Bands performing here this week. Listen at
washingtonpost.com/music
THE FUTUREHEADS
“The Chaos”
On the fast track
Kindred spirits: XTC, Devo, Queen Show:With the Like on Friday at the Black Cat.
Show starts at 9 p.m. 202-667-7960. www.
blackcatdc.com.
The title of the Futureheads’ fourth album, “The Chaos,” is misleading. The British quartet is hyperactive, yet never chaotic. Whether drummer Dave Hyde is pounding a simple robo-stomp or shifting to a trickier rhythm, the music’s trajectory is carefully plotted. The ’Heads even execute four-part vocal harmonies, which require flawless coordination. Since all of the songs are short, spiky and brisk — the band doesn’t do slow — they tend to sound interchangeable on first listen. But diverse influences gradually emerge on the album, which
JUDD & MAGGIE
“Choose”
Kindred spirits: Ida, Low, Blake Babies Show:With Cary Hudson on Tuesday at
Jammin’ Java. Show starts at 8 p.m.
703-255-1566.
www.jamminjava.com.
Usually, a move to Nashville signals an
embrace of a twangy sound. But when folk duo (and siblings) Judd and Maggie Bolger moved from Baltimore to Tennessee in 2007, their sound became quirkier, not twangier. That sonic shift probably had more to do with leaving a major label to release their recordings independently, and they’re not going to give up that autonomy anytime soon. After recording their latest album, “Choose,” the duo sought a modest sum of fan donations to help defray the cost of mixing and replication. But Judd and Maggie don’t need a
label’s backing to make a charming album. There’s something so seductive about Maggie’s pouty coo. She sounds in complete control of her emotions on the swaying, uptempo “Over You,” and her voice is almost angelic on the reflective “Begin.” When Judd’s drier, deeper voice joins in, the result is dynamic. The pairing adds extra vigor to the rowdy “All About You,” and Judd’s lead on “History” is softened by Maggie’s dulcet echoes.
— Catherine P. Lewis
Trombone Shorty (a.k.a. Troy Andrews) is already a star in his home town of New Orleans, and his first nationally distributed album, “Backatown,” may well make him a star around the world. He is a regular presence on HBO’s “Treme,” a charismatic presence onstage and a singer-trombonist who bridges the gap between rock, funk and jazz. He can please those who want to get up and move to his city’s signature rhythms as well as those who want to sit down and hear the city’s counterpointed harmonies. On the album’s five vocal numbers,
Andrews displays a sweet, high tenor in the Stevie Wonder mode. On the nine instrumentals, he uses trombone and/or trumpet as the lead voice, usually with percussive phrasing accenting the beat. Andrews, a product of the arts high school that produced Harry Connick Jr. and the Marsalis brothers, knows the importance of a strong, simple hook to catch the listener’s attention as well as further complications to keep that attention. “Backatown” features New Orleans
legend Allen Toussaint and Andrews’s former employer Lenny Kravitz, but most of the album was recorded with Andrews’s regular road band, Orleans Avenue. Pete Murano adds rock guitar riffs, and other cuts feature tasteful electronica or three-horn funk riffs. Throughout it all, though, is that second-line rhythm that could only come from New Orleans.
— Geoffrey Himes
At first glance, husband-and-wife duo
Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby seems a bit of an odd match, both personally and professionally. He: hard-living pub rocker, a contemporary of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe best known for his association with U.K. label Stiff Records in the late 1970s. She: crafter of
Americana, master of understated stories and melodies. The main similarity is that each are almost singularly identified by one work — his 1977 single “Whole Wide World” and her 1996 album “Diary of a Mod Housewife” — despite the fact that they are accomplished songwriters with full, impressive discographies that have been overlooked. That they choose to go the covers route on their second album together, “Two-Way Family Favourites,” is a bit surprising but still plenty fulfilling. The hazy, homegrown feel the pair created on their first record is still present — a brand of slightly fuzzy folk-pop that serves as a logical midpoint between their respective solo sounds. Eric and Amy play all the instruments — mostly guitar, with bits of bass, keyboard and percussion — and transform such bouncy songs as Abba’s “Fernando” and Jackie DeShannon’s “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” into world-weary, often harmony-filled dirges. There’s a sort of exhausted elegance to it all, appropriate for a couple that has soldiered on in the shadows for as long as these two.
