Category Archives: We Love Music

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We Love Music: Spineless Swine @ The Red Palace on 2/23/12 (or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Smiths”)

Photo by author.

Spineless Swine is a local cover band of The Smiths. They sound great and you should go listen to them sometime. I’ll get back to them in a bit, but first bear with me while I digress.

A mere 10 years ago, I only had in my collection the singles compilation from The Smiths. I hadn’t given them a lot of thought but I liked some of the more easily digestible songs like “Panic,” which protested the state of pop music — a sentiment everyone can embrace completely from time to time. “Panic” also had the easy pleasure that came from lifting a guitar riff from “Metal Guru” by T. Rex, and I always have been a fan of the early 70’s glam musicians like Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and Roxy Music.

It turns out that Steven Patrick Morrissey also had been a fan but he explicitly rejected the direction the musical progeny of those bands took when they went electronic and started crafting sophisticated synth arias. Rejecting music by bands such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark in substance and presentation, The Smiths then embarked on a short-lived rock journey that some (including me) say begat britpop.
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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music Field Trip: Bjork @ New York Hall of Science, 2/18/12

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes

While We Love DC typically focuses on events in the Washington, DC metro area, we sometimes make exceptions for special events that are not coming to the area. Bjork‘s performance on Saturday night at the New York Hall of Science is one of those exceptions. The concert was part of her ten-show New York residency in February and March of this year.

It is rare to be at a concert and feel that you are having a once-in-a-lifetime experience; that you’re  truly a part of something monumental. I have been to hundreds of concerts in my lifetime. I have seen Bjork perform five times now. Saturday night’s performance was among the top concerts I’ve ever experienced, and it was more than just a concert- it was a multimedia art extravaganza. It was ground-breaking in many ways, and truly unforgettable. Continue reading →

Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Dead Milkmen @ U Street Music Hall, 2/18/12

Photo courtesy of xrayspx
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courtesy of xrayspx

The Dead Milkmen, Philadelphia’s top punk export, stunned a sold-out crowd at U Street Music Hall with the nervy verve of their declarations against mainstream America along with an amazingly acute understanding of their musical niche and a nod to DC hardcore punkers Fugazi.

Rodney Anonymous and crew tore through about 30 3-minute musical selections in a show at U Street Music Hall on Saturday, Feb. 18, to a largely respectful crowd who formed perhaps the most civil mosh pit in history at the front of the stage as the show reached its halfway point. By its halfway point, the Dead Milkmen had dispensed with some of their comparatively polite standards like “Punk Rock Girl” and “Methodist Coloring Book,” which thumb their nose as social acceptance, as well as new song “Fauxhemia,” which rails gently against things people are “supposed” to like, such as NPR. These songs, while rooted firmly in the Dead Milkmen catalog, hit their targets with a bit more of a slap upside the head than a kick in the ass. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Zola Jesus @ U Street Music Hall, 2/16/12

Synth-chamber-electronic songstress Zola Jesus and her band performed to an enthusiastic crowd at U Street Music Hall Thursday night. They were supported by openers Talk Normal, a female experimental rock duo from Brooklyn who are accompanying them on much of their tour. They are in the midst of a US tour before heading over to Europe at the end of March.

This was the third time singer Nika Roza Danilova, who performs as Zola Jesus, had played in DC. Previously she has toured as on opener for acts including The XX and in Europe toured with Fever Ray. Her music is dark, moody, heavily electronic, with some piano and strings mixed in, with dramatic vocals. At times it brings to mind Massive Attack, other times Fever Ray, even hints of Kate Bush, but Danilova’s vocals are the unique element of her music. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Daily Feed, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Zola Jesus @ U Street Music Hall, 2/16/2012

photo courtesy of Zola Jesus

Goth/synthpop princess Zola Jesus will be performing her enchanting, dark tunes Thursday night at U Street Music Hall. She has toured with Fever Ray and The XX, and collaborated with M83, LA Vampires and Burial Hex, among others.  Check out her video for “Vessel,” off of her 2011 album Conatus, out on Sacred Bones Records.

Zola Jesus

U Street Music Hall

7pm/$15/All Ages

Arlington, Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with Justin Trawick

Justin Trawick is a local singer-songwriter, band frontman, and musical entrepreneur.  In addition to his exhaustive solo performance schedule he has created a series called The 9, that packages nine singer-songwriters into one show, joining their forces to create a theatrical and diverse night of entertainment. We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman sat down with Justin to talk about his endeavors.

Alexia Kauffman: So first can you tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and what is on your plate right now?

