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    Rock Around the Clock: 8 Songs About Very Specific Times of Day

    Hear tracks by the Strokes, beabadoobee, Normani and more.The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas onstage in 2011. (Sadly, we don’t have the specific time.)Chad Batka for The New York TimesDear listeners,On Friday, the R&B artist and former Fifth Harmony member Normani will finally release her debut album, “Dopamine” — a long (long) awaited, endlessly delayed release she has been teasing for nearly six years. Not that I’ve been watching the clock. Or at least I wasn’t until last month, when Normani dropped the album’s sultry lead single, “1:59.” That ode to not-quite-2-in-the-morning got me dreaming up a playlist of songs about incredibly specific times of day. Now that Normani is ready to share her opus with the world, so am I.Plenty of songs celebrate the hour on the hour; Drake has an entire playlist’s worth of songs with titles like “6PM in New York” or “8AM in Charlotte.” But that’s not what I’m interested in here. With all due respect to Ariana Grande, I’m not even talking 6:30. I’m talking absurdly precise, random time stamps glimpsed on a digital clock or a lock screen and forever burned into one’s memory: “12:51,” “10:35,” “11:59.”Luckily, there is no shortage of such songs, from artists as varied as Moby Grape, Tiësto and Elliott Smith. And weirdly enough, there exists a trio of unrelated songs that are named after three subsequent minutes in the middle of the 10 o’clock hour. Go figure! Naturally, I sequenced the track list in chronological order — like an incredibly abbreviated playlist version of Christian Marclay’s “The Clock.” It certainly won’t last you 24 hours, but it’ll take you on a temporal journey just the same.All right, you know what time it is: Press play.It’s 11:59 and I want to stay alive,LindsayListen along while you read.1. The Strokes: “12:51”We begin exactly 51 minutes after midnight, “the time my voice/Found the words I sought,” as Julian Casablancas specifies on this catchy leadoff single from the Strokes’ 2003 album “Room on Fire.” “12:51” is a mumbled tale of rekindled romance, the acquisition of malt liquor and other sordid things that happen after the clock strikes 12.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTubeWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Jay-Z and Mother Gloria Carter Honored at Brooklyn Public Library Gala

    Senator Chuck Schumer, Mayor Eric Adams and other local dignitaries attended the library’s gala on Monday, which honored Jay-Z and his mother, Gloria Carter.On Monday night, at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, adults in tieless suits and flowing dresses populated the Youth Wing, sitting near stacks of children’s books, some on children’s chairs, with drinks in hand for the library’s 24th annual gala.The benefit, which raised $1.5 million, honored Jay-Z and his mother, Gloria Carter, the co-founder and chief executive of the Shawn Carter Foundation. (She did not attend.)Nearby were pieces from “The Book of Hov” exhibit — like encased CDs, magazine covers, Grammy and Emmy Award statues, and a full-scale replica of a studio — which features artifacts tracing the artist’s decades-long career. The exhibit opened in July and was extended through Dec. 4, Jay-Z’s birthday.Above a scribbled chalkboard, a large rendering of a green dragon hovered over stacked glasses on a bar that served Ace of Spades champagne and D’Ussé cognac, the rapper’s brands.“You have experienced the multiple open bars inside of the public library. That’s how you get literacy done,” joked Baratunde Thurston, the writer and cultural critic, while hosting the event.Gayle KingJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesDid you happen to get one of the Jay-Z-themed library cards and if you did, which one?“I wasn’t gonna say, but all of them.”Gayle KingGuests gathered in the library’s main lobby for cocktails and a buffet.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesLinda E. Johnson, the president and chief executive of the Brooklyn Public Library.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesNina Collins, the chair of the Board of Trustees at the Brooklyn Public Library.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesHundreds of guests spread onto the main floor for cocktails and a buffet of short ribs, roasted salmon and chicken with preserved lemon. The building’s information area was transformed into a cafeteria-like seating area.Xiomara Hall, a friend of Cassandra Metz, a library board member, flew in from Kansas City that morning after attending the last show on Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour.“This was my library growing up, and there was never a display or recognition of a Black artist that had an impact in this kind of a way, in this library, when I was growing up,” Ms. Hall said.