• Local Venue News: Baltimore’s Sonaris closed, as of today [Baltimore CityPaper]. The news was first posted officially by Maryland DeathFest on Facebook, who wrote, “Sonar (the home of MDF since 2006) is closing. Why? That’s not important. What is important is that we’ve known about this situation for months, and we were already searching for a new location only a few days after MDF X ended. Currently, we have THREE locations to choose from, all of which would be in Baltimore.” The Baltimore CityPaper wrote an article back in May that the Feds had named Sonar in a pot conspiracy indictment. We’re working to figure out where all of the shows scheduled for Sonar are moving (you can follow our list of Sonar shows here).
• The Washington CityPaper is under new ownership. The WCP and Creative Loafing Atlanta were sold by Atalaya Capital Management to SouthComm Inc. [DCist]. Incorporated in 2007, SouthComm owns a growing chain of newspapers and magazines, including alt-weeklies in Nashville, Louisville, Ky., Cincinnati, Charlotte and Tampa. The Charlotte and Tampa papers, also titled Creative Loafing, were purchased from Atalaya last October. The full press release is at the DCist article linked above.
• Preview/interview: Rudi Greenberg talks to The Men [Washington Post Express]. Tonight at DC9.
• Interview: Peter Timko talks to Co La [Prefix Mag].
• Interview: Chris White talks to Matt Cranstoun [DC Music Live].
• The 2012 Shockwave 2012 Tour is now officially cancelled [Blabbermouth]. The tour– which was to include Fear Factory, Voivod, Cattle Decapitation, Havok, and locals Misery Index– was scheduled to stop at Empire (formerly Jaxx) in Springfield on 7/26.
• Local DIY space Suberranean A had its final show last weekend. Ally Schweitzer writes a great article about the space’s history and challenges of putting on shows there [Washington CityPaper]. [Adam] Friedland and [Phil] Cohen didn’t set out to open a DIY venue. After living in the basement for six months, they heard that one of their favorite musicians, Radical Face, was looking to book shows at unconventional spaces. They thought their space could work. They contacted him, and by March 2010, the conceptual glitch-folk artist from Jacksonville, Fla., was playing in their living room. They couldn’t have anticipated the kind of crowd that showed up. “This was kind of a subculture that no one really knew existed,” says Friedland. “There were people that came from Pittsburgh, people that came from South Carolina, North Carolina—” “11-year-old Mormons!” Cohen interjects. They decided to roll with it and keep putting on events. Within a year and a half, the moldy, cacophonous basement had begun to fill a niche that no traditional venue in D.C. could. Beholden to no one, and with no interest in profit, the kids at Sub A could book whatever they wanted, handing 100 percent of the proceeds to the artists. For a year or two—a lifetime for a punk house—Subterranean A was D.C.’s best-curated independent venue.
• Preview/Interview: Stephen Deusner talks to Brandi Carlile [Washington Post Express]. Tonight at Wolf Trap.
• the NSO is homeward bound after its South American tour [Washington Post].
Tonight – Friday, 22 June
• Preview/Interview: Mark Jenkins talks to Image Band [Washington Post]. Part of the Reggae Night at Carter Barron Amphitheatre.
• CD Review: Walk the Moon: Walk the Moon. Reviewed by Mark Jenkins [Washington Post]. At the Black Cat.
• Preview: Matt Siblo on Hot Snakes [Washington CityPaper]. At the Rock & Roll Hotel.
• Preview/Interview: Marie Gullard on Angela Winbush [Washington Examiner]. At Blues Alley tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.
• The latest on BYT‘s “Write a suicide note to win Morrissey tickets” situation: If you didn’t think that BYT changed the contest on its own, you were right. Alex Baca at the Washington CityPaper talked to a representative of contest sponsor IMP, who confirmed that IMP asked BYT to change the contest. To catch up on how this story unfolded, here’s the backstory: BYT posted a contest on Monday asking readers to write suicide notes in order to enter a contest to win tickets to Morrissey’s show at Strathmore. I wrote about this in Tuesday’s Music Notes. The Washington CityPaper picked up the story later that day and got some quotes from BYT managing editor Logan Donaldson. On Tuesday night, BYT quietly changed the contest to say “string together a couple of paragraphs using only Morrissey’s lyrics”; I printed the full text of the new contest and a rant from their Assistant Editor Stephanie Breijo in Wednesday’s Music Notes, and DCist picked up the story, getting an additional quote from Donaldson. THEN, BYT took its contest down entirely (if you click on the contest link now, you’re taken to a login page). The Washington CityPaper reported on that, with an additional statement from Donaldson. And once again, here’s the CityPaper’s interview with IMP spokesperson Audrey Schaefer.
