• On Monday, we pointed you to an article about Bruce Springsteen‘s use of a teleprompter in live performances [Washington Post]. E Street Band member Nils Lofgren has written a letter in response. [Springsteen] would show us the sign [with the name of a song request] and then immediately “frisbee” it down the stairs to the teleprompter crew to surf the net and find the lyrics while we all talked up a quick arrangement at his microphone, knowing he’d be counting it off in 20 seconds. Many of those audibles were Bruce songs unrehearsed or played in years or decades.
• We can’t think of a more terrible supergroup than the Sons of Beatles. No, we’re not joking; apparently the sons of the Fab Four might form a band. For now, though, you’ll have to settle for the equally terrible-sounding solo show of James McCartney at the Fillmore on 6/11.
• EP Review: Marcus J Moore on Martyn‘s Hello Darkness [Washington CityPaper]. Note that there’s an audio file embedded at that link, in case you’d like to take a listen.
• Substitutions: Wayne Brady steps up to host the Radio & Television Correspondents’ Association gala in June [Washington Post] after Louis C.K. dropped the gig when Greta Van Susteren threatened to boycott it. C.K. ended up in the Fox anchor’s crosshairs because of a vulgar 2010 Twitter rant in which he called Sarah Palin a word that we not only cannot repeat here but which is widely regarded as the worst thing you can call a woman. (He told The Wrap this week that he dropped out because “I wasn’t that excited about it” and “I didn’t want to cause them problems.”) As for his replacement? “Wayne Brady is as close to safe as you can get,” said Adam Frucci, editor of Splitsider, a blog devoted to comedy. “He’s pretty squeaky-clean.”
• Listen: local band Teething Veils has recorded a song called “Cobblestone” [Washington CityPaper]. {full disclosure: I’m scheduled to be singing on Teething Veils’ upcoming album.}
• Local band news: Deleted Scenes signs to Park the Van Records [Washington CityPaper]. The label has released works by Dr. Dog, the Spinto Band, and Generationals, among others. The hope is to release another Deleted Scenes album in 2013, says bassist Matt Dowling, and now the band has the space to focus primarily on its artistic activities. “We realized that everything is out of our hands,” he says of the band’s career aspirations. “Now we’re in more capable hands.”
• Anne Midgette on awards for opera singers [Washington Post]. [T]he Marian Anderson Award is welcome news: one of those lovely awards, like the Richard Tucker Award or the MacArthur Foundation’s fellowships, that you don’t even apply for, but simply learn, one day, that you have received. It’s been given since 1989, first annually, then every three years, and finally settled down to a biennial rhythm. And this year’s recipient, the Kennedy Center has announced, is the mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges. Her prize: $15,000, and a recital in the Terrace Theater on September 10th, which, as part of the Millennium Stages series, will be streamed live and archived on the Web.
• Interview: Nancy Dunham chats with Kevin Costner [Washington Examiner], who’s at Strathmore on Thursday.
• Christopher Porter on reunion sounds, including Black Tambourine [Express].
• DC Writer news: Congratulations to Marc Masters, who is now a Contributing Editor at Pitchfork.
Live Reviews
• Everyone has something to say about Bruce Springsteen at the Verizon Center: David Malitz [Washington Post], Matthew Siblo [DCist], and Chris Klimek [Washington CityPaper].
Last night, I was at local band Fuchida‘s first-ever show. The Black Cat’s tiny backstage was packed, which was particularly awesome: it was so great to see so many people out to support a local headliner– and a metal(ish) band at that!– especially at a venue that’s not pay-to-play, as so many of the area’s local metal-friendly venues are. I guess it’s no surprise that there were so many people there, since the members of Fuchida used to be in other bands (Tone, Bronze Age, and Blue Tip), and the group’s frontwoman often DJs at the Black Cat under the name DJ Lil’e. There were certainly a lot of instruments on stage– three(!) guitars and an eight-string(!) bass plus (of course) drums– which certainly created a voluminous sound. The group refers to itself as ‘New Wave of American Black War Metal’, and while it was certainly obvious that this was their first show, they sounded good, and I look forward to hearing more from them. Also, the Black Cat now has New Belgium’s black ale 1554 on tap, which is delicious.
The night before, I was at Empire (formerly Jaxx) in Springfield for A Sound of Thunder‘s CD release show. I’ve already gone on record that I like the album, Out of the Darkness [Washington Post] (you can check it out on Amazon). The female-fronted power metal group sounds great on record, and they bring a lot of energy to the stage– singer Nina Osegueda is a great frontwoman, running all over stage and getting the crowd revved up– but one of the best parts of their live show is guitarist Josh Schwartz, who’s just awesome to watch.
