Category Archives: We Love Arts

We Love Arts
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Edward Burtynsky: Oil

Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003. Chromogenic color print. Photograph © Edward Burtynsky

Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003. Chromogenic color print. Photograph © Edward Burtynsky

Thankfully for those of us in D.C. who love art, especially those with a particular fondness for photography, we have Paul Roth and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  Over the past couple of years they’ve had an amazing lineup of photography exhibits, showcasing a dream team of photographers including Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, and William Eggleston.  All known for completely different styles of photography (although it has been argued that Leibovitz is “copycatting Avedon“), there’s been a genre on display for everyone.  Continuing their record of hosting world class and historically important photography exhibits, the Corcoran opens Edward Burtynsky: Oil on Saturday.

I don’t read art magazines.  I don’t read art blogs or subscribe to their RSS feeds.  I don’t have a degree in art history and I’ve never taken a photography class.  I prefer to learn about art by experiencing it first hand, by learning about it from others, or by pure coincidence.  About a year ago I was adding movies to my Netflix queue when I came across a documentary called Manufactured Landscapes.  I had never heard of Edward Burtynsky but was enticed by the description of this film about “an examination of industrialization and globalization”, a concept that has always been interesting to me as I tend to look at things from a 10,000 foot point of view.  Needless to say that when I watched this documentary I was immediately a fan of Burtynsky’s, not necessarily for his photographic abilities, but for what he was interested in showing his audience.  Leibovitz can show you glamorous photos of Angelina Jolie with perfect lighting and makeup, but no matter how impressive they may be, you are only left with feelings of lust or admiration.  On the other hand, when you see Burtynsky’s photo of three Bangladeshi men standing barefoot in a pool of oil, you are left with feelings of wonder, with sorrow, with relief that you have a desk job.  Burtynsky’s photos are not only beautifully executed pieces of art, but they make you think and want to know more, which takes his photography to the next level.

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Entertainment, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Measure for Measure

Taffety Punk's Measure for Measure: Esther Williamson as Isabella, and Kimberly Gilbert as Angelo

Esther Williamson as Isabella, and Kimberly Gilbert as Angelo
Photo by Kristin Holodak

“Measure for Measure” could be described in simplest terms as a “he said, she said” kind of play. When fellow author Don shared his thoughts on Taffety Punk’s current production with me, it fascinated me that we had two disparate views. So why not mimic the play’s conceit and split the review?

Before we go into it, plot please? The leader of the free world gives it all up temporarily for some meditation practice, leaving a stuck-up prig in charge as a test. The prig goes to town cleaning up the junkies and whores, jailing a reprobate with a hot virgin as a sister. Virgin begs for her brother’s life, prig will give it if she sleeps with him. All hell breaks loose with the leader working the marionette strings behind the scenes.

At least, that was how my professor described it.

So here goes, our little gender joint review experiment… Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Eclipsed

Ayesha Ngaujah, Uzo Aduba and Liz Femi Wilson in "Eclipsed" at Woolly Mammoth, photo credit Stan Barouh

Ayesha Ngaujah, Uzo Aduba and Liz Femi Wilson in "Eclipsed" at Woolly Mammoth, photo credit Stan Barouh

At what point does the abominable become mundane? At what point is a woman raped so much that she can shrug it off? At what point does she become so immune to violence against herself that she can turn around and become the perpetrator, the pimp and the executioner? And at what point does our isolation and ignorance of these events make us culpable?

These are pretty hard core questions. You wouldn’t expect it to be actually enjoyable to plumb these depths. But Woolly Mammoth’s production of “Eclipsed” succeeds.

Playwright Danai Gurira is a Zimbabwean-American whose interviews with Liberian women who had fought and survived its brutal civil war provide the intense realism of the play. It’s this informed backbone that drives the action beyond the sentimentalism that can poison pieces on women in war, and director Liesl Tommy finds the humor in those ugly depths as well, avoiding any pity party.

Five very different women – three tied to a warlord’s camp, a rebel soldier, and a peace negotiator – all share a common trait. Despite the horror of their lives, they adapt with a tenacious survival instinct. Continue reading →

The Features, Tourism, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Festival Fever!

