Back in the late 90s, when I first started writing about underground metal for the Washington City Paper, music critics tended to ignore the so-called extreme underground or they specialized in it to the exclusion of everything else. Now it’s different. Pitchfork, which barely existed back then, has an extreme metal column. And Spin reviews [...]
Baltimore’s Human Bell—seen here performing at the Adams Morgan record store Crooked Beat—just announced a national tour with Japan’s Boredoms, a band that Washington City Paper’s Aaron Leitko described as the most bizarre “ever to have graced the roster of a major label.”
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band might dispute that claim, but I can [...]
From yesterday's Washington Post:
"'The last section of that song is known as the Obama fight song.'"
–Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, explaining the chanted chorus "We can make it better" during a performance last week at the District's 9:30 Club"
In writing about the new Earth album, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, I was reminded of the first time I heard Earth 2, the Seattle act’s debut full-length and the record that started the drone-metal movement.
Earth 2 came out on Sub Pop in 1993, at the height of the grunge boom. At [...]
A few days before Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men won Best Picture–and a little over a year after I wrote a piece about McCarthy fandom among metal bands–I noticed a reference to the book's protagonist, Anton Chigurh, in a review of a metal record.
It's no secret [...]
Just brought to my attention by Austin American-Statesman's Joe Gross:
Awesome Tapes From Africa
It is what it says. Enjoy.
Argentinian pianist Guillermo Klein's Sextet will be appearing at Library of Congress' Coolidge auditorium this Friday, February 29, at 8p.m.
The show is free: Reserved tickets for the concert are available through Ticketmaster (if you don't mind paying the service charge), or you can just show up early for free seating.
Here's what Ben Ratliff wrote about [...]
Word from the DC Baltimore Punk Rock Showlist: "[M]ark your calendars, set your TiVos, or VCRs. Washington's own Georgie James will be on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Wednesday the 27th. [L]et's give Conan a huge ratings boost that day. Plus, John and Laura are really nice folks."
Back in the mid-'90s, I briefly worked at the Library of Congress, where Polvo guitarist Dave Brylawski's uncle was one of my supervisors. At the time, his nephew's North Carolina alt-rock outfit was one of my favorite bands.
(I spent a week last month listening to Polvo's entire catalogue–every skronky aside, every Dinosaur Jr.-worthy hook, [...]
