Slave Ambient, the latest from The War on Drugs, is adorned with hazy blue-and-red artwork that suits the album’s warm, swirling sound. The Philadelphia band places a premium on production: Soupy, Spiritualized-esque atmospherics surround Adam Granduciel’s Tom Petty sneer, and even the tunes themselves meld together at times, softened by Eno-like sonic washes. Yet Slave Ambient [...]
It’s Monday night at the Kennedy Center, and the cocktail crowd is confused. On many evenings, programming on the arts center’s free Millennium Stage skews toward background music for patrons killing time before Wicked. But at this particular moment, there’s no exchanging of pleasantries.
A front line of poets performs sharp-elbowed verse while prickly guitars, percussion, [...]
Would you believe a 30th anniversary concert organized by D.C.’s punk historian in the world’s most historically self-obsessed rock scene is not about nostalgia? That’s what Mark Andersen of Positive Force wants you to believe. In an interview with Arts Desk, he discussed the legacy of the Wilson Center, D.C.’s longtime punk institution, and the future [...]
D.C. was well-represented this year at South by Southwest, with a ton of local bands present at showcases like DC Does TX and others. Amid the massive festival's insanity, I caught a sampling of D.C. talent, from These United States and Wild Flag (featuring Mary Timony) to Ted Leo (hey, he lived here for a while) and Bad Brains. Shooting the [...]
Do you spend your days watching footage from now-legendary ‘80s hardcore shows? Do you feel like you missed something youthful and political? Do you still hate Ronald Reagan even all these years? Well, what better way to celebrate the former president’s recent birthday than with former Bad Brains frontman, HR, at an underground punk show? [...]
Brooklyn-via-Baltimore-via-Australia spazz-punk act The Death Set have kept pretty quiet since guitarist Beau Velasco died in September 2009. But the trio is starting to release some new tunes: Oin February, Ninja Tune will drop the band's new album, Michel Poiccard. To feed its fans' collective appetite, the group released a 43-song mixtape earlier this week [...]
The last time we heard from Kokayi, he and fellow D.C. natives Tabi Bonney and Alison Carney had written, recorded, and performed "Higher Stars" in one day. This time, Kokayi goes at it alone on "RoxTar," a genre-blending, mind-splitting, pop-rock fusion that pays homage to his favorite rock bands, and dispels any myth that black [...]
Silverdocs is just around the corner, as you know if you picked up today's Washington City Paper (online later today!). And for aficionados of punk rock, not to mention net-neutrality nerds, there's at least one good option on the festival's slate.
Or you could sate your punk jones tonight next Thursday at Affinity Lab in Adams [...]
Not many novelists reviewed in the New York Times are writing about Bad Brains shows in Washington, D.C., circa 1979. But Jennifer Gilmore, with her new novel Something Red, has somehow written a popular work of fiction in which H.R. is a minor player. We asked Gilmore, who's in town this week for several readings, [...]
Given that the filmmakers are still seeking footage/posters/recordings, I'm thinking that the Bad Brains documentary probably isn't all that close to completion. Maybe that's a good thing, though. The preview that recently popped up on the film's Myspace page is pretty heavy on footage from the recent Build a Nation tour, which all things considered, [...]
