Or, more accurately, "skims the surface of the local music scene" in the Weekend cover story.
Lend Them Your Ears Breaking Stories From the Music Scene By Richard Harrington
ROCK When
Q and Not U signed to Dischord in 1998, the band was briefly hyped as Washington's next big punk thing, particularly after its initial recordings were produced by Fugazi's Ian MacKaye and Don Zientera. But losing their bassist led singer-guitarists Chris Richards (a Washington Post copy aide) and Harris Klahr, and drummer John Davis to rethink the band's sound and approach. They ended up pumping up the melodies and vocal harmonies (sometimes pushing the latter into falsetto-land) and adding a dash of dance-music energy via synth-bass underpinning -- sort of a middle ground between disco and Dischord. And while there's still a dour political sensibility to the lyrics, the overall mood is considerably lighter, something particularly evident on Q and Not U's recent "Power" album. Now on tour opening for indie-rock darlings Interpol, Q and Not U will be at the Black Cat April 27 with the Threads.
Washington Social Club has made its mark via high-energy live shows enlivened by lead singer-guitarist Martin Royle's manic showmanship. Royle and bassist Olivia Mancini began playing together as Vassar College undergrads and hooked up with drummer Randy Scope after moving back to Washington; they recently added guitarist Evan Featherstone. The band's debut album, "Catching Looks," is a collection of catchy '90s-style indie-pop hooks tempered by '80s-era punk and new wave energies; surprisingly, the group shows little local influence, though it has cited Jonathan Fire*Eater (now the Walkmen) as an inspiration. And the name? According to Royle, after being kicked out of the Washington Sports Club for smoking marijuana, he felt a need to form a club where he could smoke freely, an in-joke Groucho Marx would surely appreciate. Washington Social Club recently played the 9:30 club with Hot Hot Heat.
The Carlsonics also have an exuberant frontman in singer Aaron Carlson, whose fearless and sometimes out-of-control onstage antics have evoked comparisons to Iggy Pop in his Stooges-era gory glory. Carlson, guitarists Ed Donohue and John Passmore, drummer Mike Scutari and bassist Nikki West came together in 1999 while attending James Madison University, which hardly seems the proper incubator for the band's frenetic and happily rough-around-the-edge garage rock. It's a sound rooted in the '70s cacophonies of Detroit and punk London, a sound that, so far, has been better represented in performance than on recordings: The band's eponymous debut album came out in 2003.
A town famous for go-go and punk can also claim psych-rock/stoner-rock standard bearers Dead Meadow and the Hidden Hand.
Dead Meadow came out of Washington's legendary punk/indie scene in the late '90s -- having met at assorted all-ages punk shows, the members formed various baby bands before coming together as Dead Meadow. Its 2000 debut was released on Fugazi bassist Joe Lally's Tolotta label, and a few years later Dead Meadow recorded a session for John Peel at Fugazi's practice space, the first time a "Peel Session" had been recorded outside the BBC's London studios. Why the fuss? Dead Meadow cannily melds a passion for the '60s psychedelia a la Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix and the molten '70s rock of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer with the literary influence of such fantasists as J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft: Call it heavy mental. The band's fourth studio album, "Feathers," was released last month, with singer-guitarist Jason Simon getting some added muscle from new guitarist Cory Shane. Touring in Europe with And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Dead Meadow will be at Baltimore's Ottobar on April 26.
The
Hidden Hand also has Black Sabbath roots and a Fugazi connection: Singer-guitarist-songwriter Scott "Wino" Weinrich taught Lally to play bass. Weinrich also moonlights in Probot, the band put together by Dave Grohl, who was in the Washington-based hardcore band Scream before his Nirvana/Foo Fighters fame. Grohl has called Weinrich "the godfather of doom music" dating to his '80s run with the legendary Obsessed, and the guitarist's riff-and-rip virtuosity has made him something of a legend in metal circles. Lyrics on the recent album, "Mother Teacher Destroyer," reveal a decided political bent, not surprising since the band's name alludes to secret societies and financial organizations that control the world. The Hidden Hand is touring the United States with Mastodon and Burning Brides, and the group will play April 16 at Warehouse Next Door in the District and May 18 at Talking Head in Baltimore.
Soul, R&B and Blues
