Featured Shows of the Week! July 23
Monday July 23 2012
Frank Ocean @ 930 Club
Christopher Francis Ocean, better known by his stage name Frank Ocean, is an American singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Louisiana. Ocean made an early career as a ghostwriter for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber, and John Legend.
After two years of touring and supporting Summer House, GOLD MOTEL began pre-production for their new album in Los Angeles, CA, splitting their time between rehearsals in a house up in the hills of Laurel Canyon and a pool-house in Glendale. Those early pre-production sessions led to the initial material that would make up their self-titled sophomore album, Gold Motel. The band continued pre-production back in Chicago and began preliminary recording in September of 2011 in guitarist Dan Duzsynski’s home-studio, DandySounds Studios. Like Summer House and Talking Fiction, Gold Motel was self-produced by the band.
In contrast to Summer House, Gold Motel showcases a significant growth and evolution in the band’s songwriting and tonality as they continue to explore new musical territory centered on themes of youth, memories, and nostalgia. However, in comparison to their previous releases, Gold Motel still captures the band’s renowned pop sensibilities and illustrious West Coast sound.
Tuesday July 24 2012
Surfer Blood @ Rock N Roll Hotel
Surfer Blood is an indie rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, signed to Warner Bros. Records. The band has four members: John Paul Pitts, Thomas Fekete, Kevin Williams and Tyler Schwarz .
Adorable, that’s literally the best word I could summon for the rock these cats are laying down. It is sentimental but not sappy, that’s something I can dig. Most obviously they’re a very well produced rock group. And holy shit did this band drive me insane for whole night trying to remember who the fuck they were making me think of. To be honest to was likely some amalgamation of memories so I might never find it, but if one of you figure out something remarkably close let me know.
Wednesday July 25 2012
Junior Boys @ U Street Music Hall
Originally a duo of Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark, Junior Boys created a sound that would reconcile their influences. Years of collaboration followed and a demo was produced, but after many rejections and near-misses, they were resigned to being bedroom beat constructors. Soon after, Johnny Dark left the band to pursue other interests. Eventually KIN Records heard their demo at the end of 2002 and commissioned more work from remaining member Greenspan. Hooking up with his engineer, Matt Didemus, he began again, writing more material and pulling an album together.
Thursday July 26 2012
The Tallest Man On Earth @ 9:30 Club
Kristian Matsson is a singer-songwriter from Dalarna, Sweden. Since 2006, he has released three full-length albums and two EPs. He performs under the stage name The Tallest Man on Earth, despite not being unusually tall.
Friday July 27 2012
Kishi Bashi @ U Street Music Hall
Having collaborated and toured with indie strangelings of Montreal, Regina Spektor, and Sondre Lerche, singer, violinist, and composer, K Ishibashi (aka Kishi Bashi), embarks on a epic orchestral solo project. His solo live show is a dazzling array of looping and vocal/violin gymnastics. K is also singer of the NYC synth rock band Jupiter One.
Friday July 28 2012
Capitol Groove Fest @ Fairgrounds
Come groove out with 9 of DC’s best artists at the first Capitol Groove Fest. It’s about time DC had its own music festival and with your help, we can make this an annual thing that only gets bigger and better!
Lineup:
Drop Electric
Sunday July 29 2012
Saint Motel @ DC9
With sophisticated savvy and singularity, the Los Angeles quartet Saint Motel has built a formidable reputation on the back of inventive indie pop and wildly fun live shows. Mixing blistering pep with unique flair and rousing rhythms, Saint Motel’s aural catharsis is pure bliss with a twist of cynical humor. Once pulled in by the pulsating and joyous melodies, delight can be found in the surprisingly avant-garde lyrical subject matter. Stories reveal themselves through thematic twists and turns with a narrative voice both subversive and sincere. We find our contemporary hero assessing the world through a lens of poetic contrasts — running down the line of his modern concerns and realizing that a mangled face can be beautiful, that honest feedback can be as lethal as any weapon, and that one might be better off when he has nothing at all. With such honest motifs strung together by tongue-in-cheek notions, delivered with such charm, the band’s intentions are often left open to interpretation. And so, what might be easily perceived as sexy with one listen, with another might seem mean-spirited or flatly perverse. That is the flair of Saint Motel’s rapturous pop and the graceful dichotomy of its existence.
Comments are closed.