Bagpipers tuning up

Bagpipers at the Virginia Scottish Games and Festival by Corinne Whiting

Considering the headlines that dominate news pages these days, who could blame us for craving a bit of escapism? Luckily, an avalanche of September festivals offers ample excuses to wear kooky costumes or to (attempt to) speak in charming accents, to relive the past or to leap into the future. Sometimes we just need a few blocked-off streets or patches of green to catapult us out of familiar surroundings and demand we get lost in the sights, sounds and tastes of another time and place.

Some festivals draw repeat attendees who share such a passion for re-enacting and re-creating it seems more a way of life than a weekend hobby. (Some of these participants seem, sadly, to have been born into the wrong century.) Other fests prove more laid-back—a mix of cultural authenticity and comical distortion. But common denominators? The beer’s usually a-flowin’, the people watching superb.

The season kicks off September 5 and 6 with the Virginia Scottish Games and Festival in The Plains, Virginia. I first attended this lively event a few years back (having just returned from 16 months in Scotland), with expectations, in hindsight, a bit too lofty. (Yes, silly me, I thought I would actually meet some Scots and hear some of those dreamy, melodic accents.) Instead I did find some authentic culture (cuisine like tasty yet feared haggis and steaming meat pies) sprinkled with a bit of stereotype (or perhaps slightly-fudged cultural truths, like the presence of England‘s Newcastle beer) and a few unexpected oddities (a parade in which kilted Americans showcased their plaid-clad “Dogs of Scotland”). But the atmosphere carried charm all the same. I watched proud Virginians sport their family tartan, sheepherders demonstrate their craft, Highland dancers do their joyous jigs and bagpipers echo the captivating drone of their instruments up into a piercing blue sky and out into the rolling Virginia hills. It’s Scottish culture with a twist, but a highly enjoyable day in the countryside all the same.

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We Love Arts: Edgewood Mural Jam


Photos by Max Cook

As luck would have it I didn’t end up going to the beach this weekend after all, so I decided to scooter over to Edgewood with my camera to check out Saturday’s Mural Jam and I’m sure glad I did.  What is easily the summer’s biggest public art event in DC, the collaborative mural stretches hundreds of feet and showcases some amazingly talented artists.  Sponsored by the public art non-profit Albus Cavus, the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, and the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, the mural has brought people of the community together while giving the participating kids a great exercise in team building and a fun way to spend the summer.  From the DCCAH August newsletter:

This summer, through the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program, a team of energized youth have been working once a week to create a 300-foot long mural in DC’s Edgewood neighborhood. Under the direction of Albus Cavus, a DC nonprofit organization, these youth have learned how to finance a public art project, talk to the media, and create art that both reflects the neighborhood and develops strong, healthy communities.

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The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: La Bohème

La Boheme, Wolf Trap Opera 8-7-09

It’s not quite Rent, but its certainly not your grandmother’s Puccini, either. Wolf Trap Opera Company‘s one-night staging of La bohème fell somewhere inbetween classical and modern — with the occasional wink at the post-modern — with its multi-media presentation of the opera set in Brooklyn, NY. Director Kevin Newbury’s treatment of Puccini’s immensely popular work was supported by the once-again impressive cast of Filene Young Artists.

La bohème is an opera of character more so than plot — most of its action takes place in the hearts of its bohemian protagonists as they fumble through their relationships with one another. What is striking is just how easily the lyrics of the Italian libretto translates to 2009. All the qualities which, when modernised, become idiosyncratic can be easily explained away by Williamsburg hipster irony. Marcello, the artist, is painting a picture of the Red Sea? But of course. Mimi embroiders silk flowers? Totally. Their apartment is heated by a small stove? Clearly. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Night Life, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Mohamed El Hosseny

hosseny4a

Mohamed El Hosseny, courtesy of Saffron Dance

Sometimes I pinch myself, being so lucky to live here. There are many incredible opportunities available to us, it’s a bit overwhelming! You can learn about different cultures every week, sampling a bit of the world.

