the new D.C. Go-Go thread

i can't figure out this site: http://www.gogolive.com/ does it do anything? maybe it's my browser.

http://www.thatgogo.com/

video for "ride out," too.

tmottgogo.com

Go-go shows happen nearly every night in DC or Maryland, but only the ones involving post-show violence ever get any press. Sadly, there are too many such incidents (and too many killings in poor DC and Maryland neighborhoods period, whether or not they occurred in relation to a go-go show).

It seems like police are getting a lot more active in pulling licenses for clubs with recurring violence, we'll see if that ends up impacting the scene over the long term. I guess at this point it's so decentralized that even if one of the more prominent venues (Club U) gets shut down, there are enough other venues to absorb the crowds. It's been pretty encouraging that most of the police and community action against clubs has been a lot less about go-go itself (as it seemed to be a couple of years ago) and more about the actual violence.

Some stuff the P.A. Palace is selling:

* 06-26-05 MOB at Culture Club
* 06-10-05 3DB at Mad Chef
* 05-27-05 MOB at Culture Club featuring Ms New York
* 05-14-05 Suttle Thoughts @ Classics with Rah Rah of What/NEG
* 05-12-05 Suttle Thoughts @Safari Steakhouse with Rah
* 05-06-05 M.O.B. @ Wakefield Comm. Ctr
* 04-30-05 YBI
* 03-02-05 **unreleased** Backyard @ Tradewinds

Rare Essence-10/05/04 Tradewinds PLAYLIST: The sweetest thing, percusion break, work the walls, pieces of me, headsprung, thoia thong dip it low, slow motion, yes , come on (click here for an audio sample)

http://www.tmottgogo.com/wtgo.html

event/show flyers here, and they used to/still(?) had an up-to-date listing of go-go shows night by night

washingtoncitypaper.com also has listings

Sarah Godfrey had an article on those tv commercials for the DC lottery and for the Washington Post that Chuck Brown has been appearing in. He's got a new cd coming out soon. I am not sure if the article is available online.

pgc was playing a live rare essence show the other day, they did a version of that awful black eyed peas song & somehow, it was no longer bad. at the corner of 7th and florida there's a shop selling phones and go-go cds that pretty much blasts go-go music all day long.

so with all the cover versioning and such, does modern go-go = hiphop jam bands?

Anyone know where I can get hold of modern Go-Go stuff?

No. Go-go groups have been covering hiphop songs since rap's inception. Chuck Brown basically started go-go by stretching out top 40 hits back in the pre-rap day.

modern go-go: http://www.papalace.com/

"P.A. Palace-your one-stop show for all your musical needs including rap,hip hop, reggae, chop n screwed, gospel, and of course go go music. We are located in Forestville Mall and Iverson Mall."

I suppose I could rapidshare this Backyard Band thing..(or would a mod frown at that)

"Thanks for those website links, but the amount of stuff is pretty overwhelming (if there are gigs every night, how do you choose which P.A.-rip to buy?). I'd rather make an informed decision if I'm going to pay for postage all the way to the UK -- has anyone heard anything from the past year that they can recommend? "
-- sean gramophone (sea...), July 5th, 2005.

I have just been listening on ocassion to whatever I hear on the radio lately, and have not been buying cds of any particular show. So much for helping anyone make an informed decision.

Ha and likewise if you wanna keep taking what I said too seriously then good luck with that. I don't know what I meant by hiphop jam band either, I probably meant "hiphop + jam band". In any case I was spitting verbal diarrhea.

Jordan, I'll see about upping it later tonight.

http://dcbrand99.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/go-go-the-giver-and-the-gift/

a state of go-go piece

https://soundcloud.com/dj-dyn-o-might/adorn-go-go-remix

Go-Go remix of "Adorn"

― some dude, Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:59 AM

nice

http://www.examiner.com/article/backyard-band-wins-band-of-the-year-at-viewer-s-choice-awards

RIP Leroy Fleming, sax player from Chuck Brown's Soul Searchers.

http://www.gogocentral.com/forum/index.php?/topic/278756-who-will-be-the-best-bounce-beat-band-of-2013/

i miss my go-go

No Ethiopian equivalent I guess

not really

Saw the reunited Static Disruptors at the 930 Club a little while back. Fun (I think it was a onetime deal though. Nice City Paper article about them also)

