Frontman Britton Powell writes:

"Phasing" is the first fully-realized track we've shared from our
summer recording sojourn in upstate NY. We started with improvised grooves, tracked them on reel to reel, arranged them for the record and rearranged them for live performance, all in isolation on a hundred acre farm. We then fine-tuned them as the songs shape shifted throughout our three month tour this past fall. Since returning to DC, we've been revisiting all the previously recorded material from this summer's sessions. We've been putting the raw tracks under the microscope of mixing and production, trying to apply a unique tint to the lens of each song, embellishing when necessary to push specific vibes. The results have been excitingly different from the live set we've gotten used to. We've been relishing these slower winter days for all the meticulous processing needed to rein in our summer's energy.This track in particular is highly influenced by Henry Flynt, Nico, Perry & Kingsley, and Steve Reich.

Yeah, so the track is totally seeped in bong water, but it's also remarkably controlled despite what first feels like blissed out formlessness. On Bandcamp, the song is tagged as both "music concrete" and "pop." Might as well just call it pop concrète.

"Phasing" will appear on a 12-inch this spring, with one more original track and remixes from Doldrums, Dustin Wong (of Ponytail), and Aaron Leitko (of Protect-U).

Listen to "Phasing":

In a city that often looks backward musically (we get it, everybody loves Fugazi and The Dismemberment Plan), the Future Times crew is all about pushing things forward. Overseen by Mike Petillo and Andrew Field-Pickering (of the duos Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers, shown above), the local imprint brings together global psychedelia with warm, throbbing beats culled from early house and funk. The terms “new-age disco” and “aquatic techno” have been used to describe their polychromatic approach. With interest from media outlets such as Resident Advisor and the Fader and a growing roster that includes non-D.C. artists like Brooklyn’s Slava, Future Times has had a pretty big year. Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers (pictured) toured Europe, and the label brought eclecticism and buoyancy to a ton of local live events, including the monthly Whale shindig at U Street Music Hall. Tonight, the gang takes stock of a banner 2011 with a holiday party at the same venue, featuring DJ sets from Beautiful Swimmers, Mondo and C Rob (Petillo and Chris Robinson of the Vitamin C party at Dodge City), and up-and-comer Jay Simon. The Whale is free and usually not too packed, offering plenty of room to let the trippy, tropical-infused vibes thaw your winter bones. 10 p.m. at U Street Music Hall. Free. (Joe Colly)

MORE LOCAL MUSIC

Locals Chain & The Gang (Ian Svenonius et al.) and Heavy Breathing (former members of The Apes) hit the Black Cat Backstage tonight. Let the primo stage banter begin! 8 p.m. $10.

Also tonight, Christylez Bacon plays the newly launched Clyde's establishment, The Hamilton. If you haven't scoped the new 24-hour eatery and venue yet, now is your opportunity. 8 p.m. $15.

MUSIC

R Street NW DIY space Subterranean A hosts even more exciting homegrown electronic dance music: Shimmery house-music trio Volta Bureau and Future Times universe-skimmers Protect-U and Beautiful Swimmers perform. Get ready to get glazed. 8-11 p.m. Friday.

Also Friday: Mike West says you should see Benny Golson at Bohemian Caverns. Empressarios at Rock & Roll Hotel. Pietasters and The Slackers at 9:30 Club.

Saturday: Weirdo folkers Woods at Rock & Roll Hotel (with Purling Hiss)—for some reason, this show inspired a Krautrock primer in Express. 9:30 Club hosts Penguin Prison and Big/Bright at U Street Music Hall. Exit Clov opens up for JC Brooks at Black Cat.

Sunday: Rapper Fat Trel's "Nightmare Before Christmas." Ruh-roh. John Davis (Title Tracks, ex-Q and Not U) performs acoustically at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

FILM

Stay home. Tricia Olszewski is unimpressed by Young Adult and A Dangerous Method. I am similarly bummed out by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

COMEDY

DIY standup! James Adomian, interviewed yesterday on Arts Desk, headlines at Subterranean A Saturday. 7:30 p.m. $5.

PUNK, ETC.

The local rock show to catch tonight is Hume, Dope Body, and Protect-U at the Black Cat Backstage. We've written about all three extensively, but here's what we said about Baltimore's Dope Body last time they drove down 95 for a visit:

It’s unbelievable that an MP3 file or a slab of wax could contain the fury of Dope Body’s latest album, Nupping. The band mixes boisterous alt-funk, damaged noise rock, and aggressive post-punk, spikes the result with a bit of soul and hip-hop, and plays with enough intensity to make the album seem like a plausible alternative energy source. So it should not surprise anyone that the Baltimore band puts on one hell of a show. The foursome is loud, visceral, and unstoppable, ripping through its catalog with impassioned precision. Frontman Andrew Laumann straddles the line between magnetic and maniacal: He’ll sometimes lurch around onstage shirtless and sweaty, contorting his sinewy frame into whatever shape suits his brutal vocals. Witnessing the veins on Laumann’s neck swell as he forcefully shrieks along to pulverizing tunes may illustrate what “dope body” really means. (Leor Galil)

There's also Plums, Guillermo Sexo, and Insect Factory at good ol' Bella Cafe. It's another installment of Plums' residency at the restaurant across from 9:30 Club. There's no admission listed on the Facebook invite, but it'll probably be under $10. 8 p.m.

And Los Angeles punks X play their classic album Los Angeles in its entirety tonight at the Birchmere. 7:30 p.m. $29.50.

