Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

Like who knew Gaithersburg rapper Logic was popular enough to have the #1 selling album in the country. Not old me...

The neighborhood is changing department-- Love Nightclub, which has been closed for awhile, will become City Winery according to Washington biz journal

http://dcmusicdownload.com/2017/05/03/pearl-street-warehouse-hires-former-930-club-booker-lisa-white/

This will be in the Wharf. She was last booking bands at Gypsy Sally's. Hope this will be a clever mix of roots and Americana and not just jam bands and the same ol same ol paleface Americana acts

Meanwhile was reading on FB some folks grumbling that cutting edge rock and experimental acts all get booked in Baltimore but can't get DC gigs. Allegedly, the booker at RnR Hotel & DC9 isn't interested, and Black Cat's small room gets booked way ahead of time by others.

My fave southern soul acts don't get bookings here, and international rooted local acts seem to only get booked at Bossa. Bounce beat gogo takes place mostly down in Waldorf with a just a few Hyattsville or DC shows. Old-school go-go bands have a few DC and Md clubs (plus Crystal City Hotels) that they work.

Caribbean and Afrobeats/afropop djs seem content to just spin in the Md burbs and never are heard at Flash or U Hall.

http://www.complex.com/music/2017/05/how-dc-killed-go-go-and-why-goldlink-created-its-memorial

The article is more interesting than its misleading title. But its kinda flawed too.

Ariana Grande's drummer is DC raised Aaron Spears who is also known for his Pentecostal church gospel drumming.

http://dcist.com/2017/05/lord_protect_us_from_gentrification.php

Not really addressed in this article about the St. Elizabeth's arena that DC taxpayers are largely paying for (65 million!), is that other than for Mystics games and Wizards practices, it is likely to sit empty. I just don't see this 4,200 seater competing with the new IMP/930 owned hall Anthem in the Wharf, or with the National Harbor Hall or even DAR or the George Mason Arena or Echostage...

― curmudgeon, Thursday, May 25, 2017 8:33 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

IMP also expanding at MPP in MD--
Baltimore City paper article

http://www.citypaper.com/music/music-features/bcp-051717-feature-merriweather-20170516-story.html

Currently, Merriweather is undergoing a five-year, $55 million renovation that includes a new backstage complex, rotating stage, new concessions, a green-tiled band shell called the Chrysalis Amphitheater, and more.

hmmmm, maybe

Punk Out
Phillips after 5

July 6, 2017, 5–8:30 PM

Inspired by Germany’s punk scene, experience all things punk at the Phillips! Enjoy a silent disco featuring punk, David Bowie, and even some classical music.

$12

I need to figure out who's doing that go-go bouncebeat version of Migos "T-shirt"

It gets played on WKYS 9:30 pm to 9:50 pm Mon. to Thurs. night go-go crank session

Why did Broccoli Fest folks book '90s cover band White Ford Bronco for this weekend's Smile Fest thang at RFK?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/go-go-music-wants-go-mainstream-can/

Article wonders whether go-go bands will start touring the south. I don't think they will (maybe a few gigs here and there, but bandmembers have dayjobs and family here and are not likely to want to hop in a van for any extensive gigging without promise of sufficient payday)

Meanwhile just saw on Instagram that Rare Essence recorded a Tiny Desk gig Friday for NPR radio

http://www.mtv.com/news/3019154/go-go-forever/

Another history of go-go article but with cool old videos

http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/05/mary-timony-helium-dc-rock-guide

Mary Timony's guide to DC rock bands

Now I gotta figure out who's doing that bounce beat cover of Bruno Mars I heard on WKYS. Guess I gotta call the station. ....

Yep, the new mural at Ben's Chili Bowl ain't bad, but it turns Chuck Brown into a left-handed guitarist.

Oh, the Chuck Brown Band is playing for free at the Smithsonian Folklife Fest at 5:30pm Fri. June 30th

So Brendan Canty has another band-- Penguin, in which he plays bass, Devin Ocampo is on guitar and there's a drummer whose name I forget

http://www.fortreno.com/

Schedule is up. Shows from July 6 to the end of the month. Mondays and Thursdays. Way back when, Fort Reno used to do June and August gigs as well , but Amanda says the gigs are more meaningful if schedule is kept to just July.

