ShowlistDC Music Notes: Tuesday 08-21-12



Today’s New Releases (with locally-penned reviews)

Bloc Party, Four. Reviewed by Elizabeth Nelson [Washington Post].

Blur, Parklive. Reviewed by Lindsay Zoladz [Pitchfork].

the Darkness, Hot Cakes. Reviewed by Andrew Leahey [Washington Times].

Owl City, the Midsummer Station. Reviewed by Allison Stewart [Washington Post] and by Andrew Leahey [Washington Times]. At the 9:30 Club on 9/10.

Redd Kross, Researching the Blues. Reviewed by Aaron Leitko [Pitchfork].

Spider Bags, Shake My Head. Reviewed by ChunkyGlasses.com.

Yeasayer, Fragrant World. Reviewed by David Malitz [Washington Post]. At the 9:30 Club on 11/14 and 11/15.



Articles


• Planning Guides: Washington Post Going Out Guide’s Nightlife Agenda. DC Music Download’s Weekday Hits and Upcoming Shows You Should Know.

• Interview: Valerie Paschall talks to Priests [DCist].

• Interview: Valerie Paschall talks to Meow vs. Meow [DCist].

• Interview: Gregory Ayers talks to Clarissa Villondo, co-founder of Indie Bands With a Mission [DC Music Download].

• Interview: Nancy Dunham talks to Mat Kearney [Washington Examiner]. Opening for Train tonight at Wolf Trap.

• DVD/Documentary review: Joe Warminsky on Sweet Rock: the Red Weasel Movement [Washington CityPaper]. It’s “a 35-minute documentary about a Salisbury, Md., band that was a small oasis of grunge-era good times on the Eastern Shore and whose members were familiar with D.C.’s late ’80s/early ’90s scene“.

• Republican Vice Presedential candidate Paul Ryan apparently loves Rage Against the Machine. That love is not returned [Washington Post].

• Are you tired of people saying that the local music scene sucks? Baltimore blogger Metallomusikum certainly is, and she wrote this handy list of things you and your band can do to make it better. (She wrote it back in January, but it’s still worth reading/following/taping to the fridge).

• Local band news: Periphery is dropping off the Summer Slaughter Tour due to a family emergency [Facebook].

• Chuck Brown Day: Ally Schweitzer tallied an hourly update on the event’s breakdown [Washington CityPaper] (PS: she also reports that refunds are available for those who had tickets).

Big Time Rush performed at a kids’ “state dinner” at the White House. Chris Richards was there [Washington Post].

• OK, we get it: making fun of Nickelback is like shooting fish in a barrel. Still, Maura Judkis critiques their new music video, “Trying Not To Love You” [Washington Post].

• More on Brightest Young Things‘ move to NYC: an article in the New York Times.

• The Washington CityPaper is curating a concert at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on 9/14. Kokayi, The Caribbean, and Alex (aka Alex Minoff) will be performing, and the event is free.

• Extra cash in your pocket? Check out the new Kickstarter from local power metal band A Sound of Thunder, to help fund their new album Time’s Arrow (and featuring an exclusive EP).

• Everyone’s been talking about Pussy Riot, and the Washington Post now has a blog post about the Russian punk rockers.

• Opera falls just outside the scope of what I cover here on ShowlistDC, but Anne Midgette wrote a few thoughtful pieces for the Washington Post recently, so I’ll round them up here: Taking Opera’s Pulse (a response to a recent cover article of Opera News, which sparked a conversation on NPR) and Opera: great personalities, bad actors.



Listening


• Here’s a roundup of Hometown Sounds DC’s local music videos of the day:
      – Screen Vinyl Image, “Night Trip” (8/20)
      – the Young Rapids, “Goods (Blue Light Sessions)” (8/17)

• Here’s a roundup of DCist’s music videos of the day:
      – Airiel, “Flashlight Tag” (8/20)
      – Wye Oak, “Spiral” (8/17)

• Live listening: Wye Oak, live from the 9:30 Club, 8/17/12 [NPR.org].

Rufus Wainwright stopped by NPR’s DC office for a Tiny Desk Concert.

• Listen to yU‘s latest 7″ release [Washington CityPaper].

• Listen to Substantial‘s “Check My Resume” [DC Music Live].

• Listen to Mac Demarco‘s “My Kind of Woman” [ChunkyGlasses.com].

• Podcasts: Hometown Sounds DC’s podcast for 8/19 and ChunkyGlasses.com’s Episode 13.



Live Reviews

Be’La Dona and Klymaxx at Fort Dupont Park, 8/18/12. Reviewed by Sarah Godfrey [Washington Post].

the Dirty Projectors and Wye Oak at the 9:30 Club, 8/17/12 & 8/18/12. Reviewed by Rohan Mahadevan [DCist] and by Aaron Leitko [Washington Post]. 9:30 Club posted the setlist from 8/17 [930club.tumblr.com].

Gold Motel at Jammin’ Java, 7/23/12. Reviewed by Stephen Bradley [Washington Times].

the Kennedys and Naked Blue at the Hamilton, 8/19/12. Reviewed by David Hintz [DC Rock Live].

Lorelei, Deathfix, and Sun Wolf at the Black Cat, 8/17/12. Reviewed by David Hintz [DC Rock Live] and photographed by Erica Bruce [Washington CityPaper].

