Western pop music, says producer Johan Karlberg, “wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t influenced by African or Middle Eastern music. But if you argue too much about these things, you’re thinking too hard and not listening.”

Karlberg is Swedish, Etienne Tron (his partner in the production duo Radioclit) is French, singer Esau Mwamwaya is Malawian, and all three live in London and work together as the Very Best. On a buzz-generating mixtape last year, the trio collaborated with indie rockers who draw from African pop styles like highlife and soukous (Vampire Weekend and the Ruby Suns) and a pair of alt-minded rappers with world-spanning tastes (M.I.A. and Santigold). Mwamwaya sang in at least four languages. And Radioclit took samples from as diverse sources as Architecture in Helsinki, Hans Zimmer, Cannibal Ox, and the Free Willy theme song.

So the Very Best—which performs tonight at DC9 with Javelin—has heard plenty of arguments about globalization and appropriation and authenticity, and could probably debate them all day. But the more you intellectualize music, Karlberg says, the more meaningless it can become. Life’s too short not to dance.

And not just dance, but smile.

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Al Cisneros got a haircut, Chris Hakius morphed into Emil Amos (pictured above), and Robert Lowe of Lichens sat in on guitar, keys, and percussion. Om is very different now than they were when they last played D.C. Some growing pains were evident as the sound was rough and some of the pieces seemed a little sloppy. Still, with Cisneros staring wide-eyed at nothing while slamming his palm against his bass and Amos bashing the skins as gleefully as Hakius used to, it’s hard not to be transfixed by this band.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

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“We’re trying to have fun right now and not make it too serious,” Travis “Cobruhhh” Jackson, the drummer of D.C.’s noisiest party punkers The Points said yesterday, discussing the pitfalls of long-distance rock ‘n’ roll — Jackson moved to Blacksburg, Va., not long ago, and his bandmate, guitarist and singer George “Geo” White, now lives in Chicago. The geographic disruption may mean more planning, fewer shows, and less spontaneity, but to hear Jackson tell it, the band’s hard-partying (and, more centrally, hard-drinking) ethos remains the same.

The Points dropped a new seven-inch single this week on Jackson’s own Windian Records (City Paper’s own Aaron Leitko recently reviewed the six-minute song “Shout” for Pitchfork), and Geo and Cobruhhh are celebrating tomorrow night at DC9. After the jump, my condensed interview with Jackson.

Read More ““We’re Alcoholics”: A Quick Q&A With The Points” »

This week the acclaimed funk monthly Moneytown is expanding from its regular Dahlek location as to better accommodate one of the legends of hip hop production – Papa Prince Paul. The Dew Doo Man will join regular DJ Nightkrawler on Saturday to crank out a string of classic and/or impossibly rare funk jams. Proceeds from the event will go towards Paul’s still lingering debt from that Turtles lawsuit.

“This is Africa music,” vocalist Kofi Cromwell proclaimed last night, moments after taking DC9’s stage with the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. There was something didactic, maybe even ambassadorial, about the Chicago quintet’s hour-long set—the singer often shared nuggets about his band’s songs and their Ghanaian roots—but mostly, Cromwell and Co. just wanted the small audience to lose its shit and get down.

Which, often, was very much the case. Whether playing to 15,000 festivalgoers or a half-empty room, Cromwell assured, the Occidental Brothers always give the same—which is to say, their all. For some audience members, the result was some nervous shaking of the hips; at the other extreme was a well-dressed fellow with his power tie fastened around his head, who with his dance partner literally caused the floor to shake.

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For every punk revival, there is a post-punk revival.

If the last post-punk craze, in the first half of this decade, was steeped in acts like Joy Division and Josef K, then their headier cousins—Wire, Minutemen—fascinate the current crop of bands blending the forward-thinking and the visceral, many of whom are staples of Los Angeles’ all-ages venue The Smell.

None of this name-dropping is to suggest that Abe Vigoda—who played to a half-full DC9 last night; presumably, the absent audience was busy lining up for Harry Potter—is unoriginal. Far from it: This L.A. quartet makes inventively structured, hyperbolic noise pop whose texture and frenzy skirts easy labeling. (If forced, though, I’d place Abe Vigoda more in the company of cross-pollinated experimental acts like Ponytail or Gang Gang Dance than the minimalistic Smell mainstays No Age, its most frequent comparison.)

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To the vociferous power duo Japandroids, rock, it seems, can be an adjective, noun, or verb. In a sprawling set at a nearly packed DC9 last night, the Vancouver band—shambolic, self-conscious, in its best moments inspired—played the bulk of its well-received 2009 debut, Post-Nothing, while rarely failing to remind an appreciative audience just how hard it intended to rock.

To wit: Japandroids’ set was heavy on foreplay and harder on banter, and throughout, guitarist Brian King promised that he and drummer David Prowse would “rock hard,” “commence rock,” and “rock out.” He asked the audience to forgive an obscure tune with “extensive rocking on our behalf,” and seemed to apologize for two concise, angular numbers that, one supposes, didn’t rock hard enough. The audience didn’t mind, of course; they were too busy … well, you know.

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Apparently I picked the worst time possible to take a long weekend and skip town, because for the experimental jazz/rock fan there is something awesome happening every night for the next four nights. Check it out:

• Thursday, April 16: Composer/arranger Ed Palermo will be conducting the U.S. Army Blues ensemble in a program comprised entirely of the music of Frank Zappa. (What.) This takes place at 7:30pm in Brueker Hall at Fort Myer – 400 McNair Road, Fort Myer, VA.
• Friday, April 17: Cuneiform Records artist Beat Circus (Myspace), a rock ensemble whose current lineup includes all kinds of strings and horns (including a tuba), will be at Orion Sound Studios south of Baltimore. Opening is Fern Knight, with whom I’m not familiar but who are described as a mix of “Krautrock, UK folk, and early baroque and renaissance music.” Cool. Orion is at 2903 Whittington Ave., Baltimore, MD. Show at 8pm.
• Saturday, April 18: The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet (Myspace), plus drummer, performing at Orion. This sax quartet has a diverse, fun repertoire that “ranges from New Orleans ’second-line’ to jazz, Afro-Cuban to Balkan, klezmer and beyond.” Show at 8pm.
• Sunday, April 19: Japan’s psychedelic rockers Acid Mothers Temple (Myspace) hit DC9. AMT seems to be constantly on tour, and their shows are semi-legendary for their stoned-out, hazy heaviness. Also, Japanese psych-rock is pretty much just reliably crazy. Show is at 9pm, Sonic Suicide Squad are opening.

Photo of Beat Circus courtesy their Myspace page.

On Sunday night, Pop Cesspool and I walked over to DC9 to check out the Crystal Stilts show only to be faced with a flier on the door telling us that the band had canceled.

The Cesspool was miffed by the sudden no show. So he decided to e-mail the band. One Crystal Stilts member replied. Apparently, the band’s van had broken down.

Slumberland notes that there are more tour dates so maybe you can catch the band in….Lawrence, KS on the 23rd. Or Harrisburg on the 26th.

*photo of Crystal Stilts courtesy of highrize.

Marnie Stern’s last release, This Is It…, has garnered her much critical acclaim, as well as a spot on Pitchfork’s “50 Best Albums of 2008.” This month she kicks off her tour in her native NYC. Wednesday, March 11, she’s set to shred at DC9. Black Plastic Bag had the opportunity to chat with Stern about her craft, her creative partnership with Hella’s Zach Hill, and a new album in the works.

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