What better way to continue our Home Sweet Home District spotlight than to give you your very last chance to win free tickets to see eight DC bands tomorrow night?
You’ve been hearing about it on the DC blogosphere all week, but DCWEEK can be hard to describe. It’s a giant 8,000-person tech conference—full of hackathons, keynotes, and web developers shouting at eachother about web standards. But it’s also cooler than that. It’s also a party. At the 9:30 Club. With 1,200 of your closest friends.
The Halloween Edition of the DC Record Fair is upon us, and our friends at 9:30 Club have another giveaway just for you record collectors.
And it goes something like this…
The winner will then choose any 1 of the following shows to attend with a guest (one pair of tickets):
Erasure release Tomorrow’s World in the USA, today via Mute!
The legendary synth-pop duo have been busy touring internationally, and they’ve released a montage video of the tour to go along with the first single from the album, “When I Start To (Break It All Down).”
To celebrate the release, we have a playlist curated by famed front man Andy Bell himself!
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Portuguese indie-electronic quartet The Gift bring their tour to Le Poisson Rouge this Friday (10/14), and we have a pair of tickets for you to win.
Recognized by the MTV European Music Awards in 2005 as Best Portuguese Act, their recent and newest release Explode is already beloved in their native land, where they formed in the mid-’90s as teenage friends. Lucky for us, they are exporting their visually-stunning shows to North America, where they play just a few shows in select cities this month.
Even with such mainstream success in Europe, The Gift has been DIY since the very beginning; they manage themselves and finance their own recordings.
Award-winning English psych-rockers Kasabian just released their newest and fourth album Velociraptor! last month, along with the first single from the album, “Days Are Forgotten,” which successfully blends rousing electronica with dirty riffs and background wails.
We have a limited edition prize pack of the “Days Are Forgotten” B/W “Pistols At Dawn” 10″ single along with a rare Velociraptor! lithograph for one lucky winner!
Theophilus London is bringing some of his Brooklyn swagger to 9:30 Club on Monday (10/3), and of course we have a pair of tickets for you to win.
London just released his debut full-length album Timez Are Weird These Days this past July after a string of successful mixtapes and the Lovers Holiday EP last winter. The Trinidad-born rapper’s unique, eclectic tracks have been hailed as much more than “indie-friendly hip-hop” [BBC], with influences as diverse as Morrissey and Michael Jackson often cited. Known for a fashion sense as fantastically ostentatious as his music, London has collaborated with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, Sara Quinn from Tegan and Sara, as well as renowned DJ and producer Mark Ronson during a Gucci campaign.
Huge bonus! Local heavy-hitters and 9:30 Club regulars Ra Ra Rasputin will start the night off with some genre-defying jams of their own. Is it electro-pop? Dance-punk? Afrobeat-synth-disco? Appropriately, their track “Montroy,” inspired by front man Brock Boss’s trip to Montreal, is a creative take on the pronunciation of the city’s name. Why play by musical rules in Quebec when they can’t even define your sound in your hometown of the District?
Grammy Award-winning folk hero Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs will be at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Thursday, and we’ve got a chance for you to win a pair of lawn tickets.
LaMontagne won the Grammy last winter for God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise as Best Contemporary Folk Album, and “Beg, Steal or Borrow” was nominated for Song of the Year.
This Sunday (9/25), we in DC have the pleasure of being able to see The Rapture at U Street Music Hall, but for those of you who might not be dancing through the night with us, you can still live vicariously by winning this autographed poster!
The poster is signed by bandmates Luke Jenner, Vito Roccoforte, and Gabriel Andruzzi, whose current hit “How Deep Is Your Love?” is the first single from their new double LP In the Grace of Your Love via DFA Records, just released earlier this month.
The Felice Brothers are known for their traditional “dark” Americana, but their new album Celebration, Florida via Fat Possum introduces a new electronic sound complete with some new wave synth action.
Unlike other “family bands,” the five-piece from the Catskills Mountains of upstate New York does currently include brothers Ian and James Felice (and previously, Simone Felice). Want to hear some of their new material live? We’ve got a pair of tickets for you to win to next Wednesday’s (9/28) show at the Black Cat.
Neon Indian fans who did not plan ahead were sorely out of luck when Friday’s show at the Rock and Roll Hotel sold out early last week. No longer just the poster boy of chillwave, that night, front man Alan Palomo was an ’80s god.
I had been looking forward to hearing opener Com Truise, but alas, the überlong line to get in foiled my plans. His “’80s video game beats” did sound great from outside, as I watched a few kids without tickets unsuccessfully attempt to buy them for double the price from those fortunate enough to have them. Once inside, after a stop by the bar and a few quick maneuvers, I was able to squeeze into a space up front that some silly person had left in front of him. This show was packed—obviously, he must have been an amateur.
A couple of years ago, I went to see Neon Indian at NYC’s Mercury Lounge. The show was badly oversold, as I had about two inches of excess space around me, and the entire room was that way. There was nowhere to move. I watched with claustrophobic anxiety, wedged on the wall in the back next to a trash can, as somewhere underneath his glorious poof of hair, Palomo danced and sang, backed by his band in the shadows and by images projected onto the wall.
I stayed, overwhelmed, for a few songs, then went to the bar outside and actually cried. The next day, I found out that he was also the mastermind behind VEGA, responsible for one of my favorite jams from the previous summer. This did not help things.
