According to Washington Post blog Going Out Gurus, Fort Reno Park, site of the long running annual summer concert series, is closed after the United States Geological Survey discovered high levels of arsenic in the soil. Snow fencing was apparently erected around the park’s perimeter early this morning. There’s no word yet regarding when the park will reopen or whether the concert series will take place at an alternate location.

Needless to say, this is a is pretty devastating blow for D.C. music culture.

No Wave is kind of hard to describe using actual words. One generally has to rely on onomatopoeia like skree and krang to effectively capture the chaos and dissonance that defined the music. But in his book No Wave Arlington music writer Marc Masters does a good job of characterizing the movement without resorting to a Thurston Moore-invented vocabulary. If you want to check it out in person, he’ll be doing a reading and signing tonight at Crooked Beat Records around 7 p.m. If that leaves you curious as to what No Wave music actually sounds like, Masters will also be DJing tonight at Marx Cafe (located at 3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW) from 10 p.m. to 3 am..

I’ll admit that I have never spent more than $1 on any S PRCSS record. On the other hand, I’ve never been asked to spend more than $1 on an S PRCSS record. I bought “MNML” for 99 cents while writing this story because Justin Moyer said that they were good. He was not wrong. Thus, when I found two more of their records lingering in a Seattle thrift shop, I had no qualms about laying down some cash in order to buy them. As it turns out, this only requiered $1 a piece. The band’s Frenchkiss label mates, the well loved Les Savy Fav, have a song called “Meet Me in the Dollar Bin.” Could this song be about S PRCSS?

Indeed, it cost less for me to buy all three of these records than it did for me to see S PRCSS perform live last year when they played at The Hosiery. But you know what? It was worth it. “A once in a lifetime experience!” I though. Not so, turns out S PRCSS is playing this weekend in Layne Garrett’s basement, where I will surely pay to see them again, although it’s unclear how much. Anyway, here’s the info:

S PRCSS
Trtl Soup
@ Light House
1421 Buchanan St. NW
at 8 p.m. on Friday 3/14

Last week, when I interviewed Child Ballads for another local publication, singer/guitarist Stuart Lupton told me that when the band performed on Wednesday at Velvet Lounge the line-up would be him and guitarist Luke Wyatt performing a song heavily influenced by the work of director Michael Mann. So I kind of expected something along these lines.

That’s not necessarily what transpired, however. Instead, Lupton spent most of the evening reading his poetry and sharing the stage with former Cramps/Gun Club/Bad Seeds guitarist Kid Congo Powers (who read from of his memoirs). When Child Ballads finally performed they did not conjure the ghost of Sonny Crockett so much as that of J. Spaceman. But I dunno, maybe that’s for the best.

It’s been more than 10 years since the release of Soul Discharge, and the Boredoms are still the most bizarre band ever to have graced the roster of a major label. They are the official band of everybody-under-35’s experimental phase. I personally look back fondly upon days spent cruising down Salt Lake City’s Sate Street with my best friends, blasting Super Roots 6 as we sped downtown for a romp around the acrylic-countertop-and-pet-casket dealership or to gawk at the Summum pyramid (who, come to think of it, had their own unique take on pet bereavement). What larks!

All that aside, the Boredoms have since gravitated toward a less alienating sound. Records like the classic Vision Creation New Sun found them heading into lush drones and tribal drumming. The forthcoming Super Roots 9 features group leader Eye conducting a 20-person choir in addition to the bands current multi-drummer line-up through 40-minutes of trance-bliss. And now they’re coming here. Last week 9:30 made the official announcement that Boredoms would appear in D.C. on April 3rd. Every noise-burnout, record nerd, tight-pants hipster, and neo-raver will be there. You should come too.

Here’s some stuff to get you pumped:

Tomorrow night former Black Eyes members Jacob Long and Daniel Martin McCormick will return to D.C. along with drummer Damon Palermo as Mi Ami, kicking off a tour in celebration of their recently released African Rhythms 12-inch on White Denim.

For those who scratched their heads back in ‘04 when McCormick and Long back teamed up as the sorta-triflin’ improvisation duo White Flight–well, this might be more to your taste. Mi Ami mash minimal-techno and dub into a trance-inducing pulp that almost demands a pair of sequined jeans and rave beads. And yeah, it kind of sounds like Black Eyes. But is that a bad thing?

