When Britton Powell, of D.C. psych-rock band Hume, returned home earlier this summer after a sojourn in India, he wanted his band to come back with a punch. So he composed “Mirroring,” a thirty-minute, two-movement, piece for seven musicians and made plans to drag it caravan-style up and down the East coast of the United States. The ensuing three-week tour–which has stretched from Montreal, Canada to Athens, GA–hasn’t been easy on the pocket book or on Powell’s psyche, but it has given the group a chance to tighten up the chance to road-test the piece before heading to the studio. Saturday the group will splash down in D.C. and hopefully find time for a final performance before the members head their separate ways. Powell spoke with Washington City Paper about the tour, the composition, how to write a 30-minute piece of music using your cell phone.

Read More “Q&A: Hume” »

Update: This performance has been canceled.

Britton Powell is not a  guy who likes to do things the easy way. In the past year his band, Hume, has released a string quartet, a dub remix of said quartet, and traveled throughout the country performing in a giant octopus sculpture.

Powell’s ambition hasn’t flagged, though. Tonight Hume will swell into a seven member ensemble and perform Mirroring–a thirty-minute composition for three saxophones, two electric basses, and two drummers–at Lamont Park in Mt. Pleasant. Also, it’s free.

Hume performs Mirroring
Lamont Park
Thu., 8/20 @ 7:15 pm
Free

Bootlegging a concert used to be a real pain in the ass. Well, it was in the mid-’90s, at least. My cousin used to use a pair of stereo microphones that were sewn into the collar of his flannel shirt and then connected to a minidisc recorder (remember those?) stashed in his jacket. This setup–some of it rather bulky–had to be smuggled into the club under the bouncer’s nose.

All of this for a noisy, chatty, tape of a Grant Lee Buffalo concert.

Disclosed Mp3 must have built a better mousetrap, though.
They certainly don’t seem to be mired in the microphone->chums->minidisc->cassette deck quagmire that plagued fans a few years ago. Instead, the blog has been turning around decent quality audience-recordings of local shows within just a few days of the performance. Right now there are Mp3s of True Womanhood, Laughing Man, BLDGS, and Hume, as well as some out of town groups like Mi Ami. And the whole access-via-downloading thing also knocks out another aggravating vestigial part of the bootleg process–trading via the postal service.

This is a few days old, but check out this mind-destroying promo for the Old Bridge Festival on Aug. 1 and 2:

Per the video, location is 1256 Old Bridge Rd., Amissville, Va. (about an hour west of D.C.), and the cost is $10, which also gets you burgers, ‘dogs, beer, and space to camp (the property is over 150 acres).

Oh, and the bands! So far, the list includes Future Islands (!), BLDGS, La Otracina, Laughing Man, Hume, Age Sixteen, The Black Powder, Cave Caverns, The Fordists, Ga’an, Gay Knowledge, Google Earth, The Independent, Invisible Hand, Landlords, Mystic Flavor, Paper Mice, Pretzlcoat, Rifle Recoil, Surf Nazis On Ecstasy, and We’re Glad You’re Dead, with apparently more to be announced.

Read More “A Batshit Crazy Promo For Old Bridge Festival” »

So far, summer is having a little trouble getting started. So far all we’ve gotten is a lot of rain, no Screen On The Green, and no Fort Reno schedule. But please, let this free summer mixtape, compiled by local label Sockets, be a salve to your bruised expectations. There are exclusive cuts by Maximillion Dunbar (Food For Animals rapper and Future Times label boss), Hume (recently back in DC after traveling through India), and Cornel West Theory, who have been M.I.A. since ‘06, or maybe I’m just out of the loop.

Tracklist:

1. Loveloop – Maxmillion Dunbar
2. Prophetic Suicide – the Cornel West Theory
3. Wise Light Born – Hume
4. Sleep In – Big Gold Belt
5. Tired – The Fly Girlz
6. Olds Achieva Care Bear – Framed Mistake
7. Come on the Deathbed – Chris Grier

For the last several months Hume–aka DC-based musician Britton Powell–has been traveling India on a musical-spiritual-journey, very likely accruing all manner of esoteric wisdom. It sounds like a pretty good time, at least judging by his correspondence. One drawback, however, is that his absence has cast a shadow over the District’s progressive-rock/dub-string-quartet scene. Fortunately, All Our Noise recently posted this live session that Hume taped with the full-band before Powell left on his grand tour. There’s some video posted below and also a stream of the entire set here.

AON Sessions: Hume, “Grip” from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

Hume’s Phat Daughter String Quartet, subject of this One Track Mind, is finally out and available for purchase. The 12″ record includes a suite of four compositions on the a-side backed by dub versions of those same pieces on the flip. I had thought the b-side would be kind of disposable–that it would sound like somebody playing a Final Fantasy video game through a delay pedal. Not the case though! Hume’s Britton Powell deftly splices the quartet into some heavy reggae riddims, sounds kind of like Arvo Part paying a visit to Black Ark.

Pick it up here.

Here’s a couple of sample clips:

Hume & the Phat Daughter Quartet: “Oneirnaut”

Hume & the Phat Daughter Quartet: “Oneirnatty”