OTHER MUSIC

Tonight, laptop jockey Balam Acab—he of the new-agey chillwave Lana Del Rey remix—plays Subterranean A. alongside Run DMT and Happy Family. It's a house show, so I won't drop the address. Think of it like a fun mystery, and you're the detective! 7:30 p.m.

Attention all 20-somethings who used to hang out at The Corner Kick: Long-dormant rock & roll outfit The Shakedowns plays a reunion show at Black Cat tonight with their old buddies The Alphabet Bombers. (As a teen, I estimate I saw both these bands about 30 times.) Sweep your hair into a pompadour and join in. Also on the bill: Nervous Impulse and the Do-Likes. 9 p.m. $10.

And finally, Fugazi's Joe Lally also gigs at Cat this weekend, still milking his latest album Why Should I Get Used To It. You may recall our reviewer Joe Warminsky quite liked it. Sunday at 8 p.m. with All Praises and Helen Money. $10.

Tonight and tomorrow, Stew and Heidi (formerly of great band The Negro Problem) drop by Studio Theatre to perform Stew's songs for Passing Strange, his rock musical about a young black man who finds his spiritual and artistic self in Europe. 8:30 p.m. both nights. $35.

But tonight's biggest party might be at Howard, when Chuck Brown touches down at the Cramton Auditorium. Doors open at 8 p.m., and tickets are $20 plus fees on Ticketmaster.

Having released music under various monikers for the last 15 years, Maria Taylor is no wide-eyed newcomer. The Alabaman has left her mark on the folk scene as a solo artist and as half of the disbanded, then reunited, Azure Ray. But recently, Taylor has explored personal places that Azure Ray eschewed in favor of more ambient sounds. In August, she released her fifth solo effort, Overlook, whose country elements reveal her Southern roots, but don’t outshine the dreamy folkiness that built her reputation on Saddle Creek. Taylor is not terribly innovative—or nearly as famous as her labelmate Bright Eyes—but she has a subdued talent that matures with age. 8:30 p.m. Saturday with Dead Fingers and The Grenadines at the Rock & Roll Hotel. (Emily Thompson)

BOOKS

In his latest book, The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food, The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik tackles two dominant schools of thought in the dining world: that of high-science molecular gastronomy and that of locally grown, earthy, organic slow food. Through it all, he weaves a narrative about his family's life (and eating habits) in Paris. Gopnik speaks at 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose tonight. Free.

THEATRE

Twitter comes to life: WaPo theater critic Peter Marks and former American Theatre Wing director Howard Sherman consummate their Twitter relationship at Arena tomorrow evening, discussing topics sure to include "the significance of a resident theater staying on mission, the value of audience enrichment events in tandem with productions, the pros and cons of celebrity casting, the nature of theatrical awards, the impact of social media on arts journalism and the role of the press in a theater’s marketing and public outreach." Phew! A meaty slate. 5 p.m. Saturday. $10.

DANCE

Fans of Spanish dance are probably well in the know by now, but for those behind the news: Don't miss this weekend's flamenco program at Gala.

And as always, you may find more weekend inspiration on our semi-comprehensive A&E event calendar.

Step inside the single-family home, and the source of the noise becomes clear: Black Alley is in the midst of a two-hour rehearsal, finalizing the songs they will perform live in the NBC Washington studios this week: "Artist's Prayer" and "Bad Girl."

The practice space is artistic enough—a pile of CDs sit on a dusty flat surface, and the brown-paneled walls celebrate musical pioneers: Aretha Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, and Quincy Jones, among others. A white dry-erase board outlines the band's immediate plans. There's the setlist for an upcoming gig and the working tracklist for the group's upcoming album, Soul Swagger Rock Sneakers, which doesn't have a release date (Kacey Williams, the band's vocalist, says the album is definitely in its finishing stages).

In tall green letters, that same erase board brings to light what is arguably Black Alley's biggest gig ever: "MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION!!!"

