Tag Archives: Synthpop

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We Love Music: Yelle @ 9:30 Club — 10/11/14

About two-thirds of the way through her set, French pop siren Yelle strides up to a platform to situate herself between the two drummers comprising her band.

Performing the bright electropop song “Tohu” from her new album, Complètement fou, she picks up a disco ball and holds it in her hands before her. Laser-like lightbeams crisscrossing the stage until this point changed direction to target the ball.

The lights scatter from the disco ball. The resulting light shower rained out over the room and the audience, and everyone was dazzled.

Yelle followed up the theatrics by bouncing right into the popular “Safari Disco Club,” the title track to her second album.

Indeed, light tricks or no, the sold-out audience was consistently dazzled by Yelle when she stopped by the 9:30 Club on Saturday, Oct. 11 in a tour supporting the latest album, released last month.

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We Love Music: Erasure w/ Nina @ 9:30 Club — 9/19/14

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke (Photo by Joe Dilworth)

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke (Photo by Joe Dilworth)

Erasure danced into town over the weekend for a pair of back-to-back sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club.

Well, more accurately, vocalist Andy Bell danced into town–boogied, shuffled, two-stepped–all wild entertainment and outrageous outfits that gave an ample amount of glitz to Erasure’s glossy, high-tempo synth music. His bandmate, the legendary Vince Clarke, more often stood stoically behind his synthesizer, stepping outside his box only occasionally to strum frenetically away on his guitar during super hits like “A Little Respect.”

And the show, which I caught on Friday, Sept. 19, was full of the big hits from Erasure. They opened wisely with eternal fan-fave “Oh L’Amour,” which got the room hopping. One of several nods to the band’s fourth album with the song “Star” followed before Bell introduced material from the band’s 16th studio album, Violet Flame, released literally today in the United Kingdom.

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We Love Music: Robyn & Röyksopp @ Wolf Trap — 8/21/14

Somewhere in synthpop heaven, a match was made. Norwegian duo Royksopp would party with Swedish indie diva Robyn, and beautiful music would be made.

It happened most spectacularly on Royksopp’s 2009 album, Junior, with the disco smash “The Girl and the Robot,” which between Royksopp’s hooky synths and Robyn’s pleading voice captured a perfect crystalized moment in dancefloor history. Nominally, the song is about a woman in love with someone who may not return her affections, or at least is not as warm as she would like. The video fetishes technology and strobe lights.

And introducing the song gave Robyn a perfect opportunity to declare her raison d’etre before its performance by a happily reunited Robyn and Royksopp Thursday night at Wolf Trap.

“Love is a lot of work. Love is hard,” she said.

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We Love Music: La Roux @ 9:30 Club — 6/8/14

La Roux, Coachella 2013 -- Indio, CA

Elly Jackson, with her fair skin, fiery hair and slight frame, seems like a mythical creature who could disappear in a puff of pixie dust if you looked at her sideways.

And disappear she did for a few years while working on the second album for La Roux.

But thankfully, La Roux and her lovely soprano vocals made a welcome return to the 9:30 Club late Sunday night in a sold-out performance that included some strong new songs in addition to first-album favorites.

Jackson opened the set with new song “Let Me Down Gently,” a wonderfully lovelorn, mature recognition that love may not be going your way. Thematically, the song is a bit of a departure from most of the songs on the self-titled first La Roux album, which dealt largely with romance largely from a capacity of being unavailable, whether due to suffering heartbreak (“Bulletproof”), gaining wisdom (“I’m Not Your Toy”) or just being too awesome (“In for the Kill”).

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We Love Music: June 2014 Concert Round Up

The start of June finds the music reporters of We Love DC in far-flung quarters at the moment, as Rebecca is away at Governors Island catching up on all of the latest bands and Rachel is off actually creating new music somewhere! That leaves yours truly to present a brief concert round up for you this month.

La Roux
9:30 Club
Sunday, June 8

La Roux, aka Elly Jackson, is an act that could have been perfectly designed to appeal to me. Spunky female lead! New Romantic synths! Catchy and meaningful lyrics! Visual flair! Terrific debut album! Well, it took Ms. Jackson three attempts to finally perform at the 9:30 Club in support of the first album, so here’s to better luck seeing her this time around in support of the second La Roux album, Trouble in Paradise. Sadly, the brilliant Ben Langmaid is gone from the second record, but initial reports suggest that it too is wholly amazing.–Mickey

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We Love Music: Moogfest Pt. 3 (Asheville, NC–4/25/14)

Giorgio Moroder speaks at a panel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Giorgio Moroder speaks at a panel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Although Moogfest ran for five days, I only truly availed myself of three of them. Sunday’s program, it should be noted, did not run late into the night as did the other days.

