Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

I'm pretty sure the NPS cares as much about Amanda's moral principles as Amanda cares about the moral principles of the NPS

Exactly, which will likely leave us with no Fort Reno concerts. But Amanda believes that this will teach bandmembers and the rest of us a moral lesson.

J. Fischer of City Paper put together a list of some of the groups who were scheduled to play:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/06/26/heres-who-might-have-played-fort-reno-this-summer/

Here's who nearly played at Fort Reno this summer:

•Title Tracks
•The Effects
•Myrrh Myrrh
•The Captivators
•Alarms and Controls
•Aloners
•Baby Bry Bry and the Apologists
•Calavera Skull
•Golden Looks
•Priests
•Give
•Malatese
•Puff Pieces
•Peanut Butter and Dave
•The Raised by Wolves
•Sotano
•Dissonance
•Stereosleep
•Talk It
•Tiger Horse
•Protect-U
This list might not be complete, either. In an email to me, Ray Brown of teenage rockers The Black Sparks also said his group was supposed to play on July 28. Was your band set to perform?

Both the NPS and USPP recognize the importance of the concerts to the community and look forward to further discussions with the permit applicant.

.......

ooh, DC Shadow Senator Paul Strauss helped arrange a Monday meeting between NPS, USPP, and Amanda Mackaye

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/06/27/fort-reno-organizer-to-meet-with-national-park-service-monday/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/06/29/kenyan-musicians-back-at-smithsonian-folklife-festival-after-one-day-strike-against-their-government/

Interesting weekend on the mall.

In other news, Lux Lounge shut down after 3 something AM incident outside the place on the street

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/06/talbert-bright-unidentified-woman-killed-in-weekend-violence-in-dc-club-closed-104611.html

Fort Reno back on

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/06/30/fort-reno-concerts-are-back-on/

Organizers agreed today that they will pay for a police presence at this summer's shows, but will not have to pay up front, as officials initially required. "You'll see foot patrols or bike patrols," Strauss said. "Something less disruptive to the environment.” Strauss said that while not every issue was worked out, “we made enough progress that everyone was comfortable moving forward.” Some of those issues include the hard costs of each night, the number of officers on hand for each show, and the number of hours they'll be present, Strauss said, adding that Park Service Superintendent Tara Morrison recognized that “it’s a unique event.”

MacKaye, Morrison, and Park Police Sgt. Allan Griffith appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi Show immediately after the meeting

What I'm not seeing in any of the reporting is why is the Park Service so adamant that there be officers at each show? Was there an issue last year?

from an earlier CP article

MacKaye says she was given two explanations for the requirement being imposed: She says NPS told her that all events for more than 100 people are required to have officers assigned. And she says Park Police told her that that there has been "heightened crime" in Fort Reno Park during the concert series. "I dispute that, because I’m there and I don’t see that going on,” she says.

She says NPS told her that all events for more than 100 people are required to have officers assigned.

this is the important part. it sounds like she ignored that and then focused on the anecdote that there was "heightened crime", which yeah, is bullshit.

But NPS never followed that in the past to the degree they now have decided to do

Yeah, the shows I've been too are always pretty chilled out. It seems the sensible thing would be to have a cop drive past once or twice, maybe hang around at the end to make sure people leave. I don't know what you need a guy parked there all night. (Though there was that thing at the zoo where a kid started dancing . . . they needed some cops to make him stop. Dancing. At a show.)

http://www.fortreno.com/

Schedule posted -- Mondays and Thursdays in July

From the link:

MONDAY, JULY 7 2014
Captivators
Malatese

THURSDAY, JULY 10 2014
Peanut Butter & Dave
Golden Looks
Calavera Skull

MONDAY, JULY 14 2014
Baby Bry Bry
Aloners
Tiger Horse

THURSDAY, JULY 17 2014
Priests
Sotano
Puff Pieces

MONDAY, JULY 21 2014
Alarms & Controls
Talk It
Dissonance

THURSDAY, JULY 24 2014
Title Tracks
The Effects
Myrrh Myrrh

MONDAY, JULY 28 2014
Black Sparks
Stereosleep
The Raised by Wolves

THURSDAY, JULY 31 2014
Give
Protect-U

Any Fort Reno act recommendations?

i like aloners & baby bry bry are a+ bros

Thanks.

NPS said Fort Dupont and Carter Barron schedules (based on same shortened sequestration calendar from last year) would be announced "around July 1." Still waiting

shocked the City Paper and others haven't been up in arms about the Fort Dupont schedule being up in the air, I know from all the Fort Reno coverage that they're huge fans of long-running free concert series on NPS land in DC

(haha I'm kidding I know why)

(i dont know why)

(what is fort dupont)

I'm hoping you're kidding. Free concert series in Anacostia that has existed for 40 some years. Old-school soul, funk and jazz fusion bands play there. I've written some reviews of shows there for the Post (back when it had more freelancers) and done a few things for the City Paper. Yes, only a tiny handful of white folks go there.

Actually Jon Fischer mentioned Fort Dupont in his Fort Reno cover story (and they are hoping for a follow-up piece from me)

Around town, other free concert series on National Park Service land have had much closer contact with federal authorities.

