BEFORE IT WAS COOL
The Brooklyn Beat from Lauterbach’s
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Brooklyn Beat Compilations ยท 04 We Are Not Afraid

Early in the 21st century, Brooklyn became known as the hippest city in the world. How did this happen?  
Back in the 1980s, the borough was known for grit, grime and crime, not unlike New York City as a whole. One ray of hope was a little bar on the southern fringe of Park Slope where a handful of bands built a scene that captured the attention of the Indie rock world and showed that Brooklyn was a cauldron of art. 
Rachel Cleary, an on-air personality for Radio Free Brooklyn, initially found Lauterbach’s shortly after the scene had cooled. Decades later, through her radio show, she met some of the people who put it on the map way back when, and had to learn more.. 

This is Rachel’s journey of discovering the community and loving diaspora that grew out of:


Featured Artists


  • Frank’s Museum
  • Chemical Wedding
  • Medicine Sunday
  • Woodpecker
  • Friction
  • Cryptic Soup
  • Al Lee Wyer
  • Bite the Wax Godhead
  • Echo E. Hotbox
  • Love Camp 7
  • Kenny Young and the Eggplants
  • The Cheese Beads
  • The Original Rays
  • Formaldehyde Blues Train
  • The Fields
  • Tornado Room
  • Brother
  • Beatniks from Mars
  • Marcel Monroe
  • Smell of Love Orchestra
  • Vesspa
  • bone.
  • No Radio
  • J. Ryan
  • Squirrels From Hell
  • When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water
  • The Moe
  • Dum Dum Boys
  • So It Goes
  • Noize Boize
  • Jing
  • The X-Rays
  • The Missionary Position
  • One and One and One
  • Jim Lampos Band