As I’m currently studying bellydance at Saffron Dance, I’m learning more about Middle Eastern culture, dance and music. One area I’m not familiar with at all is the tradition of male dancers. Luckily, Saffron is hosting Master Egyptian Dancer and Choreographer Mohamed El Hosseny next weekend, his first time in the US. An expert in the folkloric dances of the Suez – known as Simsimiyya – El Hosseny has been the male soloist for the Egyptian Reda Troupe and is renown for his interpretations of folk dances. I’m really intrigued to see him at their Summer Gala performance on Sunday August 16 at Marrakesh. He’ll join Saffron’s student dance companies and faculty in a night that is bound to be exhilarating. Tickets are $45 (which includes the usual four-course Moroccan feast).

If you’re a student of dance, then it’s not just the performance that will inspire you – El Hosseny is also giving three master class workshops (beginner through advanced, so no worries if you’re just starting out like me). Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Living Dead in Denmark

Living Dead in Denmark1

Zombies…so hot right now.

No, really. If there is a pop culture meme that has taken the arts and culture world by the throat in the past eighteen months, its the resurrection (puns absolutely intended) of the Zombie. The New York Times stretched, a bit hilariously, to attribute the rise of the Zombie to the recent economic climate in their review of this year’s hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Just this week it came out that the publisher of that mash-up has signed on for another, Paul is Undead, which will follow the lives of the Beatles as if they were zombies. Typically, in zombie tales small band of humans must rally against Zombie take-over in a world where civilization is crumbling around them and nothing was stable as it once was.

Enter here: “Living Dead in Denmark,” or as we called it, Hamlet and Zombies. This Rorschach Theater production, currently being performed at the Davis Theater in Georgetown, playfully remixes the Bard in a way that is both a thumbs up and a nose-thumbing. Though the play by Vietnamese American playwright Qui Nguyen was first produced in 2006, its debut production in the District is another coup for the current craze. Continue reading →

Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Wolf Trap Opera: Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria

It’s a July evening and at Wolf Trap’s colonial-era barns, Claudio Monteverdi’s 1640 opera Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (The Return of Ulysses) is being performed. Despite the historicity of the place, the opera and its performance by the Wolf Trap Opera company has a decidedly contemporary feel. Everything the modern viewer loves — romance, deceit, unmitigated anger, sex, violence, slapstick comedy and shameless sexual puns — is right there in this evocative and entertaining Ulysses.

Before the opera began, large blinking eyes stared out at the audience, projected on a backdrop of metal screens. This eerie display is soon revealed as a manifestation of a larger theme in the play. As the prologue commences, Human Frailty personified takes the stage lamenting his suffering. He lifts his hands, displaying his palms which are each marked with what looks like the Egyptian Eye of Horus. He clenches his open palm closed, as blind Love, blind Fortune and Time frolic behind him, asserting their control. Sight, and the lack thereof, perception and deception all have important roles in the work as it unfolds. Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Jim Reed, Stormchaser

A Bolt from the Gray

For city dwellers and even for suburbanites, the weather is like a hallway — we pass through it, briefly and hurriedly on our way to our destination. Weather is something that comes across out path through desktop clients and Blackberry applications, something we endure between the house and our car, or from the metro and work. Rarely do we commune with it, embrace it, experience it or even really much acknowledge it. Not so for Jim Reed, a photographer who has made an almost-20-year career out of being as close as possible and perhaps closer than is advisable to the most extreme meteorological events. Reed, promoting his 2007 book “Storm Chaser: A Photographer’s Journey,” will speak about his experiences Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Though the book’s title is an editor’s dream — titillating, straightforward, evocative — Reed admits he has shied away from the title of “Storm Chaser.” The term has been around since the mid-twentieth century, a concept that has become increasingly popular with movies such as Twister and a new rash of television series such as the Discovery Channel’s reality show bearing the title. For awhile, Reed called himself an “extreme weather photographer,” avoiding the insanity and recklessness  that “Storm Chaser” connotes. Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe: Pepe the Mail Order Monkey and Hopelessly Devoted

Photo courtesy of
‘Franciscan Monastery Candle’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Pepe The Mail Order Monkey

Mom told me that if I couldn’t think of anything nice to say I shouldn’t say anything at all.

