The youthful exuberance and the huge guitar sound of Surfer Blood took over the main floor of the Rock & Roll Hotel last night. Lead singer John Paul Pitts did all he could to ensure there was no boundary between band and audience on what was his 24th birthday. He left the stage more than [...]
On May 8, artist Agnes Bolt moved into the Pink Line Project founder's Philippa Hughes's Northwest apartment. More to the point, Bolt is living in a plastic bubble in the middle of Hughes's living space for a week. According to the blog they've set up to document their project, the two will be "playfully explor[ing] [...]
Before Virginia band Bio Ritmo’s salsa gig at U Street Music Hall Saturday night, folklorist Paulina Guerrero will show her work-in-progress documentary, A Story of Plena. Plena is a Puerto Rican genre in which participants engage in call-and-response chants over funky rhythms tapped on large tambourine-like instruments and on guiros, or hollowed-out gourds. For her documentary, Guerrero [...]
It's no stretch to say D.C. is much more of a punk-rock town than a power-pop one. John Davis first became well known for drumming in post-punkers Q and not U, but its clear from his band Title Tracks he loves the head-bobbing hooks of The Raspberries and their ilk. At the Black Cat Backstage last night, it [...]
Atmospheric art punk, when done poorly, can be the stuff of pouting boys and overly dramatic lyrics, cheesiness and black eyeliner. But when done well, it means that the band in question probably paid close attention to the high priests of the sound, Wire. The group played last night at the Black Cat in support [...]
Mike Watt brought his thumping bass and his Missingmen band (guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales) to a jam-packed Backstage room of the Black Cat last night. The set list included a hypnotizing combination of tracks, some from Watt's latest, the 30-song hyphenated-man, and others from Watt's previous classic band, the San Pedro [...]
After attending Sebadoh's show at the Black Cat on Saturday, I think that of South by Southwest should book the band for a panel or worhshop next year. The topic? "How to obtain a hardcore fanbase of kids under 21." Based on the many black x's scrawled on hands, it seems children by the millions [...]
D.C. was well-represented this year at South by Southwest, with a ton of local bands present at showcases like DC Does TX and others. Amid the massive festival's insanity, I caught a sampling of D.C. talent, from These United States and Wild Flag (featuring Mary Timony) to Ted Leo (hey, he lived here for a while) and Bad Brains. Shooting the [...]
The Kennedy Center’s just-concluded Maximum India festival was certainly successful from an attendance standpoint, with sold-out ticketed shows and packed free events. A number of music and dance performances received rave reviews, but not everyone was completely wowed by the festival's curating—at least in India.
Outlook India's Seema Sirohi wrote an article criticizing some of the art exhibits as [...]
While most of the Maximum India festival's remaining ticketed performances are sold-out (except for the Ishara Puppet Theatre and some film screenings), there are some free events this weekend worth investigating. Tonight, if you can't get tickets on Craigslist for Sunny Jain & Red Baraat (an outfit that blends bhangra with go-go, soca, and jazz), you can catch [...]
