Wow is there a lot of competition for outside music this weekend. Check this out, what the heck is Fete de la Musique? Music outside in DC, some of it just spontaneously happening in front of a grocery store near you. For instance, check it out, Jon Kaplan at the Shops in Georgetown. bit-chin. I hope I get a chance to ask some of these players what the experience is like being a street musician for a day. When I saw the "call for musicians" forwarded to the Arlington Music Scene listserve, I thought it was a flame. As it turns out, according to the press release, the DCCAH did not come up with this idea itself, but stole it from France, (which explains the ala musi-Q name-does anyone else find this funny?)

Anyway, do not be alarmed by the musicians on the street, they are just like you and I, just a little bit crazier. Here's the Fete de la Musique Schedule for this weekend so you can get to know everyone by name, like a proper groupie.

You should go to this on Sunday if the weather is nice. It's one of like 4 plus outdoors shows happening in the next few days, especially for The Grandsons.

At the risk of gettin' suburban on yass, this thing on Sunday is a no miss. Rockabilly, Tony Hawk, 'grandfather' of extreme skateboarding, and the new AFI Silver Theaters totally hip program. (someone posted the Summer film schedule at Iota-teehee). Really though the AFI can finally do it's job, showin good films at a good price. A standard $8.50 usually, and you can purchase online! Can I get an Amen. And really, if does not rain, bring your sunscreen and git out dang it.

READY, SET, EVOLVE!



If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week.


- Charles Darwin



Got it covered. In fact I must be mega-evolved!, once a week-pffft.

OK, sorry to be so pokey, hopefully I can get this extensive June calendar up soon. Looking at my posts, sorry to bore you, but I went to another Spottiswoode show...well it was an S & M show, by which I mean a John & Riley show. Clear as mud now, right?

Anyway thanks to these lovely people for having S&M play. I heard these two play a few songs at Visions when they screened "The Gentleman" a lovely film co-written and directed by Spottiswoode, but that was at least two years ago, maybe close to three. Honestly that Visions show did not hold a candle to last weekends performance.

While I am not a musician I am going to be bold and suggest that if you are in a band of more than two and have been considering playing out with a smaller combo, do it.

a) I was quite interested in technically how much better John's guitar playing has gotten b) In this case I also got to see a whole different musical side to Riley. In S&HE he is normally engaged in impressive finger gymnastics with guitars and other string things, in the duo it's about the timing and the rhythm using bells, toys, & frying pans c) Perhaps if you are a songwriting performer it gives you a whole different venue for different songs. If you've got freaks like me who have been listening to your material on & off for a decade, presenting them with new material is a good thing.

(you know I go off about wanting change, but often, often, often at Spottiswoode shows I am amazed at the cigarette torch mentality that can pervade-it can't escape notice that people still want to hear those Zimmerman songs, great songs, but get real, the world has moved on-and of all the people that should it not be Zimmermans fans that 'understood' "That's how the civilized will be punished? Oi vay.

Why the hell was this not the feature in the newspapers ENTERTAINMENT section this Sunday-screw that, why not all last week!!!" I'm really mad. There's really just too much out there to keep up with, but that's not an excuse. Join me in geting up on FCC issue's at FUTURE OF MUSIC COALITION

THEN POUND AND FLAME THE FCC WITH COMMENTS!!!!!!!

COMMENT TO THE FCC NOW! You know, while you are at it, pound the POST too, I am sick of the Entertainment/Style headings used in the print and online sections of this newspaper. Where's the section where you would learn that your country is trying to violate your free speech by ensuring that your poverty will keep you from ever figuring out what is going on?



From the Post: Letters to the Editor




Q: How do I submit a letter to the editor?


A: We offer two methods of sending a letter to the editor of The Washington Post: 1) You can e-mail your Letters to the Editor to Letters@washpost.com.


