As told in the words of the label head and his collaborators and artists, here is the history of Sockets Records.

Hume’s music is incredibly thought-out. It has to be. It’s impossible to combine such disparate influences as prog-rock, free jazz and Afro-beat and achieve such a unique result without putting in significant mental energy. Yet, for all its debt to complex composition, the most impressive thing about Hume’s first fully realized recording, Penumbra, is its keeping of rock and roll’s rawer essence. Penumbra is emotional, but never sterile. As it twists and turns, unearthing new layers as tight polyrhythms give way to grandiose soundscapes, Penumbra still maintains a spirit of spontaneity.

“This is the opposite of how shows in D.C. used to go for us,” said Double Dagger lead singer Nolen Strals, about three songs into their already-sweaty set at Comet Ping Pong on Friday night. Then, as if to differentiate between the quality of past and present, he added, “thank you.”

Photo by erin_m This was a good year for the Three Stars feature. We got to talk with a lot of up and coming local musical acts who specialize in a variety of styles. We foresee great things happening for acts like Pree and Laughing Man, and we even talked to now-Grammy nominee Christylez. Here, we recount some of our favorite moments from Three Stars interviews we conducted this year. The most interesting and…