Channels

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 for OOFP). His explanation:

Channels hasn't had as much as a rehearsal in about 5 years, but we hope to reconvene at some point. Janet and I have done some music stuff together since then, but it's been sporadic. We certainly want to do more than we have, whether that ends up being Channels or something else. So we're not saying the band is done for good, though whatever music we might eventually make will likely sound quite different from what we were doing when we had to hit the brakes.

The self-titled debut by Office of Future Plans is out next week on Dischord, and the review will run in next Thursday's edition of City Paper. We wrote about a track from the album—"Salamader"—last month.

Leading this assault on easy listening is Jeff Surak, the soft-spoken but always ardent champion of Sonic Circuits. Since the first festival in 2002, Surak has continued to bring the brightest stars in the experimental firmament down to D.C.: Merzbow, Faust, Jandek, Matmos, Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Rat Bastard, and so on. But Surak the curator is also a creator called Violet; here his “Incapacitated by the Sun” is a steady, minimal drone, like one of Merzbow’s monoliths spiked with a nip of Mr. Bastard’s fuzz.

Meanwhile, Blue Sausage Infant’s “Gemüsemaschine” is pure kraut—feisty, filling, and highly fermented. In his recent review of BSI’s first-ever long player, Negative Space (put out by Surak’s Zeromoon imprint, no less), City Paper’s Joe Warminsky noticed the same precision-engineering care of guests Jeff Barsky on guitar and the motorik percussion of Jason Mullinax. And since D.C. is kind of a small town, both Insect Factory (Barsky) and Pilesar (Mullinax) show up on District of Noise Vol. 4, as well. I’ve long sung praises of Barsky’s unique textures, and I’ve been nodding in assent to Mullinax’s jams since our college days at the University of South Carolina. That said, their contributions (“Slow Bloom” and “Spider Bait,” respectively) sound more deliberate, more mature than anything I’ve yet heard from them. As Surak’s festival programming confirms, experimental music has a canon now, and the work of Chester Hawkins (a.k.a. Blue Sausage Infant), Barsky, and Mullinax are gunning for inclusion.

Of course, experimental music is often precisely that. Many times, the results fail to yield anything qualitatively good. I could do without the forced collaboration of TL0741 and Anthony Pirog on “Busy Bees.” Individually, I like both very much (in fact, I’m quite eager to hear what Pirog does with Terry Riley’s indefatigable In C at this year’s festival), but this meeting does neither party any favors. Likewise, I’ve heard better from Pirog’s other partner in crime, Janel Leppin. To be fair, we don’t see any visuals from her “Music for a Film, The Recipe,” so it’s hard to judge too harshly. Then again, Music From the Film’s “Animal Friends” succeeds because it’s playtime narrative let’s us make up our own. After all, not all experiments are serious experiments.

It maybe be a little early to call—like most releases of its ilk, the District of Noise compilations need time to percolate—but I think Borborites’ “Sunrise in an Opium Den at the End of the World” is my favorite cut. There’s a forward motion to its tainted slab of synth and treatments that compels an active listen. Just as Thomas De Quincey learned to appreciate the subtleties of opium, there’s plenty of nuance to Borborites’ sun-baked apocalypse.

Thursdays are often busy music nights in this area and tonight is no exception. Here are a handful of live music choices, plus a DJ event and a movie about tango with an after-party with dancing.

Rent Party for Memphis Gold at the Surf Club: This soulful D.C. area bluesman was a tree trimmer by day until he fell from a tree in 2008.  He’s recovered a bit but still needs financial assistance. He is performing tonight on a D.C. Blues Society-arranged bill with other locals including, the Mary Shaver Band and Bobby Parker.

Don Zientara and Dave Smalley at Black Cat: Zientara is best known for engineering and producing lots of Dischord releases at Inner Ear, but he also plays guitar and sings. (He’s got a nice solo folky version of the Kinks' “Waterloo Sunset” on YouTube.) Dave Smalley was a guitarist/vocalist for hardcore, emo and punk bands like DYS, All, Dag Nasty, and Down by Law.

