Sultry R&B crooner Ari Lennox is on top of the world now, touring in support of her brand new album Shea Butter Baby. The tour wraps up at a sold out 9:30 Club on Friday June 14th, so you’d better get to StubHub or Craigslist or wherever if you slept. The album’s newest single is “Up Late”, a sexy-ass hookup ballad given this lush and fashionable video from director Lacey Duke. Check out what J Cole’s label Dreamville can craft for Lennox’s gorgeous singing and moves.
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Category Archives: video
Ex Hex – Rainbow Shiner
Ex Hex videos are often visual feasts, but “Rainbow Shiner” really amplifies the lyrics in gloriously colorful style. Director M. Wartella turns the feminist anthem against physical abuse into a stylish, Skittles-hued treat of Besty Wright, Mary Timony and Laura Harris’s faces covered in makeup and animation. The video matches and enhances the mid-tempo pulsing beat without ever becoming garish or, god forbid, boring. If you missed Ex Hex’s headlining gig at the 9:30 Club last week for the sophomore album It’s Real, we hope you did something pretty amazing instead.
Wylder – Ghosts
In advance of the release of sophomore album Golden Age Thinking, yesterday indie folk band Wylder dropped the music video for the second single “Ghosts”. The song was written about singer Will McCarry’s childhood home, “a ramshackle farmhouse which had at some point been dragged down off the Appalachian mountains on the back of a tractor.” Director Samuel Rodgers sets McCarry in a similar rustic cabin in this beautiful video that ends with a warm touch that is very on brand for Wylder. How about grabbing tickets now to their hometown album release show at the Hamilton on Friday July 12th? The band promises “a host of orchestral musicians as they perform their new record its entirety, as well as all your old favorites.”
Say Solos – Lose You (Tiny Desk Contest)
Kudos to WAMU’s Kojo Show for highlighting some of our area’s prominent entries to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest. The show and accompanying post on DCist highlighted a couple that flew under our radar, including this electronic live looping wizard Say Solos. Crafting sexy downtempo jams with his smooth R&B voice backing beats from TF Woo, we hope this feature gives his music career a well-deserved boost. “Lose You” comes from the just-released EP Three Tune Kid.
1 Identity – In Your Feelings (Tiny Desk Contest)
We aren’t done yet with our review of DC’s finest Tiny Desk Contest entries for NPR Music. Today’s feature is Oxon Hill r&b and funk band 1 Identity. A taste of office drama starts the vid, before the band launches into the jam “In Your Feelings” featuring frontwoman Alena Budd’s soulful vocals and guitar licks. See the full 1 Identity Band next at the Pie Shop on Friday May 31st for “Punk, Funk & Pies For The People” along with High-Brid and M4TR.
Humble Fire – Mad World
Let’s take a quick break from our review of Tiny Desk Contest vids to bring you the latest from dream pop band Humble Fire. Veterans of our Millennium Stage series, they follow up their gorgeous sophomore album Builder with this cover of “Mad World”, the 1982 breakout hit by Tears For Fears. The current political climate, inescapable sometimes in DC, is an obvious influence for this somber song, but Humble Fire turn up the juice for this polished, modern version. The lush music video comes from director Jen Meller, now based in NY but still a big visual contributor to DC’s music scene through collabs with Blight Records. Humble Fire celebrate this release tonight at the Pie Shop with support from Baltimore band Super City.
Born Dad – My Band Gets Me Boyfriends (Tiny Desk Contest)
Born Dad is a band full of queer musicians that just want to sing and joke about their experiences and identities. Their power move for this Tiny Desk Contest entry for NPR Music was recruiting enthusiastic go-go dancers to group house-party up the irony-dripping single “My Band Gets Me Boyfriends”. You’ll have to make it all the way through May to see Born Dad play next at Rhizome in Takoma Park on Tuesday May 28th with Gabbie Rotts and Company Calls.
EMOTiO – Meghna Chakrabarti (Tiny Desk Contest)
Progressive jazz/funk group EMOTiO prove their far-out bona fides by labelling their sound as Vegan Space Metal Bubblebath Jazz Rock&Roll&Spaghetti&Meatballs Gutter Funk. Their recent EP Live at Milkboy shows their propensity to title songs after famous and semi-famous women (“Angela Bassett”, “Jennette McCurdy”). The basement recording for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest is “Meghna Chakrabarti”, which sent us to Wikipedia to discover she is a Boston-based NPR journalist and the host of WBUR’s call-in show On Point. Shout-out to rapper AliReza for sneaking into the middle of the song and delivering rhymes straight from his phone.
Don’t Stay Home This Week 4/29
Now that we wasted so much of the weekend with Endgame and the Battle of Winterfell, how about cooling off with some live #DCmusic? Here are our picks for the week ahead.
Monday 4/29:
Underground hotspot Dwell hosts a four band indie rock bill tonight with two touring acts, Lost Dog and Cool Original, and two DC acts we recommend from our podcast series, Max Gowan and Spring Silver.
Tuesday 4/30:
Get an early taste of this year’s Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival this Tuesday night at Pearl Street Warehouse. Justin Trawick‘s long-running 9 Songwriter Showcase gathers musicians playing at Saturday’s festival, including Reed Appleseed, The October Sessions, Jess Eliot Myhre of the Bumper Jacksons, and more. But first, here’s Trawick and his trio The Common Good playing a new song called “These Days” in Pearl Street’s green room for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest.
Wednesday 5/01:
GoldPants Party wins the battle of Wednesday night with superhero Emma G and feisty synthpop diva Loi Loi. Get to Sauf Haus by 8 to see Emma G’s new music video for the latest single “Smile”.
Thursday 5/02:
Thursday evening the after-work showcase Luce Unplugged at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Center presents soul and funk band Backbeat Underground, veterans of our Kennedy Center Millennium Stage series.
Iza Flo – Dance Anthem (Tiny Desk Contest)
Taking NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest rule about performing in front of a desk quite seriously, Isabelle de Leon‘s new all-lady supergroup Iza Flo’s debut song “Dance Anthem” fills up and takes over a small office with a soulful house music party jam. Each musician gets a feature, so here’s your score card: Jillian Willis (vocals), Dior Ashley Brown (MC), Natalie Ahearn (keys), Tiffany Lloyd (bass), Alena Budd (guitar), Rikayyah Wilson (percussion) & Isabelle De Leon (drums). In the vein of Tortured Soul and DC’s own House of Soul, this display of house music with live vocals and instrumentation is a powerful force.
Hometown Sounds 