2) If you prefer, you can send your letter by surface mail to:


Letters to the Editor

The Washington Post
1150 15th Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20071

Guidelines on sending Letters to the Editor can be found at:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13301-2000Mar5.html

So there's a run of Last Train Home shows coming up at Iota in a few weeks. The right thing for me to do would be to point you towards Sunday the 8th as it is then you will most likely get to hear the Kevin Cordt "tet" as we've taken to calling them (really known as the Kevin Cordt Trio). I really wanted to write about the Sunday show at the end of April where at one point there were 7 players on stage with Kevin's Trio. It looks like what ever bug that Last Train Home's got that makes people jump on stage and get called out of the audience is catching. It's a lovely thing to watch if just for the reason that this group of fellas plays around each other in a number of different kinds/types of bands-(country, rock, straight up roots, art rock) and it is really fun to hear them wrap it around the jazz idiom now too. There's a lot of personality and music edjoocayshion on the bandstand, I lobbied for a rendition of Nature Boy in April, after hearing that Dave VanAllen had it transcribed for the Steel. Now that steel and Kevin singing it would be sweet. New life to an under used song.

Speaking of LTH and devotion, I just have to make a short note about Mike Aldridge and Jimmy Gaudreau and how either freaked out or amused, (I could not tell which) they were at the woohoo's and cat calls they got at Iota playing as the Skylighters with three Last Train Homers. Jimmy kept hootin' back-atchaudience. I like that Jimmy bunches. I know that being ONLY 30 or so, I am an exception when it somes to my knowledge of the Seldom Scene and the heyday of DC bluegrass. There were some regulars from the specifically Iota LTH crowd that did come out to the Thursday show and it was interesting to see the audience/band dynamic. Even the most rabid LTH/Eric Brace fan has got to hear in Mike and Jimmy the foundations of LTH. Will these 25-35 year olds stick it out long enough to figure out who the Seldom Scene was and is?

Which brings me to my executive decision to put up for you readers of groupiegirl, what do we call those individuals that pack those Last Train Home shows? Now granted I am often one of them, but I hope that I am recognized as an all around music scenester. These are the people you pretty much never see anywhere else but Iota. So are they already called something-the specific LTH groupies? I've heard mention of TRAINEES, what about HOMERS? VOTE, dammit, what do you call them?

Hello music fans. Did you think I fell off the flat-plane of earth c. 1492? Well, no I am still here, I've written two posts and lost them to the ether as I attempt to balance my 9-5 $ job with a 'career' as a visual artist and a full time 'hobby' of music/niteclub denizen. I'd think I was insane, except I know that I really get unhappy if I am not in the "studioaudience". Oh well, enough dunderblogging, let's get on with the show.

So, things that have passed my eyes and ears on my 'hiatus' - for one Cowlick Lucy has announced a website!! Go girls-and Dan. Let me at those MP3s, especially "Hide Away", that song by J. Spott. Of all the bands I know that sing this song, (J. Spott himself and The Grandsons), mmmm, Vivian's voice and CLL's version, yum. (In fact, not that they are hurting for material, but I'd like to see one of the Brace brothers wrap their voice around this song as well)

Speaking of J.Spott, I made it to that Spottiswoode/Grandsons Jammin Java Show. The sound there is amazing-go for that. It's a little 8 inch tall stage too that you can get right close to if you are into that type of thing and there are lots of places to sit. The place was quite filled up at one point. It's being in a strip mall made me realize what a city slicker I have become though-I'll spare you how freakedout I was hanging out in a parking lot after the show. There were retail store type alcoves that made me feel like I was in a shoe store the whole time, but I just remember-the JJ space was formerly a Christian book store. Wish I had realized that while I was there.

