Waldorf, MD soulman Jim Bennett has gotten nice coverage at Daddy B. Nice's r'n'b soul blog
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
I posted about this in the sandbox thread - there are successful record stores in every city I have spent time in post-high school - Amoeba in San Francisco (though there were always negative rumors about how well they were actually doing), Princeton Record Exchange, Academy Records (and many others) in NYC. The key to all of those was increasing foot traffic by selling music at every price point, from 99 cents to 99 dollars. I don't buy that DC is too unartistic or unworthy for a CD shop. But DC is indeed not a town that can sustain a CD shop that prices new albums at $16.99 and $17.99, with a "sale" at $15.99. Even at the clearance price, I got 11 CDs for $150.
Bridge Street Books in Georgetown is still open for people who miss B&N, though the amazing old/rare book shop down the street on 29th also recently closed, to little fanfare.
― skip, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
Bridge Street is pretty nice, I bought Xhuxk's book there
― los blue jeans, Thursday, 5 January 2012 02:21 (twelve years ago) link
just noticed U Hall booked Aeroplane again for February.
What's the deal with the "9:30 Club/Black Cat presents" designation for the rock shows?
― skip, Thursday, 5 January 2012 03:58 (twelve years ago) link
Cassian's opening for Aeroplane, which is exciting! In a similar vein, Classixx is coming back in Feb and I'm opening for them, which is also exciting!
this explains the 9:30/Black Cat/U Hall thing better than I could:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-gurus/post/u-street-music-hall-and-930-club-partnership-brings-more-bands-to-u-hall-more-djs-to-930-backbar/2011/11/22/gIQAtYzflN_blog.html
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Thursday, 5 January 2012 04:20 (twelve years ago) link
omg after about 10 months of being ill I might finally be on the mend. I will hit it for Classix and probs Aeroplane if at all possible.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Thursday, 5 January 2012 05:18 (twelve years ago) link
Classixx are seriously some of the best DJs I've ever seen.
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Thursday, 5 January 2012 05:35 (twelve years ago) link
i don't know if it was part of the partnership or if there were undersales or what but i'm super-psyched that buraka som sistema is moved from the 930 club to u. so much more dancefloor-oriented (wherein the 930 club sort of just isn't)
― fauxmarc, Thursday, 5 January 2012 15:12 (twelve years ago) link
RIP DC blues man Whop Frazier (who also played with various old DC soul outfits and maybe even Chuck Brown at some point)
http://inabluemood.blogspot.com/
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/01/06/william-whop-frazier-1943-2011/#comments
― curmudgeon, Monday, 9 January 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
I just got home from the U Hall annual staff party and I just want to say that it's such a genuinely great group of people with extraordinary chemistry, and I have no doubt our success is attributable to them in so many ways.
Also we had a moonbounce and sumo suits at the party and it was amazing.
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 08:17 (twelve years ago) link
i think mark farina a few weeks back was my first time out there. i'd just like to thank the establishment for allowing me to listen to house music while standing there eating a blunted pho dog, life just seemed really right
― fauxmarc, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 14:18 (twelve years ago) link
Busy with family, gonna have to likely miss Buraka Som Sistema there tonight, and at Politics & Prose tonight at 7- Daphne Carr, ethnomusicologist and series editor of the annual Best Music Writing anthology in a discussion about music and music writing with this year’s guest editor, New Yorker music critic and author of The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross, along with contributors including Ann Powers, Chris Richards, Frankin Bruno, and Jason Cherkis.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 10 January 2012 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
the buraka show was NUTS. how do we make that happen again like tomorrow
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 05:01 (twelve years ago) link
I don't believe we can make it happen tomorrow but especially with the 9:30 club partnership there should be a lot more great live shows coming up.
I couldn't make it to the show tonight (at home working on flyers for more shows) but all the feedback I heard was super great.
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Wednesday, 11 January 2012 05:36 (twelve years ago) link
Did Buraka spray water guns like they often do?
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 15:09 (twelve years ago) link
well there was the water bottle they sprayed
and erm the vodka bottle i may or may not have gotten vodka poured into my mouth from them like a clubbing it up undergrad
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
...and bonus points for the kuduro'd lionel ritchie "all night long" and the straight "rhythm is a dancer" from snap
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 15:36 (twelve years ago) link
orchard lounge was really good last night too, i hadn't heard of them just went on a whim. lol i'm kind of into 18+ over shows, the kids like to have fun rather than stand there on the floor drinking/grinding.
― fauxmarc, Thursday, 12 January 2012 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
eeeeverybody was dancing last night it was fun but so unexpected for a rainy Wednesday night!
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Thursday, 12 January 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry for posting it at the last minute, but Paint Fumes at Comet Ping Pong tonight looks like it will be fun
― Just to the left of her pelvis is Lord of the Flies (los blue jeans), Monday, 16 January 2012 00:08 (twelve years ago) link
oh dag
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 16 January 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
How was it?
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 02:53 (twelve years ago) link
oh i was at the last deathrats show w/draize at la casa
it ruled
a middle aged couple walked by me on the sidewalk afterward and said "those deathrats....excitement, huh?"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 05:43 (twelve years ago) link
So does DC band Bike Trip sound like a Latin hybrid of the Pixies and Deerhoof as the Red Palace website says, or like an indie-pop band into African soukous and highlife and art-school experimentalism as the City Paper says...
