Music section: Metro Weekly magazine, Washington, DC newspaper

Lube Job

The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington presents turns Grease into a gay high school musical fantasy

Published on March 10, 2010, 11:51pm

''Grease has something to say about the family we choose,'' says Jeff Buhrman. ''GLBT people understand that concept about choosing our family, defending each other. It's all in this musical -- you've just never seen it that way before.'' Certainly you've never seen Grease the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington's way -- a new all-male production based on the original 1972 Broadway version. ''Over the years Grease has been sanitized,'' says Buhrman, GMCW's artistic director, noting that the original ''is ...[more]

Tattooed Troubadour

Matt Morris mixes musical forms in a skillful, measured way -- never sloppy, never cluttered, never just for effect

Published on February 24, 2010, 11:17pm

Egos were checked at the January ''Hope for Haiti'' concert telethon, with none of the performers identified by name. It was a small gesture of humility for the superstar performers, in a time of so much nameless suffering. But what about those you couldn't identify on your own? For instance, just who was that guy singing with Justin Timberlake? Turns out it's J.T.'s gay bff Matt Morris. You probably haven't heard of Morris. He was in the '90s-era ''All New ...[more]

The Joy of Sax

Joshua Redman considers himself an accidental jazz saxophonist

Published on February 17, 2010, 11:22pm

Joshua Redman had no intention of becoming a world-renowned, award-winning jazz musician. ''I didn't go to undergraduate for music – I was going to go to law school,'' he laughs. ''This was kind of a big accident.'' It's an ironic big accident, given that as a saxophonist he follows directly in some famous footsteps: those of his late father Dewey Redman. ''I wasn't raised by my father, and I didn't know him well growing up at all,'' says Redman, who ...[more]

Dark Disco

Are the members of Editors vampires? Are they godless? Are they vegetarians? The band likes to keep us guessing

Published on February 3, 2010, 9:49pm

''I don't want to be ignored, oh god!'' Tom Smith cries at one point on Editors' new In This Light And On This Evening. With an album like this, Smith has no need to worry. You can't ignore Editors in good measure because you can't quite get a handle on them. Oh, sure, some things are easy to discern. The band is a four piece from Birmingham, England: Smith on vocals and piano, Chris Urbanowicz on guitar and synthesizer, Russell ...[more]

True Spirit

Matt Alber was born to be an openly gay singer-songwriter of sumptuous, sensitive songs.

Published on February 3, 2010, 9:47pm

''There are pieces of what being gay is about that aren't really being discussed,'' says singer-songwriter Matt Alber. ''Being gay, I see things in a different way, and have a different perspective on things. It goes way beyond sexuality.'' To Alber, being gay is spiritual. The 34-year-old musician got his start singing in church growing up in Missouri, and struggled for years with organized religion's animosity toward homosexuality. He's now more spiritual than ever. ''I just feel like I gained ...[more]

Hollywood Medley

Bill Conti leads the NSO Pops in a tribute to the Oscars

Published on February 3, 2010, 9:35pm

They don't make film music like they used to. So says Bill Conti. ''It's very difficult as the years go by, how they make a lot of atmospheric stuff,'' says Conti. ''They might get the mood right, but it's very hard to grab you with just the mood.'' Conti knows a thing or two about the subject. He won an Oscar for his score to 1983's The Right Stuff, and earned nominations for his scores to Rocky and the James ...[more]

Di$po$able Pop

The dollar sign in Ke$ha's name serves as shorthand for not just all that's wrong with her music, but pop music today

Published on January 27, 2010, 10:43pm

If you have an ''s'' in your name, have you ever thought to replace it with a dollar sign? And really, why stop there? You could turn every letter into a symbol, a creative exercise for the bored and blasé. But chances are that someone older and wiser – in a position of authority – convinced you to dot your i's and cross your t's – and leave your s's well-enough alone. For decorum's sake, if nothing else. Kesha Rose ...[more]

Magnetic Mystery

Stephin Merritt brings his quirky, indie-music group The Magnetic Fields to Lisner

Published on January 27, 2010, 10:40pm

''The last time I looked at my Wikipedia entry, it said that I was born in 1966, I'm Canadian, and I'm a Buddhist,'' says Stephin Merritt. ''All these things are false.'' Just who is Stephin Merritt? The truth can be difficult to discern from the cagey, slightly cantankerous principal behind quirky indie-music group The Magnetic Fields. Mystery surrounds him as surely as... well, a magnetic field surrounds magnetic materials. When asked his age during a phone interview, the openly gay ...[more]

New Blood

The band Vampire Weekend sounds a lot like Paul Simon if he were less stuffy and stricken with A.D.D.

Published on January 21, 2010, 5:50am

What's this: Another chart-topping, pop-culture act centered on vampires? Well, no. Other than its name, the Brooklyn quartet Vampire Weekend has nothing to do with blood-sucking creatures of the night. Apparently, the name derives from an amateur film lead vocalist and guitarist Ezra Koenig once made. Sounds suspicious, right? Given the uptick in unexplainable vampire fascination the past couple years, Koenig couldn't have been more fortuitous in picking a name if he tried. And as if on cue, the blogosphere ...[more]

Metric System

Metric draws much of its influence from club music, while Polly Scattergood captures the depressed mood of the times

Published on January 7, 2010, 2:52am

The year 2009 was pretty ho-hum as far as music went, especially in the mainstream. One overrated artist after another released albums that left us wanting. And the rest struggled to be heard amid the din of our ADHD-addled media culture. And to think one of the very best overlooked gems came from a band named after science. The Canadian band Metric coulda woulda shoulda been a bigger sensation -- if only the musical hype machine was as precise as ...[more]

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