Parklife DC

Don’t Miss Out: Blog for Parklife DC, Now!

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 27, 2016

0

Don’t Miss Out: Blog for Parklife DC, Now!

Here’s the 9:30 Club. Will you go here and other places and blog about concerts for us? Thanks!

As we posted to Craigslist recently:

Are you a music nerd with a knack for the written word? You should join our team at Parklife DC!

Our well-regarded music blog at Parklife DC is seeking volunteer bloggers to review concerts around town. We get lots and lots of pitches to review shows in the DC metro area. So many pitches that we could never fulfill them all alone, even if we wanted to do so.

However, you can help! As a music blogger for Parklife DC, you would go to shows and review them as our media representative. Your access to said concerts, of course, would be covered. This is a great opportunity for someone who really knows a particular music space well to show off their knowledge and talents.

We have entire genres of music that are underappreciated on Parklife DC, ranging from EDM to jazz to hip hop to country to folk, and there are significant opportunities for you to get your name known as a reviewer in these spaces.

Oh, and photographers: We have many unused photo passes that we would love to share. Please contact us as well if you might like to volunteer?

Interested? Drop us a line at parklifedc@gmail.com! We are happy to tell you more or throw you into the fire if you’re ready to blog.

Sports Park: D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact @ RFK Stadium, 7/31/16

Around Town

Jeremy Bailey

-

July 26, 2016

0

Sports Park: D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact @ RFK Stadium, 7/31/16

Season Record: 5-8-7 (22 points)

Your D.C. United are in a bit of a funk, going 1-2-2 (5 points) in their last five games, including a 4-1 spanking by Toronto last Saturday, July 23rd.

Starting this Sunday, July 31st, the United play four straight home games (and eight overall remaining) and have a good chance to right the ship for a chance at a playoff spot. They are currently in 8th place in the Eastern Conference, looking to climb the ladder.

First up are the 4th place Montreal Impact (29 points). The United need this game, so I’m confident they will step up and get a result.

Álvaro Saborio continues to lead the United with 4 goals on the season, but they need a lot more goals if they want to make 2016 interesting.

Buy your tickets here.

Audacious Assertion: United 2, Impact 1

(My home picks so far: 2-2)

MLS: Montreal Impact at D.C. United
RFK Stadium
Sunday, July 31, 2016
6:30pm
$20-55
All ages

Don’t Miss: The Bangles @ 9:30 Club, 8/21/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 26, 2016

0

Don’t Miss: The Bangles @ 9:30 Club, 8/21/16

The Bangles at the start of their career (Photo by Karen Filter)

If you were alive and watching television in 1986, and you previously did not know of The Bangles, MTV introduced them to a wider world with the music video for their hit “Walk Like an Egyptian,” which features a famously “sexy stare” from guitarist and co-vocalist Susanna Hoffs. In particular, if you were a young man of a certain age, those eyes were forever seared into your brain (in a good way).

Revisit the moment in the official music video for “Walk Like An Egyptian” (with famed stare around 2:45 mark):

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tuzHUuuk]

The Bangles formed as a quartet in Los Angeles and released their debut album in 1984, hooking many of us with their famous cover of “Going Down to Liverpool” by Katrina and the Waves. Embracing the psych-folk of the Paisley Underground, the ladies burned up the radio with other hits like “Manic Monday,” “Eternal Flame” and “A Hazy Shade of Winter,” a terrific cover of the Simon & Garfunkel number recorded for the film Less Than Zero.

Today, sisters Vicki Peterson and Debbi Peterson, along with Susanna, are revisiting their early days of the band with a collection, titled Ladies and Gentlemen… The Bangles! The album is a 16-track collection of remastered ’80s-era rarities, demos, live recordings, and more, including The Bangles’ debut single and all of the tracks from their self-titled EP (which has been unavailable since its initial release on vinyl in 1982).

