Arts Desk » the cheniers

Don’t Be Bored: Revenge of the Electric Car

Ally Schweitzer — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:37:49 +0000

It would be hard to find a documentary more cinematic than Revenge of the Electric Car. Framed as a thriller, following the personal struggles of four charismatic men and their automotive creations, its scenes of corporate deliberations are shot with such intimacy that it’s hard to believe they weren’t scripted and staged. Through an astonishing level of access, filmmaker Chris Paine sketches not only a battle for survival in the new low-carbon economy, but also captures some supremely confident leaders who at times seem sustained by hubris alone. (Cameos by Danny DeVito and Adrian Grenier only add twinkle to the glitz.) At this stage, electric car development is still all about perception: Teetering auto empires need to prove they’re still relevant, and sexy new startups have to show they can actually produce cars. In this case, the subject matter justifies even the most absurdly dramatic presentation. The film shows for the last time today at 1:45 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 5:45 p.m., 7:45 p.m., and 9:45 p.m. at E Street Cinema. $11. (Lydia DePillis)

MUSIC

Two journo bands are playing tonight: Ryan Little's Tereu Tereu at Velvet Lounge, and David Malitz's The Cheniers at Black Cat. Both writers broke big local stories recently (Black Cat Bill and Elliot Smith's "lost" sessions) and made time to practice (presumably) for these shows. Respect. Bonus: Tereu Tereu's recently remixed Jukebox The Ghost's "Half Crazy." Listen to it on YouTube.

Tenor saxophonist Bobby Muncy brings his Radiohead jazz project back to Twins this evening. It is exactly what it sounds like: Radiohead tunes translated to improvisational jazz. 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. $10.

Local DJs Sean Peoples and Aaron Baird have a new night at Café Saint-Ex: Color Wheel. They're promising house music from the past, present, and maybe even the future. 10 p.m. Free.

FILM

Two film festivals kick off today: the Capital Irish Film Festival and the Washington Jewish Film Festival. The former begins with a showing of Alexandra McGuiness' debut feature Lotus Eaters, which the Hollywood Reporter called "Less a succinct narrative than a meandering portrait of several ultra-rich, ultra-empty thirtysomethings who waste away their days with sex, drugs and ennui." That shows at 8 p.m. at E Street Cinema, $10. Uptown, the Jewish Film Festival hosts an opening night reception and showing of Mabul at the Avalon. 7 p.m. $25.

BOOKS

In case you missed him at Barnes & Noble Georgetown, Steve Jobs biographer and Aspen Institute prez Walter Isaacson is giving you another shot at getting your book signed, this time inside the cozy room at Politics & Prose. 7 p.m. Free.

Don’t Be Bored: Dedication

Jonathan L. Fischer — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:31:40 +0000

The new Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall has not had a good opening run. Its star-studded dedication event was canceled because of Hurricane Irene. And long-simmering controversies were ignited as critics ripped the shoddy treatment of the memorial’s Chinese stonemasons, questioned a design that makes some people think the sculpture is half-done, and blasted a truncated quote that turns a thoughtful King sermon into a goofy boast about being “a drum major for justice.” Six weeks later, the inaugural event—originally slated to be a spectacle featuring scores of celebrity guests—will be somewhat smaller in scope. But it will still feature an African-American president formally opening a national memorial to a man prior presidents had used the FBI to spy upon—which is pretty amazing. The mangled quote, meanwhile, can still be changed. The memorial dedication begins at 9 a.m. Sunday at West Potomac Park, West Basin Drive SW and Independence Avenue SW. Free. (888) 484-3373. (Michael Schaffer)

MUSIC

City Slang Booking and Sasha Lord's awesome garage rock festival Hail Hail Rock'n'Roll continues through Saturday. Tonight at 10 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, you get twang-happy New Yorkers Sorceress plus Electronicat, Dino's Boys, and TNV. On Saturday at 8 p.m. at Quarry House, you get The Spectacles, Les Sans Culottes, and a headlining set from Sorrows, of whom Steve Kiviat says:

Sorrows is back. No, not the forgotten 1960s English band—this Sorrows is the forgotten late 1970s/early ’80s New York power-pop combo with no “the” in its name. The skinny tie-wearing, shaggy-haired outfit was led by Warsaw-born guitarist Arthur Alexander, who likened Sorrows’ sound to “Abba meets the Sex Pistols.” Thirty-some years later, Alexander and guitarist Joey Cola have reunited—without ties—and added a new bassist and drummer. But the band’s roughed-up British Invasion tunes remain just as timelessly catchy. On Bad Times Good Times, released last winter, “Teenage Heartbreak” delivers sped-up Chuck Berry riffs and a memorable chorus; the wistful “I Can’t Go Back” recalls The Hollies; and “Lonely Girl” melds punk propulsion with exuberant call- and-response vocals.

