Hungry for some larks’ tongues in aspic? You’re probably out of luck—not much of a market for meat jellies out here.

However if you’re up for some Larks’ Tongues in Aspic—you know, prog-rock—tonight
the Velvet Lounge will host the debut gig for Wise Light Born–a band featuring members of Baby Killer Estelle, Mass Movement of the Moth, and Bark. They describe themselves as thus:

“Finally the clouds have spoken through their wanting whispers and the group has formed…. WISE LIGHT BORN is a new group featuring individuals of great character, warm hearts,hungry stomachs, and wide smiles. D.C. prog is finally back in a gigantic way . It makes you ask where did it go to begin with? The group includes Leo “Viva Las Vegas” Svirsky (Baby Killer Estelle) on organ, Britton Powell (Hume, Bark) on bass, Christian Brady (Antlers, Meadows, MMMoth) on guitar, and Wilson Kemp (Canopy, Bark) on Drums. We’re looking forward to playing our songs that go like Biggada-Biggada boum boum Biggida Biggida Ba Boum Boum Boum.”

D.C. prog is finally back? But what was D.C. prog to begin with? And who made it?

Zs? Aylers Angels? The members of the Society of Art Rockers (S.O.A.R.)?

July 15th @ Velvet Lounge
9:30 p.m.
$8

Kohoutek
Ryan Jewell
Vialka (more here)
Wise Light Born

According to the MySpace page for Vialka, a “turbo folk micro-orchestra” (their description, not mine), they’re playing at the Velvet Lounge in Washington, Delaware tonight. Let’s explain away this grave offense by saying “eh, they’re French” and move on.

Assuming the micro-orchestra—”micro” being the operative word here, since the band is really just a duo of baritone guitar and drums/vocals—shows up at the Velvet Lounge we all know and love, this will be the place to be tonight (well, ok, Nomo at R&R Hotel should be pretty sweet too). If “micro-orchestra” is a suspect turn of phrase, “turbo folk” describes Vialka perfectly, as their manic compositions draw equally from Eastern European folk, gypsy music, punk, noise and a touch of prog. Those familiar with the French avant-garde or so-called “rock in opposition” will draw immediate parallels to the zany Etron Fou Leloublan, but a more accessible comparison might be Ruins, crazy vocals and all, but more tuneful and with an enormous dose of Frenchness added to the mix.

Drummer Marylise Frecheville—a whirlwind behind the kit—was pregnant last year, but now that she’s had her baby the band is back on the grueling road schedule they seem to have been keeping up for the past several years. This included a stop at The Red & the Black a couple years ago, and if you missed that, don’t miss this.

Vialka plays second on a bill with Kohoutek, Wise Light Born and Ryan Jewell.

photo by Udi Koomran

A foursome of metalheads based in the decidedly umlaut-resistant Miami, Fla., Torche coincidentally embraces its hometown’s reputation for bass with its earth-moving, woolly-mammoth stampede of a sound. But the band carved a name for itself in the stoner metal scene by providing more than just another fuzzed-out thunderclap. Torche’s foundation-shaking low-end vibrations are comprised of hook after catchy, soaring hook, which underpin melodic vocals that could just as easily assault the pop charts as throatily describe the elephantine shambling of primordial monstrosities. Comparing nicely with deliberately plodding, hash-worshipping mythmakers Sleep as with poppier acts like Queens of the Stone Age, Torche (whose latest album, In Return, was reviewed in City Paper last October) explores tunefulness on an antediluvian scale. The band takes all of the rock melodies you once forsook in favor of music with a more visceral vitality and reinvigorates them with the terrifying force of an extra-spatial behemoth. Torche performs with Boris and Clouds at 8 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $13. (202) 667-7960. —Michael A. Stern

The Tru Skool Beat Grinder producer battle is back tonight at Liv and will have some of the area’s finest hip-hop producers engaged in head-to-head battle for local bragging rights. The event is known to bring out the real beat junkies and has become quite an institution in the regional hip-hop scene.

Ten contestants will step up with their hottest tracks, even doing battle using identical samples to see who’s really doing their work on the boards. The three-round event will be hosted by Grap Luva and will feature performances by locals Kokayi and Oddisee. Damu and Underdog will be holding down the turntables all night long—so expect to hear the finest in deep cuts, rare grooves, and vintage hip-hop.

Liv is located at 11th and U Street NW. Doors open at 9 p.m.; $7.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed doesn’t look like your typical R&B crooner. In fact, with his aw-shucks charm and well-manicured appearance, the Allston, Mass.-based soul singer looks more like something out of a contemporary boy band. On record, however, Reed sounds indistinguishable from the ’60s Motown greats that are his inspiration. Unlike retro-R&B musicians who’ve made a living off of cheaply repackaging ’60s soul for today’s audiences, Reed maintains a sense of authenticity in his music. In the current musical climate, Reed’s horn- and rhythm-heavy songs have to, at the very least, be appreciated as well-crafted entries into what will likely be a short-lived niche. It’s hard to imagine, though, that—had he been making music four decades ago—Reed’s songs wouldn’t have enjoyed a considerably longer shelf life in jukeboxes and at the top of hit-single lists. Eli “Paperboy” Reed and the True Loves perform at 9 p.m. at DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. $10. (202) 483-5000. —Matthew Borlik

