Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

Habib Koite from Mali at the National Geographic Grosvenor
Hall--Habib's got a nice live cd out--He trys to meld styles from
different parts of Mali, and while he's not a big fave of mine he's
definately not bad

Bobby Sanabria & Quarteto Ache at the K. Ctr. Eisenhower Theater--A
wonderful percussionist, bandleader, and sideman (not to mention a
college professor) who is very charismatic and entertaining with his band

Los Hombres Calientes from New Orleans at the Clarice Smith Center-An
interesting bunch from New Orleans who blend that city's jazz with
flavors from throughout the Caribbean. I believe WPFW's Jim Byers is
hosting and leading a chat with them as well.

Muzsikas at the Freer-Hungarian vocal combo
________________________________________________________________

Sat. 2-14

Sanchez and Richie Stephens at the Crossroads-Jamaican lovers rock for
Valentines Day
_________________________________________________
Sun. 2-15

Haj Youness, Casablanca, Moroccan oud player and the Voice of Wisdom
Orchestra at 2 p.m. at the Smithsonian S. Dillon Ripley Center
Lecture Hall

La India and Sonora Caruseles at the Washington Hilton, 1919
Connecticut Ave. NW salsa
__________________________________
Tues. 2-17

Peru Negro at the Kenn. Ctr- Excellent Afro-Peruvian veteran combo--if
you like Eva Aylon or Susanna Baca this outfit's blend of soaring
melodies, strumming, and funky drumming (on instruments including
wooden boxes and donkey jawbones) will be up your alley
__________________________________
Other cool stuff:2-11-Super Furry Animals
from Wales at 930;2-12( & 2-13) jazz singer Jane Monheit at the
Birchmere; 2-13-Atmosphere at 930;2-14 Black Dice at Ottobar;Jazz
singer Dee Dee Bridgewater at K. Ctr.;Carmaig De Forest at Roots Cafe;

To get on my DC African/Latin/World whatever events ocassional e-mail thing, contact me at [email protected] The above comes from that...

Which reminds me...any news regarding a new location for the Metro Cafe?

[email protected]

[email protected]

the [email protected]

[email protected]

Dizzee's supposedly coming back for a bigger tour in the summer, but I'm not sure if he'll hit DC or not. I don't know of anything regarding Dear or Mayer, but if they came I imagine it would be at 5ive, unless it was a one-off somewhere else.

What's odd it that it seems to be only the EDM scene that really tries to escape the city - the most successful go-go and indie artists are, if anything, too tied to DC.

Is it odd that the most interesting and boosterish electronic dance DJ in DC over the last year has been Bob Mould?

The DC go-go artists have seemingly given up on being national and international acts (go-go hasn't crossed over) although Chuck Brown gets flown to Japan periodically to play.

Dischord indie rockers are always playing worldwide but such gigs just never get much local press here. Q and Not U are also booked to play that big fest coming up in California over the summer(Coachatella or something). Black Eyes toured Europe awhile back.

Why did they locate it in Georgetown? You can only make so much money from selling prog to white hats from GW. Better to be on U st with a big deep house section. They never seemed to have their shit together anyways. They cheated me out of $40 once but totally inadvertantly. I had my revenge during their clearance sale I guess.

As for Q and not U, I tried to see their last show at the Black Cat and ended up waiting in line for an hour by myself. As I was waiting, the show sold out. That is all. They need to play here more often.

I always wanted to check out the Grits & Gravy dj night at Bar Nun... Years ago I saw DC rappers Opus Okuben playing with a live band at the now defunct Metro Cafe. Wow, they were great. Now they just mostly play Europe, sometimes with Ny jazz guy Steve Coleman. They were at Black Cat around New Years Eve but I missed them.

anyways, wednesday night P Brotzmann is playing with Hamid Drake and William Parker. Its at Twins on U st (btw 13th and 14th?) at 8pm.

DC 9 is in the original Asylum space, I'm not sure what it was between then and now. Half the music I've heard played there has been great indie/hip hop/disco, the other half has been too much midrange compressed guitar and singers that sound like they're in beer commercials. Which is a better hit rate than most places, but the DJs seriously can't mix or sequence their tracks.

