Sloan, doggedly plugging away at the elusive American market. The four guys in Sloan have always seemed like affable, well-adjusted fellows, which is a good thing, because if I were in that band, keeping my resentment at bay would probably be a full-time job. Canadian bands, even ones that share Sloan's affinity for 70s A.M. gold, are all the rage now, but in the mid-90s, when this Halifax, Nova Scotia quartet was trying to......

Finally legal and ready to party This week the Washington Post published an article featuring three local pastry chefs creating recipes around exotic fruits. The article was a nod to the recent change that allows the legal importation from Thailand of rambutan, litchis, longans, new varieties of mangoes, and the "queen of fruits", the mangosteen. Many of these fruits were available fresh in Asian markets, but were often smuggled from Canada. The fruits will begin......

>> Canada's The Most Serene Republic bring their large and melodic sound to The Rock and Roll Hotel tonight, with Bellflur and Watch Man Walk. $10, 8:30 p.m. >> Married Charlottesville rockers Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule will share the stage out at Jammin' Java tonight, touring in support of their latest releases, Sproule’s Keep Your Silver Shined and Curreri’s The Velvet Rut. 8 p.m., $10. >> Rescheduled from last week, Judith Jones, cookbook......

FRIDAY: >> Local comic book store Fantom Comics is celebrating the grand opening of their new Union Station store tonight with a party from 6 to 10:30 p.m. They'll be serving up free pizza on the early side and the comedy stylings of the Geek Comedy Tour during the second half of the night. There will also be a trivia contest with $500 gift certificates up for grabs. The party is inside the Union......

The Capitals have re-signed pugilistic defenseman John Erskine to a two year contract. After Donald Brashear, who is in a category of his own, Erskine is the team's best fighter. Erskine's sixty-nine penalty minutes in twenty-nine games last season show he was not afraid to demonstrate his combative skills. While Erskine began last season in Hershey, playing for the Bears of the American Hockey League, he earned a promotion back to the NHL and stayed......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

While every animal, no matter how ugly or useless, has its defenders, no one seems to like Canada Geese. And better yet, everyone seems to want them dead. The Post is reporting today that some 600 Canada Geese that have long called Anacostia Park their home may soon be killed, due to their tendency to eat vital marsh grasses and then defecate in the already-polluted river. In a hearing last week held by the National......

Jeff Antoniuk grew up listening to 1970s and 80s R&B, and funk like Michael Jackson, Earth Wind and Fire, and Average White Band, in addition to the required Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. He then discovered jazz fusion, which then led to classic acoustic jazz. In between all of this, he was studying classical piano classical theory and his master’s studies also included world music and ethnomusicology. The result is a wide range of......

Monday >> Canada’s post-punk four piece Uncut just released their latest album Modern Currencies in the U.S. on July 17th and will be at DC9 tonight with special guest Patrick Krief of The Dears. Just like their name says, they are raw: loud, bold, and off the wall. Check out the stopmotion animated video for their recent single, "Darkhorse" which includes a fire bombing Ronald McDonald and an army of pissed off Care Bears. 8p.m.,......

>> "A federal appeals court ruled today that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, must report to prison shortly to begin serving his 30-month sentence for lying to federal investigators about his role in leaking a CIA officer's identity." [WaPo] UPDATE: Man, we honestly thought that first comment was a joke for a minute! Bush has commuted Libby's prison sentence. >> Please Add L2 to NextBus, K? Thx [The......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

>> Local group Ocio brings its repertoire of classic jazz standards to Twins Jazz tonight. Call (202) 234-0072 for cover information. >> It might be a bit of a drive for those of us who live in D.C., but Jeff Antoniuk and the Jazz Update, a stellar band comprised of saxophonist Antoniuk, bassist Tom Baldwin, pianist Wade Beach, and drummer Tony Martucci, plays tonight at 49 West in Annapolis. Their album, Here Today, has charted......

>> National Zoo Panda Mama Mei Xiang may not be pregnant after all -- a recent ultra sound showed no evidence of a panda fetus. Sniff. [WTOP] >> Mayor Fenty thinks people should be able to swim in the Potomac. Sure, if they're willing to become bi-gendered. [WTOP] >> Just when you thought moving to Canada was the solution to trying live a saner, more civilized existence, they go and throw out the hallmark......

>> A suspicious package at the National Postal Museum next to Union Station caused the area to be evacuated during the lunch rush today. Luckily -- or perhaps, unluckily, if you work for the bomb squad -- the offending package turned out to contain only a soiled diaper. The area was reopened by 1:30 p.m. On behalf of the city, DCist would like to thank you, fearless, put upon bomb squad members, for keeping us......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

If you've been to the box suites at RFK Stadium, you may have noticed photos of acts that have played the stadium lining the hallway - U2, New Kids on the Block, the Promise Keepers and so on. But after we finished laughing at the New Kids, one plaque off to the side caught our eye: "Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, site of Olympic football, 19 July-4 August 1996." What? The Olympics were at RFK? There......

Oh Canada, what are we missing? Sometimes it seems like the “cultural gap” between our two nations is way too exaggerated by the media (read: comedians). For example, there are Canadians I know and often forget they are foreigners, I once stayed on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and barely noticed the difference, and our indie rock scene is thoroughly dominated by Canadian bands. But there’s no denying the Stateside crowd either doesn’t get......

>> Didn't get a chance to attend one of the Eastern Market benefit happy hours last week? The E Street Austin Grill will donate 33 percent of its food sales after 5 p.m. tonight to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation's "Eastern Market—Keep It Going" fund. 750 E Street, NW in The Lansburgh. >> !!! (chk, chk, chk) stop by the 9:30 Club in support of their new album Myth Takes. With Canada's Holy Fuck. $18.......

We're still getting over the amazing Big Band Jam and next week we'll tell you all about the Kennedy Center's annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. In the mean time, there's plenty of great jazz to be had in our fair city. >> Trumpet player Sean Jones, a young lion who was recently chosen to be a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, brings his group to Blues Alley. Jones is touring......

MONDAY >> A year ago, Rolling Stone called The Whigs one of ten bands to watch and "the best unsigned band in America." The Athens, GA trio has since been taking their pure rock-and-roll on the road in support of Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip, winning comparisons to the Replacements, the Strokes, REM, and the Drive-By Truckers along the way. The break hasn't come yet, but we've got a feeling it could......

Last time we live blogged the House debate on District voting rights, things didn't go too well. We're hoping for a bit of an improvement today. From what we've heard on the Hill, debate kicks off at 10:30 a.m., and the legislation has been split up into two separate parts -- one covering the actual voting seats both D.C. and Utah would receive and the other dealing with the minor increase in annual spending the......

So some Penguins walk out of arena negotiations… The Pittsburgh Penguins are staying in Pittsburgh. After years of debate, the Pennsylvania government agreed to open up a bunch of casinos and use the revenue to keep the best young collection of hockey players anywhere on Earth right squarely in the Iron City. While this is great news for the Penguins and all of their fans, it is terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad news for the......

Washington's last chance for snowpocalypse is upon us. The National Weather Service has issued a snow advisory beginning at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning through 7:00 p.m. in the evening. The Feds are calling for 3 to 4 inches of snow total, but our friends at Capital Weather are nudging the outlook closer to 1 or 2 inches in the metro area, the killjoys. This storm is a result of an Alberta Clipper, an icy......

Good morning, Washington. Need something to warