MUSIC

To many, The Blackbyrds may only sound familiar through other people's music: The Falls Church funk/R&B/jazz ensemble has been sampled on numerous hip-hop records over the years (and recently on Oddisee's "Still Doing It," which borrows from the band's biggest local hit, "Rock Creek Park"). But the group reunited in the late '90s, renaming itself Kojo The Original Blackbyrds, and tonight they play two sets at Blues Alley with original member Kevin Toney. Wednesday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. $25.

Local crooner Raheem DeVaughn is at the Park at Fourteenth tonight. Doors at 5 p.m., and free before 11 with this invite.

Saturday! They Might Be Giants doesn’t put on a nauseatingly slick show. When I saw them a few years back, five minutes of uncomfortable silence followed the band’s acceptance of an anything-goes song request. When TMBG finally broke huddle, their take on the unpromising “Yellow Submarine” was well worth the wait: Offensive, punked-out, slightly awkward (and only vaguely reminiscent of the original), the seat-of-the pants performance was unique and memorable. Tonight, the nearly 30-year-old group plays in support of two 2011 albums, Join Us—with tracks that would have sounded at home on the seminal Flood—and the techno-inflected Album Raises New and Troubling Questions. Will they blend? Actually, I’m just as excited to see opener Jonathan Coulton, best known for “re: Your Brains,” which renders the zombie’s lament in bullying office jargon—a song that, like TMBG, defies the barrier between rock and novelty. They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton perform at 8 p.m. at 9:30 Club. $30. (Jandos Rothstein)

The long-running Nouveau Riche dance party has long taken up residence at the U Street Music Hall, but for tonight's special pre-Thanksgiving edition, Gavin Holland and Co. are inviting a few pals to spin alongside them, including Andrew Bucket, Jesse Bishop, and somebody who goes by the name Jean-Pierre Le Douche. 10 p.m. $5.

Scissor & Thread is a new New York-based deep house/techno label that pools the talents of DJs and dance-music entrepreneurs Francis Harris, Shawn Schwartz, Michael Scott, and Anthony Collins. Tonight, promoters Stranger Than Paradise, Deep Secrets, and 88 host a showcase for the label, including the live debut of Harris' lightbluemover and Black Light Smoke. Oh, and there's an open bar between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. at the Warehouse Loft. $15 in advance.

This weekend marks the return of Mark Zimin's Mousetrap dance party, whose obituary I wrote last year when Zimin threatened to move to the West Coast. But he never left, and the Britpop party is back, baby! If you want to make a whole weekend at Black Cat, it's not hard: The night before Mousetrap, the backstage hosts a new but familiarly themed mod dance party called Modern World. DJs Jake Starr, Dianamatic, Mad Squirrel (from Party Lights), and Andi Supreme are fixing to spin '60s tunes, garage, soul, and power pop all night. 9:30 p.m. Free. (Full disclosure: I'm friends with many of these folks; I've even seen Jake Starr in his leather pants.)

BOOKS

Best of Saturday:
Unfortunately the Basement Bhangra Dance Party with DJ Rheka has sold out. Scavenge tickets if you can. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Diwali for more Bhangra showdowns. 9:30 p.m. $20. National Geographic.

• Tambuco. Free. Millenium Stage.
• National Symphony Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. SOLD OUT. Kennedy Center.
• Howie Day. SOLD OUT. Jammin Java.
• Rogue Wave and Midlake. Doors 8 p.m. $20. 9:30 Club.
• Anduze, Jacob Vanags. 8 p.m. $10. Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse.
• Justin Nozuka, Alex Cuba, Ry Cuming. 9 p.m. $20.  State Theater.
• Mushroomhead with Final Trigger, Stygian, Koheleth, Saint Diablo, Histrionic Witch. 6:15 p.m. $18/$20 door. Jaxx.
• University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra: White Heat at the University of Maryland includes Sibelius’ “Violin Concerto” and  Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony” along with the premiere performance of Fanfare by U-Md. faculty composer Lawrence Moss. 1 p.m. $27.  Clarice Smith Center.
• The Dance Party. 9:30 p.m. $14. Rock & Roll Hotel.
• Mariageblanc, Foreign Press. 10 p.m. $8. Velvet Lounge.

