PHOTOS: ThirstDC’s SPRING HAS SPRUNG @ Black Whiskey

Name: John Fogerty / ZZ Top: Blues and Bayous Tour
Start: 2018-5-29T19-19-00-00
End: 2018-5-29T23-23-55-00
Location: Wolf Trap

Ben DrozMay 21, 2013Photos

Photos 09 min read

all photos: Ben Droz

This past Thursday, thirstDC hosted a spring get-together at the newly opened Black Whiskey, featuring their signature mix of drinks, science-y talks and good looking people enjoying both said drinks and said sciencey talks. Speakers this time around included: Jon Arroyo — Chief Mixologist & Beverage Director, The Farm (@FarmFishBakeDC), Tim Bailey — CFO, Yuri’s Night, SM Shrake — Founder of Story League, Kathryn Verona — Nerdette and Darcy Gentleman — thirst. Director of Speaker Preparation. This is what went down:

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28may10:30 am5:00 pmThe Barmecide Feast Exhibit10:30 am - 5:00 pm National Air and Space Museum

28may8:00 pm10:00 pmFree Weekly Bar Bingo w/ Kingfisher DC8:00 pm - 10:00 pm Kingfisher DC

29may7:00 pmJohn Fogerty / ZZ Top: Blues and Bayous Tourwith Ryan Kinder7:00 pm Wolf Trap

29may7:30 pm10:30 pmBedlam’s “Saint Joan”7:30 pm - 10:30 pm Folger Theatre

30may7:00 pmJohn Fogerty / ZZ Top: Blues and Bayous Tourwith Ryan Kinder7:00 pm Wolf Trap

30may7:00 pmJapanese BreakfastLVL Up • Radiator Hospital 7:00 pm

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“The title Soft Sounds From Another Planet alludes to the promise of something that may or may not be there. Like a hope in something more. The songs are about human resilience and the strength it takes to claw out of the darkest of spaces.”

Michelle Zauner wrote the debut Japanese Breakfast album in the weeks after her mother died of cancer, thinking she would quit music entirely once it was done. That wasn’t the case. When Psychopomp was released to acclaim in 2016, she was forced to confront her grief. Zauner would find find herself reliving traumatic memories multiple times a day during interviews, trying to remain composed while discussing the most painful experience of her life. Her sophomore album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, is a transmutation of mourning, a reflection that turns back on the cosmos in search of healing.

“I want to be a woman of regimen,” Zauner sings over a burbling synth on the album’s opening track “Diving Woman.” This serves as Zauner’s mission statement: stick to the routine lest you get derailed, don’t cling to the past, don’t descend. In fact, ascend to the stars; Zauner found artistic solace removed from Earth, in outer space and science fiction. “I used the theme as a means to disassociate from trauma,” she explains. “Space used as a place of fantasy.”

And yet, Soft Sounds From Another Planet isn’t a concept album. Over the course of 12 tracks, Zauner explores an expansive thematic universe, a cohesive outpouring of unlike parts structured to create a galaxy of her own design. In the instrumental “Planetary Ambience,” synths communicate the way extraterrestrials might, and on the shapeshifting single “Machinist,” which Zauner has been performing live for over a year now, she details the sci-fi narrative of a woman falling in love with a machine. “It’s pure fiction,” she explains, “But it can map onto real relationships in a relevant way.” The track, which begins with spoken-word ambience, moves into autotune ‘80s pop bliss and ends with a sultry saxophone solo, perfectly marries the experience: there’s a perceptible humanity in mechanical, bodily events.

Within its astral production, much of Soft Sounds From Another Planet stays grounded. “Road Head” is the last chest compression in attempt to resuscitate a doomed relationship, while the penultimate track “This House” is an acoustic dirge that honors Zauner’s chosen family. The baroque pop “Boyish” has a haunting, crystalline clarity that recalls the pathos of a Roy Orbison ballad, while “Body is a Blade” embraces the dark intimacy of Zauner’s Pacific Northwest heroes Elliott Smith and Mount Eerie.
With help from co-producer Craig Hendrix (who also co-produced Little Big League’s debut) and Jorge Elbrecht, (Ariel Pink, Tamaryn) who mixed the album, Zauner recontextualizes her bedroom pop beginnings, expanding and maturing her sound. The sheer massiveness of the big room production on Soft Sounds From Another Planet introduces listeners to a new Japanese Breakfast. Zauner’s familiar, capacious voice will serve as their guide.

