[Local] Black Checker, Grand Piano and The Fed @ The Wonderland Ballroom

Two big goals this year: discover more local music and see more local shows. While I am forever on the hunt for the DC folk scene (which does, absolutely, exist), the district is home to many fantastic bands that fall way outside of this genre. In a city known for gogo but with a large punk rock and dance pop presence, I would be missing out if I limited my love for local music to just the folk bands.

Bar shows are criminally underrated as activities within my circle of friends. Occasionally, I can rally the troops and get enough people out to support great bands playing our usual haunts. Solly's, Wonderland, Looking Glass Lounge and The Pinch are all favorites of ours, yet we rarely partake in the shows that grace these venues' stages.

Last Thursday, I gathered up a crowd of friends to see Black Checker, Grand Piano and The Fed put on a no-cover show at Wonderland. With tacos before at El Chucho, the night felt like a celebration of what makes our neighborhood area such a great place to live.

The Fed opened first. While I've never personally been to one of their shows, they seem to be an institution around here, playing shows in Ward 1 on a regular basis. Described as a blend between blues and punk rock, their sound is one anyone could really appreciate.

Grand Piano, a rock and roll band with many influences, played next. The Pittsburgh band killed it on stage, as all of a sudden the crowd at Wonderland was dancing along to their sax-heavy tracks. This band sort of caught us off guard too. Were they heading in a ska direction? Earlier on in the set, we said no but as the songs continued, we definitely felt a ska vibe. In my opinion, that is never a bad thing. Even without heavy vocals, there was an endearing distinction between their short songs. A few songs were played off of their latest Bug EP, including Army Ants, Lighting Bug and Lady Bug that really charmed the group over. At this point in the night, I felt like I had won. My friends were enjoying the music and there was hope bar shows could be a regular activity for us.

Of course, the band I was anticipating the most was Black Checker, a local pop punk rock outfit. Their EP, Fast, released during the end of 2013, was streamed many times while I was hiding out in rural Virginia for work. In my opinion, there's nothing quite like a little local music to ease the homesickness and this show reminded me why I love being in DC so much on the weeknights. Despite being the last band on the ticket, at 11PM on a weeknight, the crowd was still flush with excitement and engagement. Black Checker played most (if not all) of the EP, including my favorite track, Bagel Girl.

After the show, this thought still remains: will we ever know which local bagel shop barista inspired Bagel Girl? I don't know. If we're looking at quirky bagel shops in the area, my guess would be a girl from So's Your Mom, in Adams Morgan.

All in all, this (coupled with a few whiskey sours) was a good way to spend a Thursday night in this city. I'm looking forward to hopefully catching Black Checker again at The Velvet Lounge sometime in March and just attending more local shows in general.

[Local] The First Few by The Ripples

My alma-mater, The University of Washington, was attended by a slough of musically talented individuals who would later be part of Seattle's greatest bands (Sound Garden, The Long Winters, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Hey Marseilles, PUSA to name a few). With other universities in the general Seattle area, such as The Evergreen State College, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University and The University of Puget Sound, the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington State is not short on a creative music scene. Because I moved to DC after college, I often forget about the universities in the district. Georgetown, George Washington, and American, among others, also cultivate musical talent and bring a young livelihood to this city.

Although I wouldn't pigeon-hole them as a "college band", The Ripples, a new folk-rock band, is mainly composed of current students at Georgetown University. To say I'm impressed with their debut album, The First Few, would be an understatement.

The album opens up with Dorothy, a track that immediately tells the listeners which direction this album is heading in, "Midnight, comes around, the day you turn 19. Bags packed, you're ready, cab’s revving in the street." There's a coming to age theme yet the music accompanying the lyrics sounds more mature, in a good way. The energy of 1960's rock and the use of much harmonica will be a common thread as the album progresses.

Woke Up In Mexico, bringing in a more airy sound, turns the whisky from Dorothy into tequila. What I find fascinating is the liquors referenced in both songs actually describe the overall feeling put forth. Listeners will also find fantastic songwriting with clever metaphors to be another foundational aspect of The First Few.

