News :: Grave Babies :: Gothdammit

In keeping with the goth theme, it is with dejected and somnambulant pleasure for me tell you that Grave Babies will release a new EP, Gothdammit, on April 17th via Hardly Art. Five songs, five reasons to line your apartment with roadkill, five reasons to purchase speakers large enough to burrow inside.

Listen below to the first single, "Nightmare." At a time when most emerging bands feel a need to change their sound for more polished results, Grave Babies are smart enough to know that no one sounds like them in the first place. Here, as before, guitars sound like rotting teeth grinding lightbulbs, and drums still sound like the snapping of fresh celery stalks, and the mix is dusted with dried up worm guts. And then it just stops.

Grave Babies :: Nightmare

Video :: Mode Moderne :: Real Goths

Real goths spend Valentine's Day in abandoned train yards. Sometimes up trees. But they sure as hell never smile. Goldilocks ruins her aspirations here at about the 3:25 mark. Shame. Actually, she was done when her radiant skin entered the screen.

Vancouver's Mode Moderne have a new record coming out in May. This track is from a 7" of the same name released last year. I'm not smiling til they come to DC. Goths, I mean. I've strapped three squirrels' tails to my ass in hopes that they'll come sulking my way.

Review :: Shigeto :: Lineage EP

I've not dug into the roots of Ghostly International, but a quick look at their roster (both past and present) proves an aesthetic that has a lock down on a certain corner of my collection, with artists like School of Seven Bells, Com Truise, and Loscil, to name a few. Shigeto (real name Zach Saginaw) has been releasing material on the Ann Arbor-based label for a few years, and he continues to deliver his broken-down jazz electronics with the Lineage EP, released last week. Infinitely repeatable comes to mind - a varied but fluid meditation that never outstays its welcome. A taut mix of electric piano, chimes, harps and found sounds tethered to a shape-shifting rhythm section makes a shitty gray day completely tolerable.

Buy the damn thing, but save me a copy.

Track :: The Men :: Open Your Heart

The Men :: Open Your Heart

One of my favorite bands from this past year. The mood turned satisfyingly agro at their 2011 Hopscotch performance, and I haven't seen them since. Open Your Heart is their second full-length release on Brooklyn's Sacred Bones, and it's every bit as rocky and hand-hewn as the first.

If the Men ever decide to play a show in DC, I'll burn down the Occupy DC encampment starting with the "dream tent." It's a promise. Bring hardcore back to DC, and I'll burn those fucking hippies where they sleep.

News :: Upcoming Shows :: February

After a couple of dry months, Dirt Town is finally getting hosed. 


02/01 :: Smith Westerns/Bleached :: Black Cat Main Stage
02/02 :: The Kills/Jeff the Brotherhood :: 9:30 Club [SOLD OUT]
                  Tycho/Beacon :: Rock and Roll Hotel
02/06 :: Thurston Moore/Kurt Vile :: Black Cat Main Stage [SOLD OUT]
02/08 :: Veronica Falls/Brilliant Colors :: Black Cat Back Stage
02/09 :: Royal Baths :: DC9
02/11 :: Sharon Van Etten/Shearwater :: Black Cat Main Stage [SOLD OUT]
02/12 :: Die Antwoord :: 9:30 Club [SOLD OUT]
                 Dum Dum Girls/Widowspeak :: Black Cat Main Stage
02/14 :: Slow Club/Air Waves :: DC9
02/16 :: Zola Jesus :: U Street Music Hall
02/18 :: Dead Milkmen :: U Street Music Hall
02/27 :: Heartless Bastards :: Ottobar