BACKSTAGE AT A recent Cave Singers show in Portland, Ore., one of the singers on the bill broke out some unhealthy substances and pushed her fellow musicians to indulge in them. Ah, the crazy life of a rock 'n' roll star.

"She brought five or six fruit pies that she baked for all the bands; it was pretty awesome," said Cave Singers vocalist Pete Quirk. "I was like, 'This is more my style than people doing coke in the green room.'"

That's quite a changeup from the indie-rock scene in which Quirk, a Seattle post-grunge figure, and guitarist Derek Fudesco of the now-defunct Pretty Girls Make Graves had established themselves before turning to neo-folk and forming The Cave Singers.

As the popular PGMG headed toward a breakup, the roommates found their individual four-track bedroom recordings meshed well, as both were looking to soften their style a little.

"We were both unconsciously learning toward more minimal, quieter acoustic music," Quirk said. "I was trying to sing a bit more rather than just screaming and yelling."

Continue Reading "Seattle Americana: The Cave Singers" »

THOUGH HE'S HAD an improbable whirlwind rise through the London hip-hop underground, Dizzee Rascal is already shedding that U.K. grime-rap label: New collaborations with everyone from Calvin Harris to Fatboy Slim could put Rascal, nee Dylan Mills, through club speakers and into the mainstream.

"Genres are just what other people make them; they're boxes people keep music in by what they say about it," Mills said.

It's a rapid evolution for the artist, who was only 18 years old in 2003, when he came out of nowhere to win the Mercury Prize, awarded yearly to the best album in the United Kingdom and Ireland, for his debut, "Boy in da Corner." Now, with his third album, last year's "Maths and English" a runner-up, Rascal isn't shy about giving the people what they want.

"That's the whole thing about being an artist and an entertainer at the same time: As much as I'm getting my fill making my music and filling my creative desire or whatever, I'm f***ing trying to fulfill what everyone else wants as well — seeing what people like and take to," Mills said. "The more I branch out and try out new stuff, the more I find out what that is."

While sticking to his garage-rap roots, "Maths and English" moves away from his previous efforts into a hip-hop style cleaned of grime.

Continue Reading "Back to School: Dizzee Rascal" »

MARTIN NOBLE, GUITARIST for British Sea Power, is sick of being asked about the differences between U.S. and European audiences.

Maybe because it's a dumb question.

Or maybe because BSP fills enormous venues in Europe but remains the object of (admittedly fanatical) cult devotion on this side of the water.

"It's kind of a head[trip], America, at first," Noble says. "Then you realize each state is like its own country."

Especially D.C., where BSP plays this week.

"Each has its different language, even though they're so similar. At first, we were like, ‘Argh, they're ruining the English language!'"

And he laughs.

Continue Reading "BSP's Power Tools: British Sea Power" »

"IT'S STILL EXCITING, getting a chance to play every night," says Craig Extine, singer-songwriter for Olympia rock trio the Old Haunts. Of course, he's saying this on the phone from beachside San Pedro, Calif., reveling in his escape from the cold rain back home and having rocked a set the night before with former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt's new band, the Missingmen, in Watt's hometown.

"We're excited about a lot of the bands we're playing with on this tour," Extine says. "We like playing shows we would want to go to ourselves." On the road again to support their third full-length release, "Poisonous Times," the band is more or less scheduled to play every night for the next two months without a break. "It's a punk tradition, says Extine. "Touring is work, though — it's a risk every time."

The way he sees it, "the natural life span of a band is probably about a year or two." That's funny, because the Old Haunts are going on year seven. Despite a slew of lineup changes over the years, the band is still going strong with a new grrrl on drums, Toby Vail, late of Bikini Kill.

Continue Reading "One Sturdy Garage: Old Haunts and Their Dirty Punk" »

AMY WINEHOUSE HAS BEEN arrested on suspicion of drugs possession, police and her spokesman said Wednesday.

