Capital Swamp: The DC Resource Thread

Not exactly a music focused doc, but 17 Blocks covers 20 years in the life of a DC family starting in a sometimes rough hood 17 blocks from the US Capitol building
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/510215/city-lights-17-blocks-paints-d-c-life-over-20-years/

More re Tales of Belair at Bowie md doc available for free on pbs website

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/510438/city-lights-tales-of-belair-at-bowie-takes-aim-at-60s-maryland-suburbia/

https://www.capitalbop.com/dc-council-amplified-noise-bill/

New re amplified noise bill. Article up thread is 2019 Dcist one

Sirius Company new song “She Ready “ has a bit of a bouncebeat flavor

Sirius song has a TikTok dance contest going too.

Other new dc stuff - 93 years old gospel singer Spencer Taylor has an autobiography out ( co-written with 2 others). Spencer & the Highway QCs have a new single out too

https://giftofdoubt.medium.com/eddies-blues-d3ae9820b5f1

Fascinating and a bit bittersweet story about the time in 1985 that DC punk scene kid with a guitar got approached by a guy named Eddie who asked if he wanted to jam. Eddie also said he had played with Funkadelic

https://dcist.com/story/21/03/16/mobile-music-studio-artists-outlet-during-pandemic/

It’s a mobile DC studio

WHUT public tv will also be showing the hand dance doc @ 1 am Tuesday morning & The Jewels , dc r’n’b group doc @ 1:30 ( dvr it or watch it then night owls)

"Leave the Door Open" a movie doc about when the teenaged Ertegun sons of the Turkish Ambassador (who later started Atlantic records) set up jazz jam sessions in their fancy Embassy residence (and at the DC JCC) despite DC being segregated, will show online to APril 8; & @ Arlington Cinema Drafthouse Sunday April 4 @ 4 pm | DC Independent Film Festival 2021

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/513681/city-lights-leave-the-door-open-dciff/?fbclid=IwAR1VNw1muHailG1h5Ju44vQo0NRqnittyUNeUpv4wFGwNxGorlLFDOftthI

https://rettman.substack.com/p/interview-chris-thomson-pt-i?fbclid=IwAR0MrXgd8Pok1iIPfsCFc4TzbXYoE-gwAMtsBIJZFbPklugm-fAXhtHNdkc

Chris Thomson interview pt 1 re how he discovered punk, met Dischord band folks etc

https://www.pbs.org/video/fatboy-the-billy-stewart-doc-hvdpjt/

Billy Stewart doc

Make Go-go Forever Emancipation Day Friday April 16 stream w/ Backyard Band, Experience Band , & new Soul Searchers, on their social media.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/514533/city-lights-watch-fat-boy-the-billy-stewart-story/

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMexYLNDd/

Junebug came to dc and did some bouncebeat gogo TikTok dances

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/514806/bouncebeat-go-go-gets-a-wider-audience-thanks-to-tiktoks-junebug-challenge/?fbclid=IwAR0N0llcfx8SqeP_as_hEkjmoeqtTNjlJQ-OJkd5HV_Q1hW5plnzWcJJkTo

London-born Bowie Md rapper IDK getting Complex mag coverage for new video/song Shoot my Shot , w/ guest Offset. Catchy but as sexist as The Rolling Stones

Was Glenn Close reciting a script at Oscars or does she really know all about Sugar Bear, EU, Da Butt , Spike Lee School Daze and the Backyard Band ?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/04/26/glenn-close-da-butt-oscars/

Too good to be true: Glenn Close dancing to ‘Da Butt’ at the Oscars was scripted https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-04-25/oscars-2021-glenn-close-da-butt-dance

Hold up.

You're telling me that entertainment industry may in fact have been selling us an illusion?

I am shocked, SHOCKED

‘A lady her age, doing Da Butt like that?’ E.U.'s Sugar Bear on Glenn Close’s Oscars rump shake https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-04-26/glenn-close-da-butt-oscars-2021-eu-sugar-bear

You have a favorite song about butts besides “Da Butt”?

Well, “Da Butt” is my favorite song of all time.(…)

She likes "Da Butt" and she cannot lie.

Sugar Bear was on the radio doing an interview with Donnie Simpson yesterday afternoon and was apparently talking to reporters all day. Nice to see him get that coverage.

Alona got good quotes from Sugar Bear and Big G

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/515431/glenn-close-da-butt-left-eu-sugar-bear-speechless/

In bouncebeat go-go news , Yaddiya has now done Moechella s with TOB band in both Los Angeles and Atlanta

No go-go bands or high school marching bands in virtual funk parade this year. That makes me sad. They do have jazz, Hiphop, r’n’b at least

This may surprise you, but some intrepid soul put together a documentary about the DC punk scene!
I wonder if Ian MacKaye is in it... I kid but I am a sucker for these.

http://files.constantcontact.com/67e4e85b001/8a83d00c-be7e-4274-92a0-1fdb4627f47a.jpg

Punk the Capital: Building a Sound Movement
A documentary tracing the birth of punk rock in Washington D.C. (1976-1983)

Featuring Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Void, Rites of Spring, and more, with interviews
from Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, H.R., Jello Biafra, Joe Keithley, and many others

Premiering exclusively in Theaters and on Virtual Cinema nationwide beginning May 14th

DVD / Blu-ray to be released for National Record Store Day on June 8th via Passion River

Website: www.punkthecapital.info

For you folks actually in DC, there's a screening:
5/14 - Suns Cinema – Washington, DC

I wonder if Ian MacKaye is in it... I kid

Lol, nice. In college, a kid in my music theory class turned in a videotaped interview he conducted w/MacKaye for one of his projects (that’s how little it takes to get that guy in front of a camera).

I think he's just a nice guy.