TK Echo is a new band with Chris Richards, Aaron Leitko, an Orthrelm member and an Eat At It member

No Dead Monsters is hardcore band

Fort Dupont didn't start till July 30th last year. It also started in June in years past. No 2017 schedule yet. Carter Barron is closed till they raise money to rebuild the stage. Will be years.

That is a sadness. Will try to cart kiddos out to Fort Reno - for anything - just because.

If they have any Fort Dupont gigs you should consider carting the kiddos there too (if its convenient transportation-wise, music-interest-wise, etc.). Although I don't think I ever took my kid when he was young there. Just to Carter Barron and Fort Reno.

I have still never been to mostly experimental music hang Rhizome or formerly secret late night techno party at various locations Roam, or Latin music club Rio Cantina in Sterling, VA. I wanna go to Rhizome sometime (when it's less experimental) and Rio Cantina though. Techno's not my thing.

National Gallery of Art is honoring Canada's 150th anniversary with its film program July 1st through 8th, so that means on the afternoon of the 4th of July they are showing a 1965 doc on Leonard Cohen!

July 4 at 1:00
East Building Auditorium

Four classic shorts from the National Film Board of Canada begin with Norman McLaren’s legendary animation Begone Dull Care (1949, 8 minutes) and his famous pixilation Neighbours (1952, 8 minutes). Next is City of Gold (Colin Low and Wolf Koenig, 1957, 22 minutes), a groundbreaking compilation of archival and contemporary photography depicting author Pierre Berton’s childhood in Dawson City and his father’s involvement in the Klondike Gold Rush. Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. Leonard Cohen — the first documentary portrait of the famous poet and songwriter, released two years before his first album — captures Cohen’s imagination and candor during live performance and casual interaction (Don Owen and Donald Brittain, 1965, 44 minutes). (Total running time 82 minutes)

https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/calendar/film-programs/canada/cohen.html

― curmudgeon, Monday, July 3, 2017 6:31 PM (0

Hip-hop photo exhibit http://dcist.com/2017/07/global_hiphop_connections.php?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20DCist%20Daily%20Pence%20Casts%20Tie-Breaking%20Vote%20To%20Confirm%20Betsy%20DeVos%20As%20Secretary%20of%20Education&utm_content=Daily%20DCist%20Daily%20Pence%20Casts%20Tie-Breaking%20Vote%20To%20Confirm%20Betsy%20DeVos%20As%20Secretary%20of%20Education+CID_a045e18b0417e34335a78ab19eaa5238&utm_source=CM&utm_term=Magee%20McIlvaines%20Photos%20Capture%20The%20Universal%20Language%20Of%20Hip-Hop

For those near Rouse land

[/I]Clyde’s Restaurant Group will look to build on the success it's had with downtown D.C. music venue The Hamilton with a second live entertainment outlet, this one in Columbia.

The restaurant group is transforming its Tomato Palace restaurant in downtown Columbia into a yet-to-be-named venue and restaurant, according to Clyde’s President Tom Meyer. The transformation will begin immediately; Tomato Palace served its last plate of pasta Tuesday.[I]

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2017/07/05/clyde-s-to-open-another-hamilton-esque-music.html

http://www.okayplayer.com/music/april-george-vista-jane-shin-interview.html

April + Vista r'n'b

Fort Reno starts tonight (if weather cooperates) with new band TK Echo (Chris Richards, Aaron Leitko etc., mentioned above)

Someone just alerted me to this event tonight too-- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/humanitini-the-intersection-of-punk-go-go-music-in-dc-tickets-30231558405

Ron Moten, Profs Kip Lornell and Shayna Maskell and a moderator

There really wasn't and isn't much of an intersection between punk and go-go other than a few gigs

The NPS Civil War Defenses Parks (something like that...) FB page now says Fort Dupont concert series won't start till Aug. 12th, thus shortening the series to 4 events. Still no acts announced either.

I missed Fort Reno opening night last night

http://www.npr.org/event/music/535777149/rare-essence-tiny-desk-concert

Rare Essence doing a Tiny Desk

http://respect-mag.com/chazcover.html

Chaz French, rapper

http://respect-mag.com/2017/07/kelow-latesha/

This site loves some DC area rappers

If it doesn't get rained out, my brother's band No Dead Monsters is playing Fort Reno tonight

More rock here--

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20970612/the-scene-report-teething-veils-bless-nate-scheible-and-more

Liked the garage rock organ mixed with post-punk guitar of DC band Bottled Up, at Fort Reno last night. Singer didn't wow me, but the instrumentation was impressive.

