Yesterday the Washington Post ran a large feature on DC hip hop.* Chris Richards' piece offers a cursory "why hasn't DC rap blown up?" history and intro as well as short profiles of Wale, XO, Kingpen Slim, Tabi Bonney, Phil Ade and producers Best Kept Secret. It's a well meaning and pretty efficient overview, but [...]
New rapps from DC
As part of their Latin American Film Festival, AFI Theatre in Silver Spring is screening the documentary Beyond Ipanema: Brazilian Waves in Global Music. The film takes a look at the continuing international fascination with music from Brazil.
"For decades Brazilian music has captivated audiences worldwide. What makes Brazilian music such a powerful force? Why does [...]
A minor Wale-related scandal hit the web this week, surrounding a 93.9 ad campaign. On the radio commercial, someone claiming to be Wale's cousin makes a sound-alike parody of Wale's seemingly aborted lead single "Chillin," and tries to push it to the station. He is swiftly rejected in favor of Birdman and Alicia Keys [...]
My my my.
Amongst the obvious big draws, there's no shortage of strange and unfamiliar names on the bill at this weekend's Sonic Circuits festival. But I wanted to take a moment to highlight one in particular: Finnish experimental music hero Pekka Airaksinen.
Though he lacks the mythology of Jandek or the skull crushing musical legacy of krautrockers Faust [...]
Was Japan cranking Trouble like that?
Just when you thought it was safe to mark your calenders...
"Major major major tour" dates forthcoming. (via TSS)
Ask anyone in the industry about go-go music and they'll tell you the same thing: it plays exclusively to the the greater DC area. This new series is an attempt to refute that claim by presenting hard evidence of Go-Go's influence throughout the music world. It'd be hypocritical to complain about biting since most of [...]
On Wednesday night Wonderland Ballroom will take some time out of their busy schedule of awkward ex-hipster dance parties to host a fundraiser for Landy Thompson's gang prevention organization In Da Streets. Though the event is billed cryptically on the Wonderland website as simply "Landy Thompson Fundraiser" it will also serve as a showcase for [...]
