Tony sees a classic David Bowie album performed live, while Paul attends a deafening company holiday party.
Tracklisting:
Light Beams – Sacred Scales [Self Help]
Time Is Fire – We Declare [In Pieces]
The North Country – Future Humans [single]
Tim Hicks x The Dirty Church – BNARD [Bullets]
Wicked Sycamore – Break the Barrel [Wright Way Sessions Vol. 1]
Drew Beckman + The Boundary Boys – Blue Ridge Mountain Boy [Blue Horses]
Every month Hometown Sounds presents one of DC’s finest bands on the Kennedy Center’s free Millennium Stage series, and in August we are thrilled to bring you the cutting edge dance punk of Light Beams.
Light Beams began in 2015 when longtime Dischord artist Justin Moyer (El Guapo, Supersystem, Edie Sedgwick, Puff Pieces) — influenced by 80s-era freestyle music and Sheila E. — started playing sampler and timbales with Sam Lavine, the longtime drummer of D.C. hip-hop mainstays the Cornel West Theory. With the addition of bassist Arthur Noll, formerly of Kid Congo Powers and Alarms & Controls, the resulting polyrhythmic melange, sometimes called “block rock,” reinvents late-20th century dance-pop using the tools of the 21st. Known for their blistering live performances and relentlessly positive attitudes, the band hopes to inspire audiences to feel good about themselves in an era when the menacing shadows of night seem more threatening than ever before.
With a cassette out on Don Giovanni Records and a split-seven inch with Ian Svenonius’s Escape-ism out on Lovitt Records, Light Beams has just completed a full-length record and has just completed a full-length record and is touring the Midwest in September. They are proud to be playing the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage for the first time.
RSVP here and come to the free performance at 6 PM on Friday August 31st!
It’s pretty rare that live video shot at a house show has enough quality to make it worthy of sharing to you, dear DC-area readers. Justin Moyer’s new dance-rock project Light Beams played at the underground house venue The Beehive back in November, and Rob Parrish captured this lively performance of “Grow Pt. II (for PJ Harvey)”, from their debut release S/T Cassette on Don Giovanni Records. As someone who’s attempted to shoot Moyer’s energetic performances at official clubs, I appreciate Parrish’s camera work even more here. You’d be a fool to miss the next Light Beams show, because the Washington CityPaper presents them and Time Is Fire for absolutely free at the Luce Unplugged series at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on Friday January 19th.
Here’s what you need to know:
1) Lee “Scratch” Perry pioneered the reggae subgenre of dub music in Jamaica in the 70s.
2) Light Beams is the newest project fronted by long time DC musician Justin Moyer, also of the bands Edie Sedgwick, El Guapo, Supersystem and more.
3) Rounding out the band is drummer Sam Lavine of The Cornel West Theory
and Arthur Noll of Alarms & Controls.
4) Their new self-titled album is out now on cassette & digital through Don Giovanni Records.
5) Their debut music video for “Soul Fire Pt. II (for Lee Perry)” was directed by Ben Epstein and David “Spoonboy” Combs for Baby Pony Food. They’ve helmed some of our favorite videos, including Bad Moves and the amazing trilogy by The MaxLevineEnsemble.
6) Light Beams plays the Black CatWednesday night in support of the album release show by Devin Ocampo’s band The Effects, along with Super Silver Haze.
7) Isn’t this video fucking fantastic?
8) See you there.
Paul’s phone likes musicals way more than he does, and Tony reveals his favorite DC advice podcast. (It’s Advice! with Dave and Kat)
Tracklisting:
Light Beams – Feeling Good [Light Beams]
American Electric – Crazy Eyes [American Electric]
Aaron Abernathy – Children of the City [Dialogue]
The Red Fetish – Debridement [Non Sequitur]
Fellow Creatures – Frantik [three songs]
e v o l v – We’ll Make An Adjustment [Be Here Now]
Hometown Sounds 