Use your words: A Reading List

Reynoso’s Losing His Edge What couldn’t be included in the above playlist is (nonexistant) audio of Antonio Reynoso’s recent karaoke set, presumably at Chino Grande (253 Grand St.), possibly on the night of June 18th. See below for the transcript Grime Square dug up: Yeah, I’m losing my edge. I’m losing my edge. The transplants are coming up from behind. I’m losing my edge to the kids from Los Angeles and from Lubbock. But I was there. I’ve been there since 1983. I was there at the first Johnny Ventura show in Bushwick. I’m losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the L. I’m losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good indie group from 2008 to 2013. I’m losing my edge. To all the kids at Mood Ring and Carmelo’s. I’m losing my edge to the downwardly mobile Brooklynites in gigantic pants and borrowed nostalgia for the too-remembered 2000s. I’m losing my edge, but I was there. I was there. I can hear their footsteps every night on the L. I was there in 2008 on the Los Sures doorsteps across Williamsburg. I was working on New Kings with much patience. I was there when Ed Droste started up his first band. I told him, “Don’t do it that way. You’ll never get a month-to-month lease in Williamsburg.” I was there. I was the first guy playing bachata to the Boricua kids. I played it at CSC. Everybody thought I was crazy. We all know. I was there. I’ve never been wrong. I used to play music way too high. I had everything before anyone. I was there in the WSKQ booth with Jinx Paul. I was there in Williamsburg during the great Post-Strokes Takeover. I woke up on a boat in the Sea of Galilee with Richie Torres in 2015. But I’m losing my edge to younger-looking people with commie ideas and more email marketing experience. And they’re actually really, really nice. I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by Fantasy of a Broken Heart. All the underground hits. All the Water From Your Eyes tracks. I heard you have a cassette of every Tatsuro Yamashita cut on Thai import. I heard that you have streamed every seminal YHWH Nailgun hit—2022, 2025, 2026. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good 2003 cut and another box set from 2005. I hear you’re buying a megaphone and posters and are throwing your corporate donor list out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a socialist movement. I hear that you and your polycule have quit your mutual aid group and joined a run club. I hear that you and your polycule have quit your run club and joined a mutual aid group. I hear everybody that you know has more BFAs than everybody that I know. But have you seen my Wrapped? Rafaelito Román, Ilegales, Anthony Santos, Tatico Henríquez, Sech, Raulín Rosendo, Fernando Villalona, Wilfrido Vargas, ¡Estrellita, Dónde Estás! Luis Vargas, Jhay Cortez, Rafael Solano, Alex Bueno, Johnny Pacheco, Raulin Rodriguez, Yoskar Sarante, Bad Buuuuuuunny, Michel Camilo, Luny Tunes, Joe Veras, Lapiz Conciente, El Alfa, Fefita La Grande, Alexis y Fido (”Me rompiste el corazón!”), Zacarías Ferreira, Aventura, Xtreme. Grupo! Agua-! -kate! Toño Rosario, Milly Quesada, Francisco Ulloa, Trio Reynoso and El Ciego de Nagua, Frank Reyes, Yoskar Sarante. Los Sónicos, Los Sónicos, Los Sónicos, Los Sónicos. [Valdez, whispering: “You don’t know what you really want. You don’t know what you really want. You don’t know what you really want…”]