Arts Desk » Mittenfields

Don’t Be Bored: Old Is New

Jonathan L. Fischer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:36:44 +0000

Not everyone gets to play with their heroes. The guitarist Glenn Jones fulfilled that dream back in 1997, when his post-rock band Cul de Sac made a collaborative record with the father of American Primitive music, John Fahey. The D.C.-born Fahey died in 2001, and 10 years later Jones is paying him back for inventing the dusty yet acrobatic fingerstyle guitar technique, which has also been championed by brooding instrumentalists like Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, and Jack Rose. Jones helped assemble a new box set of Fahey’s early recordings, Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You, and now he’s touring on Fahey’s behalf. He’s appearing twice tonight in Fahey’s hometown of Takoma Park: First, Jones will discuss the box set at the Artspring arts store; then, at a house show down the street, he’ll show why Fahey’s music—which sounded old even when it was new—still has a future. Jones speaks at 5 p.m. at Artspring, 7014B Westmoreland Ave., Takoma Park. Free. He performs at 8 p.m. at Potts-Dupre Schoolhouse, 8 Columbia Ave., Takoma Park. The show is sold out.

HALLOWEEN

So much Halloween this weekend, and it'll all collected in our special Halloween listings. Remember: If you're going to a Halloween party, don't be racist.

MUSIC

Epic-synthpop heroes M83 have two shows tonight at the Black Cat—but they're both sold out. It might be worth the scalper markup: M83's new double album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is the best realization of the group's high-gloss mystic romanticism to date.

Chris Taylor's project CANT excavates all the interesting stuff from his band Grizzly Bear—all the paranoia, all the awesome sonic fuckery. The band's other side-project, Daniel Rossen's Department of Eagles, keeps the moaning. CANT plays at Rock & Roll Hotel tonight at 8 p.m. With Luke Temple and Blood Orange. $12.

A really nice Friday Night Eclectic lineup at Strathmore Mansion tonight: Epic Rockville rockers Bellflur, noise slackers Mittenfields, and Medications' Devin Ocampo.

The U Street Music Hall has a strict no-photography policy. But Snuggies are still allowed. Consider curling up with one during tonight’s show. Swedish producer The Field recently released his third album, Looping State of Mind, following a pair of delightful ambient works, 2007’s From Here We Go Sublime and 2009’s Yesterday and Today. A few years ago, The Field (Axel Willner) regarded himself as a mere beneficiary of North American listeners’ growing appreciation of electronic music. He told the Canadian magazine Exclaim, “I think more people in North America are getting into pure electronic music where you don’t have to have the rock elements.” But was it us—craning our necks toward another ephemeral trend—or did he just make a splendid record? Deeper-digging American listeners have enjoyed atmospheric, gauzy post-rock and shoegazer music since the ’80s; before that, plenty of Yanks dug melty prog and space rock. The Field beautifully captures that glowing aura with different equipment. (Though he isn’t all digital—Willner did collaborate with Battles’ drummer John Stanier on Yesterday and Today.)Looping State of Mind, particularly its title track, is furniture music of the highest order; easy to ignore, but hard to forget. “Sheer bliss”: It’s a shoegazer cliché (and the name of a creamy coconut milk ice cream), but The Field has galvanized the term yet again. (Ally Schweitzer) The show begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at U Street Music Hall. $8.

Whoa: Saturday has a bunch of other good music options: Boris, Asobi Seksu, and black-metal dudes Liturgy at Black Cat (it's the last show ever for Liturgy drummer Greg Fox); local garage-rock faves Foul Swoops at Comet Ping Pong; dreamy electro-pop Swedes Little Dragon at 9:30 Club; and Wolf Parade side-project Moonface at Rock & Roll Hotel.

BOOKS

Mark Auslander signs and discusses The Accidental Slaveowner: Revisiting a Myth of Race and Finding an American Family, an account of the various ways that institutions, families, and individuals interpret the history of slavery, and how the Methodist Episcopal Church came to split over differing ideas about its meaning. 5 p.m. Saturday at Busboys & Poets, 5th and K streets NW. Free.

THEATER

After the Fall, the very personal Arthur Miller drama taking place just about entirely in one man's mind, has opened in previews at Theater J.

FILM

The title of The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby suggests John le Carré-esque intrigue and personal demon-squelching, but Carl Colby’s biography is more straightforward. In it, he traces the twin narratives of his father’s career (OSS paratrooper in World War II, CIA counterinsurgency specialist in 1960s Vietnam, agency director in the mid-’70s) and family life, marked by strict Catholicism and personal tragedy. As a shorthand history of American special-ops tactics and the more public failures of the CIA, the film is is effective if dense, and the interviewees are a mix of critics, close colleagues, and apologists. But it’s most satisfying when grappling with the man, and if it can’t answer its two biggest questions—Why did Colby come so clean about the CIA’s illegal activities amid the intelligence scandals of the ’70s? And what circumstances led to his mysterious death in ’96?—it’s willing to offer grounded theories. In short: Not every man can end his war neatly. The film shows all week at E Street Cinema. $11. (202) 452-7672.

