Hello, so it's been a good old fashioned groupiegirldc kind of week. We'll have been to Iota 3 times in 7 days by Sunday. There are good shows at Velvet Lounge and Staccato this weekend. Check out Mr. Joel's calendar, it's got most of what I have not had time to add to mine.

Especially take note of the Alejandro Escovedo Benefit little promos for this show have been popping up everywhere. It's my kind of line up-LTH, Little Pink, Bill Kirchen, Jumpin Jupiter, Bill Kirchen, Brandon (whose last name I can't remember, from Canyon, Karl Straub, Lee Wilhoit (hmmm that's now all the members of the former Graverobbers? Reunion anyone?) It will be a lot switchin' around, but it should rock! I'm sure there may be other players I've missed to so come on out. If you have not heard of Alejandro Escovedo, search him on the net you will find gracious tribute to this still living artist who needs a lot of help with medical bills.

Now the super groupie thing to do is always keep tabs on 'developments', like who shares stage with whom and who gets posted on what message board or list serve etc. I am going to try and map out some of these new developments next as I did make it to the Holden/Rotoscope show and got visuals now on some of the AMS postersand Brandon whats-his-face from Canyon is playing at this benefit Sunday....hmmm, must digest

this is a post for me only, remember this name, Malcolm Holcombe, from North Carolina. wow. real. very very real.

Hi people. Well the least I could do is update the calendar for November, right? Well, I have a number of times, but the template doesn't want to save or publish, which is maddening. My life has really gone to hell in a handbasket lately, I don't feel like half the groupie I used to be, only time will tell. Let's hope I can at least get back to posting the dates of shows I would like to see, if Blogger cooperates.

Can I just tell you how thankful I am for Mr. Joel. Check out his October/November calender, droppin' science on A possible B-Cat gig for Spottiswoode. Mr. Joel certainly suceeds in keeping us informed on shows even the one's not in the papers yet-that means his hiney is AT shows. sigh.

Here's a show at AU this Saturday the 8th. First band on is Los Hermanos Rodriguez. They are the only band I've seen in this lineup of Lunchbox, Red Line Index, Paper Doll, and The city The sea who are scheduled to appear in this order. I saw LHR at Velvet a year or more ago, at one of their first playing out gigs. It was a fundraiser gig and Arblemarble's last one I think. Anyway I am curious about this lineup. LHR was 3 piece I think and loud and tight when I saw them. Is there one of those music monikers out there called speed punk? If so, that's probably them . Somehow they resemble a metal band in sound, with political messages wrapped in. They were a happy surprise when I saw them last year and I think you should go see them now and report back to me, especially after that cruddy Citypaper article on Fugazi ruining the rock scene in DC-go listen to LHR-hopefully AU will represent and get some more shows for them.

Do you know this guy?

It make's me believe that the internet was not developed for clandestine defense purposes - instead the internet came into being to provide immensly talented artists, like this jazz drummer, with an income to live on. Sigh, I need an income.

Oh Mi Goodness.


It's almost October and this site is in a shambles-sorry about that folks. Cyberspace is not that forgiving when you try to use both a mac and a pc for working on the same template, I'm guessing that's the problem with my calendar. I will try to fix it up soon because October seems to be lining up a lot of fun shows.

It was great to see the Dustbowlers out and about, even better to hear them. The gig took place above Politiki at a place called "Top Of The Hill", no tiki's there. it sounds stuffy, but it was comfortably laid back. I was most struck by the fact it was a Saturday night and there was no yelling, puking or passing out observed. But more about the band.

My oh my, they do know a lot of songs. This Tim Penney fellow is a very, very prolific songwriter and he's go A LOT of guitars. Let's see there was a pretty 12 string that he was playing as I walked in, your friendly neighborhood telecaster, a lap steel, and something my friend Peter refered to a gold top Les Paul with action, which I can't prove or deny, I had never seen the likes of it up so close. Again, pretty. Very, very pretty.

So, what Tim stocks in guitars is karmically accounted for by the sparse drum kit of Mike Magor. I don't know how I didn't notice months ago when I saw them for the first time. Perhaps he's pared it down even more, his kit was almost as small as Shortstack's. A bass, a snare, a highhat, and somekind of reversoid highhat setup I've never noticed before. Additional percussion in the the form of a tamborine thingy on the highhat and a set of double bongos was whipped out and played on the side too, so I suppose while the set up looked small there was more there than met the eye.

The other Mike, Mike O'Malley plays bass and upright and is quite facile at both, which is nice. I wonder how the songs have been arranged for this trio as Tim writes all of them I think? The choice of upright vs. electric bass for each song was really spot on.

