Chris Mills is one of the greatest contemporary singer-songwriter talents you've probably never heard. Mills has been steadily putting out incredible records since the late '90s, all the while building an loyal and adoring fan base with this driving, guitar-laden pop songs and smart lyrics. Promoting his recent 14-track retrospective, Heavy Years: 2000-2010, Mills hit the DC9 [...]
"We're not sure who all of you are," said Allo Darlin's Elizabeth Morris at the start of the group's Black Cat Backstage show last night, "as the last time we were here, I think our audience had six people in it. So we'd like to thank you all for coming." It's great that ears are finding their [...]
I was lucky enough to catch Sondre Lerche live at South by Southwest 2010's tribute to Big Star. Music can lift one up in times of sadness, and Lerche's aching rendition of "The Ballad of El Goodo" that night, four short days after the passing of Big Star's lead singer, Alex Chilton, was the perfect salvation [...]
Okkervil River’s densely lyrical, humanist brand of saloon rock attacks with a punk backbone and crescendos into high voltage, often thanks to baroque arrangements. Slowly perfected over seven albums, the stuff is instantly recognizable today as indie rock thanks to big-picture turning points in pop (Win Butler on the Grammys, Justin Vernon backing Kanye West, [...]
National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman probably isn't the first person who comes to mind when a musician playing the Black Cat announces she has a special guest. But then again, Neko Case is anything but usual. (Landesman and Case, who promotes literacy awareness, repped the D.C. chapter of 826 National, a literacy [...]
Saturday's sold out show at the Black Cat Backstage was the last night of Ted Leo's current solo tour, and Leo seemed downright giddy. Leo regaled the audience with Paul Stanley quotes about concert participation, name-checked all of the cool bands who had opened for him this tour, led the crowd in an enthusiastic acoustic [...]
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 [...]
At South by Southwest this year, the band Yuck's big, shoegaze-y sound had a lot of folks buzzing it being the next big thing. "Georgia," off Yuck's self-titled debut, runs a super-catchy pop melody across shredding and distorted guitars. Sadly, the band's opening slot Friday at the Black Cat showed "Georgia" is the lone standout. Redundant [...]
New York art punks Les Savy Fav have earned a reputation as one of the most unpredictable live bands around. Frontman Tim Harrington—all beard and belly—is known for kicking up a ruckus, so Ryan Little and I headed over to The Black Cat Saturday to see if its low ceiling could withstand Harrington's assaults.
Pre-Show Banter
Ryan Little: How many [...]
Alejandro Escovedo is one of those artists who has lived three or four lives in the space of one. He's seen what most have only read about in books, and thankfully, puts these experiences into his songs for us to hear. Escovedo brought his genre-spanning catalog to the 9:30 Club stage on Sunday with his [...]
