The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

Washington City Paper is compiling a “Best of D.C. 2010 Readers’ Poll”. Check it out under “Arts & Entertainment”. There are plenty of categories about music: Best Jazz/Blues Venue, Best Local Band, Best Local Hip-Hop Artist, Best Music Venue, Best Outdoor Venue, Best Place to See Local Music. It’ll be interesting to see the results. Share your opinions in the comments section.

98 Rock hosts a local music showcase every Monday at Bourbon Street.  Unfortunately, they advertise the branded affordability of the night — $4.98 cover, $.98 open bar for the first 98 minutes, and $.98 drink specials after that — better than they advertise the schedule of bands.  I cannot find a listing of this week’s bands anywhere.  Maybe that’s the point.  You’re supposed to come for the cheap drinks and hope to be pleasantly surpised.  However, my sources tell me that this Monday, 2/22, the best line-up of Baltimore garage bands in months will take the stage:  The Expotentials, Fishnet Stalkers, and Lazlo Lee & The Motherless Children.  It’s a good thing the brick walls of The Quarter are bare, since these bands would peel the paint right off of them.

This is a melancholy week for Baltimore-area music fans, as two important sites are about to become memories:  the Glen Burnie Record & Tape Traders location and Friends bar in Fells Point.  Record & Tape Traders, as the name indicates, has been an important independent music retailer in Maryland for decades.  A few years ago they closed down several store locations in Annapolis, Rehobeth, Dundalk, and elsewhere.  After Sunday’s in-store wake, their only remaining store will be in Towson.

February also marks the final month for Friends in Fells.  Although not a live music venue, Friends has served as an important meeting place where Baltimore musicians have worked as deejays and bartenders while others have been regular customers, talking shop over beers.  Known for its late-night happy hour, Friends has made a great night-ender for folks who have spent their evening elsewhere, including live shows.  I’ll be saying goodbye on Wednesday the 24th, when DJ King Gilbert Partridge will host his final “No Rest For The Wicked” garage, etc., set while Matt Naas of The Expotentials pours drinks for one last time.  If you hear about the theft of Friends’ jukebox, loaded with the most amazing library of rock CDs imaginable, I will have had nothing to do with it.

Punk vaudevillian accordion player and former The Hold Steady keybordist Franz Nicolay is sweeping through our area while touring in support of his new solo album, Major General and EP, St. Sabastian of the Short Stage. Franz will play at DC9 on Saturday and The Ottobar next Wednesday, and he will hit Charlottesville and Richmond in between. In addition to his solo work, he is part of an a capella group with the new 7″ World/Inferno Presents: Vox Inferne, a Brooklyn publisher is coming out with the first of a series of his fiction chapbooks entitled Complicated Gardening Techniques, and Franz has several more projects in the pipeline. Somehow, this busy guy took time to respond to a few questions we had for him. Read our interview with Franz Nicolay after the jump. (more…)

One of the main ways that artists and music fans can subvert the monopolistic radio industry is to go online for radio. Fortunately, Baltimore has a great internet radio site that is focusing on the promotion of independent music. Soul City Radio is focused on non-mainstream Hip Hop, Soul, Neo – Soul, R&B or Jazz. Station founder DeWayne Alston is trying to promote both independent artists and the idea of independent music; look in the near future for more information about the panel discussions that Alston will be hosting on his show “Soul Session”. The station is live at different times, but you can always check-out the week’s shows. The station player and schedule is after the jump: (more…)

Still looking for a way to celebrate the New Year and the new decade? There are quite a few options in the greater Washington, DC area for the music lovers. So say good-bye to Aught-Nine and ring in the new year’s by getting your ears ringing with music. A list of some of the events going on New Year’s Eve in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland after the jump. (more…)

Focusing mostly on new wave and songs that established the foundation of what we used to call alternative music, a new 80s cover band is about to hit the bars of Maryland.  The New Romance will play their first gig at Sonoma’s Bar in Columbia on Saturday.  They also have a couple of shows scheduled at The River Watch in Essex, including a New Year’s party.  Check out their demos on their site and you’ll agree they are a pretty rad addition to the Charm City scene.

Every few years the stars align and Halloween falls on a Saturday – if it were up to me, I would make Halloween the last Friday or Saturday of October, but for some reason it must be October 31st. The only thing better could be Halloween on a Saturday with a Full Moon (we miss that by two days), but the weekend should be fun anyway. When Halloween falls on a weekday there is always some confusion – should you be a die-hard reveler and celebrate on Halloween? or the weekend before? or the weekend after? These questions are answered when it falls on the weekend and since it falls on a Saturday be ready to party Friday and Saturday nights. There are plenty of Halloween shows going on around Washington, DC this weekend be sure to catch them all. Check-out the schedule after the jump.

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On Tuesday, Girl In A Coma from San Antonio came through Baltimore with their touring partners Brooklyn’s Black Gold to play The Ottobar with three local bands.  The crowd was small but those who came out saw an amazing show.  Girl In A Coma are destined for big things.  I arrived too late for Caustic Casanova’s set and only caught parts of the sets by Mason Summers, Odd Girl Out, and Black Gold.  They all struck me as groups with legitimate rock chops who can put on a fun show but rely too much upon gimmicks to make that happen.  However, I was blown away by Girl In A Coma.  Find out why after the jump.  (more…)

Big In Japan have enjoyed a kind of residency at The Windup Space in Baltimore, playing every Sunday evening in August.  Instead of merely having another band open for them each week, they have invited their guests to collaborate with them on stage.  I cannot imagine how much extra practice this entails, and when one considers that these shows are free, the monetary rewards must be even more limited than they usually are for such bands.  These shows are rock for art’s sake, and I highly recommend that you check out the final show of this series on the 30th when they will be joined by Katrina of Celebration.  This past Sunday Big In Japan’s guests were The Expotentials.  Details of the best show I have seen in a very long time follow after the jump. (more…)