Your classical music schedule will be busy for the next two or three weeks, through Thanksgiving, and you have the chance to hear almost as much for free as you do buying tickets. BIG GUNS: >> Emmanuel Pahud is one of the leading flutists of the younger generation. He will be in Washington this week, beginning with a recital with his regular pianist collaborator, Eric Le Sage, at the Phillips Collection on Wednesday (November 7,…
There’s something totally undeniable about the music of Bellman Barker. From the moment they hit the stage, toes start tapping. A verse or two in, heads start bobbing. By the time they hit the chorus, you’ll find yourself wanting to jump up and down like a kid who’s had too much sugary cereal for breakfast. Their recorded output has been compared to late-period Belle & Sebastian and rightfully so—these local lads clearly worship at the same altar of 60s pop. In a live setting, however, the songs take on a life of their own, with the bouncy verses and wide-open choruses adding up to something more power pop than twee. Rest assured, there’s still no shortage of vocal harmonies, a whole lot of handclaps and more than a few “Oohs” and “Aahs”. DCist caught up with lead singer and guitarist Aaron Estes to talk about the years he spent working as a Blackjack dealer, the unsung heroes of Motown and the secrets of the handlebar mustache. Check out the full interview after the break.
Visit them online at: myspace.com/bellmanbarker
See them next at: The Velvet Lounge, October 27th (“Halloween Spectacular”)
It’s back to school time, and that means we’re once again recruiting new writers to become part of our growing team of city bloggers. As you know, we aren’t able to pay our contributors — so please don’t apply unless you’re ready to do it for the love of exploring D.C., engaging in important debates about the direction of the city, or are just the kind of person who’s happy enough to see your name…
Photo and story by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall Leave it to Travis Morrison to throw a CD release party, but forget to order CDs. Morrison shrugged it off, offering up several suggestions of places online (including a half-kidding nod to Napster) from where the audience could pick up his latest release, All Y’all. It’s this quirky charm that makes his live show so engaging; Saturday night’s show at Iota would’ve been worth the ticket price…
The first thing we noticed when City-State’s first full-length, Monument, arrived is that it looked very professional. Often with local bands the CDs look (and usually are) homemade. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just something that stuck out as a good sign. The CD cover has a picture of Vladimir Tatlin’s unbuilt sculpture “Monument to the Third International,” one of those things that pops up in architecture books from time to time, superimposed over…
If Thursday’s show at the Red and the Black was any indication, this year’s 6 Points Music Festival looks to be a good one. The local fest, in its fourth year but only its second with a wider reach, aims to someday be a D.C. version of South by Southwest and helped its cause by bringing a diverse indie bill to H Street NE. The show began with Brooklyn’s The Lisps, followed by Chicago’s Scotland…
MONDAY >> Looking for an act whose name you are sure to forget at least once over the course of the evening? We give you an Orlando hip-hop duo with a name like a serial number: X:144 and SPS. Okayplayer called their debut collaboration, M.E., “a producer’s wet dream.” At the Red and the Black. 9:30 p.m., $8. >> After releasing solo CDs and making babies, Aterciopelados, Colombia’s finest rock en español outfit is back…
Local NPR station WETA-FM recently completely reversed course a second time, switching back to a classical format after two unsatisfactory years as a news station. With the “New Classical” WETA came all kinds of questions about programming, complicated by the fact that WETA was also absorbing the area’s last commercial classical station, WGMS. Would WETA return to its former identity before the change to news? Would it become a version of the classical lite WGMS?…
And a glorious Friday to you, Washington. Granted, it’s not exactly pleasant out right now, but we’re going to boldly agree completely with the National Weather Service about tomorrow: highs in the mid-50s, with plenty of sun (peeking through a few clouds). We’ll take it. After the week we’ve had, we would have taken Antarctica, just as long as we got to sleep in a little and not have to think about work for at…
Between the creepy name and the glowing spermatozoa in the logo, readers can be forgiven for looking at the graphic on the right and assuming that washingtonpost.com is dabbling in creating Frankensteinian abominations/superbeings. Perhaps an alien/Katharine Graham hybrid that can squeeze secrets out of administration sources with its deadly tentacles? There’s room for all sorts of mischief in that Arlington skyscraper. Sadly, that’s not the case. The project, entitled “onBeing”, is actually a new series…
