If you’re a metal fan, check out tonight’s show on H Street, which features three local-ish bands of varying stature in Misery Index, Drugs of Faith and Salome, plus Phoenix grindcore band Landmine Marathon. Should be an interesting mix of slow & heavy (Salome) and fast & brutal (everyone else). This show is a prelude to a big world tour that sees Misery Index hitting Canada, Japan, and a bunch of European summer festivals, in support of last year’s Traitors on Relapse Records.

While this is Misery Index’s show, it will also be a kind of informal release party for the new Agoraphobic Nosebleed record Agorapocalypse, which is out today. Half of ANb will be playing at this show—vocalist/bassist Richard Johnson plays guitar in Drugs of Faith, and vocalist Kat Katz does the screaming for Salome.

At the Rock & Roll Hotel, doors at 8:00, show at 8:30, $10 cover.

Photo of Misery Index above courtesy of their Myspace page.

New York Magazine recently ran an item about the dark and sketchy side of inauguration festivities in DC.

After a paragraph about the influx of out-of-town prostitutes dropping into DC to take advantage of the influx of party-minded tourists, the reporter chats up a drug dealer who is apparently relaxing in the back room of Rock & Roll Hotel doling out bags of cocaine to venerable European journalists. More interesting, he isn’t just any run of the mill hood–he’s a Dischord fan!

“The dealer, who grew up moshing to D.C. punk, laid out $3,000 to stock up because he plans on moving “serious weight.”

Judging by his language–later on he confesses that he’s going to need to “re-up”–my guess is that he’s also a guy who really enjoys watching The Wire. Whatever, who doesn’t love a story where the guy with the straight edge tattoo gets caught drinking at the bar, or in this case, dealing narcotics?

But the article also states that said slam dancing drug dealer is only 29-years old. If that’s true, then he was born in 1980–which means he was roughly 7 years old when Fugazi showed up and outlawed moshing forever! Was he getting thrown around the pit in diapers? A Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit? Or was he really just doing-the-standing-still in the back of the Dismemberment Plan concert?

A note from Steve Lambert, booking manager for the Rock & Roll Hotel, on his biggest shows, his favorite shows, and some cool developments in the Atlas district.

Biggest shows:

1. O.A.R. (Dec.08)
2. Vampire Weekend (Feb.08)
3. Ben Kweller (Oct.08)
4. Black Mountain and Bon Iver (Feb.08)
5. Mark Kozelek [Red House Paints / Sun Kil Moon) (Nov.08)
6. Mudhoney (June.08)
7. Glasvegas (Oct.08)
8. Z-Trip (Nov.08)
9. Liam Finn (Sept.08)
10. Ohgr [Skinny Puppy] (Dec.08)

Favorite shows

1. Monotonix @ DC9
2. Black Moutain and Bon Iver @ Rock and Roll Hotel
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ 9:30 Club
4. Mark Kozelek @ Rock and Roll Hotel
5. St. Vincent @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6. Loretta Lynn @ 9:30 Club
7. Howlin’ Rain @ DC9
8. The Black Angels @ Rock and Roll Hotel
9. Calexico @ 9:30 Club
10. Basia Bulat @ DC9
11. Titus Andronicus @ THE RED AND THE BLACK

More generally?

Excited about:

Growing attendance and attention for H St. NE

The shuttle system about to take place in 2009 for the Atlas District

—Steve Lambert

Journalists–even music journalists–are supposed to write somewhat objectively about their interview subjects; I suck at this. I don’t pitch softballs, but I almost always come across as curious rather than skeptical, and by the end of the interview, I’m practically rooting for my subject’s success. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I’d like to think that when I interviewed Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, it worked really well, because we managed to talk about what informs her ideas about her art, and because I didn’t feel dirty afterwards.

Worden is a fixture in the experimental scene. She’s played with Sufjan Stevens, released two albums with her former band Awry, and just released her second solo album, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, under the moniker My Brightest Diamond. I really enjoyed Shark’s Teeth, and this is coming from a guy who–unless he’s stoned–would rather eat cat litter than listen to most experimental music. Worden plays tonight at the Rock & Roll Hotel with Clare & the Reasons. Our interview is below.

Read More “Tonight: My Brightest Diamond (Now with Video!)” »