Help me Find Out More About my Musical Neighbors

August 31, 2009 7:58 AM

Can you recommend some blogs that focus on the music scene in Washington, DC? I'm interested mainly in hip-hop/funk/soul and indie rock (but not rap).

I've been going to some local music concerts this summer mainly by accident, and I've always enjoyed chatting with the other concertgoers about the musicians which they always seem to know so much about. I'd like to know a little bit more about the musicians living among us, so I can intentionally go to some shows this fall.

I read DCist sometimes, but I find it overwhelming to find what I want because of the amount of posts.

posted by bluefly to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

If you're honestly interested in the DC hip-hop/funk/soul scene, you should know it begins with go-go. You'll want some Trouble Funk and Chuck Brown for the classics, Rare Essence and Backyard for the intervening years and any number of mix CDs of more recent artists. Go-go is a pretty truly indie, local scene, though. Labels don't cover much of it and it moves much more by tapes on the street and local blogs as it does by CDs in stores.
posted by el_lupino at 8:18 AM on August 31, 2009

I hate ever — ever — recommending them, but Brightest Young Things is probably what you're looking for.
posted by General Malaise at 8:30 AM on August 31, 2009

If you're honestly interested in the DC hip-hop/funk/soul scene, you should know it begins with go-go.

It begins a bit farther back than the dawn of go-go.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:50 PM on August 31, 2009

Response by poster: That go-go site is great! Honestly, I was hoping for more bloggy type sites where people interview local musicians or review their shows/records or just write about cool music things around here. Maybe those don't exist. (Also, could use a little more on the indie rock end). Still great recommendations, although, BYT hurts my eyes a bit, but its RSS feed is fine.
posted by bluefly at 2:53 PM on August 31, 2009

Disappointing, I was hoping to learn something from this question!! Because my new favorite game is to see who's playing tonight I've never heard of, spend five minutes checking out their myspace pages, then go listen to whoever sounds the most exciting.

I check out Washington City Paper's music blog and Brightest Young Things (but I am obnoxiously thorough so then I usually end up perusing each venue's schedule. If you scroll down, on the right the City Paper blog has a venue list, to which I add Galaxy Hut and Iota and I'm probably forgetting some places.) I recently stumbled across All Our Noise, which I haven't looked at enough to decide whether I like it or not but seems potentially of interest.
posted by little e at 4:24 PM on September 2, 2009

(that's not five minutes per band, it's five minutes total. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a game.)
posted by little e at 4:43 PM on September 2, 2009