I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for the “old,” post-punk music scene in Washington. And as I mentioned in the last post, there was a cohesiveness and a tightness in the community then that I don’t think we’re going to see again.
But the rock scene in our city, after what I think was a pretty long lull following the breakups of most of the “important” post-punk bands here, is resurgent and once again very exciting. It’s also probably more diverse than it was then, with a lot of bands doing a lot of very interesting things. There are pockets, or “mini-scenes” around the city of groups that tend to play together, but that’s as far as we get toward a close community or a clear “DC sound”. This may be partially a result of the city’s having emerged from the shadow of Fugazi and the bands that were directly inspired by them. This being the transient city that it is, many of the rock musicians playing here today, especially the younger ones, were not here during that band’s heyday.
So we have a lot of bands with very different sounds and different aspirations. I’m especially inspired by the rootsy, folksy music being made by the bands on the excellent new Gypsy Eyes Records and some of the bands included in a loose collective of musicians calling themselves the Federal Reserve. There are also some very, very tight young bands playing various quirky indie-pop styles, and there are some fantastic singer-songwriters here. There’s just a lot to see right now.
Here’s a roundup of the bands I think are making some of the best music in DC right now, in order of…well, when I think of them. This list might be different if I did it last month, or even next week, but I thought I might list some of my current favorites.
{Note: there are some very prominent local rock artists missing from this list. Some I just haven’t listened to yet, some have seemed less active of late, and others, their popularity notwithstanding, just kind of….blow. In my humble opinion.}
There’s a lot of material here; peruse at your leisure and give each of these guys a good listen.
For my money, this is probably the best band in the city right now. Behind it is Jesse Elliott, who I’m becoming more and more convinced is one of the best songwriters in the country, period. At its heart, this is an often languid Americana-influenced, folksy and jangly thing. The recordings are full of atmosphere and layers, and the live show is anything from Jesse with guitar to a full band including banjo, slide, cowbell, and a whole bunch of other stuff in addition to the traditional setup. The effect is a sort of mesmerizing subtlety, under which Elliott slips a beat-poetic lyrical style full of sneaky internal rhymes, alliteration and hauntingly brilliant turns of phrase.
Go, immediately, to their MySpace page. Listen to “Slow Crows Over” and “The Business.” And I’ll see you tomorrow, June 9, at the Rock & Roll Hotel where they’ll be playing with the similarly atmospheric folksters Califone.
A Jukebox song actually woke me up once. Early one morning, I literally bolted upright with “Hold It In” stuck in my head.
This is a very tight, massively talented trio. Every musician is fantastic. Ben Thornewill on vocals and piano, Tommy Siegel on guitar and vocals, Jesse Kristin on drums; they write a quirky, clever but honest sort of intricate pop song and have a penchant for dramatic breaks and sudden changes. The Ben Folds comparisons are inevitable, the Queen and They Might Be Giants references are apt. There’s also a good chunk of Billy Joel in here. Though this is a young band that still wears some influences on their sleeves, they’re building a unique sound and they are one to watch. This is catchy, funny, nearly Vaudevillean pop, but there’s a serious edge to the songwriting and a thoughtfulness in the lyrics. Ben’s vocals can soar in operatic flourishes, and his classical piano training has left him way overqualified for rock music.
The live show is invariably a blast; these guys love what they’re doing. And they’re really, really damn good at it.
Listen to “Hold It In.” I apologize in advance if it burrows into your brain and sets up camp for the next month or so. Then check out Ben’s gorgeous solo material on his MySpace page, in particular “The Beauty of Absolutes.”
These guys have been working hard, doing a lot of touring, local shows and recording. They have an interesting dynamic at play, with a slightly jammy, very tight drums/bass/guitar trio fronted by two female vocalists who take turns on keys, violin, and guitar. The girls, Emily and Susan Hsu, are twin sisters and the striking effect of their harmonies is defined in part by the affinity between their lilting voices. Their melodies are catchy and take a good bit from ’80s pop; this plays against the often dark, intense sound crafted by Aaron Leeder (guitar,) Brett Niederman (bass) and John Thayer (drums).
