Mister Chuck Brown-Feel the Love

I have this picture hanging on my refrigerator because it makes me smile every time that I open the door. He's my go to man when I want to feel the love. Why? Because he is the founding father of Go-go, a form of funk founded here and found no where else. His music is a D.C. phenomenon.
And while endless debates rage on up on Capitol Hill, I just want to say that
Chuck Brown could be the answer to health care. His music makes you feel good.

This FRIDAY Chuck Brown will wind up the Wilson Plaza outdoor concert series downtown. 5-7 p.m.
Free.
Truly a Washington Event.

Hot Band @ A Cool Store

I never thought I'd grow up to regret a book store, and I have to say I used to like the big chains, before I realized how much they threaten the independents out there. I'm glad to report that we still have a selection of very good book stores in this town, and Politics and Prose is one of the best. This Sunday they will be celebrating their 25th anniversary with a cool party and a great local band that sounds and feels like New Orleans- Little Red and the Renegades.


(Little Red has a literary reference of its own - a mention in the George Pelecanos' novel Nick's Trip.)
The party starts at 4. Zydeco dance lessons begin at 5, and the band hits it around 5:30 in the parking lot. There will also be a picnic. See their store website for details.
Gotta love a dance in a parking lot.

Brookside Gardens Rock This Saturday

Brookside Gardens in Wheaton is a great place to get away from it all. Its fifty acres include a Japanese garden, a rose garden, a fragrance garden, a children's garden and much more. I'm not sure if they have a rock garden, but this Saturday round up the youngins and motor on over because it's Children's Day with free activities from 11-4.



Best of all there will be a rare appearance of THE RTTS- the kid's version of the Rhodes Tavern Troubadours. The good thing about this band is they rock no matter what age you are or what age you act. The line is blurry between the kid and adult show so don't be afraid to show up-even if you don't have a small one in tow. And don't forget to smell the roses.
Show times are 12 and 2.

Party at Broad Branch

Broad Branch Market has been in and out of business for a long, long time. It once was a DGS (District Grocery Store) which used to be all over this area. Now I can't find a thing about them, but the ones I remember were sometimes in houses, sometimes not, but all were much smaller versions of the mega food stores that we have now. The old Broad Branch Market went under a few years ago, but the new market is a blend of old and new. You can still get household staples and candy, but there's also high quality prepared foods and good ole Gifford's ice cream.
This Saturday the market is celebrating its one year anniversary with an all day party featuring a moon bounce and live music on the porch starting at 10 a.m.
He may live in Nashville now, but DC's own home boy Eric Brace will be on deck around 3 p.m. If you haven't heard his impressive new song Tranquilty Base check it out. Eric will be playing with Peter Cooper.

A moon bounce and a great song about the moon. Now that's a good party.

Seven Days Later Slickee Boy Mark Morphs Into Monster by Lyn2

photo by DC ROCKS


Last week it was all about the Slickee Boys reunion which was a gang buster event. Those guys still rock like it was 1989! This week we've got another band on tap, but with a common denominator.
Just yesterday I heard that an Austin radio station was playing our very own Hula Monsters. That doesn't surprise me because they are unique and the word has spread. Hula Monster talking points:

• No one else plays psychedelic rockabilly Hawaiian swing.
• They attract a wonderfully diverse audience including some of our area's most dedicated and talented dancers.
• They have a rack of Hawaiian shirts for sale at every show.
• And where else can you see the legendary Mark Noone of the Slickee Boys playing ukelele?
• They're talented good people, and your support is always appreciated.

The HULA MONSTERS are playing this Friday at the Hyattsville End of the Summer Jam Party. Rain or shine. 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Free.

PELECANOS ALERT

THIS Thursday George Pelecanos is having a reading at Busboys and Poets, one of my favorite hang outs down on 14th near U Street. It's a bar, a book store, a coffee house- a place dear to my heart because there are so many choices. (Where else does the host ask if you'd like a table or a couch?)

And I am not sure that there is another writer out there that captures true local Washington like DC's own George Pelecanos. He may be famous for his crime novels, but his fiction has a dead ring of truth.
6:30 p.m. Free.

Gotta is Born by Lyn2

Slickee Boys History #2

There are so many stories so I have to default to my favorite. The first night they ever did Gotta Tell Me Why was around the summer of 1979 at the Childe Harold. Everyone loved it so much they insisted on an encore of it when the show was over. Then another. I've never seen a band do a song so many times. The crowd was dwindling but enthused. Some people who will go unnamed were drinking martinis from a pitcher - something else I am pretty sure I have never seen before or since. Some chairs were broken. It was bedlam entirely appropriate to the debut of an unusually perfect song.










You can make your up your own history when the SLICKEE BOYS appear this Friday at the Black Cat with GIRL LOVES DISTORTION. I wish my daughter Nicole was in town since she's been wearing Slickees shirts since she was a baby. First they were nightshirts since there were many sizes too big. Now they're everyday attire.

Old 9:30 Flyer / New Gigs

(Either get out your bifocals or click on the poster to read it.)

Maybe you can't find "Three Bands for Three Bucks" anymore, but you can still see the SLICKEE BOYS this Friday at Black Cat and TROUBLEFUNK at 9:30 Club Saturday night. The more things change...

You Gotta Tell Me Why They Keep Coming Back for More by Lyn2

What is it about the Slickee Boys that keeps them coming back for more? This question applies equally to the fans or the band. This legendary DC act, which played its "last show" in 1991, puts the fun back in fundamental. Their music hits the fundamentals of rock and roll because it's drawn from so many aspects of the art that you can't characterize it easily. They play with a certain abandon that a credible unnamed source likens to something like a car going off a cliff. In the best sense of that image. If they were a color they would be orange. While their "hey day" spanned many phases of local music history, they managed to both fit into those times and yet bring something that was missing. The Slickees never took themselves too seriously, but they never just dialed it in either. Maybe it's that combination that draws people back year after year. And the fans are by no means homogeneous. You might find a die-hard old school punk, but you'll easily spot someone whose tastes lean to classic rock.

Why does the band keep coming back for more? You will have to ask them. I am glad they do.

Today's History Lesson: (to be corrected and embellished by you the readers)
I think these pictures are from 1979. ( Click on the pix to enlarge.) The CBGB's show was with Tina Peel, a band out of Harrisburg, PA. Everyone stayed in their long skinny apartment on the Lower East Side way before it was gentrified and they had a Lancelot Link lunchbox in the kitchen. This wasn't the only CBGB's gig, but it might have been the first. The pictures of Kim and Mark seem to be Bethesda's Psychedelly, the scene of many a Slickees gig in most of the band's incarnations.

More history as we lead up to this Friday's Slickees show live at the Black Cat. With Girl Loves Distortion.