Brian Schanck was 15 years old when a friend played him Emergency & I, the third album by The Dismemberment Plan. “The music was euphonious and the lyrics hit home,” he says, recalling the D.C. indie rock band’s oddball pairing of funk rhythms and emo narrative. He dug it.
When Schanck turned 18, he tattooed the [...]
Woods: Brooklyn slacker-psych band Woods' debut LP, Songs Of Shame, sounded like it was slapped together with matchsticks, glue, and a few scratchy Quicksilver Messenger Service LP. By that standard, it was hard to recognize the band during the second afternoon of Other Music's SXSW showcase. Benefiting from a tighter rhythm section Woods performed a [...]
Another 5 miles on a bike, more tacos, no sleep, and a few more shows:
Deleted Scenes: Having rolled into town in the wee hours of the morning, Deleted Scenes was looking a little worse for the wear at yesterday's show. But however disheveled they were, the bar–a grimy sports dive about a mile out [...]
Endless soft tacos, a five mile bike ride, and a lot of standing in line. Somewhere in there I saw some concerts, too.
Tennis System: Apparently Tennis System had a rough trip down to Texas. According to guitarist/singer Matty Taylor the band's shows in Richmond and Lexington were shut down by the cops before it [...]
The music portion of SXSW doesn't officially start until this evening, so concert-wise there's not a lot to report.
I spent most of the day just en route. Last year I took two extra days off and drove to SXSW with some friends. It was an OK road trip–we stayed in some crusty motels and spent [...]
-The New York Times reviews the HBO miniseries The Pacific. They like it. Salon, on the other hand, liked Terrance Malick's take better.
-Since he's legally forbidden to perform comedy on television, Conan O'Brien is hitting the road this spring. He'll be in D.C. at Constitution Hall on June 8th.
-The Washington Post's Dave [...]
*Nobody seems to be able to get through a review of Alice in Wonderland without invoking a rabbit-hole metaphor. The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday likes it, though.
*The Washington Post's Monica Hesse profiles Cruella DeVille. Wait, I'm sorry, that's bestselling romance writer Danielle Steele. Apparently she has a pretty great sense of humor.
*The battle over the [...]
A scene from the film Ghosts Don't Exist.
For Carol Bidault, the founder and executive director of the D.C. Independent Film Festival, the last few years have been rough. Miramax and Warner Independent, major pipelines between small filmmakers and the mainstream, have been shut down by their corporate parents. They were both sponsors of her festival, [...]
After more than half a decade of shows and two full-length records, D.C.-via-Fredericksburg, Va., indie-pop quartet Pash is splitting up. The band will perform one last show tonight—it was supposed to happen a few weeks ago, but was rescheduled due to the snowstorm—at the Black Cat before the members head their separate ways. Some [...]
*Yesterday a rare copy of Detective Comics No. 27, which features the first ever appearance of Batman, sold for the a record $1,075,500, The Washington Post reports. The return on that investment? Pretty good. "In 1939, the comic sold for 10 cents; the consignor bought the record-setting book in the '60s for $100," writes Michael [...]
