Slowdime slowly faded away in the early part of the ’00s, and not-so-coincidentally, so did a lot of my interest in local bands and music. There was still a lot of great music being made here, but when blogs took over from record labels as curators and promoters of talent, it felt like the music scene was all scattered and incoherent. DC indie music seemed mediocre, at best; the good stuff was drowning in a blandly generic sea. The giant of the independent music scene locally, Dischord, slowed down its work considerably (and understandably), and didn’t really dive into the new-media universe (again, understandably). A couple other local labels came and went. Some interesting music websites have floated around. Experimental music has had a kind of a coherent scene. But for rock music, good rock music, things seemed kind of dead, and this was exacerbated by the collapse of the record industry. It seemed like the whole idea of a small-time local record label was both quaint and quixotic, at least up until the past year or so when I started paying attention to Sockets Records.

Sockets has a diverse roster, but seems to focus on creative and interesting music, with an emphasis on DC. The label isn’t new, but it has been actually gearing up its publicity and raising its public profile lately. They’re trying to hype their bands; they use all the idiotic essential modern tools like blogs and facebooks; they seem to really want people to listen to the music they are pushing. And luckily, they’re working with a lot of the best up-and-coming talent in the city. Is Sockets the new Slowdime? Not really — the world has changed too much in the past ten years. But maybe Sockets can help use the idea of a record label in a new way to get people excited about the local scene. It’s all about the branding, and I am already learning to trust anything that is Sockets-approved.

Tomorrow night they are having a showcase at the Black Cat that I highly recommend… I can also recommend the upcoming Imperial China album from Sockets, which I am about to post a review for. Go to the showcase! It is gonna be the musical event of the season, featuring Cornel West Theory, HUME, Imperial China, Buildings, and Big Gold Belt. Info here.

Man, I was startled to see that they were getting back together! They’re doing benefit shows for Callum Robbins, and I support the cause, of course, but I am not sure what to think about the show. They broke up pretty recently, in 2003, but I was out of the country at the time, so I haven’t seen them since maybe early 2002. Five years ago. It feels like a lifetime.

When I saw them listed in an ad for the Black Cat, it was kind of like getting a letter from somebody who was a big part of your life — less than a lover, maybe, but more than a friend — who you haven’t had contact with in five years. Weird, and I have a little queasiness about the whole thing.

Here’s my story with the Dismemberment Plan. They were a pretty popular band in DC, with fun catchy songs and shows where people sang along, and got up on stage and danced. The first time I saw them was around 1998 and I hated them. I was into hard rock and punk. I went to shows to bang my head or else to watch crazy guitar noise. I thought the Dismemberment Plan had a stupid name and made annoying music.

But whoah how they grew on me over time. It helped that I had friends who were into them, and I listened to the records, and I got caught up in the good lyrics, and the silliness of some of it. This was a band that wanted to have it both ways: having a blast while still wearing its heart on its sleeve.

I like a lot of their music, but I really love their last real album, Change. It came out in fall of 2001, a time when the world was all topsy-turvy, and I was in the middle of uprooting my own life and changing things all around. As it turned out, though I liked the album, I never actually bought it and I didn’t really listen to it in depth until after I moved to Poland and had a burned copy of it. Change is one of those albums that I listen to over and over, even years later. It’s a smart and satisfying record, and a sad one. There aren’t too many fun dancey songs on it, it’s more a record of heartbreak and loss, told through sleek, tight songcraft. The name “Change” is totally appropriate, and I guess it’s partly just the coincidence of all the changes in my life and in the world around me that were taking place in the early ’00s that makes this album so special to me.

If you check out their website, they have some songs to download, including what is maybe my favorite song of theirs, “The Face of the Earth.” This song pretty much summed up my life a few years ago when I came back to America. The girl who disappeared, the confusion of life, the poetic imagery. (Also I think that they ripped off Uriah Heep a little bit in this song, which is sort of cool. I’ll talk about that some other time.) My favorite part is at the end: “Nothing’s really different though it seems like I’ve lived my life in planes, which is kind of strange”… Yeah that was me circa 2004-2005.

