Jazz keys master Will Rast‘s afrobeat ensemble The Funk Ark made a big entrance with their 2011 album From The Rooftops on Thievery Corporation’s Eighteenth Street Lounge label. The mostly instrumental album featured a stand-out collaboration with Sitali and Asheru called “Funky DC”, a verbal tour through DC’s neighborhoods and landmarks. The languid and trippy funk tune showed up again last year on Asheru’s debut full length album, Sleepless In Soweto, providing an anchor to Ash’s beloved hometown amongst songs recorded in and about South Africa. A distinguished long-timer in the DC rap scene going back to the late 90s with The Unspoken Heard, Asheru also serves as the Director of Arts Integration at Ballou Senior High School in Southeast. All that preamble sets the stage for this kick-ass new music video for “Funky DC”. Ballou High School’s swank marching band kicked off May’s inaugural Funk Parade in the U Street neighborhood that surprised just about everyone with its success and popularity, and Asheru grabbed the opportunity to film this video with the talented youngsters live at the event. This could be the most DC music video ever. We are already looking forward to next year’s Funk Parade!
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
The Big Boom Thursday @ U St. Music Hall
The fine folks at DC’s funkiest label Fort Knox Recordings love throwing blowout bashes at U Street Music Hall on holiday weekends, and they are not about to let you down this weekend! Thursday night July 3rd from 9 PM to 4 AM the club hosts The Big Boom featuring local talent from Fort Knox Five and All Good Funk Alliance vs. Qdup, Canada’s DJ Stickybuds in his first ever DC appearance, and one of the reigning kings of nu-disco, Gigamesh! You don’t have to work on Friday, so don’t hold anything back! Advance tix are only $10 so make sure you aren’t shut out of this event! To shake off your Monday blues and build hype for the holidy, Rusty B and Frank C of All Good Funk Alliance crafted this Big Boom promo DJ that’s already shot to the top of Mixcloud’s charts. Facebook RSVP here!
INTERVIEW WITH DEREK EVRY
By Tony Porreco
This past Tuesday, Northern Virginia songwriter Derek Evry released his new EP Down to the Wire. By all indications, there’s a lot going through his head from the his chameleonic nature of the new release. The record features an impressive stylistic palate with tracks ranging from classic, straight ahead pop punk, Buddy Holly era protorock, pop metal and even a languid ballad approaching hotel lobby jazz. Combine this with a social media personality that can be characterized as “absolutely bananas”, and you’ve got a character study that would pique the interest of a veteran psychotherapist who’s heard it all before.
We sat down with Evry to discuss a number of different topics, including the making of Down to the Wire, his long lasting bromance with drummer Ben Tufts, and his vision for the DC music scene. Read the full interview after the jump.
Bearshark promo code!
Bearshark, the recently retired post-rock/indie band that kicked off yesterday’s episode of the Hometown Sounds podcast, has a special offer for DC music fans! Head over to their website bearsharkmusic.com and use the promo code “hometownsounds” to get 20% off everything on the site! This includes their two essential EPs, 2011’s Gorilla Defense and the new Canyonlands EP, as well as a limited edition print from the new EP and this totally sweet USB drive/bottle opener!
Q And Not U – Last Show at Fort Reno
The DC music community is reeling from this morning’s sad announcement of the cancellation of the historic Fort Reno summer concert series headed by Amanda MacKaye. Discovering those shows several years ago was my inspiration to create Hometown Sounds, and I make it a point to attend as many of the shows as I can every summer, no matter who’s on stage. We normally don’t feature live videos for the DC Music Video of the Day, but this exception is more than worth it. Q And Not U were an integral part of DC’s post-hardcore Dischord style, and their final performance at Fort Reno back in 2005 drew a massive and enthusiastic crowd. It’s pretty amazing that such a quality video exists of The Rapture’s Harris Klahr, Title Tracks’ John Davis and Washington Post music critic Chris Richards playing a scorching version of A Line In The Sand from Q And Not U’s 2000 album No Kill No Beep Beep. Here’s hoping Fort Reno isn’t dead yet!