Buke & Gass at the Rock 'n' Roll Hotel: This Brooklyn duo’s album Riposte has shown up on NPR’s top 50 albums of the year. Singer Arone Dyler strums a baritone ukulele while Aron Sanchez picks a homemade guitar-bass and operates some percussion with his feet. Their sound blends early-‘80s postpunk with prog-rock and folk.

“Salsa Picante” with DJ Neville Chamberlain at Little Miss Whiskey’s Golden Dollar: Back from record-finding expeditions, DJ Neville will be playing salsa, boogaloo, merengue and more, all on vinyl of course.

“Tango, a Story with Jews” is showing at 8:30 at the D.C. Jewish Community Center as part of the Washington Jewish Film Festival and will be followed by a 9:45 tango party with D.C. based, Buenos Aires born tango instructors Viviana and Isidoro Levinson. The Gabriel Pomeraniac directed 2009 movie is an hour long documentary that tells the story of Russian Jewish musician emigrees to Argentina who played a role in the development of this dramatic Latin American musical style.

Dischord has announced that it will release Completely Removed, the sophomore record by D.C. trio Medications, on CD/LP/MP3 this April.

It only took five years.

But that time has been well spent. Completely Removed finds the band in a different place entirely—employing laid back classic rock riffs, vocal harmonies, and even a few honest-to-God guitar solos. There's still plenty of 6/8 time, though.

Tracklist after the jump:

1. For WMF
2. Long Day
3. Seasons
4. We Could Be Others
5. Rising To Sleep
6. Brasil ‘07
7. Kilometers And Smiles
8. Country Air
9. Home Is Where We Are
10. Postcards
11. Tame On The Prowl

Live video of "Seasons":

DIY record labels like Teenbeat, Dischord, and Simple Machines, as well as activist groups like Positive Force, cleverly repurposed Arlington’s middle-class workforce housing, then available as cheap, safe rentals, into small businesses, design studios, and rehearsal rooms.

Now that Kansas House is kaput, that time is effectively over. Those houses have been repurposed again, this time by developers who have built condominiums, restaurants, and shopping centers.

Leitko visits each of those houses, and talks to some of the key figures who lived in them. Read the full feature here.

Early last October, Jeff ­Nelson—co-founder of Dischord Records and drummer for Minor Threat, the mother of all hardcore bands—placed an autographed test pressing of his old band’s 1983 EP, Out of Step, up for sale on eBay. It was part of a long-term effort to whittle his punk rock archives, which Nelson describes as both “way too big” and “insane."

There’s not a lot of razzle-dazzle to a test pressing. When a pressing plant manufactures a vinyl record it will usually mail out a limited run—five to 20 copies—so the artist and label can do one last quality check before firing up the entire order. Test pressings don’t have label art, and ideally, they sound identical to the official release. Nelson threw in an old Dischord sales flyer to sweeten the deal a little.

The Out of Step EP itself has been in print pretty much continuously since its release and is available right now, via the Dischord Web site, for $9. But because test pressings are sought after by some collectors, Nelson decided to started the auction at $50.

One week later, bidding closed at $5,899.99.

In a word, cha-ching! Not bad money for a little bit of housecleaning.

“I’ve been an archivist or pack rat (take your pick) my whole life,” he writes from Toledo, Ohio, where he has lived since February 2004. “I can name the three toys from my childhood that I no longer own, which is crazy considering that my dad was in the Foreign Service and United Nations and we lived all over the world. I still have the cast from when I broke my arm in 1977, for instance.” That cast has not yet hit the auction block.

But items from Nelson’s music career hold real value for fans of the D.C. punk scene. And he’s kept a lot of that stuff around, too.

“I’ve accumulated an awful lot of stuff in the 29 years since Dischord Records was founded,” he writes. “However, the amount of stuff I’ve squirreled away is downright ridiculous, and more than [is] necessary to hold onto. Furthermore, like everyone else, I’ve got bills to pay and figured I could use the extra money. So, in late 2007 I decided to lighten [the load] by selling some stuff on eBay.”

Since then Nelson has sold off all kinds of Dischord and D.C. punk scene related memorabilia—old Minor Threat fliers, silk-screened concert posters, and anti-Reagan propaganda. These items tended to be a little more affordable—an XL meese is a pig T-shirt sold for $25, a pack of “Oliver North’s Pack of Lies” playing cards went for about $7 (Full disclosure: I bought one).

