The Lab. A media arts company.

Last week thelab hosted its third outdoor concert series featuring Open Ocean, The Wild Yaks and DJ Rok One. The night kicked off with Open Ocean, a four piece all girl group who has been rocking stages all over NYC lately. The band brought us through the sunset with Jill Bradshaw singing and playing bass, Susan Domelsmith on keyboard, Sarah Frances Kuhn on guitar and vocals, and Angela Barrow on drums. These ladies came together four years ago, when Domelsmith, the designer behind jewelry line Dirty Librarian Chains started experimenting playing music with Bradshaw, previously the owner of the now closed but widely loved Nolita shop Iheart and currently the trend director at Stylesight. The band originally started practicing in the Iheart store space on Mott Street, eventually moving their home base to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Open Ocean has received a lot of attention as one of the most stylish girl bands in NYC these days, possibly because of the members’ side lives in the world of fashion. Besides Susan and Jill’s experience, Sarah Kuhn was previously editor for Teen Vogue and now focuses on her own accessories line of camera straps, SFK, while Angela Barrow is a stylist with her own line called Cheek-ie. Despite their collective ability to throw an outfit together, we picked these ladies less for their fashion sense and more because we just love their sound. Open Ocean brought with them their signature woozy, mysterious style of droney, surfer-like rock that was a perfect to warm-up for a crispy fall New York night. Their songs combine elements of psychedelia, shoegaze, 80’s and good ‘ole rock n’ roll, and wrap them together in a cohesive musical package. Download their self titled EP, mixed and produced by Jonathan Kreinik.

Next up was their self proclaimed “brother band” The Wild Yaks. “We’re friends outside of playing together,” notes Jill Bradshaw of Open Ocean who says they have been getting booked together a lot more lately. “Then we played a show together and both had such a mutual love for each other’s work that we wanted to play more shows together. Even though we have different sounds we come at music with the same love and appreciation, complemented by the fact that we like to hang with each other.”

All of the members of the Yaks share vocals while Robert Bryn tends to lead with Martin Cartagena on drums, Jose Aybar on vocals and bass, and Hunter Simpson on guitar. After a brief sound check which got the crowd interested, these guys carried the event into the night with fun and groovy rock sound. Their repetitive, group vocal style combined with a light hearted, long form song style topped off with a generally humorous and fun outlook on life make these guys a joy to listen to. They just finished recording their soon to be titled album, which is currently being mixed.

The night wrapped with the genre defying master, DJ Rok One, playing an upbeat mix of hip-hop, rock, and dance. The DJ set was complimented by an impromptu freestyle performance by thelab’s own Race B. who took to the mic like a natural, pouring freestyle lyrics. Look out for his upcoming mix-tape / album which is a collection of story based rhymes reminiscent of the Golden Era of hip-hop.

Big thanks to all who participated in making this evening a success. The positive response thelab concert series has received helps us keep the energy going through the fall and winter.  So stay tuned for some more fun surprises!  Check out all of the photos from the evening on our Facebook page.