Category Archives: Music

Entertainment, Music, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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We luv you, Britney

Photo courtesy of ~BostonBill~
Hang in there Britney, courtesy of ~BostonBill~

Britney Spears, everyone’s favorite train wreck, released her new album today, but the real news is that she’s coming to DC!

Welcome, crazy dad, dangerous paparazzi, and baby daddy drama. The madness won’t descend on DC until March 24, but the internet presale started today and goes through December 5th at 10pm. If you’re willing to spend upwards of $300 three months before the actual show, all you have to do is enter promo code IHEARTBRIT at checkout. Don’t say I never did anything for you.

Music, The Daily Feed
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Lost Crapped Up iPod

Crapped Up IPod IMGP2336_1

Did you recently lose a hot pink iPod while getting on or off the bus? If so, I am pretty sure I found your little darling, still there in the street, waiting approximately where you left it. The only problem is that it must have been run over a few hundred times before I found it. It sure does look like it’s been run hard and put up wet.

I can’t tell if it still plays because the LCD and all the ports are smashed and unusable, but if you had a nice mix of Television, Gram Parsons, Elvis Costello and The New York Dolls, like on the CD I found, I am sorry for your loss. If it was anything like whatever it is that kids blast out their car stereos nowadays, I think it’s all for the best.

Music
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We Love Music: NSO Chamber Players/American Residency Commissions

Millennium Stage Detail

Millennium Stage Detail uploaded by mjlaflaca

This past Tuesday, Sept 23rd at 6p in the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center, the National Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players presented the first of two concerts featuring works commissioned as part of the NSO’s ‘American Residency’ program.  Works by four composers from four states gave us musical portraits of those states.  Having now heard some 8% (by item and roughly by time) of the result of this project, some assessment as to its artistic success, or at least its agenda is possible.  Considering the programs as a whole will need to wait a while.

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Music, The Daily Feed
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Tonight: Don’t Be Glib

Don\'t Be Glib

Don't Be Glib


Don’t Be Glib sound nothing like I expected. Instead, they make music that would be at home in a dimly-lit cocktail lounge or as the soundtrack to a movie montage where the heroine walks the city streets at night. The sultry croon of singer MaryBeth Doran is the defining element, but she is ably supported by something of a mini-super-group of talent from other area bands, including Aaron Leeder and John Thayer of Exit Clov.
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Music
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Leung and Takao vs. Millennium Stage

Millennium Stage Detail

Millennium Stage Detail uploaded by mjlaflaca

Cellist Amy Leung and pianist Naoko Takao gave a recital this 18 August, but they also gave us an object lesson in the challenges of presenting music in the wrong setting, here a venue which robs the music of precisely the features that make it worthy of performance– once again, the Millennium Stage distracts from and undermines the artistry it seeks to present. The repertoire demonstrated what is best about chamber music: the intimacy of collaboration between performers, the proximity (literal and emotional) to the audience. Ms. Leung and Ms. Takao strove hard to achieve these goals and sometime succeeded, despite a venue with all the intimacy and elegance of an aircraft hangar.

Ms. Leung, currently hailing from Utah is a former DCer, having been a Guarneri Fellow at the University of Maryland, and in residence at GWU with the (sadly) now dissolved Coolidge Quartet. Takao is similarly a UMD-CP alum, and teaches at the Levine School, in addition to her geographically diverse career as a soloist and collaborative artist. They have several performances in town this week (here and here), and one hopes to see and hear more of them locally and soon. Monday’s program featured Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and ‘cello, Op. 102, No. 1, Elegy for cello and piano of Maryland composer Masatoshi Mitsumoto, and Mendelssohn’s Sonata for Cello and Piano #2, Op. 58.
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Music, The District, WTF?!
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Muxtape, The RIAA and Pandora


Untitled by erin m

So, you might be a fan of Brittany’s awesome District Mixtape series of columns that we’ve been putting up. The idea is an age-old one, written about by novelists, charted by all the pop-trend-watchers, and beloved by anyone old than about 25 and younger than about 50. The age of the cassette tape mix was a golden one for music. 60 minutes of space, two cassette decks, a steady trigger finger, and a lot of love. If you want an excellent read about this stuff, grab Love is a Mixtape.

