Havenside

The Irish Haven is the best bar in Brooklyn for three reasons. First off, despite its street level and substantial windows, it retains a shadowy basement-like darkness during the brightest midday. Second, parts of The Departed were filmed there. Lastly, they never close, the beer is very cheap, and the bartenders know more about you than you think they do, in a way that makes everything they say both humorous and pertinent to your life, like if Ireland made fortune cookies.

All of these ignore the obvious reason of course—its vicinity to Havenside Studios.

My friend Paul Manzi created an apartment studio and has been recording music there for the past couple of years. It is my opinion that this music is very good. However, before trusting my opinion, be informed that I myself have recorded at Havenside, which probably makes me biased. Then again, if our Executive branch's economic team can allot billions of dollars to the banks they work for and retain their disinterestedness, maybe so can I. Find the Havenside [page] here. At the end of this post, you'll find a song I did with Paul. James May, whose great songs you can also find on the Havenside [page], swoons some backups.

This is how it happened: I rode Metro North to Sunset Park one weekend and Paul and I wrote and recorded the following song. This is the kind of thing they do at Havenside. You go, hang, and earn your keep by recording music with Paul's awesome setup. Unfortunately, there is little vacancy.