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Lightfoot aka Jessica Dye is, like most artists, a very complex individual.  As you can tell by her music she is epically heartbroken, but don’t worry boys she claims she is taking “boyfriend applications” and is “infinitely single”.  Despite this heartache there is a positive overtone with her music.  She isn’t all sadness either, this is a chick who met me after her ballet class and then drank High Life and shots of Jameson with me.  So… here is what I could piece together based on notes from our hour or so long conversation:
Newdust: So tell me about Lightfoot? Â How did it get started? Â What does it mean?
Lightfoot: Well it all started with a break up and cancelled engagement that ended up with me living in my car in Clarendon.  Not only was it a breakup but I had to split up my band and business as well.  Lightfoot is basically where my old life meets my new life.  It is also feeds into this idea of faded glory.  Ya know, the old south that was once great in Virginia is no longer.  The state is dominated by the Northern VA suburbs.  The sentiment is definitely appealing to me.
ND: Wow… ok. Â You have a beautiful voice, how did you get your start as a musician?
LF: High school band where I played Tenor Sax.  I have been singing for about 10 years but my old band I had with my ex Vox Pop, was basically like “band school”.  I learned how to harmonize, write music, record music, and market my music.
ND: You don’t have whole lot of music out there yet. Â Tell me about “Sea of Love” and “Will Uncoil When”.
LF: (She takes a long sigh)  First of all “Sea of Love” is a cover.  (Your interviewer did not know this but her version is somewhere between Cat Power’s and Robert Plant’s) “Will Uncoil When”  is based on what you see on Martin guitar string envelopes and it says “will uncoil when opened…”  I thought that would be a clever idea for a song about breaking up.  There is more to it… ha ha.  But that is all I will give you for now.  (Her demo being released at this Friday’s show is titled Letters from Martin.)
ND: Well that is fair enough… lets get away from the heartache for a minute. Â So… how does it feel to be on Hipster Wife Hunting?
LF: Ha ha… oh yeah.  Well, I think I used to be an ugly duckling so its great that I am on this site as some sort of babe.  Plus I thought some of the comments on there were pretty funny.  Maybe I’ll find my future hipster husband…  Though I don’t need to date any (more) guys that have their own Wikipedia page.  I also am not a real hipster… (Your interviewer would like to clarify that Jessica is in fact an actual hipster because she talked about her Holga camera and her “Fixie” on more then one occasion.)
ND: So this might be a complicated question… but since you are a singer songwriter you don’t really fit into a scene that exists in DIY as I know it, but with that being said DC doesn’t have really any DIY scene at all. Â What do you think about DC’s music scene and how you fit into it?
LF: The scene is not really my concern. Â I really care about DC and my theory is that “the tide lifts all ships”. Â Yes, I am actively trying to have more house shows through my venue/home Paper Sun. Â I also am involved in other projects fashion etc. through my site Hella Tuff. Â I love this city and specifically Columbia Heights and I think with some work we can have a very thriving community here.
ND: Give me one DC band and one non-DC band our readers have to check out.
LF: I can’t give you just one DC band… U.S. Royalty they are totally radio ready, Matt Hemerlein full disclosure I sing with him sometimes, and Typefighter.  Non-DC band… Reuben’s Accomplice from my original hometown of Phoenix.
ND: What can we look forward to from you in the next few months?
LF: Well I as you know, I am playing at the Rock and Roll Hotel at 8PM this Friday March 19th.  I will be selling my demo Letters from Martin.  There is a frightening permanence to putting music on tape so I am nervous about recording.  I am talking to a few labels now and hope to have an EP out relatively soon, so stay tuned.
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Keep your eye on Lightfoot. Â I am sure we will hear more from her soon. Â Enjoy!
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Song: Will Uncoil When
Album: Letters from Martin (Demo)
I got a chance to see Freelance Whales last night at Mango’s Cafe in Houston, TX. These guys are fantastic live! If you’re gonna be in Austin this week for SXSW, I highly recommend you check ‘em out. Weathervanes is Freelance Whales’ latest effort, a love story between a little boy and a ghost who lives in his attic. It’s set to release April 13th, but can be pre-ordered on their site. Check out the footage below from last night at Mango’s; this is “Generator ^ 1st Floor.”:
I also had a little Q & A with drummer Jacob about the band, the album, and a ukelin:
Newdust: How did you guys all meet and when did you start playing together?
Jacob: Aside from Doris, who’s originally from Queens, we all had moved out to New York a year or two prior to pursue music. We had various projects posted online, and we were all scouring the web for music projects to work on. Judah had some great demos mocked up and he actively responded to the different things we were doing at the time. The formation went through some brief and semi-frequent lineup changes early on, but eventually came together fully as a quintet around November of 2008, and we played our first show a couple of months later, in January of 2009.