Justin Trawick: I’m a musician in the area. I’ve been doing music full-time for about four years. I live in Arlington, and I play most of my shows in the Washington, DC area, and then I go out of town, a lot of east coast shows up and down from Boston down to Georgia. And I play in a lot of cities around the country via airplane- I go to Austin and L.A. a lot. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Darkness @ 930 Club, 2/8/2012

photo by Nicole Geldart

Tight pants, long hair, moustaches, falsetto and acrobatics abounded onstage Wednesday night at the 930 club. Freddie Mercury would have felt right at home. British glam-rock extravaganza The Darkness blended sex-appeal, silliness and virtuosity into a delicious pop explosion at their sold-out show. They were joined by outrageous openers Foxy Shazam.

Cincinnati rockers Foxy Shazam took to the stage with theatricality, lead singer Eric Nally swooping on draped in a black-sequined cape. (When he removed his cape to reveal his tight black pants and cropped leather jacket, combined with his Prince Valiant haircut he somehow looked to me like what Sonny Bono might have looked like as a member of The Ramones.)  Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile @ Black Cat 2/6/2012

photos by author

At Monday night’s Black Cat show Thurston Moore  dished out jokes about Dischord house, stories about Black Flag, Jello Biafra, conspiracy theories about Jimmy Carter, credited Reagan for the birth of Hardcore, and had a gin & tonic chugging contest with his guitarist. Oh yeah, and played some amazing music too.

Moore, frontman of the iconic experimental/noise/post-punk band Sonic Youth is on tour in support of his latest solo album Demolished Thoughts, released in 2011 on Matador. He brought with him fellow Matador recording artist Kurt Vile, as well as a band on his own label, Ecstatic Peace Records – Hush Arbors, which features his touring guitarist, Keith Wood. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Grey Area

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Photo Courtesy of The Grey Area

Happenstance is what brought The Grey Area together. It was March 2010 when Jason Steinhauer (vocals/guitar) stopped by Zoo Bar for an open blues jam. Drummer Timothy Jones (TJ) was playing with a few other guys on stage at the time, so Steinhauer sat at the bar and waited for his turn to join.

It didn’t take long for Steinhauer to get in on the action though. Instead of waiting for his name to be called, Steinhauer jumped on stage as soon as the song being played was finished. From there, he grabbed the mic, looked at TJ, and said, “‘You Shook Me,’ the Zeppelin version.”  TJ smiled, kicked the beat, and started the song. That’s all it took — an indie-rock band with the ability to write pop hooks and catchy choruses was born.

Steinhauer and TJ exchanged numbers that night, forged a friendship, and started writing music with each other. After toying around with the idea of adding a bass player, the duo made their official band debut eight months later at the Canal Room in New York City. Now they’re nominated for three 2012 Washington Area Music Association awards (including Best New Artist) and are playing an album release show at Strathmore this Friday.

Steinhauer took a few minutes to share The Grey Area’s story with We Love DC in anticipation of Friday night. Here’s what he had to say. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Cass McCombs @ Ottobar, 1/21/2012

 

photo by Sandy Kim

Cass McCombs turned Baltimore’s Ottobar into a spacey dreamworld during his set Saturday night. In the midst of his US winter tour,  he played with a full backing band, including keys, bass, guitar, pedal-steel guitar and drums. Opening was Frank Fairfield, along for the duration of the tour, and Walker and Jay. 

First to the stage was the Baltimore based trio Walker and Jay. Gathered close around one microphone, with only acoustic instruments, they looked and sounded like they could have walked right out of the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. There was an upright bass, providing the backbone and rhythm for the set, a fiddle, and the lead singer switched between playing banjo and what looked like some kind of steel guitar. Their old-timey country/bluegrass/blues was both lovely and rousing, and set an intimate mood for the evening.  Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Cass McCombs @ Ottobar, 1/21/2012

photo courtesy of Cass McCombs

Cass McCombs brings soulful, mellow, dreamy rock to Baltimore’s Ottobar this Saturday night. He has received high praise from the likes of John Peel and Pitchfork Media, and has performed or toured with Cat Power, Andrew Bird, Blonde Redhead & Modest Mouse among many others.

His sixth album (and second in 2011), Humor Risk, was released in November of 2011 , to much acclaim, and landed him a cover story on Fader.

I am currently addicted to the single “Love Thine Enemy,” from Humor Risk, but I can’t find that anywhere online to share, so check out “The Same Thing” also on the new album.

