Indie folk band Near Northeast have kept us waiting patiently for a new album after their auspicious 2015 debut Curios (still a pay-what-you-want download!). Yesterday the quartet of Avy Malik, Kelly Servick, Austin Blanton and Antonio Skarica announced they’ve signed to Etxe Records for their next pair of simultaneous album releases, True Mirror and Indali Variations 1-8, coming on May 5th. Etxe Records (pronounced et-CHAY) was formed in 2008 by members of the post-punk band Girl Loves Distortion and has released challenging acoustic music by Teething Veils, The Red Fetish and others. True Mirror is the more traditionally-shaped album coming to CD, while its companion Indali Variations 1-8 explores ambient variations on True Mirror‘s closing track, showing up on trendy cassette. Grab both physical releases at their dual album release show Friday May 5th at St. Stephen’s, and dig into this spirited performance of the new single “Just Do Your Thing” recorded live at House Studio earlier this year.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Category Archives: shows
Venn – Ceremony (New Order cover)
It’s a beautiful and warm Spring day outside, but are you sad and cold inside? Dreampop band Venn from Woodbridge has what you need today with a brand new music video covering “Ceremony”, the classic final single by Joy Division released under the New Order moniker in 1981 after singer Ian Curtis’s suicide. The song appears on Rave On, A Madchester Celebration organized by The Blog That Celebrates Itself, and you can grab it now on Venn’s Bandcamp in advance of their next live show opening for The Coathangers at DC9 on Tuesday April 18th.
Oddisee & Toine – NNGE
“This is for the county and the area surrounding DC, Maryland and Virginia, know i’m witcha”. Producer and rapper Oddisee moved away from DC years ago, but he refuses to let the deep roots wither and die in assimilating into his new Brooklyn digs. His newest must-listen album The Iceberg on Mello Music Group is a well-timed bomb of defiance and resistance to our current political climate. “NNGE”, short for Never Not Getting Enough, gets verbal assist from DC rapper Toine, who grew up in the same neighborhood as the Sudanese-American Oddisee. Video director Zak Forrest, who also recently helmed both videos by Nappy Nappa, captures both rappers living it up in their native Prince Georges County, with landmarks and local food as visual anchors showing that Oddisee will never give up on the DMV. Grab tix to Oddisee’s world tour stop at the 9:30 Club on 4/20 before the inevitable sold out sign makes you cry.
Climbing PoeTree & Be Steadwell – How I Taste
Did you know that DC’s own queer black woman singer and live looper Be Steadwell is playing tonight at Strathmore’s classy North Bethesda offshoot Amp? Good, now you do. And if you have somehow missed the acquaintance with this incredible musician, we’ve got a music video today to show you her power as a performer and producer. Most of Steadwell’s videos are single-take solo live performances of her intense lyric-driven songs, but today’s is a collaboration with Brooklyn duo Climbing PoeTree. Released back on Valentine’s Day, the single “How I Taste”, from Climbing PoeTree’s soon to be released ambitious album INTRINSIC, is about exploring our own desires as a tangible act of self love. The insanely sexy video featuring Shayna Small and directed by Climbing PoeTree was released in a coordinated global uprising to end violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery. Music with ambition to change the world for the better has never been more in fashion.
Turtle Recall – DC Tour Company
Have you ever looked at photo albums on Facebook for someone you don’t know, a friend of a friend or perhaps a date, and been mystified at what the hell is going on in these pics? Who hasn’t, right? Then you’ve got the idea for this music video for “DC Tour Company”, the brand new single by party rock band Turtle Recall that we premiered on our podcast a few weeks ago. The pics fly by quickly, showing the heavy gigging band performing all around town and keeping the party going after. Tonight they celebrate the release of their new album with a show on the Black Cat’s main stage, alongside The North Country and Run Come See, also welcoming their new album into the DC music scene. Watch this video and come join the party tonight!
Reesa Renee – Delay
Had enough of Reesa Renee yet? Us neither! Yesterday we featured her new collab with Black Cobain, but today the floppy-headed singer takes us back to her 2015 EP Lovers Rock with a brand new video. “Delay” is a dream-pop torch song taking us in close to Renee’s longing for love, shot beautifully by Amil Barnes. After Renee travels to SXSW to perform at the WeDC house, check her out next at the Funk Parade Kickoff Jam Thursday March 16th at Tropicalia.
Thievery Corporation feat. Racquel Jones – Letter to the Editor
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.
Teething Veils – Allover Fainting (Tiny Desk Contest)
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 – Devices (Tiny Desk Conest)
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.
Hayley Fahey Band – Fire (Tiny Desk Contest)
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 