The track I can't stop listening to is Portrait, which is an even-keel, balanced-sounding song throughout. Here, I like to hone in on the lyrics which reminisce on old times with family and friends using painting metaphors - brushes, strokes, and the richest of colors. This isn't the last time we get an art metaphor in this album, an upbeat track, Picasso makes use of the Spanish artist. I'd like to see more art and art history references in folk music - it's a nice change of pace.

Frankie's Song is impeccably composed, with a take on smooth jazz, that surprisingly sounds from California than anywhere else. This is a good example of the interesting characterization The Ripples feature in their tracks. Frankie sounds equal parts frustrating and endearing, but listeners get a good feel for the type of person she is at the core.

Listen to The First Few on bandcamp, soundcloud or spotify. Support Georgetown's newspaper and radio station by checking out their write ups on the album at The Hoya and the WGTB blog. You can catch The Ripples, with a few other local acts, at Rock and Roll Hotel tonight (tickets here).

Pieces and Places: Desperados

(let's discuss the music I hear in district-area bars, coffee shops and other fine establishments)

Desperados is the neighborhood bar I always forget about. My friend group came here on Halloween and had an amazing time with $3 rails and the best bar food anyone can find in this city. Between fries with homemade Cajun sauce and homemade fried pickles (frickles), one can really do no wrong here. It's guaranteed to be quiet, the bartenders are always super friendly and it's a place two people can have a real conversation. I got especially lucky with our bartender last night. He was chatty, was providing great service and had this killer playlist going. A few songs into the evening and I knew it was time for another "Pieces and Places".

Date: December 25th, 2013 (Christmas!)

Time: 7:00 to 11:30 PM

Vibe: Dead quiet. A few beautiful folks waiting out the holiday at the bar.
Drink of Choice: two Shock Top drafts, an order of fries, two Abita Purple Haze bottles, and two mystery beer + shot combos. Merry Christmas to me! 

All I should say about this playlist: it was the best of indie music and had me intrigued for the entire four hours of my stay. The following songs were the stand-outs and my favorites:

I Stand Corrected by Vampire Weekend - the best quote came about when this song was playing "Nostalgia. It gets you deep. Like when you were back in your mother's womb." 

Zero by Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "it's like they're playing all the songs from Rock Band."

West Coast by Coconut Records - the song that hit all the right feelings. "I miss you, I'm going back home to the west coast."

Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John - "I can never get over this song." I'm fortunate to only hear Young Folks at the right times and at the right places. I find myself circling back to it only occasionally and the magic is always preserved.

Fences by Phoenix - the bartender streamed quite a bit of Phoenix over the four hours I occupied a bar stool. Can we all take a moment to appreciate Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix for all it did to the band and to alternative music? While I love older Phoenix, their pinnacle was truly reached here. 

Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap - I've thought about this song being the forefront of my wedding playlist many times during my life so far, "a moment, a love, a dream, a laugh, a kiss, a cry, our rights, our wrongs." Is there anything more to life? 

Start of Something by Voxtrot - "Voxtrot is on this playlist. It's perfect now." Somehow, anyone who loves music as much as I do, will include The Start of Something on their quintessential mixtapes. It's a phenomenon.

Smiley Faces by Gnarls Barkley - While Crazy was the stand out track on St. Elsewhere, Smiley Faces was just as catchy and just as loved by me.

Such Great Heights by The Postal Service - Do I really need to say anything here? Put it on any playlist, anywhere and I will always appreciate those four and a half minutes of bliss.

Wake Me Up by Avicii - Avicii outdid himself with this song. It appeals to the mainstream stations, the EDM crazies and those of us who lean toward indie-folk music. He blended so many genres together in such a gorgeous way. I'm not sick of this song yet and it's always welcome.

Steady, As She Goes by The Raconteurs - "Is this Jack White's other band?" "Yes, but this is their only good song." Ouch, but true. I'm pretty sure this is the number one song I hear while out at the dives.

Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine - a night isn't a night unless there's some Florence Welch coming over the speakers. I used to religiously listen to her on the long metro rides back to Silver Spring. I'm not commuting for social purposes anymore, so it's nice to hear her wrap up a fantastic bar playlist.

I encourage everyone to check out Desperados. I can never figure out why the bar remains so quiet. The drinks are good, the food is top notch (go just for the Cajun sauce) and the background music will keep you on your stool. You will find me here on holidays and those quiet weekday nights when I want to sit down, drink a beer and crank out some work.

City and Colour @ The 9:30 Club

The minute I saw this show pop up on the 9:30 Club website, I bought tickets. That was back in April. I painfully waited five entire months and it was more than worth the wait.

Over the five months, I had developed a few assumptions going into this show. One, Dallas would focus mostly on his new album, an album which is fantastic, but doesn't have that same emotional hold on me that his older albums do. And two, the show would entirely consist of Dallas with his guitar playing acoustic versions of all his songs. These assumptions were silly - Dallas is amazing to his fans and would never short-change us from all the C&C songs we grew up with. He also knows how to rock.

Such as the VC show, I had high aspirations of the front row. It didn't happen - I ended up being 8th in line outside, with another thirty inside. We did see Dallas go back into his tour bus after playing basketball - I think we were all too shell-shocked to say/do anything. The girls behind me weren't paying attention to anything, so my new concert buddy was able to cut the line and join me. I must say, I love going to concerts with people more so than just myself. Although, I'm convinced a person should be as passionately into music as I am to make good company. Carrie fit the bill and I hope to go to more concerts with her in the future.

Lucy Rose and her band opened. She was adorable and I could almost understand why the two sets of couples in front of me were there to see her versus C&C. The band wasn't too cohesive at first but really came together wonderfully by the end of the set. Initially, I think everyone was a bit nervous. I've been listening to her album since the show and I really enjoy and recommended it. At the very least, check out my favorites from the album: Red Face, Lines and Bikes. During the middle of the set, Lucy told the story of her and her band walking around D.C. trying to convince six different record stores to sell the album without luck before the show. For some reason, that story made me really sad. Come on, DC.

After a relatively short period of time, Dallas prepared to enter the stage. The song to welcome him on was strange and we endured an anticipatory minute for his appearance. He and his band came out and started rocking. The Hurry and The Harm was the opening song - I'm a big fan of bands opening their shows with their most recent album's opening song. It's fitting. Of Space and Time and The Lonely Life followed. I still didn't trust Dallas enough at this point to not play his entire new album. When Grand Optimist came on, I knew he'd play a great set with lots of variety. As Much As I Ever Could was an interesting first choice from Bring Me Your Love but he proved that song is underrated. Weightless was the last big rock song from the first part of the show. I can't get over how amazing it was to see that song live. After spending most of the past year with that song as my alarm in the morning, experiencing it during the show woke me up in other ways.

At this point in the show, the band left and we got Dallas all raw and acoustic. Day Old Hate was another intriguing choice that I wouldn't have expected, but greatly enjoyed. Northern Wind was dedicated to a couple Dallas had met previously in the day, who had had a special moment with the song. When I think about it closely, Northern Wind is a far better love song than The Girl. Comin' Home had been on a playlist of mine leading up to the show and I was really happy to experience it live - the song had a way of bringing everyone together to sing.

The third part of the show, once the band had come back on stage, left little to be desired. Sleeping Sickness was just not meant to be this hyped-up rock ballad. I almost couldn't keep a straight face... I feel awful about this but my conflicting emotional feelings tied to that song also didn't help. Thirst, Fragile Bird and Sorrowing Man were all good ending choices, but I was exhausted.

The encore was long. What Makes a Man? was the first song of three and Dallas went through this whole spiel to get the audience to sing with him during certain parts of the song. From here on out, we'd no longer get the chance to interact so intimately with him and it was the perfect song to start saying goodbye with. As much as I was expecting The Girl to be the song of the night, the show, for me, truly ended here.

