Arts Desk » Windian Records

Arts Roundup: OK, So D.C. Does Kinda Suck Edition

Ally Schweitzer — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:45:20 +0000

Numbers Talk: Urban scholar Richard Florida has his say in the debate over whether D.C. is a good place for artists to make a living. He looks at the concentration and incomes of different types of artists in the D.C. region, New York, Philly, and Baltimore, and concludes that "D.C. seems like a not-so-great place for visual artists, a slightly better than average place for musicians and a pretty good place for writers and editors. New York and L.A. continue to dominate these fields, particularly arts, design and music, and actually provide a comparatively good living even with their high costs of housing."

On Your Airwaves: Tune into Kojo Nnamdi's show today to hear Ian Mackaye discuss the Great Fugazi Online Archive. And if you're in front of a television this morning, check out Hairspray cast members on Fox.

Goin' Big: The organizers of D.C.'s Chinese New Year parade have big dreams, reports Monica Hesse.

Life in the Bookhouse: WaPo's Dan Zak hangs out in the Arlington Bookhouse, run by an 80-year-old and a 91-year-old, and closing in the next year or two.

Local Label Roundup!: In case you missed it, Fader magazine's December/January issue features a brief piece on D.C./Maryland-based electronic music label Future Times, along with a few other quality independent electronic labels you should get into. And yesterday, Windian Records gave us a glimpse into its release schedule for 2012.

Don’t Be Bored: Devo in Falls Church!

Ally Schweitzer — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:20:46 +0000

On the DVD commentary of Erle C. Kenton’s Island of Lost Souls, Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh explains that the band’s theory of de-evolution largely stems from late-night viewings of the seminal sci-fi film. How appropriate, then, that Devo’s oddball philosophy and idiosyncratic style spawned its own cultish midnight-movie appeal, one that’s resonated far beyond the novelty of “Whip It.” After an extended hiatus in the ’90s, the band regrouped last year for Something For Everybody, a comeback attempt that failed to generate much excitement. No matter. In its 2009 shows at 9:30 Club, Devo focused on its two most beloved albums, Freedom of Choice and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo, and there’s a good chance Mothersbaugh et al. will revisit those hits tonight. Diehards—or Spuds, as they are known—with deep pockets and an appreciation of awkward small talk should spring for the $120 tickets, which include a meet-and-greet with the band. Are they not worth it? 8 p.m. at State Theatre. $57-$120. (Matt Siblo)

CARTOONS

Al Jaffee, MAD magazine's reigning master of the Snappy Answer to Stupid Questions, speaks at the D.C. Jewish Community Center. The 89-year-old cartoonist is still doing the Fold-Ins at the back of MAD, where he has appeared for every issue but one since 1964, which is before most of the City Paper staff was born. Jaffee will be discussing his autobiography, Al Jaffee's Mad Life, co-authored with Mary-Lou Weisman. 7:30 at the DCJCC. $10. (Mike Rhode)

PUNKMAS

Windian Records is throwing a Christmas party at Pharmacy Bar in Adams Morgan tonight. Label owner Travis Jackson promises a raffle (to benefit Positive Force), lots of Windian releases for sale, rock 'n' roll DJ sets, and excessive drinking. 9 p.m. No cover.

MUSIC FROM LAS AMERICAS

Head over to Café Saint-Ex—the subject of Chris Shott's big print feature this week—to hear some Brazilian jams courtesy of Som Records' Neal Becton and (disclosure: my friend) Justin Jouvenal. Specials on Peroni and Caipirinhas all night. 9:30 p.m. No cover.

City Paper contributor Steve Kiviat recommends tonight's Maracuyeah party, "Fin de Año ~ Amor Tropical," an end-of-year affair with New York's global tech/alt-Latino DJ Geko Jones and local spinners. Says Kiviat: "Expect cutting-edge and classic tunes from Latin America and other locales, courtesy of Jones and the Maracuyeah crew (featuring Bent, Mafe, rAt, K La Rock, and Brian Senyo). All will spin Cumbiasalvaje, tribal guarachero, salsatronic, ochenteros, merengue ripiao, dancehall, y mucho mas." 9 p.m. at Restaurant Judy. $3.

