Kind of Christine, Under the Earth
Two years ago, Christine Chung was playing open mics and ready for a change—so she made a minor alteration to her name. Performing as Kind of Christine gave her license to “dive into the parts of myself I don’t understand,” Chung says. The 35-year-old songwriter is out Dec. 9 with Under the Earth, her first EP, a five-song collection of what she labels “sad indie rock girl music.” But though there are certainly notes of melancholy among the tracks, the music is much more commanding than it is crestfallen. Chung teamed up with producers Donovan Duvall (“Clouds,” “Rain,” “Windows”) and Ivakota founder Ben Green (“System of Ocean” and “Under the Earth”) for the record and will play it live at Pie Shop on release day, joined by guitarist Sujay Utkarsh (Bye Forever), bassist Fred Nesfield, and drummer Alyx Guevara. Chung’s vocals are chameleonic on the recording, gently gracing the gossamer lullaby “Clouds” and sounding downright threatening on the righteous banger “System of Ocean” (try listening to this one at full volume and not getting goosebumps). The vocalist leans in to her lyrics a la Willow, Elizabeth Fraser, or Tori Amos, taking her time to explore each word till she’s found what she’s looking for. Her lyrics are those of someone who’s done taking other people’s shit: On “Windows,” she sings, “Call me, curse me, cancel me/ Yeah do whatever you want/ I’ll be choosing exactly what I want.” The music is proggy at times; on “Rain,” Chung takes us on a journey down passageways of varied sonic wallpaper (ethereal wave, neopsychedelic) until we wind up seemingly back where we started. Kind of Christine has vision, power, and builds a lush, layered world—a world you want to live in for a few hours, or at least the length of an EP. Comes out Dec. 9. linktr.ee/kindofchristine. Kind of Christine play their EP release party on Dec. 9 at Pie Shop. —Eliza Tebo
Black Fortune, Road to Osshland
On his latest EP, Road to Osshland, Black Fortune laments on how success changes the people around you, rapping, “They love when you’re broke but hate when you’re hot,” on his most recent single, “Hot.” Black Fortune would know. Building on his other releases—Osshyono (an EP released earlier this year), and albums including OSSHLORD, Osshrock, OSSHMOB, and Sorry 4 the OSSH (I’m really hoping the next release will be called OSSKosh B’gosh), the Landover rapper continues to expand his musical domain. On the opener, “Aye,” which sets the stage a la Ennio Morricone’s main title theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Fortune lyrically faces off with any number of haters, taunting them, “I dare you drop that weak-ass diss/ Go ahead get me in my element/ DMV hoods and news ain’ti / Post your shit/ You so irrelevant.” Borrowing the “Quarter brick, half a brick, whole brick, aye” hook from OJ da Juiceman’s 2009 song “Make tha Trap Say Aye,” Fortune takes on DJs who “don’t play his shit,” and women who interrupt his Call of Duty game. “Draggin” finds the rapper shouting out his hometown with “I’m a Landover soldier/ I been had love with the bees like I was a bumble.” The closer, “Fashion Demon,” is the standout song—where a strong groove, combined with insults from Fortune (including the stellar “I’m a designer fiend/ I don’t rock Balmain/ I’m baggin’ up creatine/ He thought it was cocaine”—makes for a hilariously priceless dance track. If fortune does indeed favor the bold, and the rapper continues on his trend of releasing potent material, Black Fortune should have no problems with his continued climb to the top. Released Oct. 17. blackfortune.lnk.to/roadtoosshland. —Christina Smart
Broke Royals, “Still” and “Campr”
Broke Royals have the kind of professionalism and pop sheen heard in acts like the Killers. The D.C. five-piece are a lot more subtle, but it would make a lot of sonic sense to play some later work from the Killers in a setlist before or after either of Broke Royals’ new singles. Both of these tunes are full of life—you feel like you’re about to take off and fly by the time the pre-chorus hits. The tracks capture a big, swing-for-the-fences sound that acts like U2 have perfected. But unlike the Killers and U2, Broke Royals don’t seem pompous or overly sincere. They possess a level of musicianship and studio know-how that’s just impressive. You ’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger and better clean-sounding couple of singles this year. Whether they’re doing the modern arena rock thing on “Still” or the shoegaze meets ’80s indie rock mid-tempo dirge on “Campr,” this is a band who’s hiding nothing in the production. They’re also taking full advantage of studio tricks, especially in the last minute of “Campr.” The two singles offer a preview into the band’s forthcoming album, Campr, which comes out on Feb. 6. “Still” was released on Oct. 8; “Campr” was released on Nov. 18. brokeroyals.bandcamp.com. Broke Royals play their album release party on Feb. 21 at Songbyrd. —Brandon Wetherbee
Phil Adé, Philip
