David Combs, singer of the pop-punk band The Max Levine Ensemble, will soon retire his solo performing identity Spoonboy. As reported in yesterday’s post at the Washington CityPaper Arts Desk blog, Combs has grown weary of Spoonboy’s focus on gender fluidity issues and in the difficulties of assembling a band to perform live. Your last chance to see Spoonboy’s meaningful and infectious catalog of songs is on the Black Cat Backstage on Thursday June 4th, and this is certainly a backstage show for buying advance tix. But never fear DC music fans, new material from Combs and The Max Levine Ensemble will arrive soon. Check out this awesome black & white music video for “The Dispossessed”, from last year’s split LP with Color Me Wednesday, still a free Bandcamp download you shouldn’t pass up.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Tree River – Lulee video
We introduced you to indie folk duo Tree River back on the January 6th episode of the Hometown Sounds podcast, playing the song “Mountains” from their debut album Inward. Today we’re featuring the music video for “Lulee”, the album’s debut single. This dark and mysterious video, directed by LA’s Max Carlson for Oddbox Films, suggests some magical nighttime events without clear explanation, like a dream.
Kokayi – Part Of It video
DMV Rapper Kokayi caught a lot of great attention from his excellent Tiny Desk contest entry “The Lick” last month. Yesterday he dropped a new music video for “Part Of It”, the final song in his ambitious project to release a new track every day in 2014. This soulful song shows off Kokayi’s singing chops, equal in measure to his crafty, insightful lyrics. The simple but attractive video by Magee shows Kokayi’s singing wign a lovely fall background that reminds us all that someday, maybe, we can all go outside and just enjoy ourselves. Someday. Tune into Kokayi’s Track A Day SoundCloud playlist and fill your day with new sounds.
Young Rapids – What R U Saying video
DC’s homegrown record label Chimes Records pulls out all the stops for their first major release, the long awaited second album by dead-and-back-again experimental indie rockers Young Rapids. Pretty Ugly‘s new single, What R U Saying, is the first out of the gate for a music video, and Ben Usie from red-hot DIT venue The Beehive delivers this super trippy and colorful visual interpretation of the song. I have no idea what is happening but I like how it makes me feel. Catch these feels for yourself this Saturday at the Rock & Roll Hotel when Chimes Records shows off its all-DC roster of bands, including Go Cozy, Den-Mate and of course The Sea Life. Hit the ATM first and take home some sweet sweet vinyl.
Fellow Creatures – Come Ye video
I’m quite enjoying watching the slow build of Fellow Creatures. The core duo of Sam McCormally and Will McKinley-Ward reconfigured the sound from their well-loved previous incarnation Ugly Purple Sweater, incorporating indie folk elements with more interesting electronic experimentation. Their live show really reflects this, with big bombastic foot stomping numbers and quieter harmonies providing a welcome dynamic together. Today’s video for the unreleased single “Come Ye” is a very well-shot live take in the basement of BicycleSPACE, “perhaps the world’s greatest bike shop”, directed by Ellie Walton. Keep your eyes peeled for more local Fellow Creatures live dates, but don’t miss Sam opening an excellent local bill at Gypsy Sally’s on Saturday night, featuring Letitia Van Sant & The Bonafides and headliners The Riverbreaks!
The Walking Sticks – You Got What You Wanted video
Most of the time, music videos take a long time to make. Developing the concent, finding a director, filming, editing, post-production, all can take many long months. Young dream-pop act The Walking Sticks kept everything quick and simple when they decided to shoot a video for their newest single “You Got What You Wanted”. Venturing out into the winter wonderland arriving with last Saturday’s snow and ice storm that shut down much of the weekend here, they shot this long take of singer Chelsea Lee’s dreamy crooning of this steamy track with only an iPhone. Really, it’s just impossible to resist throwing out temperature jokes for this video.
Podcast for February 25th, 2015
This week: all songs that are free!
Tracklisting:
Makeshift Shelters – Lighter Fluid [Overflowing EP]
Champagne Fever – FTLT [SoundCloud single]
Bearson – Pink Medicine (Manila Killa Remix) [SoundCloud single]
These Quiet Colours – Underground [These Quiet Colours EP]
Swings – Faint [Bandcamp single]
Blankus Larry – No Time No Money [SoundCloud double single]
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Ex Hex – Don’t Wanna Lose video
With a band like Ex Hex, expectations for their music videos are naturally sky high. This killer video for “Don’t Wanna Lose”, the tone-setting lead-off track from 2014’s breakout album Rips, is already a strong candidate for DC music video of the year. Lara Gallager, director of Ex Hex’s dinner-party-with-Svenonious video “Hot and Cold”, takes the helm again and delivers this amazing tribute to Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, a 1982 cult film about three teenage girls who start a punk band, directed by Lou Adler. You’ve probably never seen this classic, so add it to your Amazon Prime Instant Video queue now!
Laura Tsaggaris – To Sleep Is To Dream video
Oh yeah, bonus video time! This one just came out and we didn’t want you to miss it. Laura Tsaggaris is one of DC’s most assured and profound singer-songwriters, and her show last September at the Atlas Theater was a performance worthy of preserving. Luckily the full live show is available for purchase on iTunes, but today we’ve got this excellent live video of “To Sleep Is To Dream”, which sounds quite divine with cello. Don’t miss her in the inaugural Her Roots female songwriter showcase this Sunday at Gypsy Sally’s with the Lauren Calve band and Olivia Mancini & The Mates!
Young Summer – Severing Ties video
Oh Bobbie Allen aka Young Summer. Your dreampop-styled heartbreak songs just rip our guts out sometimes. The DC-based songstress has spent a lot of her breakout year of 2014 touring extensively, so don’t pass up the rare chance to see her headline a hometown show. Tonight’s the night as YS caps off an early night of dreamy DC synthpop with openers PLOY and Pleasure Curses at U Street Music Hall. To get in the swaying, romantic mood for tonight, watch YS’s new video for “Severing Ties” from the 2014 album Siren.
Okay we’ll say it. We love you, Young Summer.
Hometown Sounds 