Live Concert Photography: Burger Records Beach Bash 2 at Coney Island Art Walls, Coney Island 7/22/17 feat. The Zeros, Sunflower Bean, Re-Tros, Nobunny, Habibi, Daddy Long Legs and Brian Hill and The Noh Starrs
Founded by Thee Makeout Party!’s Sean Borhman and Lee Rickard, Burger Records is a Fullerton, CA-based indie record label founded in 2007. And since their founding, the label is best known for growing catalog of power pop, garage rock and psych rock, which includes cassette releases from the likes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Devon Williams, Hunx and His Punx, Bell Gardens, The Go and countless others. And while each individual act on their label may specialize in rather different genres and styles, they all manage to extoll a positive message of love, inclusion, music and a DIY spirit.
Now, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this summer has been a rather busy summer in the JOVM world but last month, Burger Records hosted their 2nd Annual Beach Bash at Coney Island’s Art Walls, an outdoor street art museum curated by Joseph Sitt and Jeffrey Deitch, located within feet of Coney Island’s famous boardwalk and Nathan’s Famous. Throughout the course of its history, Coney Island Art Walls featured works by Nina Chanel Abney, John Ahearn, Timothy Curtis, D*Face, Jessica Diamond, Tristan Eaton, Eric Haze, Icy & Sot, London Police, Nychos, Pose, Stephen Powers, Tats Cru, Sam Vernon, Lady Aiko, Mister Cartoon, Crash, Daze, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Marie Roberts, as well as murals from Buff Monster, Eine, Ron English, How & Nosm, IRAK, Kashink, Lady Pink, Greg Lamarche, Miss Van, RETNA, eL Seed and Sheryo & Yok. Along with that the Art Walls is the home of Greenwood Beach. Run by the owners of Greenwood Park, Greenwood Beach features a number of food vendors including Chick’N’Cone and others.
In terms of music this year’s Burger Records Beach Bash featured a diverse array of local, national and international touring acts including the legendary Chula Vista, CA-based punk rock act The Zeros, the Brooklyn-based psych rock act Sunflower Bean, the Beijing, China-based post-punk act Re-Tros, the Brooklyn-based psych rock meets 60s girl pop act Habibi, the Toronto-based punk act B-Girls, Nobunny, the solo recording project of multi-instrumentalist Justin Champlin, the rockabilly and blues rock trio Daddy Long Legs and Brian Hill and The Noh Starrs among others. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Sadly, I managed to miss the the first couple of sets to open the day up as it took me 2 hours to get from my apartment in Queens; but even at that, it was a great day, despite the torrential rain towards the the last two or three sets of the long afternoon and evening.) Check out photos from the day below.
Founded in 1976 by Javier Escovedo (vocals, guitar), the younger brother of The Dragons‘ Mario Escovedo; Robert “El Vez” Lopez (guitar), who both attended Chula Vista High School; and Hector Penalosa (bass) and Baba Chenille (drums), who both attended Sweetwater High School, The Zeros are considered one of the pioneers of West Coast and Latin punk rock and although they have been compared favorably to The Ramones, the band never quite achieved their success. However, the band has managed to play with the likes of Germs, The Weirdos and others, for an infamous Los Angeles show that was broken up by the LAPD and for a San Francisco set that consisted of 8 replays of “Beat Your Heart Out” — but they are perhaps best known for the biggest single “Don’t Push Me Around.”
Throughout their original run, the band went through a series of lineup changes before settling into a trio and a relocation from the Los Angeles area to San Francisco before quietly fizzing out in the early 1980s. In 1995, the band resurfaced with a new album, Knockin’ Me Dead but more recently, they’ve reunited for a few short tours — including a 2007 tour of Spain, a short West Coast tour in 2009 and an East Coast tour in 2010.
Perhaps unexpectedly for the members of The Zeroes, the band has had their work covered by number of acts, nationally and internationally — including Hoodoo Gurus, who covered “Wimp;” Brazilian band Periferia S.A., who covered “Reality;” Wednesday Week. who covered “They Say That Everything’s Alright;” The Muffs, who covered “Beat Your Heart Out;” and Swedish act Sator, who covered “Black and White.”
Comprised of founding members Nick Kivlen (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Faber (drums) along with Julia Cumming (bass, lead vocals), the Brooklyn based psych rock/indie rock trio Sunflower Bean formed in 2013 and can trace their origins to when the band’s founding duo of Kivlen and Faber, who were members of local punk act Turnip King started spending a lot of time practicing in Faber’s basement, and decided that it was time for them to do their own music. Cumming, who was then a member of Supercute! with Rachel Trachtenburg, was recruited by Kivlen, who had known her through mutual friends.
The band quickly rose to national attention after playing 8 critically applauded sets over the course of 4 days during 2014’s CMJ Festival, along with a series of shows across town; however, the act started to receive both national and international attention with the release of 2014’s Rock & Roll Heathen EP and 2015’s Show Me Your Seven Secrets EP, an EP that featured the critically applauded singles “Tame Impala” and “2013.” Adding to a growing profile, the Brooklyn-based trio toured the US and the UK as a headliner and as an opener for Wolf Alice, Best Coast and The Vaccines.
