Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

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.

didnt mix, just having some fun. am going to see Ken Mcintyre of AACM fame tonight I think.

6/11 is Richie Hawtin and Magda at Cubik

here's the day-by-day linup for the once.twice festival in Baltimore...

>>>>>>>>>

avant hip-hop + twisted rhythms
THURSDAY APRIL 15TH
2549 N Howard Street
www.theottobar.com
All ages / Doors open @ 9pm / ADMISSION $10

DABRYE [ DETROIT - Ghostly International ]
GHISLAIN POIRIER [ MONTREAL - 12k / Chocolate Industries ]
JIMMY EDGAR [ DETROIT - Warp / M3rck / Audio.NL ]
NAUTICAL ALMANAC [ BALTIMORE - Heresee ]
MARC LUSSIER [ BALTIMORE ]

>>>>>>>>>

PERLON LABEL FOCUS
FRIDAY APRIL 16th
THE SUPREME IMPERIAL
223 Pearl STREET
http://www.thehush.net/supreme.htm
All ages / Doors open @ 9pm / ADMISSION $10

AKUFEN [ MONTREAL - Perlon / Force-Inc / Musique Risquee ]
DIMBIMAN aka ZIP [ BERLIN - Perlon ]
MATTHEW DEAR aka JABBERJAW [ DETROIT - Perlon / Plus8 / Ghostly ]
SOMEONE ELSE [ PHILADELPHIA - Foundsound / Musik Krause ]
BEN PARRIS dj set [ Baltimore - Once.Twice / Foundsound ]
MISKATE dj set [ PHILADELPHIA - Foundsound ]

>>>>>>>

SATURDAY APRIL 17th JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MATTIN CENTER ROSS JONES BUILDING, SDS ROOM
3400 N CHARLES ST,BALTIMORE MD
All ages / Doors open @ 8pm / ADMISSION $10

AGF [ BERLIN - Orthlorng Musork / Kitty Yo ]
+ SUE.C [ SAN FRANCISCO - Orthlorng Musork ]
CHRISTOHPER WILLITS [ SAN FRANCISCO - 12k / Fallt ]
+SCOTT PAGANO [ SAN FRANCISCO - Reline ]
MYLENA BERGERON [ MONTREAL - Oral ]
+ CAROLINE HAYEUR [ MONTREAL ]
LOADBANG [ BALTIMORE ]

I've been really pleased with the ridiculous amount of good music available to us in the last month or so. Bummed about missing TV on the Radio, but Xiu Xiu were great, and the prospect of seeing Sunburned Hand of the Man + Four Tet (again, in Baltimore, Tuesday the 20th) = more excitement. Add CocoRosie on to that, and I'll be near broke.

resident DJ's Milo & Daedau

every Friday starting tonight

at Saveur
2218 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Glover Park, DC
10ish-2ish
NO COVER CHARGE

xp Wanna bet there’s going to be “Trump Birthday” celebrations

Fri. Jan 16-

Sarah Hughes w/ Joe Lally, Jerry Busher; Quattracenta, the Owners @ Holy Frijoles in Baltimore ( jazz & post-punk & punk)

I have yet to see the few gigs that DC area jazz sax player and painter Hughes has done with Fugazi/Messthetics Lally & extra Fugazi percussionist & guy in Fidelity Jones, All Scars, Shadow Riot Jerry Busher, but I want to see them.

Ny Times is reporting that Washington National Opera is going to GW’s Lisner Auditorium, where the Opera Company apparently once was in the distant past .

I like Lisner . There was a period about 10-12 years ago where lots of African acts were booked there. I think I also saw Graham Parker & the Rumour there

it seems like the Lisner has been very fallow lately? I haven’t been there in a decade

Vocal Arts cancels the rest of its season at the KC

The Donald J Trump Memorial Wig Warehouse on the Potomac

I see that some Canadian dance company Le Patin is still scheduled to bring a blend of dance and skating to an ice rink installed on an outdoor Kennedy Center plaza from Feb 17 to Feb. 22. I guess the company decided they can't afford to cancel or move that. The K Ctr website says they're gonna have seats out there for $35 each. I wonder if people will go?

x-post - a decade or so ago George Washington U used to pay someone to coordinate booking shows at Lisner but then GW decided to save money and drop that person (and Lisner has largely sat empty). It was also easier for musicians from Africa and elsewhere to come to the US to tour then, so both local promoters and Putumayo and others did shows there back then.

