Parklife DC

Don’t Miss: GEMS (Opening for Autre Ne Veut) @ U Street Music Hall, 10/23/15

Live Review

Jeremy Bailey

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October 15, 2015

GEMS

GEMS brings their ethereal, dream-pop sound to the U Street Music Hall on Friday, October 23rd. They open for Autre Ne Veut.

Lindsay Pitts and Clifford John Usher comprise GEMS. Currently based in LA, they are originally from DC.

Now they return to DC with their first full-length album, Kill the One You Love, set to be released on October 30th via Carpark Records. They previously released an EP, Medusa, in 2013.

Having had a chance to preview the album before its release date, it is easy to predict their upcoming show will be one to remember.

Their first single, “Living as a Ghost”, premiered via NPR, who said, “GEMS is that special group for me, a former hometown band about to be discovered by everyone else.”

“Living as a Ghost”
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Other songs currently available, “Soak” and “w/o u”, show off the dramatic, hopeful lyrics and melodies that define GEMS.

“Soak”
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223829831″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”125″ iframe=”true” /]

GEMS has been compared to other bands like Beach House, the xx, Sleigh Bells and Purity Ring, but Stereogum says, they have planted “a flag in distinct territory of their own, a winsome mishmash of ‘90s pop/alt-rock/R&B sounds.”

Tickets are available here.

Pre-order the album, Kill the Ones You Love, via iTunes and Carpark Records.

GEMS (Opening for Autre Ne Veut)
w/ Mazed
U Street Music Hall
Friday, October 23
Doors @ 7:00pm
$15
All ages

“w/o u”
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Don’t Miss: Ben Folds w/ The National Symphony Orchestra @ The Kennedy Center, 12/4/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 15, 2015

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Don’t Miss: Ben Folds w/ The National Symphony Orchestra @ The Kennedy Center, 12/4/15

Ben Folds (center) and the yMusic Ensemble (Photo courtesy Big Hassle)

Ben Folds has led an interesting musical career that defies stereotypes. Certainly, in the 20 years since he first collaborated with the Ben Folds Five, he’s become associated with chamber pop. And he continues to make interesting new strides in that area with his latest album, So There, released last month via New West Records.

For So There, Ben teamed up with the yMusic Ensemble, a classical music outfit in New York City, to produce a pop album built on a classical music foundation.

Watch Ben Folds and yMusic perform the title track to “So There” on CBS This Morning on Sept. 26, 2015:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Z-bdMz6ps]

The new album also offers Ben’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in three movements. And that particular part of the album is apparently the basis for a unique concert performance as part of Ben’s current tour, as he is set to appear at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Dec. 4, with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Ben premiered the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in performance in March 2014 with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim.

Watch Ben Folds perform the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 2, 2014:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok3ms-yWgfQ]

Ben is know for being an innovative composer and performer, and he’s certain to bring a few surprises to his DC show at the Kennedy Center. So don’t miss out on this intriguing concert opportunity! Tickets went on sale to the public a few weeks ago, and they are going fast.

Tickets are available online.

Ben Folds
w/ The National Symphony Orchestra
The Kennedy Center
Friday, Dec. 4
Show @9pm
$39
All ages

Around Town: REI Thingamajig @ Wunder Garten, 10/17/15

Around Town

Jeremy Bailey

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October 14, 2015

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Around Town: REI Thingamajig @ Wunder Garten, 10/17/15

The REI Community Space at Wunder Garten

This Saturday REI is hosting a community gear swap! Bring your used outdoor gear and buy/sell/barter/trade with other outdoor enthusiasts. Check out the details.

It will be held at the Wunder Garten beer garden in NoMa from 12-5pm, with live music, produced by Living Classrooms (they are behind the Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival). $2 of your $7 entrance fee goes to support Living Classrooms.

Music Lineup:
Hollertown (12pm)
Big Chimey (1:45pm)
Jonny Grave (3:30pm)

REI Thingamajig (Used Gear Swap and Beergarden Bluegrass)
REI Community Space at Wunder Garten (NoMa)
October 17, 2015
12:00-5:00pm
$7 entrance fee
All ages

Music Park: Electric Six @ Black Cat — 10/11/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 14, 2015

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Music Park: Electric Six @ Black Cat — 10/11/15

Electric Six with Dick Valentine (left) (Photo by Frank Nash)

Much of the appeal of the Electric Six comes from the band’s desire to have fun and to make you dance by any music necessary.

And that sense of fun was on full display Sunday night at the Black Cat, where frontman Dick Valentine (born Tyler Spencer) and company absolutely packed the backstage beyond capacity. To be fair, the band originally were slated to play on the larger mainstage, but were moved backstage for some reason as the DC federal holiday weekend approached.