The songs are complex and layered, but nearly always have an irresistible hook or two. Though they are very good at writing big, intricate and anthemic songs, lately they’ve demonstrated a real prowess for softer, more serious material as well as straight-up dance rock; this is a band that is experimenting and maturing quickly. The Hsus’ vocals in particular seem to get stronger with each recording and performance. Check out “MK Ultra” and the new “Kindest Creatures” on their MySpace page to get a feel for the band’s range.
These guys really come into their own in a live setting. They’re all formidable musicians, and just watching Leeder and Thayer try to kill their respective instruments is entertainment enough for an evening. June 11th, they’ll be at IOTA with The Beanstalk Library (see a couple of blurbs below.)
I love Benjy Ferree. His music is kind of an odd folk, perhaps played by a cheerful gyspy. It’s irresistible, the songs built on tight hooks and a loose jangle of guitars, fiddle, cello and harmonica backed by a solid rhythm section. Benjy’s voice is just raspy enough to blend seamlessly into the mix. There’s something refreshing to me about his music; it sounds like a road trip in a old convertible through sleepy towns in America. Check out “Desert,” from last year’s “Leaving the Nest.”
The live band is Jonah Takazi on bass, Drew Mills on guitar, Laura Jean on drums and the prolific Amy Domingues (who’s played with everyone from Ted Leo to Fugazi in addition to being a solo artist in her own right) on cello and guitar. It’s a tight ensemble; I saw them play for a second time a few days ago. They have a great energy onstage- members are often singing along, whether they’re behind a microphone or not.
Good things are coming Ferree’s way; he’s been signed to the UK’s Domino Records (home of Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and others.)
This is a band that, right now, is “quite good.” But I think there’s a truly great band emerging; they blew me away at a recent DC9 show. The songs take cues from The Band and a number of other greats that existed before their time, but frontman Ryan Walker’s warm vocal style is convincing and honest- the band means it, and this doesn’t feel like an artificially nostalgic pretense.
Woah, now, I’m not saying that the band doesn’t sound current- it does; they just have an affection for the legends of past decades. There are some art-rock accents to the excellent spacey ballad “All The World Is New,” and “Fake It” is kind of like a taut pop-rock tune with an echoey slide guitar buried underneath it. This is a young band with an awful lot of promise. Go see them, along with Exit Clov, at IOTA on the 11th. It’s going to be a phenomenal show.
This is one of the bands on the newish Gypsy Eyes Records. Their sound has an immediate impact- they sound kind of like Satan’s own rockabilly band, a Southern Gothic aesthetic coming so convincingly out of these refugees from the indie/punk scene that it’s disorienting. They manage to channel artists like Leadbelly and have it not come off like a gimmick. Their latest record, The History of Cut Nails in America, sounds fantastic. The intense “Wiseblood” and the somehow demonic “Offer Still Stands” from their MySpace page will give you a good idea of what to expect.
This is a band you’ve got to see live. They take the stage as unassuming as anything, singer/guitarist Adrian Carroll and slide player Burleigh Seaver sitting in chairs, and suddenly you feel like you’re in a burning barn somewhere, a chaotic swirl of nasty blues riffs wrapped in a frenzied rush of slide guitar, throbbing upright bass and pounding drums. Their next show: June 21st at Olsson’s Books, which isn’t the ideal setting but will have to hold us off until we can see them properly, whiskey in hand, at the Black Cat on August 10th.
Velez was the frontman of a fairly grandiose pop-rock band here called Monopoli. That band was very, very good at what it did, but to be perfectly honest I wasn’t a huge fan of theirs.
That band broke up, by which time Velez was already playing some solo gigs around town. I came across this before ever seeing Monopoli, and I was floored. His voice is perfectly polished, sounding a bit like Chet Atkins, and he plays a sublime bluesy, folk-tinged music with a real sense of nuance and flair. More recently, he’s put together a very tight band and finished an excellent recording complete with horn section. It comes off authentic, but with just enough show-biz pomp to suggest he’s setting his sights beyond a local scene. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he is planning a move to New York, so we don’t expect to call him a local boy too much longer.
Check out “Transfer Blues” and “Isabelle’s Jinx” on his MySpace page.