This Saturday, the seven-piece band will open this year's HFStival at the pavilion, a daylong concert featuring 20 acts, including Diane Birch, Gin Blossoms, and Minus the Bear. Black Alley earned the opportunity to perform this weekend after winning the California Tortilla Battle to Break Out competition at the 9:30 Club last month. (Just for perspective, Good Charlotte once won the Break Out competition.)

During this week's rehearsal, the band runs through a series of high-energy tracks. "Virgin Suicide," with a seductive poem at the song's onset, is methodical until it builds into a full-scale rock track. The aforementioned "Bad Girl" is hard and aggressive, a seemingly perfect song for this weekend's performance. Then there's "Used," a song for anyone who's been cheated on and lied to, Kacey says.

Still, when Black Alley opens the festival, they are likely to see a different crowd than they are used to playing. They recently performed for Chuck Brown's 75th birthday and work every Friday as the in-house band at the Indulj jazz club. With the HFStival, however, the other bands vacillate between breezy alt-rock and punk, and Black Alley's music is rooted in soul.

"We're different from what the festival is used to," Kacey says. "But we don't fit into any type of box. It will be something new and I think people will be blown away."

The band plans to end Saturday's show with a rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Look out for Animal's drum solo. And the possible encore. Word to Nicki Minaj.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is located at 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD. Doors at 10 a.m. Tickets are $35-$50.

Jefferson's Slaves: The Smithsonian and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation are planning an exhibit about the lives of the slaves owned by the author of the Declaration of Independence, slated to open next Jan. 27 at the National Museum of American History, The New York Times' ArtsBeat blog reports.

Maybe the Aristocrats Narrator Was Right: Today, "the paper that took down the Nixon Administration" runs a guide to the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars that consumes nearly an entire page. Discuss.

Yesterday on Arts Desk: X.O. reflects on becoming a brand. Catching up with Marty Baumann at Baltimore Comic-Con. Gawker accidentally says D.C. is awesome.

Dropping the Bomb: CNN discovers go-go! A short segment aired over the weekend (h/t TMOTTGoGO), which you can watch here. There are interviews with Chuck Brown and Donnie Simpson and some fans, which makes it a primer at best. The absence of other early titans of go-go (Rare Essence, Trouble Funk, E.U., Junk Yard, etc.) is regrettable; so is its ignorance of go-go as a living form (with young groups and young fans), and not a museum piece (it seems to feature only "grown and sexy" gigs).

Critical Sendoff: Local critic Bob Anthony, who wrote at and edited the site AllArtsReview4U, died Saturday of respiratory failure. Maryland Theatre Guide's Joel Markowitz pens a tribute: "He would never let you forget that he could have done it better and that he had the experience to prove it – but at the same time – he would pat you on the back if he admired your work."

New Blog Alert: The Folger Shakespeare Library has a new blog about its scholarship—The Collation.

Today on Arts Desk: The Washington Performing Arts Society's new season; fun with BLK w/ Bear.

Sponsored by the ACLU of the Nation's Capital, the third annual event will be part speak-out, part concert. Information tables will be out by 12 p.m.; between 4 and 6 p.m., members of the public are invited to contribute to an open mic; at 6 p.m., a panel of statehood experts will speak, and the concert—with openers Wayna and Uptown XO— will kick off at 7 p.m. An after party is in the works, too.

Admission is free and open to the public.

It’s a Tuesday night at LIV nightclub on U Street NW, and Mambo Sauce vocalist Black Boo has broken into a reggae-tinged Waka Flocka Flame mash-up. The crowd is feeling it, but standing on stage, Demont “Peekaso” Pinder is facing the other way.

In one hand he holds an iPad, displaying the worn face of Miles Davis, anxious in black and white. In the other hand, Peekaso has a paintbrush, and over a background of reds, whites, and greens he aggressively translates the visage of the iconic trumpeter.

Peekaso’s appearance is basic enough: a white T-shirt, a yellow knit skull cap that rests lazily on the crown of his head, a yellow rag dangling from the back right pocket of his blue jeans. As Black Boo and the crowd feed off each other, chaos seems to close in on the painter, who doesn’t sweat it. He cracks a joke and finishes his Miles opus.

