Category Archives: Best Of

Dec 19 2013
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Top 5 Videos of 2013 #2: Tom Goss – Bears

All this week Hometown Sounds counts down the top 5 music videos of 2013. DC bands made a ton of amazing videos this year and my long list of nominees was quite long indeed, but now it’s time for the best of the best!

Tom Goss usually rocks out with an acoustic guitar and loop pedal, but for “Bears” he tapped Deathfix keys player Rich Morel to produce the clubby tribute to burly & hairy beefcake. The video is partially shot at Town Danceboutique, home of the DC Bear Crue Happy Hour every Friday evening, where I’d bet you can find Mr. Goss regularly when he’s not touring the country. This video is hilarious for parodying “hot bikini girls with squirt guns” music video tropes but also sincerely paying tribute to the type of men popular on Growlr.

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Dec 18 2013
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Top 5 Videos of 2013 #3: RDGLDGRN – Lootin’ In London

All this week Hometown Sounds counts down the top 5 music videos of 2013. DC bands made a ton of amazing videos this year and my long list of nominees was quite long indeed, but now it’s time for the best of the best!

The anonymous and colorful trio RDGLDGRN did well for themselves this year with the release of their self-titled debut album and a coveted spot in the 2013 Vans Warped Tour. The catchiest song on the album, Lootin’ In London, got a snazzy video from director Ronan Pollock and continues to rack up accolades, including something called the “2013 Cage Match Mondo Grande Tournament Of Champions” from DC101. Here’s one more: #3 in our Top 5 music videos of 2013! Don’t miss them play an early show Saturday December 29th at U Street Music Hall with support from ACME and Nike Nando.

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Dec 17 2013
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Top 5 Videos of 2013 #4: Vandaveer – Pretty Polly

All this week Hometown Sounds counts down the top 5 music videos of 2013. DC bands made a ton of amazing videos this year and my long list of nominees was quite long indeed, but now it’s time for the best of the best!

Vocal folk duo Vandaveer took top honors in the Hometown Sounds Top 5 DC music videos of 2012, and they have a long history of gorgeous videos with many French directors. 2013 saw Vandaveer release their PledgeMusic-funded album Oh, Willie, Please…, a collection of murder ballads that could have used a breath of levity somewhere in its dark subject matter. For Pretty Polly, the sole video release from the album, Vandaveer tapped director Jared Varava, who with his brother Justin have helmed videos from These United States and Devendra Banhart under the creative banner An Illusion Of Movement. The song’s old historical tradition is rendered visually with this Deadwood-esque video treatment.

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Dec 16 2013
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Top 5 Videos of 2013 #5: Paperhaus – Helicopters

DC, all this week Hometown Sounds counts down the top 5 music videos of 2013. DC bands made a ton of amazing videos this year and my long list of nominees was quite long indeed, but now it’s time for the best of the best!

2013 was a banner year for the indie rock band Paperhaus. They released a 4 song EP Lo Hi Lo in May and Kickstarted a cross-country tour to extend the popularity and name-recognition of their DIY house venue to audiences everywhere. They also made this fantastic music video for the single “Helicopters”, a romantic fantasy journey filmed primarily in the Paperhaus venue and featuring tons of notable DC cameos, including Mary-Alice Farina as the love interest and The North Country frontman Andrew Grossman as the villain. The band and venue continue to thrive, culminating in show organizer and band member Alex Tebeleff booking a blowout show with Here We Go Magic at the house a couple of weeks ago, with the ‘haus boys opening of course. We are very lucky to have these guys making DC music awesome.

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Dec 21 2012
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Best Video of 2012 #1: Vandaveer – Spite

All this week we’ve counted down the best DC music videos of 2012, and I’m so happy to finally declare Vandaveer as the winner! The perfectly matched duo of Mark Charles Heidinger and Rose Guerin create the sweetest harmonies, and I was stunned by their ability to quiet the whole club when I saw them perform at Iota a couple of weeks ago. Their new album Oh Willie Please comes out in early 2013, but we were recently blessed with a final music video from their 2011 release Dig Down Deep. The video for Spite comes from French director Loïc Guilpain, and my esteemed and secret panel of judges unanimously judged it as a favorite. Congratulations Vandaveer!

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Dec 20 2012
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Best Video of 2012 #2: Oddisee feat. Olivier Daysoul – You Know Who You Are

Is it a stretch to count this one as a DC music video? I don’t care, it’s too beautiful to ignore. Oddisee is a well known hip-hop producer and MC with deep roots in DC, and still frequently collaborates with locals like Uptown XO, yU and Toine. You Know Who You Are is a FREE bonus track from Oddisee’s latest album People Hear What They See on the Mello Music Group label, featuring soulful vocalist and part-time DC resident Olivier Daysoul on acoustic guitar. This video is simple, direct and classy, the second best video of the year. What will be number one? Find out tomorrow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgopVOg2ifk

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Dec 19 2012
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Best Video of 2012 #3: Teen Mom – I Wanna Go Out

Teen Mom are poised to be the next breakout stars from DC. As I write this, they sit at #6 on the Hype Machine’s list of 10 Most Blogged Artists, driven by the success of their recently released 12″ EP Mean Tom on Analog Edition Records. The debut video from that release, I Wanna Go Out, comprises footage from a 1980 French film called La Boum, and the perfect marriage between video and song lands them in the #3 spot on our top 5 music videos of 2012.

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Dec 18 2012
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Best Video of 2012 #4: Redhead – Baggage

Stephen Redhead had quite a breakout year. The nerdy rapper’s prominent single Talk White led to a distribution deal with Fontana/Universal Records. And his innovative and powerful music video for Baggage, from his FREE mixtape The Schemata, really cemented me as a fan. Baggage earns the #4 spot in our top 5 DC music videos of the year, and I expect much more great things from Redhead in 2013.

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Dec 17 2012
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Best Video of 2012 #5: Caustic Casanova – Short Commute, Live Forever

All this week we’re counting down the top 5 DC music videos of 2012! Starting off our countdown is Short Commute, Live Forever from Caustic Casanova. Their latest album Someday You Will Be Proven Correct came out earlier this year and got a lot of attention with their mix of rock, metal, post-punk and psychedelia. The amazing music video, a bit reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand, was created by animator Wesley Belak-Berger. Be on the lookout for Caustic Casanova playing at a Hometown Sounds Showcase early in 2013!

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