After six years of adding to the eclectic flavor of the intersection of 18th and Florida NW, word comes to us this week that Staccato is closing its doors forever next month. Staccato has always sort of been the Little Club That Could, hosting aspiring musicians from a variety of genres in its no-frills, teeny, converted-townhouse venue. Funky little joints like Staccato are the white blood cells of a city’s music scene. Maybe not so…
By DCist contributor Abby Lavin On any given night, most bars in D.C. would be more fun if you got to pick the music, right? But to convince a bar to let you play iPod-commando (unless it’s Café Saint-Ex on iPod Jukebox night), you’d have to have some serious indie-rock street-cred. You’d practically have to be a member of experimental rock demigods Animal Collective. Fancy that! A member of Animal Collective (Geologist) is going to…
Written by DCist Contributor Abby Lavin Acerbic campaign ads, Redskins season, pumpkin ice cream from Max’s…it’s officially autumn. And what better way to commemorate Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday night than with a sundry cornucopia of local music at the Rock and Roll Hotel? Jazzy songstress Laura Burhenn and indie collective Meredith Bragg and the Terminals are two acts you wouldn’t expect to share a bill with heavy-rock trio Dead Meadow. But together, the three rising…
By DCist contributor Abby Lavin I spent my first 40 minutes in the sold-out French Embassy auditorium last night, being blown away by who I thought was the French band Nouvelle Vague, but who actually turned out to be L.A. duo The Submarines. Confusions aside, I developed a big crush on Submarines front-woman Blake Hazard (turns out the feeling is mutual – she tells us she’s a big fan of sister site LAist). Armed with…
By DCist contributor Abby Lavin If you weren’t at Unbuckled last Thursday, your only excuse is that you were over at the 6th and I St. Synagogue checking out rising Israeli hip hop stars, Hadag Nahash (Snakefish). Listening to rap in a synagogue, engulfed in a mob of 15-year-olds, we felt like we were at the coolest bar mitzvah we’d never been to. A little bit Bob Marley, a little bit Rage Against the Machine,…
Written by DCist contributor Abby Lavin. Last year’s rioting in response to Danish drawings of the prophet Muhammad showed that, in some cases, cartoons are no laughing matter. They don’t just lampoon the political landscape; they have the power to shape it as well. Provisions Library’s current exhibit, Drawing Back: Cartoon Critiques of America, examines the power of cartoons as a means of social protest. Culled from twenty-five different countries, the 80 editorial cartoons are…
By DCist contributor Abby Lavin Darlings of Oklahoma City’s glam rock scene (yes, apparently there is one), The Stock Market Crash have earned comparisons to David Bowie, Franz Ferdinand, and The Strokes. As much as we love those acts, being so ripe for comparison can be a red flag that the band is a rip-off. We showed up at TSMC’s show at DC9 last night looking to find out what sets them apart from, say,…
By DCist contributor Abby Lavin Fans may know Keith Thompson as “Sinister 6000,” “Fly Ricky the Wine Taster,” “Funk Igniter Plus,” or another one of his 50-odd stage personas. But for his show last night at the Black Cat, he was billed simply as “Dr. Octagon,” Thompson’s most critically acclaimed alter-ego. Confused yet? As it turned out, the Bronx-born MC came to the stage not as Dr. Octagon, but as Kool Keith, his original…