Barry Manilow at Wolf Trap, 8/16/12 & 8/17/12. Reviewed by Mark Beachy [MD Theatre Guide], by Denise A Levien [the Rogers Revue], and by Reel Film News

Marina and the Diamonds and MS MR at the 9:30 Club, 8/14/12. Reviewed by We Love DC.

Raise the Roofbeams, the Beanstalk Library and Red Sammy at DC9, 8/16/12. Reviewed by David Hintz [DC Rock Live].

Christian Scott aka Christian aTunde Adjuah at the Bohemian Caverns, 8/16/12. Reviewed by Michael J West [Washington Post].



Giveaways


NEW The Vinyl District is giving away tickets to the Brian Jonestown Massacre at the 9:30 Club on 8/22 (contest ends today at noon).
• DC101 is giving away tickets to the Rockstar UPROAR festival with Shinedown, Godsmack, Staind, Papa Roach, and more. Show is at Jiffy Lube Live on 9/2 (no indication of when this giveaway ends).
NEW The Vinyl District is giving away two Slumberland LPs: Lorelei‘s Enterprising Sidewalks and Echo Lake‘s Wild Peace (contest ends Friday 8/24).
• DC101 is giving away tickets to Ben Harper‘s acoustic show at Wolf Trap on 9/4 (contest ends 8/26).
NEW Local band Cassandra Syndrome has a contest that includes T-Shirts and tickets to their concerts on 9/1 (with Cybergeist and Death Maschine at the Recher Theatre) and 9/14 (with Kamelot, A Sound of Thunder, and Fallen Martyr at Empire).
• DC101 is giving away front row tickets to DC101′s Kerfuffle with the Offspring, Sublime, Rome, Garbage, etc., at Jiffy Lube Live on 9/15 (contest ends 9/3).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to see Gotye at Merriweather Post Pavilion on 9/30 (no indication of when this contest ends).

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ShowlistDC Music Notes: Thursday 03-22-12

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.”

• April Fools Day comes 10 days early: Erik Wemple points us to an interview with a Bono impersonator that was advertised as a chat with Bono himself [Washington Post].

• Anne Midgette wrote a lengthy article on a humanitarian group working to bring the National Symphony Orchestra of North Korea on tour in the U.S. [Washington Post].

• Concert planners: DCist’s This Week in Jazz. TBD tells you about free shows this weekend.

• Concert preview: Solo percussionist Colin Currie at Strathmore tonight [Washington Examiner].

• File under ‘we’re not quite sure what to make of this’: Anne Midgette on self-help operas [Washington Post].

• Listen to Fat Trel‘s “Intro (By the Way)” [Washington CityPaper].

Day 12 of Justin Moyer‘s “Edie Sedgwick goes to SXSW” [Washington CityPaper].

• Heavy Uber Alles gives us six heavy tunes every Tuesday. This week’s edition highlights songs that are great for this warmer weather.

• CD Review: DC writer Marc Masters on Imikuzushi by Oren Ambarchi / Keiji Haino / Jim O’Rourke [Pitchfork].



Live Reviews


Robert Battey on Prague Philharmonia at the Kenney Center’s Eisenhower Theater [Washington Post]. Part of the KenCen’s “Music of Budapest, Prague, and Vienna” festival.



Contests


• LiveNation Latino’s Facebook Page has tickets to Franco de Vita at the Fillmore on 3/28. You have to install a Facebook app in order to enter (I didn’t do that, so I don’t know when this contest ends).
Tonight, head out to Fado in Chinatown, where DC101′s Ty Bailey will be giving away tickets to the DC101 Chili Cook-Off.
• The Vinyl District is giving away a copy of Electric Guest’s Troubleman 7″ (white). Winner must have a North American mailing address (contest ends today).
• The Vinyl District is giving away a pair of tickets to see Housse De Racket at the 9:30 Club on 3/25 (contest ends today at noon).
• The Vinyl District is giving away a copy of Rubblebucket‘s Live In Chicago DVD. Winner must have a North American mailing address (contest ends Thursday 3/22).
• The Vinyl District is giving away a three-month Slacker Premium Subscription (contest ends Friday 3/23).
• The Vinyl District is giving away a pair of tickets to Def Leppard, Poison, and Lita Ford at Merriweather Post Pavilion on 7/10 (contest ends Friday 3/23 at noon).
• The Fillmore Silver Spring is using Facebook to give away tickets to Jordan Knight on 3/25 (contest ends Saturday 3/24 at noon).
Darkest Hour is giving away Grindesign art to peopele who “like” this facebook image and page (contest is open until it reaches 1,000 likes).
• DCHeavyMetal.com is giving away a pair of tickets to see Alcest, deafheaven, Black Clouds, and Auroboros at DC9 on 3/29 (contest ends Tuesday 3/27 at 5 PM).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to Creed at the Warner Theatre on 4/24 (contest ends Sunday 4/15).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to Nickelback at the Verizon Center on 4/30 (contest ends Monday 4/23).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to Marilyn Manson at the Fillmore Silver Spring on 5/1 (contest ends Sunday 4/1).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to the sold-out Radiohead show at the Verizon Center on 6/3 (contest ends Sunday 5/27).
• DC101 is giving away a pair of tickets to Dave Matthews Band at Jiffy Lube Live on 6/16 (contest ends Sunday 6/3).

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