Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

What's odd it that it seems to be only the EDM scene that really tries to escape the city - the most successful go-go and indie artists are, if anything, too tied to DC.

Is it odd that the most interesting and boosterish electronic dance DJ in DC over the last year has been Bob Mould?

The DC go-go artists have seemingly given up on being national and international acts (go-go hasn't crossed over) although Chuck Brown gets flown to Japan periodically to play.

Dischord indie rockers are always playing worldwide but such gigs just never get much local press here. Q and Not U are also booked to play that big fest coming up in California over the summer(Coachatella or something). Black Eyes toured Europe awhile back.

Why did they locate it in Georgetown? You can only make so much money from selling prog to white hats from GW. Better to be on U st with a big deep house section. They never seemed to have their shit together anyways. They cheated me out of $40 once but totally inadvertantly. I had my revenge during their clearance sale I guess.

As for Q and not U, I tried to see their last show at the Black Cat and ended up waiting in line for an hour by myself. As I was waiting, the show sold out. That is all. They need to play here more often.

I always wanted to check out the Grits & Gravy dj night at Bar Nun... Years ago I saw DC rappers Opus Okuben playing with a live band at the now defunct Metro Cafe. Wow, they were great. Now they just mostly play Europe, sometimes with Ny jazz guy Steve Coleman. They were at Black Cat around New Years Eve but I missed them.

anyways, wednesday night P Brotzmann is playing with Hamid Drake and William Parker. Its at Twins on U st (btw 13th and 14th?) at 8pm.

DC 9 is in the original Asylum space, I'm not sure what it was between then and now. Half the music I've heard played there has been great indie/hip hop/disco, the other half has been too much midrange compressed guitar and singers that sound like they're in beer commercials. Which is a better hit rate than most places, but the DJs seriously can't mix or sequence their tracks.

List of EDM events is not so good. Seems like no place is doing well with regular nights and lineups are changing like crazy. And Cubik is filling the main room at Nation with the level of talent that would have played the front room at Buzz.

how long have you been in DC? what is the reason for the instability?

Is the below show which is at the Ottobar coming to DC?

Thursday March 25th
DEFINITIVE JUX PRESENTS:
Murs
The Perceptionists
(Feat. Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, DJ Fakts One)
RJD2, C Rayz Walz
Hangar 18, SA Smash and more
Doorsat 8pm/ Show at 9pm- ALL AGES

3 years! I want stuff NOW ;)

I've been complaining to friends for 2 or so years that I wish someone would book all of the Afropop and Latin acts that play for free in Central Park in NY each summer, in DC... So I'll have to form my own group to do this...

There's the once.twice festival coming up in Baltimore next month-

April 15th - 17th, 2004
Baltimore's 4th Annual
once.twice:festival of sound and video art feat.
AKUFEN . DIMBIMAN . AGF . CHRISTOPHER WILLITS .
DABRYE . SUE COSTABILE . MATTHEW DEAR .
GHISLAIN POIRIER. NAUTICAL ALMANAC.JIMMY EDGAR
MYLENA BERGERON . CAROLINE HAYEUR .
SCOTT PAGANO + more TBA

once.twice also runs the occasional Treatment night at Sonar, the last one in November featured Magda and Sammy Dee.

On a different note, any musicians (d.j.'s?) who wanna perform for free outdoors or maybe at Carter Barron or other locations during the June 18-21st 2nd annual Fete de la Musique DC should call 202-724-5614 or e-mail jose.dominguez@dc.gov . There will also be meetings at the DC Arts Commission, 410 8th St. NW , 5th Fl. on Mon. 3-15 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 and on Thurs. 3-18 from noon to 1.

I'm trying to encourage them to expand the musical horizons of this event...

Five is a great venue, nearly perfect, but the different promoters that do nights there only really book house, d+b, and reggae. There was the electroclash/breaks night there, too, but that's over and has turned into a retro night.

9:30 Club, as you mentioned, is a live music venue. They'll have the occasional DJ, but it always comes off as a bit out of place.

