Washington, DC: “Don’t mute the people”

Of course two of the most relentlessly chest and heart pounding genres originate from the capital. Something has to cut through the muck and the mire. In this episode we visit the spots that bring the truth to the capital through music. It is our arts that keep us honest and moving forward to a more perfect union.

Head writer: Patrick Coman
Executive Producers Brady Sadler & Jake Brennan Produced, Created, written, & scored by Will Dailey

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
September twenty third, nineteen eighty three, the date of one
of the most infamous concerts in Washington d C Rock history.
Of course, none of the kids lined up outside the
Lansburg Cultural Center knew it at the time, but expectations
were high. The atmosphere was electric as doors opened. The
concert was meant to be a unifying event for two

(00:29):
of the district's most provocative homegrown musical acts. Minor Threat
standard bearers of the city's exploding hardcore punk scene and
Trouble Funk Master, practitioners of Go Go DC's home brewed
take on funk that fired up crowds with deep grooves
and long call and response sections. Both scenes were also

(00:49):
known for their opposition to conformity, to authoritarianism and too racism,
and both scared the absolute shit out of d c's
upper class. These two forms of music holding truth to
power in nineteen eighty three is the perfect way to
count us in, even if the show didn't go as planned.

(01:12):
Symbols of democracy pinned up against the coast, outhouse of bureaucracy,
surrounded by a moat, citizens of poverty are barely out
of sight. The overlords escaping in the evening with people
of the night. Morning brings the tourists, peering eyes and
rubber necks to catch a glimpse of the cowboy, making

(01:33):
the world a nervous wreck. It's a massive irony for
all the world to see. It's the nation's capital. It's Washington,
d C. Gil Scott Harry Washington, d C. Is a
city built from the ground up for a specific purpose.

(01:56):
On July sixteenth, seventeen ninety, none other than George Waher
Washington signed into law the Residents Act. The Act decreed
that in ten years time, a new city would be
built along the River Potomac to serve as the permanent
seat of the government of the United States of America.
And who would build this new capital city. Washington went

(02:16):
to work at once surveying the land, but of course
he didn't build it. Peris born engineer and revolutionary war
veteran Pierre Charles Lafonte, the most French name ever, drew
up the plans. He picked the locations for the President's House,
the White House, and the People's House the US Capital,
but he didn't actually build them, of course. Not long after,

(02:38):
Washington and his Frenchman engineer built up the plans, the
real workers entered the scene. We don't know most of
their names. They were all poor, many of them were black,
and many of them were slaves. That's right, in case
you did not know, slave labor was used to build
our country's symbol of freedom. The work that started back

(03:00):
in seventeen ninety got a serious slowdown when British troops
briefly took Washington, d C. In the War of eighteen
twelve and burned government buildings throughout the city. When the
British were pushed out a few days later, I'll let
you guess who was left to do the repair work.
By eighteen thirty, proving that hypocrisy has no bottom, DC
served as a major hub for the slave trade just

(03:21):
blocks west of the US capital. Countless families are ripped
apart and ship to brutal plantations throughout the Deep South,
and it wasn't until eighteen sixty two that slavery was
officially abolished in Washington, d C. This was DC's beginning.
It's really no wonder that DC is a city of contradictions.
There's the symbol of freedom, the people's voice, and then

(03:43):
there's the reality of the city built on a swamp,
stuck between two states with none to call home. The
district is the place where some of the most powerful
people in the world go to work, where our laws
take roots, where corruption is more embedded than bedbugs in Paris,
but also where hope can always be and must be

(04:03):
rekindled by those who can cut through the muck, the mere,
and the mazes. In other words, the perfect petri dish
for some of the most fierce and fiercely independent musicians
in America. And it's a good thing that they're there
to keep an eye on the upper crust, to call
bullshit when they see it, to sing it in a

(04:23):
song that lasts longer than a term, because even if
it takes the rest of us a while to catch on,
sooner or later, we are all singing the same tune.
You are listening to Sound of Our Town, a podcast
about the music that shaped the city you are touching

(04:44):
down in. It is also about being present to hear
and experience its best music happening right now in what
sounds and places have shaped the city's culture. It is
about the abiding ritual of getting together in a room
to listen, and why that matters. This is the anti
content podcast because it is encouraging you to ignore all
the other content and get out there and participate in

