So, In the interest of regaining momentum for this blog, I saw a new band!(of course it has taken me a week to post, but I've a lot to say) Really I SAW two new bands. Joss and Exit Clov, and you see, Joss is NOT from DC. Exit Clov IS, (in as much as all the members being enrolled in university in DC counts as being from somewhere.) I’ve made a tiny exception before, writing up Molehill Orkestrah (coming all the way from Arizona for a pirate radio benefit and the ottobar-rock on) and I’m going to do it again, write up Joss (just a bit bigger.)

Starting backwards, Exit Clov played second set on the backstage at the Black Cat. They had a lot to live up to for me. I'd seen a blurb in On Tap waaaaaay back in May ‘03, and took notice because I respected this Nevada person that wrote it for calling Clov out. Here at groupiegirldc, we struggle with the aphorism "If you don't have anything nice to say....etc." all the time. Then about a year later I saw the WP-Express nut and thought bubbled : "wow, that band’s still around" and "Great, they seem to be getting their shit together" and "I better go see this band." By then I think either Vivian from Cowlick Lucy or Mr. Joel had told me that Exit Clov was a major kickin 5 player with multi-instrumental, harmony singing lead singer sisters (phew!). I also think it was Vivian or Joel or both because I clearly remember Jenn being there and saying "Exit CLOV, C-L-O-V, that is the coolest band name, ever!" I can't tell you how much Jenn, Debbie & I bitch about good band names vs. bad band names, so this exclamation (even given that Jenn is a major theater geek) once again raised the bar for Exit Clov to be good.

A year and half later I have finally seen Exit Clov live. My summary on one helping of Clov: I challenge them to keep raising the bar. It seemed to take this band an inordinate amount of time to warm up to the set, like 4-6 songs, it was like Hsu sisters tangled in a rhythm section. Then, don't ask me what song it was but, in the middle of it the sisters both whipped out violins and played this synchronous dopler-ing drone for a goodly amount of time and rhythm did it's own thing and everything worked and there was a glimmer of the future. Susan & Emily (uh "the sisters" aka "do you know their twins?") are the ones responsible for all the instrumental multitasking I saw. I can speak for them being tight, at least at this show. (rah! girl power!) Keyboard, violin, and guitar power, it’s hard to resist.

I normally don't have much excitement for "pop", (I have almost no knowledge of pop music from 1984 to present, due to personal beef that signaled the end of free radio in this country for me...see me after a show if you need to know. This was before clearchannel got within 700 miles of NJ. Remembering moments like this make me think we are letting a free country slip out of our fingers. sigh. Anyway, back to pop music, right?) ggdc harps on experience at live shows, but in this case, cumon Exit Clov, with the artsy fartsy name I have to admit to having to check out their MP3's to thereby see what it was they were trying to do on that stage.

Listening to the MP3’s everything does sound tight and syncopated, Both practically and theoretically, they are trying to do an awful lot. In the studio they turn on a dime, live and on stage they are still just mortals. It will be interesting to see how long this band or at least some form of this band and all these nascent ideas sick around to amount to something.

(Now folks, you are about to witness what will seem like ggdc contradicting herself, but she is not. Figure out what I am talking about and go home with a certificate in karenese.)

Having been real familiar with Joss in recording I was pretty anxious and excited to see them live. Even right now I am struck by wanting to drop the CD in the player so I can write something all technical sounding, but really, why do that? Live, I walked away from Joss having noticed a hundred more rock n’ roll hooks in the music. It was cool to click with the visceralness of hearing a band live for the first time in awhile. Getting one’s ears back to virgin is not easy but worth it.

For only 3 instruments drums, bass & electric they make really rich and complex music. Mike, bassist, has a mike, (hah) for nice, subtle harmonizing. Another thing I like to hear, a bassist playing the song. It’s a hard thing to notice for me sometimes, but I think it’s brilliant when bassist's do it. What a super solid playa Joss’s drummer is too. Turns out Chris was in some version of the band Speed the Plough, which by way of website, I have just learned is somehow once removed from The Feelies. Hmm, Chris is really good and partly explains why he’s really good at doing more than just driving the song. There’s a call & response going on alternately with the drum & bass, drum & the electric. Drum & drum? Work's for me.

