Songwriting veterans Aimee Mann and Ted Leo joined forces as The Both Friday night at the 9:30 Club in a show that fell somewhere between an episode of The Best Show on WFMU and VH1 Storytellers.
As the singer and chief lyricist for ‘Til Tuesday, Aimee Mann had a big mid-1980s hit in “Voices Carry”. In the decade or so afterwards, however, she came to embody the archetypal critically hailed, commercially marginal singer-songwriter. After Geffen Records rejected her third solo album, Bachelor No. 2, Mann decided she’d had enough of trying to guess where her moody, often fatalistic songs fit into a major-label marketing plan. She founded her own imprint, SuperEgo,…
Aimee Mann never seemed like one of pop’s 500 likeliest candidates to release a Christmas album, but last year’s One More Drifter in the Snow was a tasteful, minor-key treat, and her “1st Annual Christmas Show” at the Birchmere last December was one of the best concerts of 2006. As she promised she would at the end of last year’s freewheeling interfaith revue, she’s hitched up the sleigh again this year for a monthlong yule-tour…
MONDAY >> It wasn’t too far from here — just a couple hours south in Midlothian, VA, where Aimee Mann got her start. Now the guitar playing song weaver is a bonafide modern music legend. She’s treating The Birchmere to her 2nd Annual Christmas Show, and it’s not something you should miss. $45.50, 7:30 p.m. >> Roofwalkers (pictured), the band formerly known as Pagoda, are treating the Galaxy Hut crowd to an evening of…
Sorry for the late arrival of this week’s agenda, but you see, I work in Tysons Corner and I was stuck in traffic. Now on to our picks! TUESDAY >> If you don’t think there is such a thing as hardcore klezmer music, Gogol Bordello are in town to prove you wrong. These Eastern European transplants to New York serve up Slavic ska, polka punk, and lots of other funky fusions, but those were the…
This week’s version of Three Stars continues today with a review of Proof, the debut album of singer-songwriter Laura Tsaggaris. Yesterday we looked at Alcian Blue, and tomorrow Three Stars concludes with a dicussion of Meredith Bragg and the Terminals. Proof, by Laura Tsaggaris It is said that a singer-songwriter with a major label deal is like a mule with a spinning-wheel. Nobody knows how he got it, and damned if he knows how to…
MONDAY: >> If you snagged tickets, you’ll probably be experiencing a helluva a show tonight at the 9:30 Club, where DCist favorites Doves and Mercury Rev are playing a sold-out concert. Mercury Rev, who play almost psychedelic, orchestral pop, go on at 8:45 p.m.; Doves go on at 10 p.m. TUESDAY: >> Our mothership, Gothamist, loves Snowden; we here at DCist adore local group Cartel (at right); the two play together tonight at the Black…