(05:06):
the sounds being created around you. In this season two
of Sound of Our Town, I'll introduce you to the
real places that sonic stories echoing in a particular city,
so that your travel and your life is enriched with music.
I am your host, Will Daily. I am an independent
DIY songwriter and touring artist. I've been doing this a
while and frankly, this show is a reminder to myself
how important live music is to our existence. The business

(05:29):
of it kicks you around, but the crowd never lets
you down when you come with the truth. And in
this episode, we are sprinkling some truth on Washington, DC,
walking in the margins. That's how DC's musicians have operated
for decades, whether it was in the smoky after hours

(05:50):
jazz clubs like the Crystal Caverns, where DC's own Duke
Ellington used to hang out after concerts, or basement level
listening rooms like the Cellar Door, a day one hundred
and thirty person basement club that hosted iconic solo performances
from Neil Young and served as the meeting place for
legendary Harmonizers, Emmy Lou Harris and Graham Parsons. So who

(06:11):
are some of the other musicians and artists who have
operated in the margins of our nation's capital. Duke Ellington,
Bartie Strain, Bad Band, Minor Threat, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Brown
and the Souls, Danny Gat Dave Grohl, Fever Corporate, who
got Walter Martin, John Fagan as Trouble Fund, Genuine Rights
of Spring, ted Leo and the Farmers, I'm Married, The

(06:32):
dismemberment job on Pussy Galore, Girls against Boys, Harris and
the O g hit Maker John Philip Sousa. Being on
the outside looking in is tough, but sometimes it can
make you resilient. Despite the brutality of Washington, DC's slave trade,

(06:52):
there was a strong free black community even before the
Civil War, and in eighteen sixty seven Howard University was
found and became a beacon for a thriving African American
business class. The federal government, which had spent the last
century denying their rights, was suddenly thanks to federal pay
requirements and attractive employer. U Street was nicknamed Black Broadway

(07:13):
for its number of black owned theaters and music clubs.
The City became a hotbed for R and B and
soul in the nineteen sixties, nurturing homegrown talents like Marvin
Gay and by nineteen seventy five, the authority of George
Clinton dubb DC Chocolate City in Parliament's album length tribute
to the Nation's Capitol. It was around this time that
local artists like Chuck Brown and the Soul Searcher's Trouble

(07:35):
Funk and Rare Essence began developing a new style, one
that would keep the dancers going and going on the
dance floor, so they called it Go Go Music. In
addition to drum kit, Go Go features congress and hand percussion,
all working together to create a deep, deep pocket. Over
the top of all this, singer's fire up the crowds
with call and response chants lifted straight from the gospel tradition.

(07:58):
The sound was so frenetic, fierce and funky that had
quickly captured the year of the city's white and black
residents alike, and Go Go began to reach beyond the
River and Phillip venues like the fame nine thirty Club.
The crowds, the energy and the noise of the intense
rhythms were too much for the upper crust. Go go
became a scapegoat for the street violence and drugs that
were prevalent in the district in the nineteen eighties, and

(08:21):
within a decade, nearly every go go venue and event
were pushed out of the city. At nearly the same time,
hardcore's music, slam dancing, mosh pit culture was starting to
provoke a similar, although less intense response. House shows and
underground venues were shut down. It is sadly a fitting
symbol that two of Washington, DC's most celebrated homegrown music

(08:43):
cultures were largely pushed to the side by the turn
of the century. Of course, musicians, as always, have found
ways to carry on in the margins. So let's explore
some of the spots fighting to keep Washington, DC's music
culture alive and hold truth to power. Our first stop

(09:06):
in DC may surprise you. It's not a grand historic
building like the Howard Theater. It's not a rock club
like Borough Street Warehouse. At first glance, the corner of
Seventh Street Northwest and Florida Avenue is nothing special, But
the seeker of good music knows better. Underneath the street
sign for Seventh Street is another sign marking the block

(09:27):
as Chuck Brown Way, named in honor of the originator
of Go Go music in DC. Your basic strip mall
style cell phone store called Central Communications sits at the corner,
surrounded by high rise buildings and other gleaming signifiers of gentrification. Inside.
In addition to cell phones, the owner, Donald Campbell, sells