Then there’s lead singer Ambrose’s seeming ability to play the electric guitar partially via mind control, like Riley McMahon or Karl Straub-which I suppose must be like driving a formula one race car. Know exactly what you need to do, and you do not harbor even a flicker of realization that you are going at 220 mph, ever - cause then - pow - you crash. (Of course I’ve neither experience of driving a race cars or playing a guitar, but plug vicarious into this site’s search engine and see how ready I am to admit that as much as 50% of what I appreciate about live music is vicarious participation and it ability to breed great analogies like the above.)

You know, shoot, I need to say something about that wicked (to use a dated word) slide work Ambrose pulled out on the song Mojave Desert Highrise, too. Yum. I guess I’d heard him playing it on the CD, but it makes me feel like seeing is really hearing. How powerfully theatric. As I write this site mostly for people I know....you know how theatrical Jon Spottiswoode can be musically, gesturally and vocally? Well just imagine, Ambrose brings this to the table too, and he may be a slightly better technical player (though Spotty has really upped the ante with his playing ability in the past few years. Just check out his new CD, Building a Road.)

I really, really, really want to see Joss and Spottiswoode & His Enemies double bill. I’m kind of surprised they have not run up on each other. They both play the same round of joints in NYC: Candystore, Mercury, Knitting Factory and the like. I’m pretty sure they have never even heard of each other. It would be an art rock orgy, but maybe that’s just me.

So, umm, In the interest of full disclosure, now that you’ve read all the above, studio audience - if you’ve been playing along at home you may recall from earlier posts I know Joss’s lead singer, Ambrose. As I finish writing this, it strikes me now that I probably met Ambrose Liu and Jon Spottiswoode, (who I was also aquainted with in college) within about 6 months of each other, between the Summers of 1991 and 1992-when I was barely hanging onto my tender flower teen years. One was in school to become a film director, with a capital ART, the other was well on his was to becoming a recluse painter. Now thirteen years later, “what the hell?” They are rockstars. Yes, rockstars. They really are in my mind. Just as much as all the people I gush about on this blog that I have NEVER known personally. Is that sappy or what? On that note, I can think of no more beautiful way to end this post, having of course begun by talking about Exit Clov, a band that is at this present moment slogging through and trying to survive the same crazy ass time of life that I just got all reminiscent about.

Hello nice people. I miss talking to you and seeing you around. I can't believe the last time I posted anything was in May, more than 3 months ago. While I've been to some token shows, I have been to no where as many as I wanted too. I have seen no new local bands - not because they are not out there, but because of the stuff that keep all of us form going out on occasion - health issues, home issues, money issues, employment issues, and fear, loathing and exhaustion issues. I am hoping at least some of the above issues are behind me because this Summer it seems like I got a little of all of them.

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone I have not seen in person for 13 years (YIKES). We'd kept in touch by U.S. mail and then email once they invented that. In thirteen years our paths only came close to crossing once. If I remember he got a last minute gigs in NOVA a weekend I was on vacation in Boston.

Unlike then, Ambrose's band Joss is playing at the Blackcat on Thursday, September 30 with locals, exit clov and I will be able to be there. I think this is a smashing, smashing, smashing omen for a better Fall with lots of meaningful music moments. Don't you?.

I am committed to groupiegirldc, being about, duh, dc music, but if you approached me in person I would say there is a small number of out of dc groups that I would make an exception for. Joss is one of them. I've also been wanting to see exit clov since last Fall, so I will be killing two birds with one stone and the cat in a few days. It should so rock!

new CD label District Line, brought to you by Henry Rollins. This link was brought to me by Debbie with the simple tag 'I love Henry Rollins'.

What's not to love, he's a master of many lost arts, like public oration and speaking the truth. (The lack of truth speaking I come across in a day frightens me, it's not just on TV - but with real people everywhere, it's like they have someone else's eyes in their head, alas I digress) Anyway, "30 Seconds over DC" and "Troublefunk: Live and Early Singles" I am guessing will be essential, essential, essential material for research and pleasure. Mr. Rollins has already warmed my credit card, hope I have time to report back to you about it.

It's an On Tap DC Music Timeline. I don't have time to scrutinize this timeline, other than I found it because they give a nod to what I thought was just Mr. Brace's record label. Turns out Top Records was also run by Brian McGuire (now of 52 Pickup and quite the promoter hisself) and one W. Van Hall, whom I've never hear of. I soooooooo want recordings of Frontier Theory, B-Time and The Beggars. Wow, I thought thistuff was recorded in the 90's, but not quite, turns out it's the late 80's. I found it even more interesting that 1986 coincides with when I as an 8th grader stopped listening the radio and stopped buying 'records' by anyone that made over 1,000,000 a year. Yet as a 15 year old sheltered, not-even-a-little-punk-at-the-time ingenue with no internet, I never got to hear Dischord, harDCore, or even Top Records which would have rocked my world. I did buy and listen to a ton of Folkways and S.I. source recording and listened to my mom's and grandparent's old records, so I just came to my present musical taste and education backwards of most other people.