— David Malitz
expands subtly on the group’s 2004 debut, still its best. “Heartbeat Song” is a late-’70s new-wave flashback; “Sun Goes Down” emulates Gang of Four’s astringent funk; and “The Connector” is a Devo-like ode to power (literally — it’s about electricity). The group even recalls Queen’s operetta mode, notably on “Jupiter” and on an untitled, a cappella hidden track. Such stylistic shifts can seem arbitrary, as if the ’Heads were following the decision-making strategy they extol in “Dart at the Map.” But then the band impresses by smoothly incorporating minimalist-style looping riffs into that tune’s closing vamp. “The Chaos” is as neatly constructed as it is resolutely upbeat.
—Mark Jenkins
TROMBONE SHORTY
“Backatown”
Kindred spirits: Neville Brothers, Kermit Ruffins, Galactic, Dirty Dozen Brass Band Show: Saturday at the Western Maryland Blues Fest in Hagerstown. Show starts at 6:30 p.m. 301-739-8577, Ext. 116.
www.blues-fest.org.
On repeat listens, the Futureheads’ latest album is rewarding.
WRECKLESS ERIC AND AMY RIGBY
“Two-Way Family Favourites”
Kindred spirits: the Magnetic Fields, Nick Lowe, Lucinda Williams Show:With Ward White on Wednesday at the Black Cat. Show starts at 9 p.m.
202-667-4490.
www.blackcatdc.com.
Concerts
Prices listed where available.
OPERA
WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA Friday.
Michael Chioldi and Liam Bonner are alternating in the role of Hamlet, with Elizabeth Futral singing the role of Ophelia. Kennedy Center, Opera House, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. 800-444-1324.
www.kennedy-center.org. $50-$300.
“DIDO AND AENEAS” Saturday and
Sunday at 8, Monday at 3. Anne Arundel Community College presents Henry Purcell’s Baroque opera. Anne Arundel Community College, Pascal Center for the Performing Arts, 101 College Pkwy., Arnold. 410-777-2457. $12-$20.
ORCHESTRAS
BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Friday at 8 and Sunday at 3. With conductor Marin Alsop and pianist Andre Watts. Barber, Adagio for Strings; Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste; Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor.” Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore. 410-783-8000. 800-442-1198. www.
bsomusic.org. $42-$75.
U.S. ARMY BAND Friday at 8. U.S. Capitol, East Capitol and First streets. 202-225-6827. Free.
TRINITY ORCHESTRA OF WASHINGTON
Sunday at 3. Program includes Mendelssohn, Arnold Saltzman and Darius Milhaud. St. Ann’s Catholic Church, 4001 Yuma St. NW. 301-926-0936. $15 in advance; $20 at the door.
NATIONAL CONCERT BAND Sunday at
7:30. The band will perform marches and a wide range of music from Wagner and Rossini to Gershwin and Porter. Mason District Park, 6621 Columbia Pike, Annandale. 703-324-7469. 703-941-1730.
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/performances.
U.S. NAVY BAND Monday at 8. U.S. Capitol, East Capitol and First streets. 202-225-6827. Free.
U.S. MARINE BANDWednesday at 8. U.S. Capitol, East Capitol and First streets. 202-225-6827. Free.
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Thursday at 7. With Kristjan Jarvi, conductor, and Evelyn Glennie, percussion. Grieg’s Lyric Suite, Tuur’s Symphony No. 4 ("Magma"), Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture and Suite, and Ellington’s “Harlem.” Kennedy Center,
town continued on 9
NewMusic
7
IAN WEST
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116