(09:51):
Go Go tapes and CDs. Outside allows speaker Pump's Go
Go music all day, in and out. Nineteen the music
was almost halted when nearby residents complained about the volume,
and T Mobile representatives asked Donald to turn off the music.
Longtime residents revolted and began a protest campaign called Don't

(10:15):
Mute DC. For days, they gathered out front of the
store to blast Go Go music, dance, and voiced their
frustrations at once again DC's homegrown culture being pushed aside
in favor of the interests of the wealthy. The movement
gained national intention, and eventually the CEO of T Mobile
had to intercede to say Central Communications could continue to

(10:38):
play Go Go music. A nearby luxury apartment building, the Shea,
has an eighty foot mural featuring images of Chuck Brown
and the Soul Searchers and the Junkyard Band, another early
Go Go group featuring kids from the nearby Barry Farm Projects,
all them in the mural, playing homemade instruments and a
joyous tribute to Go Go City. Meanwhile, over the past

(11:00):
four years, Don't Mute d C movement keeps going strong
to sport local arts, music, and community in the district.
Do not silence the people, and don't silence your own
city's art. You will miss out on your own legacy.
To stand at the spot of the mural is to
bear witness to a time when locals stood their ground
and refused to be drowned out. It will set the

(11:22):
tone for everything we're going to visit. So buy a
Go Go tape and bring some of that same Don't
Mute DC energy to your local arts community. And if
all this music talk has got you jonesing for a show,
right around the corner is DC nine, an excellent independent
music club where you can see rising local and touring
acts almost any night of the week. The Kennedy Center.

(11:48):
It opened in nineteen seventy one. It's the national cultural
center of the United States. In a very real way,
it belongs to you to me to all of us.
If the US Capitol Building is the people's house, then
let's call the Kennedy Center our living room, and Wednesday
through Sunday we are all invited to hang out in
the living room free of charge. The Millennium Stage, a

(12:11):
two hundred and thirty five person performance space in the
Kennedy Center's ornate Grand Foyer, launched in nineteen ninety seven,
is part of a performing Arts for Everyone campaign, and
to this day it holds free concerts at six pm
every Wednesday through Saturday. You can catch everything from soul
singers and country crooners to symphonies and hip hop mcs,

(12:32):
and you can see them just steps from where Beyonce
paid tribute to Tina Turner and Heart made Robert Plant
Cry with a stirring rendition of staoid A Heaven Back
by gospel choir and string orchestra. The only catch the
performances may be free, but they can fill up fast.
You have to register in advance at the Kennedycenter dot
org to ensure yourself a seat, otherwise it'll be stuck

(12:56):
like the rest of us, streaming the performance from the
Kennedy Center website. Going back to the nineteen sixties folk
music boom. There have always been a handful of historic
listening rooms in the DC area, like the iconic Cellar Door,
which hosted pivotal solo concerts by Neil Young, as well

(13:19):
as Emmy Lou Harris, whose partnership with Graham Parsons began
with an impromptu duet at the club for a rumored
audience of six people. We've all been there. I don't
mean at that club with Graham Parsons and Emil Harris.
I mean performing in front of six people and it
being legendary or legendary feeling. Today, the Birchmere in nearby Alexandria,

(13:41):
Virginia carries on this listening room legacy with old school
charm to spare. The rules are simple in this table
service music hall. No standing, no smoking, no recording, no talking.
It's been that way since nineteen sixty six. Because they
put the music first. Musicians keep returning here long after
they would have moved on to a bigger club, except
Ray Charles, who played his final concert here on July twentieth,

(14:03):
two thousand and three, before heading off to that great
gig in the sky. You can feel the venue's history
as soon as you walk in the doors, as hundreds
of frame concert posters and artist photos cover every square
inch of wall in the long, low slung entryway. And
with more than fifty years in the business, it's the
little things that continue to make the Birchmere great, from

