• Jason Noble of Rodan, Rachel’s, and Shipping News also passed away over the weekend; you can listen to (and/or buy) his benefit compilation, In Pleasant Company: A Mixtape for Jason– featuring Tone, Beauty Pill, True Womanhood, J. Robbins, and more– on Bandcamp [Washington CityPaper].
• Jenn Bress on Run for Cover at the Black Cat, 8/4/12 [Brightest Young Things]. Again, I question whether BYT has anyone on staff that reads copy before it’s posted; let’s round up a few of the typos and random missed words here (and I’m not even going to talk about the tense changes throughout the piece or incomplete/nonsensical sentences):
– “Just when I’m wondering where Nico is, a spazzed out looking AndyWarhol appears.” {we’re used to seeing Andy and Warhol as two separate words.}
– “I’ve found I like to guess what each band [is?] rather than see the set-list beforehand.” {Guess the missing word!}
– “So, a drummer in a 70′s era white suite, a guy in a white jump suit and a guy in a black skeleton costume had me questioning until the main singer appears in [a?] fringed coat (amazing) no shirt and jeans.” {Guess the missing word! Also, guess the missing comma, unless “fringed coat no shirt” is an actual thing.}
– “”Talking about my Generation” gives me that DUH moment when I realized its The Who.” {its vs it’s}
– “the lead singer had all the swagger and grit of Roger Daltrey and is a total rock star.” {We know we said we weren’t going to talk about all the tense issues, but here’s one that’s particularly egregious. Past tense or present tense– please pick one.}
– “A Townsend jump kicks and splayed out leather fringe stance [were?] also included in this mind-blowing performance.” {Guess the missing word!}
– “”Werewolves in London” came on with a dude in a wherewolf mask that stage dove into the audience.” {WOW – two different spellings of werewolf in the same sentence!}
– “I might have been into it if Wolfpussy hadn’t wasted two of out drinks in the process.” {two of OUR drinks, presumably}
– “Now the power bands start to follow, as Run for Cover always builds it’s set appropriately leading up to the ultimate crowd pleasing blow-up acts.” {its vs it’s!}
– “We got “In your Eyes”, “In the Air” ” Land of Confusion” “Solsbury Hill” and “Sledgehammer” all flawlessly performed.” {Are commas between items in a list now optional?}
• 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.
Last night was a concert double-header for me. I started out at the Hamilton in Penn Quarter– it was my first time there, and that place is seriously cool. The obvious comparison is that it’s most similar to the Birchmere, because both venues are seated with tables and you can order food. The Hamilton is wider, though, and the stage is curved so the tables all come out like rays instead of being perpendicular or parallel to it. There’s an entire restaurant attached to the venue, but the venue is downstairs, so there’s no interference between the two. I was also surprised that the menu was different in the venue than it was in the restaurant– you can see the venue menu here and the restaurant menu here. There’s some overlap between the two, but I was disappointed that the venue menu didn’t have the falafel sandwich that the restaurant menu had, as I generally tend to keep vegan when I can, and there didn’t seem to be any vegan options at the venue. I had the wild mushroom pizza instead, which was also quite good. (Note that the venue charges for refills of things like lemonade!). The sound was good and the stage was really pro– there was quite the lighting display during the bands. Opening the show was Baltimore’s Cris Jacobs Band, who mentioned that they’d just finished recording a new CD, so that should be out “in a few weeks”(!), they said. The headliners were Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds, a 9-piece funk/soul band from Brooklyn that features siblings Arleigh Kincheloe (voice) and Jackson Kincheloe (harmonica) alongside a 4-piece horn section. They were a lot of fun– you could tell that the crowd really wanted to dance, but there wasn’t a lot of space for that.
Then, since that show got out early (10:30), I hopped in my car and headed out to Fat Tuesday’s in Fairfax where there was a metal show going on. There was a ton of traffic because the Caps game got out at the same time– plus the inevitable construction on 66– but I got there in time to see stoner metal band Caltrop who were great live. Bizarre to see them playing in that New Orleans themed dive bar, but with the Corpse Fortress gone now, there are fewer DIY spaces for metal bands like that to play. You can download a free song on their Facebook page if you’d like to hear what they sound like.
Wednesday 25 April
• Preview: Christopher Porter talks about the Forward Festival [Washington CityPaper]. Check out the festival’s entire lineup here.
• CD Review: Lucero: Women & Work – Reviewed by Mark Jenkins [Washington Post]. At the 9:30 Club.
• 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].
