airøspace – Lucid (prod. Munoz)
Synthador – Our Snowy Day 2015
ᴇʟᴅʀ. – Delirium
Big Sky Conspiracy – Puzzle Palace Prophet
Medications – For WMF
Laura Baron – No Easy Way to Say Goodbye
The Grit Pushers – Moonshine
Dmerit – Stuck On You
KTW – Goodnight
Go Cozy – Our Best Reflections
Terri Bocklund – WolfSong
David Marc Alterman (performed by Astrid Walschott Stapp) – Octagon
Diggs Duke – Is It Love feat. Vaughan Octavia
Vestiges – III
Gordon Withers – Memories Of The Future
Caustic Casanova – There Is No Need For Grammar On the Moon
Craig Gildner and The Blue Sky 5 – Capitol South
Star FK Radium – Life in Slow Motion
Scythian – Jigsaw
Body Thief – Transitions

Lance Neptune – Pyxis
Scythian – Columbus Stockade Blues
the Sobel 4Tet – Modo
The Mind Set – Hemlock Smoothie
Go Cozy – Our Best Reflections
Jonny Grave – Worried Life
Q and Not U – We Heart Our Hive
Kali Uchis – Speed
David Wright and the Wright Touch Horns – Wherever It Takes You
Jon Camp – Interrupted Transmission
BOOMscat – CATCHME
We Were Pirates – Into Thin Air
Brûlée – The Wagon I’m On
Tree Surgeons – The Bridge
Iritis – Theory
Exit Vehicles – Circular
Sherwood Gainer – 404
Pupils – Take The Time To Tell Them
Dale Holmes – Unchained Melody
Save the Arcadian – Walrus

Formed by guitarist/singer Homero Salazar Andrujovich and keyboardist/singer Maria Sage in 2011, the dream-pop outfit hit a series of stumbling blocks while recording its debut album, Glaziao.

“It’s hard to find the right and committed people to form a band,” Andrujovich says. Amid multiple lineup changes, sessions for Glaziao stretched across two years. He and Sage finished the album in 2015, but without a stable group of players, they felt unsure about next steps.

“It seems pointless to release an album and not [be] able to tour [on] it,” says Andrujovich. “We went into a hiatus trying to determine what to do.”

After finally solidifying into a quintet — with drummer Ryan Witt, guitarist Hays Dowdy and bassist Andrew Bezila — Go Cozy released its album and hit the road. Then their tour van was burglarized in Chicago.

“Luckily no gear was stolen, but it was the night before 4/20 and we had great plans to camp and chill hard,” says singer/guitarist Homero Salazar Andrujovich. “All of our cannabis and clothes were taken away.”

The band recovered their losses through generous donations from fans and its label, D.C.’s Babe City Records — and Andrujovich, 28, hasn’t let the experience bum him out. “It was a huge blessing to be on the road meeting so many cool people around the country,” he says.

Go Cozy’s record shares Andrujovich’s laid-back attitude in the face of difficulty. Named after a word that refers to perfect surf conditions in Andrujovich’s childhood home of Puerto Rico, Glaziao is as mellow as a day at the beach. But tension lurks underneath. Andrujovich and Sage’s lyrics dwell on relationship mishaps and persistent feelings of nostalgia, while the shimmering accompaniment drifts unexpectedly across oblong song structures.

The band started out simpler. “We discovered that some of our favorite contemporary albums have been produced on GarageBand in the artist’s bedroom,” says Andrujovich. “I started experimenting, and we came up with songs.” He and Sage began making the record with producer Tommy Sherrod in 2013.

These days, Andrujovich is optimistic about the band’s future — and cautiously eager to get back on the road, having learned a key tour lesson the hard way.

“Never park two blocks away from the venue,” he says.

Go Cozy plays May 8 at Songbyrd Music House.

Abdu Ali at Clementine Cafe:

Den-Mate at Court Square Theater:

The Obsessives at Little Grill Collective:

Zomes at Court Square Theater:

Bless at Artful Dodger:

Dove Lady at Court Square Theater:

All photos by Cassandra Mullinix

BOOMscat at the WeDC showcase:

Go Cozy at the WeDC showcase:

RDGLDGRN at Monster Energy Outbreak House:

Tabi Bonney at the WeDC showcase:

Two Inch Astronaut at Stereogum/Exploding In Sound showcase at Hole In The Wall:

Young Rapids at the WeDC showcase:

All photos by Cassandra Mullinix

“It was time for us to leave,” emails Peter Lillis, a Babe City resident who runs the label’s publicity. According to Lillis, Babe City met the same fate as dozens of D.C. house venues before it: The property at 22nd and N streets NW is being “gutted and flipped and sold for big money,” he writes.

Lillis says he and his roommates have moved to a house near Fort Totten Metro. (For privacy reasons, he asked Bandwidth not to publish the address.)

After Babe City began hosting basement shows last fall, the spot became one of D.C.’s most reliable hosts of underground, rock-skewing bands, putting on at least a few gigs a month. Raucous New Paltz punk duo Diet Cig played there twice this year; pop-rock Virginians RDGLDGRN packed the basement in July.

When Jon Weiss (of The Sea Life and Witch Coast) and Erik Strander launched Babe City Records, the house became its headquarters.

But the location — in one of D.C.’s most expensive neighborhoods — felt temporary from the beginning, Lillis points out. “As much as we love it, [Babe City] was never meant to be our permanent home,” he writes. “We quickly outgrew the space, with five people living in a three-bedroom house, and many bands operating out of our living room and basement.”

Moving elsewhere promises to be a money-saver. “We were happy to move to a more comfortable (and cheaper) home up in north D.C.,” Lillis writes.

The second incarnation of Babe City hosts a kickoff show Dec. 27 featuring Babe City act Den-Mate, San Francisco’s Sports and a solo version of Maryland’s Go Cozy. Donations will be taken at the door.

In true punk-rock fashion, the residents of Babe City exited Dupont with little pomp and circumstance, Lillis says. “We packed and moved in the middle of the night with a 24-foot U-Haul,” he writes. “It was an experience.” 

Babe City II hosts its first show Dec. 27. See Facebook for details.