Usually, a reviewer is the guy or gal with the steno pad, furiously taking notes as enthusiastic throngs are actually enjoying the show and living in the moment. We studiously jot down the set list, observe the crowd, judge the music of the band, all while trying to be a fly on the wall. I walked into the M.I.A. show at the 9:30 Club last night without any intention of writing this review, so......

Like half-smokes, go-go and taxation without representation, mumbo sauce is something that's uniquely D.C. And suddenly, it's getting bandied about all over the radio. We're not talking about the group Mambo Sauce, who have their own ode to the District. We're talking about DJ Flexx (of WPGC)'s "Chicken Wings & Fried Rice", a song that is — seriously — entirely about mumbo sauce. You can listen to a partial clip here, or tune your radio......

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of The Fake Accents is their ability to make their inherent contradictions seamlessly coexist. One might not expect that the same band who records and listens to their own practice sessions would also write a disclaimer on their first album that most of the songs that they'd written were actually just ripped off of other songs. Their songs are identifiable by both their catchy hooks and their noisy guitar riffs.......

It's an unusually slow week in JazzLand, but there's still some great stuff to check out and a must-see show coming up this weekend. >> For jazz fans who prefer the smoother side of things, Pieces of A Dream will be playing tonight through Sunday at Blues Alley. Tickets to the daily 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. sets are $27.50 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> HR-57 presents a great program tonight that will be much easier......

The plot thickens for the Montgomery County-Live Nation concert hall deal. In September the county signed a non-binding letter of intent with concert promoter Live Nation for a Fillmore concert hall in Silver Spring, which would give the company $8 million in state and county funds, rent well below the...

Have you followed Eddie Argos' instructions and formed a band? Have you been looking, but just not finding, the perfect way to celebrate Hannukah this year? Are you free on December 8? The Eight, a concert presented by JDub Records, and Taglit-birthright Israel, is a worldwide Hannukah party happening simultaneously in 9 cities: D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Rio and Moscow. JDub, home to bands such as Balkan Beat Box,......

MONDAY >>Satisfy your cheese cravings as former American Idol star (and Richmond, VA native) Elliot Yamin plays the 9:30 Club, with the Last Goodnight and Josh Hoge. $25, Doors at 7 p.m. >>Australian pop singer Ben Lee -- he of the short-lived Bens and "Catch My Disease" moderate fame -- comes to Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood to play the Birchmere. Joining him is are Cary Brothers. $19.50, 7:30 p.m. TUESDAY >>Dinosaur Jr. just can't stop......

The guitarist for the pop-punk band Hawthorne Heights passed away before the group's show at the 9:30 Club over the weekend. Casey Calvert, 25, was found dead on the band's tour bus at around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, parked outside the venue in Northwest D.C. A cause of death has yet to be determined, but Calvert's bandmates have been quick to defend against speculation that drugs were involved. They posted the following message to their......

>> Tonight, head over to Twins Jazz to check out New York's Mark Feldman (violin) and Sylvie Courvoisier (piano) as they team up for an evening of experimental jazz. Feldman has recorded with artists as diverse as John Zorn and They Might Be Giants while Courvoisier has worked with a number of notable European artists. Call 202-234-0072 for set time and cover information. >> Most of you will be stuffing your faces with Turkey Day......

When the Dismemberment Plan decided to call it quits in 2003, D.C. lost the one hometown act that just about everyone could agree on. The years since have been filled with high expectations for all of the band's former members, though none of the post-breakup projects have managed to incite the level of excitement that always seemed to surround the Plan. As you'll probably recall, the first out of the gate was Travis Morrison with......

MONDAY >> The Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theatre in the James Madison Building kicks off 5 weeks worth of free Monday night rock and pop films with a rare showing of the 1966 documentary, The Big T.N.T. Show. David "Man from Uncle" McCallum hosts Ray Charles, Petula Clark, the Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddley, Joan Baez, the Ronettes, Roger Miller, the Byrds, Donovan, the Seeds, the Modern Folk Quartet, and Ike and Tina Turner taped......

A recent review noted the tendency of today's indie rock bands to combine large lineups with unusual instrumentation. Last night at the 9:30 Club, the Great White North's Broken Social Scene didn't skimp on bandmembers with seven people on stage, but gone were all the strings, kazoos, melodicas, and other...

