Author Archives: Jenn Bress

Summer Camp rolled through DC in mid-February, playing a show at U Street Music Hall that delighted listeners with some sunny California teen-pop, which complimented an unusually warm winter. Duo Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey followed Ghost Beach’s performance (band name obviously pulled from an online indie band name generator) with aplomb, equipped with a keyboard and guitar, complemented by a live drummer.

Someone might as well have been blowing glitter-filled bubbles throughout the audience, because the sounds from the stage were simultaneously sweet and buoyant. Summer Camp’s performance was like the sun peaking through the cracks of the cavernous basement that is U Street Music Hall; it just brightened up the entire place.

Sankey’s vocals are powerful and dominate the stage. At time,s I wondered to myself if the constant duet between Sankey and Jeremy was even necessary because her stage presence is so strong. Sankey’s vocals are soulful with Beth Ditto’s of The Gossip’s attitude, but simultaneously delicate and lovely, as Harriet Wheeler’s vocals in the English band The Sundays.

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If there’s anything to be excited about in this unusually warm but otherwise typically mundane month of January, it is what I happened to be part of this weekend. The DC music scene is swarming with vivacious music fans, and they were out in full force not only at the Sockets Records Showcase on Saturday at the Black Cat, but at the Lightfoot show on Friday at the Cat as well.

This fact was especially exciting because both shows catered to vastly different audiences, yet each was packed with smiling faces and smiling bartenders with large bar tabs. Everyone was feeling it on Saturday due to four talented bands hand-picked by founder Sean Peoples to showcase the spectacular label that is Sockets Records, Cigarette, Buildings, Imperial China, and Protect-U (themselves on the Future Times label). I am not even kidding when I say that this showcase introduced me to two new favorite local bands (Buildings already being one, of course).

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They say we’re not getting any younger, but apparently the DC music scene might be. Akron/Family played for a crowd full of X-ed hands at the Rock and Roll hotel last Friday. Opening for them were Bad Weather California, whom I unfortunately missed but was reminded of, as their name was stenciled prominently on the front of the drum set Akron / Family used during their set.

Known for their spirited improvisational shows, Akron / Family’s Miles Seaton, in urban outfitters tribal printed pants snarked to the audience that they would be setting up for the entire night, while he tweaked and tuned the instruments that the band would trade back and forth through the show, which included a Native American hoop drum that I kind of lusted after.

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What we have here is an album that has many anthems for the new year. And it comes strait from the heart of a band with three members named Chris. These established musicians collaborate to form Pittsburgh’s White Wives (featuring members of Anti-Flag, American Armada, Dandelion Snow), who passed through DC a few weeks ago in support of Happeners, their first full length album, released in July of 2011 on Adeline Records.

One of many anthems on Happeners is “Hungry Ghosts,” the third song on the mature and surprisingly nostalgic album, one that gets better with every listen. “We reflect, when we follow in the footsteps of situationists gone.” White Wives reference past political movements and societal mistakes to reflect on their own experiences. On the track “Spinning Wheels,” lyrics convey a similarly sentimental reflection, “In an old way of life, I found a new way to live.”

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Years ago, I had the foresight to catch Akron/Family live, as they were were Angels of Light’s backing band on the tour. If I weren’t such a huge Michael Gira fan, I might say they blew AoL out of the water.

Four punk rock hillbillies presented thrashing tumultuous indie rock with banshee harmonies to an audience of enormous smiles. I have not seen them since, so I am completely delighted to have the opportunity to do so again, and I am even more excited that TVD has a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky winner to see them at Rock and Roll Hotel tomorrow night.

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If you’re gonna do anything this holiday, put a little eggnog in your coffee. It sweetens the cup perfectly, providing a creamy richness that compliments the underlying bitterness of coffee at the core of the beverage. There is a comparable intellectual richness to Anti-Flag side project, White Wives.

Just like everything that delights the taste buds is invariably fattening and bad for you, I’m thoroughly convinced everything from Pittsburgh is good and good for you.

All personal bias aside, their LP Happeners is a ’90s-influenced sonic rush of guitars and gritty vocals with melodic choruses that beg you to sing along. White Wives retain the political and social consciousness of their Anti-flag roots with lyrics that are layered with literary influence.

We have a copy of Happeners to give away, as well as a pair of tickets to see them live next Wednesday (12/21) at DC9.

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Monument Music Festival always find a way to book compelling and memorable shows for interesting causes that deserve the social amplification.

Last Thursday, Monument Fest, Brooklyn’s Suckers and DFA’s REWARDS united to raise money on behalf of Common Good City Farm. Common Good are fighting obesity by making fresh produce available to residents who typically don’t have access to it. They champion a healthy lifestyle in the same way Monument Music champions a great show, uniting the community with musical food for thought.

Hailed by Stereogum as a band to watch, Suckers are fronted by Quinn Walker’s joyous falsetto and are produced by Yeasayer’s Anand Wilder. Suckers opened with “Roman Candles,” beckoning the audience its infectious whistling, as Pan, Quinn, Brian and Austin filled the room with harmonies that could flatter a seal. That’s right, seals are fucking mean, and Suckers music could totally subdue any seal any day. Anyway, Suckers played a bunch of songs from their 2010 album Wild Smile, including “Black Sheep,” which had the entire audience fist pumping and singing along.

