Hometown Sounds

Andy Zipf’s folk band The Cowards Choir should be high on your bucket list of DC bands to see live. This weekend you can check that box when they return to Iota in Clarendon on Saturday night to headline an excellent night of music with DC bluegrass band Run Come See and out of towners The Pinkerton Raid. They’ve taken an approach to recording new material that mirrors the songs themselves: deliberate, unhurried, authentic and beautiful. Longtime videographers Clubhill Media film the band performing a new song all together in one take, and the video and song go up online together as part of The Singing Tree series. The latest is “I Took A Drive” and the allusions to a “toupeed tycoon” and “neon signs on the boardwalk” should leave no doubt as to the subject of the song.

Here’s the thing about being a fan of local bands: the only thing constant is change. Local bands can come and go, change their names, lineups and style, sometimes before you even realize what happened. Casual music fans don’t have to worry about this so much with Walk The Moon or The Weeknd or whoever, but at the local level, all bets are off.

Andy Zipf’s talented quartet The Cowards Choir, with Ben Tufts, Adam Neubauer and Ryan Walker, came together by accident but quickly developed some powerful chemistry and one of last year’s best releases, the four song EP Cool Currency, which you can still download for whatever price you like at NoiseTrade. When people would ask me who was worth checking out in the DC music scene, I’d generally first steer them towards The Cowards Choir, and made them as many new fans as I could.

Sadly in 2015 things stalled for the band as they prepared material for an anticipated full length album. First percussionist Ben Tufts announced his imminent departure, and recently drummer Adam Neubauer followed suit. The last two shows featuring the original lineup are tonight at the Black Cat and Saturday at the annual Ben Tufts & Friends charity fundraiser at Jammin’ Java. While Andy Zipf will continue on both solo and with other supporting musicians, these are your last chances to see his finely crafted songs backed by two of the finest drummers in this town.

It’s #TBT so watch the excellent music video they made last year for “Is This A Wrecking Ball”. See you at the show.

WORLD PREMIERE!

Hometown Sounds is honored & thrilled to premiere the new music video from The Cowards Choir, “Is This A Wrecking Ball”. We’ve long been fans of Andy Zipf‘s delicately powerful voice and consistent songwriting, but assembling fellow DC musicians Ryan Walker, Ben Tufts and Adam Neubauer into The Cowards Choir has taken the music to a higher level. This Zipf guy is so smart, he got a fantastic drum kit player in Neubauber AND THEN brought in Tufts, seemingly DC’s most in-demand drummer, to play timpani, vibraphone and other percussion. Genius.

Clubhill Media shot the video for “Is This A Wrecking Ball” during recording sessions at Studio V out in Herndon. Music craftsmanship is paramount here, as special care is placed on the authenticity of the video to the musical performance. This video does an excellent job of a difficult task, bringing visual appeal to the all-important song recording process.

For the beginning of the media push for their new EP, the Cowards Choir aren’t presenting anything flashy or slick. This video is as true and honest to this band as possible, demonstrating the ethos shared by a lot of the NOVA and DC bands coming together for next month’s Magnificent Intentions music festival at Iota.

Come celebrate the release of Cool Currency with Andy, Adam, Ryan and Ben this Saturday night at Iota with support from troubador Justin Jones. Buy advance tickets for $14 here and don’t risk shutout to the normally door-charge-only Clarendon venue.

Singer-songwriter Andy Zipf’s decision last year to recruit The Beanstalk Library’s Ryan Walker and drumming pair Adam Neubauer and Ben Tufts to form The Cowards Choir has drawn much deserved attention on Zipf’s excellent songwriting and clear, distinct voice. On tour last summer in Charlotte NC, the group teamed up with music video producers Small Creatures and the music blog Carolina Music Connection to record live takes of two songs from their debut pay-what-you-like EP Reunion, “Maybe I” and “Where The Hand Don’t Hold Me Down”. The outdoor nighttime setting on the second song is quite magical, don’t miss it! Check them out live next Tuesday February 11th opening for troubador Justin Jones to celebrate the 10th anniversary of DC9.

The video owner has chosen to restrict the embedding on this video, so please visit http://vimeo.com/85601723 to view it.