List of EDM events is not so good. Seems like no place is doing well with regular nights and lineups are changing like crazy. And Cubik is filling the main room at Nation with the level of talent that would have played the front room at Buzz.

how long have you been in DC? what is the reason for the instability?

Is the below show which is at the Ottobar coming to DC?

Thursday March 25th
DEFINITIVE JUX PRESENTS:
Murs
The Perceptionists
(Feat. Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, DJ Fakts One)
RJD2, C Rayz Walz
Hangar 18, SA Smash and more
Doorsat 8pm/ Show at 9pm- ALL AGES

3 years! I want stuff NOW ;)

I've been complaining to friends for 2 or so years that I wish someone would book all of the Afropop and Latin acts that play for free in Central Park in NY each summer, in DC... So I'll have to form my own group to do this...

There's the once.twice festival coming up in Baltimore next month-

April 15th - 17th, 2004
Baltimore's 4th Annual
once.twice:festival of sound and video art feat.
AKUFEN . DIMBIMAN . AGF . CHRISTOPHER WILLITS .
DABRYE . SUE COSTABILE . MATTHEW DEAR .
GHISLAIN POIRIER. NAUTICAL ALMANAC.JIMMY EDGAR
MYLENA BERGERON . CAROLINE HAYEUR .
SCOTT PAGANO + more TBA

once.twice also runs the occasional Treatment night at Sonar, the last one in November featured Magda and Sammy Dee.

On a different note, any musicians (d.j.'s?) who wanna perform for free outdoors or maybe at Carter Barron or other locations during the June 18-21st 2nd annual Fete de la Musique DC should call 202-724-5614 or e-mail [email protected] . There will also be meetings at the DC Arts Commission, 410 8th St. NW , 5th Fl. on Mon. 3-15 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 and on Thurs. 3-18 from noon to 1.

I'm trying to encourage them to expand the musical horizons of this event...

Five is a great venue, nearly perfect, but the different promoters that do nights there only really book house, d+b, and reggae. There was the electroclash/breaks night there, too, but that's over and has turned into a retro night.

9:30 Club, as you mentioned, is a live music venue. They'll have the occasional DJ, but it always comes off as a bit out of place.

It costs a lot of money to run a club in DC due to the scarcity of suitable spaces. In a town with 8-foot ceilings in 95% of all buildings, there’s going to be a lot of competition for the remaining few with large open spaces. Permitting, safety codes, and accessibility standards are pretty tightly enforced, which means you have to sink a lot of money into a space before you can do anything with it. This goes for bars, dance clubs, live music clubs, and pretty much everything. And don't even get me started on ANC's and "voluntary agreements".

"After over 4 years in business, the owners of Now! Music and Fashion
have decided to close permanently, so we can move on and pursue
other opportunities. We've had a blast talking to you about music,
putting on instore performances, and participating in the local
community. But the best thing about running a record store has been
the opportunity to meet you. Many thanks to our loyal customers and
friends we've made along the way.

We will be having a going-out-of-business sale beginning this
weekend. All clothing and music (except consignments and bargain bin
stuff) will be on sale for 30% off the regular price."

So I don't think DC's gone utterly down the pan. Close, but not gone yet.

They're also stocking the Ellen Allien album and remixes, Coloma's Finery. I think I even saw that Damon Album demo double 10" there, too!

Melody on Conn. Ave. is very underrated - I always thought they were better than DCCD for keeping up with current releases and pointing customers in the right direction. Good international and classical sections, too.

I also have given them a list of stuff I'd like. They have an account with Forced Exposure, so I'll soon have the Lawrence album I've been gasping to hear for ages.

Re: Melody: While they're matchless on international, classical and jazz, their electronic section is showing conspicuous gaps since Joel, who used to buy for the electronic section left for Baltimore at the end of last year. CD Warehouse deserve to clean up!

Grinnell is a fucking moron like all of them

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/03/06/nso-director-quits/

The head of the NSo at Kennedy Center quit ; the Kennedy Center sued a dc area jazz drummer , and a congresswoman is suing to stop the planned closure.

