Category Archives: Music

On any given day, perusing the event listings at a favorite music venue will result in the usual genre-spanning mix of musicians, whether up-and-coming or well-traveled, as well as DJ gigs and dance nights. As the world grapples with the latest wave of the pandemic, cancellations and postponements are more common than ever.

Apart from these coronavirus-caused disappointments, calendars are increasingly filled with dance nights dedicated to the present or not-so-distant past of pop music, pitting artists’ discographies against each other: Madonna vs. Gaga vs. Britney; One Direction vs. the Jonas Brothers; Taylor Swift vs. Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo or just herself.

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In her new music video for “Read My Mind,” Rebecca Black and collaborator Slayyyter portray bored convenience store employees with bad dye-jobs and worse attitudes who serve a parade of juggalos and rednecks before a chance encounter with a motocross star leaves them “yassified” — a 2021 trend that turned regular objects into extremely beautiful and queer-coded ones — into cartoonish dolls with big blonde wigs and too-big, muppet-like breasts.

The video’s grotesque-but-make-it-cute vibe matches the song, an irresistible pop jam that does the opposite of Coco Chanel’s most quoted wisdom and keeps adding one more thing: saccharine synths on top of pop-punk riffs on top of double-time breakbeats on top of an undeniable pop melody.

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On “Total Restraint,” the debut album by D.C. quartet Tosser, lyrics like “Staring at a wall and I can see my breath / You see my mind’s a mess” and “Heal myself with another excuse / Can’t taste what I smell” seem to speak to the malaise and psychosomaticism of life in the time of coronavirus. Similarly, the band’s guitar-powered songs sound like audio attacks aimed at breaking down the walls of homebound claustrophobia.

Yet “Total Restraint” was released about three weeks before the pandemic fully took hold in the U.S., making the album less predictive of what was to come and more descriptive of underlying issues that would soon be exposed and exacerbated by the virus.

The Washington Post

For most musicians, the pandemic brought their life’s work to a crashing halt, with concerts canceled or converted into live-streamed facsimiles, inspiration sapped, and opportunities to play and record music limited.

For D.C. multihyphenate Rick Irby — who performs and produces as Jau Ocean, drums for D.C. acts Den-Mate and Wanted Man, and serves as production manager at H Street NE venue Pie Shop — the stay-at-home orders presented an opportunity to reset.

The Washington Post

Amid the incalculable losses of the pandemic, live music might seem trivial to some. But at their largest — with thousands of young people, pure of heart and purpose, screaming and stomping, mobilizing air and shaking concrete — concerts can shock, awe and inspire. On Saturday night at the Capital One Arena, a capacity crowd broke its 18-month fast and returned to the collective communion of a live concert, thanks to Harry Styles.

The Washington Post

In 1993, the iconoclastic alternative act Morphine reached its apex with the album “Cure for Pain.” And while the Boston-born trio doled out narcotized, low-end-heavy rockers, the band took its name not from the opiate, but from “Morpheus,” the Greek god of sleep and dreams.

Nearly 30 years later, “Cure for Pain” has inspired a range of local musicians to interpret Morphine’s cult-favorite record as they seek deeper, personal meanings by covering the album, song-by-song. On Sept. 10, DMV-based label Growroom Productions will release the covers as its first volume of “Growroom Interpretations.”

The Washington Post

“When it comes to music, I mostly try to avoid nostalgia. The majority of my musical consumption — whether listening at home or in concert, as the subject of my writing or content of the occasional DJ set — is focused on what’s new and next. Even as anniversary tours have become the de rigueur way for bands with more than two albums to push tickets, I’ve rarely indulged.”

RIYL Mag

“Slithering through a crush of people on the dance floor to meet a friend or make a new one. Orders shouted, arms extended and drinks spilled at the bar. Sweat descending, its origins not always clear.”

Washington Post

“In late June, Justin Trawick was preparing to perform for his first in-person audience in months. The show was set to take place behind a three-story house on a quiet, suburban street in Arlington.”

Washington Post

“Two years ago, Washington was in the throes of the debate about Initiative 77, which would have phased out the minimum-wage exemption for tipped employees. David Combs, guitarist in the D.C. band Bad Moves, felt the controversy acutely, having worked in restaurants for over a decade, but was shocked at how hostility over the bill had been internalized by the people it was intended to help. He even spoke about it on “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” on WAMU — but felt he had to do so anonymously. The experience stayed with him.”

Washington Post