There's more to Carol Bui than meets the eye (or the ear). Which is saying something considering that her latest release, Everyone Wore White, is a complex tapestry that not only showcases her capabilities as a guitarist but fleshes out several corners of her history and personality. Bui draws from influences as disparate as Fugazi and traditional Vietnamese tunes (one of which she sings a capella to close out the album) and sings about life's rough patches with a tone that's disarmingly bold and direct. Her toughness and sensitivity shine through, but she's also witty and approachable. That's part of the beauty of her music: she's honest and forthright, yet leaves so much in her nuances for the listener to discover. There's a reason she's on the list of DCist's favorite local acts of 2007. more ›

As the clock rolls down on 2007, we've done as bloggers tend to do and taken a look back. The DCist music staff scratched our chins, tapped our temples, and compiled a list of our favorite local acts of the year. Whether it was because they released a new album, had some great shows, or just finally wore us down with press releases, these are the D.C. musicians that really made us proud to call the District home this year. more ›

The first, instantly noticeable aspect of Fredericksburg, VA's Pash is the luminous voice of singer/guitarist Merideth Munoz. With a voice that partially recalls Rainer Maria's Caithlin de Marrais and has a rock edge reminiscent of Pretty Girls Make Graves' Andrea Zollo, Munoz has the vocal tenacity to halt anyone who may have stumbled across a track on their MySpace page. more ›

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.... more ›

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... more ›

We've written at length about England's The Go! Team and their fantastic live shows. The last time they were in town, they drove the Black Cat crowd into a frenzy, and now they'll be doing the same thing at the 9:30 Club tonight for a late show (10 p.m. doors). We recently spoke to Ninja, the band's energetic female MC who serves as the live show's focal point, on the phone from Los Angeles where... more ›

A rainy Friday night was enlivened by the return of hometown heroine (and Richard Montgomery High alumni — Go, uhm…Rockets! Right? Y’all are the Rockets?) Tori Amos, who took to the DAR Constitution Hall armed with her giant black Bösendorfer piano, her touring band, and a new record. That record, American Doll Posse, is an odd sort of concept album revolving around a bunch of different characters that Amos invented, costumed, and, I believe, even... more ›

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... more ›

Consider this a warning. The Black Lips, Atlanta's favorite juvenile delinquents, have the capability to turn any live show into a living, breathing OSHA health hazard. Even if managing to avoid the quartet's spit, vomit, blood and urine, one should still expect to exit the club soaked in PBR. Admittedly, the antics, which have also included on-stage intra-band brawls and makeout sessions, could originally be attributed to both teenage drunkenness and lack of technical... more ›

Photo and story by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall Leave it to Travis Morrison to throw a CD release party, but forget to order CDs. Morrison shrugged it off, offering up several suggestions of places online (including a half-kidding nod to Napster) from where the audience could pick up his latest release, All Y’all. It’s this quirky charm that makes his live show so engaging; Saturday night’s show at Iota would’ve been worth the ticket price... more ›

>> Author Paul Karasik will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his book, I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets, which chronicles the life of Fletcher Hanks, old school comics illustrator from the 1930s and creater of Stardust, and why he disappeared from comics. 7 p.m. >> Catch up on your parking lot loitering tonight to see Colombian born artist Kata Mejia perform Healing at 1622 14th Street NW. Presented by the Randall... 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 ›

>> Mic Harrison (formerly of Superdrag) brings some alt-country goodness to the Velvet Lounge tonight, with The High Signs and Julie Ocean (ex-Velocity Girl). Show starts at 9 p.m. >> SILVERDOCS is in its first full day, so head on up to Silver Spring to check out a wide array of documentary film on offer. We'd recommend Oliver Hodge's Garbage Warrior at 8:45 p.m., about New Mexico architect Michael Reynolds, who builds homes out... more ›

A lot of effort goes into attending a concert -- paying outrageously high ticket prices, figuring out transportation and putting up with obnoxious crowds are the first things that come to mind. This is why we tend to reserve our hard-earned dollars for those bands we really like. But something drew us to the 'burbs last night to see Chapel Hill's The Old Ceremony at IOTA, a band we weren't entirely familiar with. In the... more ›

MONDAY >> Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts return to D.C., and this time they're playing at a larger, more Metro-accessible venue. While critics don't exactly love the new album, Let's Just Be, Arthur puts on a great live show. Check him out at the 9:30 Club with Stars of Track and Field opening. 7:30 p.m. $15. TUESDAY >> Local upstarts Le Loup, fresh off signing with Hardly Art, are opening for The Rosebuds, the... more ›

Oh Canada, what are we missing? Sometimes it seems like the “cultural gap” between our two nations is way too exaggerated by the media (read: comedians). For example, there are Canadians I know and often forget they are foreigners, I once stayed on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and barely noticed the difference, and our indie rock scene is thoroughly dominated by Canadian bands. more ›

