Fresh Pressed: The First DYAD Party
Matt WeinbergerMay 09, 2023
This is Fresh Pressed, in which photographer Matt Weinberger takes us inside some of the rawest moments happening in NYC and beyond. Fresh Pressed is all about encountering the juicy ideas, aesthetics and people shaping culture through the lens of the city's many creative scenes.
Organized by Garett Caramel, Tashi Salsedo, Iliyas Imankulov, Ruben Alejandro, Velvette Blue and Atom Vegas, the first DYAD party brought the city’s bad boys, street kids, hardcore scene, and downtown baddies all together for a night of fun and debauchery at Deluxxe Fluxx. The night was full of swag-era music fused with erotic party rock, creating a revamped past-decade experience like no other. At its core, DYAD (pronounced die-ad), is built upon the mutual relationship between the mainstream culture and the subculture, with one taking from the other and vice versa. At the party Garett Caramel and Velvette Blue DJ’ed a heart pumping back-to-back set, with Big Knives, Oceane, Ayegy and Hardkore also taking the turntables for a whopping six-hour consecutive performance.
On Wednesday, April 26, Aries hosted their store grand opening party to celebrate their new flagship store in the heart of SOHO, London, which had officially opened its doors earlier in April on the 17th. The event brought together a great crowd of everyone from skate kids to fashion industry figures to party together in the new space. The space was designed in collaboration with Brinkworth and Wilson Brothers, and hosts Aries' in-line collections in full for the first time in brick and mortar, as well as an in-store Paperboy coffee shop as a permanent houseguest. The ground floor of the space was filled with cool clothing, which partygoers leafed through as they enjoyed the many beverages offered at the open bar. In the downstairs of the space was a bustling dancefloor. When not being used for dancing, the downstairs space serves as an additional showroom and hosts pop-up vendors within the space. Aries has cemented its place as a mainstay of the London streetwear scene and their influence seems to be growing as they become an international favorite among many in the broader skate and streetwear world. The company’s founder Sofia Prantera is leading this charge with her great sense of humor and strong design sensibility as she brings the brand into this next exciting chapter of their journey.
Alex Pall, known for being one-half of the popular band The Chainsmokers, took the venue by storm with a pumping DJ set at Loosies on April 21. Angel Macklin (AKA Vibiana) opened up the night for Pall delivering an exquisitely vibey set. Vibiana is a standout up-and-coming DJ and party girl within the downtown club scene, gaining a cult following and garnering the respect of industry veterans during her fast rise to club queen status. Once Pall hit the deck, the room started rocking. Everyone had their phones out to get a quick pic or video, and the dancefloor was packed tight. Cheers rung around the room as the crowd’s excitement grew. Pall played some hits and seemed to be having a good time, spinning crowd pleasers and some off the beaten path tracks, while taking the occasional break to dish out alcohol to his fans, friends and contemporaries. Loosies popped off.
If you want to see the next generation of the NYC music scene, Richie Quake’s Real Life Concert Series is the place to be. Richie has been curating this concert series at Heaven Can Wait, featuring up-and-coming bands and DJs, including the Telescreens, Birthday Girl, Quiet Luke, Scarlet Rae, Harry Teardrop and Brandon Lamont. Richie Quake, the band, is comprised of Richie himself accompanied by Ludwig Persik, Frank Corr and Patrick Jones. Each iteration of the series, the band debuts a new song from their EP set to come out following the end of the concert series on June 28, with the full album set to come out sometime in early November. The NYC music scene seems to be strong as ever, with new talent popping up every day. This concert series seems to be building upon the sense of community within the downtown music scene in particular, with each of the bands involved building each other up as they work towards greater successes. Seeing this kind of organic growth is really exciting. The next night of the concert series will be on May 20.
Skate Vol. II, an immersive, semiannual skateboarding, music, dance experience serving NYC’s underground fashion, art and skate communities went hard. This was a top notch 4/20 extravaganza. There was pizza and drinks and banging live music all within the iconic indoor Brooklyn skatepark, Substance, known for both its daring set of ramps and next level parties that happen within the park. In between the live sets was a skate competition amongst the middle of the party. The party brought a fashionable crowd with the skaters involved in the completion all rocking Avirex, a brand which has lately made a triumphant comeback since their popularity boomed in the '90s NYC rap scene. After the skate competition, the room’s air hung heavy with smoke as onlookers celebrated 4/20 and the DJS went back to spinning. Everyone was smiling and sweating as they danced the night away.
