Phil Ade's Return
At one point, it seemed Phil Ade dropped a new mixtape every month. I mean, hell, he dropped four tapes in 2011 alone. Then seemingly as suddenly, the Prince George’s County rapper disappeared—taking time away to perfect his craft, he said at April’s Broccoli City Festival. But this week, Ade returned with “Nas [...]
When Emy Tseng moved to D.C. in 2009, she had to adjust to two new worlds: her day job at the Department of Commerce, and her nighttime role as a bossa nova and jazz vocalist in a new music scene. A Taiwanese-American who learned classical piano as a child and began singing traditional early music [...]
Friday, May 24
She's not Janine Gilbert-Carter or Sharón Clark—D.C. long-timers with serious credentials—but Lena Seikaly is nonetheless probably the city's most visible jazz singer. She's a young artist, with a smooth, deep, oaky voice, and phrasing and control that belie her youth. She's also renowned on the scene for her beautiful and progressive approach to composition. [...]
Last night at the Black Cat, fuzz-pop band Lorelei started off sounding a little hesitant, but that didn't last long.
Standout Track: No. 2, “Pretty Polly,” an England-by-way-of-Appalachia folk song about a murderous young man who kills his fiancée. The combination of clawhammer banjo and cello, along with the haunting vocals of Vandaveer members Mark Charles Heidinger and Rose Guerin, lends a macabre twang that distinguishes the song from previously recorded versions by The Byrds [...]
America’s most celebrated living composer is in town for a two-week festival spanning multiple venues. This week, the Library of Congress hosts Adams in residency. Various chamber groups and soloists will perform his work beginning tonight, including the premiere of a newly commissioned piece on Friday with the International Contemporary Ensemble. The following week, Adams [...]
Wale spent the last week tweeting about "Love Hate Thing," the next release from his third album, The Gifted, which drops June 25. With Folarin's "Bad" dominating the radio, anticipation for new Wale material has been high. His latest release should temporarily sate the fans—and maybe even quiet some of his critics.
"Love Hate Thing" (which [...]
Some metal bands play consistently great live shows simply by virtue of their music's relative simplicity. Unlike the kind of metal that relies on technical complexity and mathematical precision, the straightforward brand of stuff that Kvelertak plays really just comes down to big, catchy riffs. With these guys there's just not a lot of nuance [...]
Mt. Pleasant resident and Beautiful Swimmers member Andrew Field-Pickering has chalked up another alias: As Dolo Percussion, the producer and Future Times label co-founder has just released a four-song solo release via New York label L.I.E.S.
As with a lot of the music Field-Pickering generates, the sounds find their way online well before the vinyl is shipped. [...]
Greg Tate always thinks big. Readers of the Village Voice probably remember Tate for his music writing—as a critic at the paper from 1987 to 2003, Tate tossed street slang, academic lingo, and literary and historical references into his music criticism. An Ohio-born, D.C.-raised Howard University grad, Tate co-founded the Black Rock Coalition and wrote [...]
