Bhangra, an infectious folk music and dance style from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, has slowly crept into the mainstream club scene. The driving force behind this increase in popularity are the South Asian DJs of Great Britain and North America, who took this traditional form and infused it with the programmed sounds of hip-hop, dancehall, and techno. One of the most well-known names in this movement is DJ Rekha (pictured), a New......

MONDAY >> Not really into the whole Christmas Eve thing? Jewmongous is Sean Altman from Rockapella (of “Carmen Sandiego” fame) and “What I Like about Jew” who will be offering humorous Christmas Eve odes including “They Tried To Kill Us (We Survived, Let's Eat),” and “Taller Than Jesus,” at Jammin Java in Vienna. $20, 7 p.m. and 9:30 (two shows). >> The music played by the DJs at the South African Christmas Eve party......

FRIDAY: >> The 18th Street Lounge's regular Wednesday night reggae stars SEE-I are at the Rock and Roll Hotel to celebrate the holidays with some friends who are sure to get you dancing too -- DJ Mat the Alien and remix artists Fort Knox Five. Tickets for the Happy FKX-XMas are $10. >> Rufus Wainwright begins a two-night stint at the 9:30 Club tonight with his sister, Lucy Wainwright Roche. Tickets are still available for......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

FRIDAY: >>Great quadruple bill comes to the Rock and Roll Hotel: Three Stars alums Jukebox the Ghost (pictured right) and tour diarists These United States join DCist fave Ra Ra Riot and Sam Champion. All that for the low, low price of $10 before, $12 at the door. Show 9 p.m. >> The Black Cat once again hosts Cryfest, everyone's favorite dance party that pits The Smiths vs. The Cure, brought to you by DJs......

>> It appears as if there are still tickets available to see handsome Swedish crooner Jens Lekman at Black Cat tonight, which is preposterous. The box office opens promptly at 8 p.m., so get yourselves over to get in line for what will surely be a spectacularly moody rainy day show, with Patrick Cleandenim and Viktor Sjöberg. Tickets are $14 at the door, and the show begins at 8. >> Don't miss our lengthy......

MONDAY >> You cannot avoid Toots Hibbert on TV these days. Well actually, it is just that Nissan car commercial with the Clash's version of Toots & the Maytals' "Pressure Drop." The guy who penned that song, "Reggae Got Soul," and numerous other R&B flavored Jamaican numbers is at the 930 Club with the latest version of the Maytals. Hot D.C. go-go combo Mambo Sauce were just added as openers. $26 >> If solo indie......

>> DC9's hosting a Dubstep party featuring DJs Beatcarnival and Gavin Holland. Get your bass-heavy electro-dance Thursday groove thing on for $8. >> Novelist Porochista Khakpour to discuss her debut, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, at The Modernist Society's event at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. Free drinks from 8 to 9 p.m., then questions from the audience until 10 p.m. >> Tickets are still available to the opening night of the DC Asian Pacific American......

MONDAY >> This ain’t not J-Pop, we swear. If you want good old-fashioned Japanese rock ‘n’ roll (OK, it’s true, we don’t really know what that’s supposed to sound like either), The Captains from some place in Japan (the city name on their MySpace page uses Japanese characters) will drop by The Red & The Black tonight. They will be supported by Sugarcane Crawl, formerly known as Blues Hammer, and D.C.'s The Bourbon Dynasty. 9......

MONDAY >> They put it pretty well themselves, and since it's all about them anyway, we're just going to repeat what the Black Cat had to say about their anniversary party tonight: "After 14 years of pouring you guys drinks, then picking up the glasses, working the doors, and sweeping the floors, we've decided that it's time to dedicate a night to ourselves. Black Cat staff bands, staff DJs, and staffers will be hanging out......

The depictions and roles of women in hip-hop debate has raged on and off for several years now with varying degrees of depth. Most of the arguments posit that the relationship between women and hip-hop isn’t positive by using lyrical content and music videos by male artists as exhibits A and B. After the requisite freedom of speech assertions made during the rebuttal, the talk dies down again and the status quo remains. Often lacking......

FRIDAY: >> Odds are good that you'll be able to happily dance the night away at Rock and Roll Hotel, no matter what kind of music you're in the mood for. Downstairs you've got Party Bros., a tongue-in-cheek tribute to party music by DJs Gavin Holland and Chris Burns, featuring tunes ranging from Black Sabbath to Taylor Dayne, 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., while upstairs is a free funk and soul session from Moneytown, also......

>> Must Love Trash, DJ Adrian Loving and DJ Gavin Holland have all volunteered their services at Wonderland tonight to benefit a group putting together a Columbia Heights Day festival. The party starts at 9 p.m. upstairs. Help these guys get their web site and street festival off the ground by having a good time. For more details about Columbia Heights Day, email ColumbiaHeightsDay (at) gmail.com >> The Hej Hej DJs, DJ Yum Yum......

>> Since Tuesday is the new Thursday, we'd recommend heading over to Rock and Roll Hotel for a stellar line-up of DJs including Ken and Juan of East Coast Boogiemen, Lexus King, Devin Byrnes of Exit Only, Aaron Sparks and Keenan. 8:30 p.m.- 1:30 a.m., free all night long. >> Montreal's The Besnard Lakes play with Dirty On Purpose at the Black Cat's backstage, 9 p.m., $10. If you can't get enough of the......

