Seems like everybody’s got a music blog nowadays. And just like food, everybody wants it local. So let’s explore the music blogs in the DMV area. We would obviously push you to fervently read our blog as many times as you can, over and over. A music blog by local artists, for local artists? Exactly what you needed. But when you’re done reading our ~150 posts, take a look at some of these other blogs in the area.
DC Music Download
The local Juggernaut. Alongside wonderful artist interviews and event reviews, and tremendous web design, DCMD offers an amazing array of artist resources that we’re sure local artists don’t take advantage of enough. Hint hint: This includes notices of upcoming festivals. DCMD accepts artist submissions via email and it’s a fairly simple process. They also put on contests from time to time and we won one! This one time, they shared / tweeted some of our posts on facebook and twitter. We were happy since they have a massive audience.
DC as fuck
Fuzzy Logic
Hipster as hell and featuring music (and some art) that’s worth more than a gander. Fuzzy Logic is a one woman show that interviews artists and informs everyone about the music-what-happenin’s goin’ on throughout DC. This blog is high quality and has a serious audience. We visit regularly since it’s got great music and it’s updated fairly often. She accepts music submissions via email. True story – we submitted a couple of times with no luck, possibly proving she has good taste?
The cool kid in class
Chunky Glasses
Chunky Glasses is a very good blog slash podcast. No way around it. They’re pretty heavy on the hipster spectrum, which is doing you a service. They have some of the best design, and they leverage that to cover DMV music and beyond. Don’t worry about the beyond part – you need what they got. Check out their interviews and musings about some of the best local artists.
How local? Even house shows
Dominion Collective
The Dominion Collective is a blog highlighting local culture and flavor, and a large part of that is highlighting DMV musicians. The site has a sleek feel that really showcases their content. Having featured us in a wonderful piece about busking around DC, we’re a “mite bit” partial when we recommend that you go visit their site right now. 😀 They do a good job interviewing local artists and make it all worthwhile.
Newest contender sporting the thickest beards
Capitol Sound
Although Capitol Sound is locally produced, it features music from everywhere in a heap of genres. They have great web design and don’t necessarily focus on the new – they’re just fine featuring a track that’s aged beautifully. A cool aspect of their blog is that they sometimes travel to other states to review festivals. Capitol Sound is run by about 5 people, mostly hailing from the DC area. Go focus focus your earballs on them for a while.
Stereotypically DC: Overachievers
This is Our Jam
This is Our Jam is a 3 woman show thanks to Krista, Kristen, and Stacey. Aside from featuring music (both local and beyond) they also include details about local concerts, sports, brunches, happy hours, and much more. They update the site often, and keep a clean site. We think they tend to feature pop, indie, rock, and folk type genres.
Updates twice before you can click refresh
WRGW District Radio
A number of GW students run this music blog and it has an internet radio station associated with it. The blog’s focus seems to be getting the noise out about local shows and they do interviews with artists every once and a while – and their concert reviews are impressive! They accept artist submissions via email.
The Hogwarts of the local scene
A Note Two Self
We’d say A Note Two Self is a blog that’s quite similar to our music blog. They’re a local band of the same name who also likes to write every once in a while. Although they might not be as prolific of writers as we are (which is prolly a good thing), they post shows and artist interviews. They were kind enough to feature us a while back, so make sure to return the favor and send them some web traffic. Much like the Lannisters, we pay our debts!
Feels like home
DCist
DCist is one of the best locations to go to for DC related news and their Arts & Entertainment section often has great stories. They’ll have reviews of concerts with very high quality pictures taken with nice SLRs. And you’re just one click away from great local news. Remember to sign up for their daily email blast featuring the best DC has to offer.
More than you bargained for
Showlist DC
We know this isn’t a normal blog, but Showlist DC is doing God’s work in terms of constantly updating their site. All a musician needs to do is send them a show and it’s added to their giant showlist that’s insanely up to date. We’d say it’s the go to spot for what music is going on around the DC metro area on any given evening.
