Now Feed Your Head - Sunday: 7 Door Sedan and King Mixer!

Thanksgiving might have been about eating a bit too much or too often, but Sunday night you can feed you head with the sounds of two of DC's most powerful acts - King Mixer and 7 Door Sedan.

Sunday, November 28
9 pm
Black Cat Back Stage
1811 14th Street NW
$8 and All Ages

The New IOTA - At One With Itself

IOTA Club and Cafe, by definition started off as a tiny place, but with time and success, it doubled in size. Used to be you had to choose between eating on one side and seeing music on the other, but DC ROCKS is happy to report that the newest incarnation combines both the club and cafe into one large room, and adds a new mini patio out front. Plus there's a wonderful new selection of beers on tap. It's great.

Come check out the "new" IOTA this FRIDAY, and dance off that midnight turkey sandwich with local favorites- the award winning Rhodes Tavern Troubadours. Both sax master, Derek Huston and keyboard king, Arif Durrani will be sitting in to make this show a stand out.

Get there early! Opening for the Troubadours will be the Vi-kings, Joe Dolan's latest project. The band promises they will "party like 1968", and knowing Joe from his years with the Beatnik Flies, we believe him!

Diversions: DC Rocks' Holiday Survival Plans

It's in the air already- that sense of impending holiday gloom. The leaves fading, the days darkening, and if you haven't hit the grocery store yet this week- forget about it!
Big dinners and family reunions can bring on the best of times and the worst-to borrow from Mr Dickens-so we are here to help with alternative escape plans.

Guests overflowing? Drop 'em off downtown at the mall in the afternoon with a little map to the Rock and Roll Hotel for Wednesday night. They can't sleep there, but there'll be a WHOLE lot of dancing going on with Chopteeth at the helm. And they'll come home too tired to talk about how well their twins are doing at Yale.

Also on Wednesday you could sneak out (after your mother in law is in bed) to the Quarry House to catch those incredibly grooving cats in Gigahertz and those misplaced seamen The Yachtsmen. Both bands come with mega talented players; one harkens back to the out pouring of talent from the late Sixties, and the other flies in the face of reason: original rock disguised as Thurston Howell.

Some people call it Thanksgiving, but those in the know call this Thursday Thrillbilly Karaoke Night down at the Sunset Grille. Let professional rockers erase all those memories of Uncle Bob in his cups, unbuttoning his shirt and singing Elvis off key.

But wait there's more- Friday night- Rhodes Tavern Troubadours at Iota with special guests sitting in. Stay tuned for details on that tomorrow.

Hang in there. We'll get through this together.

Your Sunday To Do List

LATE-BREAKING CHANGE: Dot Dash has had to cancel for Sunday because their drummer, the legendary Danny Ingram, is down with pneumonia. We wish him best wishes and remind you that The Jet Age will go on as planned.

Last week we reviewed Sunday activities you should skip in order to enjoy local music. This Sunday you can up your procrastination ante because there are two shows to see. They will energize different receptors in your music brain and you can do those chores next weekend.

Black Muddy River Band
5pm - 89m
New Deal Cafe; 113 Center Way; Greenbelt MD

This talented trio does acoustic tribute to the Grateful Dead with surprises thrown in. It's a perfect act for the New Deal Cafe in historic Old Greenbelt.

Dot Dash and The Jet Age
9 pm
Black Cat Back Stage; 1811 14th Street NW

These two bands will fulfill your recommended daily high-energy pop/rock allowance and then some.

Lyn2

Caustic Casanova Will Translate at Velvet Lounge

DC ROCKS couldn't say it better than this announcement from Caustic Casanova:
   

In the words of the mighty Peelander-Z, quoted in a National Japanese press release just one week ago:

                               

"私達はあらゆる振動You'より懸命に揺する; あっている".

That roughly translates to 'CC and P-Z in DC? Go to the show, it's EZ!!!'