I sorta knew that Lisner curator who ended up moving elsewhere

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/777992/swing-beat-what-it-means-for-local-artists-to-cancel-shows-at-the-kennedy-center/

Interesting article on how some local jazz acts haven’t cancelled at Kennedy Center because they need the $ and /or don’t want to give up the building to Trump.

i’ve gotten two donation begging emails just this month, which is very unusual considering it’s the first month of the tax year. The latest one literally says “Imagine Washington without the Trump Kennedy Center” which is an odd way of phrasing it, especially if you have been telling everyone about your record breaking fundraising. Also, I can easily imagine Washington without the Kennedy Center. Considering Grinnell is a Trump-level liar and slanderer perhaps maybe they aren’t raking in the MAGA cash?

ICE out of everywhere rally meeting in response to killing in Minnesota is happening at 6 pm in Hancock Park in DC near L’enfant Metro

That’s today Saturday

Was going to go to the National Symphony tonight until I got an email about all the security measures at the Kennedy Center because of the fucking "Oligarchs Only" red carpet premiere of "Melania: The Film Colon Movie" at the same time. Didn;t want to be bothered, made amngry, I was afraid I'd do something that would get me disappeared.

Sorry. I haven't been to Kennedy Center in a long time now. I see in NY Times, wash Post, etc. that a guy they hired two weeks ago to do programming at Kennedy Center just suddenly quit without explanation.

I talk about the Kennedy Center too much here, I know, but I don’t do social media or the Washington Post forums and classical music blogs are all ideologically “bad the Arts are a gloriously non-political refuge where right and left can put apart their differences to commune with the Muses”

I think the Washington Post classical music critic irritated some by expressing some support for those objecting to what the Trump admin has done to Kennedy Center

Meanwhile, a Washington Post freelancer's article on "dance music" clubs in DC is focused nearly entirely on techno, with just one sentence about how club Culture also books afrobeats, hiphop, and some Latin music. No mention of amapiano dance nights that also happen in dc area, or countless Latin ones. Yes, Transmission (in old rnr hotel space on h St ne) and Behrta in old BET space, are focused mainly on techno, but just call it techno dance music and don't pretend people don't dance around dc area to afrobeats, amapiano, various Latin styles, old folks hand dancing, lotsa styles at glen echo

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/01/29/dance-clubs-dc/

Curmudgeon, thank you for your service in following and documenting so many less-well-known aspects of local culture.

At the same time I chuckle a little at the idea of someone seeking out a hip new underground dance club where they heard there's interesting obscure dance music. They navigate down some barely lit stairs in an alley and they go in and it's... contra, or Appalachian clogging. Buncha hipsters in gingham bonnets.

You're welcome. That mostly just happens out at Glen Echo, but yea would be funny if it happened elsewhere. When my wife and I went to 2 DC hand dancing events last year in SE DC (Black dc version of swing dancing done to soul music) we were the only white folks there. DC Latin and African dance music events get huge crowds without needing or caring about white hipsters showing up, the same with go-go. But they don't list their events on Resident Advisor where the cool techno kids do.

Washingtonian has an article on how weird it was for NSO fans at the Kennedy Center the night Melania doc also was shown there

https://washingtonian.com/2026/01/30/kennedy-center-regulars-did-not-enjoy-the-melania-premiere/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newspack%20Newsletter%20%28778410%29&utm_source=612a4959fd&utm_source=Editorial+and+Events&utm_campaign=3f39019ee4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_01_30_04_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-3f39019ee4-403152024

Seconding the thanks, curmudgeon, for your effort to make honkies like me aware of the vast swath of music that gets ignored by the mainstream.

The Steve k blogspot February concert calendar is now posted. It has 2 tribute to Phillip Glass events with pianists at the Phillips art museum, a Fela book event, some random other book and movie events I decided to include even though they're not exactly music-focused, plus the standard go-go, Ethiopian, Rhizome weird stuff etc.

I didn't include some IMP events by 20-something acts at 930 and Atlantis that are sold out and didn't look worth investigating too much (may regret that at some point).

thanks!

also, Trump is closing the Kennedy Center apparently lol

Yes, just saw that. Starting on July 4th for 2 years of Trumpian construction! NSO and others will have to find new places to do events, and Kennedy Center Union employees may sadly be screwed.

Welp. Sad, as a certain person might say.

I am not a KenCen insider but in a previous life I did some work for Roger Stevens. He'd owned the Empire State Building and produced Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In addition to the Kennedy Center he was big in the Stevenson campaign, the DNC, the NEA, and National Book Awards. By the time I knew him his mind was not exactly there, but still.

A lot of the OG KC bigwigs, ancient megadonors, longtime ushers, etc. have died and I suspect that's for the best. I would not want them to see this.

whither Shear Madness

but seriously I was dismayed when just a few days ago Noseda said the NSO isn’t leaving the KC. Looks like the choice has been made for them! I was not going to renew my subscription next season to the NSO but now I may if they make the break permanent.