walking dogs

The InFestDC mixtape showcases 22 of the top live tracks from some of DC's best rising bands, but in case that wasn't enough, I've got a pleasant surprise in store for you. Thanks to Radio CPR, I've now got the chance to share even more audio archives from the city's underground show scene. Check out the first ever broadcast In Yr Basement Radio below for some great B-sides that didn't make the compilation, and don't miss next week's episode on Wednesday, May 13 from 6-7pm ET on 101.7FM in Mt. Pleasant or online here.

Many thanks to Ad Hoc, Washington City Paper, and DC Music Download for their coverage of the InFestDC mixtape, and to Decoder Magazine and DCist for their praises:

"The whole collection is a thrashing but articulate window into the various communities the Fest, and DZ Tapes itself, knit together through their projects." - Decoder Magazine 

"Combining live music with a sense of community organizing and charity are the perfect trio to describe ... the personality of D.C.’s own cultural history" - DCist

Up next on the live event front is the next Escape From DC Brunch show at Hole In The Sky this Sunday, May 10 featuring the public debut of a new project with members of Two Inch Astronaut and Young Rapids called Sloganeers, alongside Chris Taylor in The Creature People and HITS resident guitar wizard Justin Zami (click flyer for details).

In case you missed the last show, we captured the first ever performance by Green God here on VHS for your viewing pleasure:

In other DZ show news, Big Hush take the stage with Beach Fossils and Den-Mate at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Thursday, May 14 (click here for details).

Lastly, the yearly Nelsonville Music Festival in Nelsonville, OH will be taking place May 28-31 and will be hosting some spectacularly talented musicians, including DZ alum Adam Torres. Other acts along for the fun include The Flaming Lips, St. Vincent, Ryley Walker, Michael Hurley, and more.

Before signing off, I wanted to send my gratitude to the Baltimore City Paper for their graciously in-depth review of the Romantic States release, calling it "a seductive, cohesive whole [that] isn't merely impressive, it's quite often hypnotic," and to DC Music Download for including me in their recent piece on Record Store Day.

Until next time, stay sound...

give more

And so begins a month of weekend-long tours for Romantic States. After staying up until 3am getting wild at the cassette release show in Baltimore on Friday, a Saturday afternoon of soothing dissonance was well-needed. Thanks to everyone who came out and/or volunteered at the matinee Radio CPR benefit show (special shout-out to Ian MacKaye) as well as Mattress Financial and The Creature People for playing their hearts out as always. I'm happy to say we raised a modest sum for the station, and I'm looking forward to getting more involved in the near future.

Romantic States (courtesy of Chris Taylor)

"On this new self-titled record, Romantic States have traded in the synthetic bleeps and bloops of old, the stuttering tape machines, the more “experimental” side of things in favor of more traditional arrangements for guitars, drums, and voices. The result is a poised approach to songwriting, tunes that are skeletal in nature. While it may appear thin, oblique, and fragile, you’ll be surprised just how resilient and mercurial this collection of songs can be." - Gelatinous Blog

Next up for the band is this gig in Newark, NJ on Friday, February 13 at The Hollywood Bungalow (click here to RSVP) with Charm City chums Et Al. and Garden State locals Apparus.

On that same day here in DC will be another great show, this one a benefit for Casa Ruby LGBT Community Center, who is raising funds to open a homeless youth house in the district. The show features radiant dreamers Crimson Wave from Baltimore, activist sludge warriors Jail Solidarity, feminist grunge rockers Hemlines, and local unsung heroes Tereu Tereu and Jack On Fire. Check out the sweet show poster below c/o Rachel Porter and give it a click for more details and to RSVP.

I'm very happy to be involved with this show and am more than pleased with the serendipitous link between the two events happening all in one night at the same venue. Just downstairs will be a reading by contributors to the Collide Zine #3 speaking on the challenges of living with physical and mental illness, and additionally Sean Gray from Accidental Guest Records fostering a discussion on accessibility in the DIY community and spreading awareness of his site Is This Venue Accessible?, a growing collaborative resource to catalog accessible and inaccessible performance spaces.

Hope you get the chance to check out some live music in the coming week - don't forget to bring your lovers and your manners. ♥

romantic states

"Romantic States forge their path with little more than guitar, drums and voice but their success lies in what they achieve outside of these components. Immeasurable as these things often are, there’s a sense of melodrama that bleeds out of these tracks, a longing that you just can’t place. It’s there in the emphatic build of opening track ‘Watched By An Animal‘ and more prominently in the (beautiful) ugliness of ‘Frozen In Place‘. This muted charm runs like the lifeblood right through the heart of Romantic States, breathing fire in to its more raucous moments while propping up the more disillusioned passages where it slows to a quietened sigh, lost, to some extent, within the confines of the world it’s created for itself. A downbeat and fiery collection of songs that never settles, never quite finds the answers that it sets out to, but one that builds itself up regardless, in to something that, for all the disjointed elements that surrounds, still manages to portray an unexpected feeling of beauty."

Endless thanks to GoldFlakePaint for the glowing remarks above and for premiering the new album in its entirety, and additionally to The Le Sigh for their write-up on "Nettles" in which they refer to the band's sound as "intimate, a little experimental, and subtly beautiful".

The duo is celebrating the release of their new cassette with a string of shows this weekend around the DMV. Click the flyers below to RSVP, and if you can't make it to one of these gigs, keep your eyes open for more shows around the Mid-Atlantic region this month!

On Friday, February 6, they'll be playing for the hometown crowd in Baltimore at the Penthouse Gallery with a splendid bill of talented acts from their creative corner of the world including Post Pink, Boy Spit, Rosemary Krust, and Princess Reason.

The afternoon of Saturday, February 7 in DC will be a benefit show for local pirate community radio station 97.5 FM Radio CPR. The station has been a staple for the Mt. Pleasant community for about 15 years and plays host to a wide variety of shows ranging from community news and sociopolitical commentary to independent music from DC and all of the world. The gig will feature DZ favorites Mattress Financial and a rare solo set from Chris Taylor of Big Hush / Pygmy Lush / Pg. 99 as The Creature People.

That same night in Harrisonburg, VA, Jim and Ilenia will be joined by Sailor Ripley and Fresh Hell at MyMansion.

Stream of download the new album for free using the player at the top of the post! Cassettes are pro-dubbed on a solid pink shell and hand-numbered out of 100 - for those of you unable to catch the band in the flesh, you can grip a copy of the tape from the merch store. Thanks for taking the time to check it out~ ✌