It costs a lot of money to run a club in DC due to the scarcity of suitable spaces. In a town with 8-foot ceilings in 95% of all buildings, there’s going to be a lot of competition for the remaining few with large open spaces. Permitting, safety codes, and accessibility standards are pretty tightly enforced, which means you have to sink a lot of money into a space before you can do anything with it. This goes for bars, dance clubs, live music clubs, and pretty much everything. And don't even get me started on ANC's and "voluntary agreements".

"After over 4 years in business, the owners of Now! Music and Fashion
have decided to close permanently, so we can move on and pursue
other opportunities. We've had a blast talking to you about music,
putting on instore performances, and participating in the local
community. But the best thing about running a record store has been
the opportunity to meet you. Many thanks to our loyal customers and
friends we've made along the way.

We will be having a going-out-of-business sale beginning this
weekend. All clothing and music (except consignments and bargain bin
stuff) will be on sale for 30% off the regular price."

So I don't think DC's gone utterly down the pan. Close, but not gone yet.

They're also stocking the Ellen Allien album and remixes, Coloma's Finery. I think I even saw that Damon Album demo double 10" there, too!

Melody on Conn. Ave. is very underrated - I always thought they were better than DCCD for keeping up with current releases and pointing customers in the right direction. Good international and classical sections, too.

I also have given them a list of stuff I'd like. They have an account with Forced Exposure, so I'll soon have the Lawrence album I've been gasping to hear for ages.

Re: Melody: While they're matchless on international, classical and jazz, their electronic section is showing conspicuous gaps since Joel, who used to buy for the electronic section left for Baltimore at the end of last year. CD Warehouse deserve to clean up!

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities invites musicians to participate in the 2nd Annual Fête de la Musique DC. The Fête is an internationally recognized music festival that marks the first days of summer. Festival dates are June 18-21, 2004 with performances throughout the afternoon and evening. The Arts Commission is sponsoring special workshops for area musicians interested in participating in the Fete and conducting live auditions for “acoustic” and “acapella” musicians and performers.

All types of musicians and bands interested in learning more can attend one of two special festival workshops. The workshops will provide valuable information on how musicians can participate and receive promotional assistance from the Arts Commission. The workshop dates are:

Dates and Times: Monday, March 15, 2004 at 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 12 Noon – 1 PM

P Place: DC Arts Commission, 410 8th Street NW, 5th floor

Please call (202) 724-5614 or send an email to jose.dominguez@dc.gov with any questions that you may have.

st ex has chimay, stella and delerium and a few more that i cant remember on draft. really nice people there. the barback, by mistake, bussed my last cigarette and matches when i went up to the bar to get another beer. when i mentioned this to the bartender, he gave me matches, a regular hooked me up with a cigarette, and a woman who was with the DJ said she was going out a cigarette run, and asked me what i wanted. i was actually confused by kindess.

My attempts to get the DC Arts Commisssion to add more indie-rock, Latin, African, go-go and hiphop to the upcoming June 20th Free Music Fete seem to have run into bureacratical walls and lack of money. Oh well, I tried.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/arts/smithsonian-folklife-festival-great-american-state-fair.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KVA.ut2R.OKrAu38Ib7ym&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Damn. The planned one month special Smithsonian Folklife Fest this summer is off. Now just a Trump fest . Smithsonian will do a few things in buildings and around the US but nothing on national mall. Grrrr

the folfklife fest seems like it has been on life support for a while anyway.

lol “900 square foot beaux arts pavilions”

maybe I’m dumb and don’t understand the great man’s organizational genius but don’t events like this take years to plan, just logistically?

X-post - yes the Folklife Fest has been on life support for a number of years ( due to a lack of funding and to National Park Service restrictions on how much of the national mall could be used) but they were promised more money this year to go big for a month on the national mall, and now that has been taken away .

If you really want to ruin a city's cultural life and civic institutions you need to be thorough.

Ordinarily I wouldn't credit a toddler with much focus or follow-through but the track record speaks for itself.

Ruint: the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the Post, the White House, the Institute of Peace, PBS, Congress, the Folklife Festival, the Supreme Court, and public service as a noble calling.

Next up: Memorial Bridge, the airports, Amtrak.