Cass McCombs

Saturday, January 21, 2012, Ottobar

w/Frank Fairfield 

Walker and Jay

doors 9pm/show 9:30

$12

Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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The Ten Best Concerts In And Around DC For 2011


“The Foo Fighters” by Andrew Markowitz

Time once again to calculate and list the ten best musical performances I saw in the past year in and around Washington DC.* This ‘best of’ article is one of my favorite activities as a music writer because it embodies the very essence of why I take the time out of my increasingly busy schedule to attend so many concerts and write about them. Simply put, I am a fan of great live music and when someone or a group of someones delivers a really special performance I want to tell as many people as I can about it. There is real magic happening during a great musical performance that is unlike anything else I have ever experienced; if I manage to share just a fraction of that magic with my readers by exposing them to a band they might not otherwise have heard then my job as a music writer is done.

In the last six months, positive events in my personal life have greatly affected my ability to cover as many concerts as I’d like too with the quality of writing that I feel they deserve. Because of this I have been writing much less than usual and I predict that this trend will continue for most of 2012. I know from reader feedback and from conversations with some of the great people I’ve met at shows over the years that my writing about music has had an impact on their musical world. Knowing this enables me to walk away from music writing fulfilled.

2011 was kind of a weird year for live music. The entire year felt like an odd hang-over from 2010 (one of the greatest years of live music ever). In recent conversations I think I have been undervaluing 2011’s shows, because now as I revisit all of the sets I saw, I realize that there were plenty of great performances, they were just obscured by a lot more mediocre ones than I have seen in recent years. Once I dusted away the humdrum and the disappointing, I was left with about 35 really great sets to choose from for my top ten list this year.
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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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Top Tunes of 2011 According to The Torches

The Torches

Here at We Love DC we were asked to do a roundup of the year in some way, and so I decided to ask my bandmates in The Torches for some help picking some favorite tunes from 2011. The Torches are Stephen Guidry on vocals/banjo, Joe Barbee on accordion, harmonica and hollering, Jocelyn Frank on oboe/vocals, Tina Plottel on bass, Thomas Orgren on drums/vocals, Claire White on violin, and Alexia Kauffman (me) on cello/lap-steel guitar.

Stephen: JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound “To Love Someone (That Don’t Love You)”: technically came out as a single last year but then was released on their album this year, which I haven’t heard all of yet. Best falsetto of the year for sure.

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club: Unentitled: This is the entire album, as it’s just a bit too hard to pick out just one song from their records that I like in particular. Munly and Slim’s voices together give me similar chills to John Doe and Exene’s.

Brass Bed has an album with Feu Follett, the only indie pop/cajun split EP that I have ever heard, and although I am dear friends with the Brass Bed boys, I have to admit that my favorite track from the album is from Feu Follett, playing Brass Bed’s “Farmer Song,” probably cause it’s got accordion. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Tori Amos at D.A.R. Constitution Hall, 12/5/2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffeeonice/

all photos by "D"

Ruby-tressed siren Tori Amos brought a breathtakingly beautiful evening of music to DC’s D.A.R. Constitution Hall on Monday night. She is in the midst of a world tour in support of her latest album, Night of Hunters, released in September on Deutsche Grammophon Records. The album is described by Amos as “a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years.” For the tour she brought along the string quartet who played on the album, Apollon Musaget Quartett, from Poland.

Seeing Tori play in DC, her hometown, is always a special experience, and Monday night was no exception. The stage of Constitution Hall appeared at once both grand and intimate- set with beautiful, draping curtains, drawn to expose a backdrop that was at times illuminated to look like a sky full of twinkling stars. Above her glossy, black, Bosendorfer Grand piano hung a chandelier. First on the stage came the string quartet, and they began a musical introduction. Then Tori entered the stage to a sea of applause, and bowed, as she always does, to her fans, before taking her seat at the piano. Continue reading →

Music, The Daily Feed, We Love Music
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Tonight: Tubachristmas!

Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Beall
Tuba bus.
courtesy of Jeffrey Beall

Got plans tonight? Cancel them, and head over to the Kennedy Center for the 38th anniversary performance of TUBACHRISTMAS. 6pm. A volunteer group of tuba players (edit: and euphonium players. Whatever.) will gather and make a joyful noise unto the Millenium Stage. From past experience I can safely say you can stand or sit pretty much anywhere in the hall for good sound.

