Name: Introduction to Watercolor
Start: 2018-9-17T10-10-15-00
End: 2018-11-5T13-13-00-00
Location: S. Dillon Ripley Center

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17sep(sep 17)10:15 am05nov(nov 5)1:00 pmIntroduction to Watercolor10:15 am (17) - (november 5) 1:00 pm S. Dillon Ripley Center

25sep7:30 pmPop-Up Magazine Fall Issue7:30 pm Warner Theatre

26sep6:30 pmWelcome to Night Vale6:30 pm Lincoln Theatre

26sep7:00 pmAnne-Marie7:00 pm U Street Music Hall

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Anne-Marie doesn’t do anything by halves. Ever since she was two years old and joined her local performing arts school in Essex, she’s wanted to excel at whatever she puts her mind to. Childhood roles in West End productions of ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ proved she had a gift for singing and acting. She started doing karate in her teens, and won three international championships by the age of 17. But music has always been her passion and after touring the world with Rudimental and cementing her place in pop history with ‘Rockabye’ – the Clean Bandit which became the longest-running UK No.1 in 22 years – she’s ready to excel yet again and her debut album, ‘Speak Your Mind’, sounds like one of 2018’s defining pop records.

Anne-Marie has been writing the album for five years, and whittled down the finished article from nearly 1,000 songs. Getting the track-list spot-on was incredibly important to her. “I’ve always wanted to have an album that makes sense from start to finish, rather than an album that’s just a load of random hits put together,” she explains. “I want people to know about me from every angle. I want people who listen to this album to be able to figure out who I am as a person, not just as a singer.”

The result is a deeply personal collection that captures Anne-Marie’s super-warm and straight-talking personality. Her break-up bangers ‘Alarm’ and ‘Ciao Adios’ (both UK platinum singles) are obviously present, joined by the infectious single ‘Heavy’, but they rub shoulders with other modern pop gems which show different sides to the 26-year-old. “I didn’t want people to think I’m just about being hateful to ex-boyfriends!” Anne-Marie says with a knowing laugh, referring to the spunky subject matter of ‘Alarm’ and ‘Ciao Adios’.

We’re already seeing her more playful side on ‘FRIENDS’ – a collaboration with DJ/producer Marshmello that just cracked the UK top five. “You’re not my lover, more like a brother, I known you since we were like ten, yeah,” Anne-Marie sings sassily, placing a guy firmly in the friend-zone. The flirty tropical pop tune ‘Can I Get Your Number’ (“something I’d never ask in real life!”) and tongue-in-cheek strut of ‘Bad Girlfriend’ also show off her sense of fun.

But other songs on the album are more sombre and contemplative. Slow-burning opening track ‘Cry’ finds Anne-Marie channelling Alanis Morissette, one of her teenage heroes. ‘Trigger’ is a heartfelt plea for society to stop relying on guns to sort out its disagreements. And ’Perfect’ sees Anne-Marie lay bare her imperfections to help others embrace theirs. “I always wanted to write a positive song for women, but one that doesn’t sound cheesy,” she explains. “I want someone else to listen to this song and think, ‘Yes! I’m not the only one who sometimes doesn’t want to put makeup on in the morning.”

Elsewhere, the raw and revealing ‘Machine’ finds Anne-Marie grappling with the fact she’s an empath, someone who can’t help being affected by the emotional state of others. “I can walk into a room full of happy people and feel really happy. But if I walk into the next room and someone looks sad, I can go into a really depressive state,” she explains. “It can be really draining, so I wrote this song because sometimes I wish I wasn’t like that. Sometimes I wish I was a machine.”

But it’s hard to imagine Anne Marie writing the devastating electro ballad ‘Then’, inspired by a friend’s split from their long-term partner, without this gift for empathy. Equally, it’s hard to imagine someone who lacks Anne-Marie’s deep love for pop music coming up with the nostalgic bop ‘2002’. Anne-Marie actually co-wrote ‘2002’ with Ed Sheeran, the artist she’s about to go on tour with. “Ed is amazing,” she says excitedly when Sheeran’s name is mentioned. “He can just write these melodies that connect with everyone on such a fundamental level. But to be honest, I always try to work with people who are my friends and I can speak openly to. I just tell them what’s happening in my life and they say, ‘Yeah, let’s write about that.’ And it ain’t ever scary because I just think the best songs come from stuff that’s real. To be honest, I can’t write about something that isn’t real.”

Anne-Marie says writing songs gives her the same kind of emotional release as karate, “only this way it’s a bit less aggressive!” She finds herself writing music nearly every day, whether she has a studio session booked or not. “I’m still a very emotional person, but if I didn’t get to write songs, I can’t imagine what I’d be like!”

