Music, The Features, We Love Music

We Love Music: CSS @ 9:30 Club — 7/1/13

Lovefoxxx and her rowdy gal band CSS stormed through the 9:30 Club Monday night, playing a ridiculous amount of catchy new wave and reggaeton.

It’s a show more people should have come out to see! Sponsored by Nylon magazine, CSS actually shared the bill with newcomers Io Echo. When the Brazilian girls took the stage at 9:30pm, they opened with a curious selection, “Art Bitch” from their first album, but it really set the mood for funky fun, which they delivered through to the end with their last song, the goofy rap “I’ve Seen You Drunk Girl and You’re Not Drunk Yet,” which way more entertaining than I would have anticipated.

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Music, The Features, We Love Music

Hot Ticket: CSS, Io Echo @ 9:30 Club, 7/1/13

Never really tired of being sexy! (Photo courtesy of CSS)

Never really tired of being sexy! (Photo courtesy of CSS)

Is there anything that says crazy danceable fun as much as CSS? The Brazilian girls released a fourth album, Planta, last month, and they hit the 9:30 Club tonight touring in support of it.

The latest single, “Hangover,” is a bit more reggae than new wave, potentially marking a change in direction for the band since their chief songwriter (and only guy in the band) left in 2011. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio took over production duties on the new album. And vocalist Lovefoxxx and company are all about dancing, so they are surely set to revisit crowd pleasers from all four of their albums, including “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above,” “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” and “City Grrl.”

Los Angeles-based Io Echo, meanwhile, recently put out their first album, Ministry of Love, which espouses a goth pop aesthetic. Io Echo have been through the DC metro area at least once, opening for Garbage at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Md., on March 24. The band goes from being atmospheric and airy on songs like “Outsiders” to bouncy if distorted with “When the Lilies Die,” all the while demonstrating a taste for Japanese imagery and minimalism.

If the two bands have anything in common, it’s a love of the Velvet Underground — an inspiration that they run away with in two different directions! It should be interesting to hear how they sound together tonight. Hope to see you there!

CSS
w/ Io Echo
Monday, July 1
Doors 7pm
$25
9:30 Club
All ages

Adventures, Entertainment, Music, We Love Music

We Love Music: Ultra Music Festival 2011 @ Bicentennial Park (Miami), 3/25 – 3/27

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all photos by author.

Last weekend I made a quick getaway to Miami to attend the Ultra Music Festival, otherwise known as the biggest electronic music festival in the world. This was the thirteenth installment of this Miami institution and the first time that it was expanded to a three day event. I along with 150,000 devoted dance music fans* sampled some of the world’s best DJs, producers, and electronic-leaning bands at what amounted to a three-day orgy of drugs, sweat, booze, bikinis, concrete, and ultra-heavy bass. I have been to some huge festivals in my day and some mighty big parties, but I don’t think I have ever been to something that combined the two quite like Ultra Music Festival did.

I thought that the readers who follow my musical adventures on We Love DC might like to hear about my field trip down south. The organizers are already planning UMF 2012 and if you dig what you see and read about here, you might want to consider making the trip yourself next year.

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