Don’t Be Bored: Critical Tics

Jonathan L. Fischer — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:00:33 +0000

Like any critic, longtime Washington Post book reviewer Jonathan Yardley has his tics: He’s impatient with anything that smacks of postmodern frippery, and he’ll rarely pass on an opportunity to ding feminist academics. But unlike many critics, he’s willing to reconsider past judgments, something he did in his Second Reading column from 2003 to 2010. The majority of those essays are collected in Second Reading, in which he finds new reasons to celebrate classics like Lucky Jim and takes a few whacks at The Catcher in the Rye (a “maladroit, mawkish novel”). But he’s mostly interested in reviving forgotten works such as Margaret Leech’s Civil War history, Reveille in Washington: 1860–1865, which is “required reading for anyone who wants to know what kind of place the nation’s capital really is.” To that end, Yardley’s book is both a fine depository of recommendations and a reminder that the best books aren’t always the best known. (Mark Athitakis) Yardley reads from his book at 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose. Free.

MUSIC

Local epic-scaled indie rockers Mittenfields debut their new EP, which has five songs and is really, really loud. We wrote all about it in last week's One Track Mind. With Mean Ideas and The Plums at 8 p.m. at Black Cat Backstage.

If you haven't taken our jazz critic Mike West's advice yet, learn what he knows: That the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra is an "essential force in D.C. jazz." Strong words! 8 p.m. at Bohemian Caverns. $7.

FILM

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a film valuable for its Marilyn Monroe ambience and one or two musical numbers but really nothing else, at sunset at Screen on the Green.

Environment-themed films at 6:30 p.m. Goethe-Institut, including the feature The Age of Stupid. $7.

Debating the greatest movies of the New Hollywood era yields no easy consensus, but in one subcategory—car chases—cinéastes basically fall into two camps: 1971’s The French Connection and 1968’s Bullitt. The former took more guts: Stunt driver Bill Hickman raced after an elevated subway car through the streets of Brooklyn, sans shooting permit. Yet for all of The French Connection’s nervous chaos, for raw grit and kinetic jolt Bullitt’s is the better chase. Here, Steve McQueen’s stoic police lieutenant peels through San Francisco’s hills like he’s ice skating through an Escher drawing: His Mustang always feels like it’s an inch above the ground and driving in any direction but straight. If the nine-minute chase lags, it’s worth it for the concluding explosion—which still teaches moviegoers the true meaning of “burning man.” 7 p.m. at AFI Silver. $11.

This Week in WCP Arts: Fort Reno, Clybourne Revisited, Miranda July

Jonathan L. Fischer — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:16:17 +0000

Ryan Little has this week's cover story—a fantastic oral history of the annual summer concert series at Fort Reno, which has evolved from hippie hangout to punk-rock institution. Abdul Ali leads the arts section with his dissenting opinion on the critically lauded play Clybourne Park, which he says doesn't do right by its inspiration, A Raisin in the Sun. Tricia Olszewski reviews two films that have something to say about time, the ruminative and surrealistic The Future and the fast as fuck French thriller Point Blank. Chris Klimek suffers through a staging of Steel Magnolias at Keegan Theatre. John Anderson checks out the themeless "Photo 11" exhibit Artisphere and does some pondering about the medium. And Little, prolific Ryan Little, talks to noisy rockers Mittenfields for this week's One Track Mind.

Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie’s Festival Gets Bigger and Gets Free

Jonathan L. Fischer — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:22:29 +0000

Illustration by Rich Bernett

One of the more intriguing events on offer this summer is a two-day music festival set in restaurants along the U Street NW corridor and put on by Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie, a new D.C. music blog. When we reported on the festival last month, organizer Dave Mann (who used to have a band called Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie, but nevermind that) had booked 45 acts to play at Bella Cafe on Florida Ave. NW. Now that number's up to 125, and the event is taking place in six different establishments. Also: It's now free.

A bunch of those acts are listed on the festival's Facebook invite, and there aren't too many well-known names (although plenty of local ones you'll recognize). In my recent article on local indie-rock events with art-party aesthetic, I called the Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie festival an indie-rock version of Artomatic. Worth noting: The event, set for June 4 and 5, is 21-plus.

Tomorrow, Mann's band Mittenfields is playing the inaugural show of a new monthly concert series, Fuzzy Logic, at Bella Cafe. Notably, the concert features The Invisible Hand, a Charlottesville, Va., band whose ambitious new album is excellent. $8.