Arts Roundup: I’d Rather Be in California, Too Edition

Benjamin R. Freed — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:57:37 +0000

No Lens Flares Here: Odd angles, stark contrasts, bleeding edges—we could be talking about a Darrow Montgomery gallery, although in this case it's WaPo art critic Philip Kennicott previewing the National Gallery of Art's new exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of photographer Harry Callahan. Kennicott writes: "It’s a small miracle that no matter how much Callahan’s camera dissects the world, the photographs never seem clinical. He divorces things from context, pulls out small vignettes from the larger city, but without violence, and without the gamesmanship of a photographer inclined to the cheap surreal."

Our Far-Flung Local Bands: Tennis System used to live here. Now they live in Los Angeles. Here's a video for their song "Arcane," a dreamy, psychedelic day trip to the beach.

New Address, STILL LOUD: Windian Records moved websites recently. Strike windianrecords.blogspot.com from your bookmarks and head to windianrecords.wordpress.com. DON'T WORRY, IT'S STILL IN ALLCAPS!

Yesterday on ArtsDesk: The illustrated guide to the Lincoln Theatre's financial woes, Bluebrain's location-aware album for Central Park is out, Howard University ensemble gets ahead on NBC's The Sing-Off.

Windian Reissues the Penetrators

Ryan Little — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:08:01 +0000

Purveyors of only the garage-iest of garage rock, Windian Records released two new singles this week. The first is actually a reissue of a classic track by Syracuse rockers The Penetrators—~~whom both Ian MacKaye and Jem Cohen claim to have seen play at Fort Reno in the late '70s~~. The A-side, "Gotta Have Her," originally released in 1976, is a gem from a bygone era of earnest, grimy guitar pop, rife with teenage yearning and partly spoken verses. Something about the song's particularly salacious-sounding backup vocals gives the track an unexpected edge. Windian also dropped a new song by contemporary German party punks Mondo Ray, called"Hypnotized." It's the kind of lo-fi rock we've come to expect from the local label, which has clearly found traction its peculiar niche. Listen to both tracks below.

The Penetrators – Gotta Have Her

Mondo Ray – Hypnotized

The Electricutions’ Rust Belt Punk

Benjamin R. Freed — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:56:32 +0000

Scott Wilson's lyrics are known for their conscience, as evidenced by The Electricutions' 2009 track "Locked Gates/Lonely Roads," a blistering, three-minute indictment of American immigration policy. On its new single "Forgotten City," released Feb. 15 on Windian Records, the band turns its concern to the industrial decline that spans from Western New York to the Upper Northwest. Images of the Rust Belt are supposed to conjure the sad violins of defeat, not driving, memorable guitar licks of protest, right? If Chrysler can deploy Eminem for a Super Bowl love letter to Detroit, surely punk-rockers can speak up too.

Wilson isn't fucking around on "Forgotten City." It's another Windian Records screamer, one designed to get the audience ginned up about crumbling skylines and decaying industrial bases. The jacket for the 7-inch single depicts an industrial-age map of Wilson's hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., recalling a time, long since passed, when the shores of the Great Lakes bristled with commerce. But The Electricutions are on to something with "Forgotten City." In conjuring a region littered with cavernous warehouses and empty garages, banging out a high-octane rager might be the best act of defiance.

Title Tracks: Now 100 Percent More Punk Rock

Jonathan L. Fischer — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:15:40 +0000

Ragers are relative. Describing the new Title Tracks record, a press release from Windian Records in the label's signature caps lock reads: "THE LP'S FIRST SINGLE 'TURN YOUR FACE' DEFINES THE SIMPLISTIC, MODERATE SOUND OF THIS BAND, POUNDING IT OUT IN A DESPERATE CALM."