(14:25):
the hand painted backdrop behind the stage the hand drawn
portress that decorate the monthly concert calendars. The human touch
is infused with everything. Maybe that's why it draws DC
elites looking for authentic connection, including Bill Clinton, who slipped
out of the Oval Office more than once to see
artists like Jerry Jeff Walker at the Birchmure. Inside you'll
have an old school music supper club with modern day

(14:47):
sound and lighting. Seats at the venue are first come,
first serves, a plan accordingly, and if the show is full,
be aware you may find yourself sharing a table and
quite possibly meeting your new concert buddy. There is no

(15:08):
current music club in Washington, d C. More steeped in
history than the Nine to Thirty Club, originally opened in
nineteen eighty by Doti DeSanto and John Bowers as a
tiny two hundred person club at the now legendary address
of nine to thirty f Street more than that in
a minute. The club set up shop in nineteen ninety

(15:29):
six at its current location eight hundred and fifteen v
Street Northwest, in a larger twelve hundred person space. The
venue has hosted countless legendary artists from Patty Smith, the
George Clinton to Bob Dylan over the years, but they've
continued to provide an important outlet for local artists. As
a critical venue for DC's hardcore and go go bands

(15:50):
from the iconic nine thirty Club, Cupcakes serve backstage to
the wheeled stage that can be moved forward and backwards
to create the perfect room for any audience size. It's
a venue where music and musicians are revered. My first
show there was opening for the hippie regalness of Queen
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. You know, going in that
nine point thirty was the ideal room for a special show.

(16:13):
The people expect the best on that stage. It means
something to be on that stage, and somewhere in that
chemistry you find your best self standing up there. In
May of twenty twenty three, IMP, the promoters behind the
nine thirty Club, the Anthem and Moore, announced a new
performance space next door to the nine thirty Club. Four
hundred and fifty person space called the Atlantis, is meant

(16:35):
to evoke the vibe of the club's original location. It
opened forty four years after the original with an audacious
run of forty four concerts from artists like Jeff Tweety
Foo fighters in DC's Go Go Pioneer's Trouble Funk. Much
like the larger nine to thirty Club, it features a
wrap around balcony above its small dance floor, so although

(16:55):
it's tight, there are great site lines everywhere. Much like
the larger nine thirty Club. Black Cat is a long
running DC music club with a pedigree. It opened in
nineteen ninety three with an initial group of investors composed
of musicians like Virginia native Dave Grohl, who got to

(17:17):
start drumming in DC hardcore bands. Bands like Morphine, Rancid,
and Stereo Lab helped Chris in the new space, and
since then everyone from Beck to Jeff Buckley Do the
Roots have graced the stage. The eight hundred person independent
club revels in its old school rock and roll charm.
We're talking black and white checkered floors, coin operated pinball
a sound system that has no respect for your tonights.

(17:38):
If you don't like it tough. Sure, some might say
the black and white checkered floor is too dated, that
the music is too loud, the lighting is too dark.
But earlier this year, Black Cats celebrated thirty years in
business with a concert lineup featuring local grades like Pexx
and ted Leo and the Pharmacists. And when you've outlasted gentrification,
COVID closures, and Ticketmaster so far, at least for thirty years,

(18:02):
it's safe to say that you're doing something right. So
drink your tall Boy pop quarter in the pinball machine
and ignore the haters. When you're at the Black Cat,
You're here for one reason only, and that's to get
your face absolutely melted. When looking for a musical feast,

(18:24):
you might be surprised to find out that one of
DC's best hidden gems is also one of the city's
best places for pie. Pie Shop DC is a labor
of love for owner and pie maker Sandra Bissanti. She
and her husband Stephen McKeever, are opened in twenty ten
as a way to help pay the bills while playing
in local bands. The menu is divided between sweet and

(18:45):
savory pies with everything from sour cherry to Mochella, a
chicken pie whose name is a hat tip to the
DC Grassroots Go Go Music Festival. The real treat, however,
is upstairs on a tiny stage, the Mkiev, built by
hand in a room holding only about seventy listeners. Crowds
gather around whiskey barrows to hear up and coming bands

(19:05):
play one of the district's most intimate venues, a true
hidden jam. DC is home to a number of travel

