I’m quite enjoying watching the slow build of Fellow Creatures. The core duo of Sam McCormally and Will McKinley-Ward reconfigured the sound from their well-loved previous incarnation Ugly Purple Sweater, incorporating indie folk elements with more interesting electronic experimentation. Their live show really reflects this, with big bombastic foot stomping numbers and quieter harmonies providing a welcome dynamic together. Today’s video for the unreleased single “Come Ye” is a very well-shot live take in the basement of BicycleSPACE, “perhaps the world’s greatest bike shop”, directed by Ellie Walton. Keep your eyes peeled for more local Fellow Creatures live dates, but don’t miss Sam opening an excellent local bill at Gypsy Sally’s on Saturday night, featuring Letitia Van Sant & The Bonafides and headliners The Riverbreaks!
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Monthly Archives: February 2015
The Walking Sticks – You Got What You Wanted video
Most of the time, music videos take a long time to make. Developing the concent, finding a director, filming, editing, post-production, all can take many long months. Young dream-pop act The Walking Sticks kept everything quick and simple when they decided to shoot a video for their newest single “You Got What You Wanted”. Venturing out into the winter wonderland arriving with last Saturday’s snow and ice storm that shut down much of the weekend here, they shot this long take of singer Chelsea Lee’s dreamy crooning of this steamy track with only an iPhone. Really, it’s just impossible to resist throwing out temperature jokes for this video.
Podcast for February 25th, 2015
This week: all songs that are free!
Tracklisting:
Makeshift Shelters – Lighter Fluid [Overflowing EP]
Champagne Fever – FTLT [SoundCloud single]
Bearson – Pink Medicine (Manila Killa Remix) [SoundCloud single]
These Quiet Colours – Underground [These Quiet Colours EP]
Swings – Faint [Bandcamp single]
Blankus Larry – No Time No Money [SoundCloud double single]
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Ex Hex – Don’t Wanna Lose video
With a band like Ex Hex, expectations for their music videos are naturally sky high. This killer video for “Don’t Wanna Lose”, the tone-setting lead-off track from 2014’s breakout album Rips, is already a strong candidate for DC music video of the year. Lara Gallager, director of Ex Hex’s dinner-party-with-Svenonious video “Hot and Cold”, takes the helm again and delivers this amazing tribute to Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, a 1982 cult film about three teenage girls who start a punk band, directed by Lou Adler. You’ve probably never seen this classic, so add it to your Amazon Prime Instant Video queue now!
Laura Tsaggaris – To Sleep Is To Dream video
Oh yeah, bonus video time! This one just came out and we didn’t want you to miss it. Laura Tsaggaris is one of DC’s most assured and profound singer-songwriters, and her show last September at the Atlas Theater was a performance worthy of preserving. Luckily the full live show is available for purchase on iTunes, but today we’ve got this excellent live video of “To Sleep Is To Dream”, which sounds quite divine with cello. Don’t miss her in the inaugural Her Roots female songwriter showcase this Sunday at Gypsy Sally’s with the Lauren Calve band and Olivia Mancini & The Mates!
Young Summer – Severing Ties video
Oh Bobbie Allen aka Young Summer. Your dreampop-styled heartbreak songs just rip our guts out sometimes. The DC-based songstress has spent a lot of her breakout year of 2014 touring extensively, so don’t pass up the rare chance to see her headline a hometown show. Tonight’s the night as YS caps off an early night of dreamy DC synthpop with openers PLOY and Pleasure Curses at U Street Music Hall. To get in the swaying, romantic mood for tonight, watch YS’s new video for “Severing Ties” from the 2014 album Siren.
Okay we’ll say it. We love you, Young Summer.
Live Picks! With Rachel Levitin: ‘Her Roots’ at Gypsy Sally’s, Sun Feb. 22
‘Her Roots’ — a musical performance series created by locally-based performers Lauren Calve and Ben Tufts — launches this weekend, February 22, with the Lauren Calve Band, Olivia Mancini & The Mates, and Laura Tsaggaris at 6 p.m. (for only $6!) as a family-friendly, musically-driven community event highlighting the diverse talent of the area’s most accomplished female artists as well as up-and-coming female musicians, as hosted by Gypsy Sally’s.
The ‘Her Roots’ series stems from Calve and Tufts’ desire to form an intentionally strong female community of musicians in the greater-D.C. area. After several months of conversations between the pair, Calve and Tufts agreed to take the concept of hosting a conventional residency and turn it up a notch by expanding the focus and aiming the spotlight on female-fronted bands.
The North Country – The Cross We Bear video
Guys. You guys. Stop. Mute the conference call. Take a smoke break. Today’s music video can’t be missed!
Yesterday Andrew Grossman’s acoustic rock ensemble The North Country premiered the music video for the debut single “The Cross We Bear” from their upcoming album There is Nothing to Fear, dropping April 20. We played the single on this episode of the Hometown Sounds podcast a few weeks ago, but the video from DC’s favorite video director Nigel Lyons, along with TNC’s Grossman and Shaun Dubick, takes this to a higher level. Featuring cameos from BRNDA’s Leah Gage, the Church Night crew and others, the video opens & closes at DIT house venue Bathtub Republic (totally coincidentally where Grossman lives). This heartwarming fable of a downtrodden office worker is another great example of DC’s creative community working (doing it) together, making DC a top notch music town. Don’t miss TNC’s next hometown show on Thursday February 26th at the GWU Marvin Center with Stranger in the Alps and Laughing Man, presented by WRGW. Damn, what a lineup!
ROM – Micro video
We got a great response on our recent series on the NPR Tiny Desk contest videos, but now it’s time to get caught up on all the DC music videos released in the last few weeks. And there’s no better place to start than ROM. Mark McInerney’s infectuous post-punk trio released this video for “Micro”, the latest single from their excellent 2014 pay-what-you-like album soda christ. We’re quite devoted to these talented gents, having premiered their debut video “Nuisance” back in July and getting song picking help from Mark on this podcast episode. DC’s own Church Night, always Devoted To Faith, featured Mark in last week’s VLOG leading up to ROM’s sold out headlining Church Night show last Friday night at the Black Cat. ROM is everywhere! Look carefully in this video for brief cameos by Bathtub Republic‘s Leah Gage and our own Mr. Tony Porreco!
Podcast for February 13th, 2015
Tracklisting:
East West Hwy – Handle That [What’s New EP – name your own price download!]
Teenage Aviation – Take A Vacation From Yourself [Vacation single]
Pree – Hooks and Eyes [Rima]
Stranger in the Alps – Black Box [Pattern Matching]
Royal – Passenger [Cycles EP – free download!]
Stronger Sex – Temptation [Stronger Sex]
Or listen in SoundCloud:
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