Some people use such noise to create a catatonic effect and others and others might try to clear a room but Black Dice was apparently trying to create the world’s most unlikely dance party. more ›

While seeing the phrase, “playing The Tyranny of Distance in its entirety” on the Black Cat website under a very active artist like Ted Leo initially felt jarring, the show's energy was purely celebratory. more ›

It's been nearly five years since the last Weakerthans album. There's no talk of a new one coming out anytime soon. But if John K. Samson's Wednesday night show is any indication, he's still in top form and it'll be worth the wait. more ›

It was a night of both explicit and implicit Weezer tributes at the Black Cat. more ›

Last 4th of July I took a lucky jaunt out to a friend's house on Maryland's eastern shore. As is the norm for any roadtrip, I burned a mix of the things I was listening to at the time, and Miike Snow had a heavy prescience on that disc. The single-worthy tracks from their eponymous debut album, "Cult Logic," "Sylvia," "Animal," and the already-single "Burial," funnel electronic influences, reverbed and filtered vocals, solemn piano ballads, and pop sensibilities into a clever, accessible package. Soon after that summer holiday, however, Miike disappeared from my playlists, save a remix for Passion Pit here, and a Punks Jump Up remix there. I certainly didn't expect them to create enough of a buzz to pack a sold out 930 Club on Wednesday night. But that is exactly what they did, and to get right to it, they put on a good show. more ›

Rogue Wave began life as a way for lead singer Zach Schwartz to cope with the loss of his dot-com gig in San Francisco, and more recently turned into his motivator on the road- to-recovery from the agony of two slipped discs in his neck. Not surprisingly, the band delivered a set heavy with the more escapist-oriented pop of their latest effort, Permalight, starting with "Stars and Stripes" and the (unfortunately) Owl City-esque "Good Morning." more ›

It would be hard to find accurate statistics on the number of guitar bands currently gigging in any one region, let alone across the country. Not the kind of stuff you find on the census. I'm not even sure I could hazard a guess, though, like most of the crowd at DC9 Wednesday night, I imagine myself as a pretty big aficionado of guitar pop and its many branches. Let's say the District of Columbia has 20 all by itself — can you imagine how many there are nationwide? The number's gotta be huge, so what sets apart the bad from the good and the good from the great? What packs the club in the middle of the work week for Surfer Blood, a bunch of barely-twenty-somethings from West Palm Beach with only a single recorded LP to call their own? more ›

The Magnetic Fields are hardly suited to conventional rock performance. Due to a hearing condition called hyperacusis that amplifies sounds to the point of screeching feedback which plagues lead songwriter Stephin Merritt, The Magnetic Fields can't have any percussion onstage. Merritt cringed and plugged his ear at every audience applause and although they have an album called Distortion, they certainly can't use any of it when playing the tunes from that 2008 album. In fact, it was a rare moment during last night's set when all five band members simultaneously played their instruments. more ›

Sockets Records is by no means the biggest name in D.C. music history, but the record label, started by local noisemaker Sean Peoples, celebrated its fifth birthday with a whole crew of friends. The Black Cat Mainstage was even more packed Friday night than it was for the Slumberland Anniversary show a few months ago, even though Sockets has only been around one quarter of the time. more ›

Strange though it may seem, the jury is still out on the Pixies' live show. For every fan out there who insists that the band's live sets are life-changing, you'll find another who asserts that the Pixies are shoddy performers and always were. Part of the problem is that at this point, the band's considerable legacy weighs heavily in any discussion of its merits, inviting revision from those who witnessed the Pixies in their heyday. more ›

A critical consensus has been reached: playing an entire album live is a bit of a bore. The once novel concept has quickly become an unimaginative experience that legitimizes bands trotting out reliable hits without looking desperate (perhaps not always such a bad thing). From an artist's perspective, the album-as-set-list can be a self-mythologizing ego boost reinforcing older work as classic. The fans, for their part, get the songs they want in the order they are accustomed. Old codgers of all stripes will tell you that the album used to 'mean' something that kids today just don't understand. These individuals, fans and artists alike, have been weaned on the hallowed AOR template, a place where deep album cuts and well-known singles are valued equally. more ›

As the cold remnants of Hurricane Ida drenched the Mid-Atlantic, a few intrepid souls left the quotidian comforts of home to gather at the Black Cat for three sets of warm acoustic bluesfolk from Mimicking Birds, The Low Anthem, and headliners Blind Pilot. The lineup was assembled from across the US—the first and final hailing from Portland, OR, the median from Providence, RI. The main stage room was full and hazy with persistent, idle chatter. People dribbled in like wet rats. more ›

Yesterday, when putting together our daily "About Tonight" feature, I scanned several recent concert reviews, looking for signs about whether or not enigmatic singer Neko Case would be performing with the New Pornographers at the 9:30 Club. It was a question anyone with tickets to last night's show (or tonight's), including myself, was asking, because Case, often busy with her solo career, has been known to skip out on New Pornographers tours before. Dan Bejar, off touring with his own band, Destroyer, was already confirmed not to be on this tour, but Case was supposed to be making the journey this time around. more ›