Hopelessly Devoted

Vincent Lacey & Natalie Sullivan do a show that is – more or less – about being Catholic which runs under an hour and… well, it’s fun. That’s really pretty much it and that’s enough: this show never pretends that it’s going to dig into any weighty analysis, ask any hard questions or deliver any hard answers about faith in the modern world. Sure, there’s one somewhat serious scene about what happens when a religious conversion outlasts the relationship that prompted it but its awkwardness is packaged with an equal amount of humor. The show ends strong and on its most amusing number. In it, both performers do a delightful sendup of just how wrong an institution can go when its desire to become more modern and relevant outpace its actual ability to be hip.

A few moments don’t work well; there’s an implication that there’s some more weight in the conversion scene than is actually there but it moves on into another unconnected bit quickly enough that you won’t mind. That’s true of any of the stumbles here, most of which revolve around an audio setup that could use better balance – by the time anything irks you they’ll be on to something new. Odds are it’ll be something that will bring you a smile.

Pepe the Mail Order Monkey Musical has two more showings on the 24th and 25th at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church.
Hopelessly Devoted runs once a day through the 26th at the Goethe Institut.

Dupont Circle, Entertainment, Music, Night Life, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe Arts: The Oresteia

Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue presents The Oresteia at Church Street Theater as part of the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival

Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue presents The Oresteia at Church Street Theater as part of the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival

Though I still stand by my original thinking that one of the chief joys of Fringe is seeing theater in the raw, as it were, scrappy and imperfect in rough and ready locations – sometimes I have to admit that can hinder as well. Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue Presents The Oresteia, a funny and subversive retelling of the Aeschylus play, suffers from venue pains. Contained in the run-down Church Street Theater, it’s hindered by the confines of a proscenium stage. Despite the best efforts of a lively cast, the location really clips its wings. Chief among the venue problems is the sound quality – it’s plagued by bad miking that jars the ears and disconnects you from some truly great vocal pipes.

But, if you can get beyond that, there’s meat here. A lot of gusto in the retelling by company members Steve McWilliams (music) and Debra Buonaccorsi (direction), which takes the classic Greek tragedy pitting the old forces of matriarchal blood revenge against the new forces of patriarchal justice (or as my poker-faced drama professor called it, “the rise of the phallus”) and shakes it up with rock-n-roll, burlesque, and lots of profanity. The cast makes a valiant effort to get you in the mood upon entering, by busking cheap beer and flirting with the audience. But the theater’s not built to encourage much interaction and that’s a pity. Once the show starts the action is pretty much confined to the stage, and almost seems crammed in those confines. It erupts through in a couple of places where the gutsy singing just can’t be cramped.
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We Love Arts
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Fringe: “Freakshow” and “Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting”

show

Over the weekend I caught three shows; One was Riding the Bull, which Jenn already reviewed. The other two were Freakshow and Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting. I enjoyed both overall, but both had some issues.

Freakshow’s problems were 100% venue-related. If you haven’t partaken of a Fringe show or just haven’t been over to Fort Fringe, the Fringe powers that be have set up a large tent in the outdoor area next to the former AV Restaurant. It’s a colorful and fun space and a neat idea.

Except.

The tent also houses the bar; in fact you pass through it to enter the performance space. Like most bars, keeping the noise level consistently down below a dull roar requires divine intervention. Fringe’s direct line to the almighty is just as flawed as anyone’s, and consequently the noise spills through at random points. At several points I found myself leaning forward and straining to hear. Freakshow’s last performance is this Thursday at 6:30pm, meaning most of the 80 minute performance will overlap with the last hour of Fringe’s happy hour.

Unfortunate, because the show is worth your time. Andrew Mitakides has an intense stare that makes you instantly believe he could be the barker and head for a traveling freakshow around the turn of the century and Allyson Harkey wonderfully inhabits the armless and legless Amalia, only out of our sight briefly during the entire show. Personally I’d have had to itch my nose long before the hour and a half had passed by. Everyone else is similarly good, though poor Edward Daniels doesn’t get much to do as the feeble-minded “Pinhead” character. If the end falls down at all it’s in trying a little too hard to create some sense of closure. We come in with a situation already set, albiet in transition – I wish the playright had trusted us to walk out with the same sense of continuinty.

