As many as 30,000 people are expected to crowd the National Mall tomorrow, and while the forecast is for rain, don’t expect this bunch to pray for sunny skies—they’re atheists, after all.

FRIDAY: >> Two shows for DAM! Fest tonight, with events at Rock and Roll Hotel and the Red and the Black. The former includes an appearance by recent Three Stars subject the Beanstalk Library, plus The Exit, Dragons of Zynth and The Teeth. Stick around for the free afterparty, We Fought the Hej, a combo of two of our favorite DJ nights, Hej Hej and We Fought the Big One. >> Don’t forget to check…

Continuing what we started yesterday, here’s a little glimpse into some of this weekend’s DAM Fest bands. Plan your schedule with the help of these handy dandy sample tracks and pertinent info from our crack music staff. Bleeder Resistor Featuring buzzsaw guitars, hoarse-voiced catchy shout-alongs and a mandate of faster and louder, Bleeder Resistor are out to keep the capital “DC” in HarDCore. At a time when most bands are trying to emphasize the “post”…

Whoooooosh! What’s that giant sucking sound? Oh yeah – it’s the sweet reverberation of another record store totally biting it and going out of business in this era of iTunes. In this case, we’ve got Tower Records bowing out of the business, a fact that, though it feels inevitable, saddens us all the same. According to an AP article that ran in the Post,On Friday, after a 29-hour auction, most of the bankrupt music retailer’s…