By Charlie Maybee
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For all the DMV beatmakers out there, you should be aware that there is a new chapter of the beatmaking event series Loop Sessions (Montreal-based) here in the DMV. The chapter celebrated its first anniversary on February 4. If you’re unfamiliar with LPDMV and what they do, the chapter founder, Magassy “Mags” M’bow, explains, “The concept is simple: beatmakers are given one record to sample in a beat within a matter of hours, and the night concludes in a showcase of the beats.”
It’s an interactive open mic format taken to the next the next level; a monthly showcase that gives musicians the opportunity to have lightning creative sessions. Before the pandemic, these events took place in a venue for 5 hours, where artists only had 5 minutes each to skim and record samples off the chosen vinyl, then return to their respective stations and work with the hardware and software of their choice.
Now online, these artists have 24 hours to produce a beat, and have access to the entire record. Artists then convene on a livestream to have their beats played and interact with each other. As the 18th and latest chapter to be founded (the 2nd in the US), LPDMV just concluded their 12th monthly edition with musicians from D.C. and other cities around the world.
To close out their inaugural year, LPDMV launched their first song remix contest using the Virginia-based artist Spartan Jet-Plex’s song “My Way,” which was originally a finished submission of the group’s 8th edition of the event.
While the deadline for submissions has passed (January 31), this is an exciting expansion on the original format that will hopefully spawn future opportunities for local artists to showcase their work. Tracks of selected winners for this round release today on Grimalkin Record’s BandCamp.
Check out the newly announced winning remixes below. For updates on Loop Sessions DMV’s upcoming events, playlists, and official releases, be sure to check out their Official Linktree.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
Recent Articles March 21st. A day that I will always think of amazing album releases. DC-based musician, producer, and singer-songwriter, Rachel Levitin, released Witty Banter
By this point in his life, Foghat founding drummer Roger Earl has visited quite a few doctors. But what may be surprising is that the percussionist, 77, is quick to point out that many of the medical professionals who have worked on him also enjoy rocking out.
“Nearly all the doctors and surgeons I know, they all play something: trumpet, sax, violin, guitar,” Earl said recently. “There’s not too many drummers that are surgeons, there’s probably a good reason for that!”
Earl half-jokingly invites his surgeon-rockers to join him and the other members of Foghat onstage at the Fillmore in Silver Spring March 9, where they will be headlining the Rock and Roll for Children Foundation benefit for the Children’s Inn at NIH. Earl, the only original member of Foghat still in the band, will be banging the skins behind guitarist Bryan Bassett and other members Scott Holt and Rodney O’Quinn. “Slow Ride,” the band’s 1975 megahit, is all but assured to be on the setlist, along with tunes from Foghat’s most recent record, “Sonic Mojo.”
When D.C. venues were ready to reopen after COVID-19, indie pop duo GLOSSER was ready to perform. The two, Riley Fanning and Corbin Sheehan, formed the band pre-COVID out of a shared aesthetic vision and passion for music storytelling.
Their first album *DOWNER* was released in January 2023, however they have decided to release a deluxe version exactly one year later containing four new tracks – two remixes, a reimagined song, and a cover – that they are hoping will give it a second life and allow them to continue performing around the area.
The band explains that they have spent many shows opening for touring bands that traveled through D.C. “We made music and then venues started to open again,” Sheehan says. Rather than having the “typical grungy” D.C. band experience, they uniquely went straight to club shows.
Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