Five days later, the mood is euphoric at U Street Music Hall. Producers Kev Brown, Bink!, 88 Keys, and DJ Spinna are selecting gems from their catalogs, and Peekaso is silent, coolly nodding his head as he takes in the scene. On the canvas, he paints four silhouettes at a soundboard against a florescent backdrop.

The next Saturday, Chuck Brown is at the 9:30 Club, pounding through his vast go-go repertoire with his vast go-go band. The lights flicker, fans sway, and performers gyrate as Peekaso paints a big-faced portrait of the famous bandleader.

“I’m everywhere,” says Peekaso, a 31-year-old single father who lives in Laurel. “I’ve gotta make it happen and I can’t take no for an answer.”

Since 2003, Peekaso has been the art director of local crooner Raheem DeVaughn, the city’s biggest R&B export, creating art for his albums and as a member of the singer’s touring band—only, Peekaso doesn’t play an instrument. During concerts, he simply paints.

In recent years, Peekaso has become a mainstay if also an outlier on the city’s hip-hop, go-go, and R&B circuits. His raw images are equal parts jazz-age portraiture and graffiti-tinged neo-expressionism, and on stage, he paints like rappers spit—furiously, but with precision. At a 9:30 Club benefit concert for Haitian earthquake relief in January, Peekaso created an arresting scene of devastation while DeVaughn performed with rappers like Wale and Tabi Bonney. Toward the end of the night, the painting was auctioned off for $600.

Two years ago, Peekaso painted a picture for Bonney to commemorate “The Pocket,” the D.C. rapper’s regional radio hit from 2006. That portrait, complete with the U.S. Capitol and the dreadlocks Bonney once wore, hangs on the wall of Bonney’s parents’ living room.

“He’s a bad man, for certain,” says LaVar Arrington, the former Redskins linebacker, who has four Peekaso pieces. “I hope he has an opportunity to get his name out there more. He’s one of those types of guys that people should be paying attention to, so he can become a household name someday.”

Peekaso’s work dots restaurants along U Street NW, and he often gives his work to local notables to increase his profile. These days, most of his income goes to supporting his 8-year-old daughter. To make ends meet, Peekaso often raffles off or auctions his paintings at open-mic events and concerts. At the regular Up and Up open mics at LIV, for instance, he usually paints two pieces: one that can be purchased outright and another that’s won through a $1 lottery.

Peekaso has also found commissions through his DeVaughn connection: WKYS-FM host Russ Parr, for instance, asked Peekaso to paint a mural in his home. “It just comes when it comes,” Peekaso said. “I get it how I can get it.”

As a portraitist, Peekaso seems to focus chiefly on celebrities, local and otherwise—mostly prominent African-Americans in culture and politics. The pictures can be reverent or playful or otherworldly—and frequently funny. Take his painting of Kanye West and Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards; a cloudy thought bubble emerges from the latter’s head, screaming “WTF?”

—

Peekaso was born in Queens, N.Y., and his story is dotted with school transfers, evictions, and professional uncertainty—experiences he says he channels in his work. In the late 1980s, his mother moved with him from Queens to Maryland, looking for more space and better opportunities. He attended elementary schools in Bladensburg and Landover Hills. As a seventh-grader at Robert Goddard Middle School in Seabrook, he designed the school’s yearbook cover, although his copy was lost during one of his family’s evictions.

Peekaso’s life settled down by the time he entered High Point High School in Beltsville. There he forged his friendship with DeVaughn, who worked at a local grocery store at the time. The two began playing pick-up basketball with each other, sometimes “bumping heads,” as Peekaso puts it.

After graduating from high school, Peekaso worked for FedEx for five years, keeping in contact with the burgeoning soul singer. As DeVaughn’s career began to take off, he asked Peekaso to travel with him and paint live on stage. “I always wanted to have an artist on stage with me,” DeVaughn says. “I asked him, ‘How much do you make a week? You could make that, if not more, by painting.’”