“So it’s powerful for me to come back to my childhood library to see someone like him who’s also a Brooklyn native being honored like this.”Along with the exhibit, which came as New York City celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the library has also introduced special edition “Book of Hov” library cards, with 13 cards designed with the rapper’s solo album covers.Since the exhibit started, more than 80,000 limited-edition cards have been issued and more than 20,000 new library accounts have been opened, according to library representatives.From left to right, Cassandra Metz and Xiomara Hall.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesXochitl Gonzalez, a writer and trustee of the Brooklyn Public Library.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesWhat do you think this collaboration means for the library and for Jay-Z?“It felt very cool and sweet to see this space transformed and taken over by somebody that was shaped by the same places that I was.”Xochitl GonzalezQuestloveJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesJune Ambrose, a stylist.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesFor the evening remarks, guests moved outside to a covered structure along the library’s entrance as Questlove served as the D.J.In the front row of nearly 500 white folding chairs, Desiree Perez, the chief executive of Roc Nation, sat across from Linda E. Johnson, the president and chief executive of the library, and her husband, Bruce Ratner, the real estate developer. Clara Wu Tsai, the philanthropist and co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and Antonio Delgado, the lieutenant governor of New York, were also seated there.Waiting in an undisclosed location nearby, Jay-Z walked quietly from behind the stage into his seat.The singer, Victory, performed a song against the sirens and car horns from the Grand Army Plaza roundabout.Speeches from elected officials, and well-known Brooklynites, praising Jay-Z were peppered with references to his music.“As Senate majority leader, I got 99 problems,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, as the crowd cheered.“By the way,” Mr. Schumer said, “I live across the street and I wake up every morning reading your lyrics,” referring to some of Jay-Z’s lyrics plastered on the facade of the library’s entrance, in celebration of the exhibit.“ … but we all know that Jay-Z is a business, man,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.In a letter read by his sons, Jeremiah, 21, and Joshua, 19, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, who could not attend and sent his sons in his place, wrote that his children were inspired by “the life and times of Shawn Carter,” a nod to the rapper’s 1999 album.Senator Chuck SchumerJutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesFrom left to right, Joshua and Jeremiah Jeffries.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesLacey Schwartz Delgado and Lieutenant Governor of New York Antonio Delgado.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesMayor Eric Adams spoke next, presenting the award for Ms. Carter to Jay-Z, who sipped from a glass of champagne during the ceremony. The Shawn Carter Foundation recently donated $1.5 million to the library, in partnership with Michael Rubin, chief executive of the sports merchandise company, Fanatics, and the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism founded by Robert Kraft.Mr. Adams said Jay-Z, and the exhibit, has played an important role in bringing a new generation of young people into the library.“Now, walking through those doors, you’re going to have young men and women walk in here only because you said it was alright,” Mr. Adams said.Taking the stage, Jay-Z, dressed in a Gucci tuxedo, said his mother had given him a “very bad excuse,” for why she did not attend.“She’d want to say she would have loved to be here with you guys. And she is incredibly honored. And it is overwhelming that her son is so incredible,” he continued, crediting his mother for telling him as a young child that he could be anything.As he spoke, police officers in uniform held up phones to record the speech.“I love you!” someone shouted from a crowd of about a dozen onlookers lining the police barricades along Flatbush Avenue.“And we love you,” he said, in response. “This is definitely Brooklyn.”Mayor Eric Adams presents the award to Jay-Z.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesJay-Z reflected on the exhibit at the library, which was kept a secret from him.“I thought maybe it was like a small room, and it was more than what I deserved,” he said. “I walked in, and I saw this incredible display.”“And my grandma Hattie White got to see it,” he continued. “She just turned 98-years-old, and she’s seen a lot of things.”“That experience was just overwhelming,” he said. As the speeches ended, Jay-Z slipped upstairs as guests strolled back to the main floor of the library for passed plates of doughnuts where Questlove continued to D.J. As a parting gift, guests were given a copy of “Decoded,” Jay-Z’s 2010 memoir.“That was so much fun,” one attendee said as she walked inside. “That was Monday night. What am I supposed to do on Tuesday?”

