Washington has a ton of good things, but also a lot of problems. One we often hear about is a general lack of customer service in some local businesses — sometimes people are slow, rude, forgetful, or a combination of the three. We've seen it all over, from fancy joints to Mickey D's, but it seems to be worse here than elsewhere on the East Coast. Somebody could make a lot of money by renting... more ›

>> A second suspect in the kidnapping and sexual assault of a Prince George's County woman is under arrest after he was ID'd by a Metro transit investigator. [NBC4] >> D.C. firefighters and medics responded to the scene of an accident in Cleveland Park today that left a woman seriously injured after she crashed her car through a wall of her brick carport, collapsing part of it onto the car. [AP/WJLA] >> "If you're... more ›

What's That You Say? is our roundup of the best comments from last week's posts. So help us out and keep saying funny, interesting, and weird stuff. We know you can. ------ Speaking of weird, in regards to the manhole fire post, Jeffrey has this to say about the Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers in our city: If I've said it once, I've said it thousand times: this city needs to launch a fire safety... more ›

Travis Morrison Hellfighters play Thursday night at the Rock & Roll Hotel as part of a benefit show for Survivors and Advocates of Empowerment, with Ra Ra Rasputin and Jukebox the Ghost (***). 8:30 p.m., $10 in advance, $12 at the door. You can read our review of Morrison's latest album, All Y'all here What does the new album, All Y’all, mean to you? Well, it’s the first thing I did with this band. Travistan... more ›

There's something inherently likable about about Spencer Krug. Just ask Wolf Parade bandmate Dan Boeckner who snidely referred to him as the guy that everybody likes. Although that was a clear barb, Boeckner has a point. Dante DeCaro, another fellow Wolf Parade member likes him enough to continue touring with Krug (under the moniker of opener Johnny & The Moon). Fellow Canadians Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) like him enough to work... more ›

"It was time for me to embrace my African heritage." This was jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater's state of mind when she decided to trace her lineage in hopes of finding her native roots. Unfortunately, Bridgewater (pictured right), who is performing on Sunday at the Kennedy Center, could only trace them back 150 years, to Mississippi. She then began listening to a variety of West African music, and it was Mali's music that struck the... more ›

Jon Langford is responsible for way too much great art for you not to know who he is. To begin at the beginning, he’s one of two remaining original members of the Mekons, singing and playing guitar in the increasingly difficult-to-categorize onetime punk band he founded while studying art at the University of Leeds, England, in 1977. Their albums Fear and Whiskey and Edge of the World, from 1985 and 1986, respectively, were among... more ›

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. The Washington Highlands neighborhood of the District of Columbia is terra incognita for many Washingtonians. Tucked up against the District’s southeastern border with Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the area is walled off from the rest of the city by Oxon Run Park, the Anacostia Freeway, Bolling Air Force Base, and the Anacostia River, not to mention the yawning gap between its economic... more ›

There was quite a bit of discontent going on in the comments section over our post yesterday regarding Spoon's canceled 9:30 Club shows. Imagine our surprise when the band's front man, Britt Daniel, graciously added his voice to the discussion to let us know what happened. Hi guys I first heard about this situation last week while we were traveling in Europe. There was some misunderstanding on my part from the beginning...I was told that... more ›

“If I do my job as an actor, you won't notice that I'm South Asian or that I'm a woman, or even that I'm playing one of the most controversial political figures of all time. I'm portraying a person at a crossroads struggling with a difficult decision.” So says Zehra Fazal (pictured right) of her striking portrayal of Adolf Hitler in her self-produced, one-woman adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s play, My Friend Hitler, currently running at... more ›

It can be difficult to jumpstart a motionless crowd of D.C. concert goers, but one Baltimore band has found a way literally to bring life to the lifeless. In fact, in a very meta sort of way, Yeveto formed their group a few years ago for the sole purpose of adding a modernized sound to a classic horror film. They wrote and recorded a new score to the 1920s Paul Wegener movie, Der Golem, about... more ›

You've heard it all a million times before — nobody dances at shows here! People don't get into the music! There's just no soul in D.C.'s music scene! The Hall Monitors heard your cry and happily came to answer the call with their brand of throwback garage rock & soul reminiscent of the guitar and Motown greats that made most of us (well, OK, me at least) learn to love music in the first place.... more ›

When we saw the words "Bad Brains" and "Leonard Nimoy" in the same sentence, our minds flew immediately to visions of a Golden Throats style reading of the inspired freneticism of the 'Brains' "Pay to Cum", done all "If I Had a Hammer" style. Well, we were only half right, but this mashup of the original song with an H.R. Pufnstuf LSD trip of a video featuring Nimoy (which many of you might have already seen on Boing Boing) and what can only be described as the Vulcanette dancers is just as much a slice of hardcore heaven as our original imaginings. more ›

Story and photo by DCist Contributor Mehan Jayasuriya Much like their indie pop forebears — the Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, the entire roster of Sarah Records — Austin act Voxtrot has a thing for self-contained singles. As a matter of fact, they've taken their own sweet time releasing a full length, opting instead for a series of CD-Rs, 7-inch singles and EPs over the course of the last four years. As with the aforementioned... more ›

Alfonso Velez is an old soul. The former frontman from Monopoli recently stepped out of the indie rock scene and into the past, drawing upon various folk and blues influences in his solo career. He has the demeanor (and hair) of a young Elvis, the storytelling stylings of Bob Dylan, and the gritty vocals of George Harrison. These are but a few of the names that come to mind as you watch him on stage.... more ›

