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Music Park: The Jesus and Mary Chain @ 9:30 Club — 9/27/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: The Jesus and Mary Chain @ 9:30 Club — 9/27/15

The Jesus And Mary Chain
Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain sings at NOS Alive in Portugal on July 11, 2015. (Photo by Ana Viotti)

When The Jesus and Mary Chain debuted in 1985 with their powerful album Psychocandy, they set out to do something different then what they heard on the radio. Band leader Jim Reid has said there was so much electronic music at the time that he wanted to make a great guitar record.

And make a great guitar record they did. Psychocandy has endured as a much believed masterpiece that made people stand up and take notice of noise pop and set the stage for the rise of shoegaze throughout the United Kingdom within the next couple of years.

So it’s a very potent thing that The Jesus and Mary Chain chose to mark the 30th anniversary of the album with a world tour to commemorate it, playing the album from start to finish along with a handful of their other well-known songs.

The brothers Jim and William Reid, the two-part keystone of the band, and their bandmates brought the show to the 9:30 Club in DC on Sunday night to a very full house. The club never announced the show was officially sold out, but damn I’ve been in sold-out shows there that had a lot more elbow room!

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Music Park: The Mynabirds @ U Street Music Hall — 9/26/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: The Mynabirds @ U Street Music Hall — 9/26/15

The Mynabirds
Laura Burhenn plays keyboards as The Mynabirds in a performance for WFUV on July 16, 2015. (Photo courtesy WFUV)

Laura Burhenn was positively giddy to be playing a show in DC, once her hometown and still home to much of her family and friends.

Addressing the attentive crowd at U Street Music Hall on Saturday, the lead singer of The Mynabirds recalled marching in protests during her time in our city, and how such experiences shaped some of her music like the terrifically upbeat “Generals” from the second Mynabirds album of the same name.

With a laugh, Laura acknowledged she sometimes has differences of political opinion with members of her own family, and she expressed an interest in building up what they have in common rather than dwelling on what separates them.

And Laura came equipped with songs to bridge that divide, such as “All My Heart” from a new album Lovers Know, which she’s been touring to support after its release this summer. The song, the first one on the tracklisting of the new album, is a smoldering folk pop number with a R&B backbeat.

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Music Park: Gardens & Villa @ Rock and Roll Hotel — 9/24/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: Gardens & Villa @ Rock and Roll Hotel — 9/24/15

Gardens & Villa (10/14/14)
Gardens & Villa performing at the Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, Ohio, on Oct. 14, 2014. (Photo by The Zender Agenda)

Santa Barbara’s Gardens & Villa is an unusual band for modern times. Usually described in terms of its synthesizer, the band manifests itself rather more as a post-punk outfit accentuated by the synth rather than defined by it.

In so doing, Gardens & Villa demonstrate an interest in ‘70s glam from the United Kingdom while avoiding an outright aping of the style of Roxy Music or David Bowie. The result is some pleasingly melodic music that isn’t afraid to be experimental while at the same time retaining a pleasant pop appeal.

In a tour supporting their third album, Music for Dogs, Gardens & Villa Thursday visited the Rock and Roll Hotel, where they held the rapt attention of a half-full room with a set that slowly built up to exceed the crowd’s expectations by the show’s midpoint.

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Music Park: The Cairo Gang @ U Street Music Hall – 9/22/15

Mathew Harkins
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Music Park: The Cairo Gang @ U Street Music Hall – 9/22/15

Cairo Gang
Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang

The Cairo Gang takes it name from a group of British intelligence officers sent to Dublin in the 1920s to conduct operations against the IRA. The name evokes a certain romantic exoticism, mystery, intrigue, and danger. An appropriate choice then for a band whose sound calls to mind a certain period in the past – the mid ’60s – with a sometimes moody atmosphere and forceful drive, while maintaining a pop sensibility that lightens the load.

The first act in a lineup that would include Calvin Love and Mikal Cronin, the 4-piece mingled with fans in the small crowd before taking the stage around 8pm. In a set that ran just over 40 minutes, they burned through 11 songs in efficient, workman style that gave the audience as much as we could ask for. Emmett Kelly, clad in black, ran the band from the corner of the stage.