And again sooooooooo many songs. For a trio they really weave in some beautiful complexity that is very understated and appropriate to the songs. I hate making comparisons, but there is a Guthrie-ness and a Wilco-ness and a Cal-i-forn-i-a-ness to what they are doing. Not like a "Wilco is cool" or "I want to be Woddie Guthrie" thing, but a laid back, honesty, simplicity and clarity that makes Wilco and Woody so cool. The Dustbowler lyrics are short and often subtle and poetic, but they are about NOW, nothing retro rooty about them, if you really pay attention. Even if you are not going to pay attention, don't worry, they just sound good.

Many apologies for the short notice, hope you can make it to hear the(drumroll)

DUSTBOWLERS

play this Saturday night at 9:30, at Politiki, 319 Pennsylvania Avenue SE. If I have time I will refresh your memory about this Californiaesque Trio

Hello there groupiegirldc readers, missing me? I'm sorry, my bread & butter job is kicking my butt - so I have barely been able to see shows, let alone write about them, but check out what landed in inbox this Labor Day weekend the below is from Brian McGuire, the point man for 52-pickup and the Bop 'n' Bowl.



Hello Bop 'n' Bowl fans:


Well, there's good news and bad news...


Bad news first! In case you had heard of this show previously, let us clue you in that the Bill Kirchen/Cigarbox Planetarium/'52 Pickup Bop 'n'Bowl originally scheduled for this Saturday, September 6 is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!CANCELLED! Sorry, but the alley management, in their infinite wisdom, decided to close the lanes for the first two weeks of September!

The GOOD news is that the latest proposal by the big money interests to demolish the historic duckpin sanctuary to make way for luxury condos has been sent packing by the Falls Church City Council! Wow! This is how government is supposed to work! The City Council, for at least the second time in a row, is more concerned with the public good than money! So the duckpin lanes keep rollin' on for the time being! Read the laughably-biased pro-development coverage by the Falls Church News Press !

That is so freakin' cool, super-duper yay! Since I will not have time to update the calendar anytime soon, I will mention that Spottiswoode & his Enemies are gigging the Velvet Lounge in DC on September 10, I think, I saw it in the City Paper, I hope it's true.

number 5

Tee hee, I just read a plug for this book on the AMS list. Check it out, so for 'maximizing' your blahdee blah as a musician this guy says you need -

1. Personal Manager

2. Attorney

3. Business Manager

4. Agency

5. Groupies

Then he says "With respect to number 5, you're on your own." Wow, how life affirming for me-I'm part of the master plan. More later.

I know nothing about this Bands v Bush, but it can't be bad.


The Bands Against Bush DC chapter
is meeting again!

THURSDAY AUGUST 7

Sparky's Espresso Café

14th St. NW

(between R & S Sts.)
7:30 PM

bring yourself,
and your heart,
and your brain.
also bring two friends
so
they can bring two friends!


WE WILL WIN!


xoBvB DC

please pass this message on to all and sundry

Shake it baby shake it

I thought I was about done talking about Last Train Home on this site, but I got all a-fluttery on Saturday. While the band does it new intensive touring thing, the 'Iota Weekend' was a bit more of a personal thing, looking for little nuanced changes that seemed gossipy and not worth writing about. So how cool is it that Alan Brace stepped up and clinched the night (On Saturday). Now we adore Alan, though I don't know how much I've written about him in the past. He heart wrenching cover of "These Little Things" - the Patsy Cline standard and likewise with Bob Dylan's "Song to Woody". His voice is fantastic and he's got the emotion to really break your heart, but oh mi god, he just opened up on the song in the title here, "A Whole Lota Shakin' goin' on." As you can see a kind of Sun record tribute night brought some new material to the stage which was excellent. (And note to self: Bill Williams did a version of Buddy Hacket doing "Shapoopie" from the Music Man that was a non-sequitur to end all non-sequiturs).

"Walls of Time" is one of my favorite songs ever, (up there with Phil Ochs "The Highwayman" and the posthumously recorded "Remember the Mountain Bed" by Woody Guthrie). I am not a purist, I love LTH's arrangement and I love that I can save my voice now at shows because other people will groupie-scream for it, it's caught on like "It Doesn't Matter". I am getting off on a tangent though. The first time I heard this song was at a show with Lee Wilhoit sitting in for Alan. Lee is a crazy mofo on stage and he runs away with the vocals, forget harmony, he goes for broke and plows over Eric. That's when their version of "Walls" truly rocks, totally transcends. Well after channeling the spirit body of Elvis, Alan through complete happenstance, I think, managed to take "Walls of Time" over Lee style without even realizing it. For what ever reason, finally, finally, finally, Alan Brace while on the second mike took over the vocal, the fact that Alan has the aforementioned heart wrenching je ne sais quoi gives him a bit of an edge on Lee too. For whatever reason is how it should be on this song. Eric's voice just does not carry on "Walls of Time", so much so that on their recent CD, Time and Water the "Walls of Time" track was a let down to me and my compadres. Lee Wilhoit sings on the CD, but the tracking on Lee's voice is not prominent enough, not loud enough, not there enough, of course there are others that look at me cockamamie when I mention this.