Cool, contemporary, and crafted with some of pop’s most exciting songwriters and producers (including Steve Mac, MNEK and Ina Wroldsen), Anne-Marie’s debut album is packed with hits that people can relate to. But she’s the kind of artist who’s already looking ahead. “I want to continue to make music that I’m really passionate about, and tour the world doing the job I love.”

When you listen to ‘Speak Your Mind’, you’ll realise this shouldn’t be a problem.

Time

(Wednesday) 7:00 pm

Location

U Street Music Hall

1115 U Street NW Washington, DC, 20009

Cost

$18

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26sep7:30 pmDreams Soar – Lecture with Pilot Shaesta Waiz7:30 pm National Air and Space Museum

27sep6:45 pm8:00 pmPerfect Pairings: Natural Wines and Your Favorite Foods6:45 pm - 8:00 pm S. Dillon Ripley Center

27sep7:00 pm9:00 pmFree Weekly Bingo w/ Union Market7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Union Market

27sep7:00 pmMt. Joyw/ Arlie7:00 pm U Street Music Hall

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“These dreams are more than paper things,” sings Matt Quinn on Mt. Joy’s infectious folk-rocker “Astrovan,” a warm, yearning bit of road-trip philosophy that posits the existence of a Deadhead Jesus cruising the dusty highways of the countryside, nursing a roach on his way to only He knows where. It’s an auspicious line from a band predicated on the revival of teenage dreams.

Mt. Joy started off as a rekindling of shared musical ambitions between Philadelphia high school friends Matt Quinn (vocals, guitar) and Sam Cooper (guitar). Reunited in Los Angeles thanks to the ebbs and flows of adult life, the pair met multi-instrumentalist Michael Byrnes through a Craigslist ad. They named themselves Mt. Joy as an ode to a mountain in Valley Forge National Park near Sam’s childhood home, and together, with Byrnes’ roommate Caleb Nelson producing, they recorded three songs and sent them out into the world, hoping for the best. “I knew I still wanted to write songs, but the realities of life made that dream seem pretty impossible,” Quinn says.

Much to the band’s amazement, “Astrovan” accomplished the impossible. Without initial promotion or fanfare, the song took off on Spotify, racking up 5 million streams to date. “The irony of ‘Astrovan’ was that song was really about being stuck in a life and wanting to have the opportunity to pursue a dream, and in an instant it gave us that opportunity. ” Quinn says. Mt. Joy quickly transitioned from a part-time calling into a full-fledged band rounded out by Byrnes on bass, Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums and Jackie Miclau on keyboard.

Come 2017, Mt. Joy hit the road, and hit it hard: They played tour dates alongside the likes of The Shins, The Head and The Heart, The Lone Bellow, and Whitney, and popped up at some of the summer’s biggest festivals, including Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza and Made In America. “We were put on some big shows very quickly,” Quinn says. “The growth for us has been exponential – we’ve really just become a family that’s constantly pushing each other and the live show to be great.” They eventually caught the attention of Dualtone Records and began work on their debut album.

Steeped in folk-rock tradition and powered by the intuitive creative connection between Quinn and Cooper, the songs on ‘Mt. Joy’ depict Quinn wrestling with his own conscience, where the mundane and the fantastic collide as he processes tragedy, society, and love. Opener “I’m Your Wreck” describes “monsters in (the) closet, using up the wi-fi” as it cycles from its desperate, spiraling verses to its swinging, stubbornly optimistic coda, while the loping, plaintive chords of “Younger Days” meditate on a frayed psyche and the fear of choosing the wrong path. “Sheep,” with its collapsing, hoarse-voiced cry of “freedom was paid in blood,” is a post-Trump salvo on the responsibilities of the fortunate to overcome political and social despondency. And on “Silver Lining,” perhaps the album’s brightest moment, Quinn surveys the damage of hard drugs and the vicious cycle of addiction, as the song’s melancholic sentiment kicks into its fervid, defiant chorus, all shout-along vocals and trilling guitars.

Taken together, the self titled ‘Mt. Joy’ LP is a startlingly open document, wracked with the anxieties and fears that come just as life seems to start working out. It’s a natural reaction from a wary band like Mt. Joy – the result of a sort of professional vertigo, as they’ve gone from virtual unknowns to hot young commodity in little over a year. But there’s a sense of hope underlying everything, girded by the fact that the Mt. Joy LP is an impressive, honest portrayal of a young band facing that moment where dreams become reality, and finding beauty in the exhilarating uncertainty of it all.