When I was in college at the University of Hartford, there was a group of cool artistic folk who hosted great parties at house that was known as the Weird Diner. The Weird Diner was located about a mile away from the University of Hartford, it smelled like piss and youth angst and would often host new and emerging acts.

After strange noise shows and ambient unpracticed EDM acts that played in a damp basement covered with vinyl records, there was usually a dance party. In addition to the live performances there was a a campfire of sorts, a trampoline, a zip line in the backyard, mattresses in strange places and enough beer for a small army. I had only gone to a few shows/parties there but I often thought of them as some the most interesting parties I went to while in college.

While I had been to house shows in DC that were relics of the hardcore days, I somehow at the time thought this sort of scene could only be sustained. The Weird Diner was my first exposure to a DIY show scene that could grow organically. I viewed the people who lived there as being on another plane of cool than I was on.

Recently, I had started to hear buzz about a new band that had a lovely noisy sound that drew influence from Dinosaur Jr called California X. I was not shocked to learn that these folks had come from the same social circle that ran the Weird Diner when I was in college.

I listened to a stream of California X’s new self titled album today and it is one of the better albums I have heard in a while. On Tuesday January 15th, California X will be playing with local favorites Priests and a new band with a cleaver Pixies inspired name Gouge Away at Smash! Records in Adams Morgan at 7pm for $5.

About a year ago or so I started seeing Dot Dash listed as an opener for various different acts around town. Immediately I was curious about this band, since they were named after one of my favorite songs by the British art punk band Wire. I have often thought of the Dot Dash as my ideal for a perfect pop song that was way ahead of its time.

About 2 weeks ago, when I went to see Youth Brigade I noticed the drummer banging on a drum kit that was labeled with a logo that said “Dot Dash” only further fueling my intrigue for this band. I started looking into them further and discovered that it includes members of two bands I adore Youth Brigade and Swervedriver.

On Friday, Dot Dash sent me a copy of their album which can be streamed here. On a related note, if you are in a band that you think I will like and you are from DC or playing DC soon please get in touch with my by e-mailing jessica.garson@gmail.com.

I had a chance to listen to the album Winter Garden Light on Sunday, and I felt the same way I did the first time I heard the classic album Naturaliste by indie pop legends The Lucksmiths. The album flows nicely from track to track, each song is well constructed and evokes the same mood. The standout tracks on the album include Writing on the Wall, and The Past is Another Country.

Next Friday night, dream pop darlings Niki & the Dove are playing at the Rock N Roll Hotel with a wonderful opening band Vacationer. Vacationer has been an up and coming band I’ve been following for awhile.

Vacationer’s lovely blend of unique songs and pop beats make should make for a great show. I’ve had not had the chance to see them live but I’m excited to have the chance to soon.

You check out the Body Language remix of the song Trip here:

Niki & the Dove are just great and I am excited to see them as well. Check out their song Tomorrow here:

This should be a great show.

Britpop legends Pulp have always been a band, I admired and looked up to. I was excited to learn of the release of a new song for the first time in 1o years. “After You” was originally recorded in 2000 at London’s Wessex Studios. This song was recently revamped with the help of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. It was given to attendees of the Sheffield, UK homecoming show as a gift. I already can’t stop listening to this song.

My prediction for 2013, is that we will see a lot of new songs by older legends. I am excited to hear new music by old favorites in the upcoming year.

I was working on a list of my favorite shows of 2012, I had a list of about 23 shows I truly enjoyed from a Propaghandi show when I was responding to work related e-mails from the middle of a mosh pit days before the election to a lovely sweaty 4th of July basement show that included a vegan potluck. I soon realized it was too hard to narrow down those moments. On top of that I was giddy with excitement for upcoming shows.

In the final days of 2012, I was lucky enough to score tickets to go to both of the of the Salad Days shows where I saw Kingface, Dag Nasty, Black Market Baby, Youth Brigade (DC not LA), Government Issue, and Scream. The shows were packed with a mix of aging former punks who were the age of my mother and young teens excited to be seeing bands they only read about.

The first night, Kingface played their 80s dad rock inspired brand of punk rock that seemed to be wonderful opener for show. Dag Nasty followed with anthem style punk that makes you want to raise your fist into the air and sing lyrics like “But I can’t watch and not be heard”. For me seeing Dag Nasty preform the songs Circles and Never Look Back were powerful and fierce experiences. The crowd seemed to thin out for Black Market Baby, maybe it’s because they were one of the few DC hardcore that were never on Dischord. Boyd Farrell came out in a burgundy and gold shirt that said “I Hate Dallas”, that barely covered his Redskins tattoo. They played their British punk inspired populist tunes including my personal favorite White Boy Funeral.

The second night, Youth Brigade opened the night. I think they were the band I was most excited to see purely because I never thought they would reunite. They always seemed to blend in the crowd of bands at that time and discussed as an afterthought. I always thought their sound was emblematic and just as good if not better than most of the bands at the time. Government Issue played a solid and entertaining set. Scream seemed to have the swagger of any of the bands in this show and Still Screaming and the cameo of HR playing a song in a Dolly Parton wig.

After two nights of seeing the Salad Days shows, I went to the venue formally known as the Wilson Center to see the Evens. Ian MacKaye started the show by telling everyone that after also attending the same two shows, he felt they were “pornographic with cameras” and that we should stop looking at our phones and live in the moment. I found not looking at my phone particularly challenging for the lovely hour of wonderful music. For me, I could not resist taking instagram photo of Youth Brigade and posting it to twitter. On one hand, I really do look at my phone too much but sometimes it’s hard to break away.

I started this blog as a way to document the music scene in DC, and I hope to post on a more consistent basis in the new year.

10. Lunacy- Swans

The No Wave band Swans have returned with an album filled with heavy powerful songs. Lunacy is the opening track and it hits you quite hard while at times embracing the power of the soft spoken lyrics that come off sounding like a prayer at points.

9. Sooner or Later- The Evens

The new album from The Evens just came out and it is fulled with infectious songs that get stuck in your head for days at a time. Sooner or Later is the standout track for me of a great album.

8. Greyhound by Ghost Mice

One of my favorite moments this year was seeing Ghost Mice at the DC Radical Space. This was a small show in a very small venue. Their new album was released that day and it has become one of my favorites. Greyhound is my favorite track from the album.

7. Juicy J Can’t by Juicy J

You may be wondering what the rapper Juicy J is doing the middle of my top 10 list for the year. While this song is certainly an outlier, every so often a song does strike me that is outside of my normal listening patterns. This song is wonderful and absurd.

6. Sunset by The XX

This is the best song to make out to that has come out in years. I advise you to find someone pretty and play this song.

5. Cinder Machine by Regents

Cinder Machine is a short but heavy song with loud driving drum beats. I have been lucky enough to see Regents at DC9 this year and I encourage you to check them out if you have not done so.  I expect to hear more from Regents in the upcoming year. You can hear the song here.

4. Dead in the Road by Beasts of No Nation

I always have a soft spot for music from DC and Beasts of No Nation are pretty much the best of whats around these days. Dead in the Road was the first song that truly stood out to me on their wonderful full length album. Beasts of No Nation represents everything I love about the DC music scene.

3. Kenosha by Swearin’

I first saw Swearin’ at the Dollhouse on a rainy May night this year. I was impressed by Swearin’ and as soon as I got home I bought their album.  Kenosha is a simple break up song that is easy to relate to.I must have played the song on repeat for about 2 hours when I first listened to their self titled album.

2. Identifiers by Trophy Wife

The first time I heard this song was at the Rocketship for their 4th of July party, which Trophy Wife played. I was standing in the front row, and I could not stop my body from bobbing along with the beat. There is a sense of power conveyed in this song, which I have not heard in a long time. Identifiers is the opening track of what is a truly great album.

1. Wasted Days by Could Nothings

I had pretty much given up on modern music and I was starting to think nothing good could be made anymore when I heard this track. I had previously dismissed Cloud Nothings as average stripped down garage rock, but this song shows that they are able of being so much more. A friend of mine referred to this song as “gloomcore”, the sadness on the record radiates making this one of the best songs I have heard in years.

Photo by Farrah Skeiky

So, Jess went to Divine Fits and I went to see OFF! for the 5th time. Here’s what I saw.

DCist’s Rohan Mahadevan quipped during his post for OFF!’s Song of the Day that the $17 price tag would equal out to a dollar per each minute of OFF!’s set. The set actually clocked in at 38 minutes, which, while more than double the original estimate, is still a pretty short time onstage. However, that brief period was super condensed with twenty-four songs, a handful of diatribes from Keith Morris and an overdose of energy.

Holy hell, the energy. It seems like OFF! has been to town two or three times a year over the past couple of years, so the setlist hasn’t really changed that much, but neither has the furious stage presence. Dimitri Coats and Steven MacDonald tossed their bodies around stage, threatening to run into singer Keith Morris, who himself showed from the opening songs that he still has good ups, leaping around before landing and barking out lyrics, eyes wide with urgency. There was often little more than a second-long break before the band lunged into its next 90-second head rush.

Unless of course, Morris had something to say. These segues occurred three or four times during the set and due to the velocity of the rest of the night, some members of the crowd got impatient as Morris furrowed his brow and exercised his Punk Elder Statesmen muscles. This is to say, he vehemently encouraged everyone to vote and broke up a fight using similar phrasing and tone that a kindergarten teacher might use to break up two tussling children.