After Neil Young’s wife Pegi concluded her opening set, while the stage crew arranged a myriad of guitars in a circle in the middle of the Constitution Hall stage, a portly man in a bright red blazer and straw hat worked on a painting of a horse towards the back of the stage. Later on, he came back to paint the words “The Loner” in the top right corner, and placed it on an......

The name may be unfamiliar, but the players behind Club Tiger Promotions are highly recognizable to any one who follows the D.C. music scene. Local artists Carol Bui and Jay Smith of Middle Distance Runner have started an all-ages venue, The Lab in Alexandria, which will both give under-age bands a place to play with their more seasoned peers and serve as an environment where, as Bui puts it, "kids feel totally comfortable and safe......

To say Stevie Wonder is a good artist would be an understatement. Over five decades, Wonder has amassed a catalog that not only includes over 30 albums but numerous songwriting and production credits. Fans in the District were treated last month to a two-and-a-half hour trip through a slew of rhythms and emotions. Wonder’s musical mastery has touched people worldwide, probably no two more than Brooklynites Bobbito Garcia and DJ Spinna. Both have made names......

Against Me! – the most accessible folk-punk band in the world – took the stage around 7:30 yesterday and were all business, plowing through twenty or so samplings of their fierce, Guinness-fueled brand of melodic rock in around an hour and a half. Those who managed to sneak out of work early to catch a good spot in the not-quite sold out crowd left drained and ready for the caloric replenishment that only the......

Euros Childs is best known as the frontman of Welsh popsters Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. Formed in 1991, the group, along with the Super Furry Animals, Catatonia and others repped for Wales during Britain's Britpop era in the mid-1990s. The group, a critical darling that never quite found their place in the mass populace, called it quits in 2006 after a long career that included 10 albums. Since the group's split, Euros has released three......

>> One of the biggest names in smooth jazz, altoist David Sanborn, begins a five night stint at Blues Alley tonight with daily 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. sets. Tickets are $50 + $12.50 minimum/surcharge. >> Our first must see of the week takes place at Twins Jazz, where the club will feature three ensembles under the direction of local saxophonist Brad Linde. The University of Maryland Jazz Chamber Ensemble will play the first set......

Monday >> If you’re not a Springsteen fan, the place to be Monday night is the Black Cat for an evening of dance-punk. Kentucky’s VHS or Beta (pictured) are supporting the recent release of Bring on the Comets along with Los Angeles' Moving Units, whose catchy 2004 single “Between Us and Them” is reason enough get you up and moving. Local favorites Soft Complex will be opening. $13, 8 p.m. Tuesday >> The Austin Chronicle......

Whether or not you were actually part of the 1960s, if you are a Beatles fan or, well, obsessed like some of us, then consider heading down to the Music Center at Strathmore tonight for Rain: The Beatles Experience, a tribute band that takes its audience on a trip down memory lane to a time when four lads from Liverpool tried to show the world that there's nothing funny about peace, love and understanding. The......

Múm is the latest in what seems to be a global trend of acts that believe the bigger the band, and the more unusual the instrumentation, the better. Though only two original members of the group remain, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar óreyjarson Smárason, there were seven musicians on stage during last night's concert at the historic 6th and I Synagogue. The ensemble employed the following instruments over the course of the show: guitar, bass,......

Everybody's favorite Portland-based literary music makers, The Decemberists, have had to cancel their Long And Short Of It tour, just two dates in. One of the band members has been ill, and as it turns out, hadn't gotten as well as they'd hoped in time to tour. That includes the expansive four-night residency they'd scheduled at the 9:30 Club for this weekend. If you'd already bought tickets, you can get a refund at your......

Remember "Who Sucked Out the Feeling"? The 1996 single, with a proper title of "Sucked Out," propelled Knoxville, Tennessee's Superdrag to a brief amount of alternative rock fame, back when it was still called alternative rock. The song, off their fantastic album Regretfully Yours, had a catchy British Invasion vibe, a yelled chorus with John Davis's voice cracking as he got to the "feeling" part, and a Buzz Bin video on MTV with the mop-topped......

