Earlier this year my wife Betty told me about a new monthly sort of happening in Brooklyn, an event billed as "Sleeves - like a book club, but for records." The concept is: once a month, this club gathers to listen to an album chosen by the host of Sleeves, Mikey Bar-Lavi, who also does a brief presentation on the selected music, the artist, and the surrounding history. Ever the outgoing optimist in our partnership, Betty was excited for us to go.
I was initially a bit skeptical. Record store in Greenpoint... a bunch of 20 and 30-something Brooklyn musos milling about, talking vinyl... will that be terribly pretentious? When we arrived at Sleeves a few days later, I'm delighted to report that my worries were immediately washed away. We drank beer and made new friends while listening to Bowie's Young Americans, and Mikey's masterful hosting of the evening was anything but pretentious. We had such a good time, that we've become Sleeves regulars. I've gotten to know Mikey well, and he recently stopped by my studio in Brooklyn to talk all things Sleeves.
"I just wanted to do something that was a way to get together with a lot of music people, that wasn't in a venue that was kicking you out once the show was over,” Bar-Lavi explains.
“...My favorite part of a show sometimes - at least the social aspect - is like after the show, the hang… getting together and talking about what influences us and what we're excited about. And I think that that kind of joint curiosity… it's been really fun with Sleeves.”
I asked Mikey to paint a picture of what a typical Sleeves meetup might look like, for the uninitiated.
“The first 40 minutes or so are like a cocktail hour, we have beer and wine that are sold, the record shop's open for business, and I'm playing some records that are whetting our appetite for what we're about to get into. And then when we listen to the record, we don't do it in silence. And the reason is - I don't think that's necessarily the only right way, or a natural way to listen to music. We listen to music in the supermarket... coming out of a car driving by... whatever! That's all great. And more than anything, I want people to build an emotional bond with each other and with the record. And if your takeaway is like, you just enjoy being in a kind of school-like, childlike-curiosity setting, that makes you kind of vulnerable and open up and you make friends and build community, that's really the point."
Mikey told me how his philosophy behind allowing for and encouraging conversation while the music is playing was inspired by advice from an early music teacher.
"The anecdote that I share at Sleeves is from this very pivotal educator in the Great Neck public school system where I grew up on Long Island, Daniel Tomaselli, who passed away a number of years ago. We used to call him Mr. T,” Mikey recalls, laughing.
“He was very interested in opera and classical music... I was not. You know, I had like a Beatles haircut at my bar mitzvah, and I was playing a Gibson SG, and like, just trying to rock out and do that kinda thing. And he said something to the effect of '...if you go to the opera, you may think it's boring. You may even fall asleep! But what you'll find is that it will get to you in your dreams and that will still impact you.' At the time I was probably like ‘whatever man... I'm gonna go play some AC/DC!’” Mikey laughs harder now.
“I've reflected on it a lot, and it really only started resonating in my head again in the last few years… the idea being: music can impact you in a lot of ways that go deeper than the conscious."
While Bar-Lavi describes Sleeves as ‘like a book club but for records,’ he’s sure to stress:
“I don't expect you to do a ton of homework... some people do! Some people are like ‘yeah, I've been listening to the album since you announced it.’ Cool, that's great! But if you show up and you've never heard the album, the way you relate to it and the way you feel is just as valid as mine or whoever else's. It's not about expertise. The facts are interesting, and they add context, but my qualifications now are the same as they were when I was a teenager in my bedroom listening to music. I come to these records not already as an expert… I pick something that I'm curious about, and that I just love… and then it’s like ‘OK, let me now spend time preparing this and doing the research.’ So it's not coming from a place of like whatever academic or musical background I might have. I love this stuff and I'm curious, and let's learn together,” Bar-Lavi says.
"The turnout has surprised me! We had like 150 RSVPs to the first one. The response has shown me that there's other people feeling the need for this sort of community.”
Join Mikey Bar-Lavi at the lovely record and coffee shop For The Record in Greenpoint on June 9th at 6:30pm, for a special edition of Sleeves in partnership with Chess Records, where we'll be listening to the classic album from Etta James At Last.
RSVP here to secure your spot.