I met him once backstage after a Fugazi show at the (now closed) Marquee in NYC back in the early '90s.
There I am telling him how much as a kid who spent formative years in Manassas, how important he was to me.
"I learned a lot from you," I said. Then I looked and noticed I had a beer in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.
"Well, not all of it took," I said sheepishly.

He laughed.

Haha

Ha.

So the Punk the Capital doc is worth seeing, and there’s an online screening Friday May 14 too. This doc’s 1976 to 1983 focus covers an earlier period than the other doc Salad Days. Though they both overlap in coverage a bit. Some great home movie super 8 footage in this one

https://www.musicinafrica.net/fr/node/15368

Earlier bio of Amha Eshete covering his years as a pioneering Ethiopian producer and label owner, plus touching on his later years after he fled to Washington DC and started the Blue Nile and the Ibex restaurant/ clubs. In a French website obit for Eshete it noted that Nina Simone visited and ate at Blue Nile.

The Ibex club had Ethiopian bands playing on one floor and go-go and old school r’n’b on another. Rip Amha Eshete

You know about Inner Ear likely closing, yes?

Inner Ear may be coming back in same location in the new building but as a nonprofit educational studio; or it may move. Arlington Arts folks got grief about the impact on Inner Ear, and so while they’re going ahead with new arts nonprofit building there, they are at least sort of giving lip service or more to the future of Inner Ear.

It is kind of LOLz that Arlington, in order to create a cultural district, may be displacing a genuine example of Arlington culture. Though it’s been a long time since Arlington was a hotbed of homegrown indie rock.

Speaking of Arlington, wera Arlington community radio vinyl vault show is interviewing Ian about records and stuff Thursday May 6 at 8 et online etc

Ian Mackaye not the notorious Ian S who has moved to Los Angeles

https://dcist.com/story/21/05/05/temple-hills-skating-rink-remain-open/

https://medium.com/seventhirty-dc/on-biyya-chonta-kumera-zekarias-creates-a-heady-blend-of-ethiopian-and-colombian-grooves-353a460a9beb

Kumera Zekarias

Here’s the nice video Kumera did with footage in Colombia and in the District of Columbia’s Malcolm X park among other locales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xJETByzg7A

Funk Parade panels are free online today, but they’re charging for their virtual “parade” which I see has gotten smaller ( 3 acts dropped off the bill).

Later in May there’s a DC Music Summit conference with performances. R’n’b, some rap, jazz , but no go-go or street rap

New 3rd album by postpunk trio Nice Breeze on Bandcamp and Spotify

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/516325/city-lights-nice-breeze-cast-a-spell-on-magicians-rabbit/

Live Q&A: Punk the Capital
Join the film's director, James Schenider, co-director Paul Bishow, and other surprise guests on Thursday, May 20 at 7 PM ET via Facebook Live. No Facebook account necessary! Hosted by George Myers from Amherst Cinema.

. DC Music Summit online-- Friday May 21 through Sunday May 23
Sat. May 22 --
Fly Zah Performance
*9:40AM-10:40AM Carolyn Malachai KEYNOTE ADDRESS*
​
10:40AM - 10:55AM Cecily - Guided Meditation;
12:00PM - 1:00PM Tools & Programs to Empower Youth During the Pandemic by
Shanay Miles
3: :00 PM - 3:30PM Performances : Carly Harvey & Asha Santee

Sunday 5-23- 5:30PM - 6:30PM Closing Event and Performances
​
***Natalie Brooke, The Cruddy Crankerz, and Dior Ashley Brown & F.L.O.T.U.S.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot 35th Anniversary Party webinar
Description
Join directors John Heyn and Jeff Krulik for a virtual screening of the seminal 1986 documentary on 35th anniversary of that fateful Judas Priest concert at the Capital Centre. Hosted by Joe and Nick from the Found Footage Festival and featuring:
-Rarely seen footage from the 35-year history of the cult classic film
-Krulik and Heyn's follow-up movie, "Neil Diamond Parking Lot"
-Highlights from Krulik's collection of public access weirdness from Maryland
-A live Heavy Metal Parking Lot alumni reunion featuring the stars from the movie
Sign up and trip Jack Daniels with us!
Time
May 31, 2021 09:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Mt Pleasant uprising anniversary community concert 4 to 9 today Saturday May 15 Lamont St & Mt Pleasant street

Leonardo Rua at 5 ; Kumera Zekarias at 5:30 are only performers I have gotten word that are playing

Former zine editor and now director of Salad Days dc punk doc and Creem doc Scott Crawford has a new podcast called Spoke. He talks to Jim Saah in episode 1. Saah is a longtime punk show photographer, had a zine I wrote for called Uno Mas, and helped Crawford on Salad Days.

https://anchor.fm/scott-crawford3/episodes/SPOKE-with-guest-Jim-Saah-e10qvpj?fbclid=IwAR1NLtFXiresBmOVzeMaQjEx8_R6Q8Sw0FXo7J0GKYaJ9iharOOMwwnrdg4

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/517662/city-lights-see-christopher-chens-floating-world-on-a-mount-pleasant-alley-wall/

Photos up through May in Mount Pleasant alley near Elle. Friday talk. Streetscapes plus Chuck Brown, Sharon Jones, Laughing Man band ( Luke Stewart), jazz musicians at Cafe Toulouse

https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2021/reach-summer/

Cambodian garage rock and the evil Khmer Rouge movie doc “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten “ is screening on Reach tonight. Plus first Les the DJ spinning Filipino rock vinyl

Some interesting Reach / k Ctr mill stage weekends this summer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKY7UmIS6rY

Jeff Krulik films Bill McKenzie talking about growing tomatoes and how he got into the DC punk scene circa the late 1970s