(Review and interview by DCist special contributor Peter Denton)
Image from carteldc.com
Too many trips to 9:30 Club and Black Cat to catch the latest indie sensation really start to wear us down. It’s always refreshing to head to a smaller venue and see some hard-working local bands with their egos firmly in check.
So this past Saturday we ventured into the cookie-cutter community of Clarendon to find much-buzzed-about locals Cartel headlining at Iota. With a dreamy, anthemic pop sound that seems more at home in Manchester than Washington, Cartel is one of many local groups who are breaking the mold of the traditional D.C. music scene.
Ask any pimply record store clerk in the country what they think of when you say “D.C. music” and they’ll invariably reply with one word: Fugazi. The hardcore punk scene spawned by Ian MacKaye and friends in the 1980s came to –- for better and worse –- define this city’s musical crop. Cartel, and others like Washington Social Club, are proving that smart, captivating pop music can survive and flourish in a town known for its relentlessly brooding hardcore bands.
The Iota show was a typical local affair. Of the more than 200 attendees, more than a few seem to have stumbled down from the frat-tastic pre-St. Paddy’s day party at the nearby Whitlows On Wilson, but there were plenty more who showed up for Cartel and openers R.P.M. (Restoring Poetry in Music).
A well-meaning hip-hop group, R.P.M. just didn’t quite do it for us. The jazz-rap meets jam-band sound seemed a bit contrived, and the backing vocals of bassist Drew Thomas smacked of Linkin Park. MC Raw Poetic saved their set with his impressively manic flow.
Cartel, thankfully, didn’t disappoint. For a young, unsigned band, Cartel has a remarkably polished sound. Their atmospheric Britpop style sounds like a tightly honed veteran group (The Doves), in particular, come to mind) with big label backing.
Others in the music industry are also taking notice. Bracken Records in the UK are releasing a limited 7” single across the pond and cuts from Cartel’s self-titled EP have recently been thrown into rotation on the trend-setting WOXY out of Cincinnati. In this age of internet feeds, independent radio stations like WOXY and LA’s Indie 103.1 offer enormous exposure for unsigned groups like Cartel.
We had a chance to sit down with Francisco “Fico” Lazzaro, bassist for Cartel, and chat about his group’s promising future:
