Alas, there is no street beef between the bands U.S. Royalty and American Royalty. There are only questions: Which band is more regal? Which one best represents the U.S. of A.? Sadly, this AWESOMELY EXCLUSIVE CHART doesn't help much:
HOMETOWN
D.C.
L.A.
MUSICAL STYLE
Slightly tarnished AM gold
with literary aspirations
Mildly eccentric indie-electro
with pop tendencies
MOST RECENT RELEASE
Mirrors LP
Matchstick EP (out Feb. [...]
Few buildings are more important than that of a government’s treasury. America’s version started out as a two-story brick building located directly southeast of the White House, housing around half of the federal workforce. An arsonist seeking to destroy incriminating pension records burned it down in 1833, and the government hosted a design competition for [...]
Just a reminder: Step into your local coffee shop/pub/diner/yogurt shop/furniture store/cupcake joint/ramen shack today, and you just might hear some local tunes. It's Local Music Day, which means a bunch of businesses are playing whole albums by eight D.C. acts. Those would be: singer/songwriter René Moffatt, reggae duo See-I (reviewed in WCP!), rockers Modern Man, U.S. Royalty (reviewed in WCP!), and Deleted [...]
We had to chuckle yesterday when we heard Micah Vellian's remix of "Equestrian" by D.C. pop-rockers U.S. Royalty. Vellian (one-third of Volta Bureau) didn't try to scale back the unreformed haughtiness of the original; instead he candies the song's hooks with a dance-pop beat. We asked him about his artistic choices. His reply:
U.S. Royalty commissioned [...]
The artist studios inside the warehouse at 443 I St. NW have been called a lot of things over the years. One was the Hosiery. Another is Red Door. Collectively, they're most often referred to as Gold Leaf Studios.
Since 1998, artists and musicians have used the beat-up Mount Vernon Square building as a place to [...]
Phil Adé's new track "Monte Carlo Dreams," with its blatant U.S. Royalty samples, probably exists because the Maryland rapper and the D.C. rock band already had a thing goin' on. (Click that link and watch that video, it's kinda nice.) The original "Monte Carlo" was a "coke-kissed Fleetwood Mac-style jam" (yeah, I just quoted myself), [...]
If it's Wednesday, there must be a wintry mix on the ground. Seriously, this has happened a few times now. The Jersey Shore freaks get a trip to Italy and we're stuck with this icy, slushy crap?
On TBD, Maura Judkis talks to a pair of San Francisco curators working on a compendium of all blog [...]
The best of the entire weekend
The Dismemberment Plan, performing tonight at the Black Cat (sold out), and Saturday and Sunday (also sold out) at 9:30 Club.
I loathe to admit, but I've yet to earn my D-Plan stripes. It's not looking like this will be the weekend to do so either. In all matters Dismemberment Plan, [...]
It's all been online for nearly a day already, but in case you missed something, this week's dead-tree City Paper has lots of sexy stuff:
Leor Galil profiles D.C. grindcore trio Magrudergrind, who pissed off some of their peers by releasing an EP through Scion, the Toyota brand. But why are grindcore kids still hung up [...]
Friday:
Liz Phair, U.S. Royalty. 8 p.m. $25. 9:30 Club.
Gene Wene, The Blackberry Belles. 9 p.m. $20. Black Cat.
Free Lobster Buffet, Honey House, The Bourbon House (all sound delicious, all are just bands). 9:30 p.m. $8. Red Palace.
Bellman Barker, Megan Jean and the Klay Family Band, Alma Tropicalia, Fort Washington Band. 9 p.m. $10. Rock & [...]