GARAGE ROCK BONUS: D.C.'s The Cheniers open up for Throwing Muses Saturday at the Black Cat. At a house show last week, The Cheniers played a mean Vaselines cover.

FILM

Chronicling the plight of the proletariat makes for compelling politics, but not always compelling movies. Luckily, this year’s DC Labor FilmFest at the AFI Silver Theatre packs some entertainment into its pro-labor message, offering viewers a respite from the looming double-dip recession and the rapid decline of collective bargaining rights. The week-long festival mixes sober classics (All the President’s Men) with more topical fare (Up in the Air, Inside Job). Duncan Jones’ overlooked 2009 sci-fi thriller Moon is an unconventional choice, but could be a prescient foretelling of 22nd-century labor struggles. In the film, which shows Saturday and Sunday, space technician Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) embarks on a doomed lunar mission—an assignment that no self-respecting union representative would authorize. Moon’s chilling conclusion presents a bleak vision of the final frontier: In space, no one is guaranteed workers’ compensation. The DC Labor FilmFest runs through Tuesday at the AFI Silver Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring. $11. Discounted admission with union card. (Matt Siblo)\

Among theatrical releases, our film critic Tricia Olszewski says Take Shelter, the tense, paranoiac drama starring Michael Shannon, is worth your time and cash. I say the same of Gainsbourg:

In the beginning, Lucien Ginsberg is a mischievous child, and in the end, Serge Gainsbourg is a debauched old man, but Joann Sfar’s riff on the notorious French pop provocateur is anything but a standard biopic. Fine, so it doesn’t explode the idiom as boisterously as the Bob Dylan-inspired I’m Not There—for starters, the plot of Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is linear, and it details events that, you know, actually happened—but it’s just as uninterested in the ascents, falls, and string-swelling redemptions that biopics usually peddle. Instead, Gainsbourg is a story of creativity and artifice, of how history, upbringing, insecurity, and inspiration combined to make possible one man’s music and persona. Selectively, of course: Some of Gainsbourg’s relationships seem to pass by in seconds while his affair with Brigitte Bardot climaxes with a delirious, lengthy, and sexy bedside rehearsal session. A Jew, Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino) came of age in Nazi-occupied France and later invoked anti-Semitic themes in his art, and Sfar approaches that tricky dichotomy by anthropomorphizing it: A beak-nosed, monkey-eared doppelgänger emerges from one of Gainsbourg’s drawings early in the film, prodding and taunting the songwriter through a string of affairs, benders, and musical epiphanies—which are soundtracked just as manically by Gainsbourg’s compositions, from innuendo-laden chanson to a scandalous reggae version of “La Marseillaise.” If in the end the takeaway is familiar—creating such great art required no small amount of self-loating—that’s OK. It’s the art part that lasts. The film shows all week at West End Cinema, 2301 M. St. NW. $11. (202) 419-3456.

BOOKS

Memoirists R. Dwayne Betts and (WCP alum) Ta-Nehisi Coates speak at the Folger Shakespeare Library tonight at 7:30 p.m. $15.

THEATER

Chris Klimek recommends Rorschach Theatre's trippy meditation on mortality, After the Quake.

ART PARTY

Writes Arts Desk contributor Marcus K. Dowling:

Sun Ra-influenced jazz fusion meets South American percussive house music as New York City's The Crystal Ark headline Hirshhorn After Hours Friday. The Smithsonian's current "Warhol on the Mall" program series blends its namesake's appreciation for progressive New York City nightlife with the museum's current "Andy Warhol: Shadows" exhibition. The Crystal Ark features DFA Records production wizard and LCD Soundsystem member Gavin Russom alongside NYC dancer, singer-songwriter, and scene ingénue Viva Ruiz, with a nine-piece orchestra. Accompanying the band's performance will be noted Brooklyn psychedelic projectionist Bec Stupak and Honeygun Labs. Rounding out the lineup, late-night music will be provided by former LCD Soundsystem keyboard player and current Juan Maclean vocalist Nancy Whang. For more information, visit the Hirshhorn's website. Tickets are $25 and available by advance purchase only.

The Crystal Ark @ Sugarhill Disco from Johnny Woods on Vimeo.

