Today’s song of the day, “Ba Ba Ba,” is a highlight from Ugly Purple Sweater’s latest album, Conventions.

Sample some of our favorite quotes from D.C.’s local artists and label heads. This is the year in Three Stars.

For a band that started as a two-piece folk duo, Ugly Purple Sweater has become a genuine pop band with massive vocals and guitar riffs to match their big choruses and occasionally heady subject matter.

The bar space at the Red Palace was warm and cozy last Thursday night, a haven when the rest of H Street was quiet, cold and covered in snow. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. members Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein sat at the bar, part of the crowd that came to escape the elements: Zott in a black sweatshirt, Epstein in a wool sweater. But later and upstairs, in the bar’s performance’s space, flashbulbs and makeshift flares illuminating their NASCAR suits, the two were a dynamic stage duo, commanding the room instead of fading into it.