If you checked out what S&HE was doing in Vienna, they did an almost all acoustic show. I was impressed in spite of myself. There has been so much talk of the big production 'gospelesque' show with lights and backup singers, etc. - which is the show they are taking to Lille, France, I think-that i was not prepared for this very down to earth thing. At least a year ago, I was at S&HE show at Iota with someone who knew Jonathan fairly well back in his college days. During that show she said to me "Oh mi god, you actually think he's a rockstar?" Well, I do. Knowing a bit about his films and other art ventures I expect to see him keyed up and glam. This performance was, I don't know, a treat? A dose of realism in an often abstract - conceptual cirque d'avant garde.

There's a lot of shows coming up on June, mostly the same players. I'm beginning to see that to keep up writing about these bands, I am going to have to start being more proactive-maybe starting interviews and questioning them about real fan stuff if I'm going to keep writing about the same 7 or so bands.

I'll tell you, I have been eavesdropping on a yahoo group called Arlington Music Scene that has really made me start to see that there are probably close to at least 500 bands in the extended DC area getting stage/studio time. Lord knows I suk at math, but it seems that there are NOT enough places in "the city" zoned to deal with with it and it makes me mad. There are bands/people I've seen a handful of times that I would love to plug, Bicycle Thieves, John Athyde (Rotoscope) in this VA crowd, Measles Mumps Rubella in DC, especially, Dark Water Transit and The Pupils-more Baltimore bands. After Metro Cafe closed these bands these are the kind of bands that got kind of shut out. They are not big enough to headline the Black Cat or get in opening ticket at the 930. For reasons that shall remain unspoken are too big and been around the block enough to not be playing Velvet Lounge on any kind of 'regular' basis, if at all. Staccato can't take this loud indy pop besides ITS SMALL. And do the 'roots rock/country scene' bands play DC anywhere in this year-NO, not really.

It's a real bugger. I've got no problem with the way the major clubs are booking, I just think there's more of a market for more types of establishments, more types of music and at different times. The city makes it too hard to host live entertainment, nothing against a good DJ, but this city does not need any more 'DJ lounges'. Also, music from 5-8 pm is a completely under-marketed thing in the city. 30-50 yr old suburbanites go to happy hours, you get the benefit of traffic having subsided afterwards. Hanging out in the city for 3 hours or more until a show starts at 9 or 10 pm is something most will not do. And as we know, once home, very few leave the comforts of their nest to venture back out into the unknown. You would think this would make it easier on clubs in dealing with 'neighbors' if live entertainment ended at 8 or 9 pm. Vision's Live Music Happy Hour used to follow this format on Friday's and I am in major, major withdrawal because they have not started it up this year. I know there were some conflicts with neighbors over a movie theater having live music. Visions has also sited as it as not being enough of a money draw for them, once they pay the bands. Their lounge space is small, so this is not a surprise. I watch the issue and I stress anyone that hits groupiegirl and lives right in DC, think about what good would come out of lobbying for live entertainment. Business owners need to be protected from neighbors and having their licenses revoked if they are making good faith efforts and helping building another small business community of professional musicians. Come on would a music from 5-9 pm at small bar or restaurant that holds under 75 people really be an intractable nuisance to a neighbor?

I'm glad to say that my first trip to Jammin Java will be to see The Grandsons and Spottiswoode and his Enemies. An average person on first glance of these two bands would be confused about the two bands playing back to back. To this I say don't be average. I went to some of the shows I picked in April, but really did not have the energy to think about them for you. How lame an I?

This just in, voila Karl Straub Music Website from the master himself. Very, very nice. This Sunday benefit show at IOTA should be very, very nice as well.



SUN APRIL 6

IOTA 2-5 PM

MEMORIAL SHOW FOR SAM JOHNSON

Last Train Home, Karl Straub Combo, Grandsons, Rhodes Tavern Troubadours and Scott McKnight's Naughty Pine


the ruff sched

2pm - 2:30 - Naughty Pine

2:35 - 3:05 - Karl Straub Combo

3:10 - 3:40 - Grandsons

3:45 - 4:15 - Last Train Home

4:20 - 4:50 Rhodes Tavern Troubadours

Tonite, Grandson's show just added at The State. Get out and enjoy the new beautiful Spring evenings!