Desperate calm? Maybe compared to the rest of Windian's punk-as-fuck roster. But "Turn Your Face" is actually Title Tracks at their loosest, loudest, and fastest. It's nice and jangly, too—not nearly as clean as the band's sad-sack but sunny-sounding 2010 album It Was Easy, if just as sharply hooked. For Title Tracks, the biggest innovation might be the lumbering, declarative bass line; mastermind John Davis also seems to be over It Was Easy's near-pervasive heartbreak. "No one's chasing you," he sings in the chorus, "when they walk behind you." The main touch point is still power-pop, but "Turn Your Face" is a more aggressive take on the genre. Think The Nerves.

The album is out April 19 on Ernest Jenning Record Co. The vinyl version is a co-release with Windian.

Far Out vs. Hot Dang, Vol. 27

Joe Warminsky — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:40:14 +0000

Revolutions, natural disasters, scandals, irrepressible subcultures ... it's crazy out there, people! Far Out vs. Hot Dang has your back, though. Remember: IT'S ALL LOVE.


"It’s managed to stay classically and quintessentially yuppie!"	"douchebags, everywhere"
"Consider this installment of Fare Assessment our version of an Internal Affairs Bureau."	Marissa Payne / The Anti DC: "Kojo on NPR just now, 'How hard was Adrian Fenty probed?' Answer, 'Pretty hard.'"
"The Kennedy Center hopes young people will like: Wayne Brady covering Sammy Davis Jr. and Sam Cooke"	"There was only weirdness with cocky, young, idealistic D.C. punk kids who were more about the identity of being 'punk' — and what it meant in D.C. — than the music. And we just never really fit in with that, so as far as we were concerned, fuck 'em."
"No topic is so concrete that this married couple can’t soften it with phrasing."	Excellent use of the word "boning"
"Four-piece sonic skull fuckery from DC."	"The whole event is basically making fun of them"
A special mission for Special Agent Galactica	That's a significant amount of FUCK YEAH
"We had never been offered the unsolicited help of a professor of testosteronology before. We were deeply moved."	"An artist respects another artist when performing on stage and gives them full attention. A nigger doesn’t."

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 Points Have Broken Up

Jonathan L. Fischer — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:32:49 +0000

D.C.'s favorite party punkers posted the following on their Facebook page yesterday:

THANKS FOR THE GOOD TIME. OVER AND WAY OUT. THE POINTS.

I e-mailed the groups' drummer, Travis Jackson, for confirmation, and he responded:

YEAH, WE BROKE UP. THERE ARE NO PLANS FOR ANOTHER POINTS ALBUM. WE ARE MOVING ON TO OTHER PROJECTS.

More as I hear it, but this is truly a bummer. The group had been scheduled to play a Halloween show at DC9—which, clearly, won't be happening anyway. As of this summer, the group was making progress on its second album. If you don't own the first, you should probably make that happen. The group also released a 7-inch on Jackson's Windian Records last year.

UPDATE | 11:10 a.m.: A bit more from Jackson:

IT WAS JUST TIME. FIVE YEARS OF PEAKS AND VALLEYS...MOSTLY VALLEYS. IT SUCKS, WE LOVED THAT BAND, BUT ITS JUST DONE. PARTIED OUT. I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GOOD TIME.

WINDIAN RECORDS IS ALL I DO. 5 NEW SINGLES OUT NOVEMBER 30TH AND OUR FIRST LP OUT IN MARCH. I ALSO HAVE A BAND IVE BEEN WORKING ON CALLED SOCIAL PROBLEMS. IM NOT SURE WHAT [frontman] GEO IS DOING, I WAS TOLD HE IS MOVING SOMEWHERE TO RECORD A SOLO ALBUM. DANNY QUIT THE BAND A FEW WEEKS AGO, AND I HAVENT REALLY HEARD FROM HIM, SO I HAVE NO IDEA.

Most appropriate YouTube clip after the jump:

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.