The Oscillators (l-r): Glen Oliff, John Lee, Charles Ostle, and Matt Rippetoe Charles Ostle is becoming one of the more sought after drummers in D.C.'s jazz scene, especially amongst the crop of younger players that have emerged over the past few years. In addition to performing with groups such as Inner Loop, Motel, and others, Ostle also chose to start his own band, a relatively rare step for a drummer to take. His group,......

Last year's Planet Arlington World Music Festival >> Local saxophonist Stan Killian performs every Wednesday at Twins Jazz. Call 202-432-0072 for set time and cover information. >> There's a lot of world music happening this week. On Thursday, Serbian artist Bilja Krstic leads the Bistrik Orchestra at the Millennium Stage. Krstic is a pop star in her native land and the ensemble blends blends traditional music, a cappella songs, and ethno grooves. 6 p.m.......

By Martin Locraft Fortunately for the enthusiastic (albeit small) crowd at Jammin' Java, last Thursday's show featured no mediocrity. The Alternate Routes – an extremely talented quintet from Bridgeport, Connecticut – left me filled with pure appreciation. Headlining the coffee-shop-slash-music-venue in Northern Virginia, the band that released Good And Reckless And True in 2005 treated the audience to the kind of passionate performance that is rarely seen on such a small scale. Seamlessly blending songs......

Like some poorly constructed M. Night Shyamalan film, something must be in the air killing off our favorite D.C. bands. The latest casualty is Telograph (***), who we've reviewed several times in the past. The band, which will be playing their farewell show at the 9:30 Club this Friday, wrote the following on their MySpace blog: Dear Friends, It is with a heavy heart that we announce this: Telograph has come to an end. We......

Christian Scott >> Hawaiian folk artist Gary Haleamau brings his slack key guitar prowess and his unmistakably Hawaiian falsetto style of singing to the Millennium Stage tonight. 6 p.m. Free >> Many consider alto saxophonist Shenole Latimer a jazz star on the rise. You can catch this up-and-comer tomorrow night at Twins Jazz. Call 202-432-0072 for set time and cover information. >> Three Stars alums and DCist faves The Young Lions perform on Friday......

This past weekend welcomed a great indie rock show at the Atlas District's The Red and The Black. The night started out with a super tight set by local act Impossible Hair. Their sound can be likened to the straight forward indie rock of yore, with a dab of new wave sparkle. They consistently hit the audience with with pop sensible, nod-provoking tune after tune. Impossible Hair were followed by The Rosewood Thieves and Titus......

Wunmi Wednesday: >> Def Jux rapper Aesop Rock has been an underground hip-hop figurehead for roughly a decade. Now based in San Francisco, the New Yorker will be back on the East Coast at the 9:30 Club. $20, 7 p.m. >> D.C. area-based Zwei have been performing on the indie soul scene for over five years now. They'll be this week's featured act for two shows at Bohemian Caverns' "Rhythm and Soul" series. $10......

Squeeze MONDAY >>Yes, Suzanne Vega is the person who sings “Tom’s Diner”, and, lucky for you, we're guessing she plays it at her Monday night set at the Birchmere. Unfortunately for your neighbors, roommates, co-workers, and spouses, you’ll probably be singing its a cappella intro for days. With Christina Courtin. $35, 7:30 p.m. >> Considering what it costs to see currently touring pop acts these days, a $25 lawn seat at Wolf Trap for......

The tween juggernaut that is the The Jonas Brothers were in D.C. today for the unveiling of their new wax figures at Madame Tussauds. Tonight, they play the Nissan Pavilion. Between now and then, photographer James Calder hopes his ears recover from the screams of the group's fans along the red carpet downtown this afternoon. For those of you who don't read Teen People, The Jonas Brothers are the biggest boy band in the country......

Good news for all those who've lamented the unavailability of high quality, unrestricted digital content from D.C.'s most storied independent record label. Dischord Records' catalog has been available via the iTunes store and some other online sources for a few years now, but those recordings were most often only available at relatively low 128 kbps quality, and contained all the usual DRM restrictions. Not only that, in many of those stores a Dischord track cost......

