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OUTDOOR MINI-FEST: BRNDA / Microkingdom / Nice Breeze / Knifing Around / Wheatie Mattiasich / art+goods: AnaMarie King / food: Jaren Morrow

Saturday October 22 * 4-9pm * in the backyard, weather permitting * TICKETS

BRNDA
https://brendatheband.com
BRNDA, a four-piece from DC, with a few rules: No covers, No love songs. Simple, right? Think again. After perusing through the late 70s, 80s and 2010s for musical detritus, it was discovered that only the least ostentatious, most off-kilter sound is fit for BRNDA. And so, if you find yourself unable to put your finger on just what you’re hearing, it is because BRNDA is not just some rehashed comfort listening.

Since their genesis in 2012, BRNDA has released 3 albums (2014, 2015, 2021) and an EP (2018). One could say that the stream of consciousness featured in 2021’s Do You Like Salt? (on Crafted Sounds) is arguably BRNDA’s richest yet. Topics of interest include salt, tennis, existentialism, poached avocado, your 45-year plan, tea, incorrect orders… all of which are expressed through a carousel of honest vocal performance (singing, shouting, speaking, radio static) from all members of the band. Above all, BRNDA pulls off an unpredictable and incredibly entertaining sound that can shift between testy art punk, noisy no wave, and groovin’ indie rock at any given moment. Not to mention, there is also a tasteful dusting of saxophone on the record. What is there not to like about all of that in a 10-track, sub-thirty-minute package?

Microkingdom
https://microkingdom.bandcamp.com

Baltimore’s greatest no-jazz band of all time in the world!
“A hyperactively burrowing noise excavation…” - The Wire
“Schizophrenia defines both the unit and the individual.” - Pitchfork

Nice Breeze
https://nicebreeze.bandcamp.com

DC’s indie rock trio Nice Breeze have a fierce form of raw irreverence, humor and intellect that are rarely heard anymore. As a staple in the DC live scene the last few years is a testament to this. Yanked from the gnarled drool of the Fall and Swell Maps, the uncooked candor of Half Japanese and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, the sandpapered fragmentations of early Pavement and Silver Jews, and the ghosts of many heroic basement bands still haunting the magnets of discarded four-track recorders. The result is an ever-changing, beautifully-deteriorating sound capable of primitive slobber, muscle-moving fire, and profound Ashbery-worthy poetics, often all within the span of one chopped verse. Let’s call it Nice Breeze.

From spiked streets of Arlington, VA and the lush pastures of Washington, DC, the scientists responsible for this concoction bring bogglingly-diverse pedigrees, including crossing paths in bands as far-flung as Freakbaby, Plums, and The Foreign Press. Drummer Martha Hamilton applies to her playing the same fortitude she’s injected in guitar detonations for the maximalist ensemble Boat Burning and Ragnar Kjartansson’s museum-based multimedia artwork Woman in E. Guitarist John Howard flips Hamilton’s script, attacking his guitar the way he has sliced up drums in Hat City Intuitive and improvised collaborations with legends like Han Bennink (as well as producing sessions by some of DC’s best outfits like Foul Swoops, Repo Fam, and Knife Wife). Hamilton and Howard have also played and recorded with UK post-punk legend Jowe Head. Singer Andy Fox was a poet and private eye before launching his musical career in a one-off Pavement cover band, eventually honing a unique front-presence somewhere between punk rant, poetry lecture, and the low end of Calvin Johnson’s croon.
-Marc Masters, 2019

“Rock songs about drugs that try to sound profound are usually dumb. On the other hand, rock songs about drugs that try to sound dumb are occasionally profound. Nice Breeze checks the second box with “Just Becuz,” an end-of-the-world shrug of a tune that seems to descend from the Velvet Underground.” – Washington Post

Knifing Around
https://knifingaround.bandcamp.com

Knifing Around is a six piece dance group from Richmond, VA. The band blends elements of post-punk, funk, and noise into a singular sonic vision. Their EP "Don't Stab Your Hand" is streaming on all platforms 09/23/22.

Wheatie Mattiasich (Baltimore)
https://wheatiemattiasich.bandcamp.com/album/little-black-star

Wheatie Mattiasich is a songwriter from Baltimore, Maryland who began performing solo works around 2004. Her music of the last decade has been mostly collaborative - involving mountain dulcimer and folk ballad inspired vocals, alongside multi-instrumentalist Stephen Santillan. Their most recent co-written songs will be released in 2023, as an LP on Open Mouth Records.

Art and goods by AnaMarie King

The Grill! Wings and Things by Chef Jaren Morrow

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