Tonight: Double Dagger To Play Free In-Store @ Crooked Beat

Baltimore’s Double Dagger will be playing an in-store at Crooked Beat today at 7 p.m. The show is free. Expect it to be loud as hell. Double Dagger recently released its stunning third LP, More, on Thrill Jockey. We hope the Adams Morgan record shop has insurance; the band’s sound is all sharp elbows, pointed politics, and brash playing that is sure to rattle CD racks and vinyl displays.

The trio’s fuzzed-bass-and-monster drumming m.o. is a nod to that thinning brotherhood of post-punk musicians who highlight basement shows and fanzines (what are fanzines?), who haven’t thought about wearing guyliner and going emo, who haven’t dabbled in concept albums or made records where you need a Ph.D in Steve Reich to get. It’s a throwback sound; the members modest well be wearing bootleg Fugazi T-shirts. (You definitely hear Fugazi in one of DD’s older songs, “The Psychic”; the Jane Jacobs politics behind “Luxury Condos For the Poor” updates “Cashout.”) All this means is that Double Dagger is the token rock band on just about any bill.

But don’t let my lame comparison to Fugazi fool you. The band’s sound is all it’s own, having come from years of playing together. Double Dagger formed in 2002: bass guitar (Bruce Willen), that monster drumming (Brian Dubin) and singer/songwriting (Nolen Strals). Strals and Willen met in art school. Later, Dubin was replaced with drummer Denny Bowen.

This week we fired off some questions to the band via e-mail. The Q and A after the jump.

Read More “Tonight: Double Dagger To Play Free In-Store @ Crooked Beat” »