DC music follow-up

So, as I was saying in my last post, the music in DC at the March Cake & Kisses party at Asylum (footage from that night here put to some Five One music) totally took me by surprise.  It was so, so excellent, and make me thank Katherine for dragging me out that night!  I asked this guy photographing the event who the bands were before leaving, and the flyer he gave me was enough to go on and find the groups that were there on YouTube, which led me to their websites, and so on. FYI for anyone planning on visiting DC or who lives there, Cake & Kisses is on the first Thursday of every month at Asylum in the Adams Morgan area.

We saw two groups, the first one was The Five One.  They have a sort of varied sound, some songs softer and a bit reggae-ish, some a lot more hardcore, but all of it (for those who believe in the "there are only two kinds of music" theory) definitely on the good side.  Luckily for me, they actually have a great internet presence as well so I've been able to dig up a lot of their music.  With their main site, Deuce Day World, a MySpace site, a Facebook fan page, and a Twitter account (@thefiveone), it won't be hard to keep up with their new material.  Oh, and don't let me forget there's tons of stuff on their YouTube account and a bit on Vimeo.

The four band members go by the monikers of Red, Blue, Green, and Gold, and though I'm not sure what the story behind that is, I can say I wish I had taken the time to say hello to these guys when I had the chance.  After making an account on the Deuce Day World site, a couple of them made a point of saying hello, and Gold (who I have unconfirmed suspicions of him being some kind of web guy himself, as there must be someone behind all their web stuff being so good) pointed me in the right direction to dig up mp3s of their "Deuce Burgers" project.  This is a good place to start - they're releasing one every Thursday in 2009, and they're remixed/covers of other songs, and damn are they good!  You can stream them on the site (or on their MySpace), or download the whole set (which I'm assuming gets updated every week).  You can also download individual tracks from the main site, but there's sort of an annoying download interface thing on there, so I'd suggest just downloading the whole set.

My favorites so far (and I have a lot more listening to do) are (in no particular order):

Colors Like Us (Deuce Burgers, or watch their video on Vimeo, cause it's pretty entertaining)
District of Colossus (Deuce Burgers, or video on Vimeo)
Waiting for Her Again (Deuce Burgers)
Somewhere in Boston - I don't know if that's actually the name of the song ??? video on Vimeo (haven't found an mp3 of this one)
Active - have only found this one as video on YouTube so far, not sure if there's an mp3 around

The next group was Mello-D and the Rados, although, I think it may have actually just been Mello-D, I can't recall who else was backing him. This stuff had a lot more jazzy feel to it, and even some sweet sax solos (not unlike this) as well.  Different vibe, but also really enjoyed it.  You can stream music on the main site and they've got some  stuff on their MySpace site, and a Facebook fan page as well.  This is their YouTube page and there's sort of a video mini-documentary primer about the group here that I would highly recommend if you want to get a feel for them.  Here's what appears to be their "hit" video, Still Cool Witchu, and another (older?) one Stupid Jerk. Be sure to check out this one if you're ready to laugh your face off - and it's got a positive message: safe sex!  Be warned, it's graphic!

Mello-D has played with KRS ONE (one of their song collabs is on the MySpace page), and he has toured all over carnation, and I think is actually pretty well known now that I'm doing a little more research on him.  Which makes a lot of sense, actually, because I was thinking to myself at the show, how the hell is this guy not super famous by now???  I guess we were just lucky to have caught the show!

Enough links for you?  Well I'm not quite done yet!!!

While digging up all this stuff, I also came across this site: DC Rap that's got general info and updates about the music scene in DC.

And there were also several other guys at the Cake & Kisses show freestyling, a couple of them (Tyrone Norris aka. Mental Stamina, and Chris Carr aka. Stoney Ashes) make up another group called Rosetta Stoned (and MySpace), who I have yet to really look up much about.  They have some involvment with an art/music group called the Food Chain Collective, there's some YouTube action here and check out Chris Carr - he starts at 2:10 in this vid where he uses the word "mitochondria" in a freestyle.  Awesome!

And last but certainly not least, 40 mins of crazy freestyle in front of the DC Historical Society Museum:  Hip-hop Cinema Cafe Presents Freestyle Cypher Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.  And I would love to know who the rest of the guys in these are, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, would be much appreciated!

There ya go!