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Don’t Miss: The Jesus and Mary Chain @ 9:30 Club, 9/27/15 (Touring 30th Anniversary of Psychocandy)

Mickey McCarter
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Don’t Miss: The Jesus and Mary Chain @ 9:30 Club, 9/27/15 (Touring 30th Anniversary of Psychocandy)

Jim_Reid_live_1
Jim Reid (Photo courtesy High Ride Touring)

The Jesus and Mary Chain are touring on the 30th anniversary of their seminal album, Psychocandy, and they bring the show to the 9:30 Club this Sunday, Sept. 27.

Guitarist and vocalist Jim Reid said of the album, “Psychocandy was meant to be a kick in the teeth to all of those who stood in our way at the time, which was practically the whole music industry. In 1985, there were a great many people who predicted no more than a six month life span for the Mary Chain.”

Clearly, the band in general and the album in particular have enjoyed a longer run than those critics predicted, and Rolling Stone once named the album to its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Listen to Psychocandy on Spotify:

Psychocandy thrust the Jesus and Mary Chain into the top tier of bands for a lot of afficianados and broadened interest in the burgeoning noise-pop scene overnight. The Jesus and Mary Chain will play the album in its entirety on Sunday night.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to see the performance of a classic album from a band on its way back into the public eye in a big way. (Oh, and the Brothers Jim and William (Reid) have promised new music is on the way, which means we could soon see the first new Jesus and Mary Chain album since 1998!)

Tickets are available online and at the door.

The Jesus and Mary Chain
w/ The Black Ryder
9:30 Club
Sunday, Sept. 27
Doors @7pm
$35
All ages

Music Park: Farao @ U Street Music Hall — 9/23/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: Farao @ U Street Music Hall — 9/23/15

Farao
Farao (Photo by Kristin Slotterøy)

On her debut album Till It’s All Forgotten, Farao sings the song “Bodies” in a haunting manner over layered instrumentation that sometimes sounds like a train gaining speed. Lyrically, the song about trust, or the lack thereof, in a relationship, and the churning music adds some punch to the words.

In live performance, the native Norwegian herself gravitates toward acoustic instruments, leaving her synths to a touring bandmate. The result is much less urgent, giving the lyrics more room to breathe. In so doing, Farao, born Kari Jahnsen, emphasizes the mesmerizing quality of her voice.

Farao treated a half-full room to such a delivery at U Street Music Hall on Wednesday night, touring in support of Till It’s All Forgotten, which was released earlier this month, as the opening act for UK punk trio The Cribs.

Watch Farao perform “Bodies” for Le Bruit des Graviers on Sept. 4, 2015:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRS9sdkaKM]

On the album, another song — “Fragments” — starts out almost like a chiptune but then blossoms into layers of instruments and voice as Farao paces herself alongside the music. Singing in almost a hushed nursery rhyme style, she uses repetition of words to mirror what is happening instrumentally to pleasing effect. The song is about not being able to see the full picture with its refrain “If you don’t believe me, no one will.”

It’s also a song ready-made for performance as its appealing structure translates well to the stage.

Watch Farao play “Fragments” live at Træna Festival 2014, published July 16 2014:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvwuHVewScI?list=PLnuBnM8PFlsTGfBeXRmDhTTLgp3xYY9wq]

Although Farao plays many different instruments, seeing her live is truly the best opportunity to listen to her voice, which she uses to good effect in concert.

Up until last night, Farao was touring at the opening act for The Cribs. Now, she has three more dates in the United States without them — tonight in Portsmouth, NH, and Tuesday in Los Angeles and Wednesday in San Francisco. She’s a worthy opener and well worth contemplating if she happens to perform solo.

Music Park: Watch “Hanged Man” by The Mynabirds, Appearing @ U Street Music Hall, 9/26/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: Watch “Hanged Man” by The Mynabirds, Appearing @ U Street Music Hall, 9/26/15

unnamed
Laura Burhenn performs live at Capitol Studios. (Photo courtesy Girlie Action)

Hey, in case you missed it, DC native Laura Burhenn was kind enough to give us a cool interview about the third album from The Mynabirds earlier this month — and the Los Angeles-based Mynabirds are about to have a homecoming show at U Street Music Hall this Saturday, Sept. 26.

The new album, Lovers Know, builds upon and extends The Mynabirds’ catalog with some lovely folk pop as well as some sweeping ballads, like “Hanged Man,” a soaring if sad song that allows Laura to show off her skills on piano.

