What’s not to love about a hot dose of melody-driven power pop? Despite their name, The Very Small deliver big time catchy riffs and sweet harmonies on “Said and Done”, the first single from their sophomore album Zoomed Way Out released earlier this year. Robin Smith and Aaron Mann channeled their love of 90s rock into their first self-titled album back in 2009, then went on hiatus after the departure of an original band member. Adding bassist Zack Berman brought the band back to life, and now they complete a short tour through Brooklyn and Baltimore with a hometown show this Sunday night at the Velvet Lounge in DC with Model Stranger and Time Columns. Check out this joyous music video PREMIERE for “Said and Done”, easily capturing the essence of having fun and rocking out with your friends. That’s what being in a band is all about.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
SmCity – New Spiritual video
One of the biggest cliches of living in DC is the first question asked when meeting someone new: “So what do you do?” It’s easy to think that everyone here lives for their day job to an unhealthy degree. Most people ask that question to discover if you’re important enough to network with, but I find that asking “What do you do after your day job?” leads you to the truly interesting folks: actors, writers, musicians and dedicated bloggers (heh). If we’re lucky, we don’t hate our day jobs too much. On rapper Simeon “SmCity” Booker’s new single “New Spiritual” featuring BJ the Chicago Kid, he rhymes about the daily grind of the day job and the struggles of ex-cons who have hurdles to landing one. SmCity’s new full length album Empire Falls drops December 3rd on Twenty20 Music & Films, and you can preorder it now for only $5.
Podcast for November 11th, 2014
Tracklisting:
1978ers – Sacreligious
Presto Bando – I Got Kick
Baby Bry Bry & The Apologists – Lately
Big Hush – Wrong House
Clones of Clones – I Don’t Need Your Love
Astronaut Jones – Game Theory feat. Frank Mitchell
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast (& rate it 5 stars!) in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcasting app.
Sara Curtin – Summer video
Singer Sara Curtin has carved out a well-respected niche as half of folk duo The Sweater Set with Maureen Andary, playing endearing folk and pop music with ukulele and banjo. Now she gears up for the release of her solo full length album Michigan Lilium with this music video for “Summer”, and boy is it sultry. Shot in an shadowy empty apartment in Columbia Heights, the video features mesmerizing belly dancer Ebony Qualls dancing slowly with sparklers while Curtin croons with an enduring, classic style at once delicate and assured.
She Keeps Bees – Owl video
Can DC claim She Keeps Bees as our own? Singer Jessica Larrabee hails from Wheaton MD and met partner Andy LaPlant working as a bartender in Brooklyn. Their sultry blues sound is often compared to The White Stripes, Cat Power and Sharon Van Etten, who contributed vocals on the duo’s latest album Eight Houses for the Future Gods label. Yesterday Stereogum premiered their newest video for “Owls”, a moody and mysterious track with a groovy bari sax hook and powerful vocals. Video director Lizzy Brooks puts actress Laura Cohen on a surreal trip through the woods and a dinner party, heavily referencing a silent experimental film from 1944 called At Land which featured the composer John Cage.
Also: She Keeps Bees, what a great band name.
If this taste leaves you hungry for more, check out their just-released live session with WAMU’s Bandwidth.
Ace Cosgrove – Golden Chills video
For a young 23 year old rapper from Gaithersburg, Ace Cosgrove is making all the right moves. His first mixtape Simple Criticism just came out in April of this year, and already his second UsVsRobots is the new hotness, with props from XXL, Karmaloop and HipHopDX. Guru MG directed this simple yet stylish video for “Golden Chills”, UsVsRobots’s lead-off track chronicling Cosgrove’s struggles with his inner demons. Load these free mixtapes on your phone and check out Cosgrove’s set opening for BADBADNOTGOOD at American University on Thursday November 13th.
The 1978ers – OneNine7-T-8 video
One week before Mello Music Group releases People of Today, the debut album from DMV hip-hop duo yU and Slimkat, we get a brand new video from director Jay Brown for the origin story single OneNine7-T-8. As both were born in 1978, together the pair are The 1978ers. The energetic, funky and uptempo song thick with rhymes is set to video of yU and Slimkat driving a pedicab around DC, with their friends partying in the back.
Blueheart Revival – Setting Sun video
To list the many projects involving blues virtuoso Bobby Thompson (Mud Rey, the Lauren Calve Band, Justin Jones) shows how in-demand and involved he is. His outlet for blues-rock is Blueheart Revival, with Colin Thompson, Kurt Kratch, Tommy Lepson and Gary Crockett, and their debut full length album Stone Feathers just dropped a couple of days ago with 8 original songs by Thompson. Today they debuted their first music video for the classic “Setting Sun” featuring Bobby’s distinctive voice and a howling guitar lick. Much like the excellent video from The Cowards Choir we premiered last month, the cameras of Clubhill Media captured the recording of the song at Cue Recording Studios in Falls Church by The Circus Life’s Sean Russell. Keep up the great video work CHM!
Anthony Pirog – The New Electric video
For some sad reason, the jazz world hardly ever produces music videos. Thankfully we’ve got stellar guitarist Anthony Pirog shaking things up in many different ways. Though rooted in jazz with a degree in jazz studies, genre and convention utterly fail to contain Pirog’s virtuosic guitar abilities. While most well known locally for his Sonic Circuits-featured experimental work with partner Janel Leppin, I was quite surprised to see Pirog playing guitar for alt-country rock band The Jackfields at Iota’s Magnificent Intentions festival earlier this month. Now Silver Spring based label Cunieform Records has released Pirog’s debut full length album as a jazz trio leader, Palo Colorado Dream, featuring drummer Ches Smith from New York and Baltimore’s Michael Formanek on bass. The video for “The New Electric” was created by filmmaker Dan Sharnoff from 7848 photos he took of the trio performing at Shangrilah Studios in Brooklyn. I love how the imagery matches the song in pace as it progresses from its quiet jazz intro to bombastic post-rock noise. Make your way to #DCDIT house show mecca Paperhaus tonight to see the Anthony Pirog Trio along with Split/Red, Native America and DC’s resurrected Young Rapids.
#TBT Typefighter – Much video
#TBT for a Halloween-themed music video you may have missed. Last year the indie rock band Typefighter started to build the hype for their excellent debut full length album The End Of Everything with this video for “Much”, usually featured as a big finish to their blistering live sets. Aviv Rubenstein created this really fun video featuring kids in Halloween costumes fighting a dramatic war in the woods. It’s been great to see this band start to break out this year through extensive touring, so don’t miss their next hometown show at DC9 on Wednesday November 5th opening for Pup.
Hometown Sounds 