Weekly Music Agenda
The Breeders are at the Black Cat on Friday.
By DCist contributor Matt Siblo
MONDAY
>> It’s never polite to point fingers, but if there had to be a scapegoat for the 2000s trend of emotive flaccid modern rock ruling the airwaves, Our Lady Peace would be among one of the guiltiest parties. These Canucks perfected the vaguely angst-ridden ballad back in 1997 with their platinum selling "Clumsy" and have been plugging away at it ever since. Why mess with perfection? The band is at 9:30 Club to support its new independently released album Burn Burn. With Meese 7p.m., $25.
TUESDAY
>> In a week flooded with reunions, tonight’s bill at the Velvet Lounge might just be the most half-baked. Seminal Los Angeles band Love’s 1967 album, Forever Changes, has long been a cause célèbre among bespectacled crate dwellers. After the untimely death of its principle songwriter, Arthur Lee, one would have thought Love was all but over. Turns out a band billing itself as that very band soldiers on in 2009 with a lineup that includes original guitarist Johnny Echols and Lee’s former backing band, Baby Lemonade. Guitarist Jerry Miller of Moby Grape will also be on hand to provide a dose of good vibes and golden oldies. This show has been moved from the Birchmere to the more local and much more intimate Velvet Lounge. 8:30 p.m., $15.
WEDNESDAY
>> The hands down winner this week in the “I hope no one in my office asks me to name the band I went to go see last night” contest is All Leather, a new project by Justin Pearson of grindcore superheroes The Locust. The band is skipping over D.C. this go 'round but interested parties can make their way to Baltimore's Ottobar. That All Leather is comparably more palatable than The Locust is faint praise, but the frenetic Blood Brothers-inspired electro-punk on its MySpace page sounds promising. If the title of its new EP, Hung Like a Horse, is any indication of what you’re in for, it should be a night to remember. Did I mention that a band called Balls Deep in the Dead is opening? 9 p.m., $10.
>> Brooklyn’s Ninjasonik take over the DC9 for what’s sure to be unbridled spectacle. Say what you will about its questionable gimmickry, but those furiously sweating it out on the dance floor are bound to come away satisfied. New York’s thrash progenies Cerebral Ballzy and Noon:30 open. 9 p.m., $8.
THURSDAY
>>Though it’s likely she’s in the midst of filming a highly dramatic period drama at the moment, tonight might be a good time to hunt around the Verizon Center for Mrs. Keith Urban (i.e. Nicole Kidman). Just think about how jealous your friends would be of a camera phone picture of her slipping out of the Chinatown Ruby Tuesdays! Mr. Urban will do his part in what’s billed as the “Escape Together World Tour” alongside Sugarland (Sugarlandmusic.com). 7:30 p.m., $20-79.50
>> Sarah RabDAU & Self-Employed Assassins, who’ll be at The Red and The Black tonight, might sound like a name one would scrawl into a Trapper Keeper when dozing off during algebra, but Ms. RabDAU’s chamber pop is far more sophisticated than the name implies. 9 p.m., $6
FRIDAY
>> The good sisters Deal continue their reformation-winning streak with The Breeders’ latest EP, Fate to Fatal, which includes a surprisingly pleasant cover of Bob Marley’s “Chances Are.” The band seems to be in an uncharacteristically fruitful period, so get it while the going’s good. Bringing your old issues of Sassy to be signed is optional. Jenny Lewis’ favorite The Whispertown 2000 opens at the Black Cat, 9 p.m., $20.
>> Fresh off their massive show at Merriweather with Old Crow Medicine Show and Iron and Wine, Justin Jones and the Driving Rain are back to playing familiar haunts like Iota. Obscure '90s emophiles will recognize opener Brandon Butler from the band Boys Life. 9 p.m., $12.
>> In the wake of a kinda, sorta positive endorsement from Pitchfork last week, New York’s The Phenomenal Handclap Band will bring its polished nuevo-disco to what’s sure to be a rollicking installment of the Liberation Dance Party at DC9. 9 p.m., $6.
SATURDAY
>> If All Leather’s antics are a bit too post-modern, why not get your leather-studded rock music irony free? Judas Priest will kick start a weekend of throwback metal at Merriweather that the world thought subsided with the demise of Ozzfest. To celebrate British Steel’s 30th anniversary (when exactly did albums start getting anniversaries?) the band will be playing it in its entirety. It’s a move that just might curb fans yelling for “Living after Midnight” and “Breaking the Law” incessantly, though my bet is that it won’t. 7 p.m., $35-75.
>> Breaking their two-month hiatus from D.C., The Points are at DC9 to celebrate a new 7” titled Beat in Hell. The band is working on a new album, so come expecting new songs and put on your beer drinking shoes for maximum effect. Lifers The Ubangis will be opening, a local punk band who came to The Points' attention after they used an image of their singer for the cover of their new single. Also playing are the mysterious The Electricutions. 9:30 p.m., $10.
>> Like many of my generation, the first thoughts conjured by Peter Paul and Mary are an ill-conceived reference in Saved by The Bell and Robert De Niro’s droll explanation of the trio’s signature hit in Meet the Parents. But it’s a testament to their staying power that Peter and Paul will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of their famed collaboration this year and will be making a stop at Wolf Trap. Sadly, Saturday’s show will be without Mary Travers as she’s still recovering from a recent bout with cancer. 8p.m., $22-40.
SUNDAY
>> Sabbath by any other name is still Sabbath, right? Dio, Iommi, Butler and Appice make their case after an extended hiatus with Heaven and Hell, a band as close to authentic Black Sabbath as you’re likely to get in 2009. Heaven and Hell is touring on a new record titled Devil You Know, a name sure to produce some unintentional irony when fans at Merriweather scream for the band to quit playing songs off it. Supporting will be New Jersey’s Coheed and Cambria whose continued existence is a painful reminder of the questionable punk prog fusion of the early 2000s. Coheed’s second wind finds them inching closer and closer towards the science fiction mall-metal crowd, giving Dio die-hards an excuse to schlep their kids to the show. 7 p.m., $35-75
>> Finishing out a week brimming with nostalgia are The Beach Boys, who will be taking time off from their State Fair routing (we get ‘em first, Antelope Valley Fair!) to touch down at Wolf Trap. The best seat in the house might just be a picnic blanket at the back of the lawn where the classics will be heard but not seen. 2 p.m., $25-38.