Both DeVaughn and Peekaso admit that touring has strained their friendship, at least somewhat. The two are not as personable on tour, Peekaso says, and sometimes he gets the most criticism. “At the end of the day, that’s my boss, but he’s still my brother,” Peekaso says.

“I’m tough to work for at times,” DeVaughn says. “In the end, he’s got a job to do. He’s definitely an asset to what I’ve built. It’s a win-win for both of us.” Peekaso is paid per gig as a member of DeVaughn’s band, sometimes getting a weekly salary if the vocalist goes on tour. This summer, DeVaughn embarked on a 20-city trek to promote his album The Love & War Masterpeace.

But Peekaso has bigger dreams. He wants to buy his mother a house, and open art galleries in D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami to display his paintings. On Jan. 10, he’ll travel to New York for a demonstration at the Apple store in SoHo; recently he’s begun creating intricate works on his iPad.

One prominent local collection where you can’t see Peekaso’s work yet is the D.C. government’s. But Zoma Wallace, who manages the art in city buildings, says she’s been a fan of Peekaso’s work since it appeared on DeVaughn’s 2005 debut album, The Love Experience. She says Peekaso’s work would be “an incredible addition” to the city’s collection, which grows each summer when the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities put out a call to working artists. “The speed in which he executes his work is also quite impressive,” Wallace says. “You don’t see him on stage with anything but his materials and easel, so he literally creates his art on the move. There is no smoke and no mirror in his process.”

D.C. Councilmember Yvette Alexander only paid $50 at an auction for her Peekaso picture of Marvin Gaye, although she says she would’ve spent more. Peekaso’s usual asking price starts at $400. But the Ward 7 councilmember thinks Peekaso’s association with the city’s music scene may have also limited his reach. “He needs to feel out where people will appreciate his work,” she says. “He’s in the wrong demographic right now for what he does. He should’ve upped his price a long time ago.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Sy Smith cut her teeth on the local go-go scene before setting out on her own. She traces her social and musical influences to a baptist church on Minnesota Avenue, and her live performances have drawn the likes of Prince and Raphael Saadiq, among others.

But now, the D.C. native has literally gone Hollywood, as she and her new husband now live in the Golden State. When she's not singing or recording music, she teaches an R&B and pop improvisation class at the Los Angeles Music Academy.

Before her concert at the Liv Nightclub tonight, Smith spoke with Arts Desk about the region's music scene, artistic freedom, and Patti LaBelle's influence.

Washington City Paper: What kinds of things do you have in store for the nation’s capital?

Sy Smith: [laughs] I have a live band there in D.C., they’re like my favorite band to play with actually, and they’ll be doing songs from the three CDs that I’ve released. You just never know what will happen, sometimes they’ll just launch into something. If I hear it, and it feels like it’s supposed to happen, I’ll just do it, ya know. You never know what you’re gonna get.

WCP: Because you’re in D.C., will you go more towards go-go/hip-hop? What’s your set list looking like right now?

SS: All the material has a lot of influences. If you’re a little familiar with my music, you’ll hear that stuff anyway, so it’s not like I’ll lean towards it, that’s just what the music is anyway. Some of the songs are very much based in a jazz aesthetic, some of them are based in a more percussion element, it just depends from song to song. Things just kinda take on their own little life.

WCP: I saw that you are a D.C. native. How exactly did this region influence your art?

SS: I always remember this one instance when I was at the Children’s Museum and I saw Junkyard [Band] play. I was a kid, and they were kids. And I was like, “Oh my God, these are kids like me, banging on buckets.” There might have been two actual instruments, and everything else looked like something they got out of their momma’s kitchen, or from an alley somewhere. Seeing something like that when you’re a kid, it actually becomes tangible like, “I can do that.” That was probably one of my earlier times when I said, “Yeah, I think I wanna try that.” I started taking piano lessons early, I studied piano for about 12 years, and then I went off to do the choir circuit in PG County. That was mostly classical stuff. I didn’t start singing contemporary music until college. I remember seeing Patti LaBelle in “Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God,” and all of those prize performances, concerts at Fort Dupont Park, all of that made it very tangible to me like, “This is something I want to do.” I never thought of it as wanting to be a big superstar, I just wanted to play music.

