I am sure the U Street Corridor on up to Adams Morgan will be jam-packed with party goers this New Year’s Eve. For folks looking for a bit less congestion and authentically funky good time that won’t break your pockets, then the “Soul Train” New Year's Eve 2012 party at Ras Hall is just what you are looking for.

Sister Zurii Conroy tipped me off a few weeks back that she was working something special for New Year’s Eve at Ras Hall. She mentioned specifically she was interested in having a funk music party. A real one, where folks could come and let it all loose on the dance floor like we used to do back in the day—as "One Nation Under a Groove."

No show in television history promoted funk, soul, and R&B music to the world masses like Don Cornelius’ Soul Train. It’s the longest-running nationally syndicated show in history, with over 1,000 episodes broadcast between 1971 and 2006. As a kid, I remember waiting for Soul Train to come on Channel 20. Thinking back on it, I think my favorite part of the show were the dancers! The way they would move to the music was incredible. On the dance floor everyone looked GOOD! The fellas were fly and the ladies were smoking hot. Each episode, the Soul Train line was what everyone looked forward to. I don’t think anyone who has ever seen Soul Train can forget the sexy Asian sister with the smoking dance moves who was a staple on the show. In fact, if you wanted to learn how to dance, you would watch Soul Train. Then, once perfected, you would show up with your people at the party and show the funk off.

Sister Zurii wants you to get on that very same Soul Train with her to help ring in the New Year. She wants you to know, "This party is for anyone who's looking to do something new, different, and festive (& easy on the pockets) for their New Year!" The Soul Train New Year’s Eve 2012 party features D.C.’s own DJ RBI in charge of making you move on the dance floor—spinning a range of styles from different funk eras (classics, hip-hop, soul, reggae, house). There will be catering (Ras’ cuisine is DELICIOUS!), drink specials, and a champagne toast at midnight to ring in 2012 in the spirit of Love, Peace, and Soul!

Soul Train/70’s Attire is recommended!

Soul Train New Years Eve 2012 bash begins 9pm this Saturday at Ras Hall, 4809 Georgia Ave. NW. $15/advance. Click here for more info.

Mint Condition and Calvin Richardson kick off the series June 11. Annual events like the D.C. Blues Festival, Metro D.C. Dances, and the Washington Post's free concert series (including performances by Carolyn Malachi, Maimouna Youssef, and Orquesta La Leyenda) will return. But Carter Barron traditionally specializes in retro soul and funk, and this year is no exception. Chicago group The Chi-Lites will perform with Detroit's Dramatics on June 24; funk outfit BT Express plays July 9; and soul-funk band Cameo—"Shake Your Pants"! "Word Up"!—plays July 16th.

Nothing but hits, people! Between Carter Barron and the Fort Dupont concert series (schedule TBA), D.C.'s parks are easily the best place to hear classic funk and soul in the summer.

Check out the complete schedule on Carter Barron's website.

The Kings don’t go for synth-supported chitlin' circuit soul or modern R&B: This is strictly throwback soul in the late-'60s and early-'70s style, with three vocalists and seven instrumentalists. That means gospel-rooted vocals that alternately wail or hit falsetto heights, Latin-rooted percussion, tinkling keyboards, and a horn section blaring in and out.

Quarterman is best known for his group Sir Joe Quarterman and Free Soul, whose first single, the funky, catchy, and topical "(I Got) So Much Trouble in My Mind," entered the R&B Top 30 in 1973. (You may have heard it in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).

Kings Go Forth and Sir Joe Quarterman perform tonight with MC Mingering Mike and DJs Nitekrawler and Secret Chimp. Doors open at 8 p.m. at the U Street Music Hall,1115 U St. NW. $12. (202) 588-1880.

Put differently: Bushwalla doesn't just perform concerts; "I do like a 5-year-old's birthday party for adults; that's pretty much the Bushwalla show."

With a new set for late April, Bushwalla, the constant touring partner of good friend Jason Mraz, is currently making his own rounds on the east coast. With songs ranging from breezy, acoustic guitar duets with Dawn Mitschele like "Mayhem is Beautiful" to beat- and trumpet-laden fan-favorites like "Gangsta" ("It is hard to be a gangsta, gangsta / With a basket on your bike"), Bushwalla's pretty hard to resist.