With military recruitment numbers continuing to spiral downward, this week's quote of the week got us thinking. All the military really needs is better marketing. You can't really envy their task in trying to get people to sign up for an unpopular war. Maybe they need to play down the grim realities. Play up the softer side of the military. Use things like the volleyball montage from Top Gun to show that doing your duty... more ›

Home is a pretty subjective concept. Where you hang your hat? The place you can always go back to? Where your love lies waiting silently for you? But what about where you spend the largest part of your waking hours? We may like to keep a firm separation between office life and "home" life, but let's look at the facts: who do you spend more hours awake and in the same room with than that... more ›

We love it when local bloggers take it upon themselves to explore the nooks and crannies of our city and report back to us. Today we were introduced to a new blog by Lia Pendarvis with the promising (though hilariously unflattering) title, The Lavatory Lady. As a mother of two young boys who are not only always on the go but often have "to go," Lia confesses she spends an inordinate chunk of her daily... more ›

If you ask around, you’ll find a fair share of people who offer Fullerton, California’s Cold War Kids much affection. If your thing is fluid melodies, for instance, or taut pop hooks, you won’t find them in their repertoire. Their music could fairly be called repetitive. If you dressed sexy enough, I certainly wouldn’t kick you out of bed for calling them derivative. Some think their decision to release a full-length record distilled from previously... more ›

Spring seems to be here to stay this time around, and that means swimsuit season can't be far behind. Here at the Overheard office, before we dust off the old Speedo, we're aiming to set a personal record for failed fad diets in a single month, figuring that if the average dieter loses the will to continue within the first week, then if we just start a brand new diet every week, we might actually... more ›

As our Gothamist friends picked up back in 2005, 28-year-old comedienne Jennifer Dziura is a pretty funny gal. After reading her bio, I quickly realized that I wanted to be her. The Dartmouth philosophy grad is a human smorgasbord, with past stints as a contraceptive tester, naked model for miscellaneous art schools, trapeze assistant, dot-com entrepreneur, and occasional comedy writer for McSweeney's and the Idiot's Guide to Jokes. Every Monday she emcees Williamsburg’s “Spelling Bee"... more ›

Last week the City Paper reported on moves to ban the sale of single beers along the up-and-coming H Street stretch in Northeast, part of an attempt to reduce the quality of life crimes, like public urination or disorderly conduct, that seemingly go hand-in-hand with 24-ounce cans of Bud Ice and 40-ounce bottles of Old English Malt Liquor. Of course, the proposal is nothing new -- Mt. Pleasant adopted a similar ban in 2001, and... more ›

While his star turns in Terms of Endearment and The Squid and the Whale suggested a softer side, we had no idea that the still waters of Jeff Daniels ran quite so deep. Turns out the actor has been compiling a cache of folk songs over the past 30 years, and will be showcasing them at Wolftrap tonight. While it'd be fun to rake Dumb (or was he Dumber?) over the coals for doing the... more ›

They see us when we're speeding, they know when we run lights, they know when we park illegally, but we won't pay up without a fight! Last week, we wrote about the transit implications of Adrian Fenty's "200 Goals in 100 Days." The mayor promised a lot of things, but the point everyone jumped on in the comments was his pledge to install traffic cameras on street sweepers. The cameras would photo-enforce the parking regulations... more ›

We're soldiering on with the second installment of our local lineup of 2006 favorites. Today we've got picks from Geologist of Animal Collective, Kat of Hello Tokyo, DJ Kaveh Soroush, DJ Aaron Lee of Dirty Sugar, and Chris & Alexia of Soft Complex. Geologist J Dilla, Donuts This album comes pretty close to perfect for me. I like hiphop but i'm not really into the lyrics so the beats have to do a lot for... more ›

It falls to me to fill in for our peerless Arts Editor for the next few weeks. Don't worry: DCist Heather will be back soon! Being the end of December, there is not much for me to mention, since the whole city is being shuttered for Christmas. If I miss something, help me out in the comments section. >> Art Enables moved to a new location in NE and has been open for about a... more ›

We couldn't help but ask ourselves a few questions after hearing that Matthew Fox would be in D.C. to promote his new movie, We Are Marshall. Did he finally get off the island for the interview, or were we just going to be in another one of his flashbacks? How would we get answers out of a man who spent days refusing to cooperate with "the others" in an old empty shark tank? Would it... more ›

Aligning Minds create soundscapes. Their atmospheric music evokes isolated locales, rainy nights in the city, frost covered fields in the early morning sun. At the show we caught, Aligning Minds didn't need to create a locale so much as to enhance it -- the work was already done for them in the leaking and chilly fourth floor at Love on a drizzly Wednesday night. Introduced to this electronic live performance duo by innovative local promoter... more ›

Call us slightly obsessed. Yesterday we responded to a recent Pitchfork news piece in which +/- (Plus Minus) lists Ben’s Chili Bowl as one of their favorite hangouts whenever they are performing in D.C., with recommendations of some of our preferred local eateries. We thought even more about the subject and came up with a better idea. Who would be better at recommending pre- and post-show hangouts than local musicians? So we e-mailed a few... more ›

By DCist contributor Celeste Dawn Mitchell Any time's a good time for barbecue -- it's one of the few foods I have a perpetual hankerin' for. And the saving grace in working in the outer reaches of Northeast is my proximity to Hogs on the Hill, home of "DC's Best Hickory Smoked Pit B-B-Q." The venerable "Hogs" is nowhere near the Hill, and the number "3" on the storefront is a holdover from its franchise... more ›