With anticipatory excitement like that, you're going to want to read this closely:

If you want to have what will surely be the best Wednesday of your life, you need to be at the Velvet Lounge THIS Wednesday, TOMORROW, at 7:30 pm to see Geisha Lightning, Tsushimamire, Caustic Casanova and Peelander-Z!!!!

It promises to be an extremely fun/hard rocking/weird show - not to mention yours truly (Caustic Casanova) will be playing new material, old favorites, and a few surprises.

See you there!  Doors at 7:30, Caustic Casanova goes on at 9.

 

Sunday Afternoon - What Not to Do

Things you could do a Sunday afternoon: laundry, yard work, housecleaning, tv, paying bills, fixing plumbing. What you should do Sunday November 14: Matinee at the Quarry House! It's Sister Ex, Sleeper Agent and Solar Powered Sun-Destroyer. Tell me you have something better to do on a Sunday afternoon!

King Soul Rules @ Jackie's This Saturday

On King Soul what Lyn2 has to say is- "You have not had fun until you have had it with King Soul. Period."

$8 cover includes live music and little Tommy Clifford as your Soul driven deejay.

Don't Chute the Messenger

Here is another local band to check out: Chute will be playing this Saturday night at the Austin Grill in Rockville. They describe themselves as "an alternative rock band," and God knows Rockville could benefit from exposure to almost anything billed as non- main stream.

Artisphere: It's a Whole New World

 Over the weekend DC ROCKS got the chance to check out the Artisphere- Rosslyn's reincarnation of what once was the Newseum. This place is huge, and the art spaces are many: three theaters, three galleries and a ball room. Events just this month include Shakespeare, Salsa Tuesdays, Dance Wednesdays, and 11:01 Saturday Nights which feature eclectic live music.

This Wednesday while the rest of the world might be languishing in front of the teevee, you could be at a real Cajun dance in the ball room with the Red Stick Ramblers from Louisiana. There's a dance lesson at 7:30, and the band plays from 8:30-11:30. $15

Just a Friday in DC by Lynn Thorp

I never tire of the simple charms the hometown has to offer. Late in the afternoon on Friday, I delivered 1000 letters from people in Michigan to President Obama, encouraging him to keep pushing for stronger vehicle standards. After dropping my box off with a capable and polite young White House employee who looked like he hasn't slept in 22 months, I snapped this picture from the south steps of the Old Executive Office Building (Eisenhower Executive Office Building since 1999.) The OEOB (really now the EEOB) is apparently the best example of French Second Empire architecture in the U.S.

Next, I stopped at Swing's coffee shop at 1702 G Street. Swing's has brewed coffee in DC since 1916. Their legendary shop on E Street closed in 1986, but they somehow survived the Coffee Dark Years and opened the G Street shop in 1994. Their coffee is served and sold in various places around town. On G Street, they make a latte worthy of the best Italian counters in San Francisco, and one of the few properly made ones of which I am aware around here!

Said latte was consumed on a park bench in Lafayette Park, where you could feel the relative calm of the White House complex given that POTUS was wheels up to India. Across from me in the park was the most interesting street character downtown - a guy who walks around wearing barely there cut-off denim shorts and a walking stick. This tall dark, buff and blondish/grey dreadlocked man may be a street person, or maybe he just likes dressing like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Such a Friday afternoon in our Nation's Capital made me wonder why I don't do it more often, since my office is a mere 2 blocks from Lafayette Park. Try it yourself sometime.

A Happening at the Artisphere Saturday

Do you remember this Place?

I didn't know what to expect when I went to Jeff Krulik's Ambassador Theater symposium, but I had an amazing time learning, meeting cool  people, and three years later, I'm still talking about it!

Jeff Krulik, local film and scene maker, is doing it again this Saturday from 3-5 p.m. with a gathering which will focus on the  rock n roll memories of Northern Virginia. The forum is being held at a cool new place to check out-the Artisphere (formally the Newseum)which right across Key Bridge and only two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro for all you Virginia phobes.

