Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

DC Reggae Awards on Saturday and Wammies coming up on Sunday. Re the latter, far from perfect in their nominations but they look a little better (and yea, they asked me for some names for the first time)

One of these Fridays I will make it to Soundclash, the roots reggae thing at the Marx Cafe once a month

Soundclash has great guest and resident djs and now posts mixes online

So have you "dance" folks been having a good time at the T & T clubhouse, Muse Lounge and elsewhere? Or are you just waiting for "I Died"'s new place to open?

Straight-ahead go-go seems to be nearly invisible these days. All gal band Bela Dona who I blogged about for the CP are performing at the Wammies, otherwise not too much attention. The rap cover filled sets of most of the younger bands are not reaching beyond their core following (which is still large as there are go-go shows every night)

I tend to hibernate in the winter, so I haven't been out much at all lately. That said, I am planning to venture out to see Metro Area at Bar7, which I guess is a new venue? Looks like Efdemin is tentatively scheduled to play there too.

And of course I'm eagerly awaiting the opening of U St. Music Hall.

I did go to Muse once a few months ago and did not enjoy it at all.

contrasting views on the state of DC rock (noted by the CP blog)

http://www.avclub.com/dc/articles/title-tracks-john-davis-on-the-joys-of-noncollabor,38042/

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/goingoutgurus/2010/02/in_defense_of_the_dc_rock_scen.html?wprss=goingoutgurus

i haven't been to any of those places you mention, curmudgeon. in fact, i haven't been out dancing in a long time. parties that don't get good until too late are one reason. i'm old now, & need my sleep. and hanging out with ppl who aren't really into dancing enables this tendency to say fuck it and end the night after a good dinner and a few drinks. dancing's fun, i miss it a bit, but this is good too.

Fri. 3/5
Moneytown @ Dahlak (1771 U St. NW DC)
10pm-3am
DJ Nitekrawler w/ special guest DJs:
Jason Hamlin & Mike Murphy(Mercy, Richmond VA)
Free.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a222/blueimage/MtownMarch10.jpg

A Q and A with WPFW dj Jim Byers who is hosting "Casbah to Zanzibar" a panel discussion on the history of DC Latin clubs plus film, video and music Saturday 2 to 4 at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/02/26/metro-mambo-casbah-to-zanzibar-free-concert-and-lecture-saturday/

Has Zanzibar now been sold to the owner of the Juste Lounge? It's now the Water Club?

x-post--The Casbah to Zanzibar thing at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum was nice. So I learned that the Casbah was next to Ben's Chili Bowl and open in 1960. Interesting panelists with some good anecdotes; while it was not all quite music geek detailed enough for me it was mostly pretty good. Richmond's Bio Ritmo were good. Nice to see and dance to 'em for free. As with my previous trips to Fort Dupont Park in Anacostia, there were very very few palefaced folks there. It's a museum with its own parking lot; yea it's not exactly on top of a Metro station but still...On the other hand, the folks who packed the small room had a good time and that's all that matters.

I don't expect folks who do not get into Latin dance music to have gone to that, but I know based on the Facebook listing for the event and the amount of salsa dancing things in NW that there are fellow white people interested but did not go. Maybe I'm beating this into the ground and should just move on to talking about something else---

another subject I've beaten into the groud, the Wammies are tonight and they left lots of people off the nominations list that should have been included, for the millionth year in a row.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/03/01/the-wammies-are-good-performances-and-good-intentions-good-enough/ Blog post on the Wammies

The nomination list was better this year, but as that post points out, there are structual limitations that are just going to prevent the Wammies from ever being worth paying attention to.

good post, i didn't know much about the wammies and now...i do

Thanks.

http://inabluemood.blogspot.com/2010/03/wama-can-someone-explain-why.html

A blues and soul fan takes WAMA to task here for not honoring both living African-American blues and soul musicians; and in the WAMA Hall of Fame, deceased DC blues and soul musicians.

Chris Richards on Metro Area's DC appearance

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/clicktrack/2010/03/in_concert_metro_area.html

Googling last night I realized that I had forgotten I had mentioned on dcist.com in '08 that WAMA had stupidly nominated the 2 member indie-pop Evens under "hard rock," a category by the way that they no longer have. Also, if I want to keep piling on and beating them into the ground, I see that Brightest Young Things is sponsoring a bill of DC rock bands in Austin at S x SW (but not WAMA, who don't even know about the existence of such DC bands); and WAMA omitted nearly all of the local Caribbean bands that played at the Haiti benefit on Sunday at the Crossroads.

I had a last-minute cancellation from a friend on my other free pass for Saturday night's Gilberto Gil show at Lisner. My other pals all seem to be busy or aren't interested in Brazilian sounds. There's a ton going on that night, but if anyone is interested in that one free pass (I have to pick up 'em up at the box office) let me know.

ritmika (at) hotmail (dot) com

U Street Music Hall opens next week with an Aeroplane DJ set. Anyone else going to be there?

I will!

Ha.