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    A Strokes Tribute Band Is Part of a Fresh Wave of Latino Fandom

    The members of the Strokes tribute band Juicebox, like the crowds they draw, are predominantly Latino.On a Friday night, at the center of the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet, a large stage at this open-air California market stood in front of an expanse of picnic tables and food vendors.The swap meet, at the border of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, usually hosts tribute bands that pay homage to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-enshrined acts like Metallica or Mexican American icons like Jenni Rivera. But that evening in March, Juicebox, Southern California’s leading Strokes tribute band, had gathered an enthusiastic, multigenerational audience ready to celebrate the group that has come to symbolize stylish downtown New York City rock in the early 2000s. There were leather jackets everywhere.Deep into the show, when the group played “50/50,” a forgotten track from the Strokes’ 2013 full-length “Comedown Machine,” a mosh pit started, earning the crowd a warning from the venue. As Juicebox left the stage after performing 47 singles, album cuts and B-sides over three sets, chants began, calling out for one more: “¡Otra! ¡Otra! ¡Otra!”The members of Juicebox, like the crowds they draw, are predominantly Latino, though the band’s founder and drummer, Jason Wise, is a 38-year-old self-described “Jewish dude” from Queens. He moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and fell in with a group of mostly Latino musicians he met through Craigslist who loved early 2000s rock bands as much as he did. Six years ago, Wise started Juicebox, which now features the lead vocalist Edgar Rene Espino, the guitarists George Campos and Renzon Sanchez and the bassist Tony Perez (who recently took over for John Leal). It usually plays twice a month, booking gigs across Southern California.Wise discovered the Strokes when he was in his midteens and they’ve been his favorite band ever since. “They are a big part of who I am as an individual and to be able to be part of spreading the fandom and the love of the Strokes to other people is something that I’m not tired of doing,” he said. “If I wasn’t in this band, I would go to these shows.”Juicebox, from left: George Campos, John Leal, Edgar Rene Espino, Jason Wise and Renzon Sanchez. Wise started the band six years ago.Saul Barrerala for The New York TimesThe Strokes themselves remain a major act in Latin America, which has a long tradition of supporting rock music. When the band performs “Reptilia” for festival crowds, it’s greeted with stadium-size fútbol chants.It’s not surprising that a place like Los Angeles County — where 49.1 percent of respondents (or more than 4.9 million people) in the 2021 census identified as Hispanic/Latino — is home to a large number of Latino Strokes fans.But Jeanette Diaz, a journalist and publicist from Los Angeles, believes that the pull of the Strokes is especially strong among the first-generation American children of immigrants, who can have complicated feelings about their identities and which culture they belong to. The band “could just do what they wanted to do and it was accepted, and a lot of people try to find that,” Diaz said. “It’s this idea of fitting in on your own terms, which a lot of Latin kids craved, maybe subconsciously.”Some members of Juicebox say they feel a closeness with the Strokes that comes partly from representation. (The drummer Fabrizio Moretti was born in Brazil, and the guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s mother is from Argentina.) “I see pictures of Fab and I’m like, I play soccer with that guy, he looks like someone I know,” said Sanchez, the Juicebox guitarist whose own background is half Lebanese and half El Salvadoran. “And a guy like Albert, who has big curly hair, that’s my brother. I can see myself in the Strokes.”Fans at a Juicebox show in late May.Saul Barrerala for The New York TimesThe most obvious antecedent to this fandom is the one for the Smiths, the maudlin but melodious Manchester band that broke up in 1987 but continues to enjoy a passionate following among Mexican Americans today. This relationship has been covered in articles, documentaries and books for over 20 years, and it too has inspired tribute bands, including the long-running Sweet & Tender Hooligans, fronted by Jose Maldonado, who is often called “the Mexican Morrissey.”José G. Anguiano, an associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, said he has seen similar phenomena in the region’s goth, metal and rockabilly worlds. “As people have moved away or they’ve aged out of certain subcultures or music scenes, it does seem like in Los Angeles, Latinos have moved in to take the reins,” he said. “What’s really cool is they’re taking the reins, not just in terms of being fans, but also fronting these tribute bands and producing their own music. They’re fully participating in every sense in these subcultures.”In 2022, the rising El Monte, Calif., band the Red Pears covered the Strokes’ “Automatic Stop” for Unquiet Live’s YouTube channel. In the video, their guitarist and vocalist, Henry Vargas, introduced the song as being by “Los Estrokes.” The Red Pears never thought it was strange that they knew so many Latino people who were into the Strokes because they all came to the group through Latino friends. But it was each band member’s individual love of the Strokes that helped bring them together and shape their sound.“In our city there was a lot of punk, ska and metal bands,” Vargas said in an interview. “We were the only ones that were branching out, trying out different stuff.”Before joining Juicebox in 2022, Espino, the band’s lead singer, was in a different Strokes tribute band for six years, but he’s never seen the real deal play live. He said he’s always been a bigger fan of the Arctic Monkeys, whose frontman, Alex Turner, famously started an album with the lyrics, “I just wanted to be one of the Strokes.”“I’m living his life right now,” Espino quipped.Sanchez, 26, is the Juicebox member most interested in re-creation. In a skinny tie or a polo shirt, he plays a white Fender Stratocaster at nearly chest-level, just like Hammond Jr. His mind was blown open by the Strokes when he was 14, after two brothers he used to be in a band with introduced him to the song “The Modern Age.”But an even younger cohort has recently embraced the Strokes through the Rick Rubin-produced album “The New Abnormal,” from 2020, which spawned a TikTok hit in “The Adults Are Talking.”“I didn’t know how they’re doing it, where they sound like they’re not trying, but they’re really trying,” Miguel Ponce, a D.J. and promoter, said of the Strokes.Saul Barrerala for The New York TimesOn a Friday night in late May, a crowd packed Knucklehead, a dive-y bar on an unglamorous block in Hollywood. Juicebox was on the bill alongside an Arctic Monkeys tribute band called Polar Primates for Room on Fire, a club night dedicated to early 2000s indie and alternative music. The Strokes’ time playing tiny New York City venues like the Mercury Lounge looms large in their history, but in reality, it lasted for barely a blip. Juicebox shows like this one let fans who were born too late or on the opposite coast reimagine themselves in that moment.During a phone interview a few days earlier, Room on Fire’s D.J. and promoter, Miguel Ponce, 29, explained that he learned about the Strokes from a friend on his high school baseball team, but it took a little time before he truly got it. “I heard the song ‘Ize of the World’ and I don’t know what it was, but all of a sudden it hit like a spark, dude,” he said. “I didn’t know how they’re doing it, where they sound like they’re not trying, but they’re really trying.”Ponce started Room on Fire in March 2022, but the early installments didn’t draw much of a crowd. After he had Juicebox play for the first time this past January, the party began to take off. “I started seeing the true potential of what I can do,” he said.Before the pandemic, Ponce used to book shows with local acts in Downtown Los Angeles. He already knew how much of an influence the Strokes had. “Most of the indie bands, they would dress like Julian Casablancas,” he said. “There’s no shame in that.” More

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    2020 Popcast Listener Mailbag: Taylor, Dua, MGK and More

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storyPopcastSubscribe:Apple PodcastsGoogle Podcasts2020 Popcast Listener Mailbag: Taylor, Dua, MGK and MoreAnswering your questions about the year’s biggest stars, and also some of its curious flops.Hosted by Jon Caramanica. Produced by Pedro Rosado.More episodes ofPopcastDecember 23, 20202020 Popcast Listener Mailbag: Taylor, Dua, MGK and MoreDecember 15, 2020Taylor Swift’s ‘Evermore’: Let’s DiscussDecember 9, 2020The Best Albums of 2020? Let’s DiscussNovember 29, 2020Saweetie, City Girls and the Female Rapper RenaissanceNovember 18, 2020  •  More