On Friday, April 25, the big draw to the show as legendary producer Giorgo Moroder. The 74-year-old Italian synthgod is still working hard, and he was scheduled to make three appearances at Moogfest on Friday–on two panels and one performance.

Unfortunately for me, he didn’t make the panel I caught. It actually was a film and accompanying discussion. Moogfest has within in a small “film festival” as well, screening various Moog-related films around town, and Friday afternoon the Orange Peel screened Scarface. All of the songs sung by Debbie Harry or Elizabeth Daily or others in Scarface were written and produced by Moroder, and he was one of the musical arrangers as well. So the idea was to watch Scarface and then discuss the importance of the soundtrack and score to the film. We received a report, however, that Moroder wasn’t feeling well and skipped the panel in to keep up his strength for his DJ gig that night. So we’ll get back to him in a bit.

Other than Giorgio Moroder, the big draw for Friday was two performances by Kraftwerk. The German quartet put up two shows back to back at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, and they both went very well. I caught the first show, which was very good indeed. Doing so compensated somewhat for the fact that I had to miss them at the 9:30 Club two weeks earlier.

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We Love Music: Moogfest Pt. 1 (Asheville, NC–4/23/14)

Thundercat DJs the roof of the Aloft Hotel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

Thundercat DJs the roof of the Aloft Hotel (Photo courtesy Moogfest)

I’ve always said that, compared to New York, D.C. is a small, sleepy Southern city. It was interesting then last week to somewhat put my money where my mouth is, and go to Asheville, N.C., a truly small Southern city, to attend Moogfest, the annual festival dedicated to the sounds of the synthesizer, and Moog devices in particular.

For five days, the city of Asheville is anything but sleepy, however, as visitors and residents alike rise at 9 a.m. for lectures, insights, demonstrations, presentations and performances, only to stay out until 2 a.m. every night, dancing their hearts out to the likes of Flying Lotus and Dan Deacon.

For my part, I arrived on Wednesday, April 23, the first day, and journeyed to city center, the location of the Aloft Hotel, a Moogfest sponsor. The hotel hosted the Moogfest Urban Art Installation Activation, a gallery featuring 10 large-scale installations designed to enhance the experience of an audience by engaging multimedia and multi-sensory experiences of sound, structure, light and form.

I headed to the roof for an opening party DJ’ed by Thundercat, a recording artist on Brainfeeder who played at our own U Street Music Hall as recently as last Nov. 26.

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We Love Music: Kraftwerk @9:30 Club—4/4/14 (By Christine Hall)

Kraftwerk graphics (Photo by Christine Hall)

Kraftwerk graphics (Photo by Christine Hall)

(Editor’s note: Long-time Kraftwerk aficionado Christine Hall was kind enough to report on last week’s Kraftwerk concert — a very important show indeed — as yours truly was out of town.)

Robots! Space travel! The Autobahn! For those who yearn for what was once “the future,” Kraftwerk’s sold-out, two-show, 3D spectacular at the 9:30 Club on Friday, April 4, was wondrous.

The best part was the man in the machine.

The artistic concept is impressive: four man-machines in matching neoprene uniform-jumpsuits (in an irregular, phosphorescent grid), expressionless and stationary before (luminescent-trimmed) cuboid synthesizers, making robot-music, accompanied by retro-3D animation (and some black-and-white film sequences).

Versions or elements of the show were previously presented at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, London’s Tate Modern and Munich’s Lenbachhaus. Visually, the 3D animation, ca. 1980s/early CGI, is thrilling to behold (through good old-fashioned 3D glasses), especially when a flying saucer bears down on you with unsettling urgency (see: Spacelab) or a giant man-machine head peers around and speaks at you rather eerily.

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The Winning Ticket: Moogfest @ Asheville, NC, 4/23-4/27/14

Moogfest_1_29_7
We at We Love DC are no stranger to ticket giveaways! But today we have a very unique opportunity with a pair of general admission tickets to a respected music festival that takes place not too far away from our fair city.