“The Electric Six were demoted!” Dick proclaimed early in the set. “Write to the Speaker of the House, whoever that may be, and have us remoted!”

I personally have never been in a more crowded show backstage, so I fully embrace Dick’s sentiment. At the end of the day, however, the Electric Six brought everything it had to bear in a genre-bending stampede of music that went from funk to punk to metal and even to country. It was a double-barrel shotgun blast of raucous dance music.

At a midpoint in the concert, Dick declared that it was time to break out the dance music, although 99 percent of the show consisted of dance music, as evidenced by an audience that was actively bopping and hopping. The declaration came as an intro to a medley of the band’s songs “Improper Dancing” and “(Who the Hell Just) Call My Phone,” one song from the band’s popular debut album Fire and another from their 2014 album Human Zoo.

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Don’t Miss: Matt Pond PA @ Rock and Roll Hotel, 10/14/15

Live Review

Jeremy Bailey

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October 13, 2015

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Matt Pond PA

Matt Pond PA comes to the Rock and Roll Hotel on Wednesday, October 14.

They are currently touring in support of their 10th full-length album, The State of Gold.

Listening to parts of their new album is my first real exposure to their work, which has been prolific. Sampling more of their music, it at times sounds like a dash of country (“Red Ankles”), a touch of Tom Petty (“Let Me Live”), a bit of folk (“Hearts and Minds”) and pieces of pop (“Take Me With You”).

“Take Me With You”

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Music Park: The Zombies @ Lincoln Theatre — 10/8/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 12, 2015

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Music Park: The Zombies @ Lincoln Theatre — 10/8/15

Colin Blunstone (front) and Jim Rodford at The Muni Arts Centre, pontypridd, Wales, May 29, 2013 (Photo by Sean Rowe)

The Zombies had not played their song “I Want You Back Again” for a while but then they heard Tom Petty cover it.

The band then recalled what a good song it was, and they determined that they should revisit it in their live sets. This led them to record a new version of the song for their latest album, Still Got That Hunger, released Friday, Oct. 9, via Cherry Red Records.

“If it is good enough for Tom Petty, it is good enough for The Zombies,” quipped Colin Blunstone before a performance of the song at the Lincoln Theatre in DC on Thursday night. The band then launched into their new rendition of “I Want You Back Again,” a single the original band first released in 1965.

Colin sings very soulfully on the song, dedicated to a woman who should return to the lonely narrator. The Zombies cofounder Rod Argent plays some lonely blues piano and he spearheads a rather lovely musical interlude early in the song. Rod is a keyboard maestro who really gets into the zone during moments like that interlude, and it’s a pleasure to watch him behind the piano most of all.

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Don’t Miss: Electric Six @ Black Cat, 10/11/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 9, 2015

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Don’t Miss: Electric Six @ Black Cat, 10/11/15

Electric Six (Photo by Chris Betea)

It’s a long holiday weekend in DC, and many of us have Monday off thanks to Columbus Day. In this case, what better way to spend your Sunday night than seeing a concert?

For our money, your best bet may be Detroit-based collective Electric Six, appearing at the Black Cat on Sunday, Oct. 11. Headed by Dick Valentine, the Electric Six are electric, eclectic, and loud! The official lineup of Electric Six today has only five members: Dick Valentine (vocals), Da Ve (guitar), Johnny Na$hinal (guitar), Tait Nucleus? (synths), and Percussion World (drums). They are still best known perhaps for their 2003 debut album, Fire, which spawned several hits in the United Kingdom — “Danger! High Voltage,” “Gay Bar,” and “Dance Commander.”

As you can see from those three songs alone, Electric Six have a unique way of traversing genres — going from the depths of hard rock to positively new wave. They keep the pace high with their 11th studio album, Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die!, released on Oct. 2 via Metropolis Records. They also stay absolutely quirky with song titles like “Slow Motion Man,” “When Cowboys File for Divorce,” and “Kids Are Evil.” If anything on this new album, Electric Six are more than ever crossing the hard rock lyrics of early AC/DC with the sweeping progressiveness of a middle-period Styx.

Electric Six don’t seem to have released a new music video in a while, so let’s revisit “Danger! High Voltage” and recall how damn catchy it is.

Watch the official video for “Danger! High Voltage” on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FxmoVM7X4]

Oh, hey, Baltimore, we see Electric Six had to cancel their show tonight at Metro Gallery due to a personal emergency. Come party with us on Sunday! Tickets are available online and at the door.

