Founders of seminal DIY indie venue notorious for hosting 2000+ performances share interviews and performances from Frankie Cosmos/Greta Kline, Japanese Breakfast, Real Estate, Juan Wauters, Screaming Females, Parquet Courts, and many more
Anywhere around the world, each major city most likely has its very own Shea Stadium who were notorious for premiering bands at very early stages of their career, sometimes even their first-ever shows such as Speedy Ortiz, DIIV, Parquet Courts, Maggie Rogers, Big Thief, and surprise shows from artists like Blood Orange and Julian Casablancas.
Shea Stadium and Blast Radio are announcing a series of exclusive audio broadcasts focused on the moments that made Shea such an integral part of New York’s music scene over the past decade.
Launched this past summer, Blast Radio is a free music platform app where artists such as Animal Collective, Yann Tiersen, Matthew Dear, and Roy Molloy have been broadcasting intimate, audio-only performances, taking full advantage of its unique format by sharing something new, old, planned or improvised, whenever with whatever content that’s made available for only 24 hours.
Shea Stadium founders Adam Reich, Luke Chiaruttini, and Nora Dabdoub are tastemakers known for curating, and arguably forecasting, the next breakout artists on the indie and punk scenes. Innovators behind the all-ages DIY space, the crew hand-picked fan favorites of live recordings from artists like Japanese Breakfast, Real Estate, and Screaming Females for their Blast Radio show. In addition to the recordings, shows will feature musicians as special guests for BTS commentary – including Greta Kline.
Independent venues are the lifeblood of our culture. These Shea Stadium broadcasts tap into the community’s love for live music and communicate the impact venues like Shea Stadium hold within their communities.
Yousef Ali, founder of Blast Radio, says, “The Coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the world, and the music industry continues to face one of the biggest setbacks in its history. Building and supporting communities is more vital now than ever, and that’s what Blast Radio’s programming aims to achieve. Most indie live performance venues are in danger of closing permanently, or have closed, and for Shea Stadium, who were in the process of raising money and rebuilding a new DIY space for the music scene to flourish, all came to a halt. These Shea Stadium broadcasts are created in homage to spotlight independent venues and artists across New York and beyond.”
Adam Reich, co-founder of Shea Stadium, says, “The Shea Stadium archives have been the pride and joy of our venue since it began. The founding concept of our space was always to capture these performances with hopes of sharing them with an audience far greater than just those in attendance. Over the past 12 years, we have spent such a large chunk of our lives mixing, cataloging and caring for these performances. Along the way, we’ve captured hundreds of artist’s first baby steps, big breakouts, album release shows, reunions and farewell performances from the 2,000+ shows in our vaults. It’s been a real thrill to follow their journey, some to levels of notoriety that were unimaginable then, and others who we continued celebrating more privately as legends of our inner circle.
We’re excited to be taking people on guided tours of our show archives for the first time, while also highlighting artists who would most certainly be part of Shea’s present and future as we transition into a new era for us in NYC.”
A DIY haven for local artists, Shea Stadium was one of the New York indie scene’s vital organs, and served as a veritable crossroads for artists making music in a variety of moods and milieus. Through collaboration, promotion, and the prolific sharing of bandmates, bills, and boroughs, Shea Stadium served as a creative hub and incubator for musicians from Bushwick and beyond.
With more than 2,000 recorded live performances from both emerging and now established artists and spanning Shea Stadium’s run as the premier all-ages DIY venue in Bushwick, NYC, each episode of Shea Rewind will give listeners curated insight into a hand-picked show from the archives, complete with commentary, flashbacks, and “on this day” accounts from the people who made it possible.
“In doing this with Blast Radio, we hope to turn you on to some new music you may have missed from this golden age of DIY venues, or give you a chance to see some of your old faves from a new angle. We’ll be playing some things that do not exist anywhere online, and offering up our own thoughts while interviewing the artists and people that made it happen behind the scenes. We can only hope it inspires people to do the same- none of us had any prior experience running a venue or an archive before Shea. In the world we’ve been living in for 2 years, a time with seven nights a week of gigs with stacked lineups may feel like another lifetime/planet ago, but it doesn’t have to. We’re looking forward to doing our part in preserving this insanely fun, fruitful, and creative period in our community, while channeling that energy towards the present day and beyond,” continued Reich.
Additionally, each month, Shea Stadium will highlight a different artist, entity, or institution that has helped support New York’s ever-evolving musical ecosystem.
Featuring recordings from the Shea Stadium archives, Q&As with artists and creators, and general musings on the state of the New York scene, join Shea Stadium every month for a recurring segment on the cultural impact and implications of being at the heart of the action.
