Feature: When THE VILLAGERS Come to Town

Igor caught up with Villagers front man Conor O'brien before his solo set at DC9 to talk about being on tour and how he feels about the album Becoming a Jackal now that its getting a good deal of attention. Listen to the feature below!

Villagers Feature by igorgerman



And a video after the jump

Concert Pick of the Week: The Nine Series

DC9 Presents: The Nine Series
Nine Singing-Songwriting Ladies from DC

Tiffany Thompson
Steph Modder
Joanne Kim
Amanda Lee
Molly Hagen
Margaux LeSourd
Maureen Andary
Olivia Mancini
Jessica Louise

Sunday, May 2nd, 7:30
$9




Look, I'm just sayin. Maybe you're lonely. Maybe you want to mingle a little bit. Maybe you want to fall in love with nine girls playing the guitar. Maybe you want to chat with the hordes of similarly young and emotionally fertile friends the artists are sure to bring with them. Maybe you want to casually drop that you yourself are an aspiring singer songwriter. Leonard Cohen totally is perceived falsely. You're so right. I like your songs. What are you doing after this? Lets get married. I'm just sayin.

*On a not 'singles in the city' note, there are some seriously gifted musicians playing Sunday night. Keep an keen eye out for Maureen Andary and Jessica Louise.

Concert Pick of the Week: Aloha

Aloha w/ The Pomegranets and Carol Bui

Wednesday, April 18th, 8:30

DC9, $10

This picture pretty accurately describes the type of experience you would have this Wednesday at DC9 if you went to see Aloha, a band staking roots in Ohio, Brooklyn, Boston, and DC. The sound is edgy and gutteral, and DC9 is a great place to see a loud band in an intimate setting. Though they may be somewhat experimental, expect a tight show as two of the band members have been playing together for over ten years. Take the G2 from the front gates down to 14th and V and walk the five blocks. It's like 2/3 the price of Third Eye Blind, and ∞/1 times better.

Interveniew! Behind the Scenes at DC9

In this new weekly series, DJ Emily Simpson takes us behind the scenes at major DC music venues and chats with the people who make the action happen. For her inaugural installment, Simpson headed to DC9 to meet with Bill Spieler.

Name: Bill Spieler

Age: 46

Sign: Pisces

Official Title: Managing Partner at DC9

Favorite album of 2010 (so far): Vampire Weekend’s Contra (“But I’m really looking forward to the new MGMT album, Congratulations.”)

Favorite DC bands: Exit Clov, Alex Gruenberg, Vita Ruins

Craziest thing to happen at DC9: “There was one night when I was over at The Red and The Black, and I got a call from one of my employees at DC9. They were shutting down the bar, it must have been 3:30-4:00 in the morning at that point, and apparently some guy in the diner next door had shot at something in the bathroom. Technically it wasn’t in this particular space, but still. I was just glad no one here was hurt. There used to always be these four teenaged kids smoking weed in front of that diner, too. You could smell it everywhere.”

Meaning behind the venue’s name: “Well it’s pretty straightforward. We’re in the District of Columbia, and this is 9^th Street.”

The first thing Bill Spieler does after shaking my hand is to offer me a beer, setting the stage for a comfortable and low-key interview. In that way he is very much like the bar and music venue he helps to manage. DC9, with its cozy bar area downstairs and intimate stage area upstairs, provides a down to earth atmosphere that can be quite elusive in a city as vibrant as Washington, D.C. Nowhere to be found is the pretension that frequently inhabits the indie music scene. Here again, Spieler and his venue are quite similar.

 “It’s more about what I don’t do,” he laughs in response to a question about his actual job description. As it turns out, that is only one thing: booking. Everything else seems to fall under his jurisdiction. He lists off several of the tasks he can remember doing recently, ranging from helping out in the kitchen to handling the paperwork to DJing every couple of weeks.