At its best moments, Infinite Love soars like few albums. Without the weight of drums, bass, vocals, or even standard song structures in the traditional sense, Wong's guitar loops stack like a musical game of Jenga until they topple over, spilling out ear candy for  guitar nerds and more casual sonic adventurers alike. The high points reach for the same hopeful catharsis you might find on an Explosions in the Sky album, though they arrive with less dramatic swoops and more hyperactive histrionics. The most obvious musical parallels are Wong's previous projects, particularly Ecstatic Sunshine, but his style also hearkens back to the more playful work of Ian Williams before he left Don Caballero. Wong crafts a set of precise, mathy licks that warmly weave in and out of each other, and by adding no small amount of delay, makes his single instrument sound massive. When he reaches the fullest, richest set of polyrhythms he can piece together, the song peaks and he moves onto something new.

The trouble with this record is not a lack of brilliant climaxes, though; it's a lack of restraint. Infinite Love will be released physically as  a double LP, and the digital version contains two nearly identical records (a brother and sister side). Each begins and ends the same way, but they take different twists and turns in the middle—neither have any individual track titles. In theory, this allows the listener the option of choosing which version of the record they prefer. It's an interesting attempt at playing with the idea of an album, but with 80 minutes of pure guitar looping and delay pedal tricks (with only very occasional drum machines), it easily becomes tedious.

There are mountains of unique ideas on this record, and the best ones are really exceptional, but given that the self-imposed limitations on the album already create a certain amount of repetition, having tracks from the first disc actually repeat on the second disc seems remarkably unnecessary. Of course, an experimental, instrumental solo album is naturally going to come with a fair amount of concept-heavy self-indulgence. If you can make it past that, there are plenty of highlights. When Wong is nailing it, he does so epiphanically—it's like the otherworldly, intellectual feel of a Terry Riley composition that slowly rises up and takes you somewhere strange and exciting. Not too many folks reach those heights, and if getting there requires sitting through a few sections that feel a little too infinite, it just might be worth it.

Infinite Love is out today on Thrill Jockey.

Dustin Wong is set to release a very long, very intricate solo album, Infinite Love, on Oct. 5. The Ponytail guitarist—a band that has either broken up or is on some kind of Fugazi-style hiatus—is not one to mess around. Infinite Love contains two tracks each roughly 40 minutes long, each containing a dizzying flow of notes that are looped over and over. The effect is either ridiculously high-end twee prog or the best instrumental record we've heard since Papa M's Live From A Shark Cave (1999). Wong proves that two hours of guitar loops don't have to be dull exercises. They can be ecstatic and joyful, and, yes, jaw dropping. Go see Wong and his guitar pedals at the Velvet Lounge tonight.

So, when does the bowtie get its chance to go viral? (Image via Crispy on the Outside)

Good morning, D.C. elite! Yesterday, POLITICO failed to acknowledge that D.C. is a real place with, you know, real unemployment problems, and made the sweeping generalization that people are getting that money with no trouble around here. Since that’s clearly not true, let’s reclaim their totally absurd “D.C. elite” label for ourselves, why don’t we?

Missed out on the Smithsonian’s bhangra fun at Freer Sackler? ReadySetDC has you covered. Looks like the most vibrant evening the Smithsonian has ever seen. How about Bryan Weaver's campaign video? Looks like Jim Graham's bowtie has got some stiff competition.

Prince of Petworth notes that Busboys & Poets at 5th and K got upgraded, inside and out: That amorphous yellow sculpture got some landscaping, and the restaurant itself expanded. Does this mean you’ll, for once, get a table upon entry (this reporter has doubts)? Over on H Street, Biergarten Haus is hosting its first-ever trivia night, and DCist checks in on new Hirshhorn additions.

The Guardian reports that Fugazi is making moves. Despite no official announcement from Dischord, Guy Picciotto told World of Fugazi the band has been digitizing their archive. The content—show recording—will ultimately be available for download. The Guardian speculates the release of the archive could be well-timed with another announcement: that the legendary punk group, which never officially disbanded, could be reuniting...perhaps.

Way up in our neighbor to the north (er, Baltimore), Dan Deacon announces that this year’s Whartscape will be the last. That means you should bust your corduroy- and flannel-ensconced butt to Charles Street for one last round of cassette singles—and the girl from Ponytail treating an entire parking lot to her dolphin yelps. But, there’s hope yet for Wham City devotees: Deacon mentions Whartscape could evolve into an “outdoor festival with camping.” It’s the summer camp hipsters dream about.

Here on Arts Desk, Ramon Ramirez says Rick Ross’ Teflon Don is full of “monstrous, blockhead” bangers, but that’s a good thing. Jon Fischer digs up Hitler’s downfall in the face of Nadastrom, and notes that the controversial Imagining Madoff will open this week in New York. Jason Cox discovers that, on top of, like, making phone calls and stuff, your smartphone now functions as a show flyer. How novel!

