Not one by two items in this post address the Kings of Leon!

Morning all. Normally my colleague Alex Baca writes the Tuesday roundup, but you've got me instead. Not to worry, Baca fans–she'll be back on roundup duty Thursday.

WaPo's Anne Midgette has got the scoop on the Washington National Opera's lineup for the 2011-12 season. The WNO will open with Tosca in September; other works include Werther and, for the first time at the WNO, Verdi's Nabucco. Guest performers include "opera's preeminent dramatic soprano" Deborah Voigt and "the world's most glamorous opera star" Angela Gheorghiu. What's with these divas and their taglines?

If you had plans to go to Coachella in April but held off on buying your tickets, well, you're SOL now. The three-day hipster paradise, with scheduled performers including Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Kings of Leon, and the Strokes, has sold out less than a week after tickets went on sale.

Although, if you've already bought your tickets, hopefully you didn't buy it based solely on the Kings of Leon. (I mean, with the other aforementioned acts, plus acts like Raphael Saadiq, the New Pornographers, Brandon Flowers, Duran Duran, Sleigh Bells, and about a thousand more, of course you didn't.) They've postponed their March tour of Australia and South Africa; drummer Nathan Followil tweeted that following surgery, "My bum wing needs more time to heal."

TBD offers self-proclaimed "exhaustive coverage" of Snooki's appearance at the Washington Auto Show. I guess that's one way you can tell that this town is hard up for the appearance of actual celebrities.

Fret not, Muhsinah fans. The D.C.-born Howard University graduate has not gone into witness protection.

Instead, the versatile singer/songwriter has taken it back to basics and repackaged herself as "safia" to acknowledge a transition to electronic pop music, somewhat removed from the experimental soul for which Muhsinah is known.

Before I confuse things further, you should know that Safia—which means "pure" in Arabic—is her middle name. As for her decision to record under a different name, safia says there was no "ah-ha" moment, no epiphany, no bolt of lightning.

"It was time to strip everything down and come with the most honest perspective I could," safia told me on Wednesday. "safia is more who I am than anything else."

It's been almost one year since Muhsinah released The Oscillations: Triangle, a quirky, distinctive album that fiddled with atmospheric arrangements and experimental break beats. A year before that, she was an integral part of The Foreign Exchange's landmark Leave It All Behind, and earned a Grammy nomination for her performance on "Daykeeper," the album's opener.

While Muhsinah says she is proud of her work under that moniker, safia's music will be laced with live instruments, not sample-heavy beats. On Tuesday, safia released her cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody"—the first of a few covers she plans to release by year's end. safia also plans to drop an EP in the next few months.

Local artist Kelly Towles recently created a mural at 12th and W streets NW, which is captured in this video, also featuring a very adorable child and my third favorite Beirut song. Via the President Wears Prada:

Photographer Jake McGuire might be the Thomas Kinkade of patriotic office art—he peddles his unadorned (read: artless) shots of the U.S. Capitol, D.C.'s monuments, and other federal fixtures to Congressmen and various other notables, reports Style's Monica Hesse:

"I have about 10 that I sell over and over again," McGuire says. He talks very fast, very smiley. "Mostly it's the Capitol — anything that alludes to the business of the Capitol. I don't do a lot of photos of the White House." The White House is too partisan.

When he does sell shots of the White House, the buyers want to be very clear on the circumstances of the shot. "They want to know if it was taken during a Republican or Democrat administration. I try to size them up before answering." There was this one lady who looked like she'd stepped out of a Brooks Brothers catalogue — very country-club chic. He assured her that the White House photo in question was taken during a Republican's tenure, only to have her indignantly tell him that she voted for the other guy. No sale.

Also: The Post's Weekend section reminds you that 14th Street NW exists, while the Washington Examiner fails to remind you that the "ultrahot" Kings of Leon recently found themselves shat upon. Writes Nancy Dunham: "Of course opening for such powerhouse rockers at U2, Bob Dylan and Pearl Jam has also added to the band's popularity. Not that the Kings of Leon only gear the music arena-size crowds (sic) — the band has ensured that their music has an intimacy, thanks to lyrics that read almost like vignettes, that translates beyond heavy-duty rock shows. The band members have said they try to construct songs that will last beyond the initial buzz around the band, giving their group longevity." Oh.