But the test pressings have been generating some tall paper lately. After bidding closed on Out of Step, Nelson contacted the auction’s runner-up and sold that person a copy, too, for $5,700 (he refunded the original winner the price difference, to keep things fair). A test pressing of the “In My Eyes” seven-inch went for $1,252.13. The test pressing of Minor Threat’s self-titled seven-inch EP: $2,501.01.

“Old punk, new wave, and hardcore stuff has been increasing in value for years now, and I have been very pleasantly surprised by how much early Dischord and especially Minor Threat-related records/flyers/etc. have been selling for at auction,” Nelson writes. “It continues to be very, very flattering (and mystifying, and amazing) that something we did so many years ago, when quite young, continues to be of interest. Speaking solely for myself, I am further gratified that the records and art we produced has gradually come to command top dollar from collectors.”

Some people, however, might not be quite so enthusiastic about Nelson’s basement sale. Part of Dischord’s reputation was built on keeping records in print, affordable, and accesible. Someone with an “x” tattooed above either ankle may not look kindly on Nelson eBaying some of hardcore’s holiest relics.

Nelson doesn’t see a conflict. “I know that many will say that the monetization of old, rare records (especially those emanating from a music scene renowned for its do-it-yourself ethic and anti-commercialization) cheapens the music and any message inherent in it,” he writes. “As a long-time collector of all sorts of things, I very much disagree. Sure, it means that original copies of our records have become unaffordable to most people, but the records themselves (and music contained therein) have never been out of print, and Dischord continues to sell them for a very affordable price. I think that after a quarter-century remove, the music/art we produced in our youth is now being valued on several different levels (perceived historic importance / cool factor / money), for which I continue to be very grateful.”

Michelle, who bought the test pressing of Minor Threat’s self-titled seven-inch, certainly isn’t pointing a finger.

“Really there are only probably a handful of bands that can match the music of Minor Threat,” she writes (Michelle declined to provide her full name or hometown, or whether she even lives in the United States). An avid old school punk fan—mostly European stuff like Rattus and Terveet Kadet—she’s been collecting records since the early ’80s. She says she’s spent $700–800 for Execute’s “A-Z” seven-inch flexidisc and a copy of the Misfits’ “Horror Business” double A-side seven-inch. But never anything like the cash she spent on the Minor Threat test press. “There is no other US band I would consider dropping so much money on,” she says.

“I give them credit because they were first, bands that were as good as them came later. The first EP was truly their signature sound, there are no tricks from the engineers. It’s truly D.I.Y.” Not that she’s put it on the turntable. “The Minor Threat test press I have is unplayed, it looks dead mint. I would not dare play it,” she explains. “But if your curious how it sounds, it’s just like the stock copy. Nothing different.”

Like Nelson, she recognizes that in a few years, that record might just be more clutter. “I don’t know how much longer I will be into it, your musical tastes change as you get older,” she writes. “My whole plan was to start selling my collection when I retire, but I have too much, so I have been debating on whether to start early.”

- So! My girlfriend and I are driving to Florida at the end of the month, and we have this guide book, which she says is "poorly written and full of bad puns." I agree! That said: A 14-hour drive, even if spread over two days, is pretty soul-crushing, and we'd like to see some cool stuff along the way. Cultural tourists, where should we stop? We like regional culinary specialties, funny signs, and homes of dead authors. Close proximity to I-95 is preferred.

- Yesterday, Maura Judkis updated Arts Desk on how the D.C. delegation fared at Miami's Art Basel. To get a sense of what sold (and for how much, and to Val Kilmer) at this year's fair, check out this slide show from New York's Vulture blog.

- Perhaps the Jawbox performance on Jimmy Fallon left you thirsty for more reunited Dischord acts. Good news then! D.C. hardcore veterans Scream's show at the Black Cat is now on the mainstage, which means it's no longer sold out. (It's the original lineup, so no Dave Grohl.)

- This video of the Manhattan Bridge might be even more terrifying than loose roof panels in the National Gallery. (Hat tip: Kottke.)

- An endorsement! The new Blisspop blog launched last month, and has turned me on to a ton of good music, mostly from local artists and DJs. It has also reminded me of some things I had hoped to forget.

