Photo by David Hoffman

Would it surprise you to know that one of D.C.’s most tattooed musicians plays the autoharp and writes very upbeat folk songs? It surprised us, especially since we already knew Ryan McLaughlin from local indie stalwarts Pash, who sound more Slumberland than Federal Reserve. The collective of McLaughlin, John Crum, Erik Anderson, Mary Voutsas, Kevin Moquin and Will Waikart, known as Typefighter, takes pastoral instrumentation and downright rootsy melodies and combines it with the energy of bands like Los Campesinos! and Architecture in Helsinki. It keeps the music on the more fresh and lively end of the spectrum. We talked to McLaughlin about making a switch to singing, his continuing love of heavier music and how he plans on playing in two bands on the same night.

Find them online: myspace.com/typefighter

See them next: At the Austin Grill in Alexandria tonight at 9:30 p.m.

At the Black Cat on March 2 with Olivia Mancini and Pash.

(Full disclosure: The Austin Grill show tonight is a benefit for the DC Does TX event at SXSW next month, of which the author is a co-organizer. Typefighter agreed to do a Three Stars interview with DCist before they were added to tonight’s bill.)