Q&A below the jump.

BUSHWALLA PERFORMS TONIGHT AT JAMMIN JAVA, 227 MAPLE AVE. E., VIENNA, VA. $10 IN ADVANCE, $13 DAY OF. (703) 255-1566.

WASHINGTON CITY PAPER: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
BUSHWALLA: I started at 9 years old in a theater company called Kids on Broadway in Ohio, and my earliest influences are probably—a lot of musical theater, to be honest with you. And on top of that, we would do summer shows that were like touring festival shows and that's where I fell in love with John Prine. I also fell in love with ... early forms of rap music. And then my father listened to a lot of '50s music, which I really loved, like the Big Bopper, Little Richard ... a lot of old '50s and '60s tunes that I really dig, and you know, so it was all over the place – it's kinda why I'm all over the place.

WCP: Do you have a preference between rapping and singing?
B:I write and I don't think about it. I sit, and whatever comes out is what comes out. I always like to challenge myself writing to write something that's out of my realm of comfortability, so at the end of the day when you have, you know, your 10 songs or whatever that you just wrote over the last week or couple weeks, there might be one in there that's a gem that's kind of out of your ballpark, but that's going to expand your evolution as a singer or a performer. When you think you got it, that's when you don't got it.

WCP: Do you have a favorite place to tour?
B: I just love touring. I'm happy right now, I'm on the road, I got a couple of buddies with me that are playing, and it's just like, "Shit yeah, this is awesome!" Because for so many years, it's just like, "All I wanna do is get on the road." And I get on the road, and it's like, "All I wanna do is take out my band mates with me" I did a show with G. Love ... it was an after-show, and the earlier show was canceled 'cause of rain, and he turns to me and he says, "Isn't it rad?" and I'm like, "Is what rad?" And he's like, "We get to do this again." And I was like, "Yes! This is rad! We do get to do this again!" And it was really inspiring to hear that from him, a guy that I've been listening to for 15 years, still have that same ... kid-consciousness about it, which is what you gotta have—we're just playing, you know what I mean? We're just playing.

WCP: You hosted Jason Mraz's tour this past year—what's the difference between playing a large venue and a more intimate setting? Do you have a preference?
B: It's really wild 'cause [one] weekend I played Berkeley, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Cricket Wireless Amphitheater, and that was for a total of about 50,000 people. And then the next week, I played a house show for like, 20 people. And the house show scared the hell out of me. Everybody's looking at you. The 20,000 people become this sea, and I'm on stage and I look out and I'm like, "I got this, I got this." But Bruce Hughes, Jason's bass player told me, "Just look at them as a bunch of little clubs." And I was like, "Aw yeah, that's all it is. 10,000 people is just a hundred 100-person clubs." ... It's kind of an ass-way to think of it, but it also made a lot of sense at the moment.

WCP: How important is comedy, your circus background and just improvisation in general to your live music act?
B: The show, you know, is where it's at for me. It's where it's at for my fans. It's everything, you know what I mean? For me... I love improvisation—it challenges me, it challenges my band. And the guys that I play with, my band, who have been with me upwards of 10 years, they're so open to it. Nobody ever gets mad at me for not doing what we planned, and that's huge, because a lot of bands really go by the ABCs and the 123s of performing. They tell their story, they sing the song, they put some emotionality into it, and then they end their song with some emotionality and then they close their eyes and reflect... And I just really like to explode.

Photo of Bushwalla by Maryam, via MySpace.

Courtesy of Mingering Mike by way of this magazine. It's the latest art from D.C.'s most famous imaginary superstar.

This past weekend, Local Legend Tom Porter held a massive vinyl sale in his backyard. We hyped it.

Some of you complained that you missed out. Today, we are glad to report that Tom Porter is hosting another vinyl sale in his Chapin Street backyard (1435 Chapin Street NW). The sale will be on Saturday. We will have more details on this soon.