"Revolution girl style now!" Most of the girls who took the stage at the 9:30 Club early in the day on Saturday weren't yet born 17 years ago when that rallying cry kicked off the International Pop Underground Festival and gave a name to Bikini Kill's first record. But if the exuberance onstage and in the crowd was any indication, the spirit of that revolution is still going strong. Saturday's showcase was the culminating event......

Rock 'n' roll has always been lousy with dudes who dance like women, but Craig Finn — the high-school-math-teacher-lookin' frontman of The Hold Steady, as if you didn’t know by now — is possibly the only guy in the game who dances like a five-year-old girl: Elbows in. Forearms out. Knees high. Eyes squinted shut. Beatific grin. Jazz hands all over the place. Most of us are only capable of executing moves like that......

The Faint are playing a sold out show Saturday night with Shy Child and Jaguar Love at the 9:30 Club. Doors open at 8 p.m. Although Bright Eyes became the defining face and sound on Omaha's Saddle Creek Records, arguably it was The Faint who helped first bring the label into the spotlight with their synthy, dance-punk anthems. The Faint not only made people dance, they made people think, with songs like "Agenda Suicide"......

SMV, (l-r) Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, and Marcus Miller Assembling a supergroup always seems like a good idea -- in theory. Practice proves otherwise, often leading to disappointment in the form of terrible music. The trepidation associated with SMV, a group co-led by groundbreaking bassists Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten, and their new release, Thunder, came in several forms. Would this album be a chops-fest for these master technicians? How do you......

We love to pick apart our ranking in the multitude of lists on which our fair city appears. A new one came out today: StubHub, the online ticket marketplace, has compiled a list of the 20 "Most Rockin'" cities in America for 2008, based on summer ticket sales. Out of 90 cities in the ticket sellers' database, D.C. came in 18th. Not too bad, we suppose, and all the cities that came in ahead of......

Drop Electric vocalist Padma Soundararajan and bassist Neel Singh performing earlier this year at the Rock and Roll Hotel Drop Electric was no different from many a local band. They played the occasional festival, headlined local clubs, and were on their way to garnering a decent local following. But their story took a tragic turn last month, and the band is still trying to recover. The family of vocalist Padma Soundararajan — her father,......

Dr. Lonnie Smith >> If you've never seen Chicago blues king Buddy Guy in concert, then you best make your way down to Wolf Trap tonight because at 72 years old, he's still one of the best performers around. Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show are $22-$40. >> Dr. Lonnie Smith, the turban sporting master of the Hammond B-3 organ, begins a four night stand at Blues Alley on Thursday. Tickets to the daily......

Herbie Hancock performing Monday night at Wolf Trap. Photo by Andrew Propp, courtesy of Wolf Trap Superlatives run free when describing Herbie Hancock's nearly 50 years on the music scene. A consummate artist, he has been a pioneer throughout his career, breaking ground in genres ranging from straight-ahead jazz to electronic music. Despite his status as a jazz legend, it was still somewhat of a shock to all when his latest album, River: The......

Wednesday: >> Tony Terry had a big R&B hit in the early 1990s with "With You." Now on the indie scene, he'll be performing a two show set at Blues Alley. $35, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. >> "This Ain't No Disco" goes down at Saint-Ex. Free, 10 p.m. Thursday: >> Chaka Khan's distinctive vocals have made her a musical force for the past 30 years. For her performance at the Warner Theatre, she'll be......

More star wattage, more choice, more tough choices. V-Mo Fest V. 3, Part II offered more of the same, and in this case, that's a very good thing. In addition to the words and visuals you saw yesterday, today we've also got audio of several on-the-spot interviews Chris conducted at the festival. Copious sound + vision follows! 8/10/08 5:04 PM -Michelle Stafford of Headcount - Chris Klimek Ace photographer DCist Kyle kicks it off: I......

