Blogs

Opening for Switch & Scottie B this Saturday at U Street Music Hall, D.C. Drum & Bass DJ Harry Ransom is undoubtedly one of the upcoming creative minds of Drum & Bass in the D.C. area. A man with a tinkering intuition for developing production techniques,...

Writing about Cloud Cult is hard. Listening to Cloud Cult is easy – with mellow percussion and violin melodies, the music feels like something your ears don‰'t just want but desperately need to hear. But thinking too long or too deeply about Cloud Cult is simply...

Without getting all Almost Famousy, what I love about music is that it celebrates what is real and messy and honest. School and society are often preoccupied with perfection and having it all together (it‰'s stressful, man!) but CMJ and more specifically, Atlas Sound...

Merge Records – “The indie label that got big and stayed small.‰” While many indie record labels strive for the “we‰'re doing our best‰” mentality (Fat Possum comes to mind), Merge seeks perfection. But does their quest for Billboard ranks and Grammys stray away...

“Grandma, I‰'ve Been Unruly‰” is just one unique lyric from Purity Ring‰'s collection of tracks. Purity Ring‰'s songs are as naÌøve as they are passionate, and their performance is no different. Purity Ring is an electronic Canadian duo that favors abstract lyrics and...

The year was 1978. Brian Eno, famed English musician/producer, was in New York assisting The Talking Heads produce and master their sophomore effort, More Songs About Buildings and Food. While there, Eno attended a four day long underground rock festival held at...

This could be the hysteria of post-midterms, a 40% on a psychology exam and a C on a paper speaking, but sometimes I feel like I‰'m not supposed to be in college. More times than not, I am plagued with some sort of crisis where the only obvious answer to cure it is...

When you think Oklahoma, you think Pistol Pete, bombings, tumbleweeds and maybe even Hanson. You don‰'t think of rich, moody, harmonic folk pop, but that is exactly what Other Lives is. From Stillwater, Oklahoma, this five person group has everything you want in an...

A “fat possum” calls to mind an image of a rural southern town. It instills thoughts of 1960s jazz coffee houses, back porches, smoky bars, etc. The record corporation known as Fat Possum used to stand for these Mississippi attributes – until the...

It begins like a Beethoven piece would if he had been born on a distant moon in a far-off nebula. The orchestral flushes mix with the extraterrestrial tambour of the instruments, lifting us into another world. A journey is about to begin. Frank Zappa‰'s Hot Rats takes...

Twirkin’ french electronic production duo Mustard Pimps will be spinning on the turntables of U Street Music Hall this Thursday night. For a show that is free with RSVP (for 21 ), you can’t find any better value of Thursday night entertainment in DC....

I used be uncool. A few years ago I had tendencies to wear peach colored track suits with the bedazzled word JUICY sprawled across the ass. I used to dream of being a Lakers cheerleader. I had nights filled with turmoil of who deserved my love more, Justin or JC. It...

They’re either the best, or they’re the worst. Either the greatest, or the most god-awful, horrid, pain-inducing noise ever put on record. Art-rock god Frank Zappa is on record as proclaiming that they’re “better than The Beatles‰Û, while Kurt...

It‰'s finally October ‰ÛÒ my favorite month. Time for crisp autumn mornings, pumpkins, and perfect temperatures for wearing my pea coat, but no list of awesome month-related things is complete without the month‰'s upcoming shows. So here‰'s a look at some bands making...

WVAU’s Electric Factory, a show that rotates a heady mixture of the latest electronic and indie, will be hosting Willy Joy on this week’s episode, which airs Thursday, October 6th from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. An American DJ at the core, originally heralding from...

In my last post I said that it would be pathetic if I didn’t catch my first live show before my next post, and I’m a woman of my word, so I checked out Wolfette at the pub in the Islington area of London, Monto Water Rats And to further the WVAU-relevancy...

Quirky as ever, the progressive rock band Deerhoof rode into the 930 Club with a thunder on Saturday. Without a word to the crowd, they picked up their instruments, confidently assembled themselves in a line at the front of the stage, and began to play. The...

This fall, WVAU.ORG is featuring Show Spotlights to help spread the word about specific WVAU shows. Our inaugural Spotlight profiles Elaboration Collaboration, hosted by DJs Rob Kleiman and Kyle Calian. We talked to DJ Rob about live music, albums of the year, and...

My last music adventure was Labor Day Weekend, which took me to to Randalls Island in New York City for one of the most popular electro/dance festivals of the East coast, Electric Zoo, that left me yearning for a little bit more of live trance and minimal house. The...

If Fugazi is for the bearded used-to-be punx, and Wu-Tang is for the children, then Wugazi is for the children of the bearded used-to-be punx. #logic If there ever was a quintessential D.C. band, it was Fugazi. D.I.Y to the core and ever evolving in sound, Fugazi...

Later on in the summer I embarked on another journey across the US, this time to middle-of-nowhere Tennessee for what I thought would be the ultimate music experience, Bonnaroo. If you are ready to be awakened by asphyxiating heat, consume at least half of spoon of...

In September 2000, DJ Will Eastman held the first Bliss, a small indie/electropop dance night at the now-defunct Metro Cafe. In the eleven years since, Eastman has become an icon of DC live music, opening U Street Music Hall with DJ Jesse Tittsworth and expanding...

What makes good music? That question is far too complex and broad for my, or really anyone‰'s, simple mind. The question itself already sets one astray. Our conception of good is arguably subjective. And our ideas of musical quality are almost inarguably subjective....

Labor Day came and went, and we shed what was left of our summer skin – and we also kissed goodbye all the summer music fests. Having no school is perhaps one of the most amazing parts of the summer, apart from it serving as the prime time for music festivals...

A little more than a week into my semester in London and I‰'ve had much time to explore, but regrettably, I have yet to catch a live show. (I did just buy a ticket to see GIVERS here in November. And it feels like only yesterday I wrote my “WVAU Loves…‰” post...

In today’s popular entertainment, the urge to create something more transformative from the rest, that transcends time and history, has become clear. It is perhaps hard for many of us find these higher ideas in today‰'s hype-ridden radio and blogosphere.åÊåÊHow...

How does one approach discussing music? It‰'s undeniably a matter of taste but yet we talk about “good‰” and “bad music. How should we even go about defining what is and what is not music? Anywhere I go, a few minutes spent with my eyes closed transforms the unnoticed...

Greetings from Jolly Old England! This semester I am continuing my AssWebbing duties from London for my semester abroad. Even though I won‰'t be back at AU and in the studio until January, I‰'m thrilled I can still be in the WVAU family by webbing some asses. Just a...

Just a few weeks ago I had one of the most amazing live music experiences. You know, one of those shows when you see a band or artist you‰'ve always idolized, it‰'s members possessing an almost greater-than human status to you. DC‰'s own in indie rock duo The Evens...

WVAU’s favorite ginger-locked Assistant Web Director Jesse Drucker made a mixtape to welcome the new WVAU year, featuring Captain Beefheart, Thee Oh Sees, and Ford & Lopatin.