The gift that keeps on giving
Hometown Sounds
More of a podcast than a blog per se, but Hometown Sounds is definitely one of the best known local DC podcasts. Featuring most genres, they play songs and then offer banter between the hosts about the track. They also feature local music news that is really useful to DMV musicians. They have a loooong memory of who played in what band and can often provide context among new bands forming from older artists. We listen to what they put out via Soundclound. They accept submissions, but we ain’t got anything accepted yet. Maybe next time!
Always has the backstory
The Circus Life
A project by local artist Justin Trawick and company, The Circus Life podcast typically interviews local DMV artists and other folks from the DMV with projects. The podcast is recorded in a professional studio where they ask guests to lay down live tracks for EACH PODCAST, which are then posted to YouTube. Great show notes are included with links back to the artist’s page. That’s a lot of work. All of this coupled with some great web design makes this one of the best places to get your DMV music fix.
Frequent, original, and high quality
Capital Bop
Here’s our first genre specific entry, where DC jazz blog Capital Bop fills some very big shoes with our fair city’s history of jazz. Their slick design tag-teamed with professional writing packs a serious one-two-punch. You’ll often see posts here about local jazz musicians, festivals and other concerts. Time to get familiar with the local Jazz venues folks.
It’s bebop, not Mmmmbop
DC Heavy Metal
When we found this blog, we were excited! The DC heavy metal / hardcore scene is a murdertrain that doesn’t sleep and we were excited to see someone like Metal Chris giving it its due. Chris seems to be a huge fan himself that showers other fans with how to best experience metal in the area. He’s got interviews, album reviews, news, and also covers events. He even dives deep into merchandise. This guy loves what he does, and if you’re a metalhead you’ll love it too.
Gives new meaning to Lincoln Park
Bandwidth.FM
Bandwidth.fm is a new-ish site from WAMU 88.5 FM that’s reviewing and publicizing DC area music. Bandwidth is run by WAMU 88.5, which is DC’s NPR station (thanks!). Their site is phenomenal and has a great use of color. Many local bands premiere their content on Bandwidth.fm, and historical pieces are often posted. They’re big on video. They actively want local artists to get in touch with them, so make sure you do so.
They have a pedigree
Glory in Sound
Glory in Sound is a local music blog focusing on supporting emerging artists in the DC area and beyond, featuring album reviews, interviews, video and single reviews as well as hosting shows and events to support the local music scene. They frequently interview often overlooked local acts and seem to really pay attention to the little, yet just as important, voices.
Focusing on the artist
Blisspop
Blisspop is written in DC, and features house, techno, and other electronic music from all over the world. They have a pretty big following that loves to read this blog’s featured music and artist interviews. Many of the blog’s contributors are musicians in their own right, and the Blisspop staff sometimes hosts events where their writers go and perform.
Like the beat, we can’t wait for their posts to drop
DC Rock Live
We were contacted after we posted this article by a few fans of this blog wanting to ensure that we include it. After some review, we can tell that David Hintz runs DC Rock Live with great care. There’s artist reviews and music recommendations here dating back to 2008. Also, this blog has a cool calendar feature that we like where they keep a list of recommended events for their readers. Help bring this blog into the spotlight!
They sweat the small stuff
In addition to music blogs, there’s a collection of DC facebook groups that can be wonderf’ly helpful to musicians and fans alike. Folks post shows, event reviews, instruments to sell, and provide general knowledge about playing music in the area. Rumors fly about what venue isn’t paying their musicians or how you can get a gig playing at your favorite venue. There are four main groups that we think folks should take a look at. Keep in mind that some of these are closed groups, so you may have to ask for attendance before they allow you entry.
| DC Musicians | Northern VA Music |
| DMV Musicians | DC DIY Shows |
There’s tons of variety out there in terms of DC blogs, and they each have different audiences, motivations, and goals. Some are a platform for promotion while others just wanna bring you great music. Still others seem to serve a smaller, more niche population, such as DC artists or a specific genre. If there’s one thing for certain, there’s definitely more content out there than you have time to consume. You are what you read – choose wisely.
Note: If you know of any blogs that we missed, add a comment below or shoot us an email to let us know!