So, it’s with no small amount of sadness that this is what I saw this morning when I went to listen to Brittany’s latest concoction:

muxtapefail.png

The RIAA shut them down. Probably for something like the Royalty Problem that is also potentially about to shutter Pandora. So, I’m a bit bummed today. We’ve (temporarily) lost a great tool for publishing our feature, (don’t worry, we’ll figure out how to get around it somehow.) but it seems doubly unfortunate that they went after this one.
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Music
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District Mixtape: Mike Boggs

We Were Pirates

We Were Pirates

Mike Boggs is the creative force behind We Were Pirates. He plays shows under the name with other musicians, but crafted the whole of his EP “The Wolf” on his laptop with two mics and himself. Currently, We Were Pirates is focusing on a full-length album to be recorded in the studio built in Boggs’ garage. We were delighted when the life-long area resident agreed to prepare a mixtape for us! — Brittany

So, The Ode to DC mix consists entirely of songs I am fond of by dc bands, bands with members from DC, songs about DC or songs that are heavily influenced by the “DC sound”
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Music
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District Mixtape: Will Sommer

Will Sommer

Will Sommer


When blogger and W<3DC reader Will Sommer sent an email asking if he could contribute to our District Mixtape series, we instantly said yes. Will is a fun kid; I know because his Facebook profile photo (also above) shows him mugging with his Barnyard Friend, Colbert-style. We Love Silly. — Brittany

I’m an international politics junior at Georgetown, and the editor of Vox Populi, the blog division of the Voice, a student paper. This is my second term as blog editor, and as they say on Step by Step, “We’ll get it better the second time around.” This year, we’re taking aim at any student with computer access, but don’t think post-college DC will escape our blogging. We’ve got stuff for you too. There’s also one feature that hits the sweet spot between those two groups— Date Lab reviews.
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Music, The Daily Feed, The District
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Demand the Vote Song

There’s a sweet new go-go song floatin’ out of over DC today, and that’s the new song from DCVote.org. They commissioned Joe L. Da Vessel to write a new piece for the organization to promote the Voting Rights effort. Check it out (MP3 link) and tell us what you think in the comments.

I think it’s pretty catchy, myself. I like the tribute to the various DC Symbols, including the flag and the city’s motto. And the keyboards are effin’ sweet.

Entertainment, Music
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A Night of Firsts at the Symphony

Photo shamelessly cropped from NPR’s story on Dead Symphony no. 6

A friend and I went to see the Baltimore Symphony perform “A Symphonic Tribute to the Grateful Dead” at  Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore this evening, what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 66th birthday. While I’m not the biggest deadhead in the world, I can certainly appreciate the musicality of Mr. Garcia and his gang. I figured that spending the night listening to a symphonic version of their ditties wouldn’t be so bad. And one of my favorite orchestral works of all time, Berstein’s Overture to Candide was on the program.

It seems that when you combine the refinement and class of the traditional symphony-going audience with the summer of free love embracing hippies that constitute a large majority of grateful dead fans, you end up with a unique audience for a symphony orchestra. I’d like to present you with a “List of Firsts” I witnessed this evening:

