After their critically-acclaimed 2007 debut Fort Nightly and 2009’s It’s Frightening, a sophomore album that defies all accusations of “slump,” White Rabbits are back again with their third album Milk Famous.
Milk Famous is currently streaming on NPR, where it can be heard in its entirety. The first release and first track on the album is “Heavy Metal,” which they hail as the “ominous opener… crackles with nervous energy; in four and a half minutes, the song throws out enough skittering synth loops, deafening guitar blasts and paranoid lyrics to leave you looking over your shoulder.”
The album is released digitally and on CD today via TBD Records, with the LP released next Tuesday, March 13th, via White Iris.
We’ve been fans of Theophilus London for a while, and today we’ll highlight some of our favorite things that we’ve said about him. London brings some of his Brooklyn swagger to 9:30 Club on Monday (2/6), and we have a pair of tickets for you to win.
Quoting myself last fall:
London just released his debut full-length album Timez Are Weird These Days this past July after a string of successful mixtapes and the Lovers Holiday EP last winter. The Trinidad-born rapper’s unique, eclectic tracks have been hailed as much more than “indie-friendly hip-hop” [BBC], with influences as diverse as Morrissey and Michael Jackson often cited. Known for a fashion sense as fantastically ostentatious as his music, London has collaborated with Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, Sara Quinn from Tegan and Sara, as well as renowned DJ and producer Mark Ronson during a Gucci campaign.
The Time Travelers Ball is your window into the past, the present and the future. One Love Massive & Fatback want you to have a great night with us filled with positive vibes that you can take with you for the New Year and beyond.
The celebration kicks off at 8pm on Saturday, December 31st, at Slaviya (2424 18th Street NW) in Adams Morgan, and the Fatback DJ collective, known for their “vintage R&B, gritty soul, and funky-yet-smooth disco that urges you to move your feet,” will be providing your NYE soundtrack till a historical 4am!
Costumes are encouraged but not mandatory, and prizes will be awarded from Grindstone Universal.
9:30 Club and U Street Music Hall have formed the greatest alliance to hit DC since Ben Ali and chili got together. One of the fortuitous results? 9:30 Club Presents Penguin Prison at UHall, this Saturday, and we’ve got your tickets.
Chris Glover, otherwise known as the New York disco prince Penguin Prison, released his self-titled debut album in October via Downtown Records. However, you may know him from his remixes of Ellie Goulding, Goldfrapp, Passion Pit, The Temper Trap, and many others.
Update: Our key is hidden at The WCP Best Record Store of 2011, which also happens to be one of the co-sponsors of the DC Record Fair with us. Hurry! Goonies never say die!
Update 2: Our key unlocked the tickets! Congratulations to Jen who found the key at Som Records and who will be seeing The Black Keys in March!
9:30 Club/IMP are bringing The Black Keys to Verizon Center on Friday, March 9th, and you have the opportunity to win a pair of tickets in The Quest for the Black Keys.
From our friends at the 9:30 Club:
The Quest for The Black Keys is on! 8 black keys have been hidden around the DMV area and one will unlock a pair of tickets to see The Black Keys at Verizon Center on March 9th! Check 9:30 Club’s Facebook & Twitter and listen to DC101 at noon and 5pm everyday starting Monday, December 5th [today!] to find out where the next key is hiding! Please visit 9:30 Club’s Facebook for official rules & details on how to participate.
We were lucky enough to be able to choose the location of 1 of the 8 keys, and the location of “our key” will be revealed via hints on Thursday!
Jägermeister presenting Digitalism, on tour for their current release I Love You Dude, at U Street Music Hall on Monday, should have portended the night. The Hamburg, Germany electro-duo put on a show complete with both beats and multicolored lights pulsating like your heart as you race down the autobahn in yes, an American car.
UHall was unfortunately sparsely filled during Craig Sopo’s (of Baltimore’s More or Less DJ crew) fun set, as the few who arrived early milled about and found adult beverages. The aptly named Data Romance (“Is that a Digitalism cover band?”) had a few converts dancing wildly in a line in front of the stage, as Ajay Bhattacharyya made the most of his equipment, his hands moving at blinding speeds, and Amy Kirkpatrick made the most of her voice. They are a bit hesitant at first, but then get comfortable and robust, and as Kirkpatrick sings “Street Life,” I remark that there is something wavering and Irish-American brogue-y about her voice, as if Tori Amos’ little sister got lost in a room full of synthesizers.
Then in what would continue to be a heart and love-themed night, Jens Moelle and İsmail Tüfekçi lead the audience in a fist-pumping, arm-flailing frenzy during their performance, which of course included “Two Hearts,” their most recognizable single from I Love You Dude. Indeed, throughout the night, audience members made “heart fingers” adjoining the thumbs and forefingers on each hand to make a heart overhead. “Circles,” the other single from this year’s album, the body-shaking “Reeperbahn,” and “Pogo,” a single from 2007’sIdealism, were all notable standouts during the long, sweaty set.
UPDATE: The video has been found, and the winner has been notified. Thanks for all the googling! Even though we’ve chosen our winner, you can still purchase tickets.
Please tell me that you can imagine nothing more fantastic than having Scott Weiland, former STP and Velvet Revolver front man and the reason that women my age fantasize about skinny men wearing eyeliner, sing you Christmas carols.
On December 19th, at a special seated show at 9:30 Club, Weiland will be singing tracks from his new album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album featuring his version of popular Christmas songs. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, but we’ve got your chance to win a pair even before the show’s listed on the 9:30 Club website.
If you’re missing Mo’vember, fret not, friends. Animal Heart gives you a mustachio’ed, stripperiffic good time in their hilarious new video for “MIAMI,” with a not-so-little surprise at the end. Warning: This may be a bit NSFW.
