Fruit Bats (Photo by Chantel Anderson)
Indie rock band Fruit Bats release a new album, A River Running to Your Heart, via Merge Records on April 14! Then, Eric D. Johnson and his group perform in DC at 9:30 Club on Saturday, April 22.
Vienna Teng (Photo by Karen Shih)
Vienna Teng’s going back on the road! This isn’t a traditional tour for the DC pianist: multiple shows at intimate venues, free climate action workshops with small groups, and maybe some extra surprises.
Catch Vienna Teng in concert at Jammin’ Java on Friday, April 21!
Dougie Poole leads his band in a performance at Comet Ping Pong onApril 8, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
There’s an assortment of singer-songwriters dabbling today in what might be considered “cosmic” country, but with a journeying articulation of unmatched wonder and a lyrical purview that makes the James Webb telescope look nearsighted, Dougie Poole simply soars alone.
The New York City-raised musician is only three full-length albums into his career, but his reputation is vast and growing with the release of his latest, The Rainbow Wheel of Death, a delightfully drifting, universally appealing recording that dropped back in late February.
Sarah Shook & The Disarmers (Photo by Rob Schanz)
In 2022, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers released Nightroamer (via Thirty Tigers). The alt-country outfit is now on tour, and they perform at DC9 on Friday, April 21.
Egor Shkutko fronts Molchat Doma at 9:30 Club on April 8, 2023. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
Something remarkable happened when Egor Shkutko stepped up to the mic for a recent sold-out show at 9:30 Club: He filled the club with his expressive and powerful voice, filling the room with sonorous, occasionally forlorn, vocals.
Everyone swayed along to this extraordinary vocalist, who was singing to them in Russian, as frontman of new wave trio Molchat Doma. While undoubtedly there were a few Russian speakers in the crowd, this was very much a young audience of Americans who did not know the language. And yet they were mesmerized.
Scott McMicken (Photo by Wyndham Garnett)
You may know Scott McMicken as vocalist and lead guitarist of Philadelphia psychedelic rock group Dr. Dog. And now, Scott has formed a new band as an artistic outlet — Scott McMicken and The Ever-Expanding.
Scott McMicken and The Ever-Expanding perform at Union Stage in DC on Friday, April 21.
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives (Photo courtesy Q Prime)
“When we started this band,” said Country Hall of Famer Marty of His Fabulous Superlatives, “we didn’t have a lot of backing from Music Row,” the Nashville establishment of the heart of mainstream country music.
Yet on the first of two nights at The Barns at Wolf Trap, the band played tribute to country music in the most expansive way, covering classic songs and playing instrumentals along with originals from across their extensive catalog.
Titus Andronicus (Photo by Ray Concepcion)
If I told you Titus Andronicus put on a recent punk show at the Black Cat, that would be true, but it wouldn’t be the whole truth. While punk is most certainly the foundation of what they do, their style ranges over alternative, folk, and roots rock as well. Their projects — like the Civil War-theme concept album, The Monitor — often explore subjects that you might not encounter with a typical punk band. And their influences extend to Bruce Springsteen, whose “Glory Days” they covered in their encore. (Like Springsteen, Titus Andronicus frontman and principal songwriter Patrick Stickles is also a son of New Jersey.)
The Church perform at The Birchmere on April 4, 2023. (Photos by Jason Nicholson; words by Mickey McCarter)
It’s the year 2054, and one of the era’s biggest rock stars suffers from writer’s block. But he’s heard of a machine created by a Korean scientist that can produce fully formed music in the head of an artist, so he travels to Korea to enter the machine.
Welcome to The Hypnogogue, the name of said mythic machine and also a wondrous new concept album by Australian psych rockers The Church. Frontman Steve Kilbey and his crew toured in support of the album in a recent sold-out show at The Birchmere, and the audience absolutely loved everything they heard.
Bikini Kill perform in a sold-out show at The Fillmore Silver Spring on April 4, 2023. (Photo by David LaMason)
“I was the one who got the ‘vid,” Kathleen Hanna told the sold-out crowd on Tuesday night at The Fillmore Silver Spring.
“And I was in a hotel staring at the Whole Foods grocery, sadly, I couldn’t make it… every evening there’d be this rainbow over Whole Foods, and I kept thinking, ‘Is this beautiful or really, really ugly?’”
And with that the band that defined “riot grrrl” and influenced generations of punk rock to follow returned to the DC area, the first time since 1996! Kathleen, the once Maryland resident and singer for Bikini Kill, along with Tobi Vail (drums/vocals) and Kathi Wilcox (bass) have been icons of rock since 1990 when the band formed in Olympia, Washington, and kicked off a movement with others like Go Team and Babes in Toyland that spotlighted female empowerment in the midst of machismo rock posturing.