(19:29):
worthy festivals, from the DC Jazz Festival to Indie rock
Favored All Things go at nearby Meriwether Post Pavilion. But
if you're looking for a chance to hear some echoes
of the past alongside glimpses of where the district's music
is going, mark these days on your calendar. If you
are itching to experience the down home comforts of the Birchmere,

(19:49):
be sure to check out the venue's annual tribute to
Hank Williams on December twenty ninth. You'll get to hear
some of the district's best folk and acoustic performers like
Jake Blount, Robin and Lussin Williams and many more pay
their respects to Hank nearly seventy years after he was
found dead in the backseat of a car just a
few hours south of Bristol, Virginia. For a taste of

(20:11):
DC's go go heritage, keep an eye out for the
surprisingly robust summer concert series at Martin Luther King Junior's
Memorial Library twenty twenty three. Concerts feature bills like Go
Go Pioneer's Troublefunk, teaming with up and coming hardcore bands,
and a nod to the intertwined history of go go
and hardcore. The library also houses a permanent Go Go

(20:31):
in DC Punk Archive on the fourth floor, where you
can check out old fanzines, tickets to pictures, recordings, and more.
And if you are looking for one of the biggest
go go gatherings in the country, then pencil in next
to August nineteenth, as DC pays tribute to the originator
of go go with the tenth annual Chuck Brown Day.

(20:52):
This free outdoor concert brings together d C go go
lovers for a full day of music from the genres, originators,
and innovators every year at Fort DuPont Park. That's a
pretty full calendar prepping for a trip to DC, whether

(21:17):
you've just booked tickets to see your favorite band at
the nine thirty Club, or you're looking for some counter
programming to a day full of historic sight seeing. To
learn more about DC's music culture, I recommend you check
out the documentary Salad Days, A Decade of Punk in Washington,
d C. Which you can find streaming, or the great
book by Natalie Hopkinson Go Go Live, The Musical Life

(21:38):
and Death of a Chocolate City. Of course, reading about
music is sort of like dancing about politics, so direct
your ears to classic go go albums like Chubble Funk's
Drop the Bomb or Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers
Bust and Loose, both of which have been sampled by
dozens of hip hop hits over the years. For a
taste of DC's listening room legacy, be sure to put

(21:59):
on Neil Young's Live at the Cellar Door. It's an
incredible document of the legendary performer trying out new material
in a beloved listening room. And for hardcore, I could
go on for days about this band, but if you're
gonna start with one album, it should be for Gazzi's Repeater,
or for Gazi's end hits, or the Argument, or in

(22:21):
on the kill Taker or Red Medicine. But what am
I talking about? Just start with thirteen songs. Thirteen songs.
Look at that record when you start there, start at
the beginning. Ian Mackay and company going in an absolute
tear and a punk landmark that inspired hundreds of alternative
bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jem that would follow in

(22:42):
their wake. And those things should keep you going, get
you ready for your time in Washington, DC. So that

(23:03):
concert with Minor Threat and Trouble Funk at the Landsburg
Cultural Center, that was supposed to be the moment that
brought seen unity, that pulled together disaffected teens both black
and white, that would bring their movement to a whole
new level. Anticipation was high as Trouble Funk burned through
a set including their signature song Dropped the Bomb. It

(23:24):
had the room bouncing, energy was pulsing. Everything was coming
together now. In their day, Minor Threat got crowds fired
up by playing faster, louder, more aggressive, and just playing
better punk rock than just about anybody else on the
East Coast. They did it without drugs and alcohol. As
they famously expressed in the song straight Edge, and they

(23:46):
did it without major labels, instead releasing music on their
own label, Discord Records. But when Minor Threat took the
stage that day in nineteen eighty three and singer Ian
Mackay launched into the first song, fans could tell something
wasn't right. The rhythm was off, but Kai moved around
like he was in a trance. People in the crowd

(24:07):
began to jeer between songs. Suddenly, the night that was
supposed to propel DC's music to a new level was
stop dead in its tracks, and Minor Threat would never
perform again. In the following years, police cracked down on
go go shows and punk rock house concerts, scapegoating them

(24:29):
for an uptick and violent crime. But it often feels
like you just can't have people uniting too much, especially
if two types of voices from seemingly alternate universes start
to find harmony. The music was pushed out of the
city or even further into the underground, and an opportunity
had been missed, or at least that's what it seemed like.

