Pree is a band that actually sounds better in the day. The D.C. group's psychedelic folk isn't too weird or too meandering for a sunny afternoon. So seeing Pree at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon at the 2011 CMJ Music Marathon in New York City sounded like a sure bet. It wasn't exactly.
One of [...]
"You know when you have the same dream for 740 nights in a row?" When Swedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman asked this question to a sold-out crowd at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue last night, he phrased it so sincerely that you almost re-examined whether you actually had. Out supporting his EP An Argument With Myself, Lekman [...]
Roxy Music frontman and solo artist Bryan Ferry has long been regarded as one of the best-dressed musicians around. With his debonair attitude and that silken voice, Ferry has epitomized a certain crooner cool since the early '70s, when Roxy Music first came on the art-rock scene. Supporting his newest release, Olympia, Ferry stopped by [...]
Years ago, Cymbals Eat Guitars leader Joe D'Agostino took guitar lessons with Charles Bissell—The Wrens' guitarist, who for obvious reasons goes by the nickname Pedal Boy. Bissell later worked with Cymbals on early demos for the album Why There Are Mountains. So it wasn't surprising at all to see so many pedal decks scattered [...]
Wilco's setlist last night at Merriweather Post Pavilion had something for fans of every Wilco. Prefer cowpokey Wilco, from immediately after the days of Uncle Tupelo? They played "Boxful of Letters" off of A.M. ("The record six of you bought," said frontman Jeff Tweedy.) The netherworldly sonics of the band's output from the last decade or [...]
Billy McCarthy is still standing. After dealing with the disintegration of a promising band doomed to rot on a dying indie label, the unexpected suicides of his mother and brother, and problems with alcohol abuse, the Brooklyn-based songwriter has resurfaced with his new band We Are Augustines.
McCarthy's old band—the anthemic and pleading Pela—would chew on [...]
The sun shone bright Saturday at this year's Virgin FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and while the grounds were a bit muddier than last year, at least the Dance Forest wasn't as dusty. It was the first nice afternoon in weeks—as well as the day before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and the start of [...]
Marginal Man, one of the early bands on Dischord Records, played a one-off reunion show to a packed Black Cat on Saturday night. "When [Government Issue] did their reunion show back in December, [Marginal Man drummer] Mike Manos and I sat in on a couple of Marginal Man songs with Set to Explode, who opened [...]
Last week, Paste magazine released an online-only issue documenting their favorite 25 up-and-coming acts, which included a fascinating anti-folk artist with some D.C. roots: Chad Matheny, aka Emperor X. For close to a decade, Matheny has amassed a cult following with his visceral yet intimate tunes and charismatic live performances. His bio says he's from Jacksonville, [...]
When local indie-pop singer Olivia Mancini decamped to New York last fall, it seemed as if D.C. had lost yet another artist to that giant creativity magnet to the north. Not so, says Mancini, who is playing at the Black Cat on Friday with her band, The Mates. She swears she is just there to [...]