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, The Features, We Love Music
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Q&A with The War on Drugs

photo by Graham Tolbert

Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs is the brainchild of Adam Granduciel- singer, guitarist, writer, Kurt Vile-collaborator. Their first full-length album, Wagonwheel Blues was released on Secretly Canadian in 2008, and they have toured extensively since then. Over the years the band’s members have changed, but Granduciel remains front and center. Their latest LP is Slave Ambient, released on August 16th, 2011. After a short break in their US tour they are continuing for most of December, and will be making a stop at DC’s Rock & Roll Hotel on Sunday, December 4th. During the break in their busy tour schedule Adam Granduciel took a few minutes to chat with WLDC’s Alexia Kauffman. Continue reading →

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We Love Music: Puscifer @ Lisner Auditorium, 11/26/11

puscifer_desert
All images courtesy of Puscifer

Are you a Tool fan? How about A Perfect Circle? Well, I hope you skipped your chance to see their front-man Maynard James Keenan on Saturday night. Maynard brought his solo project Puscifer to the Lisner Auditorium for what was supposedly a large production – part multimedia experience, part cabaret. The entire show fell far short of the high bar he set with his other bands. The whole performance wasn’t engaging; the humor seemed to be aimed at 15-year-olds.

Maynard describes Puscifer as a “sketchpad of ideas”, which is an apt description of this collection of half-baked thoughts. This is Maynard unfiltered! I actually enjoy some of their music, for those rare moments where I could just rock out and enjoy the songs; but the entire content of the show was a waste of potential. The whole performance struck me as more sarcastic than passionate. Maynard didn’t even seem to be having a good time; it’s like the whole band were just going through the motions of performing. I go to concerts all the time and watch bands desperate to have their voices heard, desperate to connect with the audience somehow. So I found it a bit insulting for Maynard to think that the detritus of his creativity was enough to sell to us at $45 a ticket.

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: The Foo Fighters @ Verizon Center, 11/11/11


photos by Andrew Markowitz.

When We Love DC was invited to cover The Foo Fighters on Friday night at the Verizon Center I offered it up to one of our other music writers because, frankly, I just don’t listen to their music too much. I have much respect for Dave Grohl and all of the interesting projects he is responsible for, or has been a part of, but of all the music he has made The Foo Fighters is the most vanilla to me. When compared to crap on mainstream radio The Foo Fighters shine as one of the last examples of successful good rock music. But when you stack the band’s output up against Killing Joke or Nirvana, Probot or Scream; I am much more interested in all of the above. So I was content to pass this show up (even though the triple bill with Social Distortion and The Joy Formidable was intriguing). Then last minute scheduling conflicts reared their ugly head and I ended up pinch hitting this one anyway.

So I found myself sitting in a damn good seat at the Verizon Center not really knowing what to expect. The Joy Formidable, Social Distortion, and The Foo Fighters are all bands that somehow I have never seen despite my prolific live music experiences and their reputations as excellent live acts. To be quite honest, like The Foo Fighters, Social Distortion is a band that although I respect I never really listen to either. I’m much more of a DK or Black Flag man when it comes to West Coast Punk. A friend of a friend has been trying to talk me into The Joy Formidable for a couple years now and I went into the show probably the most curious about them. A few days before the show I posted on FB about the show by saying, “I’m expecting to be either seriously impressed or completely bored.”

Guess which one it was?
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Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Girl In A Coma @ DC9, 11/9/2011

photos by Aminta S. Nieves-Candamo

San Antonio rock trio Girl In A Coma played a power-charged set to a crowded DC9 Wednesday night. They are currently in the middle of their US tour in support of their latest album Exits & All The Rest, released November 1st on Blackheart Records. They were joined by punky openers Brothers of Brazil and The Coathangers. Continue reading →

Entertainment, Music, Night Life, The Features, We Love Music
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Hot Ticket: Girl In A Coma @ DC9

photo courtesy of Girl In A Coma

Get your mid-week dose of rock tonight with Girl In A Coma at DC9. This female trio of hotties from San Antonio, TX play dramatic, punk/rockabilly-tinged rock & roll. Vocalist Nina Diaz has a strong, captivating voice that has been compared to country icon Patsy Cline. The band formed when drummer Phanie Diaz and bassist Jenn Alva bonded in Junior High art class over a mutual love of The Smiths and Nirvana. In 2006, after seeing them perform at New York’s Knitting Factory Joan Jett signed the band to her label, Blackheart Records. The band’s name is a nod to The Smiths’ song “Girlfriend In A Coma,” and they even lived out their teen dream and toured opening for Morrissey in 2007. Girl In A Coma are currently on tour in support of their fourth album, Exits & All the Rest, released on November 1st on Blackheart Records. Check out their video for “Clumsy Sky” here.

Girl In A Coma
The Coathangers
Brothers of Brazil
8pm/$12
DC9