Results tagged “interview”

When I think about the band Dawes, I'm remind of that line in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou when George Clooney's character, Ulysses Everett McGill, is explaining the sound of his band, the Soggy Bottom Boys. In an attempt to convince the old blind radio station operator that the group is worthy enough to play on air, Everett says, "Uh, sir, the Soggy Bottom Boys is been steeped in old-timey material. Heck, we're silly with it, ain't we boys?" Now if you consider CCR, CSN, Neil Young, The Byrds, The Band, and Gram Parsons, "old-timey material," then Dawes too, are steeped in, and silly with it.

The South Asian Literary and Theater Arts Festival (SALTAF) brings together writers, filmmakers, and dramatists from across the South Asian diaspora for a day of screenings, panel discussions, and book signings. Previous participants of the festival, which takes place on Saturday, include directors Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding) and Deepa Mehta (Earth, Fire, Water), and writer Kiran Desai (Inheritance of Loss). The D.C. chapter of the Network of South Asian Professionals and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program are the chief sponsors of the annual event, which is an opportunity for both emerging and established artists to present their work, and engage in a dialogue with those interested in South Asian culture.

As the 2010 election season gets underway, DCist will endeavor to interview as many of the candidates for city office as we can. This week, we speak with At-large D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D), who is currently running for re-election.

It's almost been a year since we last touched base with Phonte and Nicolay, a.k.a. The Foreign Exchange. They'd just released their critically-acclaimed album, Leave It All Behind, and were looking forward to promoting it. Eleven months later, they're still touring and have added another record, Nicolay's City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya, to their repertoire.

Over 60 comics are about to descend on D.C. for the Bentzen Ball, a four day collection of comedy performances at venues ranging from the 9:30 Club and the Black Cat to the Studio and Lincoln Theatres, and even Ben's Chili Bowl. Presented by our friends over at Brightest Young Things, and curated by comic Tig Notaro, it surely must be the biggest comedy festival to ever hit the nation's capital.

By DCist contributor Ryan Little

Mike Birbiglia remembers when the room was a lot smaller. He's headlining Saturday night at the Warner Theatre, where he'll tell some stories he’s considering for inclusion in his next one-man show. But he cut his teeth at the DC Improv in the late 90s, while a student at Georgetown University. By the time he was 25, he'd done the The Late Show with David Letterman , released his first album, and had his own Comedy Central special.

Off the bat, this DCist writer has to make a full disclosure statement: I've known Jamall Bufford for some years now, dating back to my time in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Back then, he was Buff1 of the Athletic Mic League. Now, he's still affiliated with the League, but he's also a bona fide solo act with two albums, Pure and There's Only One, under his belt. This new chapter in his career has led Buff1 to work with the likes of Grammy-nominated producer (and Eminem confidant) Mr. Porter, Waajeed and Three Stars alum Zo!.

Few writers have managed to pin the millennial male ego under glass the way Nick Hornby has. In his comic novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and the new Juliet, Naked, among others, Hornby picks apart our vanity and insecurity in ways that are as scary as they are entertaining. He's also written loads of great nonfiction about his love of soccer, literature, and pop music.

Los Angeles quartet HEALTH is quite possibly one of the noisiest bands to have emerged from the underground and garnered some success. Their live shows could hardly be called controlled chaos, because the control is barely noticeable amid the leaping guitarists, primal shrieks and multiple percussionists. Their performance energy is more engaging than repulsive, and they have obvious talent, but there aren't exactly any "songs" easily picked out in a HEALTH set.

What's the difference between postmodern brilliance and utter crap? At the ongoing Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music, Jeff Surak has been the person to make that call. Surak, who became director of Sonic Circuits in 2006, has been performing in various experimental music projects since the 19080's, both in the U.S. and in Russia.

By DCist Contributor Matthew Siblo

What happens when you take four musicians who are excellent, even extraordinary on their own and put them together in a room and just tell them to play? Tonight, you'll get to find out with the 21st Century Ensemble. Janel Leppin (cello) and Anthony Pirog (guitar) have crafted beautiful pieces on their own but when combined with the Lost Civilizations duo of Mike Sebastian (reeds) and T.A. Zook (basscello, miscellaneous instruments) they create a far more complex array of textures and sounds. And it's all improvised. The way the quartet played off each other at Pyramid Atlantic on Saturday night was sometimes loud and challenging and sometimes melodic and smooth, but never boring. We caught up with them after the Pyramid Atlantic show (celebrating the District of Noise, Volume 2 release). Catch them for yourself tonight on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. for free.

It's not every day we get to interview a cartoon. OK, we've never interviewed a cartoon. But that ends today with Major Lazer, the creation of DJs Diplo and Switch. The Major's cartoon backstory is that he's a Jamaican commando who lost an arm in a secret zombie war in 1984. He was rescued by the U.S. military, who replaced his arm with a laser, and now he flies around on a rocket-powered skateboard fighting monsters and partying a lot. He owns a dance club in Trinidad and makes dancehall and ragga-influenced electronic music sung in Jamaican patois, with help from friends Diplo and Switch.

Ben-Ari will serve as the closing act for the Washington Jewish Music Festival tonight and recently spoke to DCist about her experiences as a musician.

