Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

The Fake Accents definitely still exist, we've just been holed up over the last two months doing a little recording. We're playing again Sunday, Jan. 8 at the Warehouse w/Get Him Eat Him and Drums vs. Jules. Also, it's not exactly a show, but we're all DJing at Galaxy Hut Jan. 25.

Sounds good.

more stuff I'm curious about: the Science club on 19th st. between L &M that Brian told me about; whether Mexican bands play regularly at Mexico Lindo in Bladensburg and how I can find out about 'em; where the Hardway Connection soul band is playing these days...

Talked with Robert from Hardway Connection. They're now playing every other Friday at Lamonts down in Pomonkey, off of Indian Head Highway, south of the Wilson Bridge in Maryland. Sometimes however they're down south as William Bell, of Stax fame, has signed them to his Atlanta label.

a band outside of the aforementioned make*up orbit [daria, i concur with your sentiments] i enjoy: the caribbean. of course, i am biased, because my photographs are on their first two full-lengths.

i went to Joes Record Paradise for the first time in ages over the holidays. their cd selection still kinda sucks but their vinyl section is better than i remembered. they still have the huge used part but are also carrying tons of all the recent vinyl reissues. bonus - Atomic Music just opened up a second store next door to them.

I have not been there in ages. Will have to remedy that I guess.

TS: baltimore joe's rec paradise vs. rockville joe's rec paradise

this has been left a bit late but...

tonight i am playing underground techno/technohouse/ketaminimal/whatever at the Reef in Adams Morgan.
1030 to close, no code or cover.

it should be fun. the monday night drink special is 1/2 price mixed drinks for ladies, and the bartender is one of the coolest in the city.

this is my first time playing out in a few months and i might be a bit rusty BUT the records will be good!

Cheers!

How'd it go?

since you asked... badly, very badly.
where do i start? i was so off technically tonight that i didn't even sound like me. maybe it was the nerves, and i must play out more to defeat them, but i think what was really wrong:

Turntables:
1. Belt-driven.
2. Set up in a hip-hop/sideways style, with the pitch adjust furthest away.
3. Screwed into place.
4. Mounted unevenly.
5. Mounted too high - I had to stand on a crate and I am 5'9".
6. Shoddy pitch adjust.
7. No torque to speak off. Simply touching the record was enough to throw it off at least two beats.
8. No strobe light.
9. Did not hold its speed even without touching, adjusting, etc.
Mixer:
1. No meters.
2. 2-band EQ.
3. Meant for scratching with no fader curve at all.
4. Faulty grounding posts.
5. The worst cue system ever. There was never any sensical relationship between the volume of the record itself, the level of gain, the level in the headphones, and the actualy output.
The Booth:
1. Small as hell, no place for records.
2. Turntables too high.
3. An earpad fell off my headphones and fell underneath the platform because nothing is sealed off.
4. No isolation at all.

Even when I was able to overcome the deficiencies of the turntable itself to get the next record in line, the combination of the uneven mounting, the lack of proper grounding, and the lack of isolation from the bass, meant that almost every record (even new ones) skipped or sounded crackly. I couldnt hold a mix because both records were randomly jumping. It was all so disorienting because my style is based upon the fact that I can hold mixes for a fair amount of time. I dont pack my bag full of minimal techno assuming that I am going to play all 10 minutes of every track unmixed.

On a positive note, my programming was really solid. I really played a nice spectrum of tracks, and paced them very well. Everyone complimented me on a job well done. They want me back. I am confused.

Maybe there are djs out there who can play just as well on the equipment I used tonight as on a pair of 1200s and a Pioneer/AllenHeath/Vestax mixer... First off, I would like to meet them, second off, I would like to know their secrets, and thirdly, well, actually I dont give a shit. I have never been, and will never be, a prima donna, regardless of the success I may or may not achieve in this field but, from now on, I only play on direct-drive turntables.

I would still love for anyone to come down to my next gig, and I will make sure to announce it ahead of time. There are only a handful of us buying the sort of records I play in all of DC...

... which reminds me. DJ Milo on Tuesdays and Saturday at Science Club around 19th and M NW is one of the surest bets in all of DC for everything from downtempo to electro to house to techno. Respect!

Tuesday and Saturdays

I forgot to mention that one of the channels on the amp was blown so only the left channel was playing. There was no "mono" button on the mixer, of course.

Lastly...
I truly, and very deeply, love the Reef. It has always been one of my favorite bars in DC. The dj booth is new, the equiptment is old, but I am sure they are totally committed to working out the bugs I described above. I honstly think that in a few months, it will be one of the best places to hear DJs in an intimate setting in all of DC.

oh the Reef, i think i've been there. they've got all those fish tanks and the nice rooftop bar?

i like that place. it's a nice mix of relaxable space and non-typical adams morgan crowd. and fishtanks are cool.

