Weekly Music Agenda
Drive-By Truckers return to the 9:30 Club for another Friday-Saturday stand.
MONDAY
>> Folkie Justin Trawick wants to help you fight off your case of the Mondays with a solo acoustic set at IOTA. With Blues James Band. 8:30 p.m., $10.
>> Pennsylvania's The Takeover U.K. "take the pop sensibility of the '60s and marry it with Class of '77 punk rock." Heady words, Gentlemen! They're at DC9 with The Crash Moderns and The Five One. 9 p.m., $8.
TUESDAY
>> Fresh on the heels of their just-released Love, Hate, and Then There's You, garage rockers The Von Bondies are in town from Detroit "Rock" City to a make a loud and dirty noise. We've made enough jokes about frontman Jason Stollmeister losing that fight with Jack White by now, haven't we? Live and let rock, Fellas. With Nico Vega and MHR. At Jammin' Java. 8 p.m., $12.
>> Aliens? Oh, hells, yeah! James Cameron's 1986 interplanetary bug-squashing epic is only one of the three or four best sequels ever, and a film with the rare distinction of operating in a wholly separate genre from its precursor (existential deep-space horror vs. Vietnam-on-some-backwater-planet sci-fi action). Sigourney Weaver's fire-breathing turn as warrant officer Ellen Ripley got her a Best Actress Oscar nom, an almost unheard-of accolade for a performance in a genre film, Heath Ledger's Joker nonwithstanding. Oh, wait. This is some band called Aliens. "Kick-ass nu-punk with a big rockin' twist," raves Toxic Pete. Well, that might be okay, too. Featuring Half Japanese (the band) drummer Rick Dreyfuss. With Cigarbox Planetarium and Spider Cake. DC9, 9:30 p.m., $6.
Sonya Kitchell will bring her intense stare to Jammin' Java.
WEDNESDAY
>> Teenage-year-old singer-songwriter Sonya Kitchell impressed Herbie Hancock enough that he invited her to sing in his band in 2007, and she turned up at his Wolf Trap gig last summer, too. She's touring behind her sophomore album, This Storm, and bringing those soulful-beyond-her years tunes to Jammin' Java. With Naia Kete. 8 p.m., $10.
>> Gentleman of the Year Ne-Yo had a good night at the Grammys last week, picking up awards for Best Male R&B Vocal and R&B Song (both for "Miss Independent"), not to mention singing with Smokey Robinson, Duke Fakir (last surviving member of The Four Tops), and, er, Jamie Foxx. Anyway, he'll take a victory lap at DAR Constitution Hall. 7:30 p.m., $64-$74.
THURSDAY
>> Brighton, U.K. krautrock collective Fujiya and Miyagi are bringing their fetching blend of rock-soul-tronica to the 9:30 Club. On the undercard is the dream-pop of School of Seven Bells, the group Benjamin Curtis quit Secret Machines to create. Sounds like a well-matched two-fer to us. 7 p.m. doors, $20.
>> Welcome back, interstate managers! Fountains of Wayne comes to the Birchmere for "a rare full-band acoustic performance, featuring songs from their upcoming album-in-progress as well as material spanning their entire career." 7:30 p.m., $25. Sold out.
>> Wrong 'em, Boyo! The Young Dubliners bring their Emerald Isle-by-way-of-the-Golden State nu-traditional celt-folk to the Barns of Wolf Trap. 8 p.m., $20.
>> Country don't hardly get no more "alt" than it do when Austin's Reckless Kelly is on stage. Seriously, though, they bring the heat. At The State Theatre. 7 p.m., $13.
FRIDAY
>> It's always a glorious thing when Alabama's triple-axe-packin' Drive-By Truckers invade the 9:30 Club. With not one, not two, but three great singer-songwriters in their lineup (bassist Shonna Tucker having filled the void when her ex-husband Jason Isbell left in 2007), their setlist-free embrace of serendipity, and a ocean-deep songbook of ace material, they're as consistently brilliant a live band as I've ever seen. Expect two-and-a-half to three hours of meaty, beady, big and bouncy southern rockitude. DBT's prior 9:30 mini-residency fell on the two nights prior to The Great Radiohead Flood of '08. I had a lot more fun at DBT, and not just because I was warmer and drier. DBT's return also offers a fine occasion to revisit our chat with Patterson Hood, the group's garrulous and kindly (primary) frontman, from last May. With Bloodkin. 8 p.m., $25 -- a crazy bargain!
>> Even though the City Paper wants him to hang up Lucille, 83-year-old B.B. King plays the blues at Constitution Hall with the equally venerable Buddy Guy. 8 p.m., $65-$70.
SATURDAY
>> Drive-By Truckers at the 9:30, again. Look, Ma: No setlist! With Bloodkin. 8 p.m., $25.
>> M. Ward, the sadder, less-attractive half of She & Him, ought to have a full-length follow-up to 2006's Post-War ready any day now. He's at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue. 8 p.m., $20. Sold out.
>> "Somehow a Justin Jones performance overpowers even the most twang-averse listener," wrote DCist in 2007. Put our claim to the test when Virginy native and Three Stars alum Justin Jones and the Driving Rain bring it on home to IOTA. 9 p.m., $12.
>> Think locally, act locally at the Rock and Roll Hotel. The Known Unknowns are throwing themselves a CD release party, and The Dance Party, Ra Ra Rasputin, and The Roosevelt are among the distinguished guests. 9 p.m., $10.
Kathleen Edwards floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee at the Birchmere.
>> And the country just keeps on coming, from another country this time. Kathleen Edwards imports dusty introspection from her native Ottawa, Ontario, where all public places are blessed with the kind of polite behavior we only encounter at the Birchmere. So she'll feel right at home, eh? With The Last Town Chorus. 7:30 p.m., $25.
>> Cro-Mags lead singer John Joseph is doing that former-punk spoken-word thing at the Black Cat Backstage. 8 p.m., $10
>> Buffalo, NY emo foursome Cute Is What We Aim For headlines the Take Action Tour at the 9:30 Club, featuring a Hot Topic liquidation sale's worth of openers: Meg & Dia, Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue, and Anarbor. 6 p.m. doors, $16.