The weather may be cooling off, but Sockets isn’t quite ready to pack up the shorts and deflate the beach balls. The label recently posted this mixtape–which includes songs by Food For Animals, BLDGS, and Edie Sedgwick–in the hopes of stretching the summer season out for a few more weeks.

Here’s the tracklist:

1. “Love Showers” – The Dirty Church
2. “Tomorrow” – Buildings
3. “Would You Kill?” – The Cornel West Theory
4. “Fifty Seven” – Andrew Black
5. “Dope” (Ricky Rabbit Remix) – Food For Animals
6. “Preproduct” – Aaron Thompson
7. “Wilderness” – Roses They Won’t Hurt You
8. “Doubting Thomas” (Sockets Mix) – Edie Sedgwick
9. “1000 Miles” – Metropolitan

You’d think that Andrew Field-Pickering–between rapping in Food For Animals, DJing in Beautiful Swimmers, and running his own record label (Future Times)–probably has enough cool urban-music-oriented-work to fill his days. But one more thing can’t hurt, can it? Field-Pickering recently launched “Heal Yourself and Move,” a column devoted to dance music, electronic music, deep vibes, and all things in between, that will run bi-weekly on Fader’s website. You can check out the first post–a mission statement, but also a thorough lab session on the work of teenage techno-genius Kyle Hall–here.

After a year or so of relative silence, DC/Baltimore/Atlanta-based Hoss Records has revamped its website, cleaned up its game, and released its fall release schedule. It was worth the wait, though.

The label has just released the first installment in it’s “Techno” 12″ series, which features Mi Ami (which includes two former members of DC’s Black Eyes) performing two side-long quasi-covers of dubstep pioneer Shackelton’s “Blood on my Hands.” It’s a step in a different direction for the band, embracing slowly evolving synthesizer drones and tweaked 808-style bass, rather than squealing noise-guitar solos.

Read More “Hoss Records Releases New Mi Ami 12″/Announces Ecstatic Sunshine LP” »

Sockets, the local record label that has released works by Hume, Little Women, and Extra Life (and, in the interest of full disclosure, myself, albeit a while back), recently posted a Spring mixtape on its freshly redesigned website.

All sorts of good stuff here, most of surprisingly melodious, from Nick Rivetti (aka Ricky Rabbit of Food For Animals) ambient gurgling, to Chris Grier’s (Kohoutek, To Live and Shave in LA, Ultimate VAG) SYR-worthy guitar playing. Most of all, I’m enjoying Excepter’s minimalist remix of Brooklyn’s Zs, which whittles the normally raucous band down to a muted throb.

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Chris Lynn
2. Phat Daughter String Quartet
3. Fly Girlz
4. Nick Rivetti
5. Chris Grier
6. FFFFs
7. ZS (Excepter Remix)
8. Extra Life
9. Layne Garrett

If your scaled-back, ramen noodle budget allows for such luxuries as rock and roll shows on a week night, then the Velvet Lounge is offering up a doozy this evening: Not only are Baltimore hip-hop knob twiddlers Food For Animals and cacophonous a capella goddesses Lexie Mountain Boys on the bill, but San Francisco dub-punkers Mi Ami will also revisit the District (two of the band’s members, guitarist/vocalist Daniel Martin-McCormick and bassist Jacob Long, were both in the raucous DC Dischord band Black Eyes).

Mi Ami is in the midst of a massive tour to support their new album, Watersports, which has been absolutely killing our stereos since it dropped in mid-February. Equal parts urgent and hypnotic, chaotic and funky, Watersports is a truly compelling, relevant rock record that goes well beyond the wealth of genres it references. You can preview a cut from the new album on Quarterstick’s Web site via a download of the awesome track “New Guitar,” which is discussed further in the following interview.

The band dropped off Baltimore tour-mates Thank You last night after a show at Floristree, ending the co-tour and beginning the circuit back west on their own, stopping off at SXSW along way.

Washington City Paper recently caught up with Daniel while the group was on the road from the Northwest down into California, which didn’t bode well for a cell-phone conversation throughout their mountainous trek. Despite a steady stream of dropped connections and static-laden reception, Daniel was kind enough to chat about the tour and the new Mi Ami record. Full text after the jump, details for the show at Velvet Lounge below.

Mi Ami
Food For Animals
Lexi Mountain Boys
@ Velvet Lounge
915 U Street, DC
9pm
$8
18+
Read More “Interview: Mi Ami” »