HO HO WHO: Two kids from Florida who might be the manifest destiny of the Disney-fication of America. D.J. Monopoli is the guy. Sabrina Abu-Obeid is the girl. Together they are TeraBrite. They desperately want to entertain you. If emo isn't already dead, they're going to smother it in hugs. That's right, emo's last breath [...]
The art-tainted/prog-damaged* dudes of Hume left town awhile ago for a fall tour. What's the net result? It's a screwed & chopped version of a Steve Miller song set to some C-grade sci-fi clips. But hey, if you're gonna drag yourself Around The Indie-Rock Circuit In 80 Days, it's probably better to bring back "a [...]
Arts Desk has written a lot about Kokayi over the years, because he's talented and prolific and all that jazz. The D.C. rapper/singer/producer even did a Snow Day Session. But his latest gambit—offering a free house concert to the 1,400th person who Likes him on Facebook—seemed a bit outré, even for a guy who is [...]
The A-side, "Warble Factor," has one of those surging 4/4 rhythms (call it "the post-hardcore head-nod") and Ian MacKaye's quick-chop guitar playing is gratifyingly familiar. But Amy Farina's vocals are the show here: She's passionate and serious, befitting what seems to be a meditation on somebody's death. What's that line at the end? "Look at [...]
While fact-checking some things for my upcoming review of the new Office Of Future Plans disc, I asked frontman J. Robbins if he could clarify the status of his other band, Channels, which includes bassist Janet Morgan (Robbins' wife, who does not play in Office Of Future Plans) and drummer Darren Zentek (who also drums [...]
Former City Paper Arts Editor Glenn Dixon will totally unfriend you with extreme prejudice:
An experiment to keep Facebook interesting, because lately, I dunno, it hasn't been. I'm starting with 185 friends. And I'm unfriending anyone who posts a cute, humorous, or otherwise "entertaining" photo of a cat. I don't care if you genuinely love your [...]
At first glance, D.C. rapper SmCity seems all confused in this video for "Twilight," a track from his upcoming The Indie Life: Hate, Love & Money. He's sportin' a limited-edition Nats hat, but that hometown W kinda gets lost in all those Brooklyn Bridge shots. And his sideman is Brooklyn MC Skyzoo. Why shoot the [...]
D.C.-based rapper/producer Gregory "Grap Luva" Phillips grew up around hip-hop royalty in New York, and is probably best known for his appearances on 1992's Mecca And The Soul Brother, by Pete Rock (Grap's actual brother) and C.L. Smooth. (That's Grap at the beginning of "On And On.") We had a hunch that he'd want to [...]
Bassist Jorge Bañales (The Checkered Cabs, Villa Rosie, The Ready, Steady Go!, The Ambitions, The Shifters, The Thrilltones) has scanned and Facebooked a ton of local show flyers from the mid-'80s until the late '90s. He says the collection just represents "a snapshot" of what he was up to at the time:
The oldest flyer on [...]
The Flame (Def Dee Remix) by DTMD
While you were sorting out your feelings about Wale this morning, P.G. County's DTMD was releasing this thumped-up remix of the first chunk of "The Flame," the track that wraps up its nifty DTMD: Makin' Dollas album. The original is all huggy synths and hopefulness; the remix by Seattle's [...]
