On ‘Water Still Flows’, veteran of the Nashville indie rock scene Mike Ruth has built upon the sounds of his critically acclaimed 2020 release “I Survived, It’s Over” to deliver a brash, beautiful, and spiritual explosion of sound unlike anything you've heard this year. Ruth discusses the new album, thoughts on making art with the tools available, and more on this edition of Discologist.

Hailing from Dallas, Texas, this group of rock and roll veterans (between them they've recorded and toured with the likes of St. Vincent, The Apples in Stereo, The War on Drugs, The Deathray Davies, Baboon, Daniel Johnston, and more) got together and decided to form "greatest band in the world. Maybe." and so it was that Motorcade was born. Armed with an ear for the past and a heart for writing great f@#@ing songs, Motorcade's debut defies expectations and is one of the best albums of 2018. 

Luna Honey’s new album Peace Will Grind You Down, finds the the humanity in the darkness while Blood Orange’s Negro Swan serves as a guide on how to make it through it. We’re checking in with both on our latest feels-packed episode.

Known to most of the world as a political playground, Washington, D.C. is a city where decisions that shape the course of, not just American, but HUMAN history, are made every day. More than that though, D.C. is a city where cultures collide resulting in a creative class that produces some of the most compelling and diverse art in the world. Built on the legacy of jazz and go-go, D.C. is on the cusp of a creative explosion and bringing everything from hip-hop to indie rock into the fold.

In part four of our Sounds of Washington, DC series, we're dipping our toes into the DIY space, traveling back in time for some homegrown jazz/funk, and getting serious about what needs to be done to protect and revive this city's native culture for not just a day, but all year long. 

In our final regular podcast of 2016, we're enlisting Paul Vodra (Hometown Sounds), Joe Lapan (Owner, Songbyrd Music House), and Marcus Dowling (Pitchfork, Bandcamp) to work through the year that was here in our hometown of Washington, DC, take a look at the "big picture", and much, Much more. 

PLUS: Thoughts on the tragedy of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, CA. What can we do to help, and what can we do to try and make sure this doesn't happen again. 

Franz Nicolay is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, true punk philosopher, and now…an author.

The Humorless  Ladies of Border Patrol chronicles Nicolay and his wife Maria’s tour through the underground punk/DIY scene of Russia and the Ukraine and is unlike any travelogue that has come before it. Immersive, poignant, and a treat for the senses , Ladies is the next step in an already vital career for Nicolay that is required reading for fans of music, punk, or just gaining a new perspective on the world we all share.

But enough of us gabbing. How about we let Franz tell you all about it…

A few years ago in the small town of Washington, DC, Maddy Wolpow-Gindi and Quinn Meyers (along with the steady hand of friend Jordan Grobe on sound) set out to host a few rock shows at their shared space above a Cajun restaurant known as The Bayou.

Over the course of two years that space which started out just hoping to turn out "a few rock shows" turned into one of the most vibrant and vital music venues the nation's capital has ever seen.

But all good (great) things come to an end, and so it was that the last bittersweet notes rang loud from Above the Bayou's withered bay windows out into the streets of DC in May of this year. 

Dead is dead, and the past is the past, but there are always stories to be received from those who were there.

This is theirs. 

The idea of a house show is nothing new, but over the past few years, Washington, DC has seen a veritable explosion in the number of highly structured alternative venues popping up in every part of the nation’s capital. On a cozy street in Petworth lies the Paperhaus, the veritable epicenter of this movement, and in it resides one Alex Tebeleff. Not only does Tebeleff play in a band that shares it’s name with the house, but he has spearheaded a resurgence in DIY, or DIT (Do It Together), that has not only brought the varied DC scene closer together, but has paved the way for more and more musicians and music fans to try their hand at concert promotion right in the comfort of their very own living room. We sat down with Alex on the back porch of the Paperhaus recently to talk about how he got his start putting on these shows, how he sees this movement growing, and how the DC scene is continuing to amaze.