For more arts outings, check out our music calendar, our books listings, and everything else.

Hey everybody! Big news here! The world is going to end on Saturday! Here's the completely unoriginal and not funny yet obligatory R.E.M. reference: I sure do feel fine!

Sooner or later some fringe religious guy is going to be right. It won't be because he (these people are usually male) actually saw the future because that does not exist, but because everything has to happen. If we can dream it, we can do it. I think that's an athletic shoe slogan. Anyways, you should die doing something you love and/or pleasing your god. For me, that means I'll be doing a jigsaw puzzle, getting slightly inebriated on cheap red wine, and screaming into my cat how awesome my cat is. If you're not into that, here are some other options for your apocalyptic Saturday.

For the person who wants it all to end
Hobo With a Shotgun at West End Cinema: Upon paying for and viewing "Hobo With a Shotgun," you will want humanity to perish.

For the vengeful god
Protect-U, Bluebrain, and Painted Face at St. Stephen's Church: Sure, all of these bands are good and Bluebrain always does something show-specific so any chance to see them should be acted upon, but, is there any better place for when the world ends than a church?

For the sweet release
Todd Barry at Arlington Drafthouse: Mr. Barry will lull you into a comedic slumber. Once you accept your fate, his humor will comfort the black hole that is your future.

For the zombie apocalypse
Swampoodle at Washington Coliseum: Saturday is the premiere of this theater experience about the NoMa neighborhood. Tailor-made for the venue, Swampoodle is a play or something like a play about the place. It covers The Beatles' first American performance, Malcolm X lecturing, roller derby, ballet, and brawls. If you end up trapped inside while the outside world erupts in flames, this production may teach you something. History repeats itself or something. Either way, it looks neat and if you make your base an old arena, you'll hear cool echoes and see giant shadows.

A fews days old, this. But it's a busy production day in the office and we could all use some cosmic grooves. Here's the latest video from D.C. electronic duo Protect-U, and it kind of reminds me of those trippy geometric montages in Donald in Mathmagic Land. The band, full disclosure, features very occasional City Paper contributor Aaron Leitko.

The group's latest, greatest 12-inch, "World Music," is out this month on Future Times.

More than 10 million people have watched the clip "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10" on YouTube, and more than 6 million have seen the song version, uploaded by the comedy troupe behind Auto-Tune the News. In other words, it's a full-blown meme—and a victory for spaced-out Yosemite hippies and scrappy Internet comics the world over.

In fact, there's only two dudes who should feel left out by the teary, universal ecstasy of the clip's Paul Vasquez, aka Yosemite Bear: Aaron Leitko and Mike Petillo, who perform as the D.C. electronica duo Protect-U. Last year, Protect-U released its debut 12-inch on the local Future Times label. The A-side is called "Double Rainbow."

LISTEN: Protect-U – "Double Rainbow"

"I harbor no bitterness," says Leitko, a former Washington City Paper contributor, in an online chat. "I wouldn't have minded 6 million listens, though."

He says he named the song after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's "origin story." "Because he claims that his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow and a new star in the sky," Leitko says. "And then I just thought, given the sorta-spacey nature of the song—the Reading Rainbow-style synth sounds—that it would make a good title."

"Kim Jong Il aside, I think we staked out claim to 'Double Rainbow' first," says Leitko.

As for the Gregory Brothers' "Double Rainbow Song," Leitko's a fan, but Petillo has a different take. "This shit sucks," says Petillo. "However, if it was run through a delay unit, a reverb pedal, and pitch shifter, maybe it would be cool."

Protect-U performs on Aug. 18 at U Street Music Hall, and has another record planned for this fall.

Quickly, a few goodies for the first day of 2010:

• Rapper XO dropped his new album, One. One. Ten., today, and he's posted a digital version that you can download for free. Check back here next week for our review. The album's release party is tonight at K Street Lounge.
• Wale has a new remix of "Pretty Girls" featuring Raheem DeVaughn and Phil Adé. Grab it here.
• I've had these in my inbox for a while, and they're worth checking out: free live sets from the Future Times dance label's Maxmillion Dunbar and Protect-U (the latter features City Paper contributer Aaron Leitko). Protect-U's new "Double Rainbow" 12-inch is out now.

In a late-January installment of Leakproof, Black Plastic Bag linked to a new track by Queens-based duo Blues Control, taken from the their forthcoming full-length on Siltbreeze (which, according to their Twitter feed, was finished and mixed on March 11th). With a splintered drum machine splayed against lazy keyboards, intermittent cowbell, and spaghetti guitar lines, a listen to "Tenku You" might make one wonder how such a performance would translate live — especially with only two people running the operation. Wonder no longer, because Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho will bring their sluggish psychedelia to Comet Ping Pong tonight for a free show in the pizza joint/bar/ping pong wonderland/venue's ongoing concert series.

Supporting for Blues Control will be The Cheniers, a D.C.-based trio who deliver slacker rock in a style recalling veteran lo-fi champions Wingtip Sloat (also from northern-VA), crossed with today's buzz-heavy new wave in the vein of Times New Viking and Australia's Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Also on the bill is D.C. duo Protect-U, consisting of Mike Petillo and City Paper's own Aaron Leitko. I have no idea what they sound like, but judging from their Myspace, I'm pretty sure there's a Roland TR-707 involved. Details for the show below.

Blues Control w/ Protect-U, The Cheniers
@ Comet Ping Pong
Tonight: Friday, April 3rd
9pm, FREE
5037 Connecticut Ave NW

*Photo by Cassie Lewis