It looks like I.M.P., the Montgomery County-based company that runs the 9:30 Club and Merriweather Post Pavilion, hasn't given up on opening a Silver Spring music hall. In September, we wrote that concert producer and venue owner Live Nation had signed a non-binding letter of intent to put a Fillmore music hall in the old J.C. Penney store at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring, across from the AFI Silver Theater. Both the......

>> Tonight's a big night for music, beginning with a celebration of one of the great musicians of the 20th century, Frank Zappa. His son, Dweezil, leads a group of Zappa-alums for this tribute, which takes place at Warner Theater. 7:30 p.m., $50/$75 + Ticketmaster fees. >> Tonight, the musical flavor of New Orleans comes to the Wonderland Ballroom tonight as Yamomanem takes the stage. Call 202-232-5263 for cover information. 9 p.m. >> Also tonight,......

Meh-NAH-meh-nuh? Meh-NOH-meh-nuh? Meh-noh-MEE-nuh? A nonsense word, an inside joke, or derived from that fantastic old school Muppet Show sketch? Whatever it is, it's not much of a telling name for a band with such a wide array of musical backgrounds and interests. Their debut I Am the Fun Blame Monster! was characteristically all-over-the-map in its creativity, but erred on the side of goofy and even a little obtuse. Then came Under an Hour, a score......

The Police made their way back to the District last night, playing their first show in town in over 24 years. Their last D.C. show was on August 22, 1983, when they graced the stage at the Capital Center. The crowd at the Phone Booth welcomed Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland with a huge ovation when Summers strode on stage and began the riff for "Message In A Bottle." Were you in attendance......

Rogue Wave is what you might call the paradigmatic 2007 indie band: their hooks are pretty, their lyrics are incomprehensible, and their singles appear regularly on both elitist music blogs and network television soundtracks. Accordingly, the question facing Rogue Wave is the one facing all the other Pitchfork wunderkind of similar vintage: Are they a small band that, for the moment, is big, or a big band that, for the moment, is small? Last......

Editors Note: We enjoyed the tour diaries J. Tom Hnatow wrote for us as part of These United States' last tour, so we asked him if he wouldn't mind doing it again as the band embark on their first ever intercontinental tour of the UK and Europe. He graciously agreed. This is the fourth and final installment of this series. The Paris entry: Thursday October 25th After our marathon, 14-hour, pre-dawn-to-post-dusk trek from Bath to......

Any experienced musician knows that it takes a great deal of skill and control to pull off a quiet and subtle performance that retains a sense of passion. During Friday night's first set at the Kennedy Center's KC Jazz Club, bassist extraordinaire John Patitucci (pictured) remarked, "You guys are so quiet tonight!" Indeed, there was pin drop silence within the crowd, but it was not due to boredom or a lack of appreciation. Rather, the......

MONDAY >> Performing as Phosphorescent, Matthew Houck (right) dropped his latest effort, Pride, at the end of last month. Reviews for the album have been glowing for the Southern-bred multi-instrumentalist. He’ll be making an appearance at the Black Cat with the help of his touring band. 9 p.m., $10. >> With an album titled Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, you’d be right to guess that The Warlocks aren’t exactly members of a pep squad. Still, their......

It’s been a few years since the Pope of Mope has graced the District with his presence—four three to be exact—and in the meantime, many of us have managed to see him play in other nearby locales. As a matter of fact, a few DCist staffers caught the Moz’s Halloween show in Baltimore, at the relatively intimate Ram’s Head Live—a date that was rescheduled due to Morrissey’s string of cancellations this past July. While......

It's hard to identify Jim Fairchild without first acknowledging that he was formerly the guitarist in the Modesto, Ca. group Grandaddy. Fairchild, however, has kept himself busy since the group's demise in 2006, touring with numerous other bands and also finding the time to record and release his first solo record under the moniker All Smiles. The resulting Ten Readings Of A Warning, a collection of charming, laid back lo-fi pop that belies his......

With jambalaya simmering in the corner, and people waiting in line to get a haircut, you wouldn’t have thought you were in a bar, let alone at a rock show. But last week, upstairs from haircut-and-a-shot night, The Red & The Black was in fact hosting a lineup of several very different styles of local music. Despite a modest midweek crowd — consisting mostly of other bands — one group from Baltimore introduced a unique......