Tag Archives: music

Album Reviews

1——>3—–>5
Terrible—–>Fantastic

5
Clinic – Do It!
Craig, Carl – Sessions
Flying Lotus – 1983
Flying Lotus – July Heat
Flying Lotus – Reset EP
Gas – Nah und Fern
Hancock, Herbie – Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions
Hooker, John Lee and Miles Davis – Hot Spot, The
V/A – Music of Islam, Volume 10 (Qur’an Recitation, Istanbul, Turkey)
V/A – Music of Islam, Volume 11 (Yemen, Sanana)
V/A – Music of Islam, Volume 12 (Iran, Karaj)
V/A – Music of Islam, Volume 13 (Pakistan, Lahore)
V/A – Music of Islam, Volume 14 (Mystic Music)
V/A – New Orleans FUnk, 1960-75
Rodriquez Lopez, Omar – Calibration

4
A Place to Bury Strangers – A Place to Bury Strangers
Bear in Heaven – Red Bloom of the Boom
Cave, Nick and the Bad Seeds – Dig Lazarus Dig
Dae Holland Quintet – Prime Directive
Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
Ellen Allien – Sool
Ghetto Don, The – Ghetto Don, The
Insect Factory – Air Traffic Control Sleep
Insect Factory – Snowflakes
James Pants – Welcome
Kuti, Seun and Egypt 80 – Many Things
Loefah – Mad Ruffage [DMZ009]
Loefah – Roots Goat Stare [DMZ006]
Loefah and Skream – TEC003
Mitchell, Elizabeth – You are My Little Bird
Mogwai – Hawk is Howling, The
Portunondo, Omara – Flor de Amor
Psapp – Camel’s Back, The [Instrumental]
Psapp – Tiger, My Friend
Soulja Boy – SouljaBoy Tellem
TITS – Throughout the Ages
TITS – Tittie Tour Teaser
TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Wiley – Wearing My Rolex

3
Blood Red Shoes – Box of Secrets
DMBQ – Annular Music
Dorian Concept – Seek When is Her
Elzhi – Preface, The
Emynd and 4AM Jess – Shake Whut Ya Got
Heliocentrics, The – Out There
Jake One – White Van Music
JME – Famous
Kuti, Seun – Live at Festival Lugano in Switzerland [2007]
Loefah and Coki – Deep Medi Musik [MEDI003]
Loxy and Usual Suspects – StalkerFracture
L-Wiz – Girlfriend
L-Wiz – Strength
Psychosis – TempestInner Sense
Roberson, Eric – Appetizer, The
Roberson, Eric – Collection, The
Roberson, Eric – Left
Roberson, Eric – Vault, The, Volume 1.5
Samuel, Jeff – Bork
Shaggs, The – Philosophy of the World
Young Knives, The – Superabundance

2
Ay? – Joyful
Crystal Stilts – Alight of Night
Dirtbombs – Ultraglide in Black
DMBQ – Esoteric Black Hair
Fabulous Diamonds – Fabulous Diamonds
Greyboy Allstars, The – What Happened to Television
Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
V/A – Jazz and ’80s
Loefah – Jungle Infiltrator [BAM006]
Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I
Orient – Look at My Eyes EP
Ra Ra Riot – Rhumb Line, The

1
Elias, Hanin – Future Noir
Ghetto – Freedom of Speech
Mya – Sugar and Spice
Open City – Birth of Cruel, The
Risque Bouquet – Flood
These New Puritans – Beat Pyramid
Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls

Spring Cleaning: How I Shaped City Paper’s Year (2007) in Music Issue

Remember how I was dumped by the City Paper because I kept harping on the RIAA’s effect on local music? Well, the editor sent out this e-mail in prep for the Year in Music issue:

From: Mark Athitakis [mailto:mathitakis@washingtoncitypaper.com]
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 11:57 AM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: CP’s Best of Music 2007

Hey Folks,

We’re smaller than we used to be now that the new folks have arrived with their ledgers and hatchets, but some things don’t change: Once again we’ll be doing a music year-in-review issue. The pub date is Dec. 21, and the format is simple -we’ll feature an assortment of essays on music in 2007, along with top-ten lists. If you’re in the CP building, feel free to swing by my office and I’ll show you a copy of last year’s edition. If you’re not, you can start here– http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=381–and click through the various features we ran at the end of ’06.

If you’re submitting a top-ten list, please note that I’m instituting one change this year: I’m not asking you to assign points to your choices. In the past critics were asked to give their favorite albums point grades. These were then tabulated, presumably in order to arrive at some sort of consensus about the best album of the year. It’s 2007; nuts to consensus. I’d rather accommodate a variety of voices calling out what they like than trying to locate the one album we’re all supposed to get behind.

To that end, even the top-ten format isn’t set in stone. If you want to submit a top-five, or even submit a 100-word blurb on one album you really got a charge out of, that’s fine too.

I won’t need lists or blurbs for a few weeks yet, but please get in touch with me by next Friday, Nov. 16, if you intend to do one. The same goes for those of you who would like to write an essay/feature/chart for the package. Ideas that are welcome for this: Cogent thoughts about the intersection of the Internet/TV/music; an interesting trend that hasn’t been written about or didn’t get its due; infantile cheap shots that can be expressed visually; and (especially) stories that engage directly with music as it is made, performed, and heard in D.C.

Ideas that are not welcome for this: extended state-of-the-year addresses that mainly read like attempts to broadcast how many records you listened to this year; the phrase “the worst year since” and “worst of” lists, notions that are now so clichéd they no longer qualify as counterintuitive; generalized bitching about the RIAA, Ticketmaster, and how audiences in D.C. suck; and (probably) commentaries that use In Rainbows or Hannah Montana as a jumping-off point for discussing anything.

Questions? Drop me a line or give me a ring. Thanks as always.

Mark Athitakis
Arts Editor
Washington City Paper
2390 Champlain St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-2100
mathitakis@washingtoncitypaper.com

A Good of a Reason as any to have a Party

I went to the Black Cat last night to catch Aquarium and discovered the new couch. In addition to its incredible newsworthiness, the new couch reflects the posh youth (i.e., college kids) that now frequents the Red Room. Well, apparently the Black Cat feels the new couch is also a big-time development as they are throwing a series of “couch night” parties (for the new couch, presumably).

Here is a blurry photo of the new couch and a photo of the couch-party flyer. Enjoy.
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