Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Thanks to J. Smooth at Tuberaider for sharing this amazing clip of the Backyard Band, one of the best go-go bands in Washington DC. The song is "Ruff it Off," and it's filmed for a local TV station. You can see a bit of DC Hardcore in this DC Go-Go video...
I think it's wonderful that our country still has vibrant regional musical styles like Go-Go. Baltimore club music is another example... despite what some might have you believe, there are regional music styles, particularly in urban music, that remain more than just museum pieces.
In DC, there are posters for Go-Go shows plastered on every lamppost (well, every lamppost in certain parts of town). Bands like Backyard play every week at certain clubs, and folks go every week to party. Here's the father of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, rocking a DC club in 1994.
On a related note... if you don't read the Times regularly, there was a great piece this week by kelefa sanneh about New Orleans hip-hop. It's a manifesto on a topic sanneh has been alluding to for months -- the way the media and dominant culture have ignored New Orleans today, even as they've celebrated "New Orleans jazz" (led by Wynton Marsalis, who's made quite a career of telling white people black culture is something that happened between 1920 and 1955). I wouldn't say that I'm Bout It Bout It, but I agree that Juvenile and Lil Wayne are two of the most talented cats out.
Don't believe me? Watch Weezie rip the Booth at Rap City and tell me otherwise... (and if you need more proof, watch him rock "Shooter" with Thicke)
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I think it's wonderful that our country still has vibrant regional musical styles like Go-Go. Baltimore club music is another example... despite what some might have you believe, there are regional music styles, particularly in urban music, that remain more than just museum pieces.
In DC, there are posters for Go-Go shows plastered on every lamppost (well, every lamppost in certain parts of town). Bands like Backyard play every week at certain clubs, and folks go every week to party. Here's the father of Go-Go, Chuck Brown, rocking a DC club in 1994.
On a related note... if you don't read the Times regularly, there was a great piece this week by kelefa sanneh about New Orleans hip-hop. It's a manifesto on a topic sanneh has been alluding to for months -- the way the media and dominant culture have ignored New Orleans today, even as they've celebrated "New Orleans jazz" (led by Wynton Marsalis, who's made quite a career of telling white people black culture is something that happened between 1920 and 1955). I wouldn't say that I'm Bout It Bout It, but I agree that Juvenile and Lil Wayne are two of the most talented cats out.Don't believe me? Watch Weezie rip the Booth at Rap City and tell me otherwise... (and if you need more proof, watch him rock "Shooter" with Thicke)
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Friday, April 28, 2006
2 Comments:
The Backyard band and Junkyard Band are great. I'd also recommend Rare Essence, Lissen the Group and Lissen the Band (yes, they're different). The DC hip hop station plays go-go Thursday nights (I think), and it's my favorite radio show around here.
To tie it in with the New Orleans thing, there was a band down there called Coolbone that played hip hop with brass band instrumentation, and since one of their drummers was from DC they had some go-go influences as well. The rhymes weren't great, but it was an interesting sound. Then about three or four years ago they switched to being a straight up brass band because that was the only way they could get gigs. It was pretty sad. There's a really good N.O. writer and musician named Michael Patrick Welch (who also goes by White Bitch) who wrote that after "inventing" jazz, most of New Orleans decided to stop inventing new sounds and just make money off of nostalgia (the Marsalis family, Kermit Ruffins, etc.) That's what this year's JazzFest is about, and I'm really afraid that all the stuff about "saving/revitalizing New Orleans culture" is going to exacerbate that. (Welch's website is here, and there are some great pieces about evacuating to Houston with a pygmy goat. I also wholeheartedly recommend his novel "The Donkey Show": www.screwmusicforever.com/commonplace)
If you're in DC, http://gogobeat.com/ has listings of current Go-Gos, you have to see it live to appreciate it!
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