We are giving away a pair of tickets to Moogfest in Asheville, NC, on Wednesday, April 23 through Sunday, April 27.

Moogfest 2014 celebrates the synthesizer, and the slate of headliners scheduled to appear this year cross genres and boundaries as groundbreaking artists. The five-day festival features three performances by German pioneers Kraftwerk as well as a dance party featuring disco legend Nile Rodgers and his band CHIC.

You may recall Rodgers recently collaborated with Daft Punk on their Grammy-winning album, Random Access Memories, as did Giorgio Moroder, who will be on hand as a DJ and a guest lecturer. Performance artist Laurie Anderson will present her solo show, “The Language of the Future.”

In addition to these strong headliners and dozens upon dozens of other bands, Moogfest only yesterday announced the addition of the Pet Shop Boys, M.I.A., Flying Lotus and Dillon Francis to the lineup!

Asheville, where synth inventor Bob Moog spent the last 30 years of his life, has been home to Moogfest since 2010. The pleasantly idyllic metropolis hosts Moogfest across a number of venues, including The Orange Peel, one of the most famous concert venues in the country. If you’re up for a road trip, Asheville is an easy seven-hour drive from DC.

For your chance to win these tickets, simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 5pm today. Feel free to leave any comment, but perhaps tell us what Moogfest artist you would most like to see! One entry per email address, please. Tickets for this show are also available through Ticketmaster.

For the rules of this giveaway…

Comments will be closed at 5pm and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified by email. The winner must respond to our email within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets and we will pick another winner.

The tickets must be claimed with a valid ID. The winner must be old enough to attend the specific concert or must have a parent’s permission to enter if he/she is under 18 years old.

Moogfest
U.S. Cellular Center Asheville
Asheville, NC
Wednesday, April 23, to Sunday, April 27
$199-$499
All ages

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Hot Ticket: 80s Dance Party@Black Whiskey, 11/16/13

80sdanceparty

It’s been pretty darn cold these past few days but DC is expected to warm up considerably this weekend! What better way to celebrate the warmth than to get out and dance?

And if you want to get out and dance, you might as well go for the gold and dance to some good synthpop. And that just happens be the theme of this month’s 80s Dance Party @ Black Whiskey, which this month presents Secret Circuits, a new recurring theme night.

The affable and capable DJ Neal Keller and I were once brainstorming after he was no longer hosting events in Adams Morgan. We hatched a concept for another dance party that he could spin somewhere–and to differentiate it from the pack of other 80s parties, we thought to focus it specifically on bands like OMD, Ultravox, Erasure, Soft Cell, Heaven 17, New Order, Yazoo, the Eurythmics and others!

To my delight, Neal (aka The Angel) has run with the idea, and he has recruited an extremely knowledgeable guest to assist in the form of DJ Bill Mallison, who hosted his own Kids in America party for a few years not too long ago. Monsieur Mallison is the master of pinpointing electronic and new wave music, breaking out everything from Book of Love to Tones on Tail. And I’m going to attempt to put up a video playlist at the Secret Circuits Tumblr to make the party interactive. (This is a *video* dance party after all!)

See you there!

80s Dance Party: Secret Circuits
Black Whiskey
Saturday, Nov. 16
doors @9pm
$5
21+

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Hot Ticket: Sparks @ 9:30 Club, 10/27/13

sparks

I caught Sparks in two very different shows back in April. I hit up their sold-out performance at Hollywood Forever, a masonic mausoleum in Los Angeles, where Ron and Russell Mael did a full-length show but alone with Ron on keyboards and Russell on vocals.

It was slightly amazing to see them in such an intimate venue with people who were truly fans. I got caught up on some of their recent work like the addictively catchy “The Rhythm Thief” from Lil’ Beethoven. Well, I say recent although that album is now 10 years old. I went to the show exclusively to hear selections like “The Number One Song in Heaven,” which also did not disappoint.

I next saw them at The Coachella Valley Music Festival, where some people really loved them, some people were puzzled and some were just hanging out.

When Sparks play at the 9:30 Club this Sunday, Oct. 27, I suspect you’ll find more of the people who really love them, as this is a rare area performance by the synthpop duo. They play more in Europe, where they are much more popular, and in Los Angeles, their hometown.

