Nov 26, 2007
Weekly Music Agenda
MONDAY >>Satisfy your cheese cravings as former American Idol star (and Richmond, VA native) Elliot Yamin plays the 9:30 Club, with the Last Goodnight and Josh Hoge. $25, Doors at 7 p.m. >>Australian pop singer Ben Lee — he of the short-lived Bens and “Catch My Disease” moderate fame — comes to Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood to play the Birchmere. Joining him is are Cary Brothers. $19.50, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY >>Dinosaur Jr. just can’t stop…
Nov 14, 2007
About Tonight
>> A solid small local show at the Red and the Black tonight, with the pleasing rock of The Charm Offensive, Cheverly Hot Noodle, and Baltimore’s Lawnchair. $8, 9:30 p.m. >> It might be easy to dismiss Galactic as some frat boy-friendly jam band, but the funk and jazz-influenced quintet are practically royalty in their hometown of New Orleans, and tonight they’ll perform with a series of well-respected MCs in support of their latest…
Nov 13, 2007
Third Time’s a Charm: Restaurant 3
From DCist Contributor Oscar Bunoan It’s often said that bad luck comes in threes. In Vietnam, for example, a photo of three people represents bad luck. However, Vietnam is a restless, 22-hour flight away and Greg Cahill (owner of the successful Whitlow’s on Wilson) and Jonathan Williams (Whitlow’s general manager) are not superstitious men who rest their beliefs in ancient folklore. No self-respecting restaurateur, especially these two locally respected entrepreneurs, would conceive their restaurant on…
Nov 05, 2007
Weekly Music Agenda
MONDAY >> Performing as Phosphorescent, Matthew Houck (right) dropped his latest effort, Pride, at the end of last month. Reviews for the album have been glowing for the Southern-bred multi-instrumentalist. He’ll be making an appearance at the Black Cat with the help of his touring band. 9 p.m., $10. >> With an album titled Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, you’d be right to guess that The Warlocks aren’t exactly members of a pep squad. Still, their…
Oct 19, 2007
DCist Interview: Paul Meany of Mute Math
Their debut album has been out for almost two years and somehow the outside world is only just getting to know them as that band that has that backward music video on YouTube. However you know them, Mute Math (or TBTHTBMVOYT, for… short?) is hitting up Sonar in Baltimore tonight for an evening of art rock/post rock/electro rock/whatever the hell music snobs and critics want to label it as. The band has come a long…
Oct 15, 2007
Oliver Lake & Ravi Shankar @ The Kennedy Center
While the “nature v. nurture” argument may rage for years to come, two respected musical patriarchs showed that regardless of which is the more important, nature and nurture in tandem are a most formidable combination. Oliver Lake (pictured right), a trailblazing elder statesman of jazz, and Ravi Shankar (pictured below), the most celebrated Indian classical musician in the world, each performed at the Kennedy Center this past weekend with gifted progeny in tow. The result…
Sep 28, 2007
Weekly Columnist Roundup: Goodbye, RFK
Harry Jaffe: In writing something of a goodbye column to RFK Stadium, Jaffe recounts the many struggles the District overcame to attract a baseball team. And though plenty of people played important roles, he feels that one deserves extra attention — former Mayor Anthony Williams. “The hero of the piece has to be Williams, an unpopular mayor who — despite his wandering attention span — kept swinging away at an unpopular crusade to use public…
Sep 21, 2007
Weekly Columnist Roundup: New Orleans & D.C.
Jonetta Rose Barras: In a powerfully introspective column, Rose Barras details a recent trip to her destroyed family home in New Orleans. In recounting her visit to the site, Rose Barras writes of the struggles endured by her mother and sister in trying to return and rebuild, drawing comparisons to the District’s own troubles. “Truth told, New Orleans looks and feels like Ward 8 circa 1985: few quality retail outlets, high crime, high unemployment, poor…
Sep 20, 2007
Renee Stout @ Hemphill Fine Arts
Renee Stout, a very cool D.C. resident and assemblage artist, has a new collection of works on view at Hemphill Fine Arts — Journal: Book One. Walking into this cabinet of curiosity, you are greeted by a large, accurately painted advertisement for the corner psychic. By putting on the airs of alter ego Fatima Mayfield, Stout is able to role play as a fictitious herbalist/fortuneteller who enters the arena of the shadowy and strange….
Sep 18, 2007
Duke Fest Wrap-up
At the close of last night’s concert at the 2007 Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, Executive Producer Charlie Fishman said his friend and mentor, the great Dizzy Gillespie (pictured), who was the focus of this year’s proceedings, chose to name his last big band the United Nation (in the singular) Jazz Orchestra to show the oneness of humanity. Fishman went on to say that Dizzy often told his colleagues that human beings all share two characteristics:…