Put Down That To Do List and Get OUT!!!!!

I am having a busy week and part of that is due to too many great local bands playing and to my wanting to see them all. What a problem to have. On Friday night downtown at The Red and The Black, The New Standard, Sister Ex, Ottley, and Lisa Said are playing-in that order. With the exception of Lisa Said who hails from Tennessee, that's a whole lot of DC's home town talent and history crammed into one upstairs room. It's unbelievable how much great music you can see here, from here and for so little money.
Also- get your beauty rest Saturday for the big Beatnik Flies/Rambling Shadows show at historic Hank Dietles' Tavern this Saturday night. I'm so busy I can't write more, but I will try to go. That's because it really matters when we show up. Please come, too, and help these folks play to a full house. You can make all the difference in a local band's life. It makes them do it again. It keeps the scene going. It could all be up to you. ( yeah, you!)

penned by LYN2

What's New ?

This Friday is all about new. New Surf Club owner J.B., who rescued this one of a kind place from near demise, is booking great new line-ups, and Friday's is a strong one. It seems like ages, but it was just seven months ago that I happened on 7 Door Sedan's first show. This new band gets stronger every time I see them- so much so that I find it painful to miss a show because then I'd miss a stage in their evolution.
Rambling Shadows has been around longer, (actually risen from the ashes of many DC bands as they put it) but this year with new drummer Tommy Carr, they are playing more shows, sounding trance-alicious. Plus they have a new CD out.
Tru Fax and the Insaniacs are the least new of the bunch which isn't a bad thing. This is the 4th decade in which they have agitated the scene, but this Friday night they'll be joined by a new bass player. Upon stalwart bassist Kenny Bugg's partial retirement, the one and only Jamie Cramer has agreed to try something new, being accustomed to playing lead guitar. The world eagerly awaits his debut.

If you haven't been out in a while, or if you're sick of just hearing about these bands and the Surf Club- then try something new yourself and get over there. The sounds start at 9. Some call it Hyattsville, some call it Bladensburg, and even others call it Hyattsville Beach-but what ever you call it, the drinks are reasonable, and there's pool tables to boot. Old club-new management- check it out.

Lyn2

Good Things Come

Intimate is what they used to call tiny clubs. (Now a days I favor hole in the wall.) They are small, perhaps cramped even, but what they lack in space they make up for in attitude. The good kind, not the bad. The kind where the bass player moves over a little so you can get into the bathroom or the heckler in the crowd is your buddy and the drummer's cousin. And this is the place where you find tout these things because the atmosphere is anything but stuffy. So here are a few such dives, I mean intimate places, that i like to frequent and what's going on this weekend. ( I always like to start a weekend early.)
Thursday night Ruthie and The Wranglers are at The Sunset Grille. The Grille is so small you sometimes have to wait in the other room for someone to leave. Mercifully both rooms are equipped with a bar. Once in where the bands play, you can choose a bar stool or sit at one of maybe three tables if memory serves me. You never have to worry about being close enough to the band there- if you were closer you'd be in it. And people still manage to dance.

Then in town there's The Velvet Lounge, Drinks are served downstairs and upstairs is like someone's basement- dark and kind of small with a sound system befitting the 9:30 Club. If the band rocks, the people rock and so does the floor, but that's part of its charm. This Friday catch The Lookies -featuring the Rummager (ex-Velvet Monkeys, Gumball) Rambling Shadows (ex-Velvet Monkeys, Crippled Pilgrims) and 7 Door Sedan (ex-White Boy) My friend, Bill says: I love these 3 bands, they are each quite different, and don't have any following. It's gonna be arty, punky, psychedelic, and all original. And GREAT.

Following the law of PILE IT ON- there's another show Friday that older DC rockers can appreciate, and where young punks can pick up a tip or two at yet another small venue- The Quarry House. You get to know people at The Quarry House because we all smash in there together and steal each other's tater tots. Greenland a young local group with a great older sound and The Howling Mad will be there featuring local rock legends Michael Reidy and Abaad Behram. Look for them between the women's room, several cases of beer and the sound equipment.

And last but certainly not least on Saturday it's Ottley!, 7 Door Sedan and Dollar Bin at The Sidebar in Baltimore. I haven't been there, but according to Glenn of 7 Door Sedan band stickers are holding this place together. More on this show on Friday.

Wednesday Alert: A Perfect Double Date

On Wednesday night, 7 Door Sedan and Rambling Shadows take the stage at The Red and the Black on H Street. This is 7 Door's fourth show and the third in which they have been paired up with Rambling Shadows, who are out and about more these days sporting new drummer Tommy Carr. It truly is a match made in heaven. If you haven't had your mind expanded lately, here's your chance to see 8 of DC's most talented folks bringing you hypnosis, melody, psychedelia, jamming, rocking, glamming and more. Ramble on through the Door, you will be glad you did.

