All by myself, almost: Marah's Dave Bielanko soldiers on with a "folk-trio" version of his band. Double-aught eight hasn’t been particularly easy on any of us, but Dave Bielanko — frontman of Marah, the Brooklyn-by-way-of-North Philly true believers who were praying at the Stations of The Boss back when The Hold Steady were in, well, Lifter Puller — has had a particularly rough year. In January, Marah released Angels of Destruction!, their seventh full-length......

It's tempting to call Austin, Texas country-rocker Alejandro Escovedo the Forrest Gump of indie rock, but he deserves to be associated with a much better movie. In 1978, his first band, San Francisco punkers The Nuns, opened the last-ever Sex Pistols show prior to the Pistols' brief mid-90s reunion. He was living in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City when the Pistol's' Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen checked in; Spungen would......

MONDAY >> The Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theatre in the James Madison Building kicks off 5 weeks worth of free Monday night rock and pop films with a rare showing of the 1966 documentary, The Big T.N.T. Show. David "Man from Uncle" McCallum hosts Ray Charles, Petula Clark, the Lovin' Spoonful, Bo Diddley, Joan Baez, the Ronettes, Roger Miller, the Byrds, Donovan, the Seeds, the Modern Folk Quartet, and Ike and Tina Turner taped......

Walking into Jammin’ Java Friday night, here’s what I knew about Philly rockers Marah: 1) High Fidelity and About a Boy author Nick Hornby, a man who has documented his musical preferences at least enough for me to know I largely share them, loves on this band so much he devoted one of his book columns in Believer magazine a couple of years ago to their largely unsung magnificence. 1a) Stephen King --Josh Ritter......

Versatile instrument, the piano. The primarily guitar-based P.J. Harvey turns to it to help her write an album of sober, somber chamber music, while the Idaho-bred, Oberlin-educated, equally guitar-centric Josh Ritter uses it to help him loosen up. At least that was the way he made The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, his fifth album since 2000, but his first since 2006’s The Animal Years elevated him from being just another huge-in-Ireland singer-songwriter to someone......

How bad can it be to be Nick Lowe? That shock of fluffy white hair notwithstanding, the guy seems like he doesn’t know what stress is. The onetime Brinsley Schwartz pub-rocker, seminal Stiff Records producer, and punk pioneer releases albums at a glacial pace. He enjoys critical respectability coupled with the kind of low-level semi-fame that comes from being known more for your songwriting and production work than for your singing. In addition to manning......

When the Drive-by Truckers rolled into the 9:30 Club on July 15, 2006, it was the closest I’ve ever come to actually losing consciousness at a rock show. The gig was beyond sold-out, more vacuum-packed with sweaty bodies than any other supposedly sold-out 9:30 show I can remember. On top of that, the show fell on one of those spongy, airless summer nights that that can make the period between Independence Day and Labor......

There was a time in the 1970s when male artists could become famous by simply writing and singing great songs. Seemingly average joes such as Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Elton John sold millions of records without subscribing to the psychedelia of 60s rock, the angst of punk, the glam of the 80s, or the hyper-masculinity of metal and hip-hop. Today, acts such as Coldplay and James Blunt might hint at a resurgence......

By DCist contributor Graham Hough-Cornwell In 1974 after watching a show at the Harvard Square theatre, rock critic Jon Landau famously wrote, “I saw rock and roll’s future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." Now anyone who’s spent any time with rock history knows this as a defining point in Springsteen’s career, after which he graced the covers of Time and Newsweek (simultaneously) and would never have to play another dingy bar again in his......

The 6 Points Music Festival kicked off yesterday, appropriately on the 6th of the month, with shows at three locations around the D.C. area: Staccato in Adams Morgan, Austin Grill in Silver Spring, and a three band line-up that DCist caught last night at Clarendon Grill in Arlington. Having never seen a show at this venue, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere, but frustrated by a sound issue that persisted throughout the night, which......

FROSTBURG, Md. -- From the DCist mobile command center on I-68, we present to you our picks for stuff you should do this weekend. (Actually, we did this early this morning, we think we'll be around Frostburg around lunchtime. But wouldn't it be cool if we did have a mobile command center? C'mon Jake, can you spare a few pennies for that? We promise we won't take it on any joyrides ...) Anyhow, with Catherine......

Yes, yes, we know -- we're late this week with the musical agenda. We were checking out the beautiful city of one of our sister blogs, but now we're back and ready with the shows of the week. WEDNESDAY: >> California band Eagles of Death Metal (a side-project of the frontman for Queens of the Stone Age) play the Black Cat with local group The Whips (whose mp3s you can listen to here). And a......

DCist has been an REM fan since they were young and impressionable, so it's almost impossible for us to be objective about Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills. Last night's show at DAR Constitution Hall was a fun, lively and politically charged concert that hinged more on lead singer Michael Stipe's personality then the music. The band tore through a mix of old and new songs, sticking with their political activist theme for the......

If you were hoping to attend Moveon.org's 'Vote For Change' megaconcert at the MCI Center on October 11, prepare to fork over some dough. An email sent yesterday to MoveOn members registered for the pre-sale listed the prices as $90 and $175. The concert will feature Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Dave Matthews Band, The Dixie Chicks, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, Jurassic 5, Keb’ Mo’, Kenneth “Babyface”......

(From DCist contributor Kanishka Gangopadhyay) A national star-studded musical tour organized by the online organization Moveon.org will culminate with a massive concert on October 11th in Washington D.C.'s MCI center, the group announced today. Thus far, the artists have been touring the country separately as individual participants in the nationwide Vote For Change Tour. The concert will most likely be the largest concert event to hit D.C. this fall. The concert's eclectic 13-performer lineup includes......