Watch a cool trailer for the album!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbYTwylFm3s]

To celebrate the June 24 release of the album on CD via Omnivore Recordings, The Bangles have hit the road once again as a trio, and they will visit the 9:30 Club on Sunday, August 21, to play songs from across their amazing catalog.

Said Susanna of the new compilation: “I feel a very special connection to our early recordings. The garage of my parents’ house was our musical laboratory, and we took all the flavors of our favorite bands and mixed up a concoction of jangly guitars, McCartney-inspired bass parts, grooves powered by punk energy, and harmonies galore! These songs and recordings were our musical manifesto — all that mattered and inspired us, fueled by youthful energy, hope and blind ambition.”

L.A. rock trio Cardiac open for The Bangles. Tickets are available online.

The Bangles
w/ Cardiac
9:30 Club
Sunday, August 21
Doors @7pm
$35
All ages

Music Park: Esme Patterson @ 9:30 Club — 7/21/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 25, 2016

0

Music Park: Esme Patterson @ 9:30 Club — 7/21/16

Esmé Patterson sings at the 9:30 Club on Thursday, July 21, 2016.

In 1977, Townes Van Zandt sang of “Loretta,” a waitress in a bar that he comes around to romance on occasion.

Learning the sang sparked a fire in Esmé Patterson, who got angry at Townes’ narrator as she picked up the song. So she wrote a response to it on her second solo album, Woman to Woman.

“I’ve been that bartender,” Esmé told an intimate and hushed crowd at the 9:30 Club on Thursday night. “I’ve been that waitress.”

Continue

Don’t Miss: Belly @ 9:30 Club, 8/13/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 25, 2016

0

Belly working on King in Nassau, Bahamas, circa 1994 (Photo by Stephen DiRado, http://stephendirado.com)

There was something in the air in Boston in the early to mid ’90s, when great female artists and woman-fronted bands were popping up all over the scene! Women like Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann, Kay Hanley, and of course Tanya Donelly were making their voices heard all over alternative radio and indie rock stages.

Well, one of those bands are roaring back in a big way as Tanya Donelly has reunited with her bandmates in Belly with new music and a first tour since 1995.

In their first run together, Belly released two much-adored albums — Star in 1993 and King in 1995. The first album singles “Gepetto” and “Feed the Tree” were particularly popular and continued to receive airplay after the band disbanded. Tanya’s sweet yet full voice was a hallmark of Belly’s songs.

Watch the official music video for “Feed the Tree” by Belly on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQJjUbMrt8w]

Vocalist Tanya is joined by guitarist Tom Gorman, drummer Chris Gorman, and bassist Gail Greenwood. Their reunion tour is underway with a stop scheduled locally at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, August 13. Make plans to catch this exciting band as they return with what is sure to be an engaging show.

Tickets are available online.

Belly
9:30 Club
Saturday, August 13
Doors @8pm
$35
All ages

Around Town: Grand Opening @ BucketFeet — 7/20/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 22, 2016

0

Around Town: Grand Opening @ BucketFeet — 7/20/16

Beer Googles at BucketFeet (Photo by Mickey McCarter)

Malileh Salari was born and raised in Iran, where she became an interior designer and graphic designer after graduating from Tehran University.

In 2011, she moved to the United States, settling in Pleasant Hill, California. Now a mixed-media painter, Malileh has designed a shoe called Mystery for BucketFeet (1924 8th St. NW #125, DC), a designer show store that opened its doors in Shaw in recent days.

Each pair of shoes sold by BucketFeet, whether for men, women, or children, bears a unique art pattern created by an individual artist. And as a customer, you can read a bit about the artist on an accompanying placard, such as shown in these pictures taken by us in a grand opening party at BucketFeet on Wednesday:

For more information on BucketFeet and its shoes and artists, visit http://www.bucketfeet.com.

Here are a few pictures of BucketFeet courtesy of public relations photographer Joy Asico:

Grapevine: Free Crawfish Boil @ Big Chief, 7/22/16

Around Town

Jeremy Bailey

-

July 22, 2016

0

Crawfish!