On Friday night, I went to a completely non-metal show: a cappella groups Cartoon Johnny, Euphonism and Vox Pop did a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at Williamsburg Middle School in Arlington. This is the second year I’ve been to this event (they’ve been doing it for 4 years), and it’s always a little surreal to be at a concert full of children– I’m really short, so it’s rare that I can see over the heads of the entire audience! Still, despite the chaos of the children (I never thought I’d see a mosh pit at an a cappella show, and yet the kids just go crazy right in front of the stage), the musicianship at this show was fantastic. Cartoon Johnny has just added a new member, Guye Turner (who is a teacher at Williamsburg Middle School), and this is the first time I’d seen the group perform a full set with him. They sounded fantastic– Guye gelled so well with the group, it’s hard to believe he’s only been singing with them for a few months. Can’t wait to see where they go from here. Euphonism were enjoyable as always, and I’ve become more and more impressed with Vox Pop every time I see them. CJ and Euphonism are both small groups (CJ has 6, Euph has 7), while Vox Pop is an 11-member group. Having once been an a cappella singer, I know the challenges of performing in a larger group– but Vox Pop sounded so good. They are by far, to my ears, the most cohesive and interesting large a cappella group in this area, and it’s always fun to see them perform.
Articles
• Bruce Springsteen doesn’t lip-synch, but he uses a teleprompter in concert [Washington Post]. Springsteen is such an exciting performer precisely because his art has always seemed to lack artifice. He is exuberant but also sincere, and he makes his fans believe it, too. His tunes aren’t just tunes; they’re mini-anthems of hope and possibility and unrealized dreams. They’re little musical novels. Which is why a teleprompter tampers, ever so slightly, with the spell Springsteen has cast for nearly 40 years. If he believes as deeply as we assume he does, why the need for a cheat sheet?
• Thought you were done with SXSW coverage? You were wrong. Chris Richards has a lengthy article on Robert Glasper and his performance in Austin [Washington Post]. The Robert Glasper Experiment is at the Warner Theatre tomorrow (4/3).
• Profile/interview: Megan Buerger on Kishi Bashi [Washington Post], performing with Of Montreal on Tuesday at the 9:30 Club.
• Joan Reinthaler on the University of Maryland’s School of Music’s “The Art of Argento” Festival, which celebrates the work of Dominick Argento [Washington Post].
Notes from last night (and a request for feedback)
Last night I headed out to DC9 to see French atmospheric black metal/shoegaze band Alcest. (Apparently it was quite the week for atmospheric black metal bands in the U St corridor, since Liturgy opened for Sleigh Bells at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday). Their set focussed mostly on their newest album, Les Voyages de L’ame, which sounded great, despite the absurdly omnipresent smoke machine. (Seriously, it’s as if those guys were pumping enough smoke for a space the size of the 9:30 club). Oddly, the crowd seemed to be the biggest for opening band deaf heaven– either that, or people just pushed closer for the headliner’s set. Other openers were locals Black Clouds and Auroboros.
Hey, while I’m at it, it seems to be a SLDC Music Notes tradition to ask for feedback on the last weekday of the month. What do you like/dislike in this daily round-up? Are their things I could add or change? Feel free to let me know, either via a comment on this post or by email, showlistdc@gmail.com.
• Chris Richards muses on musicians who wear masks [Washington Post]. As the hyper-connectivity of social media pulls our planet into a tighter huddle, [Aaron] Jerome [of SBTRKT] is one in a growing number of vanguard pop artists flirting with the idea of anonymity. They often wear masks. Some conceal their names. A few refuse to perform in public altogether. Many make electronic music, including Deadmau5, the Bloody Beetroots, Redshape and Zomby. And although artists and authors have worked under pseudonyms for centuries, protecting one’s anonymity today feels like an implicit protest against our increasingly Facebookish society. These artists are asserting their power by refusing to be identified, asking us to like them without clicking “Like”.
• Uber-hipster blog Brightest Young Things is expanding to New York [Washington CityPaper]. 2011 was Brightest Young Things’ most successful year, and its first profitable one, [BYT leader Svetlana] Legetic says. But she isn’t inching back from the operation’s online presence to take advantage of the breathing room that comes with a bigger staff. (The site now has six full-time employees with benefits, plus two part-timers and an army of volunteer contributors, compared to three full-timers a year ago.) As far as bylines go, Legetic will still write the site’s weekend events newsletter, and guide its more ambitious editorial projects. But a lot of her energy in the next few months will involve Brightest Young Things’ more imperial ambitions. This summer, the site is expanding to New York.
• The Washington Post’s sixth annual Peeps contest (sorry, we just can’t bring ourselves to call it by its official name, “Peeps Show”) has concluded. We do love this music-related one, so kudos to Derek Hills and Brinda Krishnan (of the band Not My Sister) for their sugary creation! There are a few close-ups here and here and here.
• Local arts news: Scott Tucker (Cornell University’s choral director) will be taking over as the head of the Choral Arts Society [Washington Post]. The Society’s current head, Norman Scribner founded the organization 46 years ago and is retiring at the end of this season. Tucker’s experience includes fundraising (of particular interest in today’s climate), commissioning new work — he commissioned more than 30 new pieces while at Cornell, including works by Augusta Read Thomas, Chen Yi and Libby Larsen — and world music. He spent part of a sabbatical year in South Africa, learning traditional music by rote from an expert who requested that he not write anything down, saying, according to Tucker, that “those staff lines are like prison bars to the music.”