In advance of the show, the 9:30 Club interviewed them for its blog, and it sounds like the gents have a good show planned for Thursday. And that they are working on material beyond their recent effort to score an independent film in development, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman.

This is a rare opportunity to catch Sparks locally as they play an early show at the 9:30 Club! Come out and beat the clock! :)

Sparks
9:30 Club
Sunday, Oct. 27
Doors @6pm
$25
All ages

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Hot Ticket: Gary Numan @ Black Cat, 10/27/13

Gary-Numan-2

Gary Numan has come a long way since he hit number one on the UK charts with “Are Friends Electric” in 1979. He’s hit some highs and lows in that time, and he recently immigrated from England to Los Angeles.

It’s interesting how much music has changed during that time. At the start of his career, Numan received criticism for seeking success—15 years later glory-seeking was an actual characteristic of Britpop bands. In that time, Numan changed his sound quite a bit, traversing from synthpop auteur to gothic acoustic. In recent years, he’s come back around a bit, re-embraced his synth, and still sounds like he’s light-years ahead of the pack.

Numan has a new album, Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind), released Oct. 14, and he comes to the Black Cat Sunday to tour it. The new album continues a trend of gloomy self-examination but frankly he remains one of the most intriguing artists in any genre.

Numan last came to the Black Cat almost exactly three years ago, and sold-out a highly anticipated display for the 30th anniversary of his album, The Pleasure Principle, which featured his most globally famous song, “Cars.” His recent set lists suggest he hasn’t forgotten that world tour was pretty good for everyone, so this is a great opportunity to catch him explore songs old and new. Don’t miss out!

Gary Numan
w/ The Color Film
Black Cat
Sunday, Oct. 27
Doors @8pm
$25 advance/$30 doors
All ages

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We Love Music: Technophobia @ Black Cat — 8/17/13

Denman Anderson of Technophobia (Photo courtesy of the band)

Denman Anderson of Technophobia (Photo courtesy of the band)

Dark wavers Technophobia held their first show at the Black Cat on Saturday night, playing a polished set of fully realized synthpop tunes that may be considered a new standard for orchestrating a debut.

The band played seven songs, only one of which has been posted publicly to date (“Waltz Demise”), but each of them reflected a high degree of sophistication in songcraft that the band could have released any of them as an initial splash. In an interview with We Love DC before the show, Stephen Petix said the band wanted to avoid working out the kinks in their performance on stage or on the road. By that measure, their premiere show was a smashing success.

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Hot Ticket: Technophobia @ Black Cat, 8/17/13

Stephen, Katie and Denman of Technophobia (Photo courtesy of the band)

Stephen, Katie and Denman of Technophobia (Photo courtesy of the band)

Stephen Petix is no stranger to being in bands. But his new band might be something pretty special indeed. Joining his wife Katie on synthesizers and long-time friend and collaborator Denman Anderson on vocals, Steve and his cohorts are set to launch Technophobia with a debut show at the Black Cat this Saturday, Aug. 17. We Love DC caught up with him to chat about the new band, spinning big DJ parties, and how his future might sound an awful lot like his past!

Mickey: How did your first song “Waltz Demise” come about? To me, it’s a refreshing sound for DC, which I always feel has been low on synthpop bands. [Download Waltz Demise for free.]

Stephen Petix: I appreciate that, and I agree that historically DC has not had much of a synth scene, but it seems that it is turning around a bit. “Waltz Demise,” while being the first song that we have released, is actually the 15th I have written for this project. We decided to record it first because we thought it was a good introduction to our sounds and a good overall representation of what Technophobia is all about. During the songwriting process, if a song is a struggle or does not seem to be cohesive with everyone’s input, then I re-work it or move on. Consequently we have scrapped many songs and only kept the ones we feel strongly about. Most bands go through this publicly, but I didn’t want to unveil this project to world until I felt it was ready. “Waltz Demise” came together very organically and without complication. Denman’s lyrics really hit the mark, and captured the feel and mood of the music.

