01/06/2008
Chadsey Collins runs it down re: DC go-go
I met Chadsey in a musical context with many LP's present, and the talk turned to DC go-go (think Trouble Funk, Chuck Brown, Kurtis Blow's "Party Time", The Junkyard Band's "Sardines", and EU's "Doin' Da Butt", as well as more modern Rare Essence and Northeast Groovers).
Turned out Chadsey grew up in DC, and he generously volunteered to send along some info about the contemporary scene.
Come in, Chadsey:
i just returned from an extended weekend down in DC. so with go-go fresh on the mind and with out further ado, here are some goodies:
this first clip is pretty typical of the dc style street drummers we were discussing - a much more syncopated sound than the hit 'em fast and hard, rat-tat-tat you might find in other cities. also of note, the "drum" set-up shown here is pretty much standard issue other than that this guy is using a plastic cart rather than the old fashioned metal carts which are often used as cymbals. i've always been partial to the metal carts and i'm well known for always asking them to "throw some more cart in it" before dropping a fivespot in the bucket. and don't forget to check out the tourist kid fresh out of band camp stepping up at the 2:46 mark.
speaking of tourists, sometime in mid-march when the buses start rolling in for the cherry blossom festival/ gov't class spring break field trips it's not uncommon to find a couple of guys taking it next level for the big bucks by setting up a cheap casio keyboard run through a cheaper portable guitar amp to add some simple one note bass lines/effect/etc. that cranks the whole thing up to "ain't THAT some shit". in a very good way.
another background note: DC is a relatively quiet city even at it's busiest so if there's a drummer out and you're within a couple block radius, you're gonna hear 'em. and then also, a lot of the older government buildings in DC have huge stone porticos and this is prime real estate as it provides a nice echo effect as well as broadcasts the sound a good 10 blocks or so. prime spots are the old post office pavilion, the south end of the dupont circle metro, over by the smithsonian and l'enfant plaza.
most will agree that three best congo players on the scene are smoke, wink-o and go-go mickey, but ranking depends on which crew you roll with. due to the nature of the scene most of the audio below lacks a bit in the stereophonic department but adds to the charm. nahwhumsayin. also, i've attached an mp3 of smoke going head to head against wink-o, [below at bottom] which is basically the go-go equivalent of the infamous rap battles between kool moe dee and busy b or percee p and lord finesse.
here's smoke in a clip from the northeast groovers reunion in '05.
go-go mickey with the backyard band.
wink-o with the junkyard band
worthwhile interview with whiteboy from rare essence on history of the group, music etc., taken from their online radio interview archives.
take me out to the go-go is the DC equivalent of "the source."
gogoradio.com plays plenty of good stuff on their stream.
whole mess o' links - bookmark alert.
post script stuff:
i don't know if this is a regional thing but when i was growing up there was a whole lot of table drumming going on. a bunch of guys in the cafeteria, on the bus etc., working it out with fists and fingers on just about any hard surface, sometimes solo, sometimes in groups, sometimes with rapping, most of the time not but always in that syncopated DC style. the closest (not very) approximation i could find was from saul williams' DC based film "slam"