In March, we started hearing passing recommendations about a band out of New York called Here We Go Magic. Once you get past the awkward syntax, those recommendations add up. The woozy dream pop that songwriter Luke Temple says to have recorded in a "two month period of stream-of-consciousness recording" is perfect for post-work mental detox and an unsurprising choice as openers for the ethereal, meandering indie rockers Grizzly Bear. Here We Go Magic's self-titled debut finds Temple eschewing the falsetto that he'd used in his former work (which at times sounded an awful lot like Sufjan Stevens) for a more somber tone. Appropriate, considering that the first track, "Only Pieces", asks more existential questions, repeating the line, "What's the use in dying, dying?" The Grizzly Bear/Here We Go Magic bill reaches the 9:30 Club tonight, so we asked Temple a few questions about the evolution of Here We Go Magic from "stream-of-consciousness-recording" to five-piece band.

In which DCist talks to the people that help make the Black-and-Red one of the premier clubs in the North American soccer world.

Kirby Dick likes making movies about secrets. In his last documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated, the director went on a quest to determine the identities of the MPAA ratings board, a secret the Motion Picture Association guards closely. In the process, he provided a shrewd examination of the unfair practices of that committee, and, more generally, of American attitudes towards sex, violence, drug use, and language in our entertainment. His latest film, Outrage similarly attempts to cast light on people seeking to remain in the dark, in this case the dark of the closet.

"This Is Your D.C. United" is a new DCist feature, in which we'll talk to the people that help make the Black-and-Red one of the premier clubs in the North American soccer world. Keep checking back on Saturdays and Sundays for more discussions throughout the season.

Tyrone Norris is a busy guy. Rapper, promoter, and webmaster are just a few of the titles he holds. But his work raising the profile and connecting varying aspects of the District's hip-hop scene has probably been his most ambitious pursuit. Launched late last year, DC Rap serves as a front page and gathering point for hip-hop in the District, Maryland, and Virginia (the D.M.V.).

Ulrich Boser is the author of The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft, a book that examines the ongoing investigation into the 1990 burglary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Speaking strictly as a music fan, it's been fun to watch Bloc Party grow as a band. I still remember their first area show, in April of 2005 at the Black Cat, as one of the most energetic (and crowded) shows I've ever seen in that venue. They were back in D.C. just two months later selling out the 9:30 Club (awww, former editor Ryan Avent was just a contributor back then). Since then it's been onwards and upwards for the hard working group; touring relentlessly, becoming international superstars and releasing albums, remixes and one-off singles all the while. They return to the area on Sunday, playing another sold out show at the 9:30 Club behind their latest album, Intimacy, which reached #18 in the Billboard album charts. We spoke with bassist Gordon Moakes last week on the eve of the band's North American tour.

Patton Oswalt’s career as a writer and actor has been on an ascending curve over the last couple of years, most notably since he provided the voice (and inspired much of the character) of Remy, the rat who dreams of becoming a gourmet chef, in Brad Bird’s terrific 2007 PIXAR film, Ratatouille. He plays his first on-camera leading role in Big Fan, written and directed by Robert D. Siegel — the former editor of The Onion, and the writer of last year’s critically adored The Wrestler — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month.

My first call to Jason Brewer, lead singer of The Explorers Club, went to his answering machine. Which, by the way, is a few bars of “Good Vibrations” followed by Brewer’s urging to leave some similarly good vibes after the tone. And this sums up the band pretty well. Unlike your run-of-the-mill Beach Boys approximators content to nick a harmony line or two and sing about girls, The Explorers Club play dense, nostalgic pop songs overflowing with the lush orchestration and flowery details that made Brian Wilson and company one of the most-loved groups of all-time.

Swedish songstress Lykke Li had quite a year in 2008. Her debut album, Youth Novels, was released all over the world to great fanfare. Its mix of hip-hop, folk and pop influences, coupled with Li's sugary sweet vocals, proved irresistible to music fans on both sides of the Atlantic looking for Sweden's next great music export. Li took time out her busy schedule to chat with DCist on the eve of her latest US tour. She plays a sold out show at the 6th and I Historic Synagogue tonight.

We've all gotten them: unsolicited MySpace messages from bands. Usually the bands aren't anything you'd be interested in, they need a lot more practice, or both. In this case, we got one from Static Brigade, who described themselves as "a dc/baltimore/uk based electro-futurepop trio." That was enough for a click, and it didn't disappoint.

Written by DCist Contributor Dave Weigel

     

Anthony Bourdain is the acerbic host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel. His rise to fame can be attributed to Kitchen Confidential, his book exploring the seamy underworld of the restaurant industry. Since then he has written two more books, and has served as a guest judge on Top Chef.

Longwave has been riding the rock 'n' roll rollercoaster for the last decade. Their first big moment came in the wake of the release of their second album, 2003’s .

After the Washington City Paper acknowledged the Black Cat near the top of the pack in its 2008 best-of category for dance clubs — right up there with monosyllabic sweat-halls Town and Love — the Cat had a crisis of conscience. For some time now, most Friday and Saturday nights have been guaranteed to be themed dance nights with names like Mousetrap, Bliss, Homo/Sonic, Cryfest, and CATatonia. That means choice weekend slots not reserved for acts like Edie Sedgwick, Civilians, Buildings, Medications, Equinox — District rock 'n' roll groups. Could the Cat spare a little change for D.C. bands?