On another note, in chatting with another 'regular' at the Straub Combo's show at Iota on Friday I was fed this little tidbit. Mongrel Music is the booking agent for Last Train Home, Alejandro Escovedo, and Saffire-Uppity Woman Blues, groups that I know are locals off the top of my head. You see thay also 'carry' others you may know, like The Iguanas, Tarbox Ramblers, Dave Alvin and Los Straightjackets. Mongrel is nice enough to list all these bands advance tour dates for us audience groupies. Other booking agents tend to be more helpful to the clubs, organizers and promoters by having sites like this one, Samhill Bands page on The Grandsons in this case a great resource if you go to the songlist page where you can see the crazy amount of fantastic roadhouse covers that the G-sons have made their own, something they don't flaunt it on their own website.

Anyway, enjoy the resource and when you request Buddy Knox "Party Doll" or show up for a LTH show on June 13th at the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point, New Jersey tell 'em groupiegirl sent you.

On another note, by seeing where your faves are being booked, you may be able to start auditioning new places to live, ones that are less conspicous than WDC area with as good a music scene, good luck. If you're tuning in from out of town, ya know in DC we all come to work and take the metro and do are part to not be scared by 'terrorists', well that's bull shit. I love my city but it sucks, I trust MY government at large about as far as I could throw it, DC or Federal. Luckily if you haven't figured me out already, I do have faith in 'individuals, like The Arlington Music Scene list serve. It provides this gem from the NY times about a Dixie Chicks bashing event in Louisiana. Excerpt from Paul Krugman: "a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of. . . . But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here." So the dot dot dot thing is kinda weak-dude it's op-ed - say it Fascist Nazis!!!!! But wait a second, whomever owns the Times probably has some kind of gag on language that means the journalist can't put "Fascist Nazi" in print and that's the point of this op-ed. Media companies engaging in rally's, why? I tell you something, the next few years should be interesting if majority of the population of the US ever wakes up to the fact that we live in a corporate oligarchy, sigh.

Sorry, these are stronger opinions than even I thought I had, I did not expect to write a screed, but again more to the point, thank you some person in Arlington that hooked me up to this opinion column, booking agents and record contracts aside we all need to be looking out for more than just suspicious people and packages.

Hello, shoot, I am busy and I'm sorry I don't have more time to record my thoughts. I'm making it out to a few shows here and there, but doing the writing and webbing is kinda not happening as much as I would like. GG posts should be better in April.

I did get to sneak out and catch Karl at Velvet. I did not get to hang and schmooze after the show, as I am preoccupied at the moment with ROBOTS which you will hear more about later. I hope the KSC went away appreciating the show as much as I. The intimate atmosphere of this club showed me a new level of emotion in Straub's "Little Johnny Spotlight" and was also the perfect setting to hear "Autumn Leaves"-yum.

On an administrative note, and something I look for to write about, this show was interesting because for once the club system really seemed to work. I was perched in a group of 'scrappy' fans left in the audience from the previously performing bands, and for all their hootin' & hollerin' I saw the fans that stayed on undergo a conversion, get quiet for the most part and listen, then quietly at the break between songs whisper "this guy is really good" to each other (any situation where men whisper to each other must be like the freakin' annunciation right?). I give this audience credit for being able to recognize what someone REALLY playing a trumpet sounds like (ie. the fabulous Kevin Cordt), considering their exposure to the band that went on right before Karl.

And speaking of the multi-talented Mr. Cordt, be on the lookout for Spottiswoode & his Enemies 'en concert' where ever you can find them. My sources tell me they have a 'rehearsed' production now with theatrical mood lighting extraordinaire, let's hope DC can take on this cabaret style performance that is already a hot commodity in NYC and LA. It's not for everyband, but Spottiswoode is far from everyother band. I can't wait to see this.

oi, the Karl Straub Combo at the Velvet Lounge in my 'hood today!!!!!! and I didn't put it on the sides, sorry! They're at IOTA on March 21st if my negligence is going to cause you to miss tonite.

