World Class Fad: Shows This Week

All sorts of goodies this week...

Tonight! Tuesday, 12/2: Snowden (with Twin Tigers and Illinois) @ DC9-$12

When we saw Snowden this year at the Monolith Festival, we said "What makes them interesting is that the band has a great shoe-gaze fuzzy pop sound with a pretty hefty backbeat. And that was the sound in the middle of monolithic stones, imagine how it will fill DC9...Keep an eye cocked towards the bassist, she's amazing to watch.



Friday, 12/5: Nada Surf, Delta Spirit, Jealous Girlfriends) @ 930 Club-$12


Ok, I'm late to the Nada Surf train, I'll admit it...blame it on that damn "Popular" song played nonstop for a long period of time by someone I once knew, and I wanted no part of the Surf. But then at SXSW 08 I caught Nada Surf lead singer Matthew Caws singing with Roguewave, which got me to see Nada Surf when they played DC shortly thereafter, and realized my mistake. So very good are the Surf; Caws can make a venue of 1000 people seem as intimate and personal as if they were playing someone's living room.

Be sure to get there in time to see the Delta Spirit. Man are these guys good. Keep an eye out for drummer/keyboardist/vocalist Kelly Winrich, what a talent. No wonder he was so pooped after their October Rock and Roll Hotel show (that bottle he's holding was just a funny prop, we swear!)



A barn burner of rock and soul, Delta Spirit will make you dance, lift your spirits, and reveal the beautious sound that is the top to a metal trashcan.

Here are more of my shots of their October Rock and Roll Hotel show...it was sweaty, it was packed, it was inspiring.










Sunday, 12/7: Stewart Lupton (with Howlies and King Left) @ DC9-$8


In our review of the initial release of Lupton's new band, The Child Ballads, we wrote Briefly, "Cheekbone Hollows" is a bluesy toe-tapping lo-fi version of Lord Byron poetry. Which is all perfectly logical if you know that lead singer/acoustic guitar player Stewart Lupton a) was previously the lead singer for the critics' darlings and direct influencer of The Strokes Jonathan_Fire*Eater, and b) returned to DC after the dissolution of JFE, enrolled in George Washington University, landed the Lannan Poetry Fellowship, and studied poetry, medieval studies, and modern art history. Lupton's baritone voice reminds me of Marc Bolan posing as an Exile on Main Street-era Mick Jagger, all sputtering with smoldering bravado and bad-boy grittiness.

This DC9 show appears to be Lupton solo, but you'll be nonetheless entertained. He's also damn funny so be ready to chuckle one minute, then choke up the next while his his lovely poems are spoken amidst "Cheekbone Hollows" tracks and Dylan covers.

World Class Fad: The Child Ballads Play NYC on Thursday

(Photo by Piper Ferguson)

The Child Ballads, a great little band out of DC, doesn't play live very much, so you kids in NYC would do well to head out to Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn on Thursday for their 9 pm show. You may recall the name of TCB's lead singer/songwriter, Stewart Lupton, as the lead singer of that little group from the 90s who influenced, well, everyone called Jonathan Fire*Eater. Lupton's new band has a vastly different sound than JFE, more stripped down and folky (read my review of their EP here), but Lupton's still one of the most enigmatic frontman you'll see performing today. Plus, his song lyrics will make your IQ shoot up 50 points after just one listen and who couldn't use getting just a little bit smarter hmm?

UPDATED: World Class Fad: Upcoming Shows of Note

How on earth could I forget this? You NYC kids, be sure to check out The Childballads, whose lovely EP, "Cheekbone Hollows (Pop. 1/2 Life)" I recently raved about, are playing at the Mercury Lounge on Saturday, August 2. This is a band that doesn't seem to play live too often (here's hoping that changes in the near future!), but from all I've heard, frontman and enigmatic lead singer Stewart Lupton's recent creations are bound to be as beautiful live as they are on record.

Earotica: Cheekbone Hollows (Pop. 1/2 Life)-The Child Ballads Review

Don't get me wrong, I love mp3s: they don't clutter up your living room like CDs, they're easier to travel with as many of them fit on one's small Ipod, and they don't skip when you hit a bump in a car. The downside of mp3 though is that you miss out on the cover art which can, at times, provide insight into the songs or the artist (or sometimes even make you some money).

Interesting cover art can also be the thing that gets you to listen to a disc if the artist is unknown to you, which is exactly what happened to me a few days ago when the The Child Ballads newest EP called Cheekbone Hollows (Pop. 1/2 Life) arrived in a package with eight or so other CDs. It was the first one I opened, and why? Because of this printed on the back cover:

I bought a white chocolate tea in the park on my lunchbreak
I bought a painting off the street of a haunted lake.
I tried hard to make my world an exciting place.
But I keep hearing talk of the doom,
And they're sending the meek home.
And that's not half as bad as the shadow
That's caught in the hollow of your cheekbone.

Wow-to-the-za. Then I played it and man, the music inside was just as good. Like it's been on constant-repeat good.

Briefly, "Cheekbone Hollows" is a bluesy toe-tapping lo-fi version of Lord Byron poetry. Which is all perfectly logical if you know that lead singer/acoustic guitar player Stewart Lupton a) was previously the lead singer for the critics' darlings and direct influencer of The Strokes Jonathan_Fire*Eater, and b) returned to DC after the dissolution of JFE, enrolled in George Washington University, landed the Lannan Poetry Fellowship, and studied poetry, medieval studies, and modern art history. Lupton's baritone voice reminds me of Marc Bolan posing as an Exile on Main Street-era Mick Jagger, all sputtering with smoldering bravado and bad-boy grittiness. Sprinkled throughout most of the songs on this 6-track EP are the three powerful v's of co-vocalist Betsy Wright (viola, violin, and vocals), whose trifecta of pretty perfectly counters the primary grungier sound surrounding her. Much like a daisy springing up through the cracks in a concrete jungle, you don't expect to see something like that thriving there but you can't help being struck by it.

Much like the collection of ballads and lullabies that share their name, the tracks on Lupton's version sing of love and salvation (lots of salvation), ghosts and loneliness, but with a much hipper sound that will strike your core. "Cheekbone Hollows" has been available in the UK since '06 but just came out in the US earlier this summer. So check out the CD version or the mp3 version, but just make sure you check it out.

Download: Green Jewelry-The Child Ballads
Cheekbone Hollows-The Child Ballads