Electric Six
w/ Yip Deceiver
Black Cat
Sunday, Oct. 11
Doors @7:30pm
$15
All ages

Don’t Miss: The March Violets @ Recessions, 10/10/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 8, 2015

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Don’t Miss: The March Violets @ Recessions, 10/10/15

The March Violets in 1984 (Photo courtesy The March Violets)

As many a member of Generation X knows, the songs appearing on soundtracks to the films of John Hughes in the 1980s are critical elements of those movies.

Where would we be without “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds in the Breakfast Club or “If You Leave” by OMD in Pretty in Pink? (… or “Pretty in Pink” by the Psychedelic Furs, for that matter.)

And so we also embrace “Turn to the Sky” by the March Violets in “Some Kind of Wonderful,” where it sets the mood for a club scene with Eric Stoltz and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Watch the official video for “Turn to the Sky” by the March Violets from 1986 on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrr6sj1Ra2c]

The latest lineup of the post-punk/goth quartet from Leeds, England — featuring vocalists Simon Denbigh and Rosie Garland — is set to perform in DC on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Spellbound dance party, which takes place weekly at Recessions (1823 L St. NW, DC). (They also play at the Mercury Lounge in New York City on Friday night.)

The March Violets have been rather active since their reformation in 2007, releasing a new album Made Glorious in 2014 after a very successful Pledge Music campaign.

The band has launched a new Pledge Music campaign to fund yet another album, Mortality, and they already have achieved more than half their goal with more than 70 days remaining in the project.

Buy or listen to the album Made Glorious on Bandcamp:

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1489389526 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Tickets are available at the door! “Space will be limited, so get there early!” say the promoters.

The March Violets
Recessions
Saturday, Oct. 10
Doors @9pm
$15
21+

Food Park: Taste of DC @ Penn Ave NW, 10/10 & 10/11/15

Jeremy Bailey

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October 8, 2015

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Taste of DC

Time to get out of the house after last week’s hurricane ‘scare’. The weather should be just fine this weekend.

We have the annual Taste of DC along Pennsylvania Avenue both Saturday and Sunday.

Almost 60 restaurants and 10 food trucks will be doling out their delicious food concoctions. Each will have one item between $1 and $3, plus more robust offerings for $8 or less.

There will be music (see the band schedule), a Cocktail Corner, a Wine Walk, and a Beer Garden with plenty of breweries (see the list).

Buy tickets here. General admission also gets you one free drink and a coupon for a free ShopHouse bowl (for later use).

Taste of DC
Pennsylvania Avenue NW (between 3rd St – 7th St)
Saturday, October 10 and 11
12:00pm-7:00pm
$20 general admission ($40 for Drink Lovers Package – adds $25 in drink tickets)
All ages (ID required)

Don’t Miss: YACHT @ U Street Music Hall, 11/7/15

Live Review

Mickey McCarter

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October 8, 2015

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Don’t Miss: YACHT @ U Street Music Hall, 11/7/15

Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans (Photo by Ricky Tompkins)

Disco-punk duo YACHT are about to release a new album, I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler, via Downtown Records — their third full-length effort operating as a band rather than as a solo project by founder Jona Bechtolt.

After the new album’s release on Oct. 16, YACHT will appear mystically at U Street Music Hall soon after on Saturday, Nov. 7, in a tour stop to support the album.

The new album finds Jona and his songwriting partner Claire L. Evans concerned about the quality of life and the future of mankind — two themes that preoccupied them in previous albums See Mystery Lights and Shangri-La, which lyrically assessed topics like the lack of an afterlife and utopia, despite mostly being earnest dance records. Aside from being an arresting performer, Claire is also a science journalist, writing and blogging about science for the likes of National Geographic, OMNI and Vice.

The first single from the new album “L.A. Plays Itself” is a love letter to their adopted city, inspired by the 2003 Thom Andersen documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself and incorporating 163 production location signs.

Watch the video for “L.A. Plays Itself” on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaAqe5nMAuA]

YACHT cites a mind-boggling array of influences on The Future Would Be Cooler — including 80s Japanese electronic reggae (Sandii & The Sunsetz, Haruomi Hosono), 70s and 80s post-punk and no wave (Family Fodder, The Waitresses, Suburban Lawns, Killing Joke, A Certain Ratio, Devo), Norwegian disco (Todd Terje, Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas), and Grand Royal Records-era alternative music (Cibo Matto, Luscious Jackson, Money Mark).

Tickets are available online.

YACHT
w/ Larry Gus
U Street Music Hall
Saturday, Nov. 7
Doors @7pm
$20
All ages