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Aussies The Drones sweep into town Saturday night, hot on the heels of their new ATP release 'Havilah,' as openers for DC's very own hot ticket, Deleted Scenes—and at the last minute your pals here at TVD have come up with an extra pair of tickets to give away for what's certain to be One. Hot. Show.
But there's no time to waste on this one. The show's Saturday night and you have 24 hours to jump up and down and get our attention in the comments to win the tickets. Shiny beads, interesting bits of stone, cookies, and attractive headgear may be considered—but we're really looking for you to drone on and state your case.
We'll choose a winner by 5PM on Friday and remember to leave us your email address so we can hook you up. Now, ...go!
“Serious, give these fuckers time and they'll rip out your eardrums, perhaps even your heart.” —Pitchfork
“There’s no shortage of rough-edged rock music out there, but most of it stops short of the next-level sort of workmanship found with The Drones.” —Tiny Mix Tapes
During my freshman year of college, perusing the CDs at a local bookstore, I discovered Robert Johnson. The beautiful way his fingers made a guitar sound like it had hundreds of strings, all weeping and hollering at the same time. At the time I discovered Johnson, I was busy going to punk shows and dreaming of marrying Mike Ness, long forgetting the folk sounds I was raised on. But Johnson's sound was enough to help me wade back into the deep waters of blues and folk music. The list of artists Robert Johnson has influenced is quite large and no doubt includes Langhorne Slim. The first time I heard his voice I think I may have swooned a bit. His songs bring out a range of emotions in me. Langhorne Slim is often classified as folk but I think it's so much more than that. One blog I recently read describes his sound as this:
"Langhorne Slim expertly walks the line between the sublime and the subterranean. At once raucous and reverent, his old-timey country blues is tempered with the occasional outburst of punk rock insolence indicating that there may just be an anarchy sign on the back of his guitar and a little more than constant sorrow on the brain of this charismatic troubadour."
And it really is true. The songs I've picked out are my personal favorites. And while his songs vary in their tempo, intensity, note composition, etc, the majority of the ones I've picked out are quicker paced. Maybe it's because it's Friday. Maybe because that's just my mood. But, there you have it. First up is "Restless" which makes me feel like I need to get the hell out of my chair, leave this city and drive across the country to some place where I live in a small house on a lot of land and spend my days planting seeds and my nights playing banjo in a folkpunk band.
"I Will" is one of those songs where you picture yourself in a bar and there's people dancing on tables and swinging each other around in circles and at the end of the evening collapse exhausted into each other's arms, with almost empty pints of beer in one hand. "In the Midnight" is just pure craziness of the kind that has me imagining adults in some depressing cafeteria getting into a giant food fight leaving their boring grey and black business suits torn to shreds and exploded condiment packets littering the floors. "Honey Pie" has some raunchiness to it that makes me want play it while I get ready before a long night out. Finally, "Loretta Lee Jones" is special to me for reasons that are personal. But it's a damn great song and will always hold a special place in my heart.
Langhorne Slim is playing at Iota on April 2 at 9pm. Which I'm almost reluctant to tell anyone, because Iota doesn't do tickets beforehand and I'm in class until 8pm and should I not get into the show I may just bang on the front windows like a crazy person until they let me in, or, in the likely alternative, call the police.
One thing lost with TVD blog radio is the classic DJ “talk up.”
You’ve all heard it a million times...the tune’s percolating in the background and over the top the DJ’s saying, “It’s a sunny and WARM Friday morning Washington, going up to a high of 66 in the city. Ditch those coats, and ladies—wear something skimpy—har”!
Then boom—the vocals of the track kick in at the ‘y’ in skimpy. Seamless and sinuous.
Then there’s the smoooth transition from track to track. Not in the club DJ sense where you’re counting BPM’s—unless it’s an urban contemporary format—but more in the segue from track to track given tone and tempo.
"...I want you to stay, don't go away / Here comes the night..."
Aussies The Drones sweep into town Saturday night, hot on the heels of their new ATP release 'Havilah,' as openers for DC's very own hot ticket, Deleted Scenes—and at the last minute your pals here at TVD have come up with an extra pair of tickets to give away for what's certain to be One. Hot. Show.
During my freshman year of college, perusing the CDs at a local bookstore, I discovered Robert Johnson. The beautiful way his fingers made a guitar sound like it had hundreds of strings, all weeping and hollering at the same time. At the time I discovered Johnson, I was busy going to punk shows and dreaming of marrying Mike Ness, long forgetting the folk sounds I was raised on. But Johnson's sound was enough to help me wade back into the deep waters of blues and folk music. The list of artists Robert Johnson has influenced is quite large and no doubt includes Langhorne Slim. The first time I heard his voice I think I may have swooned a bit. His songs bring out a range of emotions in me. Langhorne Slim is often classified as folk but I think it's so much more than that. One blog I recently read describes his sound as this:
One thing lost with TVD blog radio is the classic DJ “talk up.” 