Winehouse's spokesman, Chris Goodman, said the arrest is connected to a video that is alleged to show the troubled singer taking drugs at a party in her home in north London.

Britain's The Sun tabloid in January published still images from a video that it claimed showed Winehouse inhaling fumes from a small pipe. The images were said to have been filmed during a party at her London home.

Continue Reading "Amy Winehouse Arrested on Suspicion of Drugs Possession" »

GUITARIST and King of Dieselbilly Bill Kirchen takes on the giants of music, covering songs by disparate musical legends Bob Dylan and Bob Wills. As if that weren't enough, his backup band is called the Bobcats.

All this alliteration is for a good cause: your ticket price goes to help a musician friend of theirs who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

» Jammin' Java, 227 Maple Avenue East, Vienna; Wed., 7 p.m., $20; 703-255-1566.

IN THE PAST YEAR, Ozomatli has played Indonesia, India, Jordan, Egpyt and even Nepal.

But the most unlikely place the band has appeared?

The set of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

"Its f---ing weird because I never really watched the show, but it felt like everyone around me does," saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Ulises Bella said. "You work yourself up a lot for two minutes of work and you realize how important those two minutes are because millions of people are watching you. It's a surreal experience."

Ozomatli got the gig because of a familial connection — Justin "El Nino" Poree, who plays percussion and raps, just happens to know the show's orchestra pit guitarist — his dad.

So now that Bella's performed on the show, has he started watching regularly?

Continue Reading "Goodwill Touring: Ozomatli" »

HOW MANY MUSICIANS can claim to have jammed with whales, birds and Pete Seeger?

Probably only one: David Rothenberg.

Though he's fairly tight with the legendary folk singer, Rothenberg is clearly more fascinated by grooving with the natural world. A few years ago, he was making sweet sounds with creatures that fly for his book, "Why Birds Sing." Now, he's waxing poetic (and scientific) about underwater tunes in his new book, "Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound."

"Once you start hearing [whales' sounds] for the first time, you think it's kind of strange," says Rothenberg, 45, who is an accomplished jazz musician, "but after a while, you start to hear that there are these patterns with structure to them. It's very interesting."

"Thousand Mile Song," which comes with a CD of "whale music" recorded live and produced in the studio by Rothenberg, documents one man's quest to listen to and learn from the unique rhythms and noises whales produce underwater. Scientists know very little about why whales sing, and maybe even less about whether anyone can actually interact with the nautical beasts through human instruments and sounds. But that didn't stop the professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology from playing his clarinet for whales from Russia to Vancouver to Hawaii.

How, exactly, would one pull off that sort of interspecies interaction, you might ask?

Continue Reading "Ocean of Sound: David Rothenberg" »

OZOMATLI is a multi-lingual, multi-racial, multi-genre band. In other words, it's way too awesome for classification. The members' musical skill and boundless energy make for high-octane, unmissable shows.

» State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church; 7 p.m., $22; 703-237-0300.

BEFORE NOV. 22, 2006, The Bridge had never played a headlining show to more than 400 people in its Baltimore home base. So, when the band had an album release party at the 1,600 person-capacity Rams Head Live, mandolinist Kenny Liner had hoped 800 people would show up. As fans filtered in, the crowd rose to 1,000. Then, by the time the band took the stage, it had swelled to 1,200.

Liner was sick at the time, nursing a 100-degree fever. He doesn't remember seeing much — he was so sick he was hallucinating — he said, but he does remember one thing:

"I remember walking out on stage and almost fainting, I was so surprised," he said. "I was just like, 'Who are these people? How do they even know who we are?'"

Lead singer and guitarist Cris Jacobs remembered the experience a bit better.

"It felt good," he said. "Just to walk out on stage, after five years of doing it, and see that huge crowd was definitely gratifying. It's one of those moments that you just kind of be thankful for."

And these days, The Bridge is having a lot of those moments.

Continue Reading "Crossing Over: The Bridge" »