- Song of the day! A Sunny Day in Glasgow's lovely cover of "Game of Pricks" by Guided by Voices:

The Philly sextet plays tonight at the Red and the Black. (More on this later today!)

Have a great day! Come to our Tweetup tonight! Follow me on Twitter!

Ask veterans of Dischord Records, and they'll tell you that 1985 was their Summer of Love. It was the "Revolution Summer," when strands of D.C.'s punk scene cohered into the forward-thinking, inward-looking sound—epitomized by Embrace, Rites of Spring, and others—by which the label made its bones. A pedant might say it was the moment when hardcore became post-hardcore.

One of the Dischord bands active that summer was Gray Matter, who reunited last year at the Black Cat's 15th anniversary show, and whose furious, tortured punk rock often made room for caterwauling guitar solos and lengthy, psychedelic freak-outs—like the one that concludes the quartet's 1985 Take it Back EP, ending abruptly with a crash of breaking glass.

Dischord has reissued that EP and the 1984 Food for Thought album on LP and in MP3, and at 8 p.m. tonight, you can buy both records at a free listening party in the Red Room bar at the Black Cat. Drummer Dante Ferrando—the club's owner—and singer and guitarist Geoff Turner will be there, spinning both records as well as some of their favorite tunes by D.C. bands. (If you played in one of those groups, Ferrando says he'll buy you a drink.) Collectors take note: The Take It Back reissue also includes every track from Gray Matter's 1991 4 Songs double seven-inch, which is out of print. However, the group's six-minute cover of "I Am the Walrus," which was included on the 1990 CD compilation of Food for Thought and Take it Back, sadly seems to be absent.

And don't forget! Dischord has rescued Jawbox's stunning For Your Own Special Sweetheart from the bowels of Atlantic Records, and that reissue is also in stores today. Jawbox performs on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Dec. 8.

Perhaps you've heard there's a lot of free shit going down this weekend. If you haven't, well, there's a lot of free shit going down this weekend. Most of it revolves around the Kia Soul Collective tour, which has set up shop in a warehouse at 3330 New York Ave. NE, with free parking as well as a free shuttle from Union Station. Wale performs in the space tonight at 7 p.m., with DJs Stereofaith, Reed Rothchild, and Chris Burns spinning from 4 p.m. Tomorrow night belongs to Dan Deacon, The Creepers, and Nouveau Riche DJs; the music starts at 8 p.m. And MGMT is headlining an 8 p.m. show Sunday night following DJ sets by DJ CA$$IDY and Dave Nada. To get tickets to this last concert, however, you have to test drive a Kia first, which you can do all weekend, if that's your thing.

And Future, Army Of Me (in an acoustic iteration), Laughing Man, and The Mighty Heard are all performing outdoors at the H Street Festival on Saturday, all along H Street NE. Brightest Young Things is also hosting a free party that night in the Rock & Roll Hotel's upstairs bar. Baller.

Dischord Records is now distributing releases by Windian Records, a new label started by The Points drummer Travis "Cobruhhh" Jackson. The band's new Beat In Hell 7", whose 6-minute B-side is about four times longer than every other Points song, is available now.

This is a few days old: Dischord and DeSoto Records are rereleasing Jawbox's 1994 career highpoint For Your Own Special Sweetheart, and they've included a few bonus tracks from the very rare Savory+3 EP. The remastered album drops Nov. 23.

The Velodrome dance/not-dance party is back from summer vaycay this weekend.

Local way-beyond-left-field hip-hop band The Cornel West Theory has a release show at Liv next Friday for its new album, Second Rome, and apparently the eminent Princeton African American Studies professor and group namesake will be there.

Image courtesy of Dan Deacon's MySpace page.

One of my favorite local bands, Andalusians, will be releasing a three-song 7-inch single, "Do the Work," on February 16. Dischord recently announced with a bit of info. The downloadable version will include three extra tracks!

Dischord also reports that the band will soon be touring with a stop at the Black Cat: "The band will celebrate the record release and begin a tour of the south and mid-west United States with a show in DC at Black Cat on February 5th."

You can listen to "Do The Work" on the band's myspace page.