Bare Breasted Women Swordfighting, on the other hand, had a fine venue but I had some serious problems with the content.

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Fringe picking 101

Photo courtesy of

‘Noir City’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

I know some of our readers are regular and devoted Fringe-goers (as well as some performers). Those of you who are have no doubt already dug through the marginally painful Fringe Festival online database of shows, read every description, plotted out what you want to see and when you can see it, and come up with a schedule allowing you to fit in as many of your desired shows as possible.

This is not for you.

This is my reaching out to those of you who are sitting between “well, I’d kinda like to see what this is all about but I’m not sure…” and “huh?”

If you’re on the fence or not normally someone who takes in live performances I say this to you: Go. Take a shot. Live performance – whether it be theater, dance, or music – has a quality all its own and when it works it’s better than anything you can get recorded. The nice thing about Fringe is that, for the most part, even when it blows it’s still usually different and interesting. The fact that attending helps us keep a more vibrant local arts culture is icing on the cake.

I’ll do my best to point you at the resources to let you pick something that’s not a stinker. Let’s take a look, shall we?

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We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Barack Stars

photo by Colin Hovde
The full cast of Barack Stars
photo by Colin Hovde

Barack Stars isn’t a play or a musical – it’s almost two hours of sketch comedy that has a general but not terribly specific theme. I don’t say that as a judgment – I just want us to have our definitions in line. We can’t really talk about the script, overt or implied themes, or much of anything else we might use to rate a play. The performers aren’t really called upon to inhabit a character and make us empathize or connect with them; if anything, too much nuance is a detriment when  you’re trying to do an impression. It’s called a sketch for a reason.

So when talking about this production I’m lifting from my beloved Filmspotting (which I believe they said they lifted from someone else) and making a determination about if it’s good or not based on only one thing: Did it make me laugh?

Most definitely Continue reading →

Entertainment, Special Events, The Features, We Love Arts
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Fringe Arts: Riding the Bull

Jason McCool as GL Mitchell in "Riding the Bull," photo courtesy Riot Actors of Washington

Jason McCool as GL Mitchell in "Riding the Bull," photo courtesy Riot Actors of Washington

One of the chief joys of going to a Fringe Festival performance is the bare bones aspect. Sitting in the hot upstairs of a townhouse shell, a minimal set against peeling plaster and paint, no frills, no pyrotechnics, just actors and text battling it out for your attention. I love it. And when the acting is top-notch, there is no better joy.

“Riding the Bull” is a morality play about a rodeo clown whose naivete and greed bring about his downfall in aptly named Godsburg, Texas. Um, wait. A rodeo clown? Yes, this is a dark comedy complete with a banjo player, accents worthy of “Deadwood,” and even Elvis himself. Oh, and Jesus gets molested. Sorry. It’s Fringe, leave your squeamishness at the door!

Jason McCool is GL Mitchell, a clueless rodeo clown with an Oedipal complex a mile high and a repulsion/attraction to Lyza, played by Kate Debelack with a lusty grip on life and a habit for rearranging nativity figures into orgiastic configurations. Oh, she also can predict the winning rodeo cowboy on orgasm. All GL wants is to make his Mama happy, and all Mama wants is Elvis. The real one, who’s been hiding out in an insane asylum. Naturally. Continue reading →

Adventures, Entertainment, Food and Drink, We Love Arts, We Love Food
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Eat Like A Kid Again; A Tactile Dining Experience

Digging In

Remember when your mother used to tell you not to eat with your hands and how unnatural it felt? And now, you’re all grown up and what feels unnatural is actually eating WITH your hands. Funny how that works, eh? Well if you want to take a trip back to your childhood, minus the nagging parents trying to instill manners on you, then the Tactile Dinner Experience might be just the thing for you. As part of this years Capital Fringe Festival, inter-disciplinary theatre company, Banished Productions, is putting on a 7-course theatrical “dinner” (I use quotation marks because if you show up hungry, you’ll leave that way) to mark the 100th Anniversary of Futurism, a movement from 1920s Italy basically rejecting all things conventional or antiquated. Or something or other. I was just there to eat with my hands and act like a kid again… Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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Colors and Shapes: An Interview with Harry Potter Illustrator Mary GrandPré

