TVD Washington, DC

TVD Live: Of Monsters and Men with HAIM
at Merriweather Post Pavilion, 6/11

On Tuesday night, Of Monsters and Men played to a welcoming crowd on a beautiful summer night at Merriweather Post Pavilion, their indie pop harmonies and theatricality well suited to the vastness of the space. Openers HAIM added enough just enough rebelliousness and grit to the night to keep things grounded.

Of Monsters and Men takes their production seriously, with nearly every detail of the show seemingly planned. Taking the stage with a white sheet obscuring the stage and the band members just shadows illuminated by purple lights, the band quietly started into “Dirty Paws.” As the song picked up, the sheet dramatically fell and the audience immediately transitioned from cheers to singing along.

The five piece Icelandic band, which expands to seven members when on tour, was quite a spectacle on Tuesday night. Standing center stage, singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir vaguely resembles Bjork; her seemingly-innocent face was framed by the turquoise she dyed the ends of her hair. Her co-singer and guitarist Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, sported a porkpie hat, while another guitarist donned a full tuxedo.

It was definitely odd and eclectic, but somehow endearing at the same time. Their bassist, drummer, piano player, and piano/ accordion/ trumpet player rounded out the group on stage. Backed by oversized, brightly-lit domes, it was the kind of enchanting backdrop that I wish I could recreate at home.

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The TVD Storefront

TVD Vinyl Giveaway: The Rolling Stones,
Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet, Hot Rocks

clear vinyl set of 3

We’ve extended the deadline to enter given downtime from last week’s server switch. —Ed.

While there’s been no shortage of commentary and critique as to The Rolling Stones’ current “50 and Counting” trek through the States and beyond, we for one couldn’t be happier to see the band out on the road, exorcising classics from a catalog with very few peers.

In tandem with the band’s 50th anniversary and tour, ABKCO Records has seen fit to delve into their own archives to remaster and rerelease a trio of the band’s classic LPs on clear vinyl—and we’ve got the set of 3 “Clearly Classic” releases to award one of you.

First, some official background:

“Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, and Hot Rocks 1964-1971, the most celebrated albums in ABKCO’s catalog of Rolling Stones releases, will debut later this month as 180-gram LPs, pressed on clear vinyl, in celebration of the band’s 50th anniversary and ’50 and Counting’ tour.

The launch of a projected series titled “The Rolling Stones Clearly Classic,” featuring these three initial releases out May 28th, focus on the three Rolling Stones albums that reflect the group’s formative years and transformation into “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” at the end of the 1960′s and into the early 70′s.

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TVD Washington, DC

TVD Ticket Giveaway: AM & Shawn Lee at U Street Music Hall, 6/18

There are some great musical collaborations out there. John Legend and The Roots (and now The Roots and Costello), Jay-Z and Kanye, and who could forget Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead? I know I can’t. Well, another great collaboration you should have picked up on is AM & Shawn Lee—and luckily for you, we’ve got a pair of tickets to their show at U Street Music Hall, presented by 9:30 Club on Tuesday, June 18, to give away.

Lee has collaborated with indie artist AM since 2011. Their debut as a touring duo was at a showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas in the same year. After AM heard Lee’s Music and Rhythm album on the radio in Los Angeles, he decided to reach out to Lee through the Internet. The two became quick friends, sharing a common love for ’60s psychedelia and ’70s Italian soundtracks.

In September 2011, AM & Shawn Lee released their debut album Celestial Electric. When Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation heard the collaboration, he signed the debut album to his record label on ESL Music.

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TVD Washington, DC

The DC Record Fair Returns! Sunday, 6/30
at Penn Social

As we covered last January, it’s often quite difficult to nail down a venue for the DC Record Fair. Apparently DC has a dearth of spaces large enough to accommodate 40 or more record dealers, with 40 or more tables, hundreds of crates of records, and often the 700-1,000 enthusiastic crate diggers who descend upon the event.

Then there’s the DJ set up, the bar, the food, and the random other surprises that make the DC Record Fair a special community event. Our friends at the Fillmore Silver Spring put together this piece that outshines any descriptive copy we could conjure up:

Mark your calendars! 
THE DC RECORD FAIR

Sunday, June 30, 2013 at Penn Social, 801 E Street, NW
11:00–12:00, Early Bird Admission $5.00
12:00–5:00, Regular Admission $2.00
RSVP at the Facebook invite!