WCP Does SXSW: Windian Records Throws Stones

Ramon Ramirez — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:24:49 +0000

Jackson

Every March, South by Southwest corrals the music industry in Austin, Texas. Record labels, publicists, and hip blogs program warring bills throughout the Texas capital’s 200 venues; red-eyed bands cram eight gigs into three days. The taco trucks are superb. Everybody’s there.
But Travis Jackson, the owner and founder of Windian Records, is opting out this year.

“Talking to all my friends about the [South by Southwest] experience, it’s like, ‘Did we accomplish anything?’ No. ‘Did we make any money?’ The little we did went to beer. It’s just partying,” he says. “The focus has dramatically shifted from discovering music to marketing—to finding unconventional ways to get people to buy things.”

After doing the math, Jackson couldn’t justify a Windian caravan to the 2011 conference. The fuming pop-punk of White Faces, the urgent and chant-driven three-minute miles of The Electricutions, and the head-knocking, riot grrrl fuzz of Jungle Fever would have to schmooze elsewhere. But Jackson still wanted to roll out the Windian spring catalog somewhere.

Saturday at U Street Music Hall, he spearheads “Fuck SXSW: Windian Showcase,” an 11-act bill highlighting the “sleazy garage punk rock” Jackson & Co. have spent the last year and a half cranking out.

“All of my friend’s labels are going down for South By,” Jackson says. “The whole event is basically making fun of them...I’d rather spend all our money putting out records. [Fuck SXSW] is saying ‘South by isn’t something we have to do.’”

Timely, unofficial shows rebelling against the suits are nothing new to South by Southwest culture. Peddlers and organizers like New York’s Todd P. have perfected exploiting the gold mine of converged talent into parallel, anti-establishment parties wholly dependent on South by Southwest’s stellar logistics. Jackson’s event is unique in that it throws stones 1,500 miles away from the glass house.

“Austin is a town where you get good rock n’ roll at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve,” Jackson says. “But the problem is it’s hard for concerts to feel special...Bands have to plan spring tours around making it down and then their post-South By shows are in ghost towns.

“By contrast, D.C. doesn’t get too much punk. It made more sense for me to fly in some of my bands from San Diego and Alabama, give them a big show, and keep it local.”

Beyond cost, Jackson sees South by Southwest’s recent evolution as worrisome. When every fading beacon of reporting and criticism is there with an agenda and itinerary, what’s in it for 90 percent of showcasing artists?

“[South by Southwest] is about sponsors and some Pitchfork intern selling me Dos Equis,” Jackson says. “SST and Dischord never had to go down and build contacts.”

“Fuck SXSW: Windian Showcase”—featuring Dan Sartain; Jungle Fever; Pinche Gringo; Two Tears; Sweet Sixteens; Occult Detective Club; Maybe, Baby; Thee Lolitas; The Electricutions; The Cheniers; and Foul Swoops—takes place 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday at U Street Music Hall. $10.

The Year in One Track Minds: A Final Post About 2010

Ryan Little — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:12:17 +0000

Our One Track Mind feature–a brief but in-depth look at the process behind a single song—is one of our favorite ways to keep up with D.C.'s musical output. In 2010, we published 45 of them. Looking back, we—shocker!—picked up lots of rock tracks in 2010, with hip-hop coming in second place. There was also scattered electronica, pop, hardcore, Afropop, and Latin jazz. Somehow, we skipped go-go altogether.

Perhaps we skewed a little too heavily toward garage-friendly indie rock, what with Maybe, Baby, The Cheniers, Foul Swoops, and the like, but it was hard to ignore the lo-fi influx around town. Shock Diamond and Bluebrain were some of the few electronica-oriented acts to make the cut; with the opening of U Street Music Hall, you'd think we'd have covered more techno-savy artists. We caught up with Oddisee, X.O., Fat Trel, and a few others, but what hip-hop acts did we miss? Were there killer releases from D.C. in 2010 that we should've worked into an OTM? Who should we be paying attention to in 2011?

Here's every OTM from last year:

Music in Review: The Best Local Songs of 2010, According to Fischer

Jonathan L. Fischer — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 22:42:59 +0000

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 it.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Felt Letters – "600,000 Bands" (M'lady's Records): This song might have come out in 2009. The Ian Svenonius-fronted project definitely played it in 2008. But it was one of City Paper's first One Track Minds of the year, a maybe-joking-maybe-not death-rattle meditation on indie-rock oversaturation. "600,000 bands, each one makes a sound," Svenonius growls. "Well everyone wants you to listen to them, but you can't right now cuz you're listening to this."

