The Garage Video Sessions is an online music video collaboration between husband and wife duo Pando Creative and the Charlottesville VA music venue The Garage, filming live takes of local and touring acts as they come through town. DC’s roots revivalists Bumper Jacksons recently breezed through and laid down this foot stompin’ version of singer Chris Ousley’s original song “I’ve Got My Whiskey (I Don’t Need You)”. If that wet your whistle for more, their new album Too Big World is streaming now on their Bandcamp in advance of the CD release show next Saturday July 25th at the Birchmere with the newly revived Junior League Band.
Hometown Sounds
Showing The World How DC Rocks
Podcast for July 14th, 2015
On this episode of the Hometown Sounds podcast, Tony reminisces on Jonny Grave’s folksy workplace manners and we live dangerously by using a random number generator to pick a song.
Tracklisting:
SOJA – I Believe (Gogo Remix feat. Alfred the MC) [SoundCloud]
Spirit Plots – Burnt Tapes [Burnt Tapes / Allison]
Lighting Fires – I Remember When [Friend Fiction]
Seaknuckle – So What [Get Over It]
Wall of Trophies – Everything [2015 Debut Single]
Jonny Grave & The Tomstones – When I Die [The Well]
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast (& rate it 5 stars!) in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app!
South Rail – Wayfaring Stranger
It’s never too late for a top quality live video, I say. Today folky Americana trio South Rail released a new music video shot during the recording of “Wayfaring Stranger”, from last year’s EP Stars produced by the legendary Don Was. This sultry, languid version of the well-known 19th century Western ballad was recorded in Santa Monica CA and features Lara Supan’s captivating vocal delivery alongside quiet, bluesy instrumentation. Fill your growlers with local beer and catch South Rail performing live this Saturday July 18th at Port City Brewing in Alexandria.
Footwerk – No Hurry
DC’s hip-hop fusion ensemble Footwerk released their debut album Casual Encounters last month, and today the newest music video “No Hurry” dropped. The song has a throwback 90s summer jam vibe, so the band decided to pay tribute to the MTV proto-reality TV series The Real World in this music video. There are many many good reasons to not live with your band, especially if it’s got 6 people in it. Make your way to Clarendon’s Whitlows on Wilson to catch this band live tonight!
Seaknuckle – Shake Shake Shake
Many music fans bemoan the sorry state of music journalism these days. Poor research, insincere opinions and general asshattery generate page clicks and drive the state of music consumption among those that follow the trends. Frederick MD’s indie rock band Seaknuckle have struck back at this, writing a review of their own new album Get Over It for hyperlocal music blog Frederick Playlist. Who better to know every nuance, reference and backstory throughout the 11 songs than the four lads that lived through every minute of the album’s creation? And better to be too close to an artist work than too far away, I’d say. Music criticism is saved!
Seaknuckle’s lead off video for the new album “Shake Shake Shake” employs guest stars Dr. Rich Del Grande and Nurse Louie to show how hard this band rocks. Their album release show is this Saturday at 200 E Patrick St., a vacant space recently transformed into an artistic wonderland, featuring Rozwell Kid, Silent Old Mtns, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre doing live comedy improv, and a beer pong tournament. That’s one hell of a Saturday night right there.
Clones of Clones – Float On
To bridge the gap between the 2014 EP I Don’t Need Your Love and their full length album anticipated for late 2015, indie rock band Clones of Clones worked up their favorite cover song for an actual full single release. “Float On”, the massive 2004 single by Modest Mouse, gets worked over by singer Ben Payes and his talented rock crew, and the result is a pleasing hybrid between the original and CoC’s electronic rock sound. The band even shot this haltingly charming music video, showing Payes in full on Corey Hart dreamboat mode dancing and playing near the Key Bridge in Georgetown, shooting one frame every six seconds for two hours. Float on, indeed.
Beauty Pill – Afrikaner Barista
Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are is full of unique sounds and Chad Clark’s distinctive lyrics, but “Afrikaner Barista”‘s funky bassline groove makes it my favorite song on the album. Beauty Pill tapped acclaimed music video director Jeff Sheven for the accomapnying visuals, and a theme emerges with the third video for “Afrikaner Barista”. The videos focus on the faces of the songs’ singers, first Jean Cook with “Dog With Rabbit In Mouth Unharmed” and Clark on “Steven & Tiwonge” and this one. Clark’s eyes are just hypnotic as he sings while abstract and sometimes concrete images play over his face. Read more about the music video collaboration over at the blog Death & Taxes.
Laughing Man – Bodycop
Be Black Baby. Residing on the slightly odder fringes of DC music, art-punk band Laughing Man also prominently stands as one of the only without a white dude in sight. With racial issues dominating headlines and discussions for months, Laughing Man chooses to make political statements subtly through their music and videos. Bodycop is a mostly bluesy, laconic song with occaisonal bursts of energy, and director Zak Forrest created this video showing singer Brandon Moses’s seemingly lifeless body lying around various locations in touristy DC. Laughing Man kicks off a night of far-out music at the always interesting Union Arts, followed by Janel Leppin and touring acts Palberta and Circuit Des Yeaux.
Podcast for June 30th, 2015
Tony commits social media terrorism and Paul encounters an all too familiar shirt. And the freshest DC music around!
Tracklisting:
The Raised By Wolves – Gorgeously Yours [SoundCloud single]
Slim Rosa – The Orchard [When All Is Light]
Incredible Change – Black Body Radiation [Incredible Change]
Giants of Diving – Separation Song
Exit Vehicles – Circular [Stages]
Andy Zipf – Waterloo Crossing
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast (& rate it 5 stars!) in the iTunes Store
Justin Trawick & The Common Good – Goodbye
After a string of releases in the late 00s and early 10s, singer/songwriter Justin Trawick decided to try a lot of different music projects to expand his profile and develop connections. His web video series “Unrehearsed DC” tasked photog Rafael Suanes with filming musicians performing in unusual settings, like a hat store, a snowy field and Iota’s bathrom. His weekly interview podcast “The Circus Life” is still going strong with one shy of 100 episodes. And The 9 Singer/Songwriter Showcase, floating to venues near and far away, invigorates that scene like nothing else has.
But fans (namely this one) long for new Justin Trawick songs, and finally we get one. To coincide with his performance at last week’s TEDxPennsylvaniaAvenue conference, Trawick and his band The Common Good relesaed the single “Goodbye” that’s been a staple of live shows for months now. Bringing everything together, Rafael Suanes captured the recording of the song at Cue Recording Studios by Justin’s podcast co-host Sean Russell. I am a sucker for many things, and live studio videos and big group singalong finishes are two of the big ones. Well played, sir.
Hometown Sounds 