After spending a few weeks down south, I returned to D.C. reminded of how much this city constantly has to offer. So after quite literally returning from the backwoods to write this weeks' roundup, I felt like I was setting up booths at some high school multi-culti "We Are the World-inspired festival. Granted, not my [...]
Here's my most tragic music story of 2010: My external harddrive, containing a huge chunk of my music collection, died a few weeks ago, or so it seems. So it's possible I'm omitting a song or two from this list of my favorite local songs of the year. That's my story and I'm sticking to [...]
With the possible exception of Bluebrain, I'm fairly sure no D.C. band got more coverage from City Paper this year than Hume. And while we certainly didn't ignore the band's LP-length EP from this fall, Penumbra—its tightest cut, "Grip," was featured in a One Track Mind column in May—I think we erred by not reviewing [...]
Lists are inexplicably difficult yet undeniably crucial for music nerds. We have to sum up the events of the year with numbers and bullet points or our brains melt and our hearts explode. Sad but true. It's been in fashion of late to be more eclectic with lists, including everything from drone-core to bubblegum pop [...]
At a house show a couple of weekends ago, D.C. prog-poppers Hume debuted a new iteration of the band with two drum kits, which was a nice, muscular counterpoint to the unhurried atmospherics of the band's recent, excellent Penumbra LP. I was there, I really dug it, and I'm glad that the venue recorded the [...]
Best of Friday:
You don't need to know about Roky Erickson's prototypical psych-rock efforts or his troubled back story to appreciate the triumph that is his latest record, True Love Cast Out All Evil. Erickson's '60s band, The 13th Floor Elevators, basically deserves credit for all the the psych-rock/freak-psych/psych-folk made by lesser minds that you've spent the last few years [...]
Local label Sockets Records has been a D.C. fixture for more than half a decade now, but 2010 has been a banner year: A handful of strong releases, a live showcase last January, a pretty awesome zine. And yesterday, its latest seasonal mix.
It draws from the label's regular roster as well as other locals, from [...]
"There are so many people doing and making interesting things," the artist and musician April Camlin told the Baltimore fashion blog Ms. Charm Chic earlier this year—but she might as well have been talking about her music. "The pieces they are making are fleeting and underappreciated, but are still out there in the universe. [...]
The latest Hume release contains five songs, stretches to 40 minutes, and is a gorgeous document of melty, psyched-out indie prog. It's also one of my favorite things to come out of D.C. all year. And now it can be yours! Sockets Records just put copies up for sale online, and also posted some shots [...]
Alternately bouncy, glitchy, abrasive, droney, and subtle, the Brooklyn trio Dinowalrus is impossible to pin down. Its album is a frenetic mishmash of dissimilar styles and approaches, which is both jarring and entertaining. The band released its debut, %, on Kanine Records (home to Surfer Blood and Chairlift) last January, and it's hitting the road [...]
