With jambalaya simmering in the corner, and people waiting in line to get a haircut, you wouldn’t have thought you were in a bar, let alone at a rock show. But last week, upstairs from haircut-and-a-shot night, The Red & The Black was in fact hosting a lineup of several very different styles of local music. Despite a modest midweek crowd — consisting mostly of other bands — one group from Baltimore introduced a unique…

Good morning, Washington. The weather-related headlines today are all generally pretty disappointing — The Post proclaims that “Rain Likely to Dampen Area But Not Douse the Drought”, and others have followed suit. But waving like a lone reed in the pessimistic sands of weather prognostication is CapitalWeather.com, who just minutes ago put up a prediction, based on a brand new model, suggesting that “several factors are finally lining up to bring the potential for…

Written by DCist Contributor Stephanie Taylor Mark Andersen came to Washington decades ago as a student of international relations, but was heartbroken by what he saw right in his own backyard. What he describes as the distance between the city’s idealism and its reality, particularly in terms of radical income disparities and the effects of historic racism, were too much for him to ignore. So he became a different type of diplomat, founding Positive Force…

Monday >> Canada’s post-punk four piece Uncut just released their latest album Modern Currencies in the U.S. on July 17th and will be at DC9 tonight with special guest Patrick Krief of The Dears. Just like their name says, they are raw: loud, bold, and off the wall. Check out the stopmotion animated video for their recent single, “Darkhorse” which includes a fire bombing Ronald McDonald and an army of pissed off Care Bears. 8p.m.,…

We really enjoy giving away free stuff, and so apparently do your favorite local bands. That’s why we got together with Cedars to arrange for an EP and ticket giveaway to their show tonight with Scotland’s the Cinematics and Chicago’s the Changes at the Rock and Roll Hotel! Who loves ya? DCist loves ya. We’ve been big fans of the band since way back in the days when they had a different name and played…

MONDAY As a part of its ongoing “Face It: We Are Probably All Going To Die or at the Very Least, Suffer Immeasurably” Series, Politics and Prose kicks off the week with a visit from Stephen Flynn, author of The Edge of Disaster, which, apparently, we are teetering on (cf. “all going to die,” “suffer immeasurably”). Also: CSI: Miami is on tonight! 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7 p.m. TUESDAY The art of letter writing is…

Hoyas Bully the Irish Georgetown came into Saturday’s contest with Notre Dame after a successful, if underwhelming non-conference season. After starting the year with high hopes and a top ten ranking, three early losses pushed them off the national radar and out of the rankings. ND, however, was so hot they were smokin’, and riding a 12-game winning streak to a #17 ranking. But after a 66-48 thrashing of the Irish at the Verizon Center,…

We couldn’t help but ask ourselves a few questions after hearing that Matthew Fox would be in D.C. to promote his new movie, We Are Marshall. Did he finally get off the island for the interview, or were we just going to be in another one of his flashbacks? How would we get answers out of a man who spent days refusing to cooperate with “the others” in an old empty shark tank? Would it…

It was quite the party last night at the Black Cat, full of skeezy mustached men (think 70s porn) and hyperactive girls in tutus (think Dakota Fanning plus Red Bull). Under normal circumstances, this is probably a law suit waiting to happen, but it turned out to be one of the most entertaining shows by all three acts on a bill that we have seen in some time. You know you are in for a…

When last we spoke with We Are Scientists, it was October of last year. Their debut album, which already had a few singles in the UK charts, wouldn’t be released in the US until the following January. Since then the band have taken the UK by storm, touring with the likes of Art Brut, Maximo Park and the Arctic Monkeys. Overall, it’s been quite a year for the New York based trio, or so we…