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We Love Music: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark @ 9:30 Club — 7/13/13

OMD -Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark- @ CORONA CAPITAL 2011 monophonic.grrrl

If you are head over heals in love with a woman, and you don’t know what to say to her, you might take your cue from Andy McCluskey, a bouncy dynamo of a man at age 54, when he sings “Sailing on the Seven Seas”:

Because I’m so in awe of you/That I don’t know what to do/And I’m sailing on the seven seas so blue

If you wish she were closer, and you still don’t know what to say, Paul Humphreys, a vibrant virtuoso of the keyboards, might have some words he could lend you from “(Forever) Live and Die”:

I never know, I never know why/You make me wanna cry

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Hot Ticket: OMD w/ Diamond Rings @ 9:30 Club, 7/13/13

Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (Photo courtesy Big Hassle)

Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey (Photo courtesy Big Hassle)

For my money, one of the top five acts at the Coachella Valley Music Festival this past April was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or OMD. The synthpop band was in top form, performing fresh with the release of its latest album, English Electric. This new album is a little more mellow than the jaunty History of Modern, released in 2010 after the reformation of the classic OMD lineup of vocalist and guitarist Andy McCluskey, keyboardist Paul Humphreys, drummer Malcolm Holmes and keyboardist Martin Cooper.

OMD return to the 9:30 Club to promote their new album on Saturday, July 13. With English Electric, OMD have gone straight back to their love of Kraftwerk, paying homage to the German electronic pioneers in particular on their song “Metroland,” which clearly has influences of Kraftwerk’s “Endless Europe.” The new single “Dresden” recalls some of the very best of OMD’s work like “Enola Gay” and “Joan of Arc.”

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We Love Music: Howard Jones @ The Howard Theatre — 7/5/12 (or “Howard at The Howard”)

Photo courtesy of zannaland
IMG_0139
courtesy of zannaland

Once upon a time, Howard Jones rolled through the DC metro area and played some of his familiar hits.

It was Oct. 3, 2007, actually. He performed at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., and it was frankly not the greatest show I ever had seen. The famously camera-shy Englishman played acoustic piano, strumming keys to lyrics he had written some 20 years previously, only to stop frequently and poke fun at his own songwriting abilities and the occasional curious rhyme. He had become Howard Jones, The Lounge Act. All in all, it was a bit of a disheartening experience.

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Hot Ticket: Howard Jones @ The Howard Theatre, 7/5/12

Photo courtesy of zannaland
IMG_0157
courtesy of zannaland

Howard Jones, English maestro of catchy synthpop songs, found a home on the American charts in the 1980s, particularly with this hit “No One Is to Blame” in 1985. He is perhaps still best recognized for his first two albums, Human’s Lib and Dream into Action, which showcases Jones’ distinctive and friendly voice. Jones remastered those first two albums and toured on them in 2010 in England. With the warm reaction to the performance, which sees Jones return to a full electronic set, he took the tour on the road in the last few years and lands at The Howard Theatre today.

Jones was one of a certain kind of male singer-songwriter to come out of his generation, reflecting on love, life and loss in a manner similar to adult contemporary masters like Phil Collins and Robert Palmer. But unlike his peers, Jones served as the poet-philosopher for the New Wave crowd particularly, driving eclectic dancehall kids to embrace an occasionally more mature lyric. Jones’ return to the synthesizer is bound to provoke memories of how effortlessly he embodies both carefree dance and thoughtful reflection in his tunes.

Tickets to this all-ages show are available online for $30 plus fees or $35 at the door. Doors open at 6pm; showtime is 8pm.

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Q&A with Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

omd1
all photos courtesy of The Musebox.

When it turned out that I would be unavailable to conduct this interview myself, the first person who came to my mind as the perfect pinch hitter for the gig was Mickey McCarter. By day, Mickey is a professional journalist, covering homeland security and military affairs for Homeland Security Today and Fox News. On nights and weekends, he is one of DC’s foremost experts on the New Wave and synthpop genres.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, founded by UK songwriters Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, led a synthpop revolution from the ‘80s through today in the United Kingdom, consistently charting in the UK top 30 with each of their 11 studio albums, including their very latest History of Modern. McCluskey alone kept the band’s name alive throughout the ‘90s until he and Paul Humphreys reunited for a successful return-to-form last year.

Now the band returns to the United States for the first time in more than 20 years, playing the 9:30 Club on Thursday, March 10. We Love DC caught up with synthpop virtuoso McCluskey recently to talk about Pretty in Pink, the new generation of synthpop musicians, and the sound of the future.

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