WCP: When I think of D.C., I definitely think of go-go and hip-hop. I don’t see a lot of soul singers, maybe a handful who I know. How does a soul singer make it out of a town that’s known for go-go and hip-hop?

SS: I don’t really know that I’m a soul singer. I’m just a singer, and whatever happens to come out of that is what people make of it. I’m from that generation where Chuck Brown schooled all of us on jazz. I wouldn’t have had the jazz background, vocabulary and repertoire that I have had it not been for Chuck Brown always playing jazz songs. A lot of us came from that generation, even Essence and those bands were playing and covering Maze and Anita Baker and stuff like that. Even though a lot of the performers were a bit rough around the edges and tried to seem like a more go-go, hip-hop aesthetic from the outside, it was still always coming from a soul or jazz perspective. That’s why Maze can come to DC and sell out, and Patti LaBelle. That was really the aesthetic that people appreciated. It just came in the form of go-go, or the backdrop of go-go, ya know?

WCP: How did your upbringing influence your artistic direction? Was there an ah-ha moment for you?

SS: One of those Patti LaBelle moments was an ah-ha moment. I was at the Warner Theatre for “Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God.” I was in the front row with my mom. It was the end of the show, a rousing number and [Patti] was running all over the stage, kicking her shoes off and flying and flapping her wings, and she came to me, took my hand and stood me up out my seat, and was singing to me. And that right there? When I saw what somebody can do, just with the power of their voice and their performance, I think that’s when I decided I wanted to be at the very least, some sort of performer. I didn’t really know that I was gonna be a singer, but I definitely knew I wanted to be on stage somewhere and do that —making somebody react the way she made me react. I think I immediately started channeling the performer in myself. I became the kid in class who told stories, and told jokes, not the class clown. I went to this little private school in Southeast, and we didn’t have a gym or anything, so if it rained outside, for recess, we had to just stay in our classroom. On rainy days, it would be, “Get Sy up to tell some jokes. Make us laugh.” Early on, I didn’t consider myself a singer. I knew I was a musician, but I didn’t know I was a singer until way later.

WCP: Do you feel like you influence others the way Patti influenced you?

SS: Ya know what? I’ve had a couple people come to me and say, “Oh my God, I saw you at such and such” and will name a specific show. There have been a couple of singers who have covered my songs at their own shows. I’m like, “Wow, that’s a trip!” or they’ll send me the YouTube, or they’ll send me the DVD or something like that. That’s always amazing. [laughs] It’s cool, because you get to hear different interpretations of something that was created by you. To hear somebody’s interpretation of your lyrics and your melody and all that is really interesting.

WCP: Describe your personal and professional growth from your last recording to now.

SS: Professionally, I think I’ve hit a point where I’m like, “Alright, I’ve done what I’m gonna do as Sy Smith, the soul singer” and I’ve wanted to reach and do some other kinds of music. It’s really hard to do house and dance, when everybody thinks you’re a neo soul singer, ya know? So me putting out this record, this greatest hits sort of thing is me saying, “I’m kind of closing the book on that part of me for a second, so I can embrace other things that I really want to do. I’m working on a jazz record that’s more straight-ahead kind of jazz. I’m working to finish this synthy '80s throwback dance record, with a lot of U.K. influences. That’s where I am musically.

I’m just kinda like the girl that everybody knows that nobody knows. [laughs] It’s cool. The way my career is, I kinda have room to make fluid movements and go from here to there without feeling like I’m being jerked or pulled, and that’s nice – to have that sort of anonymity and be known. Known enough that I stay busy, but obscure enough that I don’t get attacked at the shopping mall. In my personal life, I got married three months ago to my long-time boyfriend, and incidentally he’s directed my last four music videos. We’re out here in L.A., doing the thing, and I think that’s gonna move me into another chapter of my life. I think marriage is a big step. [laughs]

Smith performs tonight with Sol Elder at Liv Nightclub, located at 11th & U St., NW. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., show begins at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door.

