Perhaps you’ve heard there’s a lot of free shit going down this weekend. If you haven’t, well, there’s a lot of free shit going down this weekend. Most of it revolves around the Kia Soul Collective tour, which has set up shop in a warehouse at 3330 New York Ave. NE, with free parking as well as a free shuttle from Union Station. Wale performs in the space tonight at 7 p.m., with DJs Stereofaith, Reed Rothchild, and Chris Burns spinning from 4 p.m. Tomorrow night belongs to Dan Deacon, The Creepers, and Nouveau Riche DJs; the music starts at 8 p.m. And MGMT is headlining an 8 p.m. show Sunday night following DJ sets by DJ CA$$IDY and Dave Nada. To get tickets to this last concert, however, you have to test drive a Kia first, which you can do all weekend, if that’s your thing.

Read More “End-Of-The-Week Music News, Free Stuff Edition” »

Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

Tabi Bonney:

-Missy Elliot is/was great! How did I not list her in my top female rappers?She changed the whole game sonically & visually with Timbo & Hype

-I’m actually listening to my own music “dope” which I don’t do after I release it to the world.This joint is tight & I’m not even biased LOL

These United States:

-day off! sittin Oceanside in San Diego, listenin to Everest and The Parson Red Heads, two killer bands we’re rockin Los Angeles w tomorrow!

Wale:

-im happy .. but rewriting for the 848774943th time :)

-in the studio with pharrell…i wanna go live…but im not sure if this aircard can take ustream right now

Foul Swoops:

-grabbing all my can goods and headed for the hills. i am not gonna be a part of the race war taking place at the VMAs.

-who’s more in the wrong: me for trying to sell an unopened copy of Murmur to Cd Seller or CD Seller for not wanting it?

Craig Wedren

-The Making Of Pony Express Record in all it’s raw, mundane glory. http://bit.ly/34tGPe

Just when you thought it was safe to mark your calenders…

“Major major major tour” dates forthcoming. (via TSS)

Ted Leo: “Last Days”
Rough times for Ted Leo. He’s been signed to two of independent music’s most beloved/influential labels (Lookout! and Touch & Go) and, subsequently, watched them both throw in the towel and call it a day. Maybe he’s been hexed? Despite all of this, Leo’s music remains defiant and energetic. His lyrics on “Last Days”–a rough mix from an as-yet-untitled album–may skew apocalyptic, but the music is loose, loud, and anything but tense.

The Clientele: “Harvest Time”
“I Wonder Who We Are,” the first single from The Clientele’s upcoming Bonfires on the Heath was–with its horns, Spanish guitars, and spirited tempo–a little bit out of character for the band. But “Harvest Time” finds the London-based band getting back on message. Languid Crosby Stills & Nash-meets Pink Floyd vocals drift over tamboura drones and jangling guitars.

Wale: “Ice & Rain”
So yeah, been waiting a while for the Wale record to drop, right? Well, keep waiting. The release date has been pushed back from September to late October. In the meantime you can read the man’s tweets, stalk his myspace, and scrutinize leftovers like “Ice & Rain,” which didn’t make the cut for Attention: Deficit. It’s no huge surprise that this song–where Wale raps a tragic suburban-girl-meets-gangster-dude love story–was dropped. “Ice melts in the rain, love turns into pain,” goes the hook. Compared to “Nike Boots,” it’s a bit of a bummer.

Little Dragon: “Feather”
Rock bands will come and go, but people will always need music to shop to. So Little Dragon can, at the very least, look forward to some job security. “Feather,” from the Swedish synth-pop quartet’s upcoming full-length Machine Dreams, has just the right sex-to-apathy ratio to warrant being pumped through the sound system at The Limited. “I’d rather be a whisper in heaven,” sings Yukimi Nagano, as if gravity alone is drawing the words out of her mouth. Really, could she sound more bored? It’s almost as if she did the vocal take whilst reading Ulysses and watching televised golf.

When that is the most common thing one hears said about a concert, it would seem to indicate that something was left to be desired. It was a stroke of PR genius to make this year’s version of the Virgin Festival completely free, after it became clear that the lineup was not going to live up to the standard set by previous years. So while there was a lot to complain about on Sunday, from the bizarre decision to turn pavilion seating into a free-for-all to the fact that, well, Blink-182 were the headliners, hey – it was free. And in this case, concertgoers got much more than what they paid for.

Public Enemy (pictured above, Flavor Flav) drew by far the biggest crowd to the festival’s secondary stage, and delivered a set worthy of the distinction. I enjoyed a few other sets here and there, particularly over on that second stage (St. Vincent, Girl Talk, The National were all fun), but really, Public Enemy alone would have made the whole thing, um, worth the price of admission.

The full set of photos is forthcoming, but check out a few teasers after the jump.

Read More “Virgin Mobile FreeFest: “You Can’t Complain When It’s Free”” »

Rap-Up Mag has a sneak peek at Wale’s much anticipated (and indefinitely delayed) Attention: Deficit. First, off bad news for go-go fans – the Backyard sampling, Gucci Mane collab “Pretty Girls” “is the only record on the album that features the signature go-go sound.”

