“Chuck Brown’s Long Dance,” last Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine cover story about the godfather of D.C. go-go music, was an illustration of the importance of editing. Brown’s audience? “30- to 40-something African Americans.” Later we learn that his audience “is made up of mostly 30- and 40-something African Americans.” Brown’s prison stint? “Back then, Lorton was like a school,” he tells author Robin Rose Parker. Later he tells her “Lorton was a schoolhouse,” adding for good measure, “It was like a college.” And what of Parker’s assertion that Brown’s 1979 hit “Bustin’ Loose” was released “decades before his high school audience was born”? Considering today’s seniors were mostly born in 1992, those must have been some short decades! But the problems with this piece don’t end with line-editing—you have to wonder why a feature on Brown got assigned in the first place, when there is nothing new left to say about the legendary musician, who rates over 11,000 results in a Google search for “Washington Post” plus his name. However! There are still some scenarios under which a Chuck Brown feature might be worthwhile reading, as long as the Godfather is still winding up the living. For instance:

Read More “Assign Me Up, Chuck
The only conceivable reasons to run a Chuck Brown feature in 2009” »

Bluebrain’s “Cakeblood” composition is to aleatoric (or chance-based) music as the duo’s usual repertoire is to heavily textured indie pop: smart, a tad bewildering, and ultimately quite pleasant.

That was certainly the case last Thursday night, when the area duo and about four dozen recruits performed the 36-minute work-for-30-odd-boomboxes while walking around the Dupont area. The music itself shuffled through a few movements and themes: At times it was ambient and aquatic-sounding, while other moments were minimalistic and percussive. My favorite passage was a chaotic assemblage of found sounds—exactly the “weird, electronic jungle” that Bluebrain member Hays Holladay told me to expect last week.

After the jump, check out a 3-minute video Bluebrain made containing some highlights of the event. The group performs this Friday at The Writers Center in Bethesda as part of the ongoing “Story/Stereo” series.

Read More “Video: Bluebrain And Its Boombox Orchestra” »

Dear Ms. Beasley,

One of my higher-ups alerted me to your valedictory XX Files column in yesterday’s Washington Post Magazine. Imagine my surprise to discover that it was all about me!

Surprise and chagrin, to be honest. Because your column paints a horrifying picture of post-college male decadence, including but not limited to 1.) gluttony 2.) a dependency on beer and 3.) suggestively redacted Tenacious D lyrics.

Read More “An Open Letter to Sandra Beasley
Or: So long, and sorry for the a cappella!” »

Some people insist that the newspapers’ current crisis is ultimately good for journalism, including arts journalism. But decreased budgets mean giving ink to the lowest bidders, rather than the best journalists.

Which is how highly regarded papers end up with concert reviews like this one, published last Thursday in the Montreal Gazette. The ignorance and complete disregard for the actual music is exceeded only by the blatant misogyny.

Still wonder why journos are worried?

From tonight’s pick by Caroline Jones: “One part kitsch, one part political satire, and one part glitter, the Kinsey Sicks, describe themselves as “America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet.” The group returns to D.C. on Saturday night with a new set of parodies, skewering everyone from Condoleezza Rice to Vanna White. What began 15 years ago with four guys attending a Bette Midler show dressed as the Andrews Sisters is now an off-Broadway revue that’s traveled around the country and the world.”

Read the entire Kinsey Sicks pick for details.

Skate rock (Think Sublime’s genetic material crossed with that of Minor Threat) is a lot like milt. Some people get a mouthful of the creamy white stuff and think, “So this is fish sperm. Not bad!” Other people take a bite, move it around with their tongues, and then say to themselves, “Oh god, I just put fish balls in my mouth.” They panic. They look for a trash can, a napkin, maybe some condiments to amend the taste. They crunch up crackers and squirt cocktail sauce directly into their gaping, fishy maws.  When that doesn’t work, they spit what’s left into their hands and shove it in their pockets.

Read More “White Trash Renegades: The Supervillains, Authority Zero, Pennywise, and Pepper at the 9:30 Club” »

Stupid Hurricane/Tropical Storm.

Arlington Arts, the good people behind the annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival, have just announced that the “predicted severity of Tropical Storm Hanna” has resulted in the festival’s cancellation. No rain date or anything…just flat canceled.

If you were planning to head out to Gateway Park on North Lynn Street to see and hear pianist Lafayette Gilchrist, harmonicist Frederic Yonnet, singer Holly Cole, or the Spanish Harlem Orchestra–for that matter, if you were planning to stay in and listen to it on WPFW’s simulcast–well, make new plans.

Shockapella report, RNC edition: Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha made a ruckus on Minnesota’s capital lawn after the fuzz 86′d their planned appearance onstage. The shenanigans went down on Tuesday; videos thereof appeared yesterday on Above the Fold.

Watch below to see what happens when a couple of scalawags get their hands on a megaphone. Oh, the impertinence!

A few weeks back I was traveling through Cleveland and decided to make a more focused visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wanted to avail myself of the exhibits and memorabilia that had a District angle. Wandering from floor to floor in the massive and often impressive space, however, I realized that mentions of D.C.’s impact on rock history were spare.

Sure, there were the obligatory references to Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole playing the Howard Theater, and to the Beatles’ first American concert played in D.C. But what became apparent was that according to the Rock HoF, D.C.’s singular role in rock and roll history–what it should be known for–is that of morality police.

For example, a large wall panels just inside the entrance to the main exhibit tell the story of rock and roll’s early fights against the Man.

“Rock and roll is repulsive to right thinking people and can have adverse affects on our young people.”

J Edgar Hoover, Washington DC

It doesn’t end there. Other panels reported on Tipper Gore’s decency crusade and Frank Zappa’s (pictured) appearance before Congress. And in the hip-hop exhibit is the prominently displayed letter sent by the FBI (from DC) to N.W.A’s label expressing their concern at Straight Outta Compton’s content.

Though in the interest of balance, Jim Morrison’s High School Diploma and report cards from George Washington High School in Alexandria, Va. get some wall space.

I admire Britannica for doing more online, especially now that the entire world is literally conspiring together to put the encyclopedia publisher out of business. But if it keeps blogging nonsense like Robert McHenry’s post today, they get everything they deserve. McHenry is the former editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia—surely the job of a fearsomely intelligent man—and he’s careful to insulate his assertions with an admission that he doesn’t keep up. But still: “It seems as though sometime in the 1950s the golden age of songwriting came to a quiet close.”

And worse: “Surely one of the primary reasons that the Beatles hold such an eminent place among contemporary popular musicians is that they, meaning chiefly John Lennon and Paul McCartney, had a strong sense of melody and wrote songs that could be played, sung, and listened to with pleasure by others.”

It’s been a rough go, lo this many decades after Let It Be, finding music that can be “listened to with pleasure,” but somehow we’ve muddled through.