Grinell out at K. Center replaced by May 2024 pre-Trump facilities guy Matt Floca who stuck around and has been supervising construction and putting up Trump's name at K Ctr for Trump. Guy once worked for DC govt before joining k Ctr

sure might as well have the janitor run it

yep

Seeing reports on Facebook that dc area based drummer Robert Mousey Thompson just passed away . Thompson is best known for drumming with James Brown in Brown’s later years

In 2014 he was interviewed about those years. I think I first saw him play with his DC group in 2015 at Carter Barron and again some years later. He was still out there playing around town on ocassion. I think he was about 69 years old. Guessing it might have been a heart attack.

https://www.drummersresource.com/robert-mousey-thompson-interview/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/us/politics/kennedy-center-judge-order.html?smid=bsky-nytimes&smtyp=cur

A federal judge in Washington on Saturday ordered that Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, be allowed to participate in a planning meeting about the future of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, temporarily resolving a minor standoff with President Trump.

The ruling appeared to give Ms. Beatty, an ex officio member of the center’s board of trustees, a window into the president’s goals for remaking it in his image, after dozens of performers canceled shows in protest and patrons worried about a proposed multiyear closure of the performance space....The center’s board is scheduled to meet on Monday, though Ms. Beatty argued that the purpose of the meeting had not been explained and that she had been kept out of the loop.

...Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the Federal District Court in Washington agreed that Ms. Beatty needed to receive a more thorough accounting of the meeting’s agenda and be allowed “a meaningful opportunity to lodge her dissent.” ...Ms. Beatty has also asked the court to issue a more permanent order barring Mr. Trump from closing and redeveloping the site. Judge Cooper has not yet considered that request...

In the 37-page opinion, Judge Cooper laid out a list of documents — including budgets and planning reports — that must be sent to Ms. Beatty within 24 hours, “to the extent they exist.” He added that the government’s claims in the lawsuit that no plans had been finalized, just four days before the board could meet to approve them, “borders on preposterous.”

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/781107/stand-by-me-at-40-mystery-friends-and-amythyst-kiah-city-lights-for-march-12-18/

I previewed the Sarau de Samba Brazilian music dance party for City Paper that was this afternoon at Glen Echo Park’s Ballroom back room. It was big fun. DC area based Brazilian musicians led by Pablo Regis on a 4 stringed little instrument plus a trombonist and many percussionists all sat at a rectangular table and played and sang and led the mostly Brazilian crowd in call and response and chanted old school samba songs with Portuguese lyrics. Lots of dancing go on also. There was a samba dance lesson early. About 100 people in a small room.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/781828/spring-arts-guide-2026-the-concerts-we-cant-wait-for/

In early February my Washington City Paper arts editor sent out a request for us freelancers to submit Spring arts events pitches 4 days later. I researched and checked around and sent in a bunch of ideas in many genres. As she has many writers covering rock, my rock pitches didn’t get accepted but a number of my other pitches did and I got them written. I posted my April 9 Brian Gilmore book talk on Black DC poets yesterday and today my 5 music ones are posted.

: March 25- Sweet Thang (from Backyard Band ) & Tabria (of Rare Essence) w/ a special backing band @ Sycamore & Oak ( go-go & r& b)
April 9- Yilian Cañizares (Cuban-Swiss violinist singer ) @ Library of Congress
April 14 & 15- Natalia Lafourcade @ Strathmore Music Center ( Mexican indie-folk)
May 3- Protoje @ Fillmore ( reggae)
May 13- Juan Manu @ Strathmore Mansion (Moved from El Paso to DC mariachi-influenced violinist who is part of Strathmore Artists in Residence program)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/25/concerts-dc-april/

The freelancer who does monthly concert recs for the W. Post suggests worthwhile US & UK & European punk, techno, industrial, rap & r&b but never jazz, Latin, African, Asian

My April dc area concert list is up at Steve K... blogspot dot com

Lots of international stuff plus djs, US & UK rock, gospel, roots, r&b, rap and more

