Americana rock band Kingsley Flood mostly resides in Boston, but frontman/songwriter Naseem Khuri lives here and brings a healthy dose of DC intellectualism to the band’s raucous live shows. In “Try”, the second single from KF’s sophormore album Another Other, Khuri transforms the song’s opening line “If these walls could talk to me I’d politely decline” into a gorgeous slo-mo tour of DC’s many large-scale murals. A few of these I’d seen in well-known spots, but I honestly had no idea we had so many (at least 61 according to this Curbed post!). I have a feeling even more will spring up in the next few years in our besieged town.
RDGLDGRN take a well-timed turn from fun to political in their new single “Opera”. With an assist from veteran Method Man, King Green takes the spotlight wearing a lizard mask to spit venom about the current war against undocumented immigrants, taking to heart the mantra “No human can be illegal”. The colorful hip-hop trio remains on perpetual world tour, currently sharing the stage with The Expendables and Tribal Theory, but promise to play a hometown show soon.
Your favorite #DCmusic podcast Hometown Sounds is back on Friday March 3rd at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage to present Grammy-nominated emcee and producer Kokayi.
Throughout his career he has garnered rave reviews and new fans, with over a decade in music industry experience and a catalog that reflects his prolific nature and ability to cross genres as both a vocalist and producer, Kokayi maintains the mantra, “5. 500. 5,000 or 50,000. I give the same show, with the same intensity.” Adhering to this ethos has afforded him the opportunity to collaborate and share stages with: MacArthur Fellows; Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer and Dafnis Prieto, as well as, Yael Naim, Little Dragon, Meshelle Ndgeocello, Janelle Monae, Pharoahe Monch, Ravi Coltrane, Jean Grae, Black Milk, Wale and The Roots.
With his exploration of soundscapes his work has ranged from the interpretation of social subtexts surrounding, race, religion and patriotism and their affects on the human psyche (Pro Deo et Patria), voted as one of the best records of 2012 by the Washington City Paper, Bold As Love.us and RoxFontaine.com, Pro Deo et Patria’s lead single Birdus Ghetti was featured on MTV’s Hive.com. His reflections on ageism and the changed landscape of the music industry were made present in Robots and Dinosaurs whose songs found their way into Kevin Hart’s “Laugh at my Pain”.
Kokayi is a recipient of the Sister Cities Grant for his work in Senegal with Nomadic Wax, has served as Artist in Residence in Nijmegen, Netherlands, collaborates with both Nomadic Wax and 1beat Music fellowship to mentor artists, continues to work as music emissary with the US State Department, serves as DC Grammy Chapter President and as adjunct faculty with the School of Improvisational Music at NY all while functioning as the Co-Creator and Chief Curator of BeatsNBeans: a study in creative spaces and their effects on creativity and ideation. Kokayi was featured on Bandcamp.com for his BeatsNBeans series. Kokayi has been a featured speaker and panelist for events presented by The State Department, Music Cities Conference, DCTV, and the Congressional Black Caucus.
RSVP here and come to the free performance at 6 PM on Friday March 3rd!
Few musicians have made more of a musical mark on DC than Thievery Corporation, the downtempo electronic duo of Eric Hilton and Rob Garza. Their tenth and newest album The Temple of I & I, released just a few weeks ago, was recorded primarily in Jamaica and takes them back to the dub reggae roots that launched them into the stratosphere on their debut album Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi from more than 20 years ago. “Letter to the Editor”, the lead-off single from the album, features Raquel Jones, a former Miss Jamaica contestant and fierce spoken word artist in her native Kingston. They’re currently touring the world to promote the album, but they do stop in their home town for a unique performance with Mason Bates’ KC Jukebox series at the Kennedy Center on Monday May 15th.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our tour through the DC area submissions to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. Our final feature of the 2017 season is Teething Veils, the moody chamber-folk duo of violist Hannah Burris and guitarist Greg Svitil. We got some great feedback from podcast listeners about their most recent song, the Phil Ochs update “Here’s to the State of Donald Trump”. The intense performance of today’s unreleased song “Allover Fainting” should have you digging deep into Svitil’s complex lyrics. Don’t miss them play next at Clarendon’s Galaxy Hut on Sunday March 12th with Philly’s Shadow Band.
The Red Fetish is a stylistically mercurial group anchored by guitarist Alejandro Castaño. Flitting between experimental, folk, blues and chamber music depending on the participating collaborators, Castaño is a prolific songwriter, having released an impressive 17 albums so over the course of his career. This year’s entry into NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest is a stripped down performance of a new song called “Devices” on vocals and guitar with band mate Kris Kagei. Tonight they open an all DC evening at DC9 with psychedelic rock band Names.
Tony introduces us to his keychain of wonders, while Paul wishes he could still give music as gifts.
Tracklisting:
Turtle Recall – DC Tour Company
Run Come See – On and On [single]
1432 R Soundsystem – Want It Bad [Extended Family Comp 1]
Channels – Backpfeifengesicht [Backpfeifengesicht / Airstrip One]
Nappy Nappa – Shameless feat. Jelani Kwesi [New Balance EP]
Thoughts On Standby – Walked Into The Ocean And Never Stopped [single]
Yeah yeah, Happy Valentine’s Day, yadda yadda. Sure you’re giddy happy today, with the flowers and the elusive dinner reservations and the promised late-night bedroom acrobatics. Tonight is special, but relationships go the other 364 days of the year too, and sometimes it ain’t easy. The hook in Be Steadwell‘s catchy as hell single “Netflix”, from last year’s name-your-price EP Jaded, is sure to get stuck in your head, where it can do the most good tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.
We love how NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest gets artists everywhere to film a simple music video, eschewing fancy production and focusing on the song and the performance. There’s no better way to get to know a musician’s tunes than seeing them performed live. Today we’d like you to meet recent University of Maryland grad and singer-songwriter about town Hayley Fahey, performing an unreleased song called “Fire”. Check her out next at Gypsy Sally’s free Vinyl Lounge on Friday March 3rd.
Hometown Sounds 