The Head and the Heart are bringing their indie folk sound to 9:30 Club this Friday (9/23), and we have a chance for you to win a pair of tickets.
The best-selling album of 2010 at famed Seattle record store Sonic Boom was The Head and the Heart’s self-released self-titled debut, which was later remastered and re-released via the influential label Sub Pop on Record Store Day, April 16th, 2011.
After gaining a huge local following in their home town with the support of other Seattle heavy-hitters, KEXP and Easy Street Records, The Head and the Heart signed to Sub Pop last year and embarked on their first headlining tour over the summer.
It was my birthday, and at the Cat, in my soon-to-be old-lady way, I was wondering why this crowd was so very young, full of X’s on those hands, not drinking but standing next to the bar and getting in my way. (It’s my birthday, and you are blocking the alcohol, little boy!)
We were all there to see Portland five-piece Starfucker, formerly Pyramiddd, sometimes STRFCKR. Having woefully missed their last DC show last spring, I had made it a mission to finally see them live after admiring their music for a couple of years, and their latest LP Reptilians, via Polyvinyl, was my prize purchase during this year’s Record Store Day.
Despite the polished indie electronica, slick album art, art-sy videos for “Bury Us Alive,” “Julius,” “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second,“ and “Medicine,” and a possible nod to the Rolling Stones via their name, they were all adorably cute but much, much younger and dweebier than I’d imagined. Now, the crowd made sense. A press photo (below) that I had seen was how I had pictured them, in blazers, ties, skinny pants, and button downs, a monotone Cut Copy.
Instead, collectively, they were decked out in t-shirts, old man glasses, a women’s yellow knit cardigan sweater, and a brightly colored Mexican baja pullover, and one had grown an ironic (I hope?) mustache that was barely filled in, the absolute antithesis of the image I’d conjured. With a name like Starfucker, I had to wonder—whom exactly are they fucking? They look like they just started getting laid a couple of years ago! Is this one of those ironic hipster things?
Today, NYC’s Spirit Animal release their 7″ “I’m Around” b/w “New Man Now” via Brooklyn indie label Mecca Lecca.
As featured in our recent Press Play, “I’m Around” showcases the smooth vocals of front man Steve Cooper over friendly instrumentals, including potent drum beats and heavy Moog-synth to create their self-described “unique and powerful blend of rock, psychedelia, and dance.”
“I’m Around” and “New Man Now,” the single’s B-side featuring Chris Garneau, are two sides of a fantasy. “I’m Around” is a love-lost lament perhaps set in Alice In Wonderland, juxtaposed against idyllic and playful musical imagery, including fairy-like background vocals. Is it Pan’s flute at the end that is trying to beckon his lover back? Is Spirit Animal really Animal Collective’s brighter, less odd, little brother?
New wave pioneer Andy Bell of Erasure stepped onto the stage at 9:30 Club last Tuesday (9/6) wearing a glorious black Spartan-like helmet complete with mohawk, and a sequined blazer, and launched into “Sono Luminus.” His musical conspirator of twenty-six years, stoic synth-pop god Vince Clarke, wore a red fedora and matching sequined blazer as he stood behind a massive gargoyle that had been erected on stage. This is when things started looking up.
I had been having a shit day. I had slept very badly the night before, still on Labor Day Weekend schedule, and then worked for thirteen hours and thus been delayed, sadly missing opener and producer of Erasure’s new album Tomorrow’s World (released October 4th), Frankmusik.
My photographer had had an even worse day, and was not able to make the show last minute because of car troubles. We had been excited for this show for months; I had squealed and had put my The Innocents LP on repeat when it was announced. No pics for Erasure?! It was a nightmare. It was dreary and rainy outside. I was alone in a sea of gorgeous men… but they were all gay. I love men, but I am not one.
I thought I was going to cry into my vodka. Then something magical happened… The sea of beautiful men started singing along to “Always.” I had grabbed my vodka and my pen and had managed to squeeze my way up front, next to the bouncer, in the lone pocket of space by the stage. Dave Barnhouser of 13th Hour Photography let me know that he could photograph the next night’s show, if I could arrange for it. (And thus, all of these lovely photos are from Wednesday’s show, not Tuesday’s.)
This was now the best day, ever.
Fall is almost upon us, and that means it’s FreeFest time again, this Saturday (9/10) at Merriweather Post Pavilion. The schedule for FreeFest was released earlier this week, and we’ve since been plotting, plotting, plotting away, trying to decide which fantastic band would have to be subjugated for yet another fantastic band. I might get to see only fifteen minutes of !!! (Chk Chk Chk) after Cut Copy, but dammit, fifteen minutes is better than nothing, and I must hear “Must Be the Moon” live, just once.
Behold, our Dream Schedule! It’s backwards to confuse you freaky-ass stalkers; you know who you are, and so does my police officer friend, creepy Urban Planner Guy. TVD Ladies myself, Kelly Kettering, and Jenn Bress will most likely be seeing the bands below, especially if we can invent teleportation in the next twenty-four hours and eschew all alcohol (haHA!), food, and bathroom breaks.
Full schedule for all 3 stages at the bottom. SEE YOU THERE!
9:20 – 11PM DEADMAU5, West Stage
