As a kid I was a big fan of the Stephen King-written 1986 coming-of-age tale Stand By Me—a movie that included one of the most intense on-screen vomit sessions ever to be committed to celluloid. So I’ll admit, accompanying Amanda Hess as she reported this week's Show & Tell column about the “Spaghetti Bros”—a [...]

When I was 14 years old, I got my first job working at a Salt Lake City–based local Greek fast-food chain called Apollo Burgers. One of said restaurant chain's major selling points was that it made its own onion rings from scratch. Thus I spent an entire summer sitting in the tiny kitchen peeling and [...]

Bands: Mass Movement of the Moth, Deleted Scenes, The Boom Orangutangs [sic]
Attendance: High
Ominous Police Presence: Low. By last year's final show at least three cop cars were perched on the hill above the stage for the duration of the concert. This year that's not the case—at least so far. Zero squad cars were present to [...]

Butthole Surfers singer Gibby Haynes once mused that any band could be successful as long as they were willing to tirelessly carry on no matter how sad and degrading things got.
The members of Calla must have similar philosophy. The New York band, pictured, is still truckin' despite nearly 10 years of public indifference. Even [...]

Undeterred–or possibly inspired–by the political unrest in their homeland, Venezuelan disco band Los Amigos Invisibles have announced a show at 9:30 Club on July 7.
Doug Martsch—the heavily bearded leader of Boise, Idaho guitar heroes Built to Spill—will part his ample facial hair to sing to 9:30 Club audiences when his band performs on July 8. [...]

A Texas church-rock band dressed up like extras from Godspell? Was anybody really that surprised when The Polyphonic Spree's second record Together We're Heavy tanked? They're still at it though—except now they look like an army of Gary Numans. If you don't find that disquieting, perhaps you'll enjoy checking them out on Saturday, June 30, [...]

Some of us at Washington City Paper have let it be known how we feel about Montreal indie-rock quartet Wolf Parade. However, we are aware that some of you don't exactly concur with our tastes. So anyway, we thought that you might want to know the Black Cat has recently announced that Wolf Parade will [...]

In November 2005, I had the opportunity to interview Congolese thumb piano group Konono No. 1 following their performance on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. Konono No. 1 founder and patriarch Mingiedi was very friendly and enthusiastic about the interview but the process proved a little complex—mainly because of the double language barrier in between [...]

Now that my days as a Washington, D.C., church critic have come to a close, I have numerous regrets concerning missed opportunities. Chief among them is that I did not spend more time leaning on one of these staffs.
This Saturday I ducked out of the Dismemberment Plan reunion show a little early to join a [...]

When all-purpose-punk-rock super-store Smash closed the doors of its Georgetown location after two decades, D.C. lost a piece of its musical heritage—it also got a lot harder to find fluorescent hair dye.
However, all is not lost. Smash has re-opened at a new location on the second floor of 2314 18th St. NW.
Original owner Bobby Polski [...]

It's been a while since anybody in D.C. made an honest-to-god music video and Benjy Ferree must be applauded for his efforts. A video for the Domino recording artist and local bartender's song "In the Countryside" popped up on YouTube today and it's pretty entertaining. In it, a sepia tinted Ferree watches from the [...]

We here at City Paper can never pass up a good bodily-fluid story, so we figured we'd give you advance warning on tonight's Velvet Lounge show by controversial French performance artist Jean-Louis Costes.
Here's how Costes describes his new act:
"Little Birds Shit" is the story of an ordinary couple. They meet...They Flirt...They Fuck...They make [...]

After 20 years in Georgetown under various names, Big Monkey Comics is pulling up stakes and moving to 14th Street NW. "The rent just got too high," says head manager Devon Sanders. "Georgetown doesn't favor small businesses."
That goes double when your small business' lead product has a $3 price point. Chain stores and rent hikes [...]