The success of any party depends on just a few things: the venue, the guests, the food and drink, and (of course) the music. Evenings at John DeVore's factory at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard are invariably successful. More than that, they are fun. You love the place. You enjoy the company. The food is delicious and the drinks do the trick. And (of course) the music is intoxicating. You want to be there.
Monkeyhaus is the name of the sound room—that golden, friendly place filled with vinyl and wood and tube amplifiers, where we sit and talk and listen and laugh—but it is also the name of the party. Appropriate because the sound room
is a party.
The latest Monkeyhaus took place on Friday, the 10th of July. There was mono and there was stereo, there was a lot of rock and roll—Jimi Hendrix, Led Zep, Sonic Youth—there was some smoky jazz, some smoky cigars, some smoky whisky and wine, cold cans of Dale's Pale Ale, sweaty bottles of Brooklyn, brick oven pizza from Il Porto, and all kinds of laughter and talk. Mal Waldron kicked my ass. The Dirty Three lifted me off the floor.
The guests (clockwise from top left):
Stereophile editor, John "Ice" Atkinson; me;
illustrator extraordinaire, Jeff "Stache" Wong; Monkeyhaus regular and writer of the September issue's incendiary "As We See It,"
Michael Lavorgna;
Stereophile contributor, Jim "Steve" Austin; and Alex Halberstadt, Brooklyn-based writer
best known for his great hair and his biography of blues singer, Doc Pomus. Not shown: Proud Andrew Klein. Not present: Uncle Omar, due to a sudden bout of lameness. Photo taken by: Hauskeeper, John DeVore.