Frozen Tropics reports:
“Big Chief (2002 Fenwick Street) is hosting a crawfish boil…and it’s FREE. It’s going down Friday, July 22nd starting at 4 p.m. If you were looking for a good excuse to slip out of work early on Friday you’ve found it. Live music from The Brass Connection Band starting at 8 p.m. The crawfish is limited, so get there early or risk missing out.”

Don’t Miss: The Go-Go’s @ Warner Theatre, 8/5/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 21, 2016

0

Don’t Miss: The Go-Go’s @ Warner Theatre, 8/5/16

The Go-Go’s (Photo courtesy Primary Wave)

It was 1996. I had recently relocted to DC, and I was digging through the stacks of discs at CDepot in College Park, Md., for a specific prize. I heard The Go-Go’s had released a new single in the previous years when I was at sea, and I was determined to add it to my collection.

The Go-Go’s! Isolated from commercial radio for a bit in the early to mid-’90s, I had missed out on the introduction of Britpop to US shores, and I previously hadn’t found many personal favorites among grunge musicians. But with the five ladies from Los Angeles, I knew I would find fantastic new wave tunes to reignite my collecting passions.

Continue

Don’t Miss: Kristin Kontrol @ Lincoln Theatre, 8/3/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 20, 2016

0

Don’t Miss: Kristin Kontrol @ Lincoln Theatre, 8/3/16

Kristin Kontrol (Photo by Jimmy Fontaine)

Sometimes bands take up bold shifts, trading guitars for synthesizers and producing a different sort of album, and the resulting songs may galvanize fans. If you’re Kristin Gundred, however, you don’t take an old band in a new direction, you simply whip up a new identity.

And so Kristin has at least temporarily shifted her attention from the noisepop quartet Dum Dum Girls, where she was known as Dee Dee, to the shiny new wave project Kristin Kontrol. As Kristin Kontrol, she released a new album, X-Communicate, and hit the road on tour as the opening act for post-grunge rockers Garbage — at the personal invitation of frontwoman Shirley Manson.

Across the album X-Communicate, released earlier this year via Sub Pop, Kristin goes for pulsing synths and lush nostalgia similar to some California new wave bands like Missing Persons, Berlin, or The Motels. “X-Communicate” is a driving dance number while “Show Me” is a sweetly romantic torcher.

Watch Kristin Kontrol perform “Smoke Rings” in an orchestral arrangement for Pitchfork TV on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KvbQoOy3A]

Said Kristin of the song, “It was a last minute addition — the record just didn’t feel done to me. I built off the theme of an old song, seeing the opening line (“I blow smoke rings in my lovers’ eyes — it’s a fancy way for me to say goodbye”) play out cinematically in my head… Real string accompaniment for this live performance video seemed obvious. Having grown up playing in orchestras, hearing my song like this was surreal. I was, no joke, moved to tears.”

Kristin Kontrol’s opening tour for Garbage comes to DC on Wednesday, August 3 at the Lincoln Theatre.

Tickets are available online.

Kristin Kontrol
(Opening for Garbage)
Lincoln Theatre
Wednesday, August 3
Doors @
$75
All ages

Music Park: Technophobia @ Black Cat — 7/17/16

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

-

July 19, 2016

0

Music Park: Technophobia @ Black Cat — 7/17/16

Technophobia perform at the Black Cat on Sunday, July 17. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)

Dark electronic duo Technophobia swept up a bustling crowd and then scattered them in a swirling synth smackdown on Sunday night during a record release party at the Black Cat.

Now available, the Technophobia debut LP, Flicker Out, is a 10-song album that covers quite a lot of ground. My personal favorites on the album are songs like “The Principle” with its soaring vocals and crashing synths. (I keep anticipating the song to break out in Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” but that’s because it has that sort of catchy interplay between vocals and instruments.)

Continue