"We've been kind of a soap opera for the last couple years," admitted Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams about halfway through her headlining set on Saturday night at the Fillmore in Silver Spring. But the band seemed to have emerged from their tabloidy interlude not too much worse for the wear either musically or commercially. They [...]
North Carolina's up-and-coming Delta Rae played to a capacity crowd at the 9:30 Club on Saturday night. The ensemble's 2012 record, Carry the Fire, is competent if fairly straightforward pop-rock featuring four vocalists, but its live show is a different beast entirely. The six-piece band blew through its set, including a couple of [...]
Iranian women singers are barred from performing in public in Iran. But this week in D.C., there are a few unique opportunities to hear Iranian women singers perform songs that straddle traditional Persian music and contemporary pop, among other far-flung influences.
First there's Mahsa Vahdat, who duets with American soul singer Mighty Sam McClain at the Atlas Performing Arts [...]
In 1966, Maryland rock band The Hangmen’s catchy tune “What a Girl Can’t Do” pushed the Beatles' “We Can Work it Out” out of the No. 1 slot on D.C.-area top-hits station WEAM. The song was penned by then Montgomery College student and guitarist Tom Guernsey—at first for his prior band, The Reekers, before it was released [...]
The Virgin Mobile FreeFest is like that time you bought a Groupon for Virginia wine-country tasting. Your clique lacks cohesion because it consists of people that back-doored into the deal or have a tenuous connection to the driver. There's goat cheese, wine slushies, and Ben Folds Five.
When you finally get there, you might find that [...]
Louisiana’s Curley Taylor will play accordion tonight with his band Zydeco Trouble at Jessup, Md., beer hall Blob’s Park, but that doesn't mean he’s just another traditional roots musician. He's a fan of '60s soul and contemporary R&B, he told me in a recent email, and his favorite singer is R. Kelly. He even plans [...]
Dominican bachata has led the Latin-music coverage in the mainstream news lately, but this weekend in the D.C. area, the theme is reggaeton, son, and duranguense.
Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Nengo Flow recently released a 17-song mixtape, Real G 4 Life Part 2. Heavily autotuned over fairly conventional beats, Nengo spits Spanish and Spanglish verses alongside fellow [...]
On Tuesday the Washington Area Music Association announced the nominees for the 26th annual Wammies, which take place Feb. 19 at the State Theatre. It’s no secret that I and others have long been critical of the local awards ceremony's mistakes, omissions, and policies. I'd hoped this year would be very different but, alas, I [...]
The Surf Club still has not permanently regained an entertainment license allowing it to present live music and sell booze in the same evening, but the club’s owner James Byrum announced on the club’s website Monday that tomorrow's tribute show to what would have been Buddy Holly’s 75th birthday (the rock pioneer was born Sept. 7) [...]
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, who are at Artisphere tonight, are a Cajun band. But they’re more than that. Formed in 1988, this French-singing Louisiana group, led by singer/accordionist Riley and fiddle player David Greely, started out by covering obscure Cajun two-step numbers and waltzes with energy and precision. But beginning with their 1995 [...]