God forbid anyone in the band actually reads this, someday please plant a seed for a re-issue of that track with the vocals remastered or retracked with Eric (Um, cough cough-hesitant pause) on backup. (Smile) Just on this one song, I swear.

Oh, one more thing. Kevin Cordt was not there to play trumpet so Chris Watling bought the barri-sax along which went awful well on "Walls of Time" too. And while I'm at it, dude needs a remote mike for his accordion NOW! If he's going to keep bringing it to LTH home shows. Bye.

Hi

After lamenting my not posting and talking about the same stuff too much, I just got back from the benefit at La Casa I menitoned in the previous post. Much was accomplished.

1) I've found out when and where my 'local lo-po' broadcasts from, information I've been wanting to know, but too lazy to try to figure out.

2) While I know my rule is to not to talk about bands that are not from around here, I am breaking it. The second band in the lineup tonite was the Molehill Orkestrah, from Tucson, AZ, billed as "Eastern Klezmer-Core" on the flyer. Oh my, I am still vaklempt, my $5 for the benefit got me 3 bands - one of which was this 8 piece Klezmer, as tight as almost any Klezmer I've ever heard. But wait one second, on reflection, I've never heard a Klezmer band live because they tend to be expensive shows (worth the money though to someone that has it.) Anyway, Molehill should 'fess and say "Southwestern Klezmer Core", for the extra beautiful twist on this band was the subtle Spanish guitar/mandolin head they put on some of the numbers and a break in one song that I swear keep flipping between Klezmer and a Bossa Nova rhythm, pretty wicked. Who knows if they'll be back this way, but well worth taking note. And if you have never heard a klezmer band, even on recording get your heinie out there and find some (Klez qualifies as 'Wall of Sound' bands with which you can't go wrong)

3) The mighty, mighty news. I've a new band to talk about. Shortstack. So Cowlick Lucy played with them once, and I see now that the guy playing upright for them, played banjo in Helen & Pete's.

"Shortstack, Haunted Hill Rockabilly" per the flyer and this time the description is right on. Four pieces in this band, very spare and very moody. The upright, guitar, lap steel and a tiny drum kit (bass, snare, cymbal, highhat and a wok(?)) I spent way to long mezmerized with this tiny, tiny kit. As I know none of the players names I'm at a small disadvantage to speak of them individually, but what was most striking is that the entire impression is that everyone plays to the song, not to themselves, there are no solos or major flourishes. Now that I think about it, it's what makes them Dischord-esque. Apparently they will be on a fundraising comp that is getting help from Dischord. The Shortstack material is truly rockabilly/lo-country/almost Appalacian sounding-if I exagerate a little. I know I am gone on a band when sight unseen I leave a first show with a lyric stuck in my head. Such is the case with "Troubled Mind". Musically it was reminiscent of "Wanted Man", but lyrically not like it at all. I will have to hear this song again. Soon hopefully.

Reflecting on July and why my postings were so horrid, I found some peekaboo silver lining. I did see the WP's Weekend section Roots/Americana show at Carter Barron and I saw the Seldom Scene on the Library of Congress stairs. I would have liked to have said something about seeing the 'new' Scene, but about 30 minutes after that show my back went out and it became priority #1.

In the here and now, this has just come across my email account. It's not in the side calendar, so lets' see if you are paying attention. There is something afoot at La Casa - 3166 Mt Pleasant St NW - this Saturday that is $5, goes from 8-11 pm, is going to be rootsy, tho interestingly enough, I got the "fo" from Planaria. A band called Short Stack is playing that was recommended to me by two people, Vivian & Cret-aquaintances from very different times in my life, yet the same recommendation. The other two bands sound interesting too, I just can't remember the names at the moment.

Sigh, look how long it's been since I posted! Sorry. And I have not named any stand outs for July, I am slipping again. I am tired of singing this tune, I am broke! Money for music is harder and harder to come by, you know I am fully in support of paying for talent, but I am getting to the point that I can't. I am thanking my lucky stars for Summer and free outdoor concerts, like The Grandsons at the National Zoo on Thursday, but when winter comes I am going to be screwed. If you do not see me out and about, at least "remember me well" or "remember me when".

