Hometown Sounds

Friday 6/15:
The fine folk at DC Music Download continue their live music series Luce Unplugged at the Luce Foundation Center for American Art inside the Smithsonian American Art Museum tonight with high energy blues rock frontman Jonny Grave. This free show with drink specials is the best happy hour around, so bring your friends.

Saturday 6/16:
ICYMI, our most recent DC music podcast featured The Caribbean‘s Matt Byars talking about this Saturday‘s Seventh Stanine Festival at Takoma Park DIY venue Rhizome. Now the party is almost here! The all-day, all-evening lineup includes many avant-garde DC acts we love: Insect Factory, Literals, The Jet Age, Jon Camp, Boat Burning, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill, and of course The Caribbean themselves. Come early, stay late, chip in $15 and expand your brain.

Sunday 6/17:
Lush, friendly and deep, indie folks band Near Northeast‘s show at Union Stage on Sunday evening has received some well-deserved local media plugs. Not wanting anyone to feel left out, we join in this love fest with our recommendation. The well-curated bill includes a band from Pittsburgh called The Hills and the Rivers and Hagerstown MD’s The Plate Scrapers.

Wow, what a weekend DC just had! We hope you got the most out of it. Now keep the good vibes going this week with some #DCmusic, perhaps some of the fine selections we present below.

Monday 6/11:
The sprawling DC Jazz Fest kicked off this past weekend and goes throughout the week with events all over the city, both big and small. Tonight Ivy City Smokehouse hosts a funky, brassy show for the festival with DuPont Brass and jazz/go-go fusion band The JoGo Project.

Tuesday 6/12:
DC metal heads, head to the Angelika Film Center in Fairfax Tuesday night for a special night with A Sound of Thunder. After a short selection of music videos, witness the big screen premiere of their new animated video “It Was Metal” and make your way to the upstairs lounge for a private happy hour with your friendly fellow NoVA/DMV metal fans and an acoustic set from the band.

Wednesday 6/13:
The Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers are dedicated to entertaining DC with hot jazz, early swing, rags, stomps and blues from the 1920s and 30s. Dress your dapperest and limber your joints as the band throws a free swing dance party Wednesday Night at Pearl Street Warehouse.

Thursday 6/14:
This humble blog and so many others drew inspiration from DCist, the granddaddy of online local news coverage in DC. After an awful saga between a billionaire and unionization, the beloved site and its years of archives vanished. Now thanks to WAMU and Kickstarter backers, the site is now poised to relaunch, providing their much-missed distinctive voice to coverage of the news, arts and culture of DC. Celebrate DCist’s return Thursday night at SW arts club Blind Whino with a dance party and mingling with fellow DC media enthusiasts.

Between the Kingman Island Bluegrass Festival, the Capital Pride Parade, DC JazzFest, or binge-watching Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, there are a lot of options for your precious time this weekend. Here are our picks for filling your life with some #DCmusic.

Friday 6/08:
Ace photographer roXplosion goes to more shows than just about anyone. Tonight the beloved documentor of DC band visuals camps out at burger joint Slash Run with BOAYT, DoubleMotorcycle and Ménage À Garage three bands guaranteed to rock your Friday night hard. And no cover!

Saturday 6/09:
Kingsley Flood is the rare band in a long distance relationship between DC and Boston. Celebrate the release of their fourth full length album Neighbors and Strangers Saturday night at The Wharf’s Pearl Street Warehouse with support from two highly recommended DC acts, Humble Fire and Glenn Yoder & The Western States.

Sunday 6/10:
Keep the glowy, rainbow-colored love from Pride going Sunday night at the Black Cat. Heather Mae, Olivia Mancini and Crys Matthews are three queer DC singers and songwriters that will blow you away with wit and emotion.

The rain is over, the sun is shining and there’s #DCmusic to check out! Here are our show picks for the coming week.