Watch “Hanged Man” performed live at Capitol Records Studios in Los Angeles on August 19, 2015:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64O3IUDLfOI]

Laura and company are in good form, setting a “Wildfire” across the country since launching their latest tour in California on Sept. 2. Whether you’re a new fan or a long-time admirer, you’re sure to love this show!

Tickets are available online.

The Mynabirds
w/ Stranger Cat and Bad Bad Hats
U Street Music Hall
Saturday, Sept. 26
Doors @6pm
$15
All ages

Don’t Miss: Gardens & Villa @ Rock and Roll Hotel, 9/24/15

Mickey McCarter
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Don’t Miss: Gardens & Villa @ Rock and Roll Hotel, 9/24/15

GV-by-S.-Perlin
The avant-garde ambitions of Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen fuel Gardens & Villa. (Photo by S. Perlin)

Gardens & Villa, a quartet out of Santa Barbara, Calif., have an interesting sound that manages to fall somewhere between post-punk and power pop while exuding an appealing lo-fi atmosphere.

Or at least that’s my impression upon a few listens of the band’s third album, Music for Dogs, released on August 21 via Secretly Canadian. The new album was produced by Jacob Portrait, who I once saw play with Blouse, a man who has a very solid modern take on the post-punk/new wave sound.

Singles like “Everybody” carry a certain urgency alongside a pleasing dance beat despite the casualness of the ’70s soft-rock vocals of singer Chris Lynch.

Watch the video for “Everybody” on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAzok_GZPx4]

Gardens & Villa clearly have entered a busy period, as their third album comes right on the heels of their 2014 second album, Dunes. And they return to DC to perform Thursday, Sept. 24 at the Rock and Roll Hotel.

Tickets are available online and at the door.

Gardens & Villa
w/ Palebound
Rock and Roll Hotel
Thursday, Sept. 24
Doors @7pm
$15
All ages

Music Park: Ultimate Painting @ Comet Ping Pong — 9/21/15

Mickey McCarter
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Music Park: Ultimate Painting @ Comet Ping Pong — 9/21/15

Ultimate Painting at Rough Trade
Ultimate Painting perform at Rough Trade East in London on Oct. 31, 2014. (Photo by Paul Hudson)

Ultimate Painting take their name from a piece of artwork created by Drop Artists of the Drop City commune of Colorado in 1966. Around the same time in New York City, Lou Reed and John Cale formed the Velvet Underground.

Just a few years back, James Hoare of Veronica Falls and Jack Cooper of Mazes formed a third band, drawing its name from the colorful piece of art and its sound from guitarwork by Reed, Cale and Sterling Morrison. The result is a jangly, occasionally bluesy, sort of psychedelic rock that pays tribute to the ’60s quite masterfully while sounding fresh.

The duo played a show at Comet Ping Pong on Tuesday as a stop on their tour in support of their new album, Green Lanes, released in August by Trouble in Mind. They kicked off their set with some songs from their debut, a self-titled album released in 2014.

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Around Town: Parktoberfest @ Yards Park, 9/26/15

Parklifer
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Around Town: Parktoberfest @ Yards Park, 9/26/15

I smell kryptonite!
Race your Dachshund! (Photo by Peter Jackson)

Oktoberfest — or rather Parktoberfest — comes to DC this Saturday, Sept. 26 from 1-5pm at Yards Park (355 Water St. SE, DC). (In case of rain, the event will be held on Sunday, Sept. 27.)

Listen to live music by Sly 45, drink cold Sam Adams beer, grab food from DC’s best food trucks including DC Ballers, Federal City Brothers and DC Slices, compete in an official Sam Adams Stein Hoisting competition, and cheer on the Dachshunds as they race for glory and prizes in the 4th Annual Wiener 500 Dachshund Dash!

This is a family-friendly, free event — and all dogs are welcome! There will be best dressed and best trick contests at 2:30pm.

Want to race your Dachshund? Entry fees are just $25, all proceeds donated to Washington Humane Society. You must be 21+ to drink beer. No outside alcohol allowed.

Visit http://www.ontaponline.com for more info.

Parktoberfest
Yards Park
Saturday, Sept. 26
1-5pm
Free admission
All ages
21+ to drink

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