Missy Sport | The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side

Power Punk Trio “Missy Sport” Debuts Album at Fontana’s Tonight

When Lo-Down Music Contributor Ken Beasley isn’t playing flamenco guitar, writing music and lyrics for his folk-roots-rock band Ken Beasley & Co. or reporting back to us about other fantastic musicians, he spends his time as lead guitarist of the power-punk three-piece band known as Missy Sport. Beasley tells us “the Sport” hails from a random basement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, “with musical roots sunk deep in the guts of dirty 1980s punk rock.”

TLD Interview: Musician Ken Beasley

Ken Beasley - photo by Jessica Ellis

It’s time to turn the spotlight around on our music contributor, Ken Beasley. Along with his vast appreciation of and insight about a wide range of music genres, he’s a musician in his own right. Ken’s been giving Lo-Down readers great tips on Lower East Side shows for quite a while now, so we wanted to share a little more about his musical background (he’s playing this Sunday at Rockwood Music Hall).

TLD: Did you really used to play flamenco?

KB: Indeed I did. When I was about 15, a friend and I started playing folky music in coffee shops. Simon & Garfunkel/Clapton Unplugged kind of stuff. We played on certain nights every week, and on alternate nights, another duo would play flamenco.

Weekend Music Picks

Here are musician Ken Beasley’s top music picks on the Lower East Side this weekend:

Carolina Chocolate Drops

CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS – Friday, Oct. 15 at 7:30pm

No two ways about it – the Chocolate Drops are the real deal. Brought up in the south (mostly the Carolinas), this string-band trio is following in the footsteps of their mentor, none other than fiddle legend Joe Thompson.

Weekend Music Picks

Here are musician Ken Beasley’s top music picks on the Lower East Side this weekend:

Superbravo

SUPERBRAVO – Friday, August 6 at 8pm

Not to be confused with the oddly authentic bluegrass band Superbravo from Norway, this SuperBravo from Paris is a sensitive singer-songwriter, with a charmingly innocent delivery of her honest, uncomplicated songs.

This Week’s Music Picks

Here are musician Ken Beasley’s top music picks on the Lower East Side this week.

La Strada - Photo: Jennifer McManus

LA STRADA – Friday, July 16 at 9pm

“La Strada” means “the road” in Italian, and with songs like “Go Forward,” “The Traveler,” and “Where You Want To Go,” it’s clearly an apt appellation for this Brooklyn 5-piece. They’ve also been on the road quite a bit, building a loyal following across the country with a fizzy concoction of accordion, strings, and horns, that blend crisscrossing harmonies and pop melodies.