Here is a calendar of upcoming events for you to include in ‘what to listen to/stream this week/month’:
1/27/22
Shea Stadium Presents: Six Degrees Of Shea-paration
One of the New York indie scene’s vital organs, Shea Stadium was a veritable crossroads for artists making music in a variety of moods and milieus. Through collaboration, promotion, and the prolific sharing of bandmates, bills, and boroughs, Shea Stadium served as a creative hub and incubator for musicians from Bushwick and beyond. Featuring live recordings by Liquor Store, Real Estate, Juan Wauters, Unstoppable Death Machines, Japanther, The Honey-Dos, Screaming Females, and No Joy, tune in to Six Degrees of Shea-paration to hear how it all fits together.
2/3/22
Shea Stadium Presents: Frankie Cosmos /Greta Kline
Each month, Shea Stadium highlights a different artist, entity, or institution that has helped support New York’s ever-evolving musical ecosystem. Featuring recordings from the Shea Stadium archives, Q&As with artists and creators, and general musings on the state of the New York scene, join Shea Stadium every month for a recurring segment on the cultural impact and implications of being at the heart of the action.
For this episode, Shea Stadium is joined by Greta Kline, aka Frankie Cosmos, to discuss songwriting, DIY aesthetic, and the general contour of Kline’s artistic arc and output. 90+ mins of interview and Frankie Cosmos live @ shea tracks from her first and last show at 20 Meadow (as well as a premier of a never before heard Japanese Breakfast/Eskimeaux live collab from the archives recorded in December 2016). Tune in for a behind-the-scenes interview with one of Shea Stadium’s most prolific performers.
2/10/22
Shea Stadium Presents: Shea Rewind – Dec 6, 2013 (Yvette, Perfect Pussy, and California X)
With more than 1,000 recorded live performances spanning Shea Stadium’s run as the premier all-ages, DIY venue in Bushwick, NYC, each episode of Shea Rewind will give listeners curated insight into a hand-picked show from the archives, complete with commentary, flashbacks, and “on this day” accounts from the people who made it possible.
For this episode, tune in as the crew rewinds to December 6, 2013, for highlights from Yvette, Perfect Pussy, and California X.
2/17/22
Shea Stadium Presents: Shea Rewind – Dec 13, 2013 (TONSSTARTSBANDHT)
With more than 1,000 recorded live performances spanning Shea Stadium’s run as the premier all-ages DIY venue in Bushwick, NYC, each episode of Shea Rewind will give listeners curated insight into a hand-picked show from the archives, complete with commentary, flashbacks, and “on this day” accounts from the people who made it possible.
For this episode, tune in as the crew rewinds to December 13, 2013, for a full set and anecdotes from TONSSTARTSBANDHT.
About Blast Radio
Product availability:
The Blast Radio app is available for free in the App Store or Google Play Store
Artists can order a Blast Box or the Blast Radio plugin at blastradio.com
About Blast Radio app:
Blast Radio is the only audio platform where listeners can hear directly from the artists they love, daily. Broadcasts disappear after 24 hours and are audio-only, which means creators have the freedom to share what they want without worrying about it being available forever. Audio is captured in a lossless format and streamed to the listener in the highest available sound quality. Blast Radio is a supportive community; there is no mechanism for negative feedback (no comments, no trolls — only listening, sharing, tipping).
About Blast Box (broadcasting hardware):
Broadcasts on Blast Radio are created with a simple piece of hardware, Blast Box. Artists plug any audio equipment into the device with an RCA cable, connect the device to their Blast Radio profile with Bluetooth, then press one button to broadcast lossless audio live on the Blast Radio app.
About Blast Radio plugin (broadcasting software):
Broadcasts on Blast Radio can also be created with the Blast Radio plugin. Artists simply install the plugin on their computer, add it into their digital audio workstation (DAW) then click one button to broadcast lossless audio live on the Blast Radio app.
Blast Radio Social
Instagram: @listentoblast
Twitter: @listentoblast
About Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium is a DIY field of dreams: a music/arts collective, all-ages show space and recording studio dedicated to documenting live performances. Formed in the spring of 2009, Shea hosted over 2,000 shows at it’s 20 Meadow Street location in the East Williamsburg Industrial Park. In 2011 www.liveatsheastadium.com was launched, an archive of show highlights that has grown to include shows from 1,000 different artists.
In 2013, Shea Stadium Records released The So So Glos Blowout LP, the first on the venue’s own record label. They continue to release both live shows from their archive and new jams from their collective. The podcast series Sheananigans was also started to shine a light on past gigs and share stories from those who spent many a night there. Since leaving their second-floor space at 20 Meadow, Shea has taken the party all over NY; throwing shows in all-ages spaces, backyards, or beaches near you while the search for a new permanent home continues.
Shea Stadium Social
Instagram: @sheastadiumbk
Twitter: @sheastadiumbk