Rest of Saturday:

• The Gracious Few. 9 p.m. $22/ $25 door. State Theater.
• Jer Coons with Seth Glier, Jesse Ruben. 6 p.m. Jammin Java
• Pandamonium Dance Party, Ypset, Dirty Steeeve. 10 p.m. Jammin Java
• Drake. 8 p.m. $60.65-$76.60. Also Sunday at 7 p.m. DAR Constitution Hall.
• The Gorenman Beethoven Project Pianist Yuliya Gorenman plays Beethoven’s Sonata’s No. 27-29.  RSVP Required. 8 p.m. $25. Katzen Arts Center.
• Doro with The Maiden Project, A Sound of Thunder. 7:30 p.m. $18/$20 door. Jaxx.
• Benny Sharoni. Call for time and price. Blues Alley.
• Ledisi. 8 p.m. Call for price. Music Center at Strathmore.
• Chopteeth. 9 p.m. $15. Black Cat.
• Mice Parade, Les Shelleys featuring Tom Brosseau and Angela Correa. 8 p.m. $10/ $12 door. Rock & Roll Hotel
• Paula Cole. 7:30 p.m. $29.50. The Birchmere.
• They Might Be Giants. 6 p.m. Free.  Millennium Stage
• Rebecca Gates. 10:30pm. Comet Ping Pong.
• Kingsley Flood, Bathrop Alabama, The Strugglers. 10 p.m. $8. Velvet Lounge.

Rest of Sunday:

• Crash Boom Omar with Stacy Clark, Lehi, The Baby Grand, Tanner. 6 p.m. Jammin Java.
• Sonny & The Sunsets. Kelley Stoltz. 9 p.m. $10/$12 door.  DC9.
• Esperanza Spalding. 7 p.m. $35-$85. Lincoln Theatre
• Godsmack. Five Finger Death Punch, Drowning Pool ; Doors 5:30 p.m. $40-$55. Merriweather Post Pavilion

Children's music is like child pornography: Both serve the same purpose as their adult counterparts, but an adult's interest in either is unacceptable. Why, then, have They Might Be Giants made the children's book/DVD Kids Go and, in this last decade, redefined themselves as post-Sesame Street songwriters?

Don't underestimate TMBG. Unlike other artists who dabble in kiddie kompositions, the Johns Flansburgh and Linnell are not burnouts. Though not as cool as Interpol or Animal Collective, this nerdcore duo penned a number of college rock anthems in the final decades of the 20th century, including "Don't Let's Start," "Your Racist Friend", and "Birdhouse in Your Soul." These songs were good. These songs are good. They succeed as art in the adult world.

"Kids Go," a call for children to "move like a monkey," also succeeds as art—lesser art in the Playskool kingdom of children's music. Like Christian rock or "politically-conscious" hip-hop, children's music is a farm league from which players rarely advance to the majors.

After all, "Kids Go," like the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," is a song. However, the Fab Four's composition redefined the process of recording rock music and revolutionized post-1966 pop's aesthetics, content, and mission. A song about monkeys can't compete, as art, with a proto-jungle beat, backwards guitars, and mystical lyrics about Zen and death.

While Flood isn't Revolver, at least it's in the same league. "Kids Go" is less than "Tomorrow Never Knows." Where "Tomorrow Never Knows" transcends, the monkeys of "Kids Go" peel bananas, and not in a cool, heroin-chic, Velvet Underground kind of way.

Come on, TMBG: get out of the sandbox ghetto.

A POSTSCRIPT
But, really, what is the blogosphere if not a kind of readin' 'n' writin' romper room? You (the reader) just read this post when you could have been reading the New York Times, or the New Yorker, or The Idiot, or Infinite Jest. I (Justin Moyer, the journalist) could have worked on my unfinished novel instead of thinking so hard about They Might Be Giants for the past hour. Why have I sacrificed my novel to blog for the Washington City Paper? Is it the money? Is it the glory (oh, that seductive, elusive, bloggy Arts Desk glory)? Is it the amiable companionship of the friendly, if exclusive, folks at the Washington City Paper itself?

The ultimate question isn't why They Might Be Giants does what they do, but why you (the reader) do what you do, and I (Justin Moyer, the journalist) do what I do. Why do we do what we do? Tomorrow never knows...