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 [...]
Next week Universal will reissue Nirvana's Nevermind to celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, which will put a nice cherry on top of the grunge-nostalgia sundae folks seem so eager to devour lately. But as anyone who lived in Seattle in the late '80s and early '90s—or anyone who spent a couple hours Googling bands after [...]
Kids, dogs, and many mainstays of the D.C. music scene were on hand last night to see power-pop and post-hardcore at Fort Reno. Leading Title Tracks, John Davis provided power-pop accompaniment for the dreams of those Tenleytown kids with a 9:30 p.m. bedtime. And J. Robbins' current band, Office of Future Plans, tore up [...]
An ethereal post-punk song is probably the last place one would expect to hear a slide guitar when there's synth at hand. But there it was, right in front of me Saturday night at the Black Cat Backstage, expertly played by Deleted Scenes guitarist Dominic Campanaro on the band's catchy new single "BedBedBedBedBed." Celebrating the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Categorizing Howard Fishman's records must make music-store clerks kind of crazy. Do they belong with jazz? Americana and roots music? Rock? You can hear all of the above in his songs.
Fishman recently released three separate records: Better Get Right, a brass-band love letter to New Orleans, where Fishman got his start; No Further Instructions, a group of string-centric [...]
Since 1995, when he began playing music again after an 18-year break, singer/guitarist/banjoist Otis Taylor has been playing blues like no one else. The Chicago-born, Denver-raised performer, who performs at Blues Alley tonight with his band, generates noisy drones and sharp, deliberate runs that he accompanies with chanted, dramatically evocative vocals and stripped-down arrangements featuring [...]
Neal Becton runs Som Records on U Street, but he also goes by DJ Neville Chamberlain for his "Brazilian Rhythms" dance night at St. Ex every third Thursday. He's celebrating the party's third anniversary tonight at the usual venue, and he'll be joined by DJ Provoke and a bar menu of Brazilian food and drink specials. [...]
Cult leader Charles Manson, you'll be pleased to know, is still serving his life sentence for the Tate/LaBianca murders of 1969. But that won't stop him from releasing a tetralogy of environmentally minded albums on Fredericksburg's Magic Bullet Records over the next year. The first, Air, just came out.
The bluesy, eerie eight-track album is [...]
