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Tag: dc music

  • Fairfax County woman hopes to boogie and jam her way to a world record – WTOP News

    Fairfax County woman hopes to boogie and jam her way to a world record – WTOP News

    A Reston, Virginia, woman is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by listening to jam bands, steel drums and country music, as she tries to see the most live concerts in a single week.

    Jeanette Pagliuco poses with the band Collective, one of the bands she’s seen this week in her quest to see the most live concerts in one week.(Courtesy Jeanette Pagliuco)

    A Reston, Virginia, woman is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by listening to jam bands, steel drums and country music, as she tries to see the most live concerts in a single week.

    “When you’re experiencing live music, you’re in the moment,” Jeanette Pagliuco said. “You leave all your troubles and your worries behind.”

    Pagliuco moved to Reston, Virginia, from her home state of Connecticut over a year ago to be closer to her adult son.

    After moving, she remembers thinking: “Wow, there is a lot of music, there’s a lot of local talent, there’s a lot of great venues.’”

    She joined a meetup group that focused on live music. After several months of attending loads of concerts in Northern Virginia, she was asked to run the group: NoVa Live Music Mingle.

    At one point, she was going to so many concerts that she wondered how many she could attend in one week. She even searched to find out if there was a record.

    The Guinness Book of World Records did in fact have one — 21 shows in seven days.

    “I thought I could do it. I applied,” Pagliuco said. “I heard about six weeks later from the Guinness Book, and they said, ‘You know what? Yep, go ahead. If you can break it, go for it.’”

    There are strict requirements she needs to follow to qualify for breaking the record, including getting witnesses, going to music-focused venues and documenting each show with pictures and videos, Pagliuco said.

    “The hardest part was trying to find, within a week, all these shows that met the criteria,” she told WTOP. “It just so happened to be this week.”

    As of Tuesday morning, she has attended 16 shows, getting 14 of them in three days over the weekend.

    Most of the concerts have been local acts, such as Pool Boys, Marilyn Hucek and Collective. She’s heard from some of those performers about her decision to focus on local musicians’ shows.

    “I cannot even say how appreciative they are that I’m highlighting local music,” she said. “Local musicians, local talent at local venues. And they’re like, ‘Nobody does that.”

    She’s also using this as an opportunity to broaden her musical horizon, attending a steel drum show and R&B concert. She also plans to see a mariachi band.

    “I really wanted to tap into different genres just to push myself,” Pagliuco said.

    She told WTOP she expects to break the record sometime Wednesday.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Luke Lukert

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  • Home Rule Music Festival returns, celebrating double cause of DC statehood and local music – WTOP News

    Home Rule Music Festival returns, celebrating double cause of DC statehood and local music – WTOP News

    The third annual Home Rule Music Festival returns to D.C. this weekend, its title a double meaning for homegrown music and the lack of D.C. statehood.

    WTOP’s Jason Fraley previews the Home Rule Music Festival (Part 1)

    Get ready to dance with some jazz and go-go tunes for the perfect kickoff to summer.

    A band performs at the Home Rule Music Festival in D.C. (Courtesy Home Rule Music Festival)

    The third annual Home Rule Music Festival returns to D.C. this weekend, its title a double meaning for homegrown music and the lack of D.C. statehood (“taxation without representation”).

    “It’s really us celebrating D.C.’s rich musical legacy and culture,” Executive Director Charvis Campbell told WTOP. “It’s also about us letting folks know: don’t forget that we don’t have the support that we need and deserve. It’s a little bit of both, that kind of militant side, but also truly an expression of our love of jazz and D.C. music.”

    The three-day festival kicks off Friday at The Black Cat on 14th Street, Northwest.

    “Opening night we have the amazing JoGo Project led by Elijah Jamal Balbed, a funky jazz go-go band,” Campbell said. “Then we have our headliner, the spiritual jazz artist Doug Carn, featuring Vanessa Rubin. Doug Carn is bringing his sextet and the amazing Vanessa Rubin is going to lend her voice for a beautiful, spiritual evening.”

    The second day of the festival moves outdoors to The Parks at Walter Reed on Saturday.