Ok, I had a winner for the Giberto Gil show ticket for tonight. There's so much going on this evening--DamFunk on NY Avenue; Barbara Carr at the Solar Eclipse; RustBuckit at Iota;dancehaller Mavado at Club 24; acoustic blues Eleanor Ellis at the Washington Ethical Society; and some indie rock shows I was reading about but have now forgotten.

I forgot that there's also some avante/improv thing at Velvet Lounge I think plus acclaimed jazz (and hiphop) pianist Robert Glasper at Bohemian Caverns.

Will go if I can, got work visitors out from UK but will hopefully ditch them by 10...

envious of those going to Aeroplane. when I move to DC in a few months, I fully expect awesome U Street Music Hall action.

More ilxor DC influx!

Alright! Enjoy on Wednesday folks. Wednesdays never really work for me. Air is at the 930 that night also, plus early in the night at 6:30 there's a cool panel and book discussion at Busboys and Poets on Brazilian music in the favelas.

Speaking of Brazilian, G. Gil was good Saturday night, and Sunday I ended up at the Grill from Ipanema in Adams Morgan. Food was pricey and underwhelming, the live band playing there was stuck being mostly not heard over the chatter of patrons(including me). What I could hear was great--Brazilian born, DC based guitarist Richard Miller (who teaches at Catholic and does private guitar lessons)is real impressive.

Can't now do Wednesday, got to be up at unholy hour Thursday :-(

plenty of luv for U St. Music Hall at the City Paper blog

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/03/16/free-tonight-u-street-music-halls-soft-opening/

Yeah, everyone's been really nice so far! Sure the knives will come out soon.

As the article points out, we're open for a preview night today - doors at 8, no cover.

So the new parking rules in parts of DC now require money in the meters till 10 on most nights, right? I did hear that they're going to modify it slightly and not limit one to 2 hours after 6:30 pm. I know it's not environmentally correct for us to drive in the city, but with all the track work and stuff on Metro lately, it's just more convenient to drive.

I'm just thinking about certain streets in the U St. area and how that will now require many quarters or, if they have updated the meters, using a credit card. Some streets around there are not metered.

They're updating most of the meters around U st to take credit cards, which is great. In that area the spaces usually aren't metered once you make it a block or two off of U, and based on the popularity of the area recently it's a shock to find a space that close anyway.

holy shit does this sound awesome

my only concern is capacity--the perfect venue and i have visions of it being packed, always. how much more is 300 than dc9 upstairs, st ex basement, or black cat back room?

The Black Cat back room has a capacity of 200 according to the BC web site, so it's probably about half as more or twice as big. I'll post my impressions after tonight.

Yep, bigger than the Black Cat back room, smaller than the Black Cat big room, smaller than Zanzibar...etc.

Did ya have fun Skip and others who may have gone to da Music Hall?

Dancing until 2 a.m. is not usually how I spend my Wednesday nights (and I'm paying for it now) but I'm glad I went. It was less a coming out party for U Street Music Hall than a chance for attendants to size up the space. Very chummy, sceney crowd--until Aeroplane came on almost nobody danced. Skinny guys in flannel were saying hi to each other in the manner of people who see each other at a show or club every weekend. There was close to 50/50 guys/girls and most of the crowd appeared straight. The room itself was pretty sizable, certainly big enough for 300 people. It's a basement space with a bar to your right as you enter, a low stage to your left that functioned as a hangout area, and then the larger space opens up ahead and to the right. Another large bar runs down the entire left hand side, there are a few places to stand and put drinks with a (very) small number of stools, and the DJ platform is at the back of the hall. You can't see anything the DJs are doing but they are visible from the waist up. I didn't get any cell phone service, which was kind of a bummer. Beers cost about what you would expect ($4 cheapo can, $5-$7 draft). My favorite little touch was that the bathrooms are already tagged.

The openers played some nice italo stuff and Aeroplane did a good job to these ears.

sounds like an awesome venue. i'm slightly worried about American crowds not dancing, but will work to rectify the situation/dance on my own some months down the line.

i doubt that will be a problem. people will dance here.

skip, how full was it at peak?

It never felt over-full but you would have had serious trouble walking across the dance floor after Aeroplane started. I didn't mean to make it sound like people weren't dancing for Aeroplane because they most definitely were, and not just near the DJ setup. I don't think there will be problems getting people moving for main acts unless they are real clunkers--but before midnight it will probably be pretty slow in that regard.

yeah that's par for the course. and one reason i don't dance out the way i used to--my schedule doesn't work like that these days.

Oh man that was a great time - I haven't seen anywhere run so smoothly on a packed opening night before (for those that don't know, I'm one of the partners in U Hall). Skip, let me know next time you come out, would be great to meet another DC ilxor - I think daria-g was the only other one I saw there last night.

congratulations! i've seen nothing but positive words for the place, can't wait to experience it myself.

I DIED, will do. Good luck keeping up the momentum in the next few weeks!

So happy for I DIED and the other U Hallers! Looking forward to a Fri/Sat when I can stay out past my bedtime.

I went on Wednesday as well, it was real fun. It's a great space, the crowd was pretty good, and Aeroplane was damned excellent. Congrats I DIED for a successful opening.

Theo Parrish tonight at Trinidad and Tobago Clubhouse on Georgia Ave. Anyone going?