Wild Flag @ Black Cat
We covered a lot of music in pictures this year, but some truly stood out.

Since November 2010, the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, located in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has been one of the city's more intimate outlets for local musicians. Its monthly acoustic concert series,  Luce Unplugged, features an hour-long performance, accompanied by a discussion on an artwork chosen by the musician.
Yesterday the series featured Title Tracks frontman [...]

Kids, dogs, and many mainstays of the D.C. music scene were on hand last night to see power-pop and post-hardcore at Fort Reno. Leading Title Tracks, John Davis provided power-pop accompaniment for the dreams of those Tenleytown kids with a 9:30 p.m. bedtime. And J. Robbins' current band, Office of Future Plans, tore up [...]

Pictureplane, the 26-year-old producer Travis Egedy, makes big-room music for small spaces. Tonight, touring on his clubbiest album yet, Thee Physical, he’s playing the least clubby of venues—Subterranean A, a private residence located around the corner and down a staircase from a cluster of actual nightclubs. But there’s no irony [...]

There's no shortage of news from the land of Ian MacKaye today. As if to remind us all that the band members indirectly responsible for Wugazi's recent success still in fact make original music, The Evens were just officially added to the Fort Reno schedule. The acoustic art punks haven't brought their musical partnership into [...]

Beautiful Swimmers want you to start your summer off slow: Margarita slow.  Captain's-hat-tilted-seaward slow. Yacht-rock slow.
The local spaced out electronica duo just released "Open Shadow," its latest 7-inch, featuring a lead vocal from Title Tracks frontman John Davis. It's beachy and syrupy in the Loggins & Messina vein. Or maybe it sounds like Seals & Crofts. [...]

It's no stretch to say D.C. is much more of a punk-rock town than a power-pop one. John Davis first became well known for drumming in post-punkers Q and not U, but its clear from his band Title Tracks he loves the head-bobbing hooks of The Raspberries and their ilk. At the Black Cat Backstage last night, it [...]

On the cover this week, I take a dark, torturous journey into the heart of the pub-quiz industry and emerged somewhat scathed. Benjamin R. Freed leads the arts section with a smart dissection of what recent cuts to a federal grant program mean for D.C. arts organizations—especially smaller ones. Ben Westhoff reviews the new, more [...]

When you think of John Davis' post-Q and Not U aesthetic, you think sweet and sunshiny. The newest Title Tracks album, In Blank, still draws on Davis' love of power-pop, but it colors it in a darker shade. For the most part, songs are quick, downcast, and grimy (thanks to a lovely mono mix)—and, finally, [...]

Ragers are relative. Describing the new Title Tracks record, a press release from Windian Records in the label's signature caps lock reads: "THE LP'S FIRST SINGLE 'TURN YOUR FACE'  DEFINES THE SIMPLISTIC, MODERATE SOUND OF THIS BAND, POUNDING IT OUT IN A DESPERATE CALM."
Desperate calm? Maybe compared to the rest of Windian's punk-as-fuck roster. But [...]