OK, check this out. Mr. Joel has e-mailed me that he is internet hosting a Karl Straub bio. If you need to hear some Karl fast you can always go to Sam's Records.

Now only if some nice fan could do the same for the elusive Lee Wilhoit.

So sad. Snow keeps ggdc from a Spotty & Sons samich on Thursday. Oh I'm sure the show went on, I just couldn't get there.

Well, I pride myself on observation, and what I observed at IOTA Friday night at Last Train Home's new CD release was that when your front man/band leader does not work a full-time job, the audience gets a much better show for it. Or maybe it was just all the pomp and circumstance of it being a CD release that kept them on the straight and narrow. Or maybe that the Maker's rounds were held to only 2 on Friday (Soooo, not the case on Saturday.) Kudos to all band members for for making it there through the traffic snarls. Funny thing, if traffic (therefore Metrobus) had not been snarled I probably would have been in G-town at Lady Brain Space Mind Meld, and not at the Friday show. You should go see "Mind Meld" anyway, FYI there's lots of Rockin' DC Lady in it that hold there own in the music scene so go support their work!

On Friday, after a few warm up songs LTH went and played the new CD straight through. In talking to a regular LTH junkie on Saturday he was amazed and thought it was a ballsy thing to do. "Like super confident" were his exact words. Hmmm, I'm not sure what I think about that statement. For a band that doesn't religiously play to a fixed set list, playing this "CD set" didn't bother me. We all know the material. And ever the gents, they mixed it up on Saturday as there were so many repeater audience members.

Beyond that neither show was so structured that on both nites, Chris Watling's accordion couldn't all of a sudden appear, for the first time ever (to my knowledge) on the LTH stage. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y! Man, I have been waiting for a loooooooong time for the accordion to get on the LTH stage. I hope it keeps up.

There's all kind of accordion potential for Eric's songs and arranging. So often in the arranging you've got a sad depressing melodramatic lyric paired with a driving rock & roll rhythm (List of Sorrows, Walls of Time, It Doesn't Matter) or a song you thought was happy go lucky lovey dovey (Angelina or So Long Baby Goodbye), played to pensive, haunting, dirge melody. Perhaps, it's the penchant for this emotional flip-flop that makes me think accordion. You people may disagree, but I think it's a very emotional instrument. It breathes and it's breathy sound can be excited, steamy, exasperated or lonely sounding like no other. This was really one of the super musical highlights for me at both shows. It's a like a scientific theorem, accordion inertia.

On Saturday, though the Makers flowed and there was some flailing, there were two major mentionable moments. One when Alan Brace sang Bob Dylan's "Song for Woody" and really nailed it vocally. Clear, clear, crystal clear. I could hear every syllable of every word (and every word spoken was felt, might I add). Second, three words: "Walls of Time". I love this song and I have for a long time. I love Last Train Home's arrangement, I recognized it the first second I heard it, though the band says Mr. Monroe may be spinning in his grave and the press has agreed it's rockin makes it unrecognizable from the original, I say "pshaw." Well there's always a little sax and trumpet repartee goin' on in the horn section between Chris and Kevin on this song. Well, towards the end of the song on Saturday, holly schmolly, I do not know what got into the two of them, but mother mary it sounded good. I wish I knew more about both their influences right now. They both know soooooooo much music and they rip from everyone in sooooo many genres. The best I can do for you at the moment is describe it in non-music terms. It was as if I was transported to a strange time and place where beatnik horn players duel. The horns played over and through the din of guitars, those string things were demoted to wallflowers and after two plus hours of standing in a crush of like 100 people, I felt like I was living in a Thomas Pynchon novel all of a sudden. Everything else would seem anti-climactic from then on.