Have not been following this, but maybe I should

http://future-go-go.tumblr.com/

http://wpgc.cbslocal.com/2013/04/30/selena-gomez-goes-gogo-in-new-single/

whoa

Isn't that something

Couldn't find too much of interest last night on the P.A. Palace forum; I guess go-go fans young and old are communicating elsewhere. Although it's not the most user friendly site.

photographer and videographer Chip Py keeps posting nice clips of live shows by grown n sexy go-go bands like Familiar Faces and Be'la Dona on the TMOTTgo-go Facebook page.

http://www.dcgogoparadise.com/

they sell live tapes of shows listed below:

http://gogobeat.com/WeeklyGigs

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44299/drums-along-the-potomac-may-20-at-the-kennedy-center

Also free in NYC for 2 shows Thrsday night May 16th (tonight)

Now Tate’s biting off even more: Together with his expanded Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber, he’s teamed up with go-go and jazz pianist Marc Cary, the D.C.-raised poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, go-go vocalist Donnell Floyd, and percussionists Go-Go Mickey and Kenny “Kwick” Gross to form “The Upper Anacostia ~ Lower Gold Coast Symphonic.” Count on their concert, called “Drums Along the Potomac: A Global Go-Go Fantasia,” to bust loose with a challenging blend of polyrhythms, melodic vocals, and bleating horns

― curmudgeon, Thursday, May 16, 2013 3:17 PM (5 minutes ago) Book

2 lengthy go-go articles out today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/chuck-brown-godfather-of-go-go-missed-by-family-and-fans-one-year-after-death/2013/05/15/9e144a62-bcaa-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/go-go-bands-make-their-way-back-into-city-but-dcs-music-is-still-a-neglected-treasure/2013/05/15/71c0e67a-bcad-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/05/17/chuck-brown-fans-friends-assemble-for-joyous-tribute-at-howard-theatre/

A fun tribute event (a year after his death)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/44780/crank-groove-a-go-go-love-story-sept-1314-at

this could be fun

And it was--Playwright Nina Mercer was once a dancer with EU and her Dad worked for TTED Records, Black Picasso had a great story about trying to go from uncool to cool by playing a horn; C. Bacon related how he first got into go-go; Natalie Hopkinson told a touching tale about the beat ya feet dance and go-go at a Hot Shoppes; and more. Oh, the 2 beat ya feet dancers were great as was band Be'la Dona.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/15/go-go-back-to-the-1980s-with-washington-dc-rap-legends-trouble-funk-3543081/

Wonder if any Brits here saw them earlier this year at their UK gigs?

Totally missed that they were here until it had happened - they played a venue that's off my radar (Islington Assembly Hall) so I didn't see it mentioned any of the usual places I find out about gigs. I would have loved to have gone.

Too bad. Maybe they'll be back soon

http://www.tmottgogo.com/rest-in-paradise-go-go-legend-melvin-butch-lewis-phenomenal-drummer/

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, October 8, 2013 5:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Posted this on the Capital Swamp thread but will post it here too. He played with EU and with Little Bennie. He died at his dayjob hospital job from faulty machinery leaking Freon. Very sad.

http://passionweiss.com/2013/11/07/passion-of-the-weiss-fall-mix-4-harold-stallworths-go-go-fall-collection/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/11/12/listen-on-4g-mambo-sauce-vents-about-the-state-of-go-go/

Go-go is actually getting shut down in PG County too (and returning to certain DC locations)

A lot of his/their criticism makes sense. However Mambo Sauce disappeared the last few years. Wonder who's in the group now?

RIP Ricky Wellman, drummer extraordinaire

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/reggie-polo-burwell-of-dc-go-go-group-tcb-dies-at-the-age-of-42/2013/11/26/69550e1c-56e0-11e3-835d-e7173847c7cc_story.html

fuck

Yep, in a coma for 2 years after a brain hemmorage(sp?). Sad.