The band’s Matthew Molnar-produced debut effort Human Ceremony was released last year through renowned indie label Fat Possum Records
Short for Rebuilding the Rights of Statues, which translates into Chinese as Chong Su Diao Xiang De Quan Li, The Re-TROS are Beijing, China-based post punk trio composed of Hua Dong (vocals, guitar. synth), Liu Min (vocals. bass, synths) and Huang Ji (drums), whose sound was reminiscent of Wire, Gang of Four and others. 
Justin Champlin started his solo recording project Nobunny back in 2001 and live, he’s developed a reputation for dressing and undressing in a bunny mask that is often accompanied by other odd stage attire including raw meat, weaves, ball gags, firecrackers, panties, knee pads and coats made of trash; but perhaps more important, he has released a handful of blistering rock that meshes garage punk, bubble gum and power pop including 2008’s debut album Love Visions, which was originally released to critical applause through Bubbledumb Records and alter re-released through 1-2-3-4 Go! Records the following year on vinyl and CD. Since then, Champlin has released Raw Romance, a collection of alternate recordings of previously released material with new songs both as a limited release cassette and on vinyl and CD through Burger Records and his official sophomore release First Blood through renowned label Goner Records. 
Comprised of Rahill Jamalifard, Lenaya Lynch, Erin Campbell and Karen Isabel, the Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet Habibi derive their name from the Arabic term of endearment “habibi,” which translates into “my love,” a term that the band’s Jamalifard grew up hearing and using among her Iranian family. The band which sonically blends psych rock and 60s girl group pop can trace their origins to when its founding members Lynch and Jamalifard, who hail from Detroit decided to start a band, based around their love of garage psych rock and girl group pop.
After recruiting Brooklyn-based musicians Erin Campbell and Karen Isabel, the band quickly exploded into the national scene after playing both SXSW and CMJ. Adding to a growing profile, the band’s “Sweetest Talk” was featured in James Franco’s short film Episodes of an Untitled Film. The band’s full-length self-titled debut was released through Burger Records back in 2014 — but interestingly enough, the quartet’s Beach Bash set was the band’s first live set in several years.
Currently comprised of founding members the Toronto-born and New York-based Cynthia Ross and Xenia Splawinksy with Marcy Saddy and Renee Schilhab, B-Girls can reportedly trace their origins to when its founding members Ross, Spalwinsky, Lucasta Ross and Rhoda Ross decided to start a band during a Thin Lizzy concert — despite the fact that neither original member knew how to play an instrument. However, the founding members of the all-girl punk band wound up being among the first wave of punk bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s — although interestingly enough, their sound and overall aesthetic of 1960s Mersey Beat.
The punk rock quartet began playing locally for the likes of Teenage Head, The Viletones and The Poles before relocating to New York in 1978, where they played at CBGB’s with the likes of Blondie, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Richard Hell, The Cramps, Joan Jett, The Dead Boys, Allen Ginsberg and Johnny Thunders among an incredible list of others. As the story goes, the members of the band once played a set at CBGBs in which The Clash’s Joe Strummer and Mick jones were in attendance, and after their set, Strummer and Jones invited the band to open for them.
The band’s Burger Records Beach Bash set celebrated the 40th anniversary of their founding and the 40th anniversary of punk rock.
Comprised of Daddy Long Legs (lead vocals, blues harp, guitar), Murat Akturk (guitar, backing vocals) and Josh Styles (drums, percussion), the trio Daddy Long Legs derive their name from the stage name of their frontman. And with the release of their latest studio album Evil Eye on You, the trio specialize in whiskey-fueled, stomping blues and rockabilly that owes a sonic and aesthetic debt to the work of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and others.
The New York-based indie rock act Brian Hill and The Noh Starrs, comprised of primary songwriter and founding member Brian Hill with a rotating cast of friends and collaborators including Robbie Wood, Froth’s Joo Joo Ashworth, Jeffrey Bribourg, Feels‘ Laena Geronimo, Mr. Elevator‘s Tomas Dolas and others, have developed a reputation for a sound that draws from glam rock, No Wave, rock, punk rock and krautrock — while Hill’s songwriting process is heavily influenced by contemporary visual art. Interestingly, it’s common to see constantly changing lineups and instrumentation, which makes every live set completely different.
In the studio, the band experiments with studio-as-an-instrument production techniques, as well a recording process that involves incorporating many version of live takes and editing live studio jams in a way that nods at the work of CAN and others.
Their Burger Records Beach Bash set built up buzz for the band’s recently released full-length debut effort, which was released through Beijing-based imprint Modern Sky Records.
The afternoon and evening featured some of this city’s most beautiful and interesting people in the audience. And believe it or not, Village People‘s Cowboy emceed the day, too.
There was some incredible artwork on the walls. And as a photographer, it was an incredible day of all kinds of sights.
Also, there was some delicious food and if you know me, you know that I enjoy food, music and beer. And man there was some great food.
