Music, People, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: Top Tracks of 2012, part 2

Coup Sauvage & the Snips

Part two of the top tracks of 2012. This year I decided to go to my fellow musicians of DC, and ask some of my favorite bands in the city what they’ve been listening to in the past twelve months. Yesterday we heard from Ugly Purple SweaterSilo HaloPaperhausScreen Vinyl Image, and E.D. Sedgwick. Today Shark WeekThe TorchesFoul SwoopsCoup Sauvage & the Snips, and Typefighter share what’s been in their ears, hearts & minds this year.

Coup Sauvage & the Snips:

1. “Certain Kinds of Trash” by Chain & the Gang
Musings on the nature of the detritus of everyday life. Enjoy that discarded Twinkie wrapper while you still can. Great male/female vocals with a driving beat.

2. “Guillotine” by The Coup
The best type of song: catchy, danceable and insanely menacing. Hey rich guys, The Coup are coming to kill you, just so you know. Threatcore is my preferred genre and this is a stellar example.

3. “The Consequences of Jealousy” by Robert Glasper feat. Meshell Ndegeocello
Just listen to it. you’ll feel like a grown up.

4. “Rollin” by House of Ladosha
The Haus of Sauvage will give credit to other houses where credit is due, and the House of Ladosha certainly brought the heat (and the wit) on this track.  HoL put on a series of electrifying performances at the Rock & Roll hotel and Ottobar earlier this year, delivering hardcore raps with the flair, sophistication and hostility of a true butch queen.

5. “I Love It” by Icona Pop (feat. Charli XCX)

6. “212” by Azealia Banks
2012 was the year that pop and dance finally stopped flirting with each other and entered into a loving and committed relationship. Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and Azealia Banks’ “212” are the best products of this union. If “I Love It” – with its Euro- style synths and sing-along vocals – is the flirty one who hangs out at the mall then the stripped-down “212” is the weird kid who ran off to art school in the big city. Either way, they both made their parents very proud this year. Continue reading

Music, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: Zarjaz @ CD Cellar — 4/22/12

Rick Taylor and The Zarjaz (Photo by author)

Rick Taylor champions all things forgotten or under-appreciated at his monthly DJ listening party, “We Fought the Big One,” where he spins eclectic post-punk selections in the same way his hero, the late DJ John Peel, might if he had played records in a friendly restaurant in Mount Pleasant instead of on BBC Radio 1.

Surely, the epitome of such records lovingly played by Mr. Taylor would be the cult record Love Backed By Force from the band Tronics, released in 1981 by Alien Records and re-released this year by What’s Your Rupture? The singer and songwriter of that band, who is now known as Zarjaz, appeared at the CD Cellar in Arlington, Va., Sunday night to play some 11 songs — some of which were from the Love Backed By Force album and some of which were from his new effort Freakapuss.

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