By DCist contributor W Jacarl Melton Femi Kuti performs tonight at the 9:30 Club. Doors at 9 p.m. $25 Following in your father’s footsteps isn’t easy because there will be the inevitable comparisons, especially if your dad was a musical vanguard. Femi Kuti can’t avoid the path his father, Fela, blazed so he’s decided to embrace it and further his family’s legacy in Afrobeat. It goes without saying that Fela Kuti was one of those... more ›

By DCist contributor W. Jacarl Melton “Tell the truth, James Brown was old ‘Til Eric and Rakim came out with ‘I Got Soul’. Rap brings back old R&B; And if we would not, people could’ve forgot.” —Stetsasonic’s “Talkin’ All That Jazz” That quote captures how RAMP went from 1970s R&B/soul/funk jazz obscurity to having one of the most sought-after albums in the history of hip-hop sampling. If you’re not familiar with the group, you’re more... more ›

Written by DCist contributor Maria Flores Sometime in the early 1970s, when the photographs in Melody Maker, NME, and Rolling Stone were no longer enough to satiate his appetite, Claude Gassian swapped his guitar for a 35mm camera and took to the road with his finger on the shutter button. So began his photographic conquest to document the lives of some of his favorite musical artists. Over three decades later, his photographs stand alone as... more ›

In all honesty, it's tough to wholeheartedly recommend going out on New Year's Eve at all. We love the spirit of the holiday, but paying around $100 a person for a regular night of dancing dressed up with champagne is enough to make anyone feel like a schmuck. It's a safe bet most of us at DCist will be hitting various house parties to ring in the new year with friends at a more reasonable... more ›

Welcome back, Washington. You're probably still busy with Holiday merriment, but we're here working hard for you. Err... rather, we'll be posting today between yelling at football games and re-heating the Christmas roast beast. Also worth noting is the beginning of Kwanzaa and observance of Boxing Day. While Kwanzaa is mainly an American week of celebration, we have special envy of Boxing Day, a holiday virtually everywhere else in the English-speaking world. It's a whole... more ›

Thunderball may define their music in press releases as “cinematic, dub-laden compositions full of intrigue,” but their newest album on D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge Music label, Cinescope, is a mess – a disorderly combination of too many benders while watching Rat Pack films and “Shaft in Africa” with some forgettable guest vocal tracks. The album doesn’t start out so cluttered, however. Openers “The Road to Benares” and “Electric Shaka” (with suitably electric vocals by Afrika... more ›

The weekly Ist wrap-up is written by Seattlest editor Dan Gonsiorowski. After Wired ran a story documenting the GoogleCenter of the United States a bunch of ists jumped on the opportunity to figure out their own middle. Gothamist, Chicagoist, Bostonist, DCist and Seattlest all zoomed in on their creamy GoogleCenters. A crack cartography team is hard at work determining the GoogleCenter of the Ist-a-verse as you read this... Austinist read a book about Olympian Bode... more ›

This post was written by Seattlest editor Dan Gonsiorowski. "The Week in -ist" will run every week, typically on the weekend, but this weekend we forgot, and anyway most of you have the day off today. Earlier this week kissy couples were wading through roses and red tissue paper deeper than an east coast snow dump and singles shook a tiny, lonely fist (no ring!) at it all. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,... more ›

FRIDAY: Anyone in need of a little funk infusion tonight would do well to check out Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at Black Cat. The DCist staff list today was full of sentiments like "I've heard great things about these guys," and Jones' background suggests she probably has more than a passing understanding of the world of soul: She was born in Augusta, Georgia (hometown of James Brown) and spent her teens in Brooklyn, NY.... more ›

We spent the better part of this week reviewing what has been an eventful year in music, food, politics, art, style, and the stadium. Beyond the reviews of all things 2005, here are the other stories you may have missed this week on DCist: more ›

If your only exposure to a man named James Brown had been his highly choreographed performance last night at the 9:30 Club, you’d probably come away thinking that he was a richly talented, energetic soul musician in the prime of his life with an inexplicable penchant for frayed cherry red suits. And indeed, the legendary James Brown definitively proved that he’s a richly talented, energetic soul musician with an inexplicable penchant for frayed cherry red... more ›