It didn’t take long for the local media to catch wind of The Roosevelt (***) after their conception in 2006 and the release of their EP. This hidden gem of the D.C. music scene presented a finely crafted and extremely catchy first album, with comparisons in sound to mainstream acts such as Wilco and Elliot Smith.

Although 2007 was met with a few unforeseen circumstances holding them back, Jon Mosher (guitar/vocals), Sam Mitchell (guitar), Scott Remley (bass) and Chris Carney (drums) have recently recorded a slew of new demos – which you can hear on their MySpace page – and they’ll be performing one of their first shows of 2008 at the Rock & Roll Hotel Saturday night with a lineup of top local acts. But these new beginnings also mark an end for their drummer, as this will be his final performance with the band.

It had been a while so we took time to catch up with Jon Mosher and see what was up The Roosevelt before their show on Saturday.

The last time DCist spoke formally with you guys was way back in 2006. Can you fill us in (briefly) on 2007? How was the past year for you guys as a band?

Last year was something of a disaster, but in the best way possible. Our drummer got in a fight with a mountain and lost – that was back in August 2006 – requiring shoulder surgery in early 2007, and then I got sick this past summer knocking me out of action for the remainder of the fall. The silver lining was that it forced us to focus on fine-tuning our older songs, and gave me loads of time at home where I just started writing and writing a slew of new songs.

So it’s now 2008. We’ve got a ton of new tunes to play. We’re very excited to get back on stage.