Tomorrow's show is from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., and Bella Cafe is at 900 Florida Ave. NW.

Clip Job: Five Bands with at Least as Many Members as Songs

Jonathan L. Fischer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:26:55 +0000

Spelling for Bees refers to itself as both a collective—in that it's an umbrella for music by its 40 members—and a supergroup, meaning that its participants, drawn from indie-rock bands the District over, occasionally create songs together. The two cuts on the project's MySpace page, "Love at First Sight" and "Giboullee (Bella)," are delicate and slow-building with an orchestral flair, and the group's leader, Mittenfields member Dave Mann, says he eventually hopes to incorporate every player, Polyphonic Spree-style, into the live set. Mann formed Spelling for Bees this March with members of Mittenfields and another of his projects, Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie, as well as Dangerosa, We Were Pirates, the Mean Ideas, Sun Committee, and others (one member, Austen Brown, used to be a singer in the Spree). The group has a residency at the Velvet Lounge, and each month's performance resembles an open mic centered on a theme; at the show this Tuesday, every member will cover a Radiohead song. The Charlottesville, Va., band Invisible Hands opens, and doors are at 7 p.m. $5.

More overstaffed bands after the jump: cute orchestral indie, a Canadian choir, and Thin Lizzy and the Sex Pistols getting festive!

Emanuel and the Fear (2007-present): This Brooklyn outfit has 11 members and, to date, a five-song EP. Although the band cites Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Philip Glass as inspirations, mostly it concocts cutesy, heart-on-its-sleeve indie pop that places the onus for emotional gravitas entirely on its orchestral component.

I'm From Barcelona (2005-present): If Karen O had demurred, this 29-member Swedish band—whose songs revel in an almost fetishistically adorable vision of childhood—could have easily soundtracked Where The Wild Things Are. In the small world of raucous campfire pop, I'm From Barcelona is the tight, twee ying to Animal Collective's messy, abstract yang.

The Choir Practice (2006-present): This Vancouver group has one 11-song album and a roster that fluctuates between 11 and 15 members, and it sports what has to be the most spot-on name since The Band. Its members have ties to the, erm, brightest stars of British Columbia—like the New Pornographers, Destroyer, and P:ano—but the Choir Practice's reference points aren't eccentric indie bands. Rather, with its many voices and sparse instrumentation, the group comes off as a stripped-down update of harmony-happy late-'60s groups like the Free Design and the Mamas & the Papas.

The Greedies (1978-1979): When the big-riff Irish band Thin Lizzy discovered punk rock, all it came away with was ... Christmas? The Greedies featured half of Thiny Lizzy, the quiet half of the Sex Pistols, and recorded only two songs, the single "A Christmas Jingle" and its B-side—you guessed it—"A Christmas Jangle." Words cannot do it justice:

Weekend Music Round-Up

Hilary Crowe — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:00:38 +0000

Friday

X, Steve Soto & the Twisted Hearts. 9:30 club. $25. All ages.
Alex Rhoads, Midnight Ride. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
Dean & Britta, Cheval Sombre. Black Cat. $15. All ages.
Viva Voce, Cut Off Your Hands. IOTA Club & Cafe. $15. +21.
The Kennedys. Jammin’ Java. $18.
Threat Signal w/ The Agonist, Flatline, Thy Will Be Done, Cab Ride Home, Kysmet, Murder the Element. Jaxx. $12–$14. All ages.
Capital Jazz Fest 2009: Alonzo Bodden, Natalie Cole, Fourplay. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $39.50–$100.
Rock Solid: The Champions Production Hip-Hop and RNB showcase w/ Crimestoppers, City Limits, and the Ian Walters Project with Angel B. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.
A Place To Bury Strangers, Caverns, True Womanhood. Rock and Roll Hotel. $12. All ages.
Like Bells, Kadman, Stella Schindler. Velvet Lounge. $8. +21.
PJ Harvey and John Parish. Warner Theatre. $45.
Sunsets with a Soundtrack: The U.S. Army Concert Band. West Steps U.S. Capitol. Free.
John Prine, Steve Earle. Wolf Trap. $25–$42.
Liberation Dance Party w/ Natalie Portman's Shaved Head. DC9. $8. +18.
Subatomic Sound System, Dubblestandart, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Paul Zasky. Comet Ping Pong. $10. All ages.

