Wednesday at Takoma Station
Takoma Station, 6914 4th St NW, Washington, DC 20012


Smoke, Jacques, Doc, Mike, Jeff, and Donnell


Jeff, Donnell, BJ, Dwayne


Jacques, Mike, Doc, Donnell, Jeff, Donnie Ray, Godfather


Ebony, DP, Donnell
All pictures taken by and Copyright Jordan Rich

Wow, it was cold, walking from my car to Takoma Station. The Maryland-Duke game was on a little TV by the bar, I would occasionally turn around to look at it. This was my first time seeing Jacques perform with the band. When I saw Smoke, I asked him about Mambo Sauce, another GoGo band he is a part of that is apparently only a studio band presently. Given William "Malachai" Johns' (CEO of the label Red C Records, which has signed Mambo Sauce) statements about the plans on PA Palace, I wanted to ask Smoke about it.

Whassup Everybody,

My name is Malachai "Redds" Johns and I'm the founder of Red C Records. I want to thank everyone for their positive and even critical comments. It means something to us that you took the time to respond, even if you don't think the plan will work. I want to thank "Gee's" for his confidence in the project and we hope to make you all proud. We are not necessarily relying on this one song to be the ticket to national fame, it is just the beginning. We plan to follow the path that national artists take on their road to success as opposed to the strategies used by local go - go bands. This is not to knock go - go, because we wouldn't even be doing this if we didn't love it, but the reason go - go hasn't made it out of the area is because there are no hit songs and no real diversity of the sound (See "About Us" page on site for further reasons). All the young bands sound like Back and all the older bands want to be Lissen. We like those bands, but want to do something different, and our music and our business will get better as time goes on. We don't have the intention for Mambo Sauce to play weekly shows at this point. When you depend on packing the same club week after week to pay your bills, then you are almost forced to play cover songs to keep your set fresh. We won't never play cover songs, they will just be a small percentage of the set as opposed to the majority. We at Red C Records hope to do for go - go/pocket music, what Def Jam did for hip-hop. They didn't invent it, they just packaged it in a way that the rest of the world could understand. If they had decided that hip - hop was better left to New York, I think the world would be a very different place. Thanks everyone.

QUOTE(JusKeepingItReal @ Jan 20 2005, 6:55 PM) well that single has a gogo beat so u will have to educate people in Arizona about what gogo really is, i mean if you go national you have to include all states, so what's your plans to introduce and educate people in Iowa about gogo music?

You have a valid point and it will definitely not be easy. If it was, then everyone would be doing it. To answer your question, we will educate other markets the same way that other national artists do. Street promotion, web promotion, radio, press, performances, etc. The advantage that other artists have over go - go is that they have songs. Every popular song from country to rock to r&b is formatted in a certain way. Verse-Chorus-Bridge in some combination. The song communicates a message (not always positive) or tells a story that somehow relates to the listener. Go - go is not structured like other forms of popular music and the lyrical content is not designed to relate to the listener in the same way. I'm not saying this is bad, it's just true. It is also the underlying reason that people outside of the area don't understand go - go. So the first step is to create original go - go songs that someone not from here would understand and then market it to them the same way music from every other area is marketed to you. Jill Scott, Beyonce, Usher, Amerie etc. have proven that other markets are receptive to the sound if it is packaged correctly. Why do we go and hit their song (that has a style that they got from us) to make $200 a night while they get fat on the beach and drive Bentleys? Are people in D.C. not talented enough? I don't think so, I just think the city's musicians have become complacent because playing cover songs is an easy way to make quick money. Step back and take a look at who's making the real money though and I think you'll find that it's not the go - go cover bands of D.C. It's not something that will happen overnight and success in the music, or any other business is never guaranteed. But if you don't put your best foot forward and try then you will surely fail.

Smoke said that it is studio only, that if big money is involved they would perform, but they would definitely not be performing on a weekly basis - he is committed to Familiar Faces, and does not want to compete with them. I also asked him he if was still with Nu Styles when Familiar Faces hired him (they were the band he was with when he guest performed with Familiar Faces, see here). He said, no, he had been playing with What? Band for a few weeks before coming to Familiar Faces.

Familiar Faces
I went over and introduced myself to Jacques. His girlfriend, Michon, was there. The first set opened with a line up of: Mike, Adia, Donnell, DP, Dwayne, Doc, BJ, Jammin' Jeff, Smoke and Jacques. They performed the John Legend songs they rehearsed the night before. Donnell gave shout outs to guests in the audience, Sharmba Mitchell, boxer, Ghengis "The Ghetto Prince", JuJu and E of L!ssen. Jammin' Jeff had a particularly good drum solo at one point. I missed a good photo opportunity of the whole front line up together while I ate. At one point Sharmba went up to Jeff to tell him how he wanted him to play. I went over to the bar to watch the final minutes of Maryland's 75-66 victory. Donny Ray came up and guest sang (probably Atlantic Starr's Send for Me). When they finished, Donnell said, "Don't take the shine off me. You know I'm petty, don't take the shine off me." He then said Donny Ray had said, "Man, Mike Muse can sing, but he looks so old." Donnell then said, "Maybe we should record it." He then said, "Mike said they would probably play it in the wrong key." Donnell said to Sharmba thatm "He should be grateful to Donnell for what happened at the Overlook and the little boy even looks like me". Sharmba laughed. Donnell discussed their planned Miami video shoot, he asked where Darrell (spelling?) was and they performed Lap Dance.

As usual, the second set was even more cranking. DeeDee was there. Ebony guest rapped a couple of times. Donnell talked about the ski trip and mentioned that Big Don Pimp, or "Donald" said there are only women sign up right now. Don mentioned as usual, his name is Don, not Donald. Donnell did a three song medley, including Rick James' Mary Jane and Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby. There was a girl who was not only physically attractive, but seemed nice who danced and clearly was dancing right over by me late in the set - I really think she wanted to dance with me. Maybe I am being too conservative - worrying about going after girls while doing academic work at the GoGo. They closed with DIP. Ray and Tim (LJ) were trying to get me to dip at the proper time. I talked with James for a little bit.