Screen Vinyl Image – "New Visions" (Fan Death Records): Hopeful-sounding noise, harsh-light ambience in a goth-pop cast. The duo seems to be smoothing out its sound these days, but it's still the loudest band in the city.

Tabi Bonney – "Nuthin But a Hero" (iHipHop): In the music video, Tabi's looking dapper and riding a bicycle, but I wouldn't write this off as the official anthem of D.C.'s dandy scene. It's a song about seeking stardom and bringing someone you love with you—which might make for a staid, corny message if not for the song's string-driven, damn-near-transcendent beat.

Midnight Kids – "Night Walk" (self-released): From the ashes of longtime indie-rock fixtures The Apes came Midnight Kids, whose self-titled EP is all brown acid and black magic.

Hume – "Injera" (Sockets Records): The best song for when you're hanging out with your favorite shaman. I wrote all about it yesterday.

Painted Face – "Undreamt" (self-released): This song makes me think of The Labyrinth, mostly because it's an acknowledged tribute to Kate Bush, who, for some reason, makes me think of The Labrynth.

Dave Nada – "Moombahton" (T&A Records): I basically wrote a cover story about this song.

X.O. – "Black Broadway" (Studio 43): X.O.'s One.One.Ten is the best D.C. hip-hop album of 2010, and it's also the most downcast. With its maximalist, soul-sampling Oddisee beat, "Black Broadway" is the outlier, an aspirational hometown love letter.

True Womanhood – "Dignitas" (Environmental Aesthetics): I should really exclude this song, seeing as I'm friends with these guys. They get a one-time end-of-the-year pass. This dirge totally pulls of its Madchester-style middle section, even though it has no business doing so.

Carolyn Malachi – "Orion" (self-released): Like I wrote recently, I don't know how this song reached the ears of Grammy voters, but they nailed it when they nominated it for the prize. Also, it's about an astronaut and a mermaid.

Medications – "Long Day" (Dischord): Medications didn't record for five years and emerged a remade band. In fact, it emerged a pop band with punk and math-rock tendencies, and a taste for left turns—like "Long Day," which teases at aggression before easing into a gentle, Afro-poppish rumination.

The Cheniers – "Here Comes Trouble" (WINDIAN): Because it's about your friend who was more fun before he went sober.

Imperial China – "Go Where Airplanes Go" (Sockets): Dear bands who love post-hardcore: Follow this song's example and eschew the guitar.

America Hearts – "Be My Jones" (Yeah Gates!): Because nothing out of D.C. left me with a bigger smile this year.

The Pragmatist: Three Songs for Eating Halloween Candy

Ryan Little — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:56:04 +0000

It's everywhere. Kit Kats, candy corn, tiny Snickers bars, bags upon bags of M&Ms... you can't avoid it. With Halloween coming up, you know you're going to binge on fun-size snacks, and it's going to be delicious. You may end up toothless, but that won't dull the thrill of consuming countless chocolate treats. Of course, by the time that beloved holiday actually arrives, you'll have so much sugar in your system you'll hardly know what to do with yourself. Don't panic. Here are some sweet, guitar-centric tunes to get down to while that glucose-induced rush is rocking your body.

Punk? Pop? Whatever. Fast-paced, no-bullshit rock & roll from The Jam is hard to beat. Give this live take of "In The City" a shot while you're tripping out on Reese's pieces.

You're not alone with Sonic Youth. Throw on theclassic "Teenage Riot" (it seriously never gets old) and rock out to Thurston Moore's ecstatic visions of a "hyper nation" of '90s kids, 'cause you know they're all restless, too.

Scrappy D.C. guitar-rock trio The Cheniers crank out lo-fi pop gems that beg for your caramel-covered enthusiasm. Check 'em out on Sunday at Black Cat after you polish off the last of your Mars bars.

Local #MusicMonday: New Songs from Mother, the Cheniers, Judah

Jonathan L. Fischer — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:09:56 +0000

D.C.'s Mother uses phrases like "laser-beam eyes" and frequently swaps out the letter C for the letter K, but its music is as much psychedelia—not just one song has an instrumental freak-out that recalls the classic psych-rockers the United States of America—as moody indie erudition in the National vein. On the EP the group released today, Oktopus Klap, songs usually fall into one camp or the other, but the best track, "Base Kamp," blends both. It slow-building vamp amasses tension before fading out and switching gears: The second half of the song is in line with the EP's greyish, somber mood, yet centers on a organ-led, carnivalesque stomp worthy of Syd Barrett. Download Oktopus Klap for free at the band's bandcamp page.

