In The News
For Tidal’s Magazine (didn’t know Tidal had a magazine, cool cool), writer Marcus Moore profiles his favorite hip-hop artist of them all, Suitland’s yU of Diamond District.
WAMU delves into the origin story of the new, viral go-go band from DC Fire & EMS employees, who haven’t yet settled on a name. Help them out, readers.
CityPaper shares the story of indie rock band Modernkind, with four members in four different cities. As long as one is DC, this band counts for us!
DC Music Video
GXB is an emerging band with some veteran talent you may know and an assured, crowd-pleasing roots rock and roll sound. Their debut single “High Roller”, a towering, muscle-bound 70s riff on the player lifestyle, dropped on Bandcamp earlier this month courtesy of Root Nine Records. Last week we had the honor of premiering this live video of “Love Ain’t Enough”, shot in a single unbroken take by Luke Roberts for the August 21, 2023 Amplify event.
Our friend Ben Tufts, widely known percussionist and educator who plays bass for GXB, gave us the scoop on this new band:
A Front Royal, VA native, singer and songwriter Guy Bouchie moved with his family to Kenya, Poland and Maine before settling back in NoVA a couple years ago. By chance, he took a job at a music store last summer where he met… me! Upon hearing Bouchie warming up one of the store guitars with a song, I asked “Is that one yours?” Before long we were working on demos in my project studio.
After we had a half dozen or so tracks together, we realized we needed another member if we wanted to play out. I’ve played drums in dozens of area bands over the years, but in the early 2000s I was actually playing more bass guitar than drums. I’ve kept up my bass chops through teaching, but the itch had been growing for a while. I went through the rolodex in my head of all the bass players I knew, but I started to realize I felt more precious about the basslines I’d played on the demos, than I did the drum parts. So I sent a couple demos to a friend and drummer Ben Melrod, and he loved the songs. And thus, GXB was born!
We could tell you a really clever origin story about how we arrived at the band name… but we don’t have one. We’d rather leave it to your imagination. It’s probably better than ours.
We had originally planned on playing our new single “High Roller” when we were invited by Luke Roberts to participate in his Amplify series. But we were having so much fun playing a brand new song at our rehearsal the night before, on the spur of the moment we decided to play “Love Ain’t Enough” instead–even though the lyrics aren’t quite finished and we might have sorta borrowed the outro riff. Our entire thing is about being genuine, having fun, valuing spontaneity over polish–so this is a snapshot of us still discovering the song in front of your eyes, warts and all.
Don’t Stay Home This Week
Monday August 28th
Authentic blues performer Memphis Gold performs a tribute to the great Otis Redding at Blues Alley Monday night.
Tuesday August 29th
Gordon Sterling is the Wammie award winning frontman of the soulful rock band The People, but Tuesday night you can catch an under-the-radar Sterling acoustic solo set at the venerable Hank Dietle’s in Rockville.
Wednesday August 30th
A special opportunity for fans of modern avant-garde jazz Wednesday night at Allyworld, part of Takoma Park production studio Tonal Park and local radio station WOWD. Bassist Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio, featuring saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Chad Taylor, record a live set for a small studio audience, with warm-up support from Daniel Carter and Jamal Moore. Stay sharp because there’s no advance tickets for this one.
Thursday August 31st
Catch the modern zeitgeist of indie pop, emo and bubble-grunge at The Runaway Thursday night when DMV bands Cherub Tree and Soul Meets Body play with Richmond friends Strawberry Moon.
Friday September 1st
The DC Jazz Fest takes over the Wharf all Labor Day weekend, but Friday night features some great and accessible warm-up shows including saxophonist Leigh Pilzer and her “Startet”, featuring Allyn Johnson, Amy Shook and Greg Holloway, at Union Stage for an early 6:30 PM set.
Saturday September 2nd
Friends, it is a damn miracle that you can still buy tickets to see soulful rock band Oh He Dead headline the 9:30 Club Saturday night, collaborating with Elijah Jamal Balbed’s JoGo Project. Not to mention the inspiring opening lineup of Everyday Everybody (fka Aztec Sun), Dior Ashley Brown and Jai’Len Josey, which we just did!
Sunday September 3rd
“25 Years in the Making”, veteran go-go bands Rare Essence and Northeast Groovers team up for a night to remember Sunday night at the Howard Theatre.
Thanks For Reading
From social media anecdata, it appears Covid’s on the rise again in our area, so please stay home and test if you’re feeling a bit crummy. As always, hit reply and let us know what you think of the newsletter, and let the musicians know what you like by buying some albums on Bandcamp. Stay hydrated, check in on your friends, and we’ll see you next week.
-PV