Fifteen years ago, Maryland’s Phil Adé was at the vanguard of the DMV’s first big surge of commercial rap, alongside Walé, the Diamond District trio, Fat Trel, and others. Adé (aka Philip Adetumbi) was prolific and approachable as an MC, building a catalog that hopped styles and ultimately included two EPs for Epic Records in 2019 and 2020 before he left the label. On Philip, his first release since then, Adé sticks to what got him this far: R&B hooks, easygoing beats, and no-frills rhymes about staying centered amid tenuous romantic relationships and spikes in cash flow. “Me? I’m just keeping my main thing the main,” he says on “Jalen Hurts,” which uses the Philly quarterback as a metaphor for staying cool “when shit get out of pocket.” The midnight-deep bass and free-flowing verses of “M.I.A.” are the highlight, though, especially if you’re rooting for Adé to take some stylistic risks. (The haterade skit “I Don’t Like Nothin,” featuring friend DJ Money, is a keeper, too.) Elsewhere he leans on the pop instincts that originally separated him from the pack: “Beautiful Lie,” “Way Too Serious,” and “Over the Top” are prime examples of Phil the professional—he’s never been a superhero, a menace, or a maestro, but he always gets his point across. Released Oct. 1. 1philipade.lnk.to/philip. — Joe Warminsky
Glo-Worm, Glimmer
On Sept. 19, the Olympia, Washington, label K Records reissued, on full-length vinyl, Glimmer from D.C. twee-pop trio Glo-Worm. Originally released as a CD in 1996, Glimmer includes original songs and covers of the Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love,” Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea,” the Petula Clark hit “Downtown,” and fellow D.C. band Velocity Girl’s “ Crazy Town.” Formed in the summer of ’93, Glo-Worm guitarist Terry Banks (now in the D.C. band Dot Dash) met vocalist Pam Berry (a City Paper alum and co-founder of chickfactor magazine with City Paper copy editor Gail O’Hara) when she responded to his free City Paper classified ad looking to form a band. Soon after, the two were joined by drummer Dan Searing (another City Paper alum). Glo-Worm existed for a little over two years, played approximately 15 gigs, and left us with these recordings. On originals and covers alike, Berry’s high-pitched voice sweetly but not treacly conveys the melodies with Banks’ understated strumming and Searing’s brushes on his snare drum filling out the music in a minimal yet warm manner. Berry’s blissfully sung tales of love and loss seem straightforward, but in songs like “Travelogue” and “Change of Heart,” the closing couplets add a bit of mystery and change. “Tilt-a-Whirl,” which appears in both a studio and a WHFS Sessions version, is lush, wistful and memorable despite its less than two minutes song length. While Glimmer is certainly reflective of the then-20-something musicians’ lives from that time period over two decades ago, the craft involved with creating most of this has not dated and largely holds up. Released Sept. 19. glowormk.bandcamp.com. —Steve Kiviat
The Crystal Casino Band, More Cardboard
If you’re not nodding your head within the first 10 seconds of “Show and Tell,” the opening track on the Crystal Casino Band’s new EP, do you even have a working neck? It’s an instant banger, a song with a few earworms a la Modest Mouse with some timely lyrics you might not catch the first time around. “Jackson Pollock” might interest fans of Matthew Sweet and Superchunk, it’s a solid 3-minute, 17-second pop rock song that does in fact name-check the famous artist. “Circle K” puts the listener in the Circle K. If you’re a fan of Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle’s storytelling signatures, here you go. The outlier on the four-song collection is the final track, “Backstage Tattoo.” It’s a bit more straightforward, a solid track on a very solid record. This collection is perfectly sequenced, something that deserves recognition in an era of streaming and algorithms. The band’s bio says they “marry the early 2010s Tumblr-era aesthetic with introspective and socially-conscious lyrics.” I gotta disagree. They’re selling themselves short. This is in the same pop rock canon of the aforementioned acts. Their longevity—they’ve been releasing good stuff since 2017—is on pace to outlast Tumblr. Released Sept. 18. crystalcasinoband.bandcamp.com. —Brandon Wetherbee
Truth or Dare, A Slogan You Can Get Behind
If you like your punk with a heaping dose of melodic pop, then Truth or Dare’s debut EP, A Slogan You Can Get Behind, is for you. Released 13 months after the pop-punk act dropped their first single, “H.S.B.F.,” the four-track EP sounds like fun. Literally. It could soundtrack a summer night of 20-something debauchery or a zany montage scene in a teen movie. The riffs are catchy, the guitars are fast (Sam Lumpkin and Matt Connolly), the drum beats are crisp (Allison Aguilar), and the bass steady with well-timed moments of heavy sludge (J Johnson). All that blended with the unique whine in Tori Kerr’s vocals give the fivesome a distinct sound in a genre that can get repetitive. Truth or Dare are not reinventing pop-punk, but with A Slogan You Can Get Behind they prove that D.C. music doesn’t have to take itself too seriously. Featuring three new songs and the single that first hooked me on the band and spanning a speedy, very danceable 13 minutes, the EP’s standout track is the propulsive “The Place Where All This Started” (which also gives the EP its title). Its chorus—“A stone in one hand/ And a stick in the other/ You’d be anyone you want/ And you’d still be your mother”—is indeed one you’ll shout along to, but it’s given an added layer of depth with its intertwining vocals (and occasional screams) from Connolly that you can also get lost in. A Slogan You Can Get Behind smartly concludes with “H.S.B.F.,” a distinctly DMV song that hasn’t lost its witty, fuck-you anthemness in the year since its release. Now that Truth or Dare have an EP under their belt, I can’t wait to see where they go from here. Released Sept. 12. truthordare.bandcamp.com. —Sarah Marloff
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