IN SEPTEMBER, the Jesus Lizard played its first show in a decade, and David Yow was so nervous he was throwing up. It seems like an incongruous idea — one of rock's most dynamic frontmen suffering stage fright — but as soon as the music started, Yow "was more on autopilot than ever.
"I had planned on not taking my shirt off, but 15 seconds into the set, my shirt was off and I was in the audience. Swear to God, I didn't do that. It just took me."
Formed in 1987, the Jesus Lizard developed a reputation for extreme and energetic live shows, with Yow prowling the stage shirtless as the band — drummer Mac McNeilly, guitarist Duane Denison and bass player David Sims — pounded out the sludgiest punk-metal riffs imaginable.
DAPOSE FROM VVEREVVOLF GREHV (sound it out) wants to make you into a zombie.
But the guitarist/bassist/keyboardist behind the one-man band that plays Sunday night with Skinny Puppy at the 9:30 Club isn't interested in getting you to chomp on brains. Instead, he's attracted to that vacant, glazed-over look — the one that shows you're really enjoying his metal-meets-electronica music.
"A mind-numbing metalhead that's really mono and one-track-minded — that's really what I wanted to create with my music," Dapose says when explaining the name for his 2008 album, "Zombie Aesthetics."
Continue Reading "Hearts, Minds and Braaains: Metal-Electronica Maven Vverevvolf Grehv" »
SUNDAY: Blues-rock revivalist and self-conscious hipster Jon Spencer started a side project with Matt Verta-Ray that is a metric ton less annoying than Spencer on his own. Heavy Trash is all fun, no ostentatious posing — nasty-minded desert-road psychobilly with a bottle in its jacket and one thing on its mind. Succumb to the sleazy sonic assault at DC9 on Sunday.
» DC9, 1940 9th St. NW; with Elliott Brood, Sun., Nov. 22, 9 p.m., $12; 202-483-5000. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy Heavy Trash
WITH HIS THIN frame, throwback wardrobe, flowing beard and wispy delivery, Devendra Banhart was the freakiest of the freak folkers, that wave of lo-fi acoustic strummers who prized the weird, offputting intimacy of off-the-map '60s folk. He's also arguably the most successful: the Houston-born, Venezuela-raised musician has opened for bossa nova legend Gilberto Gil, remixed Oasis, exhibited sketches in museums and dated Natalie Portman.
Success, however, seems to have left him a bit aimless. His 2007 album, "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon," sounded as formless as a cloud of marijuana smoke, delivering only a mild contact high. "What Will We Be" improves on that sedated haze, indulging a range of sounds and styles over the course of 13 tracks. The fragile "Angelika" breaks for a trippy bossa nova interlude, while "Baby" melds R&B rhythms to one of Banhart's most straightforward compositions. "16th & Valencia" thrums electronically, as if he's covering the Strokes, and "Rats" forays into a dark, Doorsy jam.
At some point, however, that diversity becomes the main point of "What Will We Be," suggesting a willful scrambling of influences rather than a natural synthesis.
Continue Reading "In a Funk: Devendra Banhart, 'What Will We Be'" »
WEDNESDAY: Eccentric Venezuelan folk-rocker (and former flame of Natalie Portman) Devendra Banhart will be at the 9:30 Club tonight with his usual Indian-inspired folk music.
Worried that Banhart lost some indie cred when manic pixie dreamgirl Portman took her leave? Check out his new album, "What Will We Be," or the videos below. You'll find his vaguely stoned-sounding hits beautifully unchanged.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; Wed., Nov. 25, 7 p.m., $30; 202-393-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written by Express' Sarah Mimms
Photo courtesy Alissa Anderson 2003
ONGOING: "The Fantasticks" ran off-Broadway for 42 years, which is longer than many of you reading this have been alive. It's a simple story — boy meets girl, girl goes out to experience the world but decides she really loves boy and returns, to the great relief of all concerned.
Arena Stage's production is set in an amusement park, which should add a new, cool-looking dimension to this chestnut.
» Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW; through Jan. 3, $10-$74; 202-488-3300, Thelincolntheatre.org. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Scott Suchman
FRIDAY: Oh-so-in-demand DJ Dredd will spin a dance night at the Black Cat this weekend focused on '80s hip-hop classics. We're hoping some of the more obnoxious '80s trends won't make it to the Cat — we're looking at you, girl-in-ratty-tutu and boy-in-flourescent-hi-tops — but the great music that made the decade worthwhile will be there for sure.
We know it's not hip-hop, but we're hoping if we yell loud enough, he'll play "Like a Prayer." Cause you know it's not even vaguely '80s without that.
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; Fri., Nov. 20, 9 p.m., free; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo by Michael Temchine/The Washington Post
WEDNESDAY: Indie folk star J. Tillman is loving all this new free time.
Sure, he just released his second album of the year amidst all of his newfound Fleet Foxes fame, but his touring schedule is nothing compared to the 40-hour workweek he had as a carpenter — a job he only quit at the end of last year. The beard translates surprisingly well from handyman to folk singer, don't you think? Maybe his third career should be as an Amish farmer.
Check out the videos after the jump for a taste of his versatile vocals and calm acoustic guitar stylings.
» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Pearly Gate Music, Wed., Nov. 18, 6 p.m., $15; 202-265-0930. (U St.-Cardozo)
Written by Express' Janice Leary
Photo by David Belisle
WHEN DEREK VINCENT SMITH performs under the name Pretty Lights, he brings audiences his own blend of hip-hop and soul inspired electronic music.
Just, don't call him a DJ.
"I've never considered myself a DJ," he said over the phone during laundry duty somewhere in Louisville, Ky., late this past October. "I've never had turn tables and a mixer and spun records or done a show like that."
For Smith, the compulsion to explain to others the difference between a DJ and a producer, as he considers himself, goes past the simple fact the he prefers equipment like MIDI controllers to the more standard DJ set up when playing shows. Instead, it's something that has spawned from the time he has spent on the road interacting with groups of fans he believes have applied the most common DJ stereotype to him: that he plays other artist's material.
"There's a difference between maybe the guy who opened up, who can play anyone's music in the world," Smith said, "and the fact that I've got to make everything."
Still, Smith realizes that to some, he may sound like he's over analyzing it. "It's a weird thing ... Whenever I do explain it," he added. "I feel like a dumbass."
WEDNESDAY: The intimate DC9 club will host an event that memorializes a gigantic moment in history: the fall of the Berlin Wall. "Rise&Fall" is a mobile art installation (and dance party) featuring digital images based on the theme of breaking down barriers. Turkish-German DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu will be spinning techno to soundtrack the celebration of freedom.
After the jump: See videos of DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu in action, cutting up with a hybrid of Turkish twang and electronica.
» DC9, 1490 9th St. NW; Wed., Nov. 18, 8:30 p.m., $10; 202-483-5000. (U St.-Cardozo)
Photo courtesy DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu
Continue Reading "Wall Fall Ball: 'Rise&Fall' & DJ Ipek Ipekcioglu" »
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