And naturally, the most appropriate of anti-climax would occur. The fan known as TEX would redeemed himself in my eyes, with a crazy freestyle lyric to the tune of 'Take This Job & Shove It' during the encore which ended up being a little trib to Johnny Paycheck. It would seem the LTH 'guitar platoon' can unendingly fudge any music written in the past twenty years for their fans if they ask loud enough. Then in a category all it's own, a 'Big Fish' o-gram closed the night. If only you could buy a bottle a Maker's anywhere by whipping out this cheery ditty, the world would be a better place.

Hey there, before I drop words on the "Time and Water" CD release show, I admit, I really did enjoy the opener, Kathleen Edwards, even after all the hype. This is a BIG admission because she's not from here, she's Canadian and that usually keeps you off groupiegirldc. Now understand, I listen to tons of music from everywhere and I go to live shows for major and minor players from all over. However, I don't think the world needs another person on the internet talking about Wilco, Radio Head or Dave Matthews. I'm interested in what people are doing around me and I am recording ideas and impressions about a small slice of it, the part that I revisit over and over and over.

Back to business, I mention Ms. Edwards, because, after talking with Jenn, we're in agreement that there is an unmistakable Straub-ness in many of her lyrics: pain portrayed in pictorial poetry, like One More Song the Radio Won't Like. Beyond that, even the rhythm and melody in some songs smacked of Karl, so there is a local bone in it for me. I'm not saying there's any influence, because I do not know, but there is a confluence. You know, I am also struck by how much Edwards looks like Danielle Howle and even acts/sounds like her a bit, in a general way. Truthfully, in the long run I will probably prefer Ms. Howle. I should listen to my own advise and get out and see her shows.

Stay tuned, hopefully it will not take to long to get to "Time and Water" (upon looking at my past posts, why it seems I have never posted anything about Americana Motel 2, dang, what have I been doing?)

ewh, yay, everything I wanted, plus extra, And you can get it on Sams Record's already. Go Kevin. And check it out, a new look for LTH's website, thanks for not moving anything 'cept the tonality. woohoo.

Oh well, so the boys of The Grandsons and Bicycle Thieves didn't walk away with any WAMMIES, I don't think. Last Train Home/Eric Brace, and Bill Kirchen walked away with some. Dave Chappell walked away with rock instrumentalist. Of all things, The Rhodes Tavern Troubadours get best rock group. OK, wah-hoo. Seems that Hungry For Music was suitably honored too. Good for them, I like them.

Now unfortunately, February is half over. I'm still hurting in the financial department, and I have not really considered 'picking' a club or band for February.

Honestly, the only no-miss show I have on my roster is LTH's CD release for "Time and Water" next week. This should not be taken as a slight to anyone else, as mentioned I am pressed for time and money recently. So The State Theater is going to stay up at bat for hosting the WAMMIES and LTH is going to get it, with the caveat that Eric promised that their version of Bill Monroe's "Walls of Time" would be on it, even though that was a promise from back in the Summer. For the first time in a long time I am anxious to hear what the mix turned out like. It would be great if "Lorelei" made it on too, but somehow I think not. The CD release is supposed to be a crush; if you can believe it will be more of a mad house than usual, do. Just 10 more days...

Hey there, anyone have suggestions for band and club of the month for February? I am torn.

Wow, a band I don't talk about much, but is perfectly great, is The Bicycle Thieves. Being much more up-to-the minute than most of the heavy retro-influenced music I go see, The Thieves are hard rock without a lot psychedellia. Well, those guys have 6 Wammie noms in the rock category, yay!

Also the Washingtonian Magazine's cover story for Feb. '03 is area music. There are little pictures of area greats popping out of big alphabet letters that spell "Great Music", the likes of Duke Ellington, none other than Mr. Bill Kirchen, five other artists, but no hardcore rock or punk pics on the cover. I have not read the thing yet, I've barely even looked at the cover, but this should be interesting.