*The 2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival line-up was announced yesterday over a painstakingly long unveiling process. Some of the artists for the four-day Tennessee-based festival include: Kings of Leon (the first band to go from a tent stage to a headliner), Dave Matthews Band, Phoenix, Jay-Z, Norah Jones, The xx, Stevie Wonder, Zac Brown Band, LCD Soundsystem, Jeff Beck, Weezer, She & Him, The Flaming Lips, Ingrid Michaelson, Kid Cudi, and D.C. native Wale.

*Lil Wayne's planned trip to jail for attempted gun possession yesterday was postponed because of dental surgery. I'm thinking the diamond-encrusted grills may have had something to do with it. He is now set to head to prison March 2.

*Country superstar Dolly Parton said she is considering having White Stripes' frontman Jack White produce her next album. It wouldn't be White's first foray into the old country music scene; he's worked with legends like Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson before.

*It's confirmed that Tom Cruise will star in and produce the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible series. J.J. Abrams won't be directing again, but will likely stay on board as a producer with Cruise. (Also seeing its fourth movie installment? Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove — yes, there was more than one — is getting ready for release in March. The newest film stars Bindi Irwin, Beau Bridges, and, naturally, a giant killer whale.)

*Ellen DeGeneres made her debut as a judge on American Idol last night. I am torn as to whether this is the best or worst thing she's ever done for her career. (I'm leaning towards the latter.)

*Former I Love New York 2 reality show contestant Jamal Rashead Trulove was convicted of murder. Guess it wasn't "trulove" after all.

*Tonight in City Lights: authors Joanna Smith Rakoff and Dylan Landis read from their respective debut novels, A Fortunate Age and Normal People Don't Live Like This at the Arts Club of Washington.

“I’m having a lot more fun than I thought I would,” said Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followhill, sweat dripping down his newly trim hair into his stern blue eyes. “I thought you like, wouldn’t be here, or, wouldn’t know who were were, or...”

He said this to a crowd of at least 7,000 bellowing fans Tuesday at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, where the Kings played a two hours of pulsing pop rock, roughly half of which were off their most recent album, Only By the Night. Caleb and his band of tightly jeansed kinfolk might have acted surprised by the high squeal factor of the boiling sea of an audience—which appeared equal parts sleeveless dudes and doe-eyed girls (the one in front of me was wearing a shirt reading “It’s my baby!” and nearly had a conniption fit when the guys played “Knocked Up” during their encore set)—but given the band’s arena-rock turn on its latest record, this is the sort of crowd they should learn to expect.

We missed the first few songs due to car trouble and an overcrowded lot that forced us and the other latecomers into an office park about a quarter mile away, but the song that played our arrival—“Fans”—seemed apropos as we politely elbowed our way into the pavilion. “Fans,” from the third album, Because of the Times, is a model of form following function—a bouyant pop paean that instructs its muses to “rock to the rhythm and bop to the beat of the radio.” Votaries from the band's earlier, indier years years might have preferred the Kings not embrace the idea of radio pop so openly, but the adoring masses at Merriweather cheered wildly at this and other new-fan favorites such as “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” the display screens on their digital cameras glowing like moon jellies.

Their stoic stage presence notwithstanding, the Kings went big and they went loud, Caleb hitting the rockstar notes with his simultaneously torn-up and pitch-perfect voice. “This is the most fun I’ve had at a show in a long time,” Caleb said as the set drew toward the end. “That means we’re going to come back real soon.” I swear I felt the cheers resonate in my kidneys. Native sons of the American South and pop idols in the U.K., it appeared by night’s end as though the Kings of Leon had successfully made a fiefdom of Maryland.

Footage from those moon-jelly digicams is all over YouTube, but the ear-caving volume of the show made for a lot of clipping. The below video was taken from far enough away to capture the audio pretty well, if you don't mind getting seasick. For the full effect, plug your computer into a speaker stack and swallow it.