Here is the scoop:

"Did you see Alice Cooper perform among the lunch tables at NOVA Community College? Did you see Van Morrison or Chuck Berry at The Ark in Alexandria? Did you dance to Sonny and The Shadows or the IGA Heroes at the Elks Club? Share your stories with those who helped launch the rock music industry. 
Invited panelists include 
Bud Becker who booked bands and dances as Domestic Sounds, and helped run the concerts at The Alexandria Roller Rink.
Teddy Bodnar who ran American Star Recording in McLean and the weekly dances at the nearby Elks Club.
Michael Oberman, 'Music Makers' columnist for The Washington Star, manager of Claude Jones 
Mike Schreibman, New Era Follies/New Era Concerts, Emergency, WAMA

If you were in the Battle of the Bands, or at these concerts (The Doors, Black Sabbath, The Yardbirds, Janis Joplin at Alexandria Roller Rink), or heard stories from your older brothers and sisters, you won't want to miss it. Part panel discussion, part slide show, part band and scene reunion, it promises to be a fun and nostalgic trip."

This EVENT ( and it will be just that) is free and open to the public.

He's Back Home

Back in the nineties, Last Train Home was practically the house act at Iota. Those shows were always so popular and so much fun that the band would play the whole weekend- Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Since then front man, Eric Brace has moved the band to Nashville, and LTH shows are much rarer now. Die hard fans sorely miss that band, but Eric has teamed up with Peter Cooper and has a new thing going on that is well worth checking out.  I saw them play in Chevy Chase last year, and I have to say these two know exactly what they are doing with their rock solid harmonies and songs. Here's the scoop on their show this Friday night at Jammin Java with Dan Navarro:  

"At 7 p.m. Friday there will be an "In The Round" performance, with Eric, Peter, and Dan all on stage together, taking turns singing songs and talking about them and their lives in music. This will be a two-hour show, with no breaks.
Then at 9:30, Eric and Peter will take the stage as a duo, augmented by the beautiful trumpet playing of Kevin Cordt (whom most of you will recognize from Eric's band Last Train Home). They will play a full hour set, and they'll be followed by Dan Navarro, playing a full set of his tunes. He will be joined by other musicians as well. Somewhere in there, Dan will join Eric and Peter (or vice versa) to sing a bunch of songs they all know and love.

Eric and Peter are celebrating the release a new CD.  "Master Sessions"  a collaboration with two of their musical heroes: Lloyd Green, a Grammy-nominated member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame who played on more than 100 #1 country hits and with non-country greats like the Byrds and Paul McCartney, and Mike Auldridge, an IBMA Lifetime Achievement Award winner who played dobro with the pioneering progessive bluegrass band, DC's own Seldom Scene."

Come on out Friday and welcome Eric home.

Support Your SIster

Go Local DC

Here's a totally DC ROCKS type show- a bunch of long playing musicians rocking a small venue. If you are NOT a fan of corporate style rock music (what we used to call the "top forty") or chain style restaurants and bars then please support these kind of shows.

Jim Kennedy writes about his band The Colliders which is playing Nicaro on Georgia Avenue in the heart of Silver Spring this Friday:

"The Colliders are three guys who have played all kinds of music and are finally getting to do what we love.  The repertoire is mostly rockabilly, honky-tonk, a little blues-some originals, some lesser-known great tunes, and always surprises.  This is a band with a big beat, more rocka than billy, and The Colliders are picking up a good following in Montgomery County after two years of playing the local joints." 

Also, November 5th is my sixtieth birthday!  At twenty I was playing moody extended jams in Tucson; at thirty I was playing outlaw country music in California (good party that year, I came this close to going to jail); at forty I was playing Southern rock in North Carolina; at fifty I was conducting research and raising kids with the occasional street-party gig for fun; and here as I hit sixty I'm having a blast doing what I always wanted to do, playing good old three-minute, three-chord rock and roll."

Because DC ROCKS is such a local rag (well, it would be if we weren't all on line now) We just want to go ahead and say Happy Birthday, Jim! And if you go to the show make sure you tell 'em DC ROCKS sent you.

Be Loud