“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” »

When George Washington University music professor Kip Lornell teamed up with former Experience Unlimited (EU) manager Charles C. Stephenson to introduce academia to D.C.’s primary musical export in 2001’s The Beat, go-go blasted through boomboxes held by guys selling mixtapes out of cars near the intersection of East Capitol St. and Benning Road NE more often than it was heard on WPGC.

Eight years later, white frat boys are lining up to watch Chuck Brown headline the 9:30 Club. We asked Lornell and Stephenson about what has changed.

City Paper: Why does go-go face such a struggle for mainstream acceptance?

Charles C. Stephenson: I don’t think it’s a struggle. You go back historically—there’s been an evolution…most of the musicians are basically satisfied. They don’t want it commercialized. As long as they can play the music in its purest form, they feel good. Some bands would like to go international, national. Periodically, there are breakout artists that reach higher heights. But the majority of musicians associated with go-go are just happy to play the music.

Kip Lornell: It’s no more of a struggle now than it was 10 or 20 years ago….Keep in mind that media has changed so much….It’s much easier to consume go-go if you’re in Amarillo, Texas, and its 2009 than if you’re in Amarillo if it’s 1999.

But if you take go-go out of a club east of the river or in P.G. County, is it still go-go?
Read More “The Beat, Reissued” »

Friday

• eNVee, Stacy Brooks. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
• Leo Kottke. Birchmere. $35.
• Bill Callahan (Smog), Lights. Black Cat. $15. All ages.
• An Evening w/ Lynda Carter (Fri.-Sat.). Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. $45–$75.
• Original Tuxedo Jazz Band (Part of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival). Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
• Apostle of Hustle, Black and Tan Fantasy Band, DJ Yellow Fever. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10/$12. All ages.
• Whale Etouffee New Orleans Band. 8 p.m. Saint’s Bourbon Street Grill. 1812 Hamlin Street, N.E. (202) 269-2150.
• Chuck Brown. The State Theatre. $25.
• Marlon Jordan (part of the Duke Ellington Jazz Fest; Fri.-Sat.). Twins Jazz. $15.
• Velodrome feat. Hotchacha. Velvet Lounge. $8. +21.
• Sunsets with a Soundtrack: The U.S. Army Concert Band w/ the Canadian Ceremonial Guard Band. West Steps U.S. Capitol. Free.
• Women’s Pride Concert & Party w/ Meshell Ndegeocello, Melissa Ferrick. 9:30 club. $30.
• Gipsy Kings (Fri.-Sat.). Wolf Trap. $25-$42.

Read More “Weekend Music Round-Up” »

Just a quick reminder that the DC Record Fair hits this Saturday and is shaping up to be the greatest record fair in the history of record fairs. The legendary Chuck Brown will be in the building signing autographs, ten DJs will be rocking separate rooms, food and alcohol will be served, and yours truly will be slanging records and tapes alongside 29 other more qualified dealers. Come through and say hello.

The Vinyl District reports that the D.C. Record Fair is back and will on Saturday May 9. Som Records and DC Soul Recordings are sponsoring. This is gonna be big. The blog writes:

“We’ve relocated to The Warehouse Next Door—doubling our capacity and doubling the number of dealers into the bargain! This time we’ve got 30 dealers from Connecticut, New York, and Richmond and many points in between. AND we’ve got a full bar and kitchen to sustain you between crate dives.

Oh—did I mention that DC Legend Chuck Brown’s paying us a visit? He’ll be blessing the crowd and signing autographs between raffles to win autographed Daptone records and posters.”

