Bad Moves turns individual inspiration into songs that speak to universal experiences

“Plenty of D.C. bands have gotten kicked out of their practice spaces because of noise-averse neighbors, but only Bad Moves has had the experience animated. Last summer, the band appeared as themselves on Cartoon Network’s “Craig of the Creek” as a garage band that helps the main characters start a band of their own.”

Washington Post

Upstart AEW is taking WWE head on — with a focus on diversity and inclusion

Along with having significant financial backing and a cable TV show, AEW also is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to present pro wrestling differently, with a focus on diversity and inclusion in the ring, in the front office and in the audience. And while AEW is loaded with ex-WWE stars and indie darlings, it’s also making a significant bet on a relative unknown like Rose, who is not only a Native American of Oneida heritage, but the first openly transgender wrestler signed to a major U.S. promotion.

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This festival celebrates ‘pure dance joy’ — disco music

This summer marked the 40th anniversary of the infamous Disco Demolition Night in Chicago. For some, that event was a shock jock’s baseball promotion that got out of hand, turning into a riot and marking the end of disco’s pop cultural moment. For others, it was a violent attack on the communities — people of color and LGBT folks — that built disco long before “Saturday Night Fever” turned the genre into a punchline.

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For Marina, her newest music comes out of love and fear

When it was time to figure out how to present her latest album, Marina Diamandis was drawn to the work of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Best known for her model for the five stages of grief, Kubler-Ross also theorized that all human emotions come from either love or fear.

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Jenny Lewis shows why she’s a born performer

As she tells it, Jenny Lewis was born in Las Vegas after her mother went into labor while performing at the Sands. Like much of old Vegas, The Sands is no longer standing, but Lewis, who performed at the Anthem on Thursday, is doing her best to keep that spirit alive.

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Tame Impala’s freak flag flies at half-staff at Anthem show

As the summer of 2019 winds down, everyone seems to have the summer of 1969 on the brain: We almost celebrated the 50th anniversary of Woodstock (in Columbia, Md., of all places) and Quentin Tarantino’s latest stab at hysterical/historical fiction, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” takes place back then, too. Nostalgia for those days fuels Tame Impala, the brainchild of Kevin Parker that played the Anthem on Saturday night.

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The anything-goes sound of Del Florida

Leela Dawson was 4 years old when she first wanted piano lessons, but there was one problem: The teacher told her parents that she had to learn the alphabet before she could be taught. Undaunted, the young Dawson went home and learned her ABCs that week.

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Broke Royals wants its music to ask good questions, not give answers

All of our great thinkers have toyed with the dichotomy of life’s questions and answers, whether Rainer Maria Rilke (“Love the questions themselves . . . Do not now seek the answers”) or “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (“Just when they think they have the answers, I change the questions”).

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The eclectic collective 2012 Bid Adieu finds itself in ‘our digital purgatory’

A few years ago, doomsdayers predicted that the apocalypse would occur in 2012, based on some creative readings of astrology and Mayan history. There was even a bloated disaster film about it. But 2012 came and went, and life went on.

Or did it?

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For singer Harriet Brown, moving to L.A. spurred ‘super-painful’ self-reflection

For many of us, bouts of anxiety or depression can be treated by window-shopping or Amazon trawling to reach a better state of mind. But no matter how good a salve, such retail therapy can’t cure underlying issues — a truth hinted at by Harriet Brown as he sings, “I’m just one choice away from purchasing away this pain” on his song “Retail Therapy.”

Read more in The Washington Post.