Please nobody tell him about Wolf Trap, the Zoo, or Ben's Chili Bowl.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/779769/ekko-astral-jael-holzman-peace-order-miri-tyler-threats/

Uh oh

https://wtop.com/music/2019/02/record-store-owner-early-dc-punk-producer-skip-groff-dies-at-70/

I miss Yesterday and Today Records so much. I specifically miss the ads they used to run in the City Paper.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/779769/ekko-astral-jael-holzman-peace-order-miri-tyler-threats🕸/

Uh oh

this keeps crashing my browser (google chrome)

I was having the same problem and thought it was me. But I finally got it to work

It seems to work better on my laptop than my phone.

So one member of Ekko Astral quite awhile back and blamed the singer/bassist for being a jerk. Now the drummer quit and blamed and sorta threated the singer who went to court to get a "peace order" to keep the drummer away from them. Drummer is giving up alcohol and getting therapy. There's a lot more detail in the article. It's sad as I like the group and like one of the drummer's side project where she leads her own band.

City Paper was trying to fix tech issue.

An IG post from another musician scheduled to perform at Ekko Astral’s upcoming liberation weekend with shows at Black Cat ( & elsewhere) raising some money for trans causes, addressed the sad issues from the City Paper article

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVB8ttbEZdL/?igsh=MTRxemsyeDU1djR6dA==

I see in a Chris Richards substack post that dmv producer Yoyo has put out a dc rap compilation called All Roads Lead to Rome. The producer says some of it has "free car" music and some soundcloud r& b. Apparently some of the rappers are doing a dc thing where they flow and phrase ahead of the beat.

Chris also mentioned that there's also a new dc hardcore punk comp called Future Left Behind

Chris loves hardcore punk from many eras, and that style of dc rap.

I haven't heard either album yet.

From Baltimore Banner:

Philip Glass pulled his new symphony in protest from the beleaguered Kennedy Center. Now, the acclaimed Baltimore-born composer is bringing the work home.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform the Maryland debut of Glass’ Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln,” on June 4 and June 6, 2027, at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The orchestra, which announced its next season on Tuesday, will also perform the piece on June 5, 2027, at its sister venue, the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda.

https://pitchfork.com/news/topshelf-records-drops-ekko-astral/

Pitchfork covering Topshelf Records dropping Ekko Astral after recent issues

Maybe i’m late but it seems like many Adelphi Records releases are on Apple Music now.

seems like none of the jazz releases though

Oh so just the blues, folk, etc. . Hmmm, I wonder why. Not that I know how many jazz ones they ever released.

I see that Cuneiform records that doesn't allow its stuff on Spotify , is putting out 2 cellist Janel Leppin records in late March. One is her more jazzy group Ensemble Volcanic Ash and the other one is just under her name.

oh boy, the Wammies are coming up March 28 and an email tells me the VIP tickets are sold out . The Wammies which didn't happen for 2 years are back and to nominate a musician you had to pay the Wammies $20. A number of good DC musicians decided they didn't care about the Wammies or didn't know about them and are not nominated

Their 7-9 award show will just feature 3 performances- The Blackbyrds, Kara Lavchenko, Wammies own youth choir

I haven't heard of Lavchenko but she has 5,000 IG followers

Finally posted my March dc concert calendar last night. Got behind on it as I was writing a bunch of previews for upcoming City Paper spring arts special.

You can find it at steve blogspot

The full list has multiple Ghana Independence Day events, a Don Zientara interview, 90 year old Herb Alpert, soul events at Blue Dolphin & Lamont’s, punk rock, DJs, rap, go-go, norteno, Ethiopian, Caribbean , Asian, a gospel show, blues, last night’s Tipa Tipo ( tropical yachtrock meets cumbia ) gig at Comet Ping Pong and more .

Brendan Canty isn't talking in his IG story today about the digital release of 1992 Albini recorded Fugazi demo, but his daughter Mabel June's (of Birthday Girl DC) first solo release Mumbled Songs. I saw her sing some of these indie-pop-folk songs @ Rhizome.

https://mabeljune.bandcamp.com/album/mumbled-songs

proud papa

On Thursday, the Kennedy Center filed a lawsuit against against local jazz drummer Chuck Redd in D.C. Superior Court, citing a breach of contract. The lawsuit, which states that Redd was to be paid $6,500 for the appearance, cited the following as damages: “lost goodwill with the public, wasted marketing expenses, and sunk costs preparing for a concert that did not occur.”