Bounce beat bands can't seem to get gigs anywhere but Ikon in Waldorf, Maryland these days

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/tre-former-go-go-star-and-current-wale-sideman-plots-his-next-musical-move/2013/11/28/aa45af2a-5777-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html

Tre, songwriter from UCB on writing for Wale and recording his own stuff and what's next

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/12/02/remembering-the-great-d-c-drummer-ricky-sugarfoot-wellman/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/12/05/the-king-of-bounce-beat-how-polo-brought-go-go-into-the-21st-century/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/12/10/hop-hop-and-step-step-doing-the-chocolate-city-shuffle/

Noticed via some twitter research that there was a big bouncebeat show scheduled at Ibiza back in November, most bouncebeat has been pushed south down to Waldorf, MD. A couple bouncebeat post-Xmas shows are scheduled down there.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/go-go_swing_fantastic_late-80s_documentary_about_washington_d.c.s_funk

It's pretty good. Watched a little bit of it early this morning.

Wonder what happened at that PG County meeting yesterday re the dancing license rules that are restricting go-go events in the county?

Local NBC 4 tv news coverage suggests that the county politicians and the police are happy with the CB-18 law, no matter the views of go-go band members and fans

Lloyd Pinchback played sax, flute, & cowbell with Chuck Brown’s Soul Searchers. First sat in with Chuck Brown on a gig that still happened in SE DC on the day MLK was killed in 68. He wrote Soul Searchers song “Ashley’s Roachclip “ that had a drum break sampled on many rap records . Here’s my obituary for him

https://thedcline.org/2020/02/22/the-cowbell-king-memorial-service-saturday-to-celebrate-the-life-of-lloyd-pinchback-who-played-with-chuck-brown/

Nice piece, RIP

Been listening to Go-Go Crankin': Paint the White House Black, and I wondered if Robert Palmer might've covered Go-Go while he was the critic for the NY Times, and sure enough he did, in an article published June 9, 1985. The heart of it is this primer, pretty much what you'd expect from Palmer given his expertise in musicology:

Go-Go's musical roots are in the Progressive Funk of the late 60's - Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, George Clinton, Jimi Hendrix. All the leading Go- Go bands were originally black show bands that kept local audiences entertained with their versions of the latest national hits. But some time during the 70's, when the black pop mainstream evolved in the direction of a slicker sound, with sophisticated production values, strings and, later, synthesizers and drum machines, the Washington bands developed at a tangent.

They rejected the slickness of sweet soul and the new synthesizer technology, preferring to rely on tried and true instruments - guitar-bass-drums, percussion, organ or electric piano, saxophones and brass. And they developed their own distinctive body of rhythmic usages, taking a cue from the street rhythms that Washington kids were banging out on tin cans, pots and pans, empty bottles and beat-up conga and bongo drums.

The British writer David Toop notes that in Go-Go, ''The commitment to live performance is total'' and ''the idea of human endurance is sacrosanct.'' Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers are credited with being the first of the bands to begin keeping the beat going for up to several hours at a stretch, with a single tune lasting 30 or 45 minutes. This approach puts an incredible strain on drummers, and first Mr. Brown's group, then the massively powerful Trouble Funk and various newer aggregations expanded their percussion sections. The typical Go-Go band now includes several percussionists in addition to the drummer, playing conga drums, cowbells, timbales, and roto-toms; the latter instruments, tom-toms that change their pitch when they are rotated after being struck, are a key ingredient in the Go-Go sound.

In earlier funk bands, percussion instruments functioned as seasoning or coloring. In Go-Go, a polyrhythmic dialogue of loping percussion patterns is pushed to the front of the mix, along with heavy bass and the bass drum's insistent syncopation. The guitars, keyboards, horn sections, and call-and- response vocals often seem to be an accompaniment to these emphatic percussion patterns.

The rhythm patterns themselves are unique. They give Go-Go a pronounced tropical lilt; the closest parallels would be the ''junkanoo'' street percussion that traditionally served as carnival music in New Orleans, Miami, Key West and other Southern port cities. There is an evident Afro-Caribbean influence at work here. And another parallel may be worth examining. Like New Orleans, Washington has had a long history of brass bands and parades; the blaring brass riffs that decorate Go-Go records clearly have marching band antecedents. Go-Go rhythms may have developed partly from the spontaneous cross-rhythms played on homemade instruments by neighborhood youngsters following in the wake of parading bands, like the ''second line'' street percussion of New Orleans.