  1. First time I’ve ever seen people were tye dye to the symphony. Some “dressed up” their tye dye t-shirts a bit by wearing a suit jacket on top of them. That was a nice touch with the jeans. (Disclaimer: I wore jeans, but no tye dye.)
  2. First time I’ve seen people (lots of them) wear baseball caps to the symphony. There were probably 100 people in baseball caps, cowboy hats, and other non-traditional head coverings.
  3. First time I’ve seen security guards at a symphony. They were checking bags as people entered, and also stationed around the concert hall.
  4. First time I’ve seen security guards attempt to throw a person out WHILE the orchestra played. The guard did it in hushed voices and hand gestures, but it was still wildly distracting. The man he was trying to throw out was in the middle of one of the center orchestra rows and refused to leave. After several minutes of stern looks and angry gestures, the guard gave up.
  5. First time I’ve seen the guy in the row directly in front of me light up a joint and start smoking it WHILE the orchestra played. This was not the guy the security guard was attempting to kick out. And I’ve got pictures of him sneaking a drag. Continue reading →
Music
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District Mixtape: Re:sonance DJs

sonance djs

re:sonance djs

Friend-of-the-blog Michael Darpino is 50% of Re:sonance djs. He wrote in with this contribution to our “District Mixtape” series. You can see him and his dj partner at the awesome Jimmy Valentine’s this Saturday – and congratulate Michael on his recent graduation when you see him!
– Brittany

Re:sonance DJs are Michael Darpino and Chris Diamond. They are throwing a party at Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club this Saturday and want you to be there.

Darpino and Diamond have each lived in the DC area and been enjoying its ever-shifting music scene for over fifteen years. It wasn’t until these two like-minded music geeks met eight years ago that they decided that they wanted to become a part of it. With neither of them possessing a lick of musical talent but both owning ridiculously large and wide-ranging music collections their entry methods of choice were the internet and the DJ booth.
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Entertainment, Interviews, Music
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District Mixtape: Bottles/Cans

Bottles/Cans

Bottles/Cans

Bottles/Cans are performing at the Black Cat Tuesday night. We caught up with them between their stops in Minneapolis and New York to talk about making music here in Washington – even when it means falling through a stage.

A live recording of Bottles/Cans’ song “Everybody Knows,” is introduced by letting the crowd know that “This one is pretty rowdy.” Rowdy is a good general introduction to Bottles/Cans music – swaggering, southern influenced, and steeped in a bit of jazz and blues (and maybe a bit of PBR as well).
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Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Arts
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Great Noise Ensemble at Capital Fringe

GNE@Hirshhorn
great noise ensemble uploaded by hirshhorn

I want to like the Great Noise Ensemble. I really do. They are a plucky bunch of kids, fighting the good fight of aesthetic diversity, they play that post-minimalist, rock/chamber fusion that’s all the rage with the kids, they’ve won WAMMIES two years in a row, and they have a creation story that a Marvel hero could envy. Even more so, this town needs some new blood in its New (Concert) Music Scene, and an outfit that tries to play varied, forward-looking repertoire would be a great addition to the community.

GNE performed Wednesday evening at the Harmon Center for the arts, the ensemble’s second performance in as many years at the Capital Fringe festival, another young, forward-looking organization that is growing in leaps and bounds. The concert, entitled ‘Carnal Node: Sex Noise and Lies in the Internet Age’ showed off the good and the bad about this group: Rhetoric surpassing event, ambition surpassing execution, but all with a promise of better things to come.

The program title sets up a rather specific theme for the show, but only one of the pieces seems to bear much relation to it— rather than telling us anything new about relationships, or technology, or lying, the program as was rather more interested in placing GNE firmly in the rock-derived, post-minimal camp exemplified by the many-tentacled corporate entity known as Bang on a Can; indeed one work had been commissioned and first performed by BOAC through the ‘People’s Commissioning Fund.’ The instrumentation varied from electric bass, guitar, drums and brass to soprano and an ‘extended pierrot,‘ but all the work played with rhythm and phrasing in a manner more akin to Talking Heads than to Mozart, searching for that sweet spot between ‘concert music’ and ‘popular music.’
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Interviews, Life in the Capital, Music
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District Mixtape: Zulu Pearls


photo of Zulu Pearls at the Black Cat by flickr-rickr

Being a musician in this town can be a challenge. Just ask Zach Van Hoozer, founder of Arlington-based pop band Zulu Pearls. “It seems like there is just no continuity, nothing that holds things together,” he remarks. Indeed, “D.C. can seem like it is just a carbon copy of an actual scene from a bigger city.”

