In the interest of trying to be relatively neutral, we here at DCist cannot normally go off into the sort of ranting and raving reviews of shows and bands that we might like to. (Also because it would probably put you to sleep to hear all of our pretentious ramblings.) But that doesn’t mean we can’t point you toward a couple of great sites that know their stuff about the local music scene. So we hereby give the linkage love to recently-revamped local music sites Big Yawn and Here’s a Hint.

While both sites talk about music on a national level and review CDs from all sorts of bands, their focus is on the D.C. music scene that is, in our opinion, growing faster than a bunch of horny rabbits. Their missions are similar: Big Yawn says,

The goal here at BigYawn is to create a musical community, a hub of sorts, for the Washington DC area, but also for everyone else. Many of the features and ideas you see on this site can be found in similiar fashion on plenty of other sites, more than a few of which are now empty internet carcasses. No place does it all on one site. We recognize that good music exists everywhere, from major label performers, down to the guy in his basement with a four-track. Regardless of the who and where, we want to tell you about them. Washington has long been a city lacking a musical “scene”. There are pockets of communities and artists, but nothing more far reaching than a few listservs. Our goal is to change that, to bring fans and artists together.