Arlington's the Cheniers recently released its Trouble! 7-inch, but unless you, well, bought it, you probably haven't heard "45 Days." Today, the Vinyl District has an mp3 of the song on the occasion of this weekend's Velvet Lounge shows celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Windian Records, the new vinyl label of the Points' Travis Jackson.

True Genius Requires Insanity points to a sun-soaked new R&B track from producer Judah, which you'll have to buy. But the YouTube preview promises good things:

Foul Swoops Endorse Picasso, “Wall Power”

Jonathan L. Fischer — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:19:08 +0000

D.C.'s scrappy, slightly scuzzy Foul Swoops are apparently close observers of the international art market: Check out the song "Colossal Sized Picasso" from the band's set at the Velvet Lounge Saturday. Is it an ode to hedge-fund managers and Russian oil titans looking for some wall power to adorn their corner offices? Maybe, or maybe not. Either way, it rocked live.

Foul Swoops, by the way, are on the new Arlington-based label Yeah Gates, also home to America Hearts, whose four-song EP I really dig, and the Cheniers, which features WaPo music critic David Malitz and Metropolitan frontman John Masters. The Cheniers have a 7-inch out soon on another local label, Windian Records.

Cheniers’ Debut 7-Inch Has Art by David Berman

Jonathan L. Fischer — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:42:37 +0000

It's been over a year since David Berman—the slacker-poet with the drawled baritone whose band Silver Jews made some of the best, strangest, and least assuming indie rock of the last two decades—announced he was done making music. Which was and is a bummer. But it's not the subject of this post.

See, for at least as long as he's made music, Berman has made cartoons—-off-kilter, ür-Groening scenes that come from the same witty, rough-and-tumble place as his songs. He published a book of them last year.

And then, perhaps improbably, he did some doodles for the Cheniers, a jangly, noisy, Clean-loving Arlington group led by Washington Post music critic David Malitz. The art bedecks the band's debut "Trouble!" 7-inch, which drops later this month on the local label Windian Records.

I e-mailed Malitz and he sent me these images, which he says will look less cut-and-pasted once the sleeves are printed. As for how it all came about, he writes:

Basically I just asked him. I did a pretty epic interview with him around when he spoke at the Corcoran a couple years ago in conjunction with a Jeremy Blake exhibit. And I stayed in very irregular touch with him since then. He actually was in D.C. for a few months last year and came to one of our shows, which was exciting. He got the Wingtip Sloat reference I made between songs. His book of cartoons is pretty weird and hilarious and I figured I'd at least ask him if he wanted to do it. He said sure, sent back a bunch of options, and that was that. The picture on the back (with the dude at the well) cracks me up.

You can't buy "Trouble!" yet, but you can hear it at the Cheniers MySpace page.

Arts Roundup: ‘Poetic Resignation’ Edition

Ted Scheinman — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:00:51 +0000

*The Guardian's lit blog posits Twitter as an elegant way to announce one's resignation, cites the case of Jonathan Schwartz, who until yesterday morning served as CEO of Sun Microsystems. His #haiku effort:

Financial crisis
Stalled too many customers
CEO no more.

Schwartz loses points for imagery but recoups on the kicker. Bonus point to Alison Flood for the headline.

*The Seattle Stranger's Charles Mudede conceives a cosmic explanation for the appeal of the blues. Basically, he says, the aab verse structure reminds us of the settling of the universe, galactic asymmetry, &c.; what he describes sounds like the prequel to "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day."

If I Had Possession Over Judgm...

*I don't watch Lost—no TV; bad internet connection—but thanks to the magic of Twitter, it's like I was there! Actually, it's a lot like that Family Guy episode in which Peter gets a job attending movies with blind people and describing the action to them, detail by excruciating detail.

*How's this for a man-bites-dog hed?

*The Brits get Alice in Wonderland a week and a half before we do.

*David Malitz doesn't just write about bands—he's in them, too! Check out "Here Comes Trouble," new single from the Cheniers. This shit goes straight to your temporal lobe!

*Newest supergroup: Mary J. Blige, Steve Vai, and Travis Barker.

*Second Dead Weather record could be out by April; it's "bluesier and heavier than we ever thought," Jack White tells Spin. The White Stripes' new film, Under the Great White Northern Lights, will show at SXSW in March.