Listen...and weep

For my birthday, Karen gave me three Kevin Johnson and the Linemen CD's (Memphis for Breakfast, Parole Music, and The Rest of Your Life). It should tell you something that this is the first time I've been motivated to actually write something on this blog even though I've had the opportunity to since the very beginning.

All morning I've been listening to these CDs and I just want to cry. Partially because some of these songs are just achingly beautiful, but primarily because the only chance I'll get to hear these songs live is if Scott McKnight or the boys of Last Train Home perform covers. And that is a crying shame.

I'm not sure if it's my mistaken impression, born of Eric, Scott and Bill being Linemen before moving on to the incarnations we know and love them in now, but I feel like Kevin Johnson is the grand-daddy of all the music Karen and I have come to love over the past ...what is it three years now? (My lord, that was a long sentence.) And these albums totally live up to that impression.

Parole Music is one of the best albums I've ever heard. It's beautiful and heartbreaking and brilliant. This album is everything that all of these other musicians we listen to are aspiring to be. The song The Killer Pillow could easily be a Karl Straub tune (this may be the highest compliment I could pay a songwriter). Stay in Trouble is an absolutely beautiful song, totally heartbreaking. The arrangements on all the songs are great. His lyrics are great. This album rules.

I feel like I did when I discovered Karl's music...totally awed and delighted and desperate for more. I wish I'd known when I saw Kevin at the Americana Motel release show at the Birchmere what a rare treat I was experiencing. Kevin -- please come back! I want to hear these songs live! You're breaking my heart!!!

Get your own copy: sam records

This is a blogging service announcement. Once again, my life is out of control I am loosing my job due to contract fanagling, I am renovating an efficiency apartment almost single handedly which I must move into my April 1. So writing the blog is a wash, sorry there will be no schedule update this month either. I am seeing shows though, all this stress and tension needs to get released somewhere. God, I love live music.

Look at this schedule for March at IOTA?!?!?!?

Amazing, I think Steve & Jane are trying to drive my insane (or broke) - but more power to them! YAY! I always forget that Iota's birth sign is also Pisces, just like me! (My question is the club a Leo rising as well, just like so many of my friends. How does one go about figuring out what the rising sign of a business establishment would be? )

So, if you don’t know already, Chief Ike’s is where I first became a diehard Grandsons groupie. Chief Ike’s has not changed much since I was there last. Funny to hear myself say, but it’s refreshing that it hasn’t. It’s always been a fairly unpretentious place- it’s really a testament they are still there. I guess it popped up around the same time as Dante’s, 15 Minutes and the Insect Club, and they are all gone. How old does a club have to be before you can start talking about it’s history and how old it is?

Let me warn you, I’ve written a book here, it’s been a while since I focused on a new band.

So on like Feb 6, I go to hear The Shooters, a band from Virginia via Texas, a band I thought would sound reminiscent of my beloved G-Sons. I guess The Shooters did remind me of The Grandsons a little, I wrote down after seeing the show “The Shooters sound like Mike Holden & His Band had a test tube/petri dish baby with The Grandsons” (I fully realize I am one of maybe only 2 people in the entire Metro Area that understands this analogy-The Grandsons and Mike Holden are two very divergent bands that seem have very different clienteles).

To explain, The Shooters song choices are very melodic with heavy hooks and vocal runs like The Grandsons, but The Shooters lead singer, “J.R.”, delivers the goods with what I perceive to be a solo/singer songwriter voice. Like Holden, powerful and competent, but ultimately not an Issak, Orbison or even a MacEwen. I really lust after those warble-y, complex, cowboyish voices - I was a teensy bit disappointed, “J.R.’s” voice is not that. There was plenty else to make me want to watch this band in the future, for instance the freakin’ song “Whisper” . (You can get it on Washington Post MP3. I’m getting addicted to it. Talk a about a song with hook, I think it's yummy)

Also, their lead electric guitar, “Scooter”. This guy is young and hands down is the cleanest most classically trained "looking" player I have ever seen outside of 1960’s documentary films featuring Segovia himself. Maybe I am making this up, I didn’t talk to him, but the shows I go to I just don’t see anyone with that kind of technical form, EVER. Everyone I listen to taught themselves to play or were virtuosos on air guitar before they ever took a lesson. Amp/PA problems did hamper hearing all Scooter’s ‘clean’ riffing that I am making a big deal of but honestly, just watching him play was pretty. I’m anxious to hear this “Scooter” guy run through a real sound man.

