Wale The old saying, “Hip-hop makes great records but puts on lousy shows,” is a cliché only because it’s so often true. There was reason to think that Wale might defy this pattern, because this MC emerged from Washington D.C.’s go-go scene, where the live shows are usually stronger than the studio recordings. Wale’s...
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Gov't Mule What makes Gov’t Mule the most satisfying jam band of this era? Unlike most of its genremates, this quartet doesn’t play music; it plays songs. Attend a concert by Phish, Widespread Panic, the Yonder String Band, or the Funky Meters, and you’ll hear hours of skillfully played, feel-good, undifferentiated music unfurling like...
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Nickodemus …there’s no DJ Culture Stage this year. Booker Chris Brooks has basically half an hour on the main stage Sunday afternoon for downtempo/pan-global producer Nickodemus to perform a set with jazzy house producer Quantic and the band Sun People. And that’s it. Last year, we saw Clipse, Blaqstarr, K-Swift, Diplo, Rye Rye, and...
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Well, the big outdoor stage is gone, but booker Chris Brooks is making do: July 17 and 18, the Windup Space hosts a not-at-all-shabby lineup of DJs in its stead. While part of the kick of the original DJ Culture stage was exposing all the Artscape families and general random people to music they...
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| Image by Puja Patel We’d already started writing up our memories of this year’s Artscape when we received some shocking news this morning about a performer who was responsible for one of our favorite moments from the festival. Khia Edgerton, aka DJ K-Swift, passed away at Good Samaritan Hospital from injuries sustained in...
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Well, Artscape actually announced this some time ago, but we figured it’d be more fun to give you an overload headache. “Busy weekend” doesn’t come close. You can find all of Artscape details here, but highlights and/or headliners include Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Roberta Flack, Felicia Carter, Diplo, Dave Nada, and Thrushes. And,...
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OK, me and two other jurors did the hard, painful work, preening through some 40-odd bands–many of whom brought me to the edge of absolute despair–to come up with five semifinalists for you to vote onto Artscape’s Saturn Stage. Yep, you get to make the final cut. Not much to it: Click on this...
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