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Cat Power (Photo by Mario Sorrenti)
Years ago, in another lifetime perhaps, I last had the fortune to see Chan Marshall, known by her performing name, Cat Power, in an early career performance at the Black Cat. And even though 25 years have passed since that time, the magic encased in that voice has only grown stronger — as evidenced in Cat Power’s performance at the Lincoln Theatre in DC Friday night.
Homeshake (Photo by Salina Ladha)
Peter Sagar, more popularly known as Homeshake, first made his name as guitarist for Mac DeMarco! The Montreal-based singer-songwriter released Under the Weather, his fifth studio album as Homeshake, last year, and now he’s coming to perform at 9:30 Club on Friday, April 22.
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Change often comes gradually, but sometimes the idea has been there all along but needed a reason to become visible. The elements of Car Seat Headrest’s most recent album, Make A Door Less Open, have been around — electronics, rock stylings — but more up on the stage than on wax. But, released in the midst of the pandemic, MADLO was primed to be performed live.
Taking on the masked persona, Trait — which in interviews Toledo has attributed to the beginnings of a side project with drummer, Andrew Katz — Toledo created his first new material in several years (2018’s Twin Fantasy being a rerecording of 2011’s album of the same name) alongside his band: Ethan Ives on guitar, Andrew Katz on drums, and Seth Dalby on bass. And the change from, mostly, a solo endeavor to a collaborative group effort has influenced the sound of Car Seat Headrest in many ways, but most notably the forward presence of electronic and dance-influenced elements. So, it was with high anticipation that Will and company rolled into DC Saturday night to perform at The Anthem.
Sophia Regina Allison leads Soccer Mommy in a performance at Rams Head Live in Baltimore on March 23, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Growing up in one of this country’s hotbeds of music and culture with a guitar in hand would seem a natural pathway for a young artist to chart their own course and some day, maybe earlier than might be expected, advance their sounds to the right kind of listeners.
Sophia Regina Allison was just a little kid when she began playing music, having relocated to Nashville of all places after being born thousands of miles away in Switzerland. A story that almost reads as storybook but yet is so freakishly modern, Allison would go on to study guitar as a student at the Nashville School of the Arts and not long after she graduated was recording music that she’d post to Bandcamp under the artist name Soccer Mommy.
Car Seat Headrest (Photo by Carlos Cruz)
Car Seat Headrest released Making a Door Less Open, the band’s 12th studio album, in 2020 via Matador Records. Frontman Will Toledo and company have hit the road with a date at The Anthem on Saturday, April 2.
Lift gets tricky when you’re breaking curses from another life… These words from the song, “Reproductive” off the new Shamir album, Heterosexuality, being released this week, are personal but after everything leading up to its release could be speaking of something more universal. Heterosexuality is an amazing record and really showcases Shamir’s immense talent — from the opening “Gay Agenda” with its distorted drums and a voice that cuts through to exclaim, “You’re just stuck in the box that was made for me / And you’re mad I got out and I’m living free” to the closer, the aforementioned, “Reproductive,” which Shamir opened with at the 9:30 Club recently, opening for Courtney Barnett.
Cat Power (Photo by Mario Sorrenti)
Cat Power, the vocalist, songwriter, musician and producer Chan Marshall, will release her new album Covers on Jan. 14, via Domino. Soon thereafter, Chan performs at Lincoln Theatre on Friday, April 15.
George van den Broek leads Yellow Days during a performance on Nov. 29 at 9:30 Club. (Photo by Casey Vock)
It’s historically been a struggle for budding musicians to rise to fame and still maintain control over their own vision and their connection to their fans. But one young man from Manchester, England, has probably already achieved more in his advanced stage than most artists could only hope to accomplish in an entire career.
Yellow Days is the vehicle driven by George van den Broek, and it has allowed him in a small window of time to vault himself into an incredible position for someone who’s just 22 years old — or any age, for that matter.
Making a stop at 9:30 Club on Nov. 29 for an anticipated show, and a sold-out one, van den Broek impressed as a confident, dexterous and deeply provocative conductor with few if any equals, at least not in his age bracket.
Jacob Allen leads Puma Blue in a performance at the Miracle Theater in DC on Nov. 20, 2021. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Musicians have such an arsenal of effective ways to reach potential supporters these days that genres and categorization become afterthoughts. And today’s resources are empowering a tremendous wave of artists who set out with no intention of adhering to any sort of conventions in the pursuit of their own organic sound.
London-bred singer songwriter Jacob Allen found his through making recordings in his bedroom, and he didn’t even need to leave the comfortable space to create a following. Since cutting and sharing a track called “Only Trying 2 Tell U” on SoundCloud back in 2014, he’s been able to steadily build that fanbase via his musical vehicle known as Puma Blue.
If you didn’t know better, Soccer Mommy, the stage name for singer-songwriter Sophia (Sophie) Allison, may bring about visions of minivans, orange slices, and participation trophies. Suburban tedium at its best. That couldn’t be further from the truth. During a recent show at 9:30 Club, Sophie and her indie rock band performed a set that was far from pedestrian.