Typical, to talk about the rhythm section last. A few months ago, I was all into noticing real sparse drum kits-well, I’ll be cow kicked, not for this band. They’ve got a beefy kit, not quite “hair band” size, but I lost count at four. Two were toms, and Smack Daddy Dave used them all. The bass player was mic’d for back up and had a good voice from what I could tell. Let me tell you, this bass guy ”Stub” was one of the most energetic bass players I have ever seen live around here. His playing pretty much kept step with his antics too.

Truly, this whole band comes prepared with antics and chatter built in, I was kind of surprised. Going into this show, I knew about the band members over the top stage names but was not prepared for the comedy. Like a spoof on the Janet/Justin Super Bowl booby incident. Weird, but then again one person’s weird is another's gravy. Like what I thought was sincerely cool was the fact that “J.R.” wrote an original song for ukulele inspired by his mother. I am self-aware enough to realize most would find the second situation weird, I don't.

Putting how I subjectively define weird aside, Debbie really hit the nail on the head:

“The Shooters remembered the first rule of schmoozing: get to know the crowd -- they are potential fans. I appreciated that J.R. and Smack Daddy took the time to introduce themselves and sit and talk with us. Attention, rightly placed is always welcome. I don't like going to shows where the band seems more interested in your wallet size than in you as a person. Making people feel special and not neglected is the cardinal rule of REAL hospitality, which translates into fans wanting to see or hear you again.”

If the above isn’t in groupiegirldc’s top ten, it should be. It’s real important, being nice and engaged with everything that is going on at your show will never, ever hurt and The Shooter’s on first viewing seem to have this covered. They’ve got the instrumental skills, they have original material and they did some really interesting covers, tweaked just enough to their sound, U2-I mean who does U2 covers? David Frizzell's Wino, and Depeche Mode song too, I think-? There’s not many bands you could check out and hear all that in one night. I’m going to keep my eye on them and see what happens. You can see them at Grog&Tankard on the 27th.

Speaking of being nicey, nice, here's a transcript of
Mike Schreibman, President and Executive Director, Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) talking about the Wammies Live Online on February 11, 2004 It seems a lot of Mike's pictures found their way onto WP-MP3's Opsasnick's Capitol Rock review pages too. Just reading some of the questions & comments in this online chat makes me quiver with giddiness. I have to get to this Wammie show one day and meet this Mike guy.

So the below is a wash, no recording of a live show this weekend, but at least there are shows.
I suppose it would be remiss of me not to mention how excited we are that LTH has decided to lay down track for a live album very soon, the last weekend in February to be exact, on my Birthday weekend too! yay!

Sunday February 8, I'd have to say the Little Pink show Black Cat backstage is a no misser, love the backstage, when it's done right, as we know it will be by Little Pink. Spoils of NW has been checking themselves out on ggdc, they did a District of Ladies show last month that I missed - but they still get hits on my site, so I should write something. I very
much want to see the whole show.

Updating my template and even blog entries has been hell recently, I don't know what I need to format to stop having these problems.

Things to remind myself about:

1) My ten reasons I keep checking out AMS
2) My take on Opsasnick's Washington Rocks
3) The link to the W-post's fantastic MP3 setup for Opsasnick's Capitol Rocks

Hazel Dickens at Strathmore, I really want to go to this on 2/4, but I have to be a spend thrift this month. Wah!

and by the way I AM TRYING to update my calendar, but I can't. Double Wah!

There's a lot of special stuff this month, 2/4 to be exact like Hazel Dickens at Strathmore on Thursday! Oh boy do I wish I could go to that-but I have to be a spendthrift this month, wah!

And by the way, I am desperately trying to update the calendar and it's not cooperating again!

Hello, a snowy day in DC, ya'll. I have found something online by accident that I in awe of at the moment. A labor of love discography of Country Music records from 1951 to 1964, called Rockin' - Country Style
I'm not quite sure how I would use this yet, but shoot-I mean shoot - look at all those songs, and you can see those 50's/60's record labels even by geographic region (like checkin' out DC). I've finished Opsasnik's book, (but have to collect myself to write about it) and imagine that he would want to know about this site, so fans, this is why I post it. (Well that, and so I can find it again)

A correction, The Shooters show at CHIEF IKE'S MAMBO
ROOM is on FRIDAY Feb 6th, not Saturday Feb 7th. So
catch them as part of your extended happy hour on Friday
the 6th. and check it out, a web site for Chief Ike's.

