WASHINGTON'S OWN JUNIPER LANE has spent the last seven years crafting their signature sound. They've traveled up and down the East Coast, and are heading home for a show at Iota in Arlington. Check them out if you're into local bands that fall somewhere between indie and mainstream rock, featuring pianos and pretty lead singers.
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Sat., Nov. 29, 9:30 p.m., $11; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
Written by Express' Kelsey Parrish
Photo courtesy Juniper Lane
AUGUSTE ARTHUR BONDY is known by many names. As frontman for Birmingham-based Verbena during the late '90s, he went by Scott Bondy. Last year, when he released his solo debut, the haunted "American Hearts," he billed himself as A. A. Bondy. Lately, he's been known to answer to Gus.
These constantly shifting identities draw from the darker corners of musical history but remain anchored in the dark present. Currently, Bondy illuminates his apocalyptic imagery and lowdown woe with old folk, blues and country.
"Everybody wants to do something new," says Bondy, "but to throw out the past, you have to know the past."
THE FIRST HIT IS FREE at Potomac CrossFit. The owners of the new Clarendon studio are certain that anyone who samples their anything-goes approach to exercise will be hooked. So every Saturday morning, they offer a complimentary class.
Co-owner Curtis Blake and fellow CrossFit devotees are just excited for more members join their "family" — of course, here each relative you meet seems buffer than the next.
HONOR BY AUGUST made its name by winning opening band contests and earning slots before Hanson at the 9:30 Club and Bon Jovi at the Verizon Center. Throw in gigs playing with Peter Frampton, Howie Day and Hootie and the Blowfish, and the D.C. rockers quietly emerged as a local act to keep an eye on.
Now widely considered one of the most promising new talents on the East Coast, Honor by August will try to further establish itself as a headliner at Iota on Saturday. Sadly, though, they won't be joined this time around by the quickly forgotten one-hit wonders Vertical Horizon, who opened for them at another show earlier in the month. Instead, they'll be playing with Red Wanting Blue and Copper Sails.
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Sat., Nov. 15, 9:30 p.m., $10; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
Written by Express' Thomas Floyd
Photo by Cory Snapp
CLARENDON CLUB Galaxy Hut began serving lunch this week. The menu is the same one you've always known, but now you can eat beginning at 11:30 a.m. (except on Saturdays). Our favorite part: their happy hour now starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes straight through till 8 p.m. Way to take the edge off a workday.
» Galaxy Hut, 2711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-525-8646. (Clarendon)
Photo by Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post
HOLLY GOLIGHTLY and the Brokeoffs' "Getting High for Jesus" sounds like it's been passed around for years, from the Mississippi delta to the Appalachian Mountains.
But it hasn't.
Golightly and partner Lawyer Dave (who effectively is the Brokeoffs) wrote the song for last month's "Dirt Don't Hurt," the second album from the duo. The entire record is seeped in American roots music, which isn't surprising if you're familiar with the British-born Golightly, but it is if you're not.
She may speak with a British accent, but she sings like a perfect Southern belle.
"With country music, I think about it in terms of belonging to lots of different people," Golightly said. "I think lots of European folk music had to influence it in the early days. It has so many different flavors because it came from so many different places. It is folk music, after all."
Even more surprising, she recorded the mud- and whiskey-soaked disc in Spain. Though, she said, location has little bearing on the music she makes.
"Well, I don't ever think about it in those terms because I've always written country songs even though I have no real knowledge of country music," she said. "I play in that formula because it's an easy formula. I'm not particularly technically gifted when it comes to playing guitar, so I'm sort of limited by the 12 bar blues."
Continue Reading "Evolution: Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs" »
ANGELINA SHOULDN'T BE the only Jolie you know about. Add this one to your list: Folkie Jolie Holland, whose versatile voice can careen gracefully through her alt-country songs, like "Spooky Little Pony," as easily as her more jazz-tinged tunes, like "Damn Shame."
That ephemeral, genuine voice is set against a pared-down acoustic backdrop on her newest album, The Living and the Dead, released in October. Catch her performing some of her new songs at Iota in Arlington on Tuesday. (Oh, and don't worry about missing any Election Day coverage while you're there; they'll be showing it in the cafe and on the patio.)
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Tue., Nov. 4, 8:30 p.m., $12; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
Written by Kelsey Parrish/Express
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE long-running Richmond Latin dance band Bio Ritmo started life as a dreadlocked drum circle. Stylish and innovative, the group has morphed into a suave, sexy rhythmic beast.
Singer Rei Alvarez says the beast was born when its core of percussionists went searching for new rhythms and settled on the sounds of Tito Puente and Ray Barretto — leaders of New York's Puerto Rican jazz and salsa scenes of the '60s and '70s.
"I remember putting on an old Fania record from the era and saying, 'That's it! That's the sound we want to play!'" he says.
Alvarez and his fellow rhythmatists were all old hands at rock and reggae, but found switching to salsa took some work. And Alvarez had to adapt: "I got asked to sing back-up vocals, which I thought I would never do, since I was always happy to hide behind the drums," Alvarez says. Now Bio Ritmo's frontman, Alvarez just lets his cool charisma do most of the work.
LADIES WHO WANT TO DRESS UP as belly dancers this Halloween can get a better treat than a few fun-size candy bars: a crash course in how to shake and shimmy.
Arlington's Saffron Dance (3260 Wilson Blvd., 703-276-2355, Saffrondance.com) is offering "Best of the Best: Belly Dance Beginners' Weekend Intensive" ($150) Oct. 31 through Nov. 1 to introduce newbies to the moves and cultural history of the seductive dance. And Saphira, the studio's founder and artistic director, says whether you want to lose weight, build self-confidence or simply like the idea of wiggling around, the series is a great way to get started.
As one learns how to belly dance, it becomes more than just a form of exercise. "It feeds so many elements of our spirit and nurtures our mind and our emotion," Saphira says. But to reach that state, every dancer starts with three basic moves.
Continue Reading "It's a Piece of Shake: Belly Dance at Saffron" »
IF YOU READ this with any regularity, you know how I feel about Scandinavia. There's just an ineffable awesomeness in the music, art and alcohol that hail from Sweden, Finland and Norway (and sometimes Denmark, although that's a judgment call.)
So it should be no surprise that I'm excited about Ane Brun, an Ani DiFranco-esque singer-songwriter who is from Norway but lives in Sweden and thus gets double Scandinavian-points. You can listen to her soothing, sadly dreamy "My Lover Will Go" here.
Want more? Read our interview with Ane Brun.
» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; Fri., Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m., $15; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images
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