Lyn2

Last Weekend

(Jake Flack Rhodes Tavern Troubadours)


Well, a it took a while for us all to recover from the shows this past weekend, and we didn't even make it to all of them, of course, but here's what we've got (besides moi) -pictures from Chip Py and a report from roving reporter, Lyn2 who called in from the train to NYC this morning:
Saturday night The Quarry House had a huge unidentifiable crowd. Ottley was first with new material that Martha Hull delivered in her usual powerful way- occasionally wading into the audience for added effect. 7 Door Sedan is really getting its new act together, improving exponentially each time she sees them. And their new song by Ken Moss was a hit. Rambling Shadows was extremely loud and worth the ear damage. "They were jamming on that hypnotic psychedelic thing." Our reporter was married to a drummer for 21 years, and can't figure out exactly why, but she could watch Tommy Carr play the drums all day.
Everybody kept using the word psychedelic about all the bands, but each had a very different sound -a new sound- a 21st century thing. Maybe their roots lie in the past, but it's not a rehash going on- it's a renaissance. Thank you, Jackie at The Quarry House for helping this scene get out there.


Meanwhile in another bar in another part of town-
The Rhodes Tavern Troubadours had everyone dancing Friday night at The Surf Club. It was nice to see them play in a place where there was room to swing more than a cat. Despite their lack of live gigs, the guys were going strong. (Catch them one more time with the kids this Saturday at The Avalon Theater in D.C.)


(birthday boy- i wrestled him for his camera)

Friday was also the kick off to Chip Py's birthday weekend although he stayed on the job-from the Surf Club right through Saturday night at The Velvet Lounge where Haley's Band ( that's it- that's what we're calling it now) got the place full to bursting.


Joe Jack Talcum had the stage to himself as he performed Dead Milkmen songs and other tunes to a dedicated crew who could and did fill in if Joe forgot the words. Punk Rock Girl was probably a highlight-definitely a floor shaker, but in general it was a fun and witty performance.


Finally (and we do mean finally at 12:30) The Hula Monsters crammed on the tiny stage and got the Faithful but Weary Attendees dancing with their drummer, Ben Holmes (a.k.a. Big Beat) leading the charge. Hulas at The Velvet Lounge.
Not a sight you're gonna see every day, maybe never again, but they played as if they were at The Royal Hawaiian. You had to have been there.


(Mark Noone)

Thanks again to Chip for these great, sometimes ethereal shots-click on them to get the full effect.

Party Party Weekend @ The 9:30 Club

Yes. It's Prabir and The Substitutes on Friday night AND a big rock show Saturday night BOTH at the The 9:30 Club, but what can you do? It happens. One is the future, one's from the past. And speaking of the past....


Mark Holmes, d.j./artist from the olden days at the 9:30 Club made schedules an art form. You can see an assortment of these framed in the basement of the new club where ghosts reside at the original back bar. (I sure have a boat load of memories there. My best friend once passed out and hit his chin on that bar twice in one night. Not to mention... well, don't get me started.) The 9:30 Club used to advertise itself as a place in time, and this Saturday night we can all get in that way back machine thanks to Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys, Ottley) who had a light bulb moment last summer at the DC Space benefit for Tom T:
I really liked the idea of a bunch of acts doing short sets. It kinda reminded me of those shows in the 60s where there would be a back up band, and then 10 acts would do 2 or 3 songs each. So Marshall grabbed the right person that very night, made his pitch, and now the idea is coming to life.
To all of us who were hanging out or playing in bands at the beginning of the DC new wave/punk scene, the 9:30 club is like Grandma's house. Makes me all warm & fuzzy.

Boyd Farrell (Black Market Baby, Rustbuckit) has a slightly different take on the old 9:30: The putrid smell of old beer and puke..I had to wash my clothes twice after spending just 5 minutes there.

Anyway.

Marshall especially wanted to get The New Standard on the bill since they missed playing the gig last summer. The New Standard emerged from a band called The Penetrators which formed in 1977 and played at The Atlantis- The 9:30 Club's first incarnation. In 1979 they opened for The Cramps at the LBJ Club - a gig listed in some music histories as DC's first true punk event according to George Dively, a founding member. In 1980 The Penetrators broke up, and George went on to reform the band as The New Standard with Mash LeGrande and Matt Makaio. As a three-piece 'power pop trio', we took quite a few people by surprise, playing songs at breakneck speed with complex chord changes and 'beatnik poetry' lyric.
The group has been on and off again over the years, but like a lot of these bands- they're seasoned musicians ready to throw it out there again. The 9:30 Club gig January 12 is an excellent opportunity for open-minded indie/alt music aficionados to revisit or discover one of DC's least-known 'great original bands'.

And the cover is $12- what a deal at just two bucks a band!!! (And don't worry the smell is gone- smoke free even)

Here's the low down from Marshall:

30 years over DC- The Resurgence: Limp records veterans in great new bands. We're doing condensed 30 minute sets so you hear la creme de la creme de la creme only. Former members of Razz, Penetrators, Slickee Boys, Black Market Baby, Velvet Monkees, Trenchmouth, White Boy, Crippled Pilgrims and more- Headlining the whole shBang is 9353. (our comrades from a couple of years later)
Doors open at 7:30.

8-8:30 The New Standard
8:45-9:15 Rustbuckit
9:30-10 Rambling Shadows
10:15-10:45 The Howling Mad
11-11:30 Ottley
11:45-12:15 9353

Click on the card below to read it and get a blast from the past-
Be sure to check out Sun 13

artwork by Mark Holmes 1981