(24:54):
Funny thing, even as DC was doing its best to
push out the artists for calling bullshit on the rich
and powerful. The rest of us were just beginning to
listen the emotional style of Rights of Spring, which became
a guiding light for EMO. And then there's Fugazi, the
band Mackay formed after his disastrous Last Minor Threat concert,

(25:15):
and he brought in Rights of Spring lead singer Guy Pachito.
The band was a huge influence on many, including a
young Kirk Covain. Pearl Jams. Eddy Vedder described seeing them
as life changing, and through Discord Records, Fugazi sold millions,
turned down huge offers from major labels, and created a
fine wine music catalog built on sonic exploration via punk

(25:39):
from the heart while speaking truth to power. At very
nearly the same time, while DC's police departments cracked down
and gog had pushed the music almost entirely out of
the city, the sound was resonating with up and coming
hip hop beat makers looking for infectious energy and deep grooves.
Producer Pharrell, who grew up in nearby Virginia the Beach,

(26:00):
took his love of Go Go even further when he
used a sample from Chuck Brown's Bus and Loose as
the main backbone for mega hit HoTT in Here by Nelly,
and over the last two decades, Go Go music has
started to belatedly get the recognition as a musical innovation
that it deserves, both locally and across the country, and

(26:20):
in twenty twenty, Mayor Bowser signed a bill into law
designating Go Go as the official music of Washington, d C.
In the end, it's truth and great art that tells
the story of being here. Those are the factors that
always remain. The American legacy of music is steeped in it.

(26:43):
It just may be our greatest export. And one more thing.
I was in Kansas City. It was the day after
a show, and I was wandering around, and it often happens,
I gravitated towards the lower independent record store and I
was immediately taken in by a wall of T shirts

(27:04):
as my eyes caught a black one on the bottom
shelf with a simple statement on the front, Fugazi is
my Beatles. It struck me right in the heart. There
is a part of my development where Fugazi was the
mind expander. I was present for the release of their
mighty career wrap up albums and hits. In the argument,
so should I get this shirt? I don't really need

(27:25):
a new T shirt. I don't need to spend money
on the road. But I do love Fugazi in a
different way than I love the Beatles, and I love
this mighty bold T shirt statement with just the right
touch of cheeky. And then I imagined myself walking around
with this fighting words kind of statement on my chest,
and I just didn't think we needed another take, another

(27:46):
bold statement that really doesn't help anyone's situation in any way.
If I wore this shirt, weld, I then have to
make a series of tiktoks advocating for this position, you know,
and then say leave a comment below and let me
know what you think and other bullshit. Then all of
a sudden, on the Fugazi is my Beatles TikTok guy
with a hardcore following and so many people hating me
and loving me, and that becomes my life and I

(28:07):
don't really need that. I imagine myself walking down the
street getting dirty looks, engaging in debates that don't need
to happen. We have enough takes, enough unnecessary debates, And
speaking of Washington, DC, division is an economy that doesn't
need my participation. I love Fugazi I love the Beatles

(28:28):
and they didn't have my size. Well, thank you for
listening to our episode on Washington, d C. Sound of
Our Town Season two, Episode eight eight episodes. Already in
season two, full More left three cities in a special

(28:48):
bonus episode. What would really help us get those other
four done and get a third season would be if
you follow this wherever you get podcasts, and if you
take a second to write a review whoever that is.
That is actually how podcast babies are made for when
you're ready to tell the kids how they're created. Sound

(29:12):
of Our Town is a production of iHeartRadio and Double Elvis.
It's executively produced by Jake Brennan and Brady Sadler, Audio
engineering by Matt Bowden. It's produced, written, created, scored, and
spoken by me Will Day we met earlier. This episode's
head writer is Patrick Coleman. I did the music in
this episode, and if you want to hear more of

(29:33):
my stuff, we just got to find a place that
streams music. I heard. They're out there, and if you
spell my name correctly, Will and then spell daily D
A I L EUI, you'll be able to hear more
of that music. And I'm always out there playing somewhere,
and I hope it to make it to your city
so I can play there, so I can cover it

(29:54):
for an episode, and until then, thank you for your
ears as