Saturday

Doves, Wild Light. 9:30 club. SOLD OUT. All ages.
Hey Norton, Doug Parks and the Lone Wolves. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
Lowen & Novarro, El Fin Del Camino. Birchmere. $29.50.
Denali, Ki:Theory, Pygmy Lush. Black Cat. $13. All ages.
Buster Brown & the Get Down. Fireflies. Call for price.
King Wilkie. IOTA Club & Cafe. $10. +21.
Early show: The Friday Night Boys (CD Release) with The Downtown Fiction, Bobby Faithful. $10–$12. Late show: The Fif, Violet Says 5, The Echo Boom. $10–$12. Jaxx. All ages.
Washington Men’s Camerata: “Thanks for the Memories.” Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. $30.
Shakin' The Blues Away w/ Doug Bowles, Alex Hassan, Cindy Hutchins. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
Capital Jazz Fest 2009: Will Downing, George Duke, Norman Brown, Marion Meadows, Roy Ayers, Joey Sommerville, The Underground Divas. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $39.50–$100.
BSO: Marin Alsop conducts violinist Hilary Hahn in a program of Beethoven, Higdon, and Dvorak. Music Center at Strathmore. $30–$85.
The Black Hollies, The Breakups, DJ Bobby Babylon. Rock and Roll Hotel. $10-$12. All ages.
Mittenfields, Typefighter, Vox Pop. Velvet Lounge. $8. +18.
David Byrne, Devotchka. Wolf Trap. $25–$42.
DJ Dk. Cafe Saint Ex.

Sunday

Blues Jam with the Idle Americans. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
Zac Brown Band. Birchmere. $25.
Blind Pilot, Local Natives. Black Cat. $13.
Disappears, Dangerosa. DC9. $8. +18.
Capital Jazz Fest 2009: Al Jarreau, Kirk Whalum, Lalah Hathaway, Marcus Miller & Friends, Pieces of a Dream with special guest Phil Perry, En Vogue. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $39.50–$100.
Louisiana Swamp Romp. Wolf Trap. $25.
Thunders, Caustic Casanova, Seamonsters. Velvet Lounge. +21.
Warm Gun, Another Empty Box. The Red & The Black. $6. +21.
The Fairfax Wind Symphony. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
DJ Eskimo. Cafe Saint Ex.

Photo of PJ Harvey and John Parish via IslandRecords.com.

Ponytail at Kay Spiritual Center

Bobby Allyn — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:35:34 +0000

Baltimore's zany art-proggers Ponytail enlivened the Kay Spiritual Center Saturday night with their signature primal shrieks and enchanting melodic commotion.

With the 2008 release of Ice Cream Spiritual!, Ponytail experienced a textbook case of Web-launched ascendancy: They've gotten plugs everywhere. But singer Molly Siegel's erratic pulsations and escapist chanting make the Baltimore foursome bigger than the Stereogum hype.

Along with drummer Jeremy Hyman's roto tom lightening speed shredding and the crafty, conversant guitar work of both Dustin Wong and Ken Seeno, Ponytail brought curious back-of-the-crowd dwellers up front and moved the Tenleytown spiritual basement to cathartic gyrations.

The no-stage floor setup was a good fit for Siegel, as she pushed through the arm-to-arm crowd and grabbed on to kids in the front row, almost as if she were christening them.

The songs transitioned with bouts of dizzying guitar loops and crescendoing delay bleeps. Siegel was laconic when she wasn't singing, saving her weeping/screaming non sequiturs for Ponytail's anthems.

The set was a part of American University's Capitol Punishment series, a semester-long group of free shows orchestrated by AU's student-run radio station, WVAU.

D.C.'s Mittenfields opened the night with Radiohead-influenced indie alt-pop (including a cover of "Bones") and the Screaming Females turned up the volume with one screaming female's howling vibrato and classic rock soloing. Instrumentally, the trio's stoner bass trilling and slow tempo pacing draws from late '60s Black Sabbath projects, but they break out of low-tempo with high-energy, in-your-face riot girl/poppy punk rock hooks. The band is currently on tour backing new LP, Power Move, and in May they'll play Big Bear Cafe.

Photos by Andrew Merrill

Pontytail for FREE @ American University Saturday

Hilary Crowe — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:03:25 +0000

That's right. Experimental indie poppers Ponytail headline a free show with Screaming Females and locals Mittenfields Saturday night at AU's Kay Spiritual Life Center as part of WVAU's Capitol Punishment series.

Critics have praised the Baltimore-based quartet's live show, most recently at SXSW 2009. Vocalist Molly Siegel's chords pack a primal punch that belies her pixie frame, and when backed by Ken Seeno and Dustin Wong's frenetic fret work and Jeremy Hyman's relentless assault on the skins, the result is a Dionysian dance-off. Suffice to say, you'll get your money's worth–and then some.

The show is the sixth of its kind organized by the student-run internet radio station in an effort to bolster AU's presence–and that of independent bands–in D.C.'s musical milieu. Past line-ups have included True Womanhood, These United States and The Subjects.

Saturday, March 28. Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Metro: Tenleytown-AU. Doors open 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public, all ages.

*Photo by Frank Hamilton