This entry will be known as "Become a Shooterfan."

(caveat emptor: I have not seen this band live yet)

Take a look at this email I received from "J.R." of the "carefully selected nickname" entitled "Your new favorite group in DC..."


THE SHOOTERS!


I stumbled over your page in the yahoo groups, and I
simply must have you as a fan. I MUST! I WILL!


So we're a half texan, half virginian twang-banging
band called The Shooters. We sound like Chris Isaak
with attitude. You can read up about us and get show
info at
http://www.shootersite.com


Be a fan!



J.R. Royall

The Shooters



So for your benefit "J.R." behind the scenes this is what the founding members of ggdc say- "hilarious. the boy definitely deserves our attention!" and "Oh my gosh, that's so cool." So much enthusiasm in such a succinct email. And look how 'neat' their website is, by which I mean clean type faces and animation that doesn't crap out my dial-up, and what may be real artists drawings on the show page. Nice. I can't believe I'm posting these shows with out seeing the band first, but it's so neat and organized and easy to copy, I can't resist.



* Wednesday, January 21st .............Velvet Lounge

Doors at 8:00, us at 9:00

915 U Street NW, Washington DC

(202)462-3213



* Saturday February 7................ Chief Ike's Mambo Room,

Special Valentine's Day Show!

Doors at 7:00, us at 8:00-ish

1725 Columbia RD (between 17th &18th streets) Adams Morgan, Washington DC

(202)332-2211


(awwww, it's Chief Ike's, Anyone know what band I used to go see here ever other Wednesday in the 90's? If you do, you win a lollipop! Well really we all win 'cause look, it seems Ike's often does live music again and other live performance stuff too!)


and lastly,

* Friday, February 27th .............Grog and Tankard

On at 11:00 pm

2408 Wisconsin Ave, NW

Georgetown, Washington DC

(202)462-3213



FYI, This is going to sound petty, the Grog is in "Glover Park", not Georgetown. It's like saying the Black Cat is in Dupont Circle, close - but no cigar.



PHOEBUS is also playing at the Grog in March, maybe. hmmmmm, infamous old Grog, shoot, that place has been around awhile. I am inclined to "go off" on the Grog, but honestly I've seen a lot of shows there. And while they have spruced the place up, it's got a residual DC funk (as in smell) circa 1980 to 1998 that I thought was gone when the 9:30 moved and the Bayou closed. Now the Bayou and the 9:30, while smelly, had almost from the beginning featured national acts. You won't see so much of that at the The Grog, occasionally, but not in the same class as those DC classic clubs. But like I said, I have seen lots of shows at the Grog in 14 years and generally I like to think I don't listen to trash, otherwise you would not be reading this. The Grog's, got the smell, the look and the college students and the fact that the place is so close to richy-rich Georgetown yet (I assume) still between two strip clubs is priceless. Checking out any band at the G & T is time machine for me. If researched before attending a trip to see a band would be worthwhile for anyone.

Girls Against Boys line up at the Velvet Lounge is posted now. Partyline, Spoils of NW, Rose and SHORTSTACK all playing on January 16th. I'm very psyched, I wonder how mobbed it will be?

Junestar, a swell band I've seen a couple of times and not written about yet, they don't seem to get DC side much. So sad.

Check this out, the Paste
Magazine 2003 Readers Poll.



OK, I'm not a reader yet, but I took the poll anyhow. I got hipped to this by Debbie b'cause it seems that this magazine has a soft spot for Spottiswoode and his Enemies. Their building a road is listed by the mag with people like Dave Matthews, Radiohead, Kathleen Edwards and Beth Orton. Jenn found Paste online as they put a Spotty single on one the CD's that goes to subscribers of the print mag. Totally cool, non? The great thing about this poll is you see the results after you've taken it, S&hE is doing quite well in the "Paste Poll" and hey they give you comment boxes too - like "what was the most overrated CD of the year" in my world "The Complex" Blue Man Group's collaborative release, blech. Such a disappointment after their first CD "audio" which was amazing. Go buy "audio" if you can. If you need to hear "The Complex" my copy is probably under a table leg to keep a table top from wobbling, go and take it.