Painted Face is Allie Alvarado, a former member of Telepathe and Blood Lines. Her debut EP, Undreamt, is out now and is spirit-lifting ethereal dance music of the highest-order. Catch her at shows in New York, Providence, and back in DC this month.
Mary Andrews' brass necklace pendants are reminiscent of classic Monopoly tokens but serve a much more useful purpose: Each sharp-looking charm doubles as a working pocket knife.
The 2010 Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference takes place April 2-3, with performances by Best Coast, Cotton Jones, Here We Go Magic, The War on Drugs and more. The conference is entirely volunteer-run, so you should volunteer to take charge of getting tickets and organizing a trip.
Instead of using canvases, Alexa Meade paints on people. If you don't believe it, check it out in person at her next show opening, on April 2nd from 6 to 8pm at NYC's Postmasters Gallery.
It's Friday morning. You most likely went out last night. That cup of coffee isn't enough to wake you up. But this probably is. (Via Mad Decent.)
Hard to know whether to eat these Fractured Prune donuts or frame them. One thing's for sure: Homer Simpson would plotz.
-Molly
Through July 26, catch the Meet Your Printmaker show at the Washington Printmakers Gallery, which represents a year of culling independent printmakers. On display is printed matter for 40 international studios such as The Firecracker Press from St. Louis; Lowrider Teeshirt from Fribourg, Switzerland; and Philly's own Outlaw Print Co.
Artomatic is insane. The annual, open-to-all-who-apply art show is now in its tenth year and with upwards of 1600 artists showing at 55 M St. SE (right by Nationals Stadium), we’re a teensy bit stoked on having missed the chaos of opening weekend. The show runs through July 5; we plan on hitting it all up REAL LEISURELY on our next free afternoon. (Photo via: ReadysetDC.)
Layering 80’s workout videos into a sexy fever dream, Aurora Halal and Ashiq Khondker’s visuals are the perfect accompaniment for Beautiful Swimmers’ spacey, world-music-tinged electro.
DC pools are a mythical thing. Everybody's got a cousin with a brother whose ex-girlfriend still has the access code to that one you heard about on that roof in Adams Morgan, but somehow that never seems to work out. The tides change this Saturday, May 30 when BYT is hosts its first weekly Summer Camp at the Capitol Skyline Hotel (10 I St., SW). Every Saturday from 12PM to 8PM, now until Labor Day, it's $10 admisson for bands, DJs, fun in the sun and—most important of all—a real, live swimming pool.
Fatback is the most fun dance party in a city filled with fun dance parties. A bold statement, we know, but last time we went we woke up the next morning on out the couch, wearing a feather headdress and humming Os Mutantes. Beat that this Saturday, May 16 from 10PM-3AM at LIV at Bohemian Caverns (2001 11th St, NW).
Brewed in the bars and backyard ramps of Richmond, Virginia, Born Ugly Magazine is the voice and visual of the everyday skateboarder; Issue 1 is so tight and we're way into the berserker art direction by RVA's Barf Comics.
We've mentioned Listopad before, but that was back when they were just a young, nomadic, vintage cocktail party, traveling from venue to venue with a stash of well-edited wares. They're finally putting down roots at 1843 14th St. NW - Listopad Treasury will open Summer 2009. Until then we'll be keeping up with the progress (and demolition!) of their boutique-to-be at the Listopad blog.
From the DIY-masterminds behind Hello Craft comes The Summit of Awesome: a weekend-long (Friday, May 1-Sunday, May 3), workshop-filled explosion of Indie Craft for the Business-Minded. An all-access pass is on the pricey side at $180, but at what cost miss events like lunch with Etsy CEO Maria Thomas and the Show of Awesome afterparty at Miss Pixie's (1626 14th St, NW)?
With lyrics like "You called me to see if I'm still cool/I been hangin' up on you since preschool," Mas Y Mas's album, Proud Sponsors of Pepsi, has been in CONSTANT rotation since we scored it this weekend at their Blue Nile show.
Wednesday nights at Chi-Cha Lounge (1624 U St., NW) mean Notoriety: a salon event devoted to meeting with friends, making new ones, and getting real on a weeknight. Lots of soul music, sometimes movies (this week it's 8 1/2), and ALWAYS drink specials (they help with getting real, you know) - drop in from 6PM-2AM and get in on it.
We love photographer Elizabeth Gorman's current solo show at Tryst, and we LOVE love her often-updated photoblog, Let's Not Talk About Art.
Just a few hours outside DC lie the Shenandoah Mountains and MACRoCk: Harrisonburg, VA's annual Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference. Sure, you could wait for Medications, Obits, and the other 80+ East Coast bands to roll through the Black Cat, or you could throw caution to the wind, jump in your ZipCar, and spend April 3 & 4 catching shows, doing small-town thrifting, and enjoying small-town beer prices. It's your call.
Taupe is a new design collaboration from DC artists Victor Aguilar and Mark Keeler. The premise is all lofty-sounding ("a convergence of art for art’s sake, and art as consumable product"), but what it comes down to is that they make cool stuff and sell it - and we're definitely into the limited-edition run of hand-screened posters that make up the current catalogue.
