Please excuse the brief interruption to our regularly scheduled programming: DCist is looking to hire a new weekend editor. This is a paid, part-time freelance position.

Not to butt into today’s important stories about panda dancing, mail trucks and free french fries or anything — but I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass along the news that my predecessor, DCist editor emeritus Sommer Mathis, has been named the new Editorial Director at Washingtonian.com. Sommer’s actually the second DCist alum to take the editorial reins at Washingtonian, joining former editor Catherine Andrews — she tells me that, in addition to working on…

The DCist music staff had a busy year in 2010. In between interviewing dozens of local and touring acts and keeping everyone abreast of events like benefits and record fairs, our writers and photographers covered 97 concerts. 97! So, in addition to reliving some of our favorite moments via the great work of our photographers, we’d like to recognize the performers who came into our venues and made our jaws hit the floor. These were the events that made our feet sore, our ears ring and our hearts swell with the sort of pride and joy that we had been there. These are my top twenty D.C. area shows of 2010.

Three albums in, you know what to expect from UK quartet Editors. Big, anthemic rock delivered with sincerity and gusto by Tom Smith’s eerily Ian Curtis-like voice. The group’s latest effort, In This Light and On This Evening, neatly sidesteps “The Difficult Third Album” curse that seems to plague British bands (Intimacy, anyone?) focusing this time on “dark disco,” with brooding synth lines and big beat drum tracks. The band’s confidence in their material is…

Formed by four friends at Staffordshire Univeristy in England, Editors have taken the UK music scene by storm since releasing their debut single in January of 2005. Their brand of dramatic, moody gloom-rock has won over critics and audiences alike all over the world. Their debut album was nominated for the UK’s Mercury Prize and their follow-up, An End Has A Start, went straight to the top of the UK charts. The band is…