The DC Record Fair is brought you by Som Records, DC Soul Recordings, and us!
Our thanks to Eliza Childress for the killer poster!

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TVD San Francisco

TVD Live: Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts at the Fillmore, 6/7

Scott Weiland has had quite a year so far.

He’s been “kicked” out of the band that he started and pretty much defined, only to be replaced by Chester from Linkin Park. That is insane to me, and not just because I hate Linkin Park, but because I can’t imagine STP without Weiland.

Scott Weiland The Fillmore San Francisco Jason Miller-9058

And I’m not a purist by any means. I support two versions of LA Guns, two versions of Great White, and even two versions of Queensryche (don’t get me started), but for the love of God, I have to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, so Weiland decided to his own thing and that’s fine by me, and it was fine by a packed house at the legendary Fillmore last week in San Francisco as well.

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The TVD Storefront

Midnight Faces:
The TVD First Date

“In 1999 I was well on my way through a journey of classic rock. I was nine years old, and anyone you might expect to see on a list of “Rock Gods” had become my idols. Bowie, Hendrix, The Stones, and anyone else with tight pants and a guitar were all who mattered. I bought an electric guitar and stopped cutting my hair. At just over four feet tall I considered myself a total badass.”

“Due to my new-found obsession, I took an interest in my dad’s record collection. Unfortunately they were kept at my parents’ cottage three hours north of our home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We only used the cottage during the summer, so I waited for the school year to end, and dreamt of a stockpile of classic rock artillery to blast on the record player.

You might expect a description of me opening a dusty cabinet to find Zeppelin, The Who, Bowie, and the rest of my hero’s records hidden away like treasure. Unfortunately, this is not a Rock’n'Roll fairytale and that’s not what happened.

While there were a couple hundred records in a dusty cabinet, the majority of them were 1940s lounge singers, and a surprisingly large number were Christmas records. I was crushed. Someone should have videotaped my reaction; it would have been Youtube worthy. The more I searched the worse it got and my hopes of spending an afternoon listening to classic vinyl culminated in listening to the Bread album Manna. Not exactly what I had in mind.

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The TVD Storefront

TVD’s Press Play

Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. We post, you right-click.

Trails and Ways – Como Te Vas
Algernon Doll – Anti-them
The Julie Ruin – Oh Come On
Cosmic Suckerpunch – Glad You’re Here Now
Poor Things – Morgan
Mortar & Pestle – Pristine Dream
Dinosaur Bones – Spins in Circles
Jan St. Werner – Feed Opener
Warships – Heater
Beisbol – That Feeling

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Boyfrndz – Water Weight


Sixfingerz – Rhode Island
Maps – A.M.A. (Susanne Sundfør Remix)
Marika Hackman – Bath Is Black (Hackman Remix)
Big Shaw – Fete
Can’t Dance – Trust Issues
Futurecop! – Coming Home (Tom Budin Remix)
Hayley Coupon – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards (Tame Impala Cover)
Flaamingos – All I Wanna Do is Live
Future Loves Past – Grow Up Tall
Hibou – Sunder

12 more FREE TRACKS after the jump!

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TVD Cleveland

Dirty Projectors:
The TVD Interview

Dirty Projectors is consistently pushing the experimental envelope. The band’s music doesn’t fit neatly into a box; it defies genre classifications while offering something that each ear can embrace—be that intelligent lyricism, thoughtful instrumentation, or simply the freedom their sounds convey.

The band has been around since the early 2000s with seven full-length albums, a few EPs, a collaboration with Bjork and a short film under their belt. The sole constant in the ever-mutating Dirty Projectors lineup has been creator David Longstreth. We had the opportunity to speak to the mastermind behind it all about everything from last year’s two albums and short film, to inspiration derived from Kanye West. 

Let’s start off talking about last year. You released Swing Lo Magellan and the “About to Die” EP. How do you feel these two albums differ from 2009′s Bitte Orca?

Well, in a lot of ways, I think that Swing Lo Magellan was really about the songs, whereas Bitte Orca was more about a vibe. The lyrics were way more important to me on Swing Lo, and also on the “About to Die” EP to me then they were on Bitte Orca.

Bitte Orca is sort of built for the stage—it’s meant to be performed, whereas the songs that became Swing Lo Magellan or the “About to Die” EP are more inward-looking, and the challenge with those songs are to make them into these things that have a life on stage, to translate them into something you’d put in front of an audience. That’s one of the coolest parts about the last year is making those songs into something that would work on stage.

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