By Keiana Smith-McDowell, Contributor, DC Music Live

Since 1998, Black Entertainment Television (BET) has worked effortlessly to inform and combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African-American Community. African-Americans only make up 13% of the population but, according to the CDC, they accounted for 44% of all new HIV infections among adults and adolescents in 2010. The partnership between BET and the Kaiser Family Foundation has lasted over a decade and birthed the Rap It Up campaign which includes, targeted public service announcements, documentaries, free information and resources and now a mixtape.

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Come check out alt-indie rockers, Heyrocco at the Black Cat this Wednesday, 5/15! Don’t have any money? That’s okay because we’re giving away two tickets to see them. Just be the first to answer in an e-mail, tweet, Facebook message, fax or handwritten letter (that probably will not be the fastest but if that’s your thing, go for it) the question below and they’re yours!

Name the rock star and part-owner of the Black Cat.

Even if you don’t win, head out to the Black Cat this Wednesday—doors open at 8 p.m.

You can check out Heyrocco here.

Black Cat: 1811 14th St. NW; http://www.blackcatdc.com

By Erin Coulehan, Contributor, D.C. Music Live

There are few things more passionate, dangerous or human than a person operating out of all-consuming love. The mind races in rhythm with the swelling heart as each thump, beat, and thought rushes towards the object of desire. Expectation whirls you round, while adrenaline and dopamine make for a biochemically induced sense of clarity. A dizzy dance of thoughts and actions lead to new territory – to discovery. A similar and equally powerful effect is produced when that love is lost, and transformed into the lingering whisper of a mourned memory. William Shakespeare delineates this process, beginning with the most sanguinary component: “Hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds, that is love.”

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By Erin Coulehan, Contributor, D.C. Music Live

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Music; Photo by Steve Gullick

Welcome to the long-awaited arrival of summer. The days become longer, making the nights more urgent as kids run around concerned only with fun, flesh and perhaps who they’ll be kissing that night. The accompanying rush requires one thing to make it that much better: really great music to serve as the soundtrack.

Enter: Foals, Surfer Blood and Blondfire who will play to a sold out crowd at 9:30 Club on May 5.

Foals, a five-piece from Oxford, have been making waves with the release of its third album Holy Fire. The album features a raw, fuller sound compared to the band’s previous work, and the band is enjoying playing to larger audiences.

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If you’ve ever spent a sleepless night wondering what Weezer, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan, GWAR, The Smashing Pumpkins and Courtney Love have in common, wonder no more. All of these bands and hundreds more have played D.C.’s 930 Club, one of the premier music venues in the country. In fact, this week, Rolling Stone rated it as, “The Best Big Room in America.” This is a huge achievement for them. See below for an excerpt from the RS article:

After opening in 1980 in an out-of-the-way part of town, the 9:30 became ground zero for D.C.’s Reagan-era hardcore scene – local teenager Dave Grohl saw hundreds of bands there. The club snagged every name in new wave, punk and alt-rock, including R.E.M., Nirvana and Green Day, before moving on to more mainstream stuff like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. Since moving to a larger location in 1996, playing the 1,200-capacity club has remained a rite of passage for indie acts on the rise…Read the whole article: here

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By Mike Shomaker, DC Music Live

What’s up everybody? Here’s a short and incomplete listing of upcoming shows in the area! Go check out live music.

By Rachael Bohlander, Contributor, DC Music Live

Wovenhand took the stage at DC9 on April 14.
Photo Courtesy of Rachael Bohlander, SunnyRyder Photography

Wovenhand and its front man and driving force, David Eugene Edwards, are legendary for powerful, and disturbing, live performances.  Edwards does not so much perform as deliver an apocalyptic tour de force.  A man possessed.

David Eugene Edwards and Wovenhand did not disappoint.

If the expectant, excited chatter around me was any indication, unlike most of the black-clad attendees last Sunday at DC9, I was one of only a few Wovenhand newbies.  I had never experienced Wovenhand live.  Wasn’t sure what to expect.

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By Rachael Bohlander, Contributor, DC Music Live

Vietnam will be at the Rock N Roll Hotel April 19.
Photo by David Black

Five years.

That’s how long it’s been since Michael Gerner, the force behind gritty, urban blues and rock band, Vietnam, disappeared out to the West Coast, taking the band with him.  And he’s been in a submarine.

Well, maybe not technically.  But it has been five years since Gerner embarked on his hiatus, and he and the band do refer to their live-in practice space as The Submarine.

So what , you ,might ask yourself, does an accomplished musician/vocalist/songwriter, who reached critical acclaim and success, do during for five years while disappeared?

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