ArtSpace, the new venue in the basement of the Public Hotel, opened with a night of glamour and glitz, filled with otherworldly performances. The two-floored venue was packed to the teeth, with a long line flooding out the door. Grammy award-winning DJ Roger Sanchez headlined the show, playing a killer set. Alongside Sanchez, both Orson and Love Club lit up the venue with their own DJ sets in the main room, and Jackson Walker Lewis crushed it with a vinyl set in the back space referred to as "The Green Room." People danced hard and zipped around the venue as the bar handed out complimentary martinis. It was a remarkable opening night and hopefully the beginning of a long run of continued success for the venue. Cheers to many more.
The downtown literary scene, together with a hodgepodge of other NYC characters and rising stars, came together to celebrate the release of Madeline Cash’s new book, Earth Angel. The advents of the party celebrating the book in many ways mimicked the random, confident style of Madeline’s writing. Spotting Danny Cole, the popular NFT artist, DJing alongside Curtis Everett Pawley, known for being one half of The Ion Pack and for his up-and-coming band, The Life, while Gutes Guterman, one of the founders of The Drunken Canal pranced around the dance floor, and Christian Lorentzen, cult favorite writer, journalist and budding actor, hung by chopping it up with his peers, all made for a quintessential vignette of the interconnectedness of this sliver of the downtown New York scene. There was cake and laughter and a mischievous-looking balloon and a barrage of endearing speeches. Madeline received a lot of praise that night. Now it’s your turn to pick up a copy of the book and see why/if she deserved it!
English rapper, DJ, singer and all-around talent Blane Muise, better known as Shygirl, is climbing up the charts and gaining attention from fans worldwide (even Rihanna!). Shygirl gave a roaring performance at Webster Hall, topping off an extravagant evening following talented openers Angelita and Nina Utashiro. Each performance was filled with style and elegant glamour, bringing in all the energy from the booming crowd and sending it right back into the audience. When Shygirl started singing her popular song “Coochie (a bedtime story)," the whole room erupted into a cheering, singing, dancing frenzy. Hearts pounded throughout the venue and arms were up in the air. Shygirl did not seem too shy as she proudly danced around the stage, serenading the audience with her fun, sparkly lyrics. In Shygirl’s song “Heaven," the opening line is “Boy, you're heaven, won't you let me in?” — but I think on this particular night, Shygirl didn’t need any boy to let her into heaven; rather, she made it into heaven herself and brought everyone along with her.
Kind Regards' sixth-anniversary party featured a lineup of 12 DJs, including Nas Leber, Brandon Blue, Ape Drums, Quiana Parks, Odalys, Kristos, Sur Back, No Promises, Moochie, Oakland Slim, Kazi and Isaac Likes. As the night picked up, the room filled up with a blend of downtown club kids, young working professionals, industry heads and "KR" regulars. Since the venue was founded back in 2017 by Michael Bray and Thatcher Shultz, it's sported a wide array of programming, having featured many of the artists who played at the anniversary.
The night was an homage to the venue's past and a celebration of everything yet to come. At the door, designer Kent Anthony and viral TikToker Keegan Magee held down the fort as a large line grew outside the venue. The ground floor was reminiscent of a crowded LES loft, with a color palette borrowed from Kirchner paintings (and some are hanging around the club). According to founder Michael Bray, the design of the downstairs was inspired by the New York classics: Danceteria, Pyramid, etc. Maybe, in due time, Kind Regards will be considered a classic as well. The sloped basement floor is certainly unique and adds a mystique to the design of the venue. With a handful of smiles and a tightly packed dance floor, the venue received a celebration properly deserved.
Marc Rebillet, the popular electronic musician and YouTuber known for his fun, often humorous improvised hip-hop and funk tracks, just had his first photography exhibition, showcasing images he took while on tour from 2021 through 2023 while playing shows throughout America, Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The photos showcase the exciting rockstar lifestyle of a musician traveling around the world as well as some of the more serene moments of life on the road. Some of Rebillet’s influences include Gordon Parks, Fan Ho, Saul Leiter, Diane Arbus and Ernst Haas. Rebilett describes his photo practice as akin to journaling, with his images serving to capture his memories and document his life. Photographing has allowed Rebillet to preserve his life on film and retain memories he says he likely would have forgotten otherwise. There was much buzz about the exciting work on display and a healthy dose of chatter surrounding the backstories of some of the juicier moments seen in some of the images. Rebillet has a contagiously friendly personality and brought out a very social energy to the evening, interacting with the mix of friends, fans and curious strangers that came out to celebrate Rebillet’s work. The proceeds from all photograph sales were announced to be donated to The Bowery Mission. Marc's show is open at Brooklyn Film Camera until May 1 and is viewable during all open gallery hours — Tuesday through Sunday, 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM.
Photography by Matt Weinberger