In addition to tonight's Fort Reno show at 7pm, there has been one more Fort Reno gig added...
Thursday, August 3 2017

Night of 1000 Cakes
Weird Babies
Aaron Leitko
Herschel Hoover

National Park Service says they will announce Fort Dupont Park gig acts this week. Fort Dupont early evening gigs start Sat. August 12th and run on Saturdays through September 2nd.

Final Fort Reno show tonight. First Fort Dupont gig is Sat. Aug. 12th. Still no official NPS announcement for the bands for the 4 Fort Dupont gigs. Someone is tweeting though that Robbie Gordon, who played bass with Gil Scott-Heron for years, will be leading a band doing a Gil Scott-heron Tribute at Fort Dupont on the 12th. NPS says they will announce the schedule this week, so they still have a few days!

http://thevinylword.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/doowop-debacle.html?m=1

The hired sound crew take off at 5:30 because they weren't paid to stay later, and 5 groups never play. The outside promoters flee to the airport with police escort. I was there at this oldies event at Lamont's. Crazy. 1 of the promoter's was 17. His dad was a 70s lounge singer who ran ads for his album on NY tv.

Fort Dupont starts tonight. Run for Cover benefit with lots of local rock musicians is at Black Cat.

Tues. 8-15

Go-go as DC History panel 6:30 to 8pm at Woodridge Neighborhood Library, 1801 Hamlin Street Northeast Downstairs Media Room with Marcus Dowling as moderator and Panelists including: Geronimo Collins; Briana Younger; Jamal Gray; Dior Ashley Brown; .... and others to be announced

Thurs. 8-17

DC Music Download presents: Race and Music in DC panel from 6 to 8:30 at Ten Tigers Parlour, 3813 Georgia Ave. with Camille Kashaka--Director, Anacostia Arts Center; Jamal Gray--Artist and Curator, Uptown Art House/ Nag Champa DC/ WPFW; Jim Thomson--Founder, Electric Cowbell Records and Multiflora Productions; Joe Lapan--Owner, Songbyrd Music House & Record Cafe; Marcus Dowling--Creative Entrepreneur and Journalist, Decades/ Pitchfork / Bandcamp;

Moderated by Maryann Lombardi (Free but sold out; Waiting list for possible additional tickets)

Does anything know anything about The Pinch (14th St.)? I've never been there but apparently I am playing some music there on Thursday, as part of the rather ridiculously named "DC PowerPunch Festival." Incongrously, because the band I'm playing with is neither powerful nor punchy. Doing it as a favor to the festival organizers, to swell out the bill.

Been there once or twice. They do multi-act bills in the small basement (and rely on the bands to bring in a crowd). I think sometimes the doorperson will ask which group you are there to see. If it gets crowded it's not easy for the audience to see.

Thanks, curmudgeon, that's about what I thought. One of the other drummers was bitching that they have a decidedly unrealistic draw expectation for bands - getting 150 people out to Columbia Heights on a weeknight is daunting. Whatevs. If there are five bands and everybody brings their girlfriend or a few co-workers, that's a decently full room. And everyone will be buying overpriced drinks, so they'll do fine.

I don't much like that "which band are you here to see" question, but I'm already grumpy about questions of door money and draw and who brought whom.

RIP Jerry Wilder, bassist for 1970s era Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers. Per Kato H on Facebook. I think he played on "Bustin Loose."

http://m.startribune.com/washington-d-c-group-wins-first-battle-of-the-bands-at-prince-s-paisley-park/442653433/

I think Black Alley have a new guitarist. I was never that crazy about the old version of the band-- wanted to like 'em, but something seemed off in their sound. Current version wowed the judges in Minnesota

http://dcmusicdownload.com/2017/08/18/goldlink-releases-go-go-remixes-of-hit-song-crew-featuring-backyard-band-and-new-impressionz/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/music/blog/20975111/the-scene-report-jim-bennett-bottled-up-lightshow-and-more

Read on FB that King Raymond Green who was in a version of the Clovers and in Black Heat plus was a studio engineer, has died.

Here's a bio of Black Heat

http://soul51.com/?p=291