Looking back, Dallas' stage presence made the show. He's such an approachable-seeming, humble musician. The encouragement to sing along was appreciated and he even called out all the grouchy attendees who were getting upset over all the off-key, off-measure sing-a-longs. A girl was celebrating her birthday in the front row (even had a birthday tiara) and he did a shout out to her (I'm pretty sure that made her year). He casually played off all the "Marry Me Dallas" fangirls by pointing at his ring. The man is chatty and all the interaction with the crowd made this show so memorable and his music somehow more easy to relate to. A two-hour set was long but you could tell how much he was enjoying himself. I also loved how his drinks of choice were a shot of whiskey and a beer - I wasn't expecting anything less.

{Local] Kalorama by Luray

August is one of my favorite months in DC. While it's usually hotter than all hell, the month brings with it a flood of new people moving into the city. There's a mix of idealism, nativity, and passion that floats through the air. When I moved here, I was warned that DC was a "rough city" to adjust to. At first I didn't believe - the surrealism of living here trumped any and all other feelings I had. After a little bit of time, I agreed.

Kalorama by Luray adeptly describes the transition into this city. Upon first listen, between the gorgeous banjo-strumming and the dreamy folk sound, one wouldn't necessarily think this could be a song about a city, let alone this district.

The more I listen, the more frustrations I hear laced throughout the song. There's mentions of over-priced furniture, judgmental locals, driving around without finding parking and small stores that haven't been opened in thirty years.

Despite all the misgivings, "in Kalorama, we'll make it alright".

Luray is the band of Shannon Carey. Her debut album, The Wilder, was released yesterday and can (should) be purchased on iTunes. The band is being called a familial affair and is drawing comparisons to Bon Iver. S.Carey, her brother was originally the drummer in Bon Iver and even produced The Wilder. Another brother and her husband also contribute to the band. In my opinion, she has a very distinct style that varies vastly from Bon Iver or any of Justin Vernon's other projects. However, if that comparison is what it takes to have the album gain more (deserved) press, I'm all for it.

Listen to Kalorama if you're new to this city. Treat it as a mantra when riding out any rough patches. Listen to Kalorama if you're not new to this city and realize that you have made it alright. You can listen on SoundCloud.

(image of Mitchell Park via Wikipedia)

[Local] Morning EP by The Sun Kite

I keep lamenting over "breaking into the DC folk scene". To which, my friends and I question whether such a scene exists. I am convinced that it does, but not to the extent I'm used to being from Seattle.

That being said, a release such as Morning by The Sun Kite gives me hope that DC could be a place for folk to cultivate further.

Morning is conceptually, lyrically, and musically themed around, you guessed it, the morning and is the first of three releases. In my opinion, many albums nowadays lack something to tie everything together. I'm not saying every album released should be conceptual, but some sort of cohesion is always appreciated. When I first read the intents behind Morning on the bandcamp site, before listening, I was excited over the prospect but also a little apprehensive about how ambitious the project seemed.

Upon my first listen, I'm happy to say the project is beautifully executed. It's a slow build-up, on purpose, starting from Lantern through Braving The Wind. I think there's no other choice but to follow along with the intent and treat this EP as a niche. Listen to this in the morning -- preferably before the commute, work and that first cup of morning coffee. This is meant for stretching upon waking, embracing the birds chirping outside, taking a morning walk, watching the sunrise and soaking up that quiet morning period before the day actually begins. I'm fortunate enough to live right on the perimeter of Malcom X Park in DC. One of these summer mornings, I'm going to sit next to the fountain and play this through.

Michael Frommack, who self created the EP, reminds me of both Aqualung in the early tracks and Ben Howard in the later. For some reason, while listening to Bluebird Mend, I couldn't get Aqualung's 7 Keys out of my head. It's a strange parallel but I'm going to roll with it.

You can download Morning on The Sun Kite's bandcamp page or listen on Spotify!