out more about Ebru Yildiz’s book head over to lastdaysofdeathbyaudio.com.
And information about the documentary chronicling the end of DBA is at goodnightbrooklyn.com.
…If you want to share a memory of Death By Audio please leave a comment.
Thanks to everyone involved with Death By Audio. I love you. Oh and Fuck Vice!
Sincerely,
Bob Reich
