Press – TriBattery Pops

The TriBattery Pops’ latest album, “Turn On, Tune Up, and Drop Out” — which features a choir of elderly singers crooning psychedelic hits from the ‘60s — has garnered a surprising number of fans in France.

Sacrebleu! TriBattery Pops are HUGE in France

Check out our Jazz promo in this week’s issue of CMJ Weekly!

And listen to the signature track off our latest album, Be Flat, also available on CMJ.

Local Snub to the downtown all-community band!?!

TriBattery Pops

From Downtown Express, week of June 19:

Tom Goodkind, conductor of our favorite local marching band, the TriBattery Pops, tells us the powers that be at the M.T.A. won’t let them play the classic Billy Strayhorn tune — made famous by Strayhorn’s musical mentor and collaborator, Duke Ellington — at the grand opening of the Fulton Center subway station next Thursday.

Goodkind said Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver’s office has been helpful making the case for the Downtown band to play for free, but the idea remains stuck in the station.

Naturally, he does not have good or kind feelings toward the snubbing authority, particularly after rehearsing the song for six months.

“The Pops officially at this moment think their new station looks like a small office building in Cleveland,” Goodkind wrote us. “If they ever need to keep a non-corrupt set of books, don’t count on this C.P.A.!”

Downtown Express loves our Pops Art album!

If you happen to see Tom Goodkind around Battery Park City or at a community board meeting, we highly recommend asking him for a copy his band’s new album.

Along with being a C.B. 1 member and working one of those boring day jobs, Goodkind — an ex-punk rocker — still kindles the musical flame as conductor of the TriBattery Pops, an orchestra made up of Downtown residents. The B.P.C. resident passed out some free copies of his group’s new release, “Pops Art,” at C.B. 1’s March 25 full board meeting, and we were lucky enough to take one home.

The album features some great interpretations of quality pieces by the composers Philip Glass, Charles Ives and Karel Husa, along with two originals by Goodkind himself (one of which is rather interestingly avant-garde exploration called “Superstorm Sandy,” which recreates the chaos and confusion of the storm with the help of some spoken word by the maestro’s daughter and her friends). So check it out!

And if you’re really up for something fun, go on Youtube and search for a band called The Washington Squares. You might find within that group a young folk-punk musician, circa 1985, who just, um, happens to look like Tom Goodkind…

From Downtown Express Under Cover, week of March 27. http://www.downtownexpress.com/2014/03/27/under-cover-week-of-march-27-2014/

Check us out on CMJ.com in their latest mixtape release!