“You don’t need to push her,” Morris interjected. “That doesn’t work.” Of course, no teacher has ever written a song called “Fuck People.”

Last night, Southern Problems hosted a record release show at the Dunes in celebration of their new album Space. I thought about going but lately, I have been very busy with work and my free time is not as plentiful as it once was. Going to this show, was on thing that just did not happen last night. You may have noticed I have not been writing as frequently as I once was, nor have been updating the weekly picks section in the way that I have. As some of you may know, I work in politics and I tend to be very busy. The election is on November 6th and on November 8th, I am going to go India for three weeks. Please feel free to send me content to put up, I love guest posts.

Southern Problems was the first DC band I fall in love with in a long time. When I first launched this blog, they were one of the first bands I wanted to write about. I have known about their plans for a new album for sometime now, and to be completely honest I have seen them so many times that I was not expecting the album to sound much different than the wonderful live show they put on.

Today, I finally had the time to listen to the new album found on their website. I was listening to the commentary from the space jump, and forgot to turn it off. I was trying to figure out how they knew the space jump was going to happen the same day, the day after the released their new album, but it turns out that was just my error.

One of the things I love about Southern Problems, is that they always seem to be so happy and joyful to be playing together. However the strange thing is that their songs are very dark. The sound is upbeat with lyrics like “Lets celebrate the good times are over”,  or “It’s not going to get brighter, it’s not going to be okay”, but they are about as far away as you can get from happy songs. I thinks its the inherent juxtaposition in their music that makes them so intriguing.

It’s very rare, that an album has a theme and runs with it the whole time. And while the album clearly is about space, with song titles like moon people it’s also about urban decay, and the ideas that technology can only take us so far to solve the problems of modern society.

Highlights of the album include the track Jennifer, which is the perfect pop song and Verdun which is strong and edgy. I also have adored the opening track, Liftoff since the first time I heard it live and it sounds  great recorded.

I had the chance to see Southern Problems grow, and I expect to see great things from them in the future. As work picks up, and I need to spend more hours in front of my computer than I wish to, I plan on listening to this album over and over again.

You may be surprised to hear I like Bruce Springsteen. My musical taste is not limited to punk rock and sometimes it’s shockingly mainstream. Bruce Springsteen is an artist, I grew up listening to and have always enjoyed.

When I was 14, I was given Born in the USA by my parents I was impressed and fell in love with the song Darlington County. Someone told me that if that song was my favorite I should really own the album Nebraska. I asked my brother to buy me the album for my birthday that year and it was the only album I played for the rest of that year.

Last Friday, I went with my boyfriend and his parents to see Bruce Springsteen at Nationals Stadium was the perfect meet the parents date. Bruce Springsteen really should be around for all those awkward moments in life.

I really wanted to hear Atlantic City and my boyfriend wanted to hear Jungleland. Bruce did not play ether of those songs but he did play a bunch of songs off of the shockingly good new album Wrecking Ball, Thunder Road, Johnny 99, and Darlington County.

While I personally would have preferred to see Bruce Springsteen at a place Wasted Dream. I am well aware that would never happen and sometimes arena rock has it’s time and place. I had a great time singing and dancing to songs that everyone knows the words to.

Bloc Party at the 930 Club

When I lived in London, Banquet was the number one song on the charts. Every time I hear Bloc Party I am reminded of those days. Before I even went to London, I had heard Silent Alarm, and feel in love with a pop sound clearly influenced by post punk legends Wire and Gang of Four.

Ceremony was the opener, and I came into the show wanting to be angry at them. I adore the album Violence Violence, but their new album Zoo released on Matador seems to be closer to the sound of Bloc Party than the hardcore sound I love. While if they just released Zoo, I would have liked them because they are incredibly talented musicians. However, I simply do not comprehend why a band would not want to sound like hardcore.

Ceremony played so well that I could not be mad at them for very long. They played a few hardcore songs, and payed respect to the city they were in by covering Minor Threat and giving a shout out to Dischord records.

Seeing Bloc Party was simply great. Everyone was dancing in unison. The thing about Bloc Party was that they knew what they were doing. The crowd and the band were feeding off of each other and I don’t think I have ever had that much fun dancing at the 930 club before.

Purity Ring at the Rock and Roll Hotel

I always like unique sounds. I am sucker for anything that sounds new and different while pretty at the same time. Purity Ring has been a new band I have been enjoying and I was impressed seeing them last night.

While if I had rank the sold out shows I have been to in the past week, I would rank this third, the show they put on was visually stunning. The music Purity Ring creates is unique but approachable enough to pack the Rock and Roll hotel.

Also, I realized last night that I need to go more shows where I can dance. While, I do dance at punk shows, it is usually not the same as seeing bands like Bloc Party or Purity Ring.