“Your body is a blade that moves while your brain is writhing,” she sings. “Knuckled under pain you mourn but your blood is flowing.” There’s discernible pain in the phrasing, Zauner recognizing limitation, a lack of control, but then subverting the feeling, creating her own musical language for confronting trauma. Where Psychopomp introduced the world to Japanese Breakfast, Soft Sounds dives deeper. It builds space where there is none, and suggests that in the face of tragedy, we find ways to keep on living.

Time

(Wednesday) 7:00 pm

Cost

$18

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31may7:00 pmFlight FacilitiesU Street Music Hall Presents… 7:00 pm 9:30 Club

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Give the people what they want.

Having scaled the heights of sell-out orchestral headline shows, ARIA awards and international festival stages, Flight Facilities are going back to what it’s all really about; the songs. In 2018, fans can can expect a renaissance of the band’s beloved singles run, a format that seems as much a return to form as a new chapter for Sydney duo Jimmy Lyell and Hugo Gruzman.
“We’re at what feels like a real turning point in our career, says Lyell. “Our lives as individuals are changing and so too is our vision for the band.” It’s this vision which has already seen the release of two breakaway singles that have pushed at the edges of the band’s sound. Most recently, ‘Stranded’ pulled together a diverse range of artists, from concert pianist Piers Lane to Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa and previous collaborator, Reggie Watts.

In a brave new world where chart-toppers are increasingly defined algorithmically and playlists are king, Flight Facilities have made an art form out of reinvention. The pair has spent the majority of their careers bucking trends in electronic music, consistently and reliably favouring the timelessness of a well-crafted song. Having racked up over half a billion streams globally, it’s clearly an approach that works.

This attitude has turned some of Flight Facilities’ more unlikely singles into their biggest hits, like the shimmering disco of ‘Foreign Language’ or the symphonic ‘Clair De Lune’. “I’ve always grappled with people saying ‘That’s such a Flight Facilities song’. What the fuck does that mean? I have no idea what we sound like,” laughs Gruzman.

Flight Facilities’ extensive remix catalogue, both for other artists (Miike Snow, Bag Raiders and Cut Copy, to name but a few) and of their own material (Snakehips, Lido, Joe Goddard) also continues to showcase the breadth of their influence. They’re certainly not a band to be defined by format.

A slew of new singles allows this relentlessly creative duo more chances to challenge their own expectations, something which forms the basis of how they operate. “Jimmy gets frustrated because I always look for a thousand possibilities on a sound,” says Gruzman. “Even if we find one straight away that’s good, I’ll keep going. Every ‘No’ counts as a ‘Yes’, because you’re eliminating those possibilities. I hate wondering.”

The turn back to singles also offers more room to collaborate with the emerging and legendary voices that have come to mark the band’s aesthetic. From Emma Louise to Broods, Kylie and Katie Noonan, Flight Facilities have a knack for picking vocalists that feel more like friends than features. Expect some instrumental numbers too, returning to the wide-eyed naivety that first brought the two together. Or as Jimmy puts it: “We want to make a statement one day and write a pop song the next.”

These are uncertain times but one thing is assured; Flight Facilities have plenty more gas in the tank. The only question now is which direction they go next. You’ve heard the band drop singles before, but never quite as excitedly as this. “Being able to laugh at yourself is the most important thing,” says Gruzman “If you believe in yourself to do the more important pieces, you should have the integrity to also go out and do something fun and stupid.”

Time

(Thursday) 7:00 pm

Location

9:30 Club

815 V ST NW, Washington, DC 20001

Cost

$25

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31may7:30 pm10:30 pmBedlam’s “Saint Joan”7:30 pm - 10:30 pm Folger Theatre

PHOTOS: ThirstDC’s SPRING HAS SPRUNG @ Black Whiskey

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