Beyond that the review is predictably gushing (”remember the Folgers coffee slogan? Well, the best part of waking up will be playing this record.” uhh…) as is often the case when critics are granted exclusive first listens. It’s informative nonetheless. The tracklisting boasts production from Mark Ronson, local boys Best Kept Secret, Cool & Dre, American Gangster architects Sean C & LV and TV on The Radio’s Dave Sitek. Guest spots are a mixed bag, featuring Rihanna, Bun B, Jazmine Sullivan, Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald, Blink 182’s Travis Barker and Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry. Also there is a song called “90210″ that Ronson simply describes a ““The Perez Hilton angle.”

So basically don’t get your hopes up, DC.

Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

These United States:

–oh, dear, I almost forgot how mind-ticklingly-Good this song was/is — http://is.gd/OoDu — read the lyrics, please, for the love of Dada?!?

–totally identify w/ How Frank Sinatra Feels on this one – http://is.gd/Po0l – Shervin will NOT stop bothering us to play “The Business” LOL!

Laura Burhenn:

–love to hear friends’ voices on the speakers in all kindsa strange public places. thanks, Maria, for serenading me outside the UPS store!

–when life gives you lemons, go swimming: http://yfrog.com/724mjj

Beauty Pill (Chad Clark):

–There’s a line from 30Rock that cracks me up whenever I think of it. “Never follow a hippie to a second location.”

–Oliver Messiaen was also an ornithologist. Transcribed birdsong into compositions. Glad I’m not the only one.

–Favorite Indian restaurant between gym and home. The world has a cruel shape sometimes. I try not to think about it as I drive by.

Wale:

–buisness can wait today is family day gonna see mommy too (african people say mommy till there60 ha) no dates no lunches nothin but fam 2day

Sampling the thought-streams of DC musicians past and present.

Wale:

–brett favre has an arm made of old salami ..if he can still “play qb” mike vick can too he wasn’t that bad as a passer fuck that

Edie Sedgwick:

–Sandra Bullock poisoned cafeteria’s lentil soup with huge dose of sassy cuteness. Too bad it’s 2009 and the poison is no longer effective.

Ted Leo:

–Long form Juggalo Gathering vid if you haven’t seen, & if 1st 7 min aren’t good enough, the 2nd 7 really ratchet it up: http://tr.im/tv0y

The Dance Party:

–Oh, by the way, we just wrote a song with this dude: http://bit.ly/9uYMC

Chris Burns:

–What asshole created that new #miraclewhip campaign? What “spices” are in the blandest nastiest mayo substitute on the market?

Wale: “Pretty Girls”
Wale reps DC, his hometown, hard in this song, which is rumored to be drawn from his upcoming debut full-length Attention:Deficit. “Come to DC and I can make you a believer,” he raps over a slow and funky hook. But Wale’s forgetting that DC, well NW at least, has long been characterized as “Hollywood for ugly people.” So there’s a good chance his chant-along chorus, “Ugly girls be quiet/Pretty girls clap like this,” will leave local audiences largely un-stoked.

Girls: “Hellhole Ratrace”
Band name aside, Girls isn’t offering up a whole lot that has to do with the female sex. Every spare measure of “Hellhole Ratrace,” is chock full of men. Wistful men. Melancholy men. Men feeling the great heartbreak. But, yeah, men all the same. “I don’t want to cry my whole life through/ I want to do some laughing, too,” mopes singer Christopher Owens. Strong men also cry, but this song, which stretches to almost 7 minutes, is positively bloated with tears.

Jonsi & Alex: “Boy 1904”
Sigur Ros front man Jonsi Brigisson and his partner Alex Somers have more streamlined approach to provoking elegiac thoughts. With it’s low drones, boys choir-style vocals, and field recording snippets, “Boy 1904,” from the duo’s upcoming ambient album Riceboy Sleeps, makes almost any activity performed during the songs duration feel sublime and cathartic. All that’s missing is a rain-streaked window to gaze out of.

Air: “Do The Joy”
Air isn’t big on substance, obviously, and “Do the Joy,” from its upcoming record Love 2 is appropriately ethereal. There are gossamer synths, fuzzy guitars, and the a voice that quietly murmurs, “Do the joy” over and over again, yet refrains from specifying exactly how ones does it. Conceptually, it’s a minor step down from, say, “Surfing on a Rocket.”

The long awaited Back To The Feature mixtape from DC RAPS GREAT HOPE dropped on Friday. Primarily produced by ex-Little Brother beatsmith 9th Wonder, the tape is Wale’s bid for true hip hop legitimacy while simultaneously pushing a shameless and gross radio single. After the jump are my song-by-song first listen knee jerks on the tape. Download it here if you need a soundtrack to this blog post. Read More “Blogging and Bleeding with Wale’s Back To The Feature” »