The inaugural Breakin Even Fest kicks off tonight at Songbyrd in AdMo, promising “Mystery Merch Raffles, Cheap Beer, Party Times” from a hardcore lineup including Lilac Daze, Collider, Curse Words, The Mauls and headliners Loud Boyz. “World’s A Cage” comes from their debut album Tough Love, Hard Feelings out on Cricket Cemetery, and the video wisely chooses some iconic 80s monsters to join the raucous Loud Boyz party.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Category Archives: video
Near Northeast – Under the Pines
The divide is as stark as the Potomac river: the punk and angular indie rock goes on the DC side, and the folk and twangy alt-country goes on the VA side. Near Northeast is doing great work at bridging that gap, developing a passionate fan base for their earnest folk sound in the heart of the city. Kelly Servick, Avy Malik and Austin Blanton play a lot of well-received sets around town, including a high profile gig at the Luce Unplugged showcase at the Smithsonian American Art museum last fall, while they work on a follow up to last year’s pay-what-you-want debut Curios. Videographer Kip Radt and graphic artist Ashley Blanton collaborated on Near Northeast’s debut music video “Under the Pines”, presenting a puffy cloud’s journey through surreal landscapes and many recognizable DC landmarks. Tonight Near Northeast kicks off the buildup to the Kingman Island Bluegrass Festival later in April with a show at the Hamilton also featuring the Plate Scrapers and Walter Martin of The Walkmen.
Be Steadwell – Just A Flirt (Tiny Desk Contest submission)
Be Steadwell is a creative force to be reckoned with. While she screens her short film “Vow of Silence”, the thesis project for her MFA from Howard University, she also performs original musical compositions primarily using looped vocals, with the support of a crew of musicians. What started in the black queer creative community of DC is now spreading far and wide as Steadwell shows her film and performs on tour in New Orleans, Chicago, New York City and beyond. If you enjoy this immersive, captivating solo performance of new song “Just a Flirt”, grab her most recent release Jaded. Dark Love Songs for whatever price you like and mark your calendars for April 9th for Honey Groove, DC’s festival for queer creatives of color at Blind Whino featuring RatheMC, Reesa Renee, The Coolots, Boomscat and more.
Cecily – Your Idea of Beautiful (NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission)
NPR Music’s judges are watching all the submissions to 2016’s Tiny Desk Contest, and soon they’ll pick a winner. We continue to show you the best submissions from DC, our shared hometown with the Tiny Desk. Cecily Bumbray, a talented and soulful singer-songwriter, gathered her jazz quartet to lay down a romantic new song called “Your Idea of Beautiful”. If this hits your spot, grab her debut self-titled EP featuring a collaboration with DC expat Tabi Bonney.
We Were Pirates – Matter
Esteemed co-host and podcast producer Tony Porreco likened We Were Pirates‘ Mike Boggs to a “pourover coffee”. It takes more time to brew, but the complex, nuanced taste is worth the wait. While Boggs rounds up a few talented folks to perform songs live, the composition and studio recording work is nearly all Mike. The original instrumental score to the documentary film Dear Mr. Watterson came out in 2013, and the last proper album by We Were Pirates was 2012’s Change. Spacey electronics and synthetic drums are the new compliments to Boggs’s delicate and precise vocals on “Matter”, the title track from We Were Pirates’ brand new album. Celebrate the album’s release next Thursday March 3rd at the Black Cat with Color Palette and Me & Karen, an all-DC lineup as perfectly curated as you’d expect from Boggs.
Den-Mate – DC Junkie
The best place to see Julia Hale front the Babe City Records crew as Den-Mate is front & center. That’s where noted videographer Michael Andrade captured this performance of “DC Junkie” at the Luce Unplugged concert seriess at the Smithsonian American Art Museum last November. That’s where you should be tonight when Den-Mate headlines an album re-release show at the Black Cat along with Baltimore’s Sitcom and label-buds Witch Coast. As work continues on recording new material with Hale and her backing band, Babe City opted to remix Hale’s initial GarageBand demos from 2013, showing a more electronic angle than the loud and brash sound Hale leads now. With releases from Foozle, The Sea Life, Witch Coast, BRNDA and Young Rapids, Babe City is doing great work to broaden the popularity of their flavor of the DC music scene.
Picnibus – Bad Accent (NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission)
Picnibus describes their unique sound as psychedelic punk-hop, a fusion of some of the most popular musical genres in DC that will surely lead them to fame and dominance. On their new song “Bad Accent”, Sri Lankan-American frontman Navi and his crew rap about accents in America for their submission to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. The banjo is such a delightfully weird and unexpected touch. They headline DC9 this Sunday February 28th with Those Manic Seas and Flavor Waster, a fantastic way to close out the weekend.
The Max Levine Ensemble – Backlash, Baby
Everything you thought you knew about what was going on in the Backlash Trilogy of music videos from The Max Levine Ensemble is wrong. Or is it? The pop punk group completed the trifecta today with the premiere of “Backlash, Baby”, billed now as Episode 1 in an apparent reverse chronology, if you really care about stuff like continuity and character motivation. If you just wanted to see more of Priests’ Katie Alice Greer and Ilsa’s Sharad Satsangi in a badass spy thriller, then your prayers are finally answered. Grab the album, see them March 13th at the Black Cat, yadda yadda.
Teething Veils – Webbed (NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission)
Greg Svitil’s experimental project Teething Veils is in the studio now, finishing up their third record after 2013’s Velorio and 2014’s Constellations with excellent (and difficult to pronounce) local label Etxe Records. Svitil and violinist Hannah Burris set up at Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Falls Church to deliver this live version of a new song called “Webbed” for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. The shift from the droning post-rock and experimental sounds allows Svitil’s songwriting to come into focus here nicely.
DuPont Brass – Common Tones (NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission)
By now everyone in town must have heard DuPont Brass playing outside metro stations and in hot spots like U Street. The clear advantage to the New Orleans brass band style is portability, allowing this ensemble to grow in popularity as it doubled in size. They play their first hometown show of the year this Friday night at Tropicalia, guaranteed to break a traditionally stoic DC audience into dance. I really dig the addition of hip-hop vocals to the jazz funk in “Common Tones”, their submission to NPR Music’s 2016 Tiny Desk Contest.
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