Nonetheless, Van Hoozer, who grew up in the area, leaving only to attend college in Richmond, VA before returning, feels that the iconic, DIY sprit of D.C. has permeated his approach to making music. “If you do not feel that DIY attitude about things,” he remarks, “you just aren’t paying attention.” In a similar, do-it-himself vein, he has also launched YESORNODC, a great website chronicling pop culture, with a special focus on the Washington area.
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Music, Night Life, Penn Quarter, The Daily Feed
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Listen to the Summer Wind in the Kogod Courtyard Tonight

Feeling a little jazzy? Not sure where to head after work? In the mood for a little culture with your wine? Then head over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum on 8th and F Streets, NW.

The museum cafe offers a limited selection of bottled beer and wine in addition to sodas, water and coffee drinks. There are plenty of tables and seats throughout the glass enclosed courtyard with room to spare for dancing. The swing band, Joker’s Wild, will perform popular tunes by old blue eyes, his pal Dean Martin, jazz queen Ella Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby.

While the band plays from 5-8:00pm, the museum exhibits are open to the public until 7pm. So take time to roam through the Kate Hepburn and HipHop Portraiture exhibits.

Adventures, Business and Money, Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Music, Night Life, Special Events, We Love Arts, WMATA
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Why I Love DC: David


Capitol Columns #5
Originally uploaded by andertho

My first exposure to Washington D.C. was in 1982 as a side stop on our family’s trip down to see the World’s Fair in Knoxville, TN. On that trip we did the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the National Zoo in D.C.. I remember vaguely, the trees being more plentiful and taller, however I’m also a yard taller now, and they seem now, just a bit shorter. I’m still surprised I remember something from over 26 years ago, but D.C. had that kind of effect.
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Music, The Daily Feed
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Yes to No Age


Photo courtesy of Hood Booking

My friend asks me if I am going to the No Age show then looks confused when I say I have never listened to them.

“They are really good; all swirly and noisy, but with really poppy hooks. They’re on Sub Pop,” he says.

Given the art-punk skater background of the duo, I think I expected Lightning Bolt and I will admit to you, at risk of any street cred I ever had, that I actually am not super in to Lighting Bolt. Take away my right to blog about music if you must, but that is the truth.

When I finally gave them a listen, I was surprised. First of all, the songs are short (under three minutes) but avoid feeling rushed. This is but one sign of the well-edited pop sensibilities that keep the layers of swirls, fuzz, and noise in check. Their recent release “Nouns” is the rare sort of record that rewards headphone listening but would not be out of place in the background of a (relatively hip) dinner party – simultaneously accessible and engaging.

To answer my friend’s question: I am definitely going. 

No Age plays the Rock and Roll Hotel on Tuesday, July 8.

Food and Drink, Music, The Daily Feed
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Daytrip: Luray Caverns, Skyline Drive and Dinner in Front Royal

05072008122


Carl, screwing up a potentially nice picture
at Luray Caverns
Luray Caverns is a great little place to go and only about two hours away from DC. Here is how I recommend scheduling your time. You can drive to Luray, VA in about two hours if you go on I-66 to I-81. Tack on an extra hour if you opt to take the very beautiful Skyline Drive between Front Royal and Route 211, which will take you right into Luray. There is a $15 fee to take the Skyline Drive but it is worth every penny. Just do it.

The caverns themselves are beautiful, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, rocks and other things that are underground. The young woman behind us in line was scared of encountering bats but this is a squeaky-clean cavern, complete with lights, a paved walkway and tour guides who talk about the various things I would know more about, had I paid attention in my geology class. No bugs, from what I could tell, and thus no bats.
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