An internet friend made a mix CD for me way back in the early-to-mid 00’s and he included “Am I Wry? No” by Mew and I absolutely fell in love with that song. I tried to track down as much music from Mew as possible and shortly thereafter they released “And The Glass Handed Kites” and I listened to “Special” something like 400 times in a row. I’ve only seen the band twice since then, once at the Black Cat…
This was the type of assignment that is incredibly fun and rewarding but sadly comes along way to infrequently for my liking. The Post did a very comprehensive feature on Bobby Liebling, the 60+-year-old singer of Pentagram that highlights the band’s struggles (and successes!) through his life story. The band hail from Alexandria, VA and Liebling has a million stories from the good ol’ days in D.C., including selling drugs for former D.C. drug kingpin Rayful Edmond. We got to…
I love Tove Lo. Love, love, love her. And not just because of my Swedish heritage. Her debut album, Queen of the Clouds, is some of the catchiest, smarter and sexually forward pop music being made these days. She slots in quite nicely between Lykke Li and Robyn. And that’s a great place to be. I caught her at this year’s Sweetlife Festival and didn’t know much about her but was quickly won over. So of course…
These days anything Matt Berninger does is going to generate headlines and draw a crowd, and his latest side-project, EL VY, is no different. D.C. loves The National (remind me to tell you about the time back in 2005-ish I started a rumor that The National hated D.C. because they never played here and it got enough traction that the band formally responded to it), so of course this show as packed. And as usual with all-things-Berninger,…
This was a show I almost didn’t go to and I’m so glad I changed my mind. I LOVE The Charlatans and in retrospect, not seeing them at a great venue like the Howard would have been unthinkable. They’re touring behind their new album, Modern Nature, which is quite good. Their set mainly focused on the new stuff but also dropped in the required oldies along with some treats like “Just When You’re Thinking Things Over” and…
Back in the summer when The Weekend headlined the 2nd stage at this year’s Sweetlife Festival, he drew a huge crowd and he’s only gotten bigger since then. I had doubts that he could draw a sizable crowd at the Verizon center but I was wrong. Very wrong. He puts on a great show too, with great production. His light show is very Nine Inch Nails. Photo restrictions for this tour have been all over the place,…
What an amazing night. I was so glad I got to be in the building for this gig. Easily the third best show I’ve seen this year (behind Prince in Baltimore and D’Angelo in Silver Spring), Kendrick was a force of nature during this show. It was so insane to see the entire Kennedy Center singing along to “m.A.A.d. City” (Yak! Yak! Yak! Yak!). This rapper backed by the NSO type concert worked well with Nas, but…
I shot Deafheaven on their Sunbather tour and while I will admit metal isn’t what I sit around a listen to, I’m very intrigued by them. They’re billed as “metal for people that don’t like metal” and while it probably sells the band a bit short, I think there’s a bit of truth to it as well. I really like the band’s guitar sound but the vocals are bit much for me. Still, it’s a great show…