• Tittsworth is really excited about the return of Trouble & Bass to DC (and has a pair of tickets to give away to a promotion-friendly twitter user).
• Patrick Foster on Sleigh Bells and Liturgy at the 9:30 Club [Washington Post]. Apparently the headliner– which has 2 albums under its belt– played a short, 45-minute set.
• Monica Hesse tells us all about Japanese girl group AKB48‘s trip to DC [Washington Post]. How to explain AKB48. The group contains 60-ish members, selected through a rolling “American Idol”-esque audition process. It is the largest pop group in the world. When its members get older, they graduate and are replaced with trainee AKB48s. The group’s past 11 singles have topped Japanese charts, and Japanese citizens get to vote on which members will appear in which videos. Tickets to the band’s shows are distributed via lottery. AKB48 is huge.
• Ally Schweitzer continues the Lincoln Theatre saga– oh, and hey, she’s got a copy of Blues Alley owner Harry Schnipper‘s bid to purchase the venue [Washington CityPaper].
• Les Paul‘s guitars go to auction [Washington Post].
• Anne Midgette talks about the Johansen Competition for string players ages 13-17 [Washington Post]. [T]he naked honesty of many of Friday’s performances awakened in me all of that gee-whiz, ain’t-classical-music-amazing sentiment I so often seek to combat.
So I spent most of the weekend out in Reston for the annual SingStrong a cappella festival, which featured a long list of performers including Sing-Off winners Pentatonix, locals– and Sing-Off alums– Afro-Blue, and live-looper Julia Easterlin. Easterlin was by far my favorite performer of the weekend; her original compositions were outstanding, and it was really impressive to watch her build her layered harmonies live.
Then last night, I headed up to Baltimore to see technical instrumental trio Dysrhythmia at Sonar’s Talking Head Lounge. Really awesome show– the guys previewed all new songs from their as-yet-unrecorded album, and bassist Colin Marston broke a string twice. (Luckily, both of the opening bands on the tour played 6-string basses, so he just borrowed one for the rest of the set.)
• Michael J West on Kevin Eubanks at Blues Alley [Washington Post]. While most Americans know Kevin Eubanks for his 15 years as Jay Leno’s bandleader and sidekick, jazz devotees remember the guitarist’s straight-ahead bop and funky, world-music-imbued experiments from his pre-”Tonight Show” career. The audience that packed Blues Alley to see him Thursday night, however, got neither of the above.
• Local power metal band A Sound of Thunder has just released a music video for “Muderous Horde” (recommended if you like snakes!). The band’s new album Out of the Darkness comes out next week, and the band is celebrating with a CD release show at Empire in Springfield (formerly Jaxx) on Saturday 3/31.
• The Onion has ended circulation in DC [Washington CityPaper]. No great surprise from us (most of the Onion bins we saw were always empty, with the exception of the ones right outside the Columbia Heights metro station– the paper had clearly been cutting back its distribution this year).
We’ve gotten some feedback that we should change our section headers on this blog, so we’re going to be testing out some formatting over the next few days. If you like (or hate!) what you see, feel free to let us know, either with a comment on this blog or an email to showlistdc@gmail.com.
Notes from Last Night
Last night, I went out to the Black Cat to see Bowerbirds. The show itself was lovely, but I really couldn’t hear much of anything above the audience chatter. I guess that’s becoming the norm now, but seriously: especially at quiet shows, if you want to talk, please just move to the back! I couldn’t understand why so many people were holding loud conversations right underneath the stage. Maybe people figure that once they’ve paid their $15 cover, they can do whatever the hell they want to, even if it’s completely disruptive to everyone else in attendance– and to the band on stage. I went to over 130 shows last year, and I don’t remember a single one being as chatty as the show last night, which is a disappointment for sure.
Articles/Videos
• Sweetlife Festival has announced the lineup of its second stage: Delta Spirit, Twin Shadow, Zola Jesus, the Knocks, RAC, U.S. Royalty, Yuna, Corey Haim, LP, Cut Copy’s Ben Browning, and Bluebrain. Jonathan L. Fischer reacts [Washington CityPaper].
• Scott Crawford is putting together a documentary of the D.C. punk scene from 1980 to 1990 and needs your help, says the Washington Post. The film is slated to be called Salad Days, and you can check out their facebook page for ways to get in touch.
• Speaking of nostalgia, Melinda Newman tells us that the boy band is making a comeback [Washington Post]. She cites One Direction, Big Time Rush, and the Wanted.
Over the past few years, the pop airwaves have been hip-hop-dominated but, during the past several months, the music has segued into rhythmic-leaning pop and then into straight-ahead pop. “Acts like Katy Perry and Rihanna have paved the way for pure pop music’s return,” says Keith Caulfield, Billboard’s associate director of charts. “What’s been missing were girl groups and boy bands. It’s such a good environment for this kind of act in pop music right now.”