Each of the bands that contributed to the ''Go-Go Crankin' '' album has developed its own style within the music's basic parameters. Trouble Funk is notable for its particularly dense and sophisticated polyrhythms, and for sheer muscle. Most of the songs on the record are basic party-time chants, but Mass Extension's ''Happy Feet'' and the captivating ''Movin' and Groovin' '' by Redds and the Boys have the sort of sing-along ''hooks'' that Go-Go will need if it is going to compete in the pop marketplace. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers are the music's elder statesmen and among its more sophisticated musicians; Mr. Brown's songs and arrangements quote from jazz sources like Horace Silver's ''Filthy McNasty'' and King Pleasure's ''Moody's Mood for Love,'' with a few themes from popular television shows thrown in for good measure.

The most impressive 4th and Broadway/T.T.E.D. 12-inch single so far is ''E.U. Freeze'' by the group E.U. (Experience Unlimited). ''Freeze'' songs usually consist of slangy instructions for doing the latest dance steps and are distinguished by periodic breaks when the music stops, pauses, then cranks up again. The first ''freeze'' hit was also one of the very first black dance records and the direct progenitor of the original boogie-woogie craze - ''Pinetop's Boogie- Woogie'' by the pianist Pinetop Smith, released in 1928. ''E.U. Freeze'' plays audacious games with the discontinuity inherent in the stop-and-go format; the percussion jam is periodically interrupted by everything from a wailing electric guitar solo to a comical ''Shortnin' Bread'' fanfare from the brass. If Go-Go can continue to forge such personal visions from black dance traditions, its future should be bright indeed.

Hadn't thought about this being a scene that continued beyond the era I was interested in. Which would be late 70s to mid 80s. I think after which I was hearing Trouble Funk getting slicker and glossed.
I love the live set they recorded in London in 86 and the Ebony tv special of them live at the Town & Country Club.
Unfortunately doesn't seem that that Say What set is in print or around in CD.

So is there an ongoing DC or elsewhere scene? One that is sweaty and funky still rather than toned down or whatever.
It seemed to almost be a black punk scene at one point and one that crossed over with the nascent DC hard-core scene in shared bills with some bands. But definitely a somewhat d.i.y. alternative scene addressing some of the same concerns. Though sets were considerably longer.

I think what was putting me off later Trouble Funk was the increasing element of synth that was creeping in. & their popularity seemed to have them watering themselves down more. So I lost interest by the end of the decade.
Though loved the 86 T&C set enough that I think the version circulating is probably the one I shared on Dime. That I borrowed from my little brother who is visible in the footage.

I had to go into my office on Wednesday, which is in the heart of PG county, and I knew coming back in the office wouldn't be so bad when I heard them bumping Go-Go in the lobby to welcome us back

Go-go lives . Old school style and bouncebeat style happen multiple times a week. I include events on my concert calendar. My wife and I were the lone non Black attendees at a recent Proper Utensils show at Takoma Station in DC . Alona Wartofsky and I both have written about go-go over the years for the Washington City Paper .

There have only been a handful of punk and go-go shows over the years but punk fans like to pretend it happened or happens more than it does. I have gone to a bunch of free go-go shows on the roof of the MLK Library in downtown dc and the crowds have always been 98 % Black and not noticeable as dressed “punk “ whatever that means in 2025. Friday night in my calendar I listed the following: Fri Jan 31 in DMV DC- Rare Essence @ Fast Eddie’s (go-go); Backyard Band @ Restaurant 55 (go-go); Still Familiar @ 10 @ Throw Social; Blacc Print Experience @ Takoma Station Tavern (go-go); TCB @ Power (bouncebeat go-go); TOB @ Martini's (bouncebeat go-go) 🧵

But yea, Trouble Funk got too polished at some point decades ago on their records and that also led them to lose popularity, plus they were touring the world and losing their fanbase at home. Years later their bandleader Big Tony has had health issues and another member of band passed away.

All go-go and also now the bouncebeat go-go bands also struggle to write creative new songs. Most bands just rearrange rap and Rnb and pop covers in the style. But I still enjoy seeing the bands live on occasion even if they don’t have much original material.