Monday 6/04:
Strong bill of fun DC bands at DC9 tonight. Khyber Pass is a new electronic duo featuring Kristie from Loi Loi. Pagan Reagan makes heavy fuzzy psych rock and their name is fun as hell. MUNDY will wow you with theatrics and costumes, and Lola Tried bring road-tested indie rock from Austin TX.

Tuesday 6/05:
Rhizome is the place to check out hot new music Tuesday evening. Light Beams is one of the most exciting bands in DC today, putting the Justin Moyer mark on dance-punk. Black Myths is a new jazz duo featuring the omnipresent bassist Luke Stewart, while No Plans is the first outing for a new band featuring Jason Mogavero of Jack On Fire.

Wednesday 6/06:
MilkBoy ArtHouse hosts old and new faves on Wednesday night. ROM and BRNDA make indie rock so crackingly fun, both band names need #ALLCAPS. Rob Stokes recently got a glowing write up from Chris Richards at the Post. Sad Fish bring weirdo pop from Atlanta. Have we talked you into going yet?

Thursday 6/07:
Head right back to College Park’s MilkBoy ArtHouse Thursday night for a totally different night of music. Ciscero is a talented rapper on the rise, nailing recent collabs with April George and GoldLink. There aren’t enough hip-hop shows like this in DC, so don’t miss out!

Our #DCmusic weekend picks are going up a day early, because tomorrow we premiere a brand new music video! Get excited!

Friday 6/01:
There’s a brand new, cryptically named supergroup in town. The OSYX features members of FuzzQueen, Honey Kill, More AM Than FM, RadaR and Pagan Reagan, all important bands in the DC scene. The Dew Drop Inn hosts their live debut Friday night, so go make some new friends while you rock out.

Saturday 6/02:
The list of DC musicians performing at Staycation‘s Tribute to Radiohead at the Black Cat Saturday night is decidedly epic, and all female-fronted. Props to our buds at DC Music Download for sponsoring this benefit show for Planned Parenthood of DC. Grab your advance tickets once Ticketfly is back online.

Sunday 6/03:
Check out the new lineup for Andrew Grossman’s indie rock band The North Country at their single release show Sunday night at Union Stage. Delaware’s Hoochi Coochi and a mysterious new project from Baby Bry Bry called Slow Love round out the bill.

It’s a short week for you DC, and we’ve got three fantastic #DCmusic picks for you. Stream the songs, make your plans and Don’t Stay Home.

Tuesday 5/29:
Studio Ga Ga is the nightly party housed in Adams Morgan’s Asmara Lounge. Tonight they’ve got a lineup of Saturday Night, a new rock band from Cash Langdon and Bless’s Luke Reddick, the lovesick Rob Stokes Band, and Detroit’s Saajtak.

Wednesday 5/30:
DC’s serious and angular punk legacy will never die. Wednesday night is the record release show for Red Hare, a new Dischord band featuring members of late 80s hardcore band Swiz. GIVE and ska band The Captivators round out your night of moshing at the Black Cat.

Thursday 5/31:
Swank drummer Asha Santee pulls double duty at Union Stage on Thursday night with the album release show for Kinetic from her soulful duo BOOMscat, and an opening set from intersectional rock and soul band The CooLots.

It’s well known that DC clears out on holiday weekends such as this one. If you’re lucky enough to stay in town, here’s some #DCmusic to check out!

Friday 5/25:
Friday night Pearl Street Warehouse at the Wharf hosts two excellent roots rock bands you should know about, Cravin’ Dogs and The Walkaways.

Saturday 5/26:
We love live music outdoors the most, and its season is finally here. Saturday night is the season opener of the monthly Petworth Jazz Project, on the steps of the Petworth Rec Center. Grab a bite from the BBQ food truck and enjoy jazz pianist Federico Gonzalez Peña.

Sunday 5/27:
You always get your money’s worth at Slash Run and then some. Sunday night the burger joint hosts two out of town bands, The Ok-Ok’s and Sleepy Limbs, paired with two DC area indie rock bands, The Mild Animals and Makeup Girl.