Roger “Flash” Gordon stage-managed Fort Dupont’s summer shows for eight years with the Annapolis-based National Artists Corporation, and he still runs the D.C. Blues Society concerts at Carter Barron. At the beginning of each season, the Park Service paid the company to produce six Saturday concerts with a local opening act and a big-name headliner. “For people who didn’t have vacation money” in the neighborhood, he says, “that was their vacation.”

National Artists Corporation held the Fort Dupont contract from 2002 to 2012. Due to sequestration, in 2013 NPS booked the talent for a slimmed three-show schedule, replacing some funk and go-go favorites with U.S. military bands and shying away from larger, national acts. “[NPS has] done a piss-poor job taking it over,” says Gordon. “People in that area of Southeast don’t wanna see [those bands]. That’s crap to them.” NPS is currently accepting bids to run four shows this summer. A spokesperson says the Fort Dupont series will begin on July 19.

Since the shows are run by the Park Service, National Artists Corporation didn’t have to pay for security. Gordon says U.S. Park Police presence has increased, however.

Interestingly, friends of fort dupont has a few more details beyond what been announced. Definitely not the same scope as most prior years.

http://www.foftdupont.org/Summer_Concert_Series.html

I'm not kidding! I'd honestly never heard of it.

I do radio work in Anacostia on weekends, but I don't have a lot of friends or colleagues EOTR otherwise.

I reviewed old-school soul band the Dramatics there in 2005 I think; saw P-Funk offshoot Original P there in 2010 (there were a crowd of about 5,000 there). I heard someone once refer to it as "the Black Wolf Trap" (although arguably Carter Barron used to book more national r'n'b acts). Pretty sure Sun Ra once played there.

Plus as I kid I went to the Fort Dupont Ice rink that is in the park (I think) to watch my brother play hockey!

there was a crowd

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/07/11/chris-grier-experimental-guitarist-and-former-d-c-musician-dies/

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/d-c-s-modern-day-punk-scene-captured-in-a-new-photo-exhibit/

Curm, haven't you mentioned a church in SE that gets soul acts and puts on a weekly concert? I'd love some details on that.

Westminster Church in SW (not SE) puts on weekly Monday night 6 to 9 "blues" concerts that sometimes are more soul than blues. They do Friday night jazz ones. Many of the surviving old-school DC soulsters do not gig that much.

http://www.westminsterdc.org/blues_schedule.htm

I think Shirletta Settles who is there next Monday is kinda soulful. I don't know the August lineup that well. Little Margie from the Jewels (who opened a tour for James Brown in the '60s) who is there Labor Day Monday is soulful.

Awesome thanks!

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/07/16/fewer-shows-smaller-acts-at-fort-dupont-and-carter-barron-this-year/#more-113277

Some of the details on the latest National Park Service episode

good piece, Steve!

Thanks. I can't believe the National Park Service said that planning 1 weekend of Fort Stevens on Ga. Ave civil war anniversary events meant they couldn't put out a bid for Fort Dupont concerts in a timely fashion.

DC rap overview in Pitchfork

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/403-the-rise-of-dc-street-rap/

chanranjit singh coming to tropicalia!

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=25554

Puff Pieces (ex- the wildly underrated Antelope) tonight at Fort Reno.

http://lovitt.bandcamp.com/album/4-song-7

I don't even live in D.C. anymore, I just wish I was seeing Fort Reno shows....

Was there Monday, as I seem to be busy or away on most Fort Reno nights this year.. Definitely still enjoyable. Observation and not a criticism-- I think on some nights the percentage of parents with little kids there is much larger than the number of teens through uh 50-somethings without little ones with them...

Hey I Died, what's the U St. Music Foundation?

Other than WKYS's 9:30 pm to around 9:50 pm Mon. to Thurs. go-go crank sessions is this genre getting any attention, these days? DC rap may be bigger these days, but I guess I gotta look at instagram to find more re go-go

I found some go-go and bouncebeat tweets, the detective work continues.

Meanwhile, there's plenty to read re house music shows (mostly indie/experimental but a few token mentions of bluegrass and classical Indian-South Asian ones).

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/46108/ace-of-basements/

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/in-the-d-c-area-houses-open-doors-to-small-time-musicians/

WKYS probably spends more time on go-go than the 10 minutes 92Q spends on club every day :(

I remember when now Atlanta-based DJ Frankski used to spin Baltimore club music on weekend nights on Baltimore radio...The late K-Swift later...I have lost track since her passing. I guess there's not much left

My brother's band is getting some local press:

http://bandwidth.wamu.org/track-work-thaylobleu-locked/

Nice. Impressive background too:

The 1991 graduate of the Corcoran School of Art—who went by Sub-Z in one of D.C.’s first noteworthy hip-hop groups, the jazz-influenced Opus Akoben (with Kokayi and Black Indian, both still active as MCs)— plus one-half of the pioneering Poem-cees, and Hall and Vaughn have been musicians in the scene for years.)

(fyi "one-half of the pioneering Poem-cees" = my brother)