Feature | Cover Artist BODEGA Rockers in the bubble Wri tten by Graham D Johnson ThE LIGhtS ArE DIM <strong>and</strong> the b<strong>and</strong> members’ silhouettes soft against <strong>Brooklyn</strong> Bazaar’s trademark stained glass as <strong>Bodega</strong> starts their set. Frontwoman Nikki Belfiglio plays a converted computer keyboard as percussion before bite-smooching frontman Ben hozie’s cheek. Post-Punk 12 the deli Spring <strong>2018</strong>
hozie’s reading from the biography of French film critic Éric rohmer: “A classicism among the ruins… the cinema is definitely invested with a redemptive mission… [empowered by] the impartiality of the movie camera <strong>and</strong> the limits it imposes on human intervention.” Consider this the b<strong>and</strong>’s ethos, alongside a motto inscribed in the lyric book of their forthcoming debut Endless Scroll: “the best critique is self-critique.” But there’s an irony to the rohmer quote: no one could seriously claim the camera <strong>and</strong> the screen as “objective” or limiting “human intervention” in <strong>2018</strong>, year of the DeepFake (which followed 2017, year of Fake News). hozie knows better than to sell cinema’s impartiality with a straight face, which is why on Scroll’s closing track, “truth Is Not Punishment,” hozie shouts out the tv as the fulfillment of writing’s “porcupine dream… / where a man <strong>and</strong> his dream, let loose on caffeine, see it only one way.” Like everyone else, <strong>Bodega</strong>’s stuck inside a perspective <strong>and</strong> ideology. the question Endless Scroll can’t stop posing is: What happens when you’re aware of this stuckness? What are the limits <strong>and</strong> liberations of self-knowledge? <strong>Bodega</strong> used to be <strong>Bodega</strong> Bay, back before they broke up, played a final show to a desperate sweaty crowd, then pulled an LCD <strong>and</strong> were born again. the new record is being released on What’s Yr rapture, the same label that puts out <strong>Bodega</strong>’s post-punk peers Parquet Courts. It’s more traditional than former <strong>Bodega</strong> Bay’s eccentric thirty-three-track Our Br<strong>and</strong> Could Be Your Life. But the never-say-die mode of “can’t go on, I’ll go on,” of trying to slip serious engagement into knowing snark, is st<strong>and</strong>ard practice for hozie <strong>and</strong> Belfiglio, the two holdovers from <strong>Bodega</strong>’s previous incarnation. their projects have always focused on the hypocrisy <strong>and</strong> self-oriented pragmatism that characterize political <strong>and</strong> moral life — hozie makes full-length films in his free time, most recently The Lion’s Den, which took time out, Peter Singer-style, to examine the nuanced ethical trade-offs involved when consumption is framed as a zero-sum game: spend it on yourself, or spend it on others. the b<strong>and</strong>’s biggest influence is, as it has been from the start, New York (“an isl<strong>and</strong> of blue / a nipple in water”). Wilson Ave venue Alphaville is a home base for the group, <strong>and</strong> hozie <strong>and</strong> Belfiglio are regulars in Bushwick’s weeknight scene. the constant set-up <strong>and</strong> erosion of class oppositions, <strong>and</strong> the selfaware disparagement of yuppies is vintage Whit Stillman updated for the iPhone bourgeoise. that’s always been the conflict, right? Yuppies vs. Yuckies (aka Young Creatives). they used to fight over Downtown real estate but the suits won so the b<strong>and</strong>s packed up for <strong>Brooklyn</strong>. Now the Yupsters have l<strong>and</strong>ed on the waterfront, set up a beachhead at the vice Media offices. It’s no coincidence that vice is the conflict’s ultimate go-between, an intermediary agent with a history of swapping sides as is convenient. In his essay “Joe Chip, What’s on Your iPod?” tom Ewing compares the death of rock, <strong>and</strong> the New York DIY scene by extension, to the “shrinking reality bubble” of half-life in Philip K. Dick’s Ubik: Within the bubble we listen to what we always did, we talk to people who listen to that stuff too, we enjoy the unspoken shared experience. But outside the bubble, that experience is irrelevant or forgotten... radio stations change format... mailing lists sputter out; fellow fans move away <strong>and</strong> are not replaced. Ben hozie is the rocker in the bubble who’s also read the think pieces written about the bubble. the political analogy is quick at h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>Bodega</strong>’s point of departure: for the man in a bubble aware of the bubble, what options are left? If you’re implicated, <strong>and</strong> you know you’re implicated, are you redeemed? Ultimately, self-knowledge is not just limited, it’s limiting. Accepting your slivered access to the truth, digging into your own moral impurities <strong>and</strong> hypocrisies, can be as paralyzing as it is necessary. Where to go after self-revelation’s incapacitation? Paraphrasing rohmer, you return to the past to find a classicism among the ruins, look to the history books as navigation. Cue Montana Simone, drums, st<strong>and</strong>ing up behind a cymbal, tom, <strong>and</strong> snare à la Moe tucker. <strong>Bodega</strong> is cratedigging through the archives, reincorporating discoveries <strong>and</strong> walking backwards as a way to move forward. In the end, well, there is no end — but perhaps it’ll work. d <strong>Bodega</strong>’s <strong>Stompbox</strong>es [Top] Madison’s Pedalboard: TC Electronic Echobrain / MXR Analog Chorus / Fulltone OCD / MXR Dyna Comp / BOSS NS-2 [Bottom] Ben’s Pedalboard: BOSS BF-3 / Cusack Music More Louder / Wampler Velvet Fuzz / BOSS TU-2 the deli Spring <strong>2018</strong> 13
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