Teka Thomas
@ Tattoo
Q:How do you keep your life clean?
A:"Low alcohol intake. I never smoke and I've never done drugs."
SUNDAY: Want some Flying V guitar riffs, unruly hair and headbanging to finish off your week? Man, the universe was looking out for you.
With simple lyrics and a Ramones-inspired breakneck drive, Jay Reatard brings sweaty garage punk back to D.C. in just the right way — loud, fast and hard. Just listen to his hit "See Saw" off of "Matador Singles '08." Honestly, it's nothing you haven't heard before from the kids down the street, but it's still a rush.
His latest album, "Watch Me Fall" is due out August 18, his first actual album release since 2006's "Blood Visions." You can download the first single off of his lastest, "It Ain't Gonna Save Me," off of his Web site.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with TV Smith, Sun., July 5, 9 p.m., $12; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written by Express' Nicole Ocran
Photo courtesy Jay Reatard
MONDAY: Vandaveer is taking over the music scene with leading man Mark Charles Heidinger's plan, "Divide and Conquer," also the title of the band's upcoming album. The sophomore record ("Grace and Speed" was released on Gypsy Eyes in 2007) boasts of polished vignettes that wander into a quieter, more melodic sound that has fans flocking.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Mon., July 6, 8 pm, $12; 202-667-4490, blackcatdc.com. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy Shervin Lainez
FRIDAY: Forget the fact that North Korea might be attacking Hawaii this weekend. It's time to dance, and the Blisspop Summer Extravaganza is just the thing.
Washington, D.C., party thrower/DJ stalwart Will Eastman is combining his popular Blisspop party with renowned DJ tag team Nadastrom and international dance-floor titan Tittsworth.
Eastman himself will helm the DJ booth along with District up-and-comers Dmerit, Ken Lezee and Bobby Jae. Bliss parties are wild enough, but combined with some of the hottest disc spinners in the country and the Fourth of July looming the day after it almost seems like gilding the party lily.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Fri., July 3, 9 p.m., $10; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written Express' Brian Austin
Photo courtesy The Washington Post
NEVERLAND DOESN'T EXIST for punk rockers — but Memphis does.
Even though longtime garage-thrasher Jay Reatard may have been fighting the onslaught of maturity since he first took the stage at 15, Peter Pan never grew up in the depressing poverty of the heat-scorched South, never dropped out of high school, and never binge-drank himself to the point where planting a foot-longish flower in his lower extremities seemed like a good idea — onstage in front of 20,000 people.
Call it a punk-rock move, but the spectacle in Chicago at Pitchfork Fest '08 provided a retina-scarring onstage climax for the rocker from Tennessee, and another violent chapter in the legend of his live performances.
THIS WEEK: Last year, the Source Theatre returned to the D.C. scene with a bang: a festival of short plays and theater events that marked a collaboration among most of D.C.'s artistic directors and stage luminaries.
This year, the festival is back, sans most of the big-name participants. But you can still see 10-minute plays, one acts and a 24-hour play — written, cast, rehearsed and performed within a 24-hour period.
» Source Theatre, 1835 14th St. NW; through July 12, $18; 202-204-7800, sourcedc.org. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy Michael Temchine/The Washington Post
TUESDAY: Everybody knows Hank Williams. So Hank's grandson has to work three times as hard to distinguish himself from his granddaddy. You'd think he'd steer clear of country, but instead he's pioneered country punk. Take country music, add a healthy dose of rage and you've got the idea. He's inherited the Williams voice and soul; he's just brought a whole lot of teenage rebellion to the mix as well.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Tues., June 30, 7 p.m., $20; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha/The Washington Post
SATURDAY: Femi Kuti & the Positive Force perform at the 9:30 Club on Saturday. The son of Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti has forged his own sound with African rhythms and jazz complexities, defining "world beat" as something truly global.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Sat., June 27, 8 p.m., $27.50; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Phillipe Bordas
SATURDAY: Popular in the '90s with songs like "My Drug Buddy" and "Big Gay Heart," the Lemonheads are back. Their music is the same -- alt-pop with a twist.
After touring solo for a bit, founder and frontman Evan Dando reformed the band in 2006. Their latest endeavor, a covers album entitled "Varshons," features actress Liv Tyler performing a duet on Leonard Cohen's "Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye." Even model Kate Moss gets in on this action, singing over Arling & Cameron's "Dirty Robot." Check out our review here.
If ever you were in need of a good mix, we'd recommend you start here. And then head to the Black Cat.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Sat., June 27, 9 p.m., $15; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written by Express' Nicole Ocran
Photo courtesy Bar None Records
WHEAT RELEASED ITS first album 11 years ago — and this is most likely the first time you've heard of the band, which plays vintage Flaming Lips-like indie rock, swinging from epic layered freak-outs to sparse experimental pop.
But that relative anonymity doesn't bother the group's mainstays — guitarist-singer Scott Levesque and drummer Brendan Harney — in the least.
"Not at all frustrating," said Harney. "[Rather it's] both something that is liberating and something we're basically indifferent about. See, we've kinda found that people really dig one record of ours ... and then kinda want that version of Wheat to be the one that they always get — and that seems to leave a trail of disappointment. ... We are a tough band to follow because of the constant changing."
But Wheat's latest album, "White Ink, Black Ink" (The Rebel Group), is its most straightforward, least obtuse CD yet, featuring 11 songs that are as catchy as they are consistent. Levesque's voice recalls the tremulous croon of Tim Kinsella, but his lyrics address more relatable things than the Joan of Arc frontman's cryptic observations. "Living to Die" and "I Want Less," for instance, address a Zen-like approach to life, which was inspired in part by the February 2008 death of Levesque's father.
Even with the CD's instant likability, Wheat's music still retains the mystery that made its previous releases — four LPs, one mini album, plus expanded reissues — such great headphone gems.
"My love of musical acceptance is always overshadowed by my love of artistic exploration," Levesque said. "But not just being as far out for far out's sake, but all the spaces in between the extremes, like, say, atonal screechy gray noise pressed up against the most pristine and pointed woodwind."
"It's not being willfully obscure; it's more about being very easily bored," Harney said, "and never wanting to even come close to repeating ourselves. We really do love pop, but we really also do love strange and difficult beauty."
Express conducted an epic e-mail interview with Wheat and had Harney and Levesque give a track-by-track tour of "White Ink, Black Ink."
Continue Reading "Liner Notes: Wheat, 'White Ink, Black Ink'" »
PATTERSON HOOD'S SECOND solo album has been nearly twenty years in the making. Following long on the heels of 2004's largely acoustic "Killers and Stars," this collection features new recordings of older material, including a few songs he wrote in the early 1990s, long before Hood co-founded the Drive-By Truckers and became synonymous with hard-boiled tales of the New South and its conflicted denizens.
The title track, "Pollyanna," and "Screwtopia," all from the previous decade, sit well with newer tracks like "I Understand Now" and "She's a Little Randy," revealing a unique songwriting voice that was surprisingly well developed eighteen years ago and has only grown more confident since then.
Less a departure from Hood's familiar sound than "Killers and Stars," "Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)" sounds pretty much like another Truckers album, with most of the band members contributing. Electric guitars rule every song, and styles range from old-school country to swampy Southern rock to soulful rave-ups to classic-rock anthems, but Hood takes all the vocal and songwriting duties instead of sharing them with Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker.
Continue Reading "Tough Love Songs: Patterson Hood, 'Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)'" »
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