Saturday at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Dr. Dog with The Teeth and Hoots and Hellmouth. $12. Doors at 8:30, Music at 9:30. Depending on the circles you run in, Dr. Dog are either busy working a tired formula of lo-fi and late-period Beatles nostalgia or are one of a host of Philly groups artfully resurrecting the heady psych-pop era of the late 60s and early 70s. Both camps need to do themselves a favor... more ›

FRIDAY: more ›

When we last caught up with Jukebox the Ghost, we left hoping we'd hear from them again. Soon. Their unpretentious but knowing mix of staples from the pop-rock canon -- think Billy Joel gone quirky with a bunch of proto-new wavers as backing band -- is addictive, and they proved they had the tunes to back it up. Unfortunately, Jukebox were still a kick-ass live show without too much in the way of quality recording... more ›

When Telograph (***) played the Six Points Music Festival back in April, they were easily our favorite band in the festival’s Velvet Lounge lineup. We may have compared them to new-wave hipsters Interpol and The Strokes, but Telograph’s great live show made it difficult to categorize them simply as another “it” band. We’re happy to say that their upcoming EP Little Bits of Plastic justifies our initial impression: Telograph is a band to watch. Over... more ›

The Oranges Band's last album, The World and Everything In It, is the kind of record most music writers would feel obligated to say is “pretty good.” It’s got catchy songs, but no hook is too forceful; it’s got fuzzy, but stately guitars and giddy, but assured performances; and the singer has a little of that British-circa-1981 thing going on. And he’s singing about summer, and girls, and often about girls in the summer who... more ›

We've talked about the lineup, interviewd the organizer, and even talked to a couple bands. Now we want to give you the chance to hear what's coming our way with some MP3 previews of a few DAM Fest bands. The music staff got together, divied up the lineup, gathered some files together and is now serving up brief breakdowns of a few bands D.C. will play host to this weekend. If you've got some insight... more ›

MONDAY >> If you like your electroclash sample-free, head to the 9:30 Club for Liverpool's Ladytron. $20 >> Not quite sure what to make of it, but the Bodog Battle of the Bands rolls on this Monday and Tuesday at DC9. $15 each night >> The last time Architecture in Helsinki came to the Black Cat, they tested the stage's human-holding capacity. Though Lambchop and the Tosca String Quartet may have given them a run... more ›

MONDAY >> If you're not high-tailing it to the Maryland end of the Orange line to see the Redskins take on the Vikings, you may want to pay the Black Cat's backstage a visit to see The Whigs. This trio from Athens, GA has been called the "best unsigned band in America" by Rolling Stone. $8, 9 p.m. >> The haunting, violin-driven alt country of the Black Swans is coming our way. Catch these boys... more ›

Written by DCist Theater Reviewer Missy Frederick. more ›

Rock-n-Romp, like Fort Reno, is a D.C. summer concert series for post-punk music. Like Fort Reno, it caters to an underserved crowd. But while Fort Reno is for younger folks enjoying a wide open summer, Rock-n-Romp is trying to get parents out of the house. Running since 2002 in the backyard of the founder's house, and spreading as far as Austin and Memphis, Rock-n-Romp is now hoping to change the music scene in Silver Spring... more ›

We have an oft-repeated complaint about unwilling dancers: it’s all in your head. It's clear people don't dance at shows have never given it a serious chance. Or they haven’t been forced to. That’s where !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) comes in, with silky beats and drum circle percussion; where frontman Nic Offer grinds against you like some creepy, beautiful stranger. Releasing the seminal dance-punk single “Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard”... more ›

Middle Distance Runner’s first full length album may be entitled Plane in Flames, but their fusion of upbeat drum patterns, catchy guitar riffs, and haunting vocals from front man Stephen Kilroy do anything but crash and burn. more ›

Playing bass with Junestar, Tim was tapped to perform a few songs to kill time while a fellow bandmate restrung his guitar. Impressed with his talents, Iota invited him back to open for Todd Snider, which encouraged and propelled his musical output. Unfortunately, contract battles with his independent label postponed the release of his first LP, Disrepair, until 2003. Since a job change last September, Bracken has had more time to focus on recording and playing shows with his full band and solo. His next album, Long Untied, is slated for release at the end of the summer. more ›

TUESDAY: >> All hail the mighty Pearl Jam! Their show tonight with openers My Morning Jacket has yet to sell out, so fulfill your duty as a child of the 90s and head to the Verizon Center at 7:30. $54. >> The locals alight on Arlington, as Pontiak, These United States and Brandon Butler take the stage at Iota. >> In "huh?" show #1 of the evening, T Bone Burnette and Jakob Dylan -- remember... more ›