Food For Animals (whose excellent debut LP Belly is out now on Hoss Records) and D.C.’s own Wealth (ex-members Navies) will also be performing.

Here’s the info:
February, 13 2008 @ La Casa
3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, Washington, DC

If you miss that you have a second chance to catch Mi Ami and Food For Animals when they perform at Baltimore’s Floristree space the following evening.

Lungfish has had a lot of bassists–three, last time I counted. While I wouldn’t count Nathan Bell as my favorite (I’m a Sean Meadows man) but he did play on both Necrophones and The Unanimous Hour, so….respect.

As it turns out, his new band, Human Bell–a duo with Arbouretum’s David Heumann–has a self-titled album that just came out on Chicago’s Thrill Jockey records. What’s more, they’ll play a free in-store at D.C.’s Crooked Beat on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. Human Bell isn’t bombastic, but it does rely on the same cyclical picking and deep vibes of both Bell and Heumann’s former groups. Here’s the MySpace if you want to check some sounds; the Thrill Jockey page for the album also includes streams of the tracks.

Being unemployed and all, I’ve had a lot of time to sit around and think about the past. Ya’ know, the good old days of 2002, when I was but a rosy-cheeked college twerp and dance-punk still ruled the minds and hearts of music-loving tweens accross D.C.

Most recently I’ve been thinking about Measles Mumps Rubella. More than a few of my peers wrote off this post-punk quartet as “art-fag,” chastising them as a weaker version of Black Eyes and latecomers to the extra-percussion fad. But in their first incarnation MMR were pretty good. Vocalist Brett Lyman spouted unintelligible static through his heavilly delayed microphone and the rest of the group kicked up a pretty ambitious bit of noise before they ditched Lyman, set sail for Brooklyn, and eventually disbanded.

If you missed them, don’t be too hard on yourself. It was hard to hear any of their music–mainly because they were so f’ing self-conscious about selling it. I remember having to haggle with the guitarist to buy a copy of their demo and having to pull teeth again to get the “Fountain of Youth” single AT THE RECORD RELEASE SHOW.

This trend continues–though not at MMR’s behest. Last week I stumbled onto their MySpace page and found–much to my surprise–that the band has been attempting to posthumously upload their entire back catalog–including the Fantastic Success LP, “Zusammen Mit Motown” 7-inch, and “Fountain of Youth” 12-inch–onto iTunes along with the unreleased last gasp “Dynamic Disaster.” For one reason or another Fantastic Success is all that’s up there. However, the band has kindly posted a bunch of these tracks up on their MySpace page for people to listen to until the whole iDebacle is resolved.

Pour a little out for 2002 and have listen.

Here’s a live video filmed at the Warehouse Next Door:

D.C. alt-country stalwarts Shortstack provide their top eleven records of 2007. It’s a list that’s at once dusty and esoteric (Daniel Higgs, Sir Richard Bishop) and contemporary (Spoon, Vic Chesnutt) and entirely befitting of the band–who hold the high honor of being the sole local group that former City Paper staffer John Metcalfe ever admitted to liking. Shortstack’s recently completed The Covers EP–which features excellent arrangements of tunes by John Fogerty, Daniel Higgs, and more–arrives February 5th on Gypsy Eyes.

In no particular order..

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Vandaveer - Grace and Speed
Sir Richard Bishop - Polytheistic Fragments
Vic Chestnutt - North Star Deserter
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
Daniel Higgs - Ancestral Songs
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Various Artists/Dust-to-Digital Records - The Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1
Ted Leo - Living with the Living
Feist - The Reminder

Local singer/songwriter/guitar-shredder Carol Bui was kind enough to provide CP with a list of her top ten records of 2007. Bui’s sophomore record, Everyone Wore White, came out this year on the label 54º 40′ or Fight! You can read more about that here.

Here’s a list of ten albums I’ve listened to most this year, some are new releases, some aren’t.

In no particular order:

Kala, M.I.A

Harmonium, Glos

In Rainbows, Radiohead

Excellent Italian Greyhound, Shellac

First Take, Roberta Flack

Polemics EP, 31Knots

Places, Georgie James

Dizzy Spells, the Ex

The Best Gun, Pash

Ys, Joanna Newsom

Let in the Light, Shannon Wright

Placelessness, Alina Simone

Live at the Academy NYC 12.4.92, Television

Marry Me, St. Vincent