Read More “The D.C. Record Fair Is Back!” »

Friday

• Chuck Brown. The Barns at Wolf Trap. $30. All ages.
• Pistolera. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. FREE. All ages.
• Katy Perry. 9:30 club. SOLD OUT! All ages.
• Maria Taylor, The Whispertown 2000, Laura Burhenn. Rock and Roll Hotel. $12. All ages.
• BLACK CATatonia w/ DJ Dk. Black Cat Backstage. $5. All ages.
• Velodrome 1 Year Anniversary w/ Fffever, Lode Runner. Velvet Lounge. $7. +21.
• OCDC, The Main Drag, Friendly Foes, Prussia. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.
• Lovefingers, Lee Douglas. Comet Ping Pong. FREE. All ages.
• Tim Green (Fri. & Sat. shows). Bohemian Caverns. $25. All ages.
• All Good Funk Alliance, DJ Thomas Blondet. 18th Street Lounge. +21.
• Candlewax Records presents DJ Blake 9. Cafe Saint Ex. +21.

Read More “Weekend Music Roundup: Chuck Brown, Beirut, Tim Green” »

The legendary Chuck Brown is a man of many, many talents. You probably already know that, in addition to inventing an entire genre of music, the Godfather of Go-Go is a guitar player, singer, rapper, party starter, D.C. booster, fedora wearer, and an extraordinarily effective pitchman for lottery tickets and newspapers. But, did you know that he’s also an actor?

Brown has been making a nightly special guest appearance in the stage play “Love Overboard,” which began its run at the Warner Theatre on Tuesday. According to Brown’s manager, Tom Goldfogle, the icon gives a musical performance and also delivers one line during his time on stage. Goldfogle said he was unable to quote the line, but we’d be willing to bet it ends in “doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop.”

Your last chance to catch Brown’s line is Sunday, Feb. 1 at the Warner Theatre, 513 13th Street, NW. Tickets are $45.50-54.50.

Chuck Brown’s still got it. And the duo plays to his strengths laying down some solid rhythms. The damn fine tune is off the duo’s latest album Radio Retaliation. I have one question: Where did Thievery Corporation get that Caddy?

This week I wrote about Mingering Mike. Mike is a talented singer, songwriter, and artist. For nearly 40 years, he chose to write in secret. Between 1968 and 1977, he recorded songs and drew his own album covers inspired by those secret recording sessions. He actively avoided fame. In fact, he insists on using a fake name in public.

During Mike’s heyday, D.C.’s soul scene was huge. There were dozens of bands and clubs; it was way bigger than go-go and punk would become. I don’t know if Mingering Mike would have “made it” through traditional means–playing clubs, networking, sending demo tapes to New York, etc. But I wanted to find out what it was like for singers and musicians who didn’t record in their bathroom.

Chuck Brown was an obvious first call. Maybe too obvious. He’s been interviewed probably hundreds of times. But that didn’t stop him from telling me a great story.

Read More “Chuck Brown Talks D.C. Soul History” »

Friday:

Though five seasons of The Wire exposed the masses to many aspects of Baltimoriana, there are a few things the show failed to properly address—crab chips, Natty Boh, and Baltimore club music among them. Luckily, B-more club doesn’t need David Simon to speak to its ubiquity and versatility when it’s got Tittsworth. The D.C. native, who calls his style “Baltimore-club-inspired,” is best known for blazing DJ sets and remixes. But on his debut album, Twelve Steps, he turns to making original tracks, and the entire production is a dancefloor murderer, mixing hip-hop, R&B, electronic music, and a little bit of pretty much everything else. And Tittsworth does it in a way that erases the “international night” stigma that folks outside of B-more often attach to club music of any kind. “Drunk as F*ck,” featuring Bay Area rappers the Federation, is exactly the sort of ’hood-tested, hipster-approved track that distinguishes club music from white-boy electronica or drag-queen house: Its driving beat and raunchy lyrics make for a smutty good time, tailor-made for after-hours play on 92Q and capable of pulling even the most booze-blistered onto the floor. “Bumpin’” is hilariously built around the House Party (and house party) scenario of some guy knocking his drunk ass up against a DJ setup. But unlike Bad Breath Bilal, Tittsworth makes the most of the situation and works every DJ’s least favorite sound—an unintentional scratch—into the mix. There’s a charm to choppy, mad-scientist splicing, and instrumental tracks such as “4.21” and “Haiku” are dense productions designed to move bodies and induce deep nods of the non-heroin-induced variety. But there’s also a lot to be said for the seamless, collaborative blending of beats and vocal work, and Twelve Steps really soars whenever it pairs Tittsworth’s production with guest singers and rappers. None of the artists on the disc are sampled—they’ve all tailored their work to each track, which elevates the disc above typical DJ mash-ups and remixes. “Here He Comes” features identical-twin duo Nina Sky and Miami rapper Pitbull, who know their way around a dance track. Same goes for the sticky “Almond Joy,” featuring Michelle Bell and Roll Wit Us All-Stars and “WTF,” featuring Kid Sister and Pase Rock. The best guest by far, however, is Tittsworth’s fellow new-school Baltimore DJ-scene standard-bearer Dave Nada, who offers up a mix of the track “B-Rockin’.” It’s a 3-minute shout-out to some of the best dance DJs on the planet. You know, Scottie B, Diplo, Frank Ski—and, of course, Tittsworth. —Sarah Godfrey

