D.C. fans of African sounds have a tough choice to make tonight. Tuareg guitarist Omara Bombino Moctar and his band bring their desert psychedelia to the Black Cat with local pan-African openers Sahel, while Nettle, an international band including two Moroccans plus Jace Clayton (aka DJ Rupture), Andy Moor from The Ex, and others, will be [...]
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 [...]
On a scale between "click on a link" and "volunteer for at-risk youth," this year's Virgin Mobile FreeFest lineup is worth, say, assembling toiletry kits at a drop-in center for the homeless. What the cornerstone back-to-school party lacks in area talent and a discernible, reliable musical identity, it compensates for with exhausting marketing.
While the gimmicky stylings [...]
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) [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
What better way to kick off a summer weekend than with a heady mix of post-rock, ephemeral doom, brutal crust metal, and, um, a 14-woman vocal choir?
Tonight's show at St. Stephen's Church is far from sweetness and light. Headlining the affair is Ilsa, a local metal-laced crust punk act (or, conversely, crust-punk infused metal [...]
Penn Quarter's Hill Country Barbeque Market is an appropriate venue for Austin, Texas-based blues maven Carolyn Wonderland.
She brings a gutsy, carnivalesque atmosphere to her version of the blues, but doesn't shy from the warm embrace of classic Americana.
Wonderland performs tonight, where—who knows?—she may bring some trumpet and well-placed whistling to the stage. “It's worthwhile to sometimes write [...]
Slug has been a professional rapper for over 20 years. He’s happily married, runs a flagship indie hip-hop label, and cares tons about his legacy. To points of paranoia: It’s days before his sixth Atmosphere album, The Family Sign, hits shelves and Slug can’t pirate it online.
“Usually if it doesn’t leak through the press circuit [...]
Dave Mann has got a triple-pronged approach to world domination. No. 1: Launch awesome music blog. No. 2: Launch awesome concert series at local Eritrean restaurant. No. 3: Book really awesome two-day festival at said restaurant.
The Brookland resident, a 32-year old federal employee, officially launched his music blog Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie— which [...]