With the 2008 release of Ice Cream Spiritual!, Ponytail experienced a textbook case of Web-launched ascendancy: They've gotten plugs everywhere. But singer Molly Siegel's erratic pulsations and escapist chanting make the Baltimore foursome bigger than the Stereogum hype.

Along with drummer Jeremy Hyman's roto tom lightening speed shredding and the crafty, conversant guitar work of both Dustin Wong and Ken Seeno, Ponytail brought curious back-of-the-crowd dwellers up front and moved the Tenleytown spiritual basement to cathartic gyrations.

The no-stage floor setup was a good fit for Siegel, as she pushed through the arm-to-arm crowd and grabbed on to kids in the front row, almost as if she were christening them.

The songs transitioned with bouts of dizzying guitar loops and crescendoing delay bleeps. Siegel was laconic when she wasn't singing, saving her weeping/screaming non sequiturs for Ponytail's anthems.

The set was a part of American University's Capitol Punishment series, a semester-long group of free shows orchestrated by AU's student-run radio station, WVAU.

D.C.'s Mittenfields opened the night with Radiohead-influenced indie alt-pop (including a cover of "Bones") and the Screaming Females turned up the volume with one screaming female's howling vibrato and classic rock soloing. Instrumentally, the trio's stoner bass trilling and slow tempo pacing draws from late '60s Black Sabbath projects, but they break out of low-tempo with high-energy, in-your-face riot girl/poppy punk rock hooks. The band is currently on tour backing new LP, Power Move, and in May they'll play Big Bear Cafe.

Photos by Andrew Merrill

Saturday

• Deleted Scenes, The Drones, Pretty & Nice (mainstage); 100th BLISS Dance Party w/ DJ Will Eastman (backstage). Black Cat. $12/$7. All ages.
• WVAU presents Capitol Punishment VI w/ Ponytail, Screaming Females, Mittenfields. American University Kay Spiritual Life Center. FREE. All ages.
• Honor By August CD Release w/ The Alternate Routes, The Ruse, Melodime. 9:30 club. $15. All ages.
• Asobi Seksu, Tyvjk, Detox Retox. Rock and Roll Hotel. $12. All ages.
• TK Webb & the Visions, Appomatox, Gods & Queens. DC9. $8. +18.
• The Jaguar Club, Loose Lips, Paperhaus, Mary Bragg. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.
• Garotas Suecas, DJ Neville Chamberlain. Comet Ping Pong. FREE. All ages.
• Middle Distance Runner, Eulogies, Payola Reserve. IOTA Club & Cafe. $12. +21.
• Chanticleer. Strathmore. $28-$68. All ages.
• John Eaton. The Barns at Wolf Trap. $25. All ages.
• Christian Tamburr Quartet. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free. All ages.

Sunday

• Medications, Edie Sedgwick, Played Tomorrow. Black Cat Backstage. $8. All ages.
• Gomez, Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears. 9:30 club. $20. All ages.
• Futurecop!, DJ Doc Rok. DC9. $10. +18.
• Domino Team, Mars. The Red & The Black. $6. +21.
• KUKU w/ Mongezi Ntaka, Sticky Mulligan. Bohemian Caverns. $10. All ages.
• Sam "The Man" Burns, DJ Thomas Blondet. 18th Street Lounge. +21.
• Richard Goode. Strathmore. $27-$77. All ages.
• The Washington Toho Koto Society. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free. All ages.

*Photo of NOMO by Cory Robinson.

Critics have praised the Baltimore-based quartet's live show, most recently at SXSW 2009. Vocalist Molly Siegel's chords pack a primal punch that belies her pixie frame, and when backed by Ken Seeno and Dustin Wong's frenetic fret work and Jeremy Hyman's relentless assault on the skins, the result is a Dionysian dance-off. Suffice to say, you'll get your money's worth–and then some.

The show is the sixth of its kind organized by the student-run internet radio station in an effort to bolster AU's presence–and that of independent bands–in D.C.'s musical milieu. Past line-ups have included True Womanhood, These United States and The Subjects.

Saturday, March 28. Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Metro: Tenleytown-AU. Doors open 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m. Open to the public, all ages.

*Photo by Frank Hamilton

You can check the story/photo here complete with condescending headline "This Is The Music Of The Blogs."

Yeah. Let's talk about that headline for just a second.

Before you get all pissed off. Pareles writes love letter of a first graph:

Sometime in the mid-2000s, the words indie-rock and blog became inseparable. The two were made for each other. Both are the province of self-starters, innovators, collectors, early adopters, volunteers and cranks. Blogs are marvelously efficient at making music known, if not necessarily profitable to musicians; they’re likely to provide free MP3s promoting the bands they tout. Both blogs and indie-rock are part of the “long tail,” the countless choices beyond blockbusters that are now infinitely more visible thanks to the Internet. And both are proud to be clever and self-conscious.

Nothing in there hasn't been said, felt, heard before. But why is the MSM still obsessed with blogs?