By Ryan Holloway Stinky, sweaty, shirtless bodies flying at you from all around. Well the band's name is Rancid. The good old boys from Los Angles played to a sold out crowed last night at the 9:30 club. As I was thoroughly enjoying being squished like a bug the band played through a set that could have been a greatest hits compilation, taking the great energy from the crowed and giving it right back. As......

TUESDAY >> Just Another Band from East L.A.? We think not. Los Lobos join Los Lonely Boys to tear up Wolf Trap's Filene Center stage. $22 and $40, 8 p.m. >> Three Stars alums The Moderate bring their humid Carolina alt-country back to the Black Cat backstage. With our own music editor Amanda's favorite local alt country singer, John Bustine. $8, 9 p.m. >> If you're a fan of the TV show Lipstick Jungle —......

Whether you're a little bit Iggy or a little bit Moby; whether you breathlessly await each L'il Wayne mixtape or whether pop music ceased to interest you the year the Beatles stopped touring and Dylan went electric (in which case, congratulations on figuring out this old Internet), there was something to your taste at the third edition of the Virgin Mobile Festival this weekend. Not just something, actually: A lot. With a big assist from......

It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago we were questioning whether or not this season of Fort Reno would even happen. Drastically cooler temperatures and Halloween candy on the shelves in drug stores tell us that the lazy days of sitting on blankets and catching shows under the stars are drawing to a close. Tonight is the last announced Fort Reno show of the summer (there's still one surprise line up......

Photo from the 2007 Virgin Mobile Festival by firegal Virgin Mobile Festival is like the two-party system, except you can vote in the other party's primary and even change your vote mid-set. (I'm dismissing the Dance Tent the way most people dismiss third parties.) Herewith follows (with apologies to DCist Cinephile-in-Chief Ian Buckwalter) a wholly arbitrary, hardly comprehensive, but probably alphabetical listing of the acts I'm keenest to see. Chuck Berry and the Silver......

Danielle Eva >> Now's a good time to remind everyone of all the great jazz jam sessions that happen around town every week. HR-57 hosts sessions on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Columbia Station on 18th Street hosts afternoon jams on weekends, and Twins Jazz has a session on Sunday nights. All of the jam sessions are reasonably priced and a great opportunity for aspiring musicians to cut their teeth, as well as a chance......

Devine Nature Tuesday: >> There isn't much much to say about Gnarls Barkley other than Craigslist is probably the best way you stand a chance of seeing them tonight at the 9:30 Club. 7 p.m. Wednesday: >> Originally from the Boston-area, Noel Gourdin has been getting kudos for his song, "The River". He'll take the stage at the Birchmere in Alexandria with opening act Angela Johnson. $25, 7:30 p.m. >> Back in D.C. for......

U-who? We're not too high-minded to praise Coldplay's performance at Verizon Center last night as "Ballsy." One strives to avoid the wholly predictable, but sometimes you just can't stave off the obvious lede that fate fairly dangles above your head: Coldplay grow some balls. Coldplay deliver ballsy performance. Coldplay counter critics with raw ballin.’ Meaty, Beaty, Big and Pricey: Coldplay's Balls of Technicolour Fire. Viva la Balls, or Death and All His Balls. (Okay,......

Exit Clov. Photo by Mehan Jayasuriya. MONDAY >> They're alums of both Unbuckled and Three Two Stars. Yessir, they don't come any more DCist-approved than Deleted Scenes. At the Black Cat's Backstage with the Never and the Bee Team, $8, 9 p.m. >> Nothing says summer like sitting in the grass at Fort Reno. And even if you're not into Exit Clov (pictured)--who we totally heart and stalked all the way to Texas, by......

If Bon Iver's album, For Emma, Forever Ago, is the product of one man's introspective exile from human contact and civilization, the band's live music is something completely different. The songs now take on the hopeful timbre of a man who has digested and embraced the series of sad circumstances that sent him fleeing to a cabin in the cold Wisconsin wilderness. After ending two serious relationships, one personal and the other with his former......