If your tastes run more soulful and classy, check out singer Akua Allrich and her jazz group The Tribe present “A Tribute To Mother” in two sets at the historic Blues Alley in Georgetown.

Monday 5/28:
Starr Hill Brewery and Songbyrd host a ska band Monday night, but they’re not telling us the band’s name. Could it be The Pietasters? Kill Lincoln? Eastern Standard Time? Ska is punk’s happier, brassier cousin and we are quite pleased the genre continues to thrive past its too-brief heyday. It won’t cost you nothing to find out who the band is, so don’t miss out.

Hometown Sounds is on jury duty this week, so forgive the erratic publishing schedule. (Sorry we missed plugging your Galaxy Hut show Swamp Rabbit and Crick & Blippets). Here are your #DCmusic show picks for the rest of this week!

Tuesday 5/22:
Takoma Station is a tavern, not to be confused with the Metro station of the same name. Tuesday nights they host the Jazz Jam, featuring Paul Rosenberg on piano. Bring your chops to jam with the musicians or sit back and enjoy the classic standards.

Wednesday 5/23:
Atlas Brew Works sates your stoner metal needs Wednesday night with DC vets Borracho, Caustic Casanova, and Nashville’s Howling Giant. Hope you aren’t too freaked out by this creepy clown flier.

Thursday 5/24:
Hands up if you’ve ever wanted to go to a buzzy show at Comet Ping Pong but passed because the doors opened at 10 PM. Did you know they also host shows in the Back Room starting at 7? Working stiffs rejoice, and head there Thursday night for our indie rock darlings BRNDA, a recent DC transplant named Frass Green, and Chicago’s Deeper.

DC, you made it through a dreary, rainy week, so reward yourself with some #DCmusic joy. Here are our picks for the weekend!

Friday 5/18:
We start out with one of those good news, bad news situations. The good news is that folk band Handsome Hound released their debut full length album Mountain on Fire today, and celebrates with an album release show tonight at Black Cat. The bad news is that soon core members Claire Daviss and Cuchulain Kelly are moving to the west coast. Womp womp. Catch them here while you can, and don’t miss openers Lauren Calve of Run Come See and DuPont Brass, either.

Saturday 5/19:
We know a couple of you out there missed our epic Millennium Stage show with go-go legends The Chuck Brown Band last month. Get right with your soul at their big show Saturday night at Pearl Street Warehouse. And look at that, Three Man Soul Machine are kicking off the show! They are damn good.

Sunday 5/20:
Our love of The Harry Bells is shameless and profound. The jazz group dedicated to the sweet vibes of Harry Belafonte, the King of Calypso, plays a neighborhood concert Sunday afternoon in the Silver Spring area. Keep checking your favorite weather app and email the band for the address.

Every week we tell you about the best #DCmusic shows to check out every night of the week. This week we are doing it again!

Monday 5/14:
LA-based street musician Sunny War picked two great DC acts to open her show at the Rock & Roll Hotel tonight. Tarica June channels positivity and social consciousness with a throwback rapping style, while Oh He Dead is all about the party-soul vibes.

Tuesday 5/15:
Tuesday night is your chance to support the long running homegrown experimental music festival Sonic Circuits. Takoma Park venue Rhizome hosts a benefit show featuring Isreali band uru and a new improvising ensemble called Myelin Nation, featuring Sarah Hughes, Corey Thuro, Maria Shesuik, Aaron Mertes & Daniel Ostrow.

Wednesday 5/16:
Can we interest you in a Wednesday night live music show in a bathtub? Not really, it’s the Bathtub Republic house, this night hosting Brooklyn’s Anna McClellan, Nice Breeze, Staffers and housemate Leah Gage’s new solo moniker Crab Legs.

Thursday 5/17:
It’s hard to keep track of all the musical projects of Uptown Arthouse head Jamal Gray. He’s gathered members of his band Nag Champa to form Raygunomics, and they take over the Dew Drop Inn Thursday night for a night of hip-hop, go-go and future jazz.