Their first release, “the buxom yet seedy ‘MIAMI,'” will leave you wanting palm trees, warm breezes, and… some company. Strap on that fanny pack tight or else the force of this electro pop might whip it right off. Then again, this is Miami, and the less clothing, the better… especially once you get back into one of those private rooms. In Miami, in Miami, she’ll take more than just a little piece of your heart. (Hush, baby.)
“I got possessed by sound, and I didn’t want to be exorcised.”—Deanna, concert-goer.
The night before Thanksgiving, Holy Ghost! ensured that everyone would be thankful that they caught them at the 9:30 Club on one of the very last nights of their North American tour.
The Brooklyn-based DFA electropop duo of Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel has filled out into a proper six-piece touring band complete with two DJs behind a candy-striped booth, a guitarist, the drummer from opener Jessica 6 (Jim Orso), Millhiser on bass/synth, and Frankel on vocals. I was thinking about naming this review “Holy Ghost! Fangirl Edition” because of all the wonderful people I met and ran into at the show, all of whom were ecstatic to have been there. Some were just seeing them live for the first time, some had been enamored by their opening set for Cut Copy last spring, and the devoted had been following them for years.
9:30 Club has graciously ensured that this Wednesday night, someone is getting laid.
Imagine: the lush croons of Robin Thicke, drinks and snacks, all courtesy of the club. One lucky winner will receive not only a pair of tickets but also a $20 gift card to use on food and drinks at the show.
Thicke has come a long way from just being known as the hottie progeny of ’80s Growing Pains star Alan Thicke. His last three albums have all hit the Top 10 on Billboard and have been in the Top 5 on the R&B charts. His fifth studio albumLove After War will be released on December 6th, and the title track’s video was just released last week.
This Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, Holy Ghost! take the stage at the 9:30 Club so that you can start off your holiday weekend dancing, and we’ve got your tix.
I consider the Brooklyn electropop duo’s self-titled debut full length, released last April via DFA, one of the best of the year. “Do It Again” was released digitally in anticipation of the album last winter, and “Wait and See” and “Hold My Breath” were subsequently released on 12″ with accompanying videos.
You might also know them from last year’s excellent remix of LCD Soundsystem’s “Drunk Girls,” and last Friday, they dropped the non-album track and Ministry cover “I Wanted to Tell Her” featuring labelmates the Juan MacLean and Nancy Whang.
Try to listen to these without dancing. I dare you.
On Tuesday at the Red Palace, Samantha Urbani, lead vocalist of Friends, stepped onto the stage and coyly beckoned us, “Come up here.”
The show was sadly in sparse attendance, a victim of a long weekend of debauchery in the District, cruddy weather, and the Tinarwen/AIH/DOM powerhouse going on at 9:3o Club, but I’d been listening to “I’m His Girl” for a month, love me some Ganglians, whom the Brooklyn five-piece had just begun supporting on tour that night, and was not about to miss it.
We shyly obeyed Urbani and moved close to the stage. She is lovely, a sex kitten indie vixen, and we all had a “Friend Crush” by the end of the night, still gushing the following day about the show. Local rock heavy Patrick Kigongo of Ra Ra Rasputin and The State Department tells me, “Girls love jangly guitars and good bass lines,” and the night was not lacking for either. Bassist/vocalist Lesley Hann was especially a standout amongst the excellent multi-instrumentalists (we all crushed on her too), moving from keys to bass as Matthew Molnar and Nikki Shapiro alternately rocked keys, guitar, bass, and drums.
Continuing our Record Store Day Black Friday Vinyl Giveaways, we’ll have a vinyl giveaway every day till we close for Thanksgiving!Be sure to stop by your local independent record store on Black Friday itself to pick up one of the Black Friday Special Releases, special limited edition vinyl released that day. In the meantime, enter to win one of our picks of already-released material for your lists of the nice, or if you prefer, naughty.
I am a big Scattered Trees fan, ever since seeing their viral Star Wars-themed video for “Love and Leave,” and their album Sympathy has been on rotation on my playlists since it was released in April. Last week, however, Lexington, Kentucky’s Soul Step Records finally released the album on vinyl! We have a limited edition clear copy for one lucky reader.
Only 100 of the clear set were pressed, and as of last week, there were only 25 left.
You might think that S.C.U.M. take their name from “scum,” but in fact, these post-punk Englishmen named themselves after theS.C.U.M. Manifesto, written by radical feminist Valerie Solanas in 1967, a cheeky nod to the fact that all members of the band at the time were male. S.C.U.M. stands for “Society for Cutting Up Men.”
The first time I heard their September release Again Into Eyes, I thought to myself that they remind me of The Horrors, and lo and behold, the bassists in both bands, Huw [S.C.U.M.] and Rys [The Horrors] Webb, are brothers. (I love when I am right!) Therefore, it’s no surprise that S.C.U.M. have embarked on a European tour with The Horrors and have toured with them in the past.
Additionally, last week S.C.U.M. just put out the video for “Faith Unfolds,” which will be released in January as the band’s next single off Again Into Eyes, via Mute. To celebrate the tour, the video, the single, veterans, and the magic of 11/11/11, we have a vinyl copy of Again Into Eyes for one lucky reader.
We’re closing out our Home Sweet Home DC spotlight with 9:30 Club regulars Ra Ra Rasputin, who will be returning to the club tonight to play DCWEEK’s Opening Party along with seven other fantastic DC-based bands.
Because it don’t stop, they’ll also be headlining a show at Gold Leaf on Saturday, alongside Dead Leaf Echo, Last Tide, and Smoke Green. And to get you excited for this weekend’s sonic smackdown, Ra Ra has kindly allowed us to premier a video recorded during one of their practice sessions at Gold Leaf Studios, which will sadly be closing on January 31st.