I guess I will have to research on my own and find out. They're at Black Cat tonight, but I can't make it.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
...what's latin about this? the (very) remotely ncalypso sound? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOYZyQrRRgk
― fauxmarc, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 20:38 (twelve years ago) link
Pixies and Deerhoof?? Just admit it and say they sound like Vampire Weekend, that will be more effective at getting people to come.
― skip, Tuesday, 17 January 2012 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
Eddie Jones & the Young Bucks at Westminster Church from 6 to 9 should be a nice evening of old-school soul.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 January 2012 19:34 (twelve years ago) link
That's tonight.
City Paper Arts editor has angered D.C. singer/songwriters
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/01/20/should-city-paper-cover-more-singer-songwriters/#more-65047
― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 January 2012 19:35 (twelve years ago) link
I haven't heard any DC folky singer/songwriters that wow me
― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 January 2012 19:36 (twelve years ago) link
going to Twin Sister at R&R Hotel tonight.
― skip, Monday, 23 January 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
They don't choose the genre of music that radiates from their soul any more than a person chooses his or her sexual orientation.
lol wut
― fauxmarc, Monday, 23 January 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
...and that's why they don't cover more singer/songwriters
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Monday, 23 January 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
I finally listened to a Justin Trawick album I was sent and it was a dull mix of folk and jam band sounds.
bands I am curious about:
Deathfix --members: (Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Rich Morel, Devin Ocampo(Medications) & Mark Cisneros)
Cane and the Sticks members include Peter Hayes
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
Also: Black Alley http://dcist.com/2011/10/dcist_interview_kacey_of_black_alle.php
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:25 (twelve years ago) link
deathfix was great when i saw them last month
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 18:15 (twelve years ago) link
They're gonna be at Comet for the DJ Toubin benefit gig
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
Me on the glass mostly empty Wammies nominations. But this year I tried to help:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/01/26/here-they-go-again-the-26th-annual-wammy-award-nominees/
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 January 2012 16:10 (twelve years ago) link
nice boots and vest, MAN
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/42148/why-do-dc-bands-suck-so-much-now/
― fauxmarc, Thursday, 26 January 2012 17:36 (twelve years ago) link
Ha
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 26 January 2012 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
even the longer version is still remarkably myopic
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Thursday, 26 January 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2012/01/26/why-do-d-c-bands-suck-so-much-the-directors-cut/
people hate on these recent articles but i tend to agree with the general intent i got out of it, that most people harping on the state of bands tend to just be looking for those that fit the tired presh "indie rock" aesthetic. i'm fine with the state of dc bands. there's not really any particular city in the states i can think of where i'm soooo blown by the state of so many amaaazzzing bands that i'd need to compare it to dc just to detract from the distrct
― fauxmarc, Thursday, 26 January 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link
Just listened to Ted Garber, the singer who was complaining about the City Paper's Arts Editor's dislike for singer/songwriters. Uh, no thanks.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 27 January 2012 06:10 (twelve years ago) link
Tonight I went to the second of two sold-out shows at the Lincoln Theatre for a singer-songwriter who played an unaccompanied set of acoustic guitar+vocal tracks. And Jeff Mangum gained that adoring audience without all the marketing and exposure opportunities that are available to artists nowadays.
― skip, Sunday, 29 January 2012 06:18 (twelve years ago) link
I have and liked those Neutral Milk Hotel albums and would not have predicted this degree of attention. You mean you do not think it was actually a marketing technique of Mangum to hide out for years and years and then to put out a box set and tour? Just kidding. Interesting how the mystique about him grew over the years.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 30 January 2012 14:32 (twelve years ago) link
This isn't so much about the music side of things, but damn the 9:30 club staff is impressive. On Saturday they were running shows at the 9:30 club, U Hall, and the Lincoln Theater at the same time without breaking a sweat.
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Monday, 30 January 2012 20:47 (twelve years ago) link
For the most part it also seems like the Fillmore has decided not to compete with them for the same type of acts (some exceptions to this--the Roots)
― curmudgeon, Monday, 30 January 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago) link
Not sure anyone else cares, but I am curious if the Hamilton is getting crowds for music-- are people paying $15 for local been around forever roots-rock bands, and will they pay Birchmere prices for out of town roots and blues acts? I have not been there. Fr*tz's Washington Post Going Out Gurus/Weekend thing on the price of a grilled cheese sandwich there was uh entertaining (I guess it should not surprise me that a Clydes-owned place is charging too much for just adequately prepared American style food).
― curmudgeon, Monday, 30 January 2012 21:06 (twelve years ago) link
no price is too much for adequately prepared American style food at 4am
― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Monday, 30 January 2012 21:53 (twelve years ago) link
Losing my edge, part 4:
Never heard of these djs spinning at "tropical bass" night at Jimmy Valentine's for free on Friday(nor the drummer either):
BEATrix [Ottomania | Meso Creso]Inda Nile [Anthology of Booty | Ottomania | Meso Creso]Juan Zapata [Elm]Meat Hook [Independent]
Live Afro-cuban drumming by Adrian Devny!!!!!!!
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 2 February 2012 14:52 (twelve years ago) link