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Since 2010, Star Slinger has been widely blogged about, which is how I discovered his chilling Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) rework.

When I noticed the striking flier arrangement on U Street Music Hall’s wall advertising that Star Slinger was coming to DC and playing this past Tuesday, I hightailed my ass straight for a ticket. Joining him for the evening was a long list of acts, including Shlohmo, upon whom I was lucky enough to stumble.

Shlohmo seriously primed the crowd for Star Slinger, utilizing Uhall’s brilliant sound system. The crowd chanted excitedly for Star Slinger to take the stage. and as Darren Williams appeared in ’90s red checkered flannel, his hair remained in his face for the duration of the night. I found it particularly funny when I noticed a table next to him with a bottle of wine and two bottles of water. The lighting shone a pink haze over the stage, illuminating it with a rosé hue. This christened the thug beats of his set with ironic feminine overtones, immediately erased by the genre-defying mix of beats and samples rising from his mixer.

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Monument Music Festival is quickly becoming synonymous with awesome shows to benefit awesome causes, and tonight’s DC9 show featuring Frenchkiss/IAMSOUND/Spunk’s Suckers and DFA’s Rewards to benefit Common Good City Farm is certainly no exception.

If you’ve already purchased tickets for tonight’s show, you’ve scored the biggest pre-halloween treat imaginable, but if you’re still on the fence for tonight, not only does your ticket benefit Common Good City Farm, whose mission is to to grow food, educate, and help low-income DC community members meet their food needs, but you’ll get to see two of Brooklyn’s finest bands, and there’s no pressure to wear a costume (although I always encourage it).

If you need any further convincing, let’s let Suckers convince you:

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Zola Jesus’ vocals give me an OBE (outer body experience); she tethered three synths and tribal beats to the body of infinitely mesmerizing songs she performed live at the Black Cat last Friday. I am still asking myself where the lines between dream and reality blurred; something this graceful and profound could only be a fleeting dream in this eyesore city, but the photos I furiously snapped erase all my skepticism.

Nika Roza Danilova, whom you know as Zola Jesus, has been to DC before. I was lucky enough to catch her at the Red Palace, where she performed an intimate set for a packed room. Like last Friday’s show, Zola wore a sheath that doubled as a projection screen, with fractured light projected onto her body. This effect is mesmerizing and adds to her overall ghostly charm. For those seeing her live for the first time, the effect is intense. Sometimes it appears as if she is being electrocuted, and we’re witnessing the very last harrowing sounds she’ll ever utter.

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For those of you who have never attended the DC Record Fair, now is your change to redeem yourself. Maybe one of the many awesome vendors selling LPs will inspire your much-procrastinated Halloween costume.

The DC Record Fair is brought to you by Som Records, DC Soul Recordings, and us!

The DC Record Fair is heading just over the Key Bridge again to Artisphere in Arlington, VA. The fair will take over the gallery space on Sunday, October 23rd, with 30+ vendors from up and down the East Coast augmented by our ever-revolving Guest DJs, plus food and drinks!

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Would you ever guess that a sound as fierce and mesmerizing as Pandora’s yell might resonate from a beautiful and frail little creature about 5 ft tall at most. Like a Russian doll, Nika Roza Danilova’s vocals are layer upon layer of intricate and floral emotion, the depths of which will be broken and revealed to those brave enough to join her tonight as she takes the stage at the Black Cat.

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As I think back to this show, I keep finding myself in awe of just how good it was because it is so rare to go to a show where the opening band is as good as the headliner.

To top it off, the small yet intimate DC9 venue offered the option for total engagement with the bands. Lots of witty crowd banter ensued. Youth Lagoon simply melted all hearts in the room, just in time for Gardens and Villa to lift each heart as if they were paper butterflies rising like notes from a flute.

Santa Barbara’s Gardens and Villa are as unassuming live as the down-to-earth indie that makes them so loveable. Adam Rasmussen on keys alternates to the flute on one song and claps along to the impossibly catchy “Thorncastles” to the lyrics “flashlights make faces like witches/ oooh magic.”

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Caveman, the Brooklyn five-piece hailed by Fader as “the kind of wistful, windows-down driving music you want to listen to as you hightail it out of the city for summer’s last gasp,” will release their debut LP CoCo Beware on November 15th via Magic Man! Records / ORG Music.

Recently touring with War on Drugs, Caveman left a colorful impression on TVD, and their live sound has also been doted on by Consequence of Sound as “shifted between lolling atmospheric ditties and galloping tom-heavy compositions, with every band member contributing innumerable amounts of dreamy ideas to every song.”

Caveman’s ten-song debut was produced by Nick Stumpf (French Kicks) and shows front man Matt Iwanusa’s ability to craft melodies and lyrics that tackle topics of life and love, reflections on hope and joy, as well as moody observations, all sung in grandiose four-part harmonies, wrapped in timeless melodies.

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