By DCist contributor W Jacarl Melton When Mos Def dropped the mic à la Randy Watson in Coming to America at the conclusion of Saturday’s 9:30 Club show, it was hard to tell if he was just being playful or if it was indicative of sentiments he harbored. A name like Mos Def, when announced to hip-hop heads or general music aficionados, is bound to create some buzz. This night was no different as......

FRIDAY: >> Palace of Wonders is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a literal circus of performers both tonight and Saturday. Acrobats, burlesque performers, magicians, freaks and rope trick artists are just some of the acts that will take the stage, and fortune tellers will be on hand near the bar. Tickets are $15 in advance (click here), and $20 at the door. 7 p.m. to midnight tonight, 7 to 2 a.m. on Saturday. We recommend......

FRIDAY: >> Let it be known - any country with a holiday that translates as "party of music" (or "music party") is OK in our book. In celebration of the French holiday Fete de la Musique, as well as the summer solstice, French and American musicians will be performing at La Maison Francaise tonight. Local guitar and cello duo Janel and Anthony*** will play from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on the auditorium stage, but......

FRIDAY: >> It may be that we've simply gotten so, so, so many press releases about The Horrors show tonight at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and we've been beaten into submission to mention it. Give the punky-garage rock revivalists a chance for $12 at 8:30 p.m., and let us know if they're worth all the fuss. Seattle's Schoolyard Heroes open, plus locals Scanner Freaks. >> One of the most anticipated new hip hop albums......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

A couple of months ago I found myself at Be Bar on a Saturday night confronted by what I throught would be a "graphic design competition," but turned out to be something much, much more. I was surprised to find an entire art extravaganza of sorts with graphic designers battling it out, local fashion designers selling their wares, tribal dancers and DJs to boot. A large chunk of the art community was out in......

Ahhh, summer music festivals. As any music blog reader could tell you, as soon as the ground starts to thaw, they're all the indie kids can talk about. Last year we were all lathered up about getting a mega-fest of our very own (or at least, within reasonable stomping-ground distance). Several DCists embarked upon Pimlico and were pleased to report that the festival was wonderfully organized, accomodating, really well done and... that it just......

FRIDAY: >> By far one of the most fun bar nights in town is always where ever the Guerrilla Queer Bar Takeover kids end up -- the mingling of gays and straights in D.C. ever a combination as terriffic as chili and cheese. So you can bet we'll be swinging by to celebrate the Third Anniversary of the Guerrilla Queer Bar Takeover at Black Cat tonight. The takeover starts in the Red Room at 9......

We've complained about D.C.'s bad radio before, so when we heard about 94.7 "the Globe" we were skeptical. But after a few recommendations from people whose musical taste we respect, we checked it out -- and it's not half bad. The playlist is mainly mid 80s to mid 90s "alternative," but also includes some classic rock and newer stuff. We heard a mix from the Beatles and the Doors to Talking Heads to U2......

FRIDAY: >>Do you like Hall and Oates and Haddaway? Who doesn't? The Black Cat is hosting Crap, a dance night of bad music on purpose. We advise loosening your Macarena muscles and preparing your ears for "singers" like Don Johnson, Eddie Murphy, and Bruce Willis. 10 pm, free. SATURDAY: >>There are more art openings than we can shake a sculpture at today, so check out our Arts Agenda for a rundown. >>Anything called "Underwear Party"......

FRIDAY: >> This weekend is filled to the brim with events surrounding the 2007 Urban Film Series tour just in time for Black History Month. Dozens of short and feature-length films addressing the black experience are being screened at Regal Cinema Gallery Place, many with panel discussions following. There's a bevy of established and rising talent to see, but our pick for Friday has to be a conversation and book-signing with the Wizard's own center......

FRIDAY: >> Nothing wrong with another strong all-local lineup: Washington Social Club, These United States and Let's French will be on Black Cat's mainstage. DCist has interviewed two of these bands before, and we're set to get up close and personal with the third. So check 'em out. 9:30 p.m., $10. >> We're definitely impressed with the speed at which DC Rollergirls have gotten their act together since hosting a series of recruitment happy hour/arm......

MONDAY>> We're excited to see Glasgow indie-pop group Camera Obscura headlining the 930 Club tonight. We last saw them at the Black Cat and compared them to Belle and Sebastian. The group's latest album, Let's Get Out of This Country, is whimsical, romantic and will make you feel a little bit better about your life, or at least, this dreary weather. Vermont via Brooklyn band Essex Green opens. 9:30 p.m., $15. >> If your Fugazi......

In all honesty, it's tough to wholeheartedly recommend going out on New Year's Eve at all. We love the spirit of the holiday, but paying around $100 a person for a regular night of dancing dressed up with champagne is enough to make anyone feel like a schmuck. It's a safe bet most of us at DCist will be hitting various house parties to ring in the new year with friends at a more reasonable......

Jazz a la Count Basie seems an unlikely choice for the Black Cat. Yet, for more than a decade, Peaches O’Dell and her Orchestra have been swinging D.C. revelers into the next year. The bandleader is the subject of a special holiday edition of Three Stars. Even the most talented dance band can take a mental backseat to counting steps or following spins. The magnetic O’Dell is an exception to this rule — and several......

For those of us who considered the idea of an electronic music massive dead, Omnipresent Syndicate has a prepared a compelling case as to why we should reconsider. Enter Gathering DC, a party tomorrow night at Love featuring some of the best house DJs in the world. The first class lineup includes David Morales, one of the first "Superstar DJs," Miami's Robbie Rivera, and New York's Todd Terry (known for his remix "I'll House You"......