Photo courtesy of
‘Harry Potter’
courtesy of ‘KitAy’

Harry Potter fans, close your eyes and think of “The Half-Blood Prince” — the sixth book in the series, the movie of which will open in just a few short days. What image do you see? What color? Chances are, the answer is an amalgum of green and yellows, with the faces of Harry and Dumbledore as imagined and drawn by the hand of Mary GrandPré, the American illustrator of the series.

While GrandPré is best known for her work on the series, she has an extensive body of work beyond the realm of Hogwarts and Horcruxes, including many children’s story books. She will be discussing her career at the Corcoran Museum on Monday, July 13 in a talk entitled “Creating Characters: An Illustrative Evening.” WeLoveDC’s Acacia O’Connor had the opportunity to chat with GrandPré about “King Harry” and what inspires her.

WeLoveDC: Tell me a little bit about the upcoming lecture and presentation.

Mary GrandPré: Well, most people know me as the Harry Potter illustrator, so I’m going to show some slides on the work I’ve done on that, and some of the work behind the scenes that people don’t see.  Also a new collection of pieces that are editorial and other works. I’ve been an illustrator for 25 years now so I have quite a variety of things to show.

So you’ve been to DC before? What were your impressions?

I really enjoyed (DC). I know it’s changed now but it seemed like it’s really efficient, it’s beautiful, good food, good art. I just thought it was a great town, I think it still is.

When you get a cover assignment – where do you begin?

I go through the manuscript at least 2 or 3 times, I read it with a fine-toothed comb. I actually have this system where I highlight characters in one color descriptions and events in another color, I’ll highlight little descriptions that are important — anything thats a clue for me to making a complete cover. Continue reading →

The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: DC Hip Hop Theater Festival

Photo courtesy of
‘Grand Analog @ The Reverb’
courtesy of ‘blurasis’

The DC Hip Hop Theater Festival (HHTF), beginning today and running until July 11, will host a plethora of events and performances that integrate hip hop and theater, and address the socio-political issues relevant to the hip-hop community.

The kick off performance, AM Radio Live Art & Performance, begins tonight at 7pm at The Library Salon.  The show pairs DJs and painters to create 7’x5′ compositions in front of the live audience. Performance goers will watch as the artists combine to create pieces from beginning concept to finished product.  This will definitely be an inspirational show, breaking down the craft to its core.  Afterwards, hit up the Open Night Party at Marvin’s and take in various DJ’s spinning hip hop music from around the globe.

Here’s a little taste of the HHTF.

YouTube Preview Image

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Music, We Love Arts
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This Week in Music: Play it Loud: The Antlers/Cotton Jones @ IOTA


DSC08369 by musicalhedonist

Love can’t buy a full room, no matter what the prophets of new media might say. Even when the gushing adoration gets issued from the fast-typing manicured fingers of a name-checking rock critic, it’s not enough to ensure that there will actually be warm-drinking bodies filling the club when the band finally walks out — at least not at Iota.

The Antlers shuffled into Iota on the last languid Thursday night, dragging the sonic fruits of an inaugural album, “Hospice,” and the slow-snowball of a slew of positive reviews and early “best in 2009” lists, stretching from Pitchfork to NPR. It’s the type of trilling whisp-heavy work, managing to build and stretch droning little pop songs into eerily depressing, slow building atmospheric foothills. The dark little missive may enchant and bewitch, but make it through the ten tracks, and a very strong chance that you probably won’t be in the state of mind known as happy.

It’s an album that plays better in the headphones than the speakers — the canvasses quaver but rarely overwhelm — but on Thursday when I sat down with front man Peter Silberman, drummer Michael Lerner and keyboard stroking effects-slathering master Darby Cicci, the trio promised that the sound would be brought.

“We try to make each song as dense and expansive as we can,” said Silberman. “I don’t always know who’s making each sound or where it’s coming from, but we try to build each song as full as we can.”

Continue reading →