Music at Metro Weekly (Newspaper Magazine of Gay and Lesbian Washington, DC)

Belting It Out: Jewish Music Festival offers the opposite of a dry lecture about showtunes

1 May 2013, 5:00 pm

Music: ''It's a wonderful way to think about the rich tradition of so many Jews who were key to writing beautiful music for Broadway,'' says Carole Zawatsky, CEO of the DC Jewish Community Center. She's talking about one event at this year's Washington Jewish Music Festival focused on the tunes and the tunesmiths of the Great White Way. But's it not a dry, academic exercise, or even a standard song-and-dance show. In ''The Big Broadway Sing-Along,'' everyone's a performer -- aided and abetted by a cocktail reception beforehand. ''The glass of wine gets everybody loosened up for their kind of 'Sing out, Louise!' moment,'' Zawatsky says. ... (more)

Saturday Night Euphoria: The band The Presets promises a concert with the energy of a dance party

24 April 2013, 5:00 pm

Music: ''Some bands are definitely more hetero. Some bands aren't gay enough,'' says Kim Moyes, chuckling. ''Whereas we definitely have our fair share.'' Moyes is one-half of the Australian synth-rock duo The Presets, which this year became the first band to ever play the famed Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The Presets have also twice played San Francisco's gay fetish bacchanalia Folsom Street Fair. ''The music we make, house and techno, is a big part of the gay community,'' Moyes says. ''And certainly in the past we really kind of hammed up our ambiguity.'' And in the future? Moyes notes the duo is in the early stages of collaborating with Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. The Presets ... (more)

Rapping Bear: Chicago's Big Dipper is twisting hip-hop's machismo conventions

24 April 2013, 5:00 pm

Music: The raunchy gay bear rapper known as Big Dipper has gained a reputation as a sexual provocateur. ''Every venue I go to, after my show, the space really transforms and everyone just sort of goes much harder,'' he says, with patrons making out and grinding. It's not just a function of Big Dipper's sexually charged swagger and rhyming. It's also his antics, including a ''Dick Bounce'' competition, named after one of his raps. ''It's a dance competition,'' he explains. ''Instead of twerking or popping their butt, everyone bounces their dicks as the dance move.'' Big Dipper (Photo by Cheryl Mann) ... (more)

Sweetlife Sensations: The Sweetlife Festival features a bounty of music and food delights

17 April 2013, 5:00 pm

Music: Last year, just before the band ''fun.'' became a mainstream pop sensation -- and an eventual Grammy winner -- the trio appeared at the Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Yeah Yeah Yeahs ''It's been exciting to see all of the success of fun. and ASAP Rocky and Kid Cudi,'' says Sweetlife's Laura Rankin, citing three pop acts that have played the festival in the past few years, and all before they garnered significant mainstream appeal. This year's impressive festival lineup includes many on-the-verge acts, including Kendrick Lamar, Foxygen, Holy Ghost!, Lindsey Stirling and local band Shark Week. It also features a bounty of cult and hipster favorites, from Phoenix to Passion Pit to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Solange, otherwise known as Beyonce's eccentric little sister. ''Hopefully next year we can do a third stage, a true local stage [with] five or seven local bands,'' says Rankin, who produces the festival in-house for Sweetgreen, the local gourmet fast food salad chain, in partnership with the 9:30 Club's IMP Productions. ... (more)

The Seven Year Itch: Alice Smith proves worthy of a seven-year wait with the astonishing She, as sharp and surprising as they come

10 April 2013, 5:00 pm

Music: In 2006 a new indie soul/pop singer-songwriter quickly seduced me with her sophisticated sound and amazing talent -- registering like a more refined Christina Aguilera, and a sultrier Beyoncé. But after months, then years, of repeated listens to her marvelous tour-de-force debut album, I grew eager to hear new material. Or even just, you know, news about her. But instead it was all quiet on the Alice Smith front. Smith slyly references the seven-year wait and delayed gratification that is her new second release She from the moment you hit play. Alice Smith ... (more)