Redd cancelled the Christmas jazz jam appearance due to the building name change. Kennedy Center hed has threatened to sue him for a million dollars

lol

Grinnell is a fucking moron like all of them

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/06/nso-director-quits/

The head of the NSo at Kennedy Center quit ; the Kennedy Center sued a dc area jazz drummer , and a congresswoman is suing to stop the planned closure.

Grinell out at K. Center replaced by May 2024 pre-Trump facilities guy Matt Floca who stuck around and has been supervising construction and putting up Trump's name at K Ctr for Trump. Guy once worked for DC govt before joining k Ctr

sure might as well have the janitor run it

yep

Seeing reports on Facebook that dc area based drummer Robert Mousey Thompson just passed away . Thompson is best known for drumming with James Brown in Brown’s later years

In 2014 he was interviewed about those years. I think I first saw him play with his DC group in 2015 at Carter Barron and again some years later. He was still out there playing around town on ocassion. I think he was about 69 years old. Guessing it might have been a heart attack.

https://www.drummersresource.com/robert-mousey-thompson-interview/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/us/politics/kennedy-center-judge-order.html?smid=bsky-nytimes&smtyp=cur

A federal judge in Washington on Saturday ordered that Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, be allowed to participate in a planning meeting about the future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, temporarily resolving a minor standoff with President Trump.

The ruling appeared to give Ms. Beatty, an ex officio member of the center’s board of trustees, a window into the president’s goals for remaking it in his image, after dozens of performers canceled shows in protest and patrons worried about a proposed multiyear closure of the performance space....The center’s board is scheduled to meet on Monday, though Ms. Beatty argued that the purpose of the meeting had not been explained and that she had been kept out of the loop.

...Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the Federal District Court in Washington agreed that Ms. Beatty needed to receive a more thorough accounting of the meeting’s agenda and be allowed “a meaningful opportunity to lodge her dissent.” ...Ms. Beatty has also asked the court to issue a more permanent order barring Mr. Trump from closing and redeveloping the site. Judge Cooper has not yet considered that request...

In the 37-page opinion, Judge Cooper laid out a list of documents — including budgets and planning reports — that must be sent to Ms. Beatty within 24 hours, “to the extent they exist.” He added that the government’s claims in the lawsuit that no plans had been finalized, just four days before the board could meet to approve them, “borders on preposterous.”

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/781107/stand-by-me-at-40-mystery-friends-and-amythyst-kiah-city-lights-for-march-12-18/

I previewed the Sarau de Samba Brazilian music dance party for City Paper that was this afternoon at Glen Echo Park’s Ballroom back room. It was big fun. DC area based Brazilian musicians led by Pablo Regis on a 4 stringed little instrument plus a trombonist and many percussionists all sat at a rectangular table and played and sang and led the mostly Brazilian crowd in call and response and chanted old school samba songs with Portuguese lyrics. Lots of dancing go on also. There was a samba dance lesson early. About 100 people in a small room.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/781828/spring-arts-guide-2026-the-concerts-we-cant-wait-for/

In early February my Washington City Paper arts editor sent out a request for us freelancers to submit Spring arts events pitches 4 days later. I researched and checked around and sent in a bunch of ideas in many genres. As she has many writers covering rock, my rock pitches didn’t get accepted but a number of my other pitches did and I got them written. I posted my April 9 Brian Gilmore book talk on Black DC poets yesterday and today my 5 music ones are posted.

: March 25- Sweet Thang (from Backyard Band ) & Tabria (of Rare Essence) w/ a special backing band @ Sycamore & Oak ( go-go & r& b)
April 9- Yilian Cañizares (Cuban-Swiss violinist singer ) @ Library of Congress
April 14 & 15- Natalia Lafourcade @ Strathmore Music Center ( Mexican indie-folk)
May 3- Protoje @ Fillmore ( reggae)
May 13- Juan Manu @ Strathmore Mansion (Moved from El Paso to DC mariachi-influenced violinist who is part of Strathmore Artists in Residence program)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/25/concerts-dc-april/

The freelancer who does monthly concert recs for the W. Post suggests worthwhile US & UK & European punk, techno, industrial, rap & r&b but never jazz, Latin, African, Asian