But here's where Grammy voters surprised me, and also nailed it: In the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category, they nominated local singer Carolyn Malachi's song "Orion." The worst thing I can say about the record it comes from, Lions, Fires & Squares, is that the 29-minute release is too short.

The record, if you haven't heard it, is inventive and pretty and, at times, unapologetically weird. I don't know how Malachi would feel about the comparison, but I consider Lions, Fires & Squares—a record largely in the key of knowing retro-futurism—a cousin of Janelle Monae's excellent ArchAndroid album, also from this year. Listen:

Earlier this year, my colleague Erin Petty singled out "Orion" in a One Track Mind column. Check it.

We also reviewed Brown's We Got This album and DeVaughn's Love & War Masterpeace. From Ben Westhoff's review of the latter:

In the tradition of the most ambitious works from Marvin Gaye, Pink Floyd, and Guns N’ Roses, the D.C. crooner’s magnum opus doesn’t live up to the hype. But it mostly succeeds on its own terms, and with any luck will carve out its own little place in history.

The final product, originally intended to be a double album, is a bit of a mess. The righteously eccentric (yet smoothly seductive) R&B singer originally envisioned a “war” disc and a “love” disc, with each accentuating one of his fixations—politics and boots-knockin’. Apparently the record-label geniuses weren’t feeling the idea, or doubted the commercial viability of a double CD from an artist lacking a gold album or a name brand.

I agree with Westhoff's reading—DeVaughn's is a solid but uneven album. But the best moments—"Bulletproof," "Nobody Wins a War"—are downright chilling.

I asked some peeps in my Gchat for examples:

• "I'm hearing that Ian Svenonius' show got picked up by Lifetime!"
• "Philippa Hughes and Ron Moten are teaming up for a series of gallery parties featuring music by go-go acts that supported Fenty!"
• "CHUCK BROWN RETIRING"
• "NSO Announces Endowment of Dick Cheney Chair for Polisher of Christoph Eschenbach's Head"
• "Lungfish to reunite for All Tomorrows Parties 2011"
• "US Royalty give up music, decide to concentrate on clothes"
• "Kanye makes surprise Paper Sun appearance"

Also, if you can confirm any of the above fake tips, E-MAIL ME NOW.

If I worked downtown, I know where I'd spend my lunchbreak this week, and where I'd be Friday at the end of the workday:  The Woodrow Wilson Plaza summer lunchtime concert series is closing out with four midday concerts of classic D.C. R&B, and then on Friday it's offering the godfather of go-go, Chuck Brown, in the early evening.  All of these events are free.

Monday starts off with Skip Mahoney and the Casuals (above). When I last saw the group at Carter Barron a few years ago, this reunited 1960s and 1970s outfit offered charisma that could dazzle a Dischord fan, and Mahoney's scale-climbing vocals can impress R&B fans of any age. On Tuesday, the Legendary Orioles, featuring longtime vocalist Diz Russell, will bring back streetcorner doo-wop from the 1950s.  Russell occasionally adds some fascinating stories that nicely complement his group’s classic harmonies and lead vocals. Wednesday serves up The Clovers.  Formed in the late 1940s, and signed to Atlantic by legendary producer Ahmet Ertegun, the DC.. group became best known for “Love Potion No. 9.”  Various versions of the group have toured over the last decade or so.  No matter who’s singing, you'll hear an impressive catalog from a group that had numerous ballad and upbeat-style R&B hits in the 1950s.  On Thursday girl group The Jewels (with all but one of the original members) will showcase the early 1960s songs that they sung as an opening act for James Brown and at the Howard Theatre. Led by Little Margie Clark, these women still know how to wail. And on Friday, the week ends with Chuck Brown, whose new three disc We Got This (which includes a live CD, a live DVD, and an EP of five new songs) comes out this week.

The free concerts takes place noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday at Woodrow Wilson Plaza at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.