“Camping”, the debut music video from emo duo The Obsessives, is firmly rooted in the high school experience. Childhood friends Nick Bairatchnyi and Jackson Mansfield recently left that ordeal of youth behind, but the plaintive lyrics and intense but unhurried music reflects that time when everything seems to matter so much. The video footage is what I expect smartphone-equipped youth assemble these days to remember the important times with friends that are about to change and vanish forever. The Obsessives’ debut full length album Heck No, Nancy comes out September 18th on Near Mint Records, but you can make their day and pre-order it now.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Monthly Archives: August 2015
BRNDA – Snacks
Sometimes Dave wears a dress. Sometimes Leah wears a tie. Sometimes Johnny wears a full suit. Sometimes Alex wears a totally sweet hot pink blazer. BRNDA infuses the post-punk aesthetic with a hugely welcome dose of wackiness, as balloons, streamers and painted banners cover the debut music video for “Snacks” and render the well-known DIT venue Paperhaus almost unrecognizable. “It’s a party!” Dave howls, and BRNDA’s high-energy performances always make it party-time, with or without snacks. BRNDA’s new album Year of the Manatee is out now on Babe City Records, and their next show is at the newly relocated Bathtub Republic on Saturday September 19th with Puff Pieces, Positive No and Teen Liver.
Podcast for August 24th, 2015
Facebook wants Paul to invite his mom to everything, and Tony is obsessed with a certain spooky TV show from the 90s.
Tracklisting:
The Do-Likes – Time to Take You Home [The Do-Likes]
Clones of Clones – Somebody Else
Collider – Collide [Collider Demo]
June Gloom – Anniversary [Sad Summer 2013]
Jason Mullinax – Hello, Human! [Home World]
Fort Knox Five – Blowing Up The Spot feat. Akil Dasan [10 Years of Fort Knox Five]
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)
#TBT The Cowards Choir – Is This A Wrecking Ball
Here’s the thing about being a fan of local bands: the only thing constant is change. Local bands can come and go, change their names, lineups and style, sometimes before you even realize what happened. Casual music fans don’t have to worry about this so much with Walk The Moon or The Weeknd or whoever, but at the local level, all bets are off.
Andy Zipf’s talented quartet The Cowards Choir, with Ben Tufts, Adam Neubauer and Ryan Walker, came together by accident but quickly developed some powerful chemistry and one of last year’s best releases, the four song EP Cool Currency, which you can still download for whatever price you like at NoiseTrade. When people would ask me who was worth checking out in the DC music scene, I’d generally first steer them towards The Cowards Choir, and made them as many new fans as I could.
Sadly in 2015 things stalled for the band as they prepared material for an anticipated full length album. First percussionist Ben Tufts announced his imminent departure, and recently drummer Adam Neubauer followed suit. The last two shows featuring the original lineup are tonight at the Black Cat and Saturday at the annual Ben Tufts & Friends charity fundraiser at Jammin’ Java. While Andy Zipf will continue on both solo and with other supporting musicians, these are your last chances to see his finely crafted songs backed by two of the finest drummers in this town.
It’s #TBT so watch the excellent music video they made last year for “Is This A Wrecking Ball”. See you at the show.
Jonny Grave – Tear Me Down (Live at the Corcoran)
The mellowness of DC in the middle of August provide some excellent opportunities for local musicians. Tonight DC’s blues troubadour Jonny Grave headlines the prestigious 9:30 Club with support from Derek Evry & His Band of Misanthropes and Olivia Mancini & The Mates. Jonny, Derek and Olivia are three very different musicians who share a love of the city and its musical scene. If you don’t yet know them personally, you might be surprised at the level of enthusiasm these talented personalities are going to generate at DC’s finest venue tonight. For a Friday afternoon warm up, watch Jonny Grave perform “Tear Me Down”, from his 2013 solo album The Hammer, live at the Corcoran in the Salon Doré last year. See you tonight, obviously.
American Television – Optimist
A lot of concert goers in DC never make it past the usual well known spots like the 9:30 Club, Black Cat, DC9, etc. When one does decide to branch out and try something new, St. Stephen’s Church is a likely choice due to its scrappy DIY spirit and long punk rock tradition of hosting fundraisers for Positive Force and other organizations. The bands that typically play shows there are enthusiastic about their craft in infectuous ways, which leads me to the new DC pop-punk band American Television. Even though they only have one song up on Bandcamp, that didn’t stop them from making this music video for “Optimist”, a still-unreleaesd track from their forthcoming EP. The band’s unbridled excitement to play a show this Saturday 8/15 is obviously no joke as they practice, flyer well known DMV record shops and beef up at the gym. This killer all-ages Saturday night show includes Baltimore’s Canker Blossom along with locals Rememberables, Six Foot Machine and Boardroom Heroes.
Podcast for August 11th, 2015
Paul & Tony wax philosophical about spicy food, cassette releases and advance ticket sales.
Tracklisting:
Baebo Baggins – Team feat. Babenstein & Babe Simpson [POSI+IVE]
DTMD – While You Wait [While You Wait single]
Wylder – Sunstroke [Sunstroke single]
The Effects – Fix As The Reason [Fix As The Reason / Close The Gap]
The Combs – Do It Again [Do It Again single]
ShadowHill – Final Lullaby [Last Resort]
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)
(Photo credit Sara Hemmings)
Wylder – Sunstroke
Indie folk band Wylder are four young & talented men recently graduated from the University of Mary Washington. Now spread between Northern VA and points further south in the Commonwealth, the band they started in college as “Save The Arcadian” gears up for the release of their debut album with a single & music video for “Sunstroke”, a feel good folk tune with snappy violin and a singalong chorus that you can download for free right now. July saw Wylder make it to the finals in Jammin’ Java’s Battle of the Bands, so if “Sunstroke” is your new summer jam, don’t miss them compete against Jocelyn Faro, Port Harbour, Calm The Waters and Aztec Sun on Saturday August 21st!
RDGLDGRN – Runnin’ Away
One thing’s for sure, RDGLDGRN ain’t runnin’ away from DC anytime soon. The second single to drop from their upcoming sophomore release is “Runnin’ Away” and it is a catchy singalong rap/rock tune designed to maximize Green’s dancing moves. The new music video features footage and photography by Good Boy Media and omnipresent scene photographer Michael Andrade shot at U Street Music Hall on June 18th and Dave Grohl’s massive Foo Fighters anniversary show at RFK Stadium on July 4th. RDGLDGRN can rock a club and a massive stadium, but I personally wish they’d held onto this video just a bit longer and included footage of their Babe City show last Friday for In It Together Festival, though video cameras probably would have been destroyed in the tightly packed sweaty mayhem.
Lightshow – Score
DC rapper Lightshow‘s profile has only grown since Complex Magazine‘s nod as one of the hot new rappers to watch out for two years ago. His latest mixtape Yellow Tape And White Chalk 5 channels the recent outrage over police conduct in the country, and its new single Score doesn’t let up one bit as he raps about the death of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray over an instrumental by Shy Glizzy.
Hometown Sounds 