You can listen to “The Face of the Earth” and read the lyrics at this Chinese (?) blog post.

Anyhow, I am not sure what to expect from a reunion show. I am pretty leery of reunions in general, and this one in particular. They first announced one show and it sold out in about a nanosecond, but the second show went on sale unannounced, and I happened to look at the Black Cat’s website one day at the end of the work day and it said “on sale now”, so I snagged a few for myself and some friends. So I will be with some of my best friends ever and we will have some beers and the nostalgia will not be too strange, I think. Besides I kind of half-expect the Plan to just play goofy hip-hop covers and such. I’m so pop-culture oblivious these days that I probably won’t even recognize them. That would be okay with me.

I still think the band name is dumb, but they make me happy in a way that few bands do anymore. It should be a good Friday night.

Here are some youtube clips of the Plan.

Secret Curse:

And an actual music video for “Time Bomb”:

MADE OUT OF BABIES
opening for
DON CABALLERO
at
ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL

HERE’S A CLIP OF MADE OUT OF BABIES:

AND HERE’S A CLIP OF DON CAB:

CHUCK BETTIS
at
WAREHOUSE NEXT DOOR

CHUCK BETTIS IS A LOCAL EXPERIMENTAL MUSICIAN. I LOVE HIS VOCAL WORK ESPECIALLY IN THE BAND “ALL-SCARS” AND ALSO WHAT SONGS I KNOW FROM THE BAND “META*MATICS”. NOT SURE WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS SHOW BUT MIGHT TRY TO ATTEND.

THE LOCUST
at
THE BLACK CAT.

IN CASE MADE OUT OF BABIES IS NOT EXTREME ENOUGH THERE IS ALWAYS THE LOCUST:

“I JUST WANT TO CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE LOOK AT MUSIC OR MAYBE JUST DESTROY IT IN GENERAL” says Locust singer Justin Pearson.

THERE ARE SOME MORE SHOWS BESIDES THESE BUT NOTHING I AM ALL THAT EXCITED ABOUT (eg the books at the 930 club, noxagt at the velvet lounge). UNTIL THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN SHOW ON 4/28 WHICH IS SOLD OUT BUT WHICH I HAVE TICKETS FOR — BUT NOT FOR YOU… THEY ARE RESERVED FOR THE GERHARD-LAURAx2 2007 REUNION TOUR.

Tonight I am debating whether to go out at all, but might be up for the Black Angels at the RnR Hotel. I’ve only heard a few songs by them, and haven’t listened lately, but I think they are good from what I remember. Fun psychedelic rock. Alternatively, closer to home, VAZ are playing at the Velvet Lounge — brutal noise rock, I believe. Actually I am kind of leaning towards going to see VAZ, they are playing with other noisy metal-type bands.

Saturday night I may not be here (probably be in New York for my friend’s 30th birthday. Plus it’s Easter…) but if I am still in DC, working on my final paper, I’ll sadly skip Dirty on Purpose at the Rock and Roll Hotel in favor of seeing the great local bill of Benjy Ferree, the Cassettes, and the Aquarium at the Black Cat. I’ve seen the Cassettes before, a long time ago, and have always found Shelby Cinca’s bands to be likable. The Aquarium are pretty rocking from the mp3s I’ve tracked down, and everybody has been praising Benjy Ferree so much that I ought to check him out.

Next week there is still too much rock… Monday Erase Errata (experimental stuff) at RnR Hotel… Tuesday Trans Am (enigmatic post-rock and synth-rock) at Black Cat… and on Friday, the perfect band to see on Friday the 13th, the one and only MADE OUT OF BABIES (angry spastic rock) opening for Don Caballero (a good band who play instrumental rock). I’m pretty siked for Made Out of Babies, I listened to them a lot this past winter.

Geesh there is so much more too… Check out the calendar to the top right. I’ll send out more info on those bands later. Also I might try to get tickets to Trans Am in advance, I think it might sell out, they are an interesting band and don’t perform very often.