Welcome to another delightful byte section brought to you by Impose. Embryonic Capitol will be covering the burgeoning and resilient D.C. music scene (as we try to prove the 1980's/straight-edge wasn't our peak). First on the agenda: The recent Uncle Woody Sullender and Seamus Cater show at one of D.C.'s best kept secrets, the Cherch.
House shows are a revered tradition not because they give you the opportunity to see some amazingly underrated musican/band that wouldn't get a chance to play anywhere else cause they are simply 100 times ahead of the current trend. No, it's because it gives you the feeling of being 1,000 times ahead of everyone else. “Oh, Tennis? I saw them at a house show way back in June”. Face it, house shows are the equivalent of a speakeasy. You need some sort of connection to even know where the damn thing is located. Having been to some past intimidating house shows (where I once smoked an entire pack of parliament lights (I know, right?) just to have something to do) it was a relief to enter the welcoming and chilled out space of the Cherch.
The Cherch is the creation/home of Cole Goins, a man with a penchant/gift for finding some of the most innovative/upcoming bands not only on the D.C. circuit, but the national one as well. Some notable past shows include Baltimore's upbeat, dance heavy Future Islands and local Minus-the-Bear-esque tour de force HUME. I finally got a chance to check out the space at the December 9 show of experimental folk duo Uncle Woody Sullender and Seamus Cater. The intimate setting of the Cherch (a.k.a. Goins' living room with luminosity provided by a string of colored xmas lights, comfortable couches, and a dude eating Pad Thai) proved an excellent setting for the eerily ambient music Sullender and Cater emanate from a minimalist set up of banjo, laptop, and harmonica. (As the girl next to me pointed out, the banjo can be quite the sinister instrument).
Chatting with Cater before their set gave me the chance to learn about the transcontinental formation of the twosome. Cater hails from Amsterdam, while Sullender calls Brooklyn home. Both have been creating avant-garde folk on their own for sometime and were eventually brought together by a mutual love for creating haunting tunes. February saw the release of their debut EP When We Go To The Meeting, which they are currently finishing up a tour of (dates below). Their creative manipulation of ancestral instruments produce songs that resonate deeply with the listener and prompted me to award them the arcane title “the Cormac McCarthy of the experimental folk world.” The distance of their homes doesn't allow for many live shows, but that might change as Carter hinted about a move to the US. Even though the two haven't toured much together, you wouldn't guess it from how comfortably they played off one another and the spell placed over the audience.
Their set was fairly short, but it served as an on-point introduction to their sound. A sound that gives the music of the Appalachia/Smokey Mountains a dark twist via the electric twang of Sullender's banjo and Cater's harmonica's deep vibrations. It's defiantly the type of music you put on in for the upcoming winter months as you sit in your unheated living room. It's a real relief knowing that the Cherch is around to provide a safe haven for the D.C. to experience such inventive acts as Sullender and Cater (and provide me the chance to text my friends about the recent house show I was at).