Howard Wuelfing who put out an anthology of his late '70s/early 80s DC punk zines -Descenes & Discords will be part of a chat w/Mark Jenkins (who did zines, a DC punk book & more) & John R. Davis (book on dc punk zines) about Wuelfing's zines and dc punk April 11 @ 2-3:30 pm @ MLK Library

https://dclibrary.libnet.info/event/16021018
Registration link for free event is advised-

https://www.hillrag.com/2026/04/03/celebrate-50-years-of-peterbug-academy-with-documentary/

There's a doc out about Peterbug Mathew, DC resident . I missed this 1st screening at MLK Library April 4th but hopefully there will be more showings

So this guy Peterbug Mathew has a shoe shop in SE DC capitol hill area and he mentors kids and has for years had a Peterbug Day at his place where obscure soul and sometimes go-go acts play (and he just mentions the event on his own Facebook and doesn't spell out specifics regarding when the acts are there that day but it's still a cool event if you wing it ) . His next Peter Bug Day is June 20th for Juneteenth (as is Home Rule Fest at Walter AReed)

Ha, so this guy who got hired by Trump folks and then wrote an Atlantic article about his efforts to save visual art paintings and such at Kennedy Center is getting slammed as a fraud in Washington Probs IG comments

link?

nm I found it

totally worried about the fate of the National Symphony, they still haven’t announced a season yet.

Crazy. Is there a location yet? Back in February I read :

The venue that is being currently explored as a possibility is the DAR Constitution Hall near the White House.

https://operawire.com/national-symphony-orchestra-looking-for-new-venue-to-perform-during-kennedy-center-renovation/

no announcement—haven’t had the heart to ask the ushers if they have scuttlebutt

I am a subscriber so I assume I would hear as soon as possible if a new season is announced.

I have updated my April music events calendar Steve blogspot .

Something I added that I didn't mention earlier here was some Filmfest DC movies. My wife and I saw "The Essence of Eva" about vocalist Eva Cassidy, a Bowie, MD raised singer who in the late 80s and early 90s sang locally, put out a duets album of jazz, blues, and soul standards with Godfather of go-go Chuck Brown, and a live at Blues Alley release. She sadly died of cancer at age 33 and became a posthumous star in the UK and Europe thanks to her versions of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and a Sting song

There's a drama film at Filmfest DC Saturday night with an actress playing the role of Egyptian singing legend Ulm Kulthum.

On Sunday - "Gloria !" film as part of Filmfest DC 4pm @ MLK Library (In 1800 Italy Teresa discovers a beautiful instrument (a pianoforte) in a storeroom. Teresa's revolutionary "music machine" gathers an amazing quartet of young women: the most dynamic musicians of Sant Ignazio) *

Unrelated to Filmfest DC but showing on Sunday is -- *Razz doc director's cut plus additional footage (Jeff Krulik & Richard Taylor film about 70s era dc proto-punk rock band) 3 pm @ Greenbelt Cinema followed by Razz at the Bayou footage 6-8 @ New Deal Cafe* *

More April events I didn't know about April 1 when I first posted my calendar-

tonight April 29-

* Everybody's Fly w/ Fab 5 Freddy discussing his book w/ Wendel Patrick of hiphop studies of Peabody inst. who's also a pianist @ 6:30-8:30 free w/ registration @ the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.*

*Andy Beta for his book Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane 6pm @ People's Book in Takoma Park*

I have never listened to the City Cast DC podcast but I get their emails and the person doing dc recommendations of things to do is a caricature of a certain type of annoying whitebread person who moves to DC

Love it or hate it, Jazz in the Garden is a summer staple (don’t act like you didn’t love it back in your intern days). It returns on May 22 with one of our favorite D.C. bands “Oh He Dead.” It’s free but you need tickets, which you can get via lottery starting the week before each show. So bring your blanket, buy some sangria, give into the mosquitos, and pretend you’re a jazz aficionado.