I was traveling for five days and when I got back I had emails from new musicians I have not met (ie. heard) yet. Great! I will be trying to check ya'll out. I think it is so cool that it's musicians that gravitate to groupiegirl. When I first started the blog I was not sure it would be that way, but in my unscientific estimation that's the way it's turning out. Doing the blog is like a big thank you card to you musically inclined artists that really put on a show.

Now do any of you musicians want to buy some art? Paintings, sculptures, photos, a robot?

OK, THIS was a total biatch to find. It's The Hosiery mailing list, which also keeps track of The Warehouse Nextdoor shows. Apparently Measles, Mumps, Rubella is playing at "TWN" tomorrow-per a TPC crony I ran into at Lungfish on Saturday. I hope the mailing list link continues to work, it seems like the planaria identity is in flux.

So, I had pipe dreams that on Saturday I could see Spottiswoode open for Cravin Dogs at Iota, pop across the street to Galaxy Hut to see the Bomb Pops, then over to the Black Cat for Lungfish. As it turned out I was feelin' poorly in my person that day, so it took all my power just to drag myself to the B-Cat, let alone 2 other shows.

I made it to Lungfish. Honestly, I've only seen Lungfish once before, though I am in the age group that could have seen them umpteen million times when they were rippin' up the town back in the day. On a whim about a year ago, (OK, maybe almost 2) after surfing Dischords website I picked up The Pupils CD, a touchy- feely, stripped down version of Lungfish - Daniel's lyrics accompanied by 2 guitars, played by him and Asa. I listen to this CD a lot-and it made me see why I've heard Daniel referred to as 'the Spirit-Head of Dischord'. His verse is magnetic-there are no metaphorical petty ironies standing in for bigger issues here. If Armageddon comes it will be our own fault, because Daniel's seen it and tried to warn us about it. Sigh.

So, I didn't melt That Woodrow Wilson Plaza place is tre's Euro once you walk the 300 yards off Pennsylvania Avenue. There's tables and chairs with umbrellas, a little grove of trees, some totally stupid sculpture. Like I said, very Euro. Whomever is putting this shindig on has a nice setup though: a raised stage, a giant PA, passing out revival meeting fans with music schedules on them. The Grandsons seem to real dig outdoor shows, which is cool - or in this case, hot. For an inside show, definitely head out to the Duckpin lanes to the The bop-n-bowl, there may only be 3 or 4 more of these shows, if the developers get their zoning approved for condos in the next few months. Looks like Tom & Debra & their swing dancin' posse will be there. So, if you feel like gettin' really special put on your ultra-retro duds and check it out.

Hello Music People

I'm getting ready to hop off to the "International Trade Center" (ie. The Ronald Reagan Building). I brought my sunnyblock lotion with me to work, so I won't fry, but I may melt.

Pick up the city paper and look at CHEAP SEATS section because it seems the CP has finally dropped science on what is going on with the Falls Church "Duckpin" Bowling Center. Oh well-it looks like it will hang in for the rest of the summer before being raised to make way for luxury townhomes and retail.

You know it's funny, I go in to a grocery or a pharmacy and there are almost never more than 3 or 4 cashiers working, doesn't matter the day of time or that there are 7-8 cash registers. Do we really need MORE stores or just better management and attention to the stores there are? Seems companies treat their buildings and employees like disposable silverware-the appreciate it when they first get it, hold onto and may even reuse it, but the minute the going gets a little rough the place a little dirty, they dump it. Seems like a bad practice.

On the other hand a lot of the clubs I frequent, often have shows that sell out. Even on a weekday in a small place like the Velvet Lounge I may have to wait in a 3-deep line with 2 bartenders working to get a drink. Also I can't go hear live music indoors anywhere in my neighborhood (Mt. Pleasant). It's a drag, this is the area where I am being underserved, I have absolutely no need for another poopy CVS, Giant grocery store or a $900 to $1200 efficiency apartment which though supposedly 'luxurious' is roughly 75% more than I can pay for rent (I already pay about 33% more than I can afford and that's paid to friends.

So are you a hipster that works a square job in downtown DC? Check out this copy - "to entertain office workers and visitors alike" it's Live!On Woodrow Wilson Plaza -now if someone would just realize how many of us are "just visiting as office workers" then things could get interesting. But really, rock on. This is a very ambitious program, live performance almost everyday. I hope to hit Frederic Yonnet and the PoEmcees, both come highly recommended yet I have missed seeing them live repeatedly in the past year. And just two short days from now, weather permitting, I will be able to punctuate my workday with some Grandsons fun!

(By the way Woodrow Wilson Plaza is apparently the Courtyard of the freakin' Ronald Reagan Building, where 13th Street, NW dead ends into Pennsylvania Ave.)