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Don’t Miss: Gun Outfit @ Cafe Saint Ex, 12/7/15

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Dylan Sharp and Carrie Keith of the Gun Outfit (Photo courtesy Pitch Perfect PR)

Los Angeles-based “cowboy” psych band Gun Outfit is coming to town.

The duo quartet, originally from Olympia, Wash., released an extremely listenable new album, Dream All Over, via Paradise of Bachelors, on Oct. 16, and they have launched their very first headlining tour of U.S. East Coast cities in support of it. The Gun Outfit stop in DC on Monday, Dec. 7, to play a show at Cafe Saint-Ex (1847 14th St. NW, DC), an unusual but welcome location for a rock show to be sure.

The Gun Outfit recently published a video for the single “In Orbit,” directed by the band’s Dylan Sharp. In the video, various “alien life forms disintegrate into washes of colors,” according to the band. The music is a wistfully hazy psych-folk march.

Watch the psychedelic official video for the Gun Outfit’s “In Orbit” on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJbT45BR3w]

Apparently, Dylan and fellow vocalist Carrie Keith bring a punk aesthetic to their psych guitars, and I’m eager to hear some more from them. Says The New York Times: “This band has a punk aesthetic deep at the center and, especially now, slow and drifting, double-guitar desert-rock psychedelia at the surface. Dream All Over is the latest installment in the output of a band that’s remained open-ended, slow and steady.”

DC bands Flashers and Broken Grids open for the Gun Outfit. Tickets are available at the door on the night of the show.

Gun Outfit
w/ Flashers and Broken Grids
Cafe Saint-Ex
Monday, Dec. 7
Show @9pm
$8
All ages

Music Park: Dragonette @ U Street Music Hall — 11/25/15

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Dragonette (Photo by Mackenzie Duncan)

If your goal was to let loose and enjoy a night on the town before Thanksgiving since you were still in DC anyway, you could have done no better than to start famously at the U Street Music Hall. 

Martina Sorbara and Dan Kurtz, of Dragonette, were on hand to make you dance, in every way possible. With Dan’s keyboards and Martina’s golden voice, they electrified the crowd with a frenzy of their songs played to match the DJ-inspired venue, as house and club beats. 

Dragonette hails from Toronto originally, and also includes Joel Stouffer on the drums.

Let’s call much of the crowd’s response to their infectious songs, the ‘super dance’, bouncing up and down in unison.

The crowd grew to a respectable size (almost full), given that you might expect many potential revelers to be out of town for the holiday.

Music Park: Glen Hansard @ DAR Constitution Hall — 11/28/15

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Glen Hansard sings with a young lad live at Vicar Street in Dublin on Nov. 25, 2013. (Photo by Silvia Pititto)

Glen Hansard was determined.

“I have a friend who always ruins the moment,” Glen told an audience at DAR Constitution Hall on Saturday night. “He’s the kind of person that finds the fault in everything even when everything is going well. He’ll find that one thing that will ruin it for everybody.”

So to brighten his friend’s spirits, Glen said, he brought him along on tour. Glen also wrote a song dedicated his American friend, Thomas Bartlett, called “My Little Ruin,” which captures the spirit of being able to find that fault in everything.

Ticket Giveaway: Darwin Deez @ Black Cat, 12/9/15

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Darwin Smith (Photo by Krista Schlueter)

Brooklyn-based quartet Darwin Deez released a third studio album, Double Down, in September via Lucky Number — and the band, led by Darwin Smith, has been touring in support of it. They hit DC with a stop at the Black Cat on Wednesday, Dec. 9.

Last month, Darwin Deez produced a clever video for the single “The Mess She Made,” which features Darwin singing as various international currency is superimposed over his head.

Watch the official video for “The Mess She Made” on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r40tpNUQMC8]

Joined by Charly Bliss on the current tour, Darwin Deez promises smart choreography and high energy to accompany their blend of soulful and bluesy pop.

And you have a chance to see it for yourself, as Parklife DC is giving away a pair of tickets for this show. To win, follow us on Twitter, or retweet or like the tweet announcing this ticket giveaway. (You can follow us at http://www.twitter.com/ParklifeDC!)

For the rules of this giveaway–

We will choose a winner at random from Twitter follows, retweets, and likes by 5pm on Wednesday, Dec. 2. The winner will be notified by Twitter! The winner must respond to our communication within 24 hours or they will forfeit their tickets, and we will pick another winner.

Tickets also are available online!

