This is the second installment of December’s Three Stars. Yesterday, we covered The Bonapartes, and tomorrow we’ll be discussing LeJeune. Today, we bring you The Lucky Bastards.

The Lucky Bastards

DCist caught The Lucky Bastards at a laid-back show at the Black Cat one cold, late November evening. Having gone into the show not knowing much about the band, we came out pleasantly surprised at the group’s ability to comfortably mix sounds from 70s-tinged soul, to funk tunes, to straight-up indie rock. Brothers Phil and Derrick Martin, homegrown fellows who say everything in the district from living in southeast to hanging out at go-go clubs has influenced their music, brought an easy-going and humorous presence to the stage, tempered by Phil’s seriously gravelly voice. The Black Cat backstage, normally a magnet for skinny indie hipsters in tight t-shirts, was filled with an ethnically and stylistically diverse crowd who responded enthusiastically to the tunes.

The Lucky Bastards’ first full-length album is titled “Hikikomori,” the Japanese word for social withdrawal and self-imposed isolation in adolescents. The band says they chose the title primarily to convey the experience of growing up and maturing in D.C., a city that can both isolate and inspire. Phil chatted with DCist over email about the band’s origins, divergent musical influences and how “Hikikomori” is a “macabre love song” to the district.