I wonder who those Wammies folks gave best DC techno/electronica to Monday night? I see they gave Esmirelda best rock! I did not even know she was still around. I thought she was lame folk-rock with 'shock'/novelty lyrics years ago. The W. Post article on this was actually pretty funny in today's paper.

what's the deal with the wammies? i have pretty much no clue what they actually are, although a dj at wmuc won one once. they seem...uh...well, who the hell actually picks the nominees/winners?

waitll the fake accents come out of seclusion to smash the earth. then we'll see who wins a damn wammy.

evidently, these were the winners. too many familiar faces again...

* ELECTRONICA
VOCALIST
Anousheh Khalili
Jen Lasher
LouLou
Rachel Panay (winner)

ARTIST/PRODUCER
Arthur Loves Plastic (winner)
Deep Dish
Fort Knox Five
Holmes Ives
Human Factor
Thievery Corporation

DJ
Bev Stanton (winner)
Bobby Jae
Charles Feelgood
Jen Lasher
Kidgusto
Rob Harris
Scott Henry
Simon
Yiannis

RECORDING
George Is On/Deep Dish
Movin' On/Kidgusto
Radio Free DC/Fort Knox Five
The Cosmic Game/ Thievery Corporation (winner)
Untie Me/Holmes Ives

http://www.wamadc.com/wama/wammies/wbal05.html#ELECTRONICA

evidently, these were the nominees/winners. too many familiar faces again...

* ELECTRONICA
VOCALIST
Anousheh Khalili
Jen Lasher
LouLou
Rachel Panay (winner)

ARTIST/PRODUCER
Arthur Loves Plastic (winner)
Deep Dish
Fort Knox Five
Holmes Ives
Human Factor
Thievery Corporation

DJ
Bev Stanton (winner)
Bobby Jae
Charles Feelgood
Jen Lasher
Kidgusto
Rob Harris
Scott Henry
Simon
Yiannis

RECORDING
George Is On/Deep Dish
Movin' On/Kidgusto
Radio Free DC/Fort Knox Five
The Cosmic Game/ Thievery Corporation (winner)
Untie Me/Holmes Ives

http://www.wamadc.com/wama/wammies/wbal05.html#ELECTRONICA

x-post

Anyone know if Chief Ike's Mambo Room still exists?

yep, very much still there

The Wammies were started by a guy who used to promote rock shows in the early and mid '70s in DC. Whomever pays them to become a member of WAMA gets to vote. Many years back I wrote a long feature for the W. City Paper ripping into the Wammies. Some guy admitted to me that he was buying memberships for people so they would vote for him! They also used to have a hardcore punk category that the Slickee Boys (not quite hardcore) won one year. Several years ago all of the nominees for WAMA artist of the year were old white males I think. Every time I think the Wammies are getting better, they do something dumb.

Bad news for those who live in radio range of WMUC, the U. of Md. 10 watt station. The excerpt is from the Baltimore Sun:

WYPR, with headquarters on Baltimore's North Charles Street, also is planning to transmit to the Washington suburbs. The station has gotten permission from the Federal Communications Commission to push aside a low-wattage student station at the University of Maryland, College Park that already occupies WYPR's signal on 88.1 FM. (Brandon and Bienstock both said they would help the college station move its signal to the Internet.)

Still, becoming Maryland's pre-eminent public-radio voice may be difficult. "It's a lofty and noble goal," said Sue Kopen Katcef, an instructor at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, "but I don't know how you're going to grow that younger 18-plus audience, the audience you need, when it isn't listening to radio, whether it's commercial or public." http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/lifestyle/bal-to.wypr22feb22,0,2542376.story?page=2

I remember when WMUC was the only station at 88.1. It was there before Johns Hopkins set up the Baltimore station. The WMUC signal used to carry farther then (in the early 80s)--to Northwest and Northeast DC, Arlington, Bowie, parts of Montgomery County...

I think WYPR is nearly all news and public affairs. As if the DC area does not have enough such stations. Ugh.

yeah thats retarded. WYPR is Baltimore's NPR station. DC already has NPR, do they not??

DC has 2 NPR stations, a C-span radio station, a commercial radio station that is all news, plus a Pacifica station that airs some news.

But the good news is that WMUC may not be dead yet. The station GM says the reporter misquoted the WYPR people and it's not a done deal(yet).