Redline Graffiti – Junior June video
Redline Graffiti are a DC band on the rise, championed by the Washington Post’s Chris Richards for his “District Sounds” series and the Washington CityPaper’s Luce Unplugged Community Showcase. Their new EP The Drill features styles from electro-rock to jazz to the soulful ballad Junior June, providing the audio & inspiration for their debut music video. Merge Of Maximum created an impressive video on the theme of parenting. Keep a lookout for this band!
Podcast for June 25th, 2014
Hometown Sounds returns from hiatus to cover the newest DC music releases. Also tickling.
Tracklisting:
Bearshark – Island in the Sky
Derek Evry – So Hard
Heavy Lights – Exploder
ROM – Belia
Laughing Man – Brilliant Colors
The Deadmen – Let Your Fingers Rule
Railsplitter – Orange Pear Apple Bear
See-I – Queen of Sheba feat. Edy Blu
Honest Haloway – Eyes On Me
Bumper Jacksons – When The Sun Goes Down In Harlem
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast (& rate it 5 stars!) in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcasting app.
ROM – NUISANCE VIDEO
By Tony Porreco
We’re still on a bit of a break over here at Hometown Sounds, but I’m stepping in to lend a hand to do one of the things that Hometown Sounds does best, and that’s featuring music videos from DC artists.
Today’s video is not only a feature, it’s also a premiere. And it’s from a band you haven’t heard of, but it’s also a band you might know. Here’s the story. There WAS a band called The Dead Women. And they’ve changed their name. Meet ROM. That’s their new band name. You’ll be hearing that a lot over the coming months, because they’re a band that’s on nothing but the up and up.
It’s for a track called “Nuisance” which is on their forthcoming full length release soda christ, which is available Friday May 30th on Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify.
The video’s a wild ride: There are secrets. There’s intense physical training. There’s transgender exploration. And above all, the sharp visuals are set against the itchy post-punk that ROM does so well.
The piece was conceptualized and shot by William D. Ashton, whose credits include some impressive directorial work on Drop Electric’s videos for their tracks “Brooklyn’s Nightmare” and “Waking Up to the Fire”.
Ashton provided the following insights regarding his inspiration for his inspiration for the video’s concept:
I guess I keyed in on the fact that the song is called “Nuisance.” This made me think that maybe the biggest nuisance is the things we keep hidden inside ourselves; the things we do behind closed doors. We all have attributes or interests or desires that aren’t necessarily accepted by society, yet they are still a strong part of who we are. Often we are afraid to reveal these sides of ourselves because they could be perceived as taboo or weird. The nuisance, then, is these hidden sides trying to push to the surface.
And Now, A Brief Hiatus
I confess, postings have gotten pretty sporadic around Hometown Sounds lately. Real life is doing a bang-up job of getting in the way of my passion for spreading the word about DC music. Rather than half-ass my way through this difficult period, unfortunately it’s time for me to step away for a bit and fix a ton of bugs for the day job. See you again real soon, DC.
-Paul
Deleted Scenes – Landfall video
This morning indie rock band Deleted Scenes premiered a new music video for “Landfall”, a more contemplative track from their melancholy masterpiece Lithium Burn. The AV Club got the honor of premiering the dark narrative video, and they proceeded to spoil the whole thing in their short post (which I won’t link to here). This is the most egregious example of a trend that’s been really pissing me off lately with music video posts, namely explaining the whole thing before the viewer even sees it. It’s not so bad when it’s just a silly video of an out-of-control dinner party with Ian Svenonious, but in this case director Ben Usie of Pree and DP Nigel Lyons crafted an excellent short film that deserves an unspoiled first view by everyone. Shame on you AV Club.
Rant over. Deleted Scenes roll into town on Thursday May 22nd to celebrate their album release at the Rock & Roll Hotel with our buddies at DC Music Download. Get your tickets before they sell out!
Hometown Sounds 