Darwin Deez
w/ Charly Bliss
Black Cat
Wednesday, Dec. 9
Doors @7:30pm
$15
All ages

Music Park: English Beat @ 9:30 Club — 11/25/15

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Dave Wakeling of The English Beat performs at Bumbershoot 2010 in Seattle on Sept. 6, 2010. (Photo by Dave Lichterman)

Calling all rude boys and rude girls!

The venerable English Beat have been revitalized this year with a new toaster — King Schascha. For a 2-tone band, a toaster isn’t mechanical, but in King’s case, he’s certainly electric.

The reggae rhymer from San Diego effectively got the very full house at the 9:30 Club dancing right away on Wednesday, Nov. 25, paving the way for band leader Dave Wakeling and his time-tested repertoire of ska and reggae. They kicked things off with “Rough Rider” from the debut album by the English Beat, 1980’s I Just Can’t Stop It, and the entire audience was moving and grooving from the very first note.

Grapevine: Right Proper’s Tasting Room Opens in Brookland

Brookland

If you haven’t heard, Right Proper is expanding to the Brookland neighborhood. Their new production brewery and tasting room was meant to open this Thursday, December 3rd, as reported by the Washington Post.

But according to Right Proper’s Twitter, it opened early on Saturday, November 28th. Good news for beer lovers and fans of the trendy Brookland neighborhood!

 

The Washington Post reported:

“The tasting room will eventually offer charcuterie and other foods prepared offsite at the brewpub. Other plans in the works include a front patio with tables, bike racks, and planters that will be functional as well as decorative, letting Zeender grow herbs to use in his beers.

The brewery and tasting room will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and from 1 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Right Proper Brewing Company, 920 Girard St. NE.”

Music Park: Young Empires @ U Street Music Hall — 11/25/15

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Matthew Vlahovich of Young Empires at Royal Athletic Park during Rifflandia/BreakOut West on Sept. 19, 2015 (Photo by Tyson Elder/Used with permission/See more of Tyson’s photos)

Vocalist Matthew Vlahovich has some charisma to spare, and he was ready to share it as he danced to his own music at U Street Music Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Matthew and his band Young Empires performed as openers for Canadian trio Dragonette, providing a smooth, soulful counterpoint to the sparkling house compositions of their countrymen. Technically a trio themselves, Matthew, bassist Jacob Palahnuk, and drummer Taylor Hill toured as a quintet with the support of a touring guitarist and keyboardist.

The total group produced waves of deep sound that benefited the numbers on the debut album by Young Empires, The Gates (released in September) — numbers that generally were uplifting electropop punctuated by worldbeat rhythms and carried by Matthew’s pleasing voice.

Sports Park: Nationals Winterfest @ Washington Convention Center, 12/12-12/13/15

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Nationals Winterfest 2015

The Washington Nationals’ annual fan ‘fest’ is coming this December 12th and 13th to the Washington Convention Center.

They call it Winterfest this year, but it’s the same concept of games, contests, activities, photo ops and transforming into a human snowball.

You can also meet and greet many of your favorite Nationals players. No word on whether newly minted National League MVP, Bryce Harper, will be there, but stay tuned.

Keep the baseball dream alive! In the winter!

Nationals Winterfest 2015
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
December 12 and 13
11:30am-4:00pm (Season plan holders enter at 10:00am)
$30 Adult; $20 Children
All Ages

Happy Thanksgiving, 11/26/15!

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President Barack Obama delivers remarks before pardoning Cobbler, the 2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey, at the White House on Nov. 21, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Happy thanksgiving from Parklife DC, friends.

We are off today, but you’ll see more music, sports, and bar chat from us tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we hope you too might pardon some turkeys in your life.

–Mickey and Jeremy

Stars and Bars: Miracle on 7th Street @ Mockingbird Hill, 12/1-12/24/15

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Miracle on 7th Street’s Gretchen, Stop Trying to Make Fetch Happen, served in a frosted glass. (Photo by Joy Asico)

For the month of December, Mockingbird Hill owner Derek Brown will transform his sherry bar (1843 7th St. NW, DC) into a Christmas bar.

And Derek and company are really going all out to do it.

Borrowing the concept from Cocktail Kingdom and barman Nico de Soto of Mace and Miracle on 9th Street in New York City, Derek will introduce a line of 10 Christmas-themed cocktails and a shot from Tuesday, Dec. 1, to Thursday, Dec. 24.

Miracle on 7th Street bar will feature daily Christmas and Hanukkah-themed happy hours.

“Guests can expect to enjoy Christmas classic movie nights, Manischewitz Pong competitions, and cookie baking shenanigans. The holiday pop-up will serve up everything from live Christmas carolers to cocktails served in outrageous Santa mugs, adorned with frosty evergreen trees and gingerbread men,” according to a press release.