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Maybe Free Cone Day new is better fare for our colleagues over at Young & Hungry, but, still.
Cooling Card: DCist contributor Brandon Gentry goes very, very long on Jawbox’s For Your Own Special Sweetheart (as part of the site’s occasionally occurring “Secret History” series, wherein the profiles of classic D.C. albums are aired). And very, very nice, too: “Far from a mainstream compromise, For Your Own Special Sweetheart is a step beyond in almost every way, upping the ante in terms of complexity, song craft and delivery. This is the LP that finds Robbins, Colletta, Barbot and Barocas gelling at every level, each player operating at the top of his and her game and pushing the others to greater heights. With Sweetheart, Jawbox recorded more than a great album, they created a milestone, a standard by which other D.C. bands would be measured.”
French Film Blurred: We Love D.C. reviews Wire at the Black Cat and decides that the band’s diverse sound throughout its 30-plus-year career doesn’t do it too many favors in a live setting: “Never satisfied being pigeonholed by the critics as ‘this type of band’ or ‘that type of band,’ Wire shifted gears many times over the years. From punk to post-punk to pop to industrial and so on, Wire were and still are always in a state of flux. While this is the thing that makes Wire such a satisfying and exciting band to listen to at home, I’m afraid it held their live show back a little bit on Thursday.”
Not Chris Rock: TBD reports that Raheem DeVaughn predicts that robots will replace boyfriends in the future with the release of “his eleventh mixtape project, Heemy Taught Me. The first single is ‘B.O.B,’ which is not a reference to the Atlanta rapper behind the hit song ‘Nothin’ On You,’ but an acronym for ‘Battery-Operated Boyfriend.’ In the song, and the accompanying sci-fi, Tron-inspired video, DeVaughn imagines that, in the future, all human men have been banished from earth, and women are forced to couple up with robot stand-ins.” Arts Desk is greatly enjoying the Kanye rip-off, but if you aren’t, TBD also has some words on Synetic’s production of King Lear.
Yesterday on Arts Desk: Hollywood decamps to Hollywood for ugly people, Rob Kapilow‘s direction of the Choral Arts Society, and the grand return of HR-57.