    “On Saturday, at our festival outdoors, we have Gary Bartz, we have Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids, we have Rare Essence, Black Alley, Malcom X Drummers and Dancers, Dupont Brass and then Vanessa Rubin is going to come on back and perform with her own band. We also have a record fair, a live mural painting and a kid zone, which is going to be anchored by the Washington Nationals and Washington Commanders, they’re gonna be out there.”

    After that, you can recharge your batteries with a monthlong break before the festival gloriously returns for day three on Saturday, July 20, in Alethia Tanner Park in the Eckington neighborhood of Northeast, D.C.

    “We’re really excited about this partnership with NoMa BID,” Campbell said. “We’re going to start with the Loop Sessions, our music producer workshop, we’re gonna have young men and women who love to make beats, they’re gonna do a display. Then we have a high school go-go band, The Soul of SEED from The SEED School in Southeast. … We then have Be’la Dona, the all-female band, then The Experience Band & Show, so it’s really a true celebration.”

    Tickets for opening night at The Black Cat are $40 in advance or $50 at the door.

    The two outdoor dates are free.

    Find more information here.

    WTOP’s Jason Fraley previews the Home Rule Music Festival (Part 2)

    Listen to our full conversation here.

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Jason Fraley

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  • Urban Verbs frontman Roddy Frantz reflects on birth of DC’s downtown music, arts scene – WTOP News

    Urban Verbs frontman Roddy Frantz reflects on birth of DC’s downtown music, arts scene – WTOP News

    This weekend, Frantz and the surviving Urban Verbs will recount their ascent and descent, and their role in the development of D.C.’s downtown music and art scene.

    Rod Frantz on Urban Verbs, and the beginning of DC’s downtown music scene

    Roddy Frantz and his band Urban Verbs were at the center of D.C.’s music scene before there was a scene.

    In the late 1970s, The Urban Verbs were Washington D.C.’s most popular band. Robert Goldstein is far left, Roddy Frantz is second from right. (Courtesy Rod Frantz)

    This weekend, 47 years later, Frantz and the surviving Verbs will recount their ascent and descent, and their role in the development of D.C.’s downtown music and art scene.

    In 1977, lyricist and vocalist Frantz, guitarist Robert Goldstein, keyboardist Robin Rose, bassist Linda France and drummer Danny Frankel began rehearsing in the Atlantic Building, at 930 F Street — the location of the original Atlantis nightclub, which transformed into the 9:30 Club. Goldstein died of cancer, in 2016, at the age of 66.

    Sunday, as part of the Backstage at the Sanctuary series, hosted by NBC Washington reporter and After Dark Fund promoter Mark Segraves, Frantz will participate by Zoom, while Rose, France and Frankel join the conversation in person.

    “We were the first ones in downtown Washington making music,” Frantz told WTOP. “There wasn’t anyone else.”

    In the late 1970s, Urban Verbs often played shows in off-beat venues, including the Corcoran Gallery and School of Art, and the Pension Building, which is now the National Building Museum.

    “There weren’t any clubs at that time that were interested in new wave bands, or the new sound of music at the time,” said Frantz, whose brother Chris played drums in Talking Heads. “We had to find places that would both advertise us, and pay us for putting on shows in those locations.”

    By 1979, the Urban Verbs signed a two-record contract with Warner Brothers Records. On Feb. 3, 1979, the Verbs participated in the iconic Hall of Nations show at Georgetown University, with The Cramps, and another D.C. band, The Chumps.

    The Hall of Nations show is often pointed to by members of what would become D.C.’s hardcore punk scene as the time they decided to join bands.

    The show was sold out. For some reason, concert promoters had set up tables for audience members to sit around.

    “We already had a good following in Washington, so all of our following came out, and it turns out The Cramps had a good following in Washington, as well,” said Frantz. “You had two bands playing to very favorable audiences — and things got out of hand.”

    Frantz and other people who attended the show have described teens climbing through windows, and squeezing through supposed-to-be-locked doors. Fans were standing on the folding wooden tables, which collapsed.

    The dichotomy of The Cramps and Urban Verbs wasn’t lost on Frantz.

    “The Cramps were the great cartoon band of the day — and we weren’t,” he said.

