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Ty Segallplayed DC9 last night. "This is the first time we've played here." He told us. He began an Obama at the Circus joke, paused for effect, then delivered a chill punchline, "Now here's another song."
The band's demeanor was laid back but their amps were loud and vicous. They took their time in between songs sipping beers and adjusting pedals. The pace didn't bother the crowd, who danced and head banged along to the righteous lo-fi garage tunes. Many songs ended perfectly within two minutes. They played a few oldies from the Castleface LP and other singles, as well as new ones off the most recent Goner release, Melted. And! And! A Jabbers cover! Way to get the scumbags moving!
I spoke to Ty briefly after their set. A very friendly and gracious dude! He writes all his songs himself and records in his friend's studio basement. He had no future releases planned but will work on new songs after this short tour. If you haven't already, check out the new LP on Goner. It simply rips. And it comes with a free MP3 downloads. Nerds.
I sat on the roof, sunbathing in the strong signal that this smartass phone says it has. On the phone was Mike Hall of Sick Sick Birds, a Baltimore pop-punk band with a semi-new album out onToxic Pop Records. "Our first 7 inch was on that label," Hall says. "And then we came out with this 12 inch last year called Heavy Manners. It's 8 songs and it's definitely a big departure for us because we did a lot of it ourselves at the warehouse."
"It was fun. We were able to take our time a little bit more and get everything we really wanted done before we put it out. There was really no deadline. It's more of a thought out record than any record I've been a part of." Hall sounds stoked on this record, and the next one as well. "I think the next batch of songs will be a lot more collaborative. It's a different lineup than what we've had in the past ... it's almost like being in the band you were in in high school, everyone's just at practice goofing around and writing stuff together."
Speaking of high school, I ask what he likes about playing music in this region. "It's where I grew up. It's just a lot of fun to play shows around here because you're almost becoming part of the history that we grew up with. So it's an honor. As songwriters, we're defiantly shaped by the area we grow up in. I grew up with Dischord, and old DC hardcore stuff. That kind of shines through a little bit."
But you live in.... "I love Baltimore. As we got older we realized that its a lot cheaper to live up in Baltimore. We're sort of old people that are coming to terms with being old people. And having families and mortgages and stuff but still wanting to play punk rock... not being in a touring band anymore, its kind of a struggle sometimes... we find ourselves being more selective of the shows we play.. we're played New York a couple weeks ago, we're getting up to Philly, and go down to Richmond... were doing five shows in California this summer. So we're doing what we can to get out of town a little bit, and balancing that with being family people. BUT IT'S FUN."
Comment below with your email for a chance to win two tickets to see them, and a copy of the new album! YES, FREE! Hurry, this offer ends Wednesday morning at 7:00 A.M.
This may be the best time of the year. This is the winter/spring transition, when you can walk around in early morning sunshine, still wear your coolest jacket and call in sick because the pollen in the air is fucking up your sinuses (True or not, still very believable.)
True story. Last week I went to see the Weakends, a wonderfully trashy, reverbed-out garage band from Broudeux, France. Think in the vein of Demons Claws (another great French-Canadian garage band) with less of the country western influence, and add more a post-apoc blues touch.)
Unfortunately, the man with the drumkit never showed up. So, being the resourceful foreigners that they were (I mean, only one of them could drive, it was their first time in America, no GPS, no cellphone, just drove from Atlanta to New Orleans to Austin to here with no complaints) a junk drum kit was McGuyvered using a snare drum, paint bucket, tambourine, and maybe a plastic case or something. It took only a little coaxing and a few swigs of bourbon to convince them to play to a room of... one really drunk dude cussing everyone out in Spanish, two bleary professionals (fading fast), the sound guy, and yours truly.
And I'm not full of hyperbole when I declare that it sounded completely raw, it was loud and it was beautiful. In the spirit of DC, and street drummers everywhere, this was truely one of the finer moments I've had at a show recently.
So, this is what you should know. Their self-titled LP is out on Rob's House Records. Mailorder that! (Note: also Digitally available on iTunes, but that's not why we're here..)
Here’s an easy excuse to hit the record store tonight—a free show! The Points are doing an in-store at Crooked Beat Records. As soon as I think about The Points I see trails, police dogs are barking at me and my shoes are stuck to the floor from all the spilled (and thrown) beer cans.
They’re back home after another tour and probably will have a few good stories to share. It's early so check it out if you can. First person to tap me on the shoulder and mention TVD will win a prize. (NOTE: Prize may cause dizziness, nausea, and an insatiable desire to eat human brains)
From Crooked Beat’s website: “Tuesday, 3/10: The Points DC-based loudfastandreckless basement punk band The Points will be playing some songs from their self-titled album debut. Released last fall, the album has been one of our top selling Dc area artists over the last few months.
Performances usually start 7-7:30, and are FREE and ALL AGES.”
One of the greatest things about being a walking time bomb is that your life is always interesting! With the potential for death and destruction around every corner! In other words, I apologize for my brief hiatus (to all three of you who noticed) but as you know, some times bad things happen to not-so-bad people, bad music for bad people (R.I.P. Lux Interior) happens, and that's why Love You 'Till Friday is back a week early on a special Monday morning!
As you show-goers know, March is a bittersweet month. SXSW is a few weeks away, which means every band and their sister's and mother's bands will be touring to get to Austin, and inevitably stop at some point in the middle of the week for a DC show... in between NYC and Atlanta or Memphis or any other city we don't care about because it ain't here. But this also means your weeknights will be filled with excitement as you get to catch some great bands on tour before they go whore themselves out down south. The story goes like this... your band plays a showcase to a bunch of suits (Hello John Norris) who are supposed to drool and publically snub each other in a mad dash to cash in on what the kids are listening to, the NEXT BIG HYPE... but does anyone really care about that? It's really a trip to go party your asses off, and play as many shows and parties all week long, see new bands and eat good BBQ in the nice weather.
So... The point of the previous paragraph was to inform you, in subsequent installments of LYTF, a few good shows to check out that do not involve your television.
Right now I think it's pretty important to go to this show at the Black Cat this Thursday. The Black Lips have been one of my favorite bands for years, and they've definitely payed their dues, earned all this cred so fuck all the haters. There's probably a new album involved (edit: It's called It's called 200 Million Thousand, but I'm still stoked on 2007's Good Bad Not Evil and everything before it....
Oh, apparently the new album dropped today, but I didn't see it while I was out record shopping at the usual DC spots. So I guess you're going to have to go out here to get one... And look, Gentlemen Jesse is playing too! If you missed them a few weeks ago at the Talking Head, here's your next last chance.