Tittsworth performs Friday, Aug. 29, at the 9:30 Club.

Over the last decade or so, My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields has needed merely to mention the idea of a new album in order to provoke a revived interest in shimmery, fuzzy, blaring early-’90s shoegaze. Now that Shields has made good on his threats of an MBV reunion, a lot of current bands could be considered a little redundant. It certainly puts Philadelphia-based experimentalists Relay in a tough spot. On one hand, a band could do worse than to be compared to My Bloody Valentine, as Relay often is; on the other, Relay is genuinely inventive, taking the Valentine formula and adding a few new tricks to it. The twinkles, twirls, and swells of electronic ambience that sometimes underpin Relay’s sonic atmospheres are delicate and unobtrusive, and the quartet’s yawning surges of sound and understated vocals distinguish it from the comparison du jour. RELAY PERFORMS WITH TIMBERWOLF DIVISION, GIRL LOVES DISTORTION, AND HIMALAYA AT 10 P.M. AT THE VELVET LOUNGE, 915 U ST. NW. $8. (202) 462-3213. —Matthew A. Stern

Friday-Sunday:

If age seems to be one of Mose Allison’s lyrical preoccupations, it’s also one of his distinctions. The 80-year-old singer/pianist was born in Mississippi at a time when jazz and blues were more or less interchangeable—and in his music, they still are, along with R&B and even postwar pop crooning. Though Allison says his genre-blurring has made it difficult to maintain a steady audience, those who’ve remained loyal include Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russell, and the Who—all of whom have recorded some of Allison’s stellar compositions. But good as those covers are, Allison’s songwriting is best experienced through the filter of the maestro’s furiously rhythmic, greased-lightning piano technique and his wise but youthful voice. He makes the advancing years seem all but irrelevant, save for the years of study evidenced in the musical encyclopedia that Allison squeezes into every performance. THE MOSE ALLISON TRIO PERFORMS AT 8 AND 10 P.M. AT BLUES ALLEY, 1073 WISCONSIN AVE. NW. $25. (202) 337-4141. —Michael J. West

Saturday:

Is there anybody in the District who’s aged better than Chuck Brown? He got his start 40-some years ago, at a time when the local music scene wasn’t the easiest place to break out of. There were plenty of clubs back then—just very few labels and a whole lot of schemers. But Brown kept at it, wringing blues from his guitar in backyards for beer and barbecue. Graduating from the barbecue circuit to soul covers to inventing that go-go beat should have been enough. Now add a few more decades of steady gigs, hard playing, some tragedy, and contending with being called a legend everywhere you go. But as he gears up for tonight’s 73rd-birthday tribute, Brown remains the coolest guy gigging on any area stage. And since making Fenty look soulful at his inaugural ball, Brown can add miracle worker to his list of honorifics. Wind us up, Chuck. BROWN PERFORMS WITH CHOPTEETH AT 8 P.M. AT THE 9:30 CLUB, 815 V ST. NW. $25. (202) 265-0930. —Jason Cherkis