I’ve been an Arlington resident for four years and not been bothered by mosquitoes. NB I am originally from Minnesota and I know mosquito-bothering

Finally finished my May concert calendar and posted it Saturday morning May 2. It does include that Oh He Dead gig plus it had that Adams Morgan porch day that attracted masses of people, and my usual mix of Ethiopian shows, go-go, old and newer rock, southern soul, Caribbean, Latino, Asian, and r& b

At steve blogspot

My Washington City Paper editor in chief Mitch Ryals is leaving after 5 years at that position and 3 years as a dc news columnist there to join the Banner. My arts editor there Sarah Marloff is taking over for Mitch. No word yet on if a new arts editor will be hired or when. City Paper full time staff is very small.

I am gonna do a nostalgia weekend and see the Slickee Boys reunion for their 50th anniversary of playing garage punk psych pop, on Saturday at 930 Club.

On Sunday going to Heavy Metal Parking Lot outtakes film showing at AFI silver.

Speaking of nostalgia- am excited about Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye having a hand in releasing in August of Cramps tapes from way back when

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/786674/celebrating-50-years-of-the-slickee-boys/

The garage rocking psychedelic Slickee Boys 50th reunion

Hoping all the Kennedy Center news stays good. Court overruled the name change and the decision to shut down without doing an actual study. Trump then posted on Truth Social he was gonna give up on the place if he can’t keep his name on it and run it his way.

Old guy me remembers when Petworth was the name of a go-go band & had a demographic that reflected that. Now today's Petworth Porch Fest like the earlier Adams Morgan ("Admo" as the bros say) Porch Fest has a million obscure to me pop and rock acts mostly

Petworth Porchfest w/ djs Native Sun, Leon City Sounds more 2-7pm @ 524 Taylor St NW Back Porch; Aurelions ( Baby Alcatraz & Mark Cisneros)5 & Des Demonas 6 @ Lymons Tavern; UCB @ 6 @ Upshur st & Experience Band @ 7 @ main stage Petworth Rec Ctr. Hue (bouncebeat metal) 5pm 🧵

From CNN re current head of Kennedy Center Floca, who Trump put in charge after Trump guy Grenell quit-

“He was in charge of HVAC and toilets. He’s deeply an operations guy, he wants to talk about structural engineering and load capacity,” a former colleague at the Kennedy Center said of Floca.

holding out hope that means there’s less artistic interference. the National Symphony last night did NOT start the concert with the Star Spangled Banner, for example.

Why did I waste my time reading idiots on x asserting (based on Trump truth social nonsense) that the Kennedy Center will now just fall apart because Trump may not be allowed to shut down the place for 2 years.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZIxv1ugSWn/?igsh=MWR2ZnlrYTN2MzQzeQ==

https://pitchfork.com/features/the-new-dmv/

DMV street rap in Pitchfork

Finally posted my dc area concert calendar on Steve k blogspot (& on bluesky & soon on social media and via email)

if Sun Ra plays earlier in the day will definitely have to show up

the home rule festival, which I thought you mentioned above but maybe not!

My calendar has a bunch of interesting Caribbean Film Fest movies and DC/DOX fest movies all with music themes

wish I could bi-locate!

Ha.

That Home Rule Fest is a nice one. At some point they will hopefully list the schedule with time for the Arkestra who are definitely worth seeing

I am gonna be away when this shows on Fri June 12--“The Last Critic” doc about longtime music critic Robert Christgau w/ post-talk w/ producer Paul Lovelace 8:45 pm @ Regal Gallery Place as part of DC/Dox fest

Trump trying to make Smithsonian follow a budget plan by OMB rather than what Congress allocated-

There are significant differences between the money approved for the Smithsonian museums and what Trump’s spending blueprint called for. For example, Congress in January passed nearly $1 million more in Smithsonian salaries and expense funding than what Trump’s budget called for.

Lawmakers also intended for the National Museum of the American Latino to receive more than $10 million and for the Anacostia Community Museum to get more than $3 million, according to a report by Congress explaining the legislation. Neither was allocated funding in the president’s budget.

Congress advised OMB to apportion millions more in funding for other Smithsonian institutions, like the Astrophysical Observatory, than the president requested.

https://www.notus.org/trump-white-house/trump-smithsonian-budget-omb

stargazing is woke