Last week Hometown Sounds hosted a live performance by MC and producer Kokayi at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. (Did you miss it? Watch the full video here!) Though his musical output was solo, he tapped DJ and video artist Kevin Chambers a.k.a. Flash Frequency to provide visuals for the performance.
Earlier this week, DC’s longtime legendary electronic producer and DJ Will Eastman released his long-awaited debut full length solo artist album Hilo and its first music video, and lo and behold the abstract, trippy animations from Flash Frequency are here too! “Froggie” opens the album with a slow build to dance floor reverberations reminiscent of the glory days of 90s rave mainstays Orbital and Sasha. The full album is an emotional journey through Eastman’s struggles with anxiety, depression and acceptance of his discovery as adopted, communicating through dance floor beats, peaceful ambience and guest appearances from Alex Tebeleff, Eau Claire and Outputmessage. I can’t wait to hear this at full volume at U Hall.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Climbing PoeTree & Be Steadwell – How I Taste
Did you know that DC’s own queer black woman singer and live looper Be Steadwell is playing tonight at Strathmore’s classy North Bethesda offshoot Amp? Good, now you do. And if you have somehow missed the acquaintance with this incredible musician, we’ve got a music video today to show you her power as a performer and producer. Most of Steadwell’s videos are single-take solo live performances of her intense lyric-driven songs, but today’s is a collaboration with Brooklyn duo Climbing PoeTree. Released back on Valentine’s Day, the single “How I Taste”, from Climbing PoeTree’s soon to be released ambitious album INTRINSIC, is about exploring our own desires as a tangible act of self love. The insanely sexy video featuring Shayna Small and directed by Climbing PoeTree was released in a coordinated global uprising to end violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery. Music with ambition to change the world for the better has never been more in fashion.
GoldLink feat. Jefe & Brent Faiyaz – Crew
The music videos served up by DC rap superstar GoldLink over the course of 2016 were slick, glitzy visuals that positively reeked of LA style. It’s nice to see Link return home for his first single of 2017, “Crew”. Trading verses with Young Jefe a.k.a. DC’s Shy Glizzy, with LA singer Brent Faiyaz crooning the chorus hook, GoldLink’s song laments the women who only want him for his fame and money now that he’s in the big leagues. Video director Matthew Dillon Cohen gives us lots of badass footage of Link’s 4 wheeling crew tearing up DC’s streets.
Nappy Nappa – Do My Dance
DC’s Babe City Records, the home of indie rock and shoegaze from the likes of The Sea Life, Go Cozy and Witch Coast, is a surprising promoter of young rapper Nappy Nappa. But Nappa’s outlook on life is goofy and positive, a far cry from many street-level DMV rappers, and fits well with the fun DIY party vibes of Babe City. Nappa’s debut release New Balance is out now digitally and on cassette, and last week the debut music video dropped, for the Black Moses produced “Do My Dance”. Director Zak Forrest captures Nappa twisting lyrics and drinking Buds with his bud in a field.
Turtle Recall – DC Tour Company
Have you ever looked at photo albums on Facebook for someone you don’t know, a friend of a friend or perhaps a date, and been mystified at what the hell is going on in these pics? Who hasn’t, right? Then you’ve got the idea for this music video for “DC Tour Company”, the brand new single by party rock band Turtle Recall that we premiered on our podcast a few weeks ago. The pics fly by quickly, showing the heavy gigging band performing all around town and keeping the party going after. Tonight they celebrate the release of their new album with a show on the Black Cat’s main stage, alongside The North Country and Run Come See, also welcoming their new album into the DC music scene. Watch this video and come join the party tonight!
Reesa Renee – Delay
Had enough of Reesa Renee yet? Us neither! Yesterday we featured her new collab with Black Cobain, but today the floppy-headed singer takes us back to her 2015 EP Lovers Rock with a brand new video. “Delay” is a dream-pop torch song taking us in close to Renee’s longing for love, shot beautifully by Amil Barnes. After Renee travels to SXSW to perform at the WeDC house, check her out next at the Funk Parade Kickoff Jam Thursday March 16th at Tropicalia.
Black Cobain & Reesa Renee – Brown Sugar
DMV rapper Black Cobain is currently blessing the west coast with his talents, but his new single “Brown Sugar” is a collaboration with our own afro-headed sweetheart Reesa Renee. This empowering ode to ladies with brown skin is a sexy, slinky mix of rap and R&B, and the video features Renee singing with Miss Black Virginia USA Midori Amae and the mysterious _PandaWhite, who really shouldn’t be so shy hiding underneath a giant panda head.
Podcast for February 28th, 2017
Paul watches some classic 70s British sci-fi, and Tony pops the question on stage.
Tracklisting:
Coup Sauvage & The Snips – Hamburg [Heirs to Nothing]
My French Roommate – LUV DG [MFR]
Two Dragons and a Cheetah – Lessons [Something, Something... Poetry and Light]
iworkmusic – Good Morning [The Growth]
MetroSongs – Shady Grove feat. Faith Hayden [single]
Park Snakes – Fire Of Our Love (CrushnPain Remix) [Park Snakes (Deluxe Edition)]
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)
Kingsley Flood – Try
Americana rock band Kingsley Flood mostly resides in Boston, but frontman/songwriter Naseem Khuri lives here and brings a healthy dose of DC intellectualism to the band’s raucous live shows. In “Try”, the second single from KF’s sophormore album Another Other, Khuri transforms the song’s opening line “If these walls could talk to me I’d politely decline” into a gorgeous slo-mo tour of DC’s many large-scale murals. A few of these I’d seen in well-known spots, but I honestly had no idea we had so many (at least 61 according to this Curbed post!). I have a feeling even more will spring up in the next few years in our besieged town.
RDGLDGRN feat. Method Man – Opera
RDGLDGRN take a well-timed turn from fun to political in their new single “Opera”. With an assist from veteran Method Man, King Green takes the spotlight wearing a lizard mask to spit venom about the current war against undocumented immigrants, taking to heart the mantra “No human can be illegal”. The colorful hip-hop trio remains on perpetual world tour, currently sharing the stage with The Expendables and Tribal Theory, but promise to play a hometown show soon.
Hometown Sounds 