WYPR tried to buy MUC out a couple years ago, but we refused.

you can still get MUC as far as columbia heights, and rte. 29 in silver spring.

i cant imagine how WYPR, even with the FCC's permission, could force WMUC off the air. i also dont know much of anything about these regulations, i admit.

yeah, i don't know how accurate that Sun story is. there are competing interpretations of the class D license WMUC has. FCC doesn't issue those anymore, but the station's grandfathered in. one of the stipulations of the license is that the station has to approve any "interference" (their word, not mine), which this would certainly count as. WYPR claims that since the license is outmoded, they have the right to make us move.

i think that a lot of this is WYPR trying to make the impression that this is a done deal, when the real situation is far murkier. while WYPR did receive approval to redirect their signal to a degree and up its strength from 10 kw to 15.5 kw, how this is going to play out is hard to say. in any case, the FCC renewed MUC's license in 2003, and it's valid until 2010.

i also can't imagine WAMU being particularly happy about this - another NPR station to cut into their listener/contributor base.

the sun reporter just called me and i spoke with him for a little while - he's doing a followup in tomorrow's paper

whoaaaa - zack "famous" richard50n!

apparently he's not too happy about WYPR misstating the facts in the original article - although i didn't hear that from him, just others connected with the issue

Now we'll see if the correction accurately states what you told him.

Zach, did the Baltimore Sun ever run a correction?

I found this U of Md Diamondback article-
http://www.diamondbackonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/28/440437c2b42e4

Ugh, this Diamondback article is even worse--It seems to quote folks as saying what WYPR wants to do is legal...

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/24/43feddabaad83

Oh here is the Baltimore Sun follow-up article:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.radio24feb24,0,7952970.story?coll=bal-education-top

yeah it's sort of a huge mess at the moment - that WMUC alumni yahoo group is really the best place to keep up on all that jazz, it's at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wmucalumni/.

as an aside, the fake accents are playing at DCAC this saturday night for free! people can definitely afford that.

Yea, I just finally joined the Yahoo WMUC Alumni group. I am reviewing a concert the night of the planned meeting for WMUCers I see mentioned there-

"To all:

We had scheduled a reunion planning meeting for March 14 at 7pm on
campus. However, we are going use that time, instead, to focus on the
current situation for the station. Steve Gnadt, the Administration's
rep on the WMUC Appointments and Advisory Board, will be in attendance
to fill us in on what's happening and where things stand. We will, of
course, also be asking station reps to attend as well."

Re your aside--I've gotta get out and see the Accents sometime. Maybe Saturday.

What time are the Fake Accents playing? Who are the others--I have heard of "the Caribbean"...:

DUST CONGRESS PRESENTS..
A night of live music
March 4 9pm
Admission: free!

lineup:
the fake accents
the foreign press
the caribbean
the plums

That WMUC meeting March 14th at 7pm will be in
Room 1116 in the Journalism Building.

also steve, we're the first band to go on saturday, and we're only playing a half an hour or so, so minimal time committment if you can come/not a big deal if you can't.

BUT YOU MUST

Cool to hear that you guys are on first. That's good for old men like me! Actually many of the Caribbean, and African and salsa shows I have reviewed at places like the Crossroads and H2o and Zanzibar don't start till 1 a.m. or so 9ish is a piece of cake.

I will try to make it(must convince gf and friend visiting from NY to go).

Reminder: That WMUC meeting Tues. March 14th at 7pm will be in
Room 1116 in the Journalism Building.

Zach, you gotta go to the meeting at the U of Md. I can not make it.

I'm looking for DC hiphop shows, local scene etc.

WMUC 88.1 (and online)update e-mail I received:

Our next WMUC meeting will be held next Tuesday, May 2, at 7:30 in the UMTV conference room in the basement of the Tawes building.

We hope to has an update on the latest discussions with WYPR and the University over the fate of WMUC and discuss further options.

We also want to make some plans for our participation in this fall's combined WMUC 70th anniversary and the University of Maryland 150th anniversary.

Please do your best to be there. We need as much input as possible.

(Drop Sue Kopen Katcef an email at sussiekk@ aol.com and let her know if you're coming and/or can help!)

Hope to see you next Tuesday!! And don't forget to check out our WMUC Yahoo page at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wmucalumni . "

hello people i am playing techno at the science club (19th btw l and m) this thursday. they have working turntables and a great soundsystem so all mistakes will be my responsibility ;-) seriously though... i have gotten a lot of great records in the last couple months. come out and show some love to one of the only bars supporting good music! i am not sure on start time yet but i wil post it when i am.
peace and loveism

lovedose.

July 2.

Sneak Preview.

Washington DC.

Residents: Milo, Grossman.

Guest: Aaron Hedges (District of Corruption/DC/Berlin)

lovedose.
house. stripped to the bone.
bohemian caverns
11th+U St.
9pm-close
$3 all night
21+
lovedose.dc@gmail.com

The Caverns is under new management, now, right?