If the band Gestures were an actual physical gesture, it wouldn’t be a come-hither motion, a wave goodbye, or a middle-finger-fuck-you. It’d be one big old shrug that says, “I don’t know what the hell is going on.” The electricity-free, Washington, D.C.–based sextet features two drummers and four horn players—including trombone, flute, clarinet, and tuba—and the musical result sounds like the sloppiest marching-band practice ever recorded to tape. Whether it’s an act of improvisation by an accomplished group of classically trained musicians or an attempt at Slits-esque geniusness by a bunch of n00bs who just bought whatever instruments they could find at the thrift store remains to be seen. But Gestures has an undeniable (if goofy) charm, one that is sorely needed in a music scene in which artistic experimentation has seemingly given way to dime-a-dozen pop bands. Gestures performs with Bellman Barker and the Moderate at 7:15 at Fort Reno Park, 3950 Chesapeake St. NW. Free. (202) 355-6356. —Matthew Borlik

Saturday:

There are usually two kinds of band reunions: the kind in which a band plays the hits from its heyday, and the kind in which a band attempts to pick up where it left off, writing new material. Seminal Bostonian post-punk act Mission of Burma is doing a bit of both. Formed in 1979, the band released only one full length, Vs., before calling it quits as a result of guitarist Roger Miller’s tinnitus. In 2002, the band reunited and has since toured regularly and recorded more full-length albums than in its original incarnation. On Burma’s current tour, titled “Definitive Editions,” the band members are breaking from their usual blend of old and new to please their more nostalgia-hungry fans. They’ll play Vs. in its entirety throughout the tour, showing that, while they’re not living in the past, they’re not afraid to look back. Mission of Burma performs with Versus at 9 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $15. (202) 667-7960. —Matthew A. Stern

Sunday:

Washington, D.C., won’t have Leonard Slatkin to kick around anymore. The National Symphony Orchestra’s longtime music director is off to Detroit after the Kennedy Center decided against renewing his contract, but not before a proper send-off. D.C.’s dwindling and increasingly geriatric classical music community was at best ambivalent about the 63-year-old conductor: His 12-year tenure was marked by grousing from the Muppet Show balcony critics, who bemoaned both the declining interest in classical and the NSO’s earnest but sometimes embarrassing efforts to reverse this (see “Video Games Live!”—classical renditions of songs from Halo and World of Warcraft). Nevertheless, Slatkin left his mark. He revived interest in Russian, British, and American composers in a field dominated by Austrians and Germans, and he knew how to connect with an audience, if not with Statler and Waldorf. In this program, Slatkin will highlight some of the best of his repertoire—Shostakovich, Elgar, and Bernstein—and will be joined by master cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The performance begins at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW. $25–$150. (202) 467-4600. —Michael Paarlberg

I recently had the opportunity to catch a sneak-preview rehearsal of Godisheus, a new band on the D.C. scene. Formed by veteran D.C. hip-hop artist Head-Roc and the MVP Band, an all-star lineup of some of the heaviest hitters on the go-go scene— Dwane ‘Kiggo’ Wellman on drums (Chuck Brown, 3LG), Dwayne ‘Super Bad III’ Lee on guitar (Suttle Thoughts, Familiar Faces, 3LG), and Keith “Blizzard the Bass Lizard” Snowden (Backyard Band)—Godisheus is working hard to define a new live sound rooted in the funk.

Head-Roc, who has taken on the stage name O.M.V. for this project, is no stranger to working with a live band. During the mid ’90s, he, Kiggo, and Superbadd III were part of Three Levels of Genius (3LG), a live hip-hop band that proved influential in the region. O.M.V. is is quick to point out that Godisheus is not a hip-hop band but rather “the return of funk music for the people.”

As we all know, funk beget go-go and hip-hop in ways dear to the District. Don’t get it twisted: Godisheus is no cover band doing their best Parliament rendition, they are that raw D.C. funk sound with a message of empowerment for the people delivered by one of D.C.’s mic champions.

Over tight arrangements that are equal parts funk, rock and soul, O.M.V. brings the lyrical heat, speaking truth to power with every line, something that has earned him the respect of hip-hop kids, punk rockers, indie rockers, the anti-war movement, and progressive audiences all over. Powered by Kiggo’s impeccable drumming (he is the third generation of his family to have worked for Chuck Brown) Super Bad III’s six-string magic and the low end work of Blizzard the Bass Lizard, the Godisheus International Funk Train (The GIFT) will be stopping in Silver Spring this Saturday for the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair. Their performance starts at 2 p.m.

Before the picks, a special video in honor of the opening day at Bonnaroo. It’s a neat little track from the sexiest tribute band ever: Lez Zeppelin.

Ongoing:

• Step Afrika tonight through Sunday at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, with a special Father’s Day performance to cap it off.
• Summer Concerts at Farragut Square—with its weekly cross-section of local rock—continues tonight and the following two Thursdays.
• Check out the Silver Spring Summer Concert Series.

Tonight: Fink at Iota; Jamie Lidell with Jennifer O’Connor at the 9:30 Club

Friday: Alicia Keys at the Verizon Center; Robert Plant and Allison Kraus at the Merriweather Post Pavilion; Justin Jones and the Driving Rain at the Rock & Roll Hotel.

Saturday: BSO with Barry Douglas at Strathmore; Gordon Lightfoot at Wolf Trap; Monday Michiru at Bohemian Caverns; Wooly Mammoth at the Rock & Roll Hotel; Slick Rick at Love.

Sunday: Shearwater at Black Cat; Major Stars at the Velvet Lounge; Tullycraft at the Red and the Black.

And the closing video: Major Stars wailing (or is it shredding?) in a kitchen. Definitely an 11 on the face-melt-o-meter.

In the comments, the folks at Smash Records mention that tomorrow night, June 12, the store will host a screening of Vinyl Scrapyard. The film, a documentary about the decline of the indie record store, is directed by Billups Allen, a former Smash clerk and Darkest Hour bassist. John Metcalfe profiled Allen in City Paper in 2003, following the publication of his first novel, Unfurnished.