ND: I’ve seen several clips on youtube of the band performing out on the streets or in subways….Who’s idea was it to play street shows? With your tour in the works and your growing popularity, are you going to continue to play street shows?
J: We decided to play street shows – and will hopefully continue to play them when we can (we’ll be going out today for the first time since November) – because of the opportunity to meet new people and bring strangers to shows. We had gotten to a point where relying on our friends to come to shows every other weekend seemed unfair, so we used street performing as a sort of jumping-off point to play to crowds of people who had never heard us. The first time we did it, we noticed a handful of people from the street had come to the show a couple of hours later. So we’d play at least one street show before every “proper” show, and it grew from there.
ND: I read on your pr’s website that over the last couple years you guys have been collecting instruments. What’s the coolest instrument you’ve come across?
J: Judah just got a Chinese zither, and is in the process of putting it together. It’s an instrument I’ve always been fascinated with, so I’m really looking forward to getting that thing into the fold. Kevin is also working on restringing his ukelin – a sort of hybridized ukulele and violin – in the hopes that we can bring it out on the road and start writing with it.
ND: Weathervanes tells a ghost story. Tell me a little more about the story & how it came about.
J: The story is based on some dream logging that Judah did for a class in college. He filled up many-a-notebook and eventually noticed patterns forming in his dreams, which he pieced together into the thematic elements on Weathervanes. Without giving too much away, the story is about the relationship between the narrator – a young boy – and the ghost – a young girl – that haunts his childhood home. It’s about how she wants to be seen now that she’s gone, and how the boy can learn to be a ghost when his time comes.
ND: What’s next for Freelance Whales? is there a new album in the works?
J: There’s no new album, per se, but there are lots of ideas and song bits floating around. On our next tour we’re going to make a concerted effort to write together lots more, in the hopes that we can start to develop and play these new songs at shows. Many of our favorite bands are into road-testing material, and I think it’s an essential skill to have.
Well, there you have it! Look out for Weathervanes April 13th on Frenchkiss/Mom & Pop Records. I’ll let Freelance Whales play us out with “Generator ^2nd Floor”:
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So heads up on this relatively new act from Washington D.C. Â This lovely lady goes by many names but currently is playing under the moniker Lightfoot. Â She is performing live at DC’s Rock n’ Roll Hotel this Friday at 8PM. Â Enjoy!
PS: Â Check back tomorrow for my interview with Jessica (Lightfoot). Â Hopefully I can get all the juicy details about her songs of heartbreak.
Elephant Parade has released “Grand Opening” as the first single off their second album Home, which surprisingly enough was recorded using nothing but a cheap computer microphone and freeware recording software. I’m impressed. And those of you attending SXSW this week, be sure and check them out at Stephen F’s bar on March 19th at midnight. From there they will launch the start of what they’re calling a “tiny bedroom music tour”, where they will be playing house shows across the states.
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I have my dad to thank for introducing me to Steely Dan when I was just a wee lad. They definitely need no introduction, but if you don’t know Steely I’d suggest listening to some of their older albums such as Can’t Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, or Pretzel Logic. Here are two of my favorites:
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This is quite a powerful song. Emiliana Torrini’s voice adds to the anger and emotion portrayed in the lyrics. The overall feeling is harsh and mystifying. My favorite part of the song is when she says “…yes this is a kiss that I swear will blow your mind,” it’s really disturbing. This track is one of many that I enjoy from Me and Armini. The album never gets old, and I find myself listening it to a lot.
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Artist:Emiliana Torrini Song: Gun.mp3 Album: Me and Armini
Girlfriends remind me of those dudes in high school who barely managed to get out of bed everyday but somehow… were able to successfully write and coherently play enough music to fill a set during that weekend’s keg party.  Their music embodies this Wavves-esque attitude of “I never want to grow up”.  (See the Wavves track “No Hope Kids”)  With a lo-fi style, monotone vocals, and songs that don’t get much longer then 2 1/2 minutes Girlfriends is a fun young band that has potential do much more.  Enjoy!
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We did a post on Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk back in October and since then they’ve been working on two upcoming full lengths titled Skeletor & Me and Know Yr Molars. They’ve also re-released their Puppycat EP as a 3″ CD, available on the CD-R only label Edition 59. Here’s the video by George Demoura for the instrumental “Fort Porkchop” off of Puppycat. Enjoy!
Man I am on a roll with Vimeo lately.  Enjoy this totally rad video from Yeasayer for their song “O.N.E.”.  Neon colors, lasers, coordinated dance moves… love it.
Great Vimeo find from The Faux Noise for the song “Save Me”.  The band hails from Sweden and has a shoegaze-pop sound that is great for those rainy days and/or break up mixtapes.  Also checkout their Soundcloud page for tons of free downloads and remixes.
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