Butch Warren in action. Uploaded by YouTube user radiokingz.

Local bass player Butch Warren is not just a tenured townie and a pickup musician, he’s one of the most celebrated bass players in the history of jazz.

Born in the District, Warren starting gigging around town in his teens, playing local establishments like the Howard Theater and Bohemian Caverns. When he moved to New York at 19, his career took off. In a lengthy 2006 feature, the Post’s Marc Fisher wrote:

“His steady, unobtrusive rhythm and classy, unshowy solos made him the perfect studio musician. His playing had just enough of the blues and just enough bop adventure to make him enticing to leading musicians.”

Warren became the Blue Note Records house bassist, recording and performing with some of jazz’s biggest names: Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Clark, to name a few.

Not long ago, Warren was living at Springfield Hospital in Sykesville, Md., where he was treated for drug addition and mental illness. Today, at 69, Warren is back on the club circuit. He’s been playing under the Butch Warren Experience at Columbia Station in Adams Morgan for over a year, and he frequents other 18th Street clubs, including Tryst. The next time you see Butch Warren play, he’ll be driving his bass lines on a new bass, thanks to a handful of really nice people, Marc Fisher reports.

“In gratitude for Warren’s transformative art, his fans and friends have raised the money to deliver him a performance-quality bass, and they deserve to start off my annual list of thank-yous … “

Giving back to a D.C. jazz musician who became a signature part of some of the most breakthrough recordings in jazz music is both a celebration of Warren’s incredible prowess and the city that raised him.

Paige Maguire over at NPR put together a 5-song playlist for anyone suffering from economic woes and job insecurity.

“For some, it’s years of cubicles and monkey suits and unbearable workloads, while others have lost their marbles and wound up getting walked to their car. Whatever happens, we’re guessing it’s going to be epic and terrible, which means you’re going to need consolation and encouragement in the form of five great rock tunes.”

Among her picks are The Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” and The Dead Kennedys’ “Bedtime for Democracy.” She had some good tracks, but her playlist doesn’t satisfy my economy-induced misery.

Here are my picks:

Woody Guthrie – Better World A-Comin’

Deerhoof – Scream Team

Rush – Big Money

Walkmen – The Rat

Black Flag – Rise Above

What’s on your 5-song economic meltdown playlist?

American University’s WVAU is hosting its final fall installment of the student-run free concert series Capitol Punishment Saturday night. The show will be in AU’s Kay Spiritual Center. Doors at 6:30; show at 7; all ages; free.

The lineup includes:

Imperial China
Caverns
Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
Hammer No More The Fingers

Friday

• DJ Steve Love, DJ Jackie O, DJ Philip Goyette, DJ Max Imus, DJ Sean Gone. Red Lounge. Free before 10. $5 after 10. +21.
• DJ Chris Burns. Cafe Saint-Ex. Free. +21.
• DJ Kostas. 18th Street Lounge. Free. +21.
• DJ DK. Blackcat. $5. All Ages
• DJ Micah Vellian, DJ Outputmessage. Rock and Roll Hotel. Free. +21.
• Liberation Dance Party. DC9. $6. +21.

Saturday

• DJ Mark Zimin, Black Cat. $10. All Ages.
• Dj Ca$$idy, DJ Austin. Rock and Roll Hotel. Free. +21
• DJ Mark Zimin, DJ Jess Okay, DJ Stereofaith. DC9. Free 9-10. $8 after 10. +21
• DJ Sabo, DJ Zeb. 18th Street Lounge. Free. +21.
• DJ Moose. Saint Ex. Free. +21.

The Homosexuals formed in 1977 as a riotous anti-establishment punk band in the U.K.—the trashier, grittier, less punctual version of the Clash and the Sex Pistols. The band was largely scattered, working on several side projects while also playing as the Homosexuals. They never pushed out a studio LP and never went on tour, but tomorrow, after fourteen years of hibernation, they’re coming to Washington. The band recently put out Astral Glamour, a three-disc posthumous collection of studio and live material. Their first tour brings them to the Velvet Lounge Thursday with Martin Bisi and The Cheniers.

Black Plastic Bag sat down with Homosexuals frontman Bruno Wizard to talk about punk and politics.

Read More “Interview: Homosexuals” »

Baltimore cult legend Dan Deacon put on an explosive set Friday night at Hirshhorn After Hours. Aside from the thunderous synth- and midi-based experimental dance music, Deacon’s set included a crowd run around the Hirshhorn quarters, a gesture that wasn’t well received by many in the Hirshhorn martini-drinking crowd, a dance contest, and lots of inevitable sweaty moving and dancing from the hundreds of enthusiastic fist-thumping Deacon fans.

More photos after the jump:

Read More “Photos: Dan Deacon @ the Hirshhorn 11/7″ »

Blog darlings Crystal Antlers and local post-punk band extraordinaire True Womanhood are at the Black Cat tonight; 9 p.m.; $8; all ages.

The UK’s legendary blue-collar anti-folk singer/song writer Billy Bragg will be at the 9:30 Club tonight with The Watson Twins; 7 p.m.; $35 all ages.

For an explosive math rock/post-rock/experimental showcase, head to DC9 to see former Hella guitarist Spencer Seim’s new band sBach (pictured) with Four Fins of the Rocket [Full disclosure: This is my band]; 8:30 p.m.; $10; 18+.

Check out The Rosebuds (pictured here and previewed in City Lights) and The Oranges Band tonight at Black Cat. 8 p.m.; $12; all ages.

Dexter Romweber Duo (former frontman of Flat Duo Jets) with Silver Spring-based One Track Mind subjects 7 Door Sedan at The Red & the Black.; 9:30 p.m.; $10; 21+.

Tonight at DC9: The Everyday Visuals ( alt-pop from Boston), The Public Good, Gary B & The Notions; 9 p.m.; $8; 21+.

Shame Club, Ambition Burning (Fairfax hardcore), and Par Coeur are playing at Velvet Lounge; 9 p.m.; $7; 21+.

Avon Walk for Breast Cancer benefit tonight at Asylum with performance by Maybe Tomorrow; 7 p.m.; 21+.

The Black Crowes are playing the next three nights at 9:30 Club; 7 p.m.; $45; all ages.

Last summer I took a trip to Brooklyn to check out Mother Mother, since the Canadian band only had two U.S. dates on their ’07 tour, both in New York. I stood five feet away from the stage and was instantly captivated. Their debut album, Touch Up, released in 2007 on Last Gang Records, had been on constant iPod rotation since it dropped. There was something about their Vancouver sensibility and genial alt-folk sound that made songs like “Dirty Town” and “Polynesia” more than just powerfully catchy tunes; the songs became a part of my life soundtrack. The voices of singer/guitar player Ryan Guldemond, Molly Guldemond (Ryan’s sister), and Debra-Jean Creelman combine to create a hauntingly harmonic wall of sound that is sometimes chill-inducing.

Mother Mother is now touring the United States to promote their new album, O My Heart. They’ll be stopping DC9 this Saturday with Ki: Theory and the Blackout District.

Ryan Guldemond took a few minutes out of his tour schedule to answer some questions for Black Plastic Bag.
Read More “Interview: Mother Mother” »

Stop Smiling, a bi-monthly arts and culture magazine out of Chicago, themed its most recent issue around the District. The DC issue includes in-depth interviews with some of the city’s brightest and influential writers and commentators, including: Ken Silverstein, Ana Marie Cox, Mike Gravel, Thomas Frank, and Christopher Buckley, and cover stories on George Pelecanos and Backyard Band’s Anwan Glover.

Order Issue 37: The DC Issue here.

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Hat tip to Idolator.

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