    Frantz was momentarily stumped when asked what he thought Urban Verbs sounded like.

    “Both Robert Goldstein and I were very much in agreement that we didn’t want to sound like any other band — we wanted to come up with a sound of our own,” Frantz said.

    Eventually, the band’s sound, blending Goldstein’s guitar work, which Frantz said influenced U2’s The Edge, and Rose’s synthesizer was characterized by many music reviewers as “art rock.”

    The Urban Verbs’ eponymous first album was followed by “Early Damage,” before the band was dropped by the label.

    “I’m not trying to steal anyone else’s glory, but ours has been sort of usurped by the acts that came later,” said Frantz. “Some of those were very successful acts, and I don’t begrudge them their success or popularity at all.”

    Within years, the D.C.’s hardcore punk scene became internationally known.

    Frantz is looking forward to reflecting upon that moment in D.C.’s music and art history, he said. Sunday’s event will also include cuts from Flameproof Mascara. Frantz is the singer of the pandemic project, which has an all-star lineup including Frankel, Slickee Boys guitarist Marshall Keith and Abaad Behram, of Razz.

    “It was a magical time,” said Frantz. “It was a time where the world was still new — there were things to still be discovered, places to go, people to meet.”

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Neal Augenstein

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  • Michael Reidy, dynamic front man of revered DC rock band Razz, dies at 73 – WTOP News

    Michael Reidy, dynamic front man of revered DC rock band Razz, dies at 73 – WTOP News

    Michael Reidy, the whirling dervish singer of Razz, one of Washington, D.C.’s most popular bands, has died, at age 73, according to a family member. Reidy’s sister, Joanna Olshonsky, tells WTOP he died Tuesday, at George Washington University Hospital, from complications resulting from a stroke.

    Michael Reidy, the whirling dervish singer of Razz, one of D.C.’s most popular bands, has died, at age 73, according to a family member.

    Michael Reidy, seen here on stage, in an undated photo, was the lead singer to Razz. (Courtesy Skip Groff)

    Reidy’s sister, Joanna Olshonsky, told WTOP he died Tuesday, at George Washington University Hospital, from complications resulting from a stroke.

    He is survived by his wife, Stephanie.

    “He was always a captivating front man,” said Jeff Krulik, a friend, music historian, and co-director with Richard Taylor, of “Razz (The) Documentary,” which WTOP highlighted in 2023.

    Krulik said Reidy, who was born in 1950, grew up in a military family, and settled in Camp Springs, Maryland. He graduated from Crossland High School in the class of 1968.

    Reidy formed Razz — or (The) Razz — from his friendship with guitarist Bill Craig, at University of Maryland. The band started in 1971 and broke up in late 1979.

    “They logged many months and years off and on early in the decade, but hit their stride in 1977, at The Keg, on Wisconsin Avenue,” in the Glover Park section of D.C., Krulik said. “A straight-ahead, two-guitar rock band assault that proved memorable and was a fan favorite.”

    In its early configuration, Razz was made up of Reidy, Craig, guitarist Abaad Behram, bassist Ted Nicely and drummer Doug Tull.

    Reidy, known for his nonstop stage presence, once cut open drummer Tull’s bass drum head and climbed inside, during a live performance.

    In 1978, Behram left the group, and was replaced by the late Tommy Keene.

    Razz’s music predated D.C.’s still-to-be-hatched hardcore punk scene, yet they were connected to the younger Georgetown Punks. Skip Groff, owner of Yesterday & Today Records produced records by Razz, along with early efforts from teen punks Teen Idles and Minor Threat.

    “They ultimately couldn’t crack the code for a coveted major label contract,” Krulik said.

    “Michael was also a tremendous fine artist, with work shown at galleries and museums, such as the Katzen Center, and his graphic work was found in Unicorn Times, City Paper and fanzines such as The Infiltrator and Capitol Crisis,” said Krulik.

    The University of Maryland has compiled archival material of Razz.

    Reidy’s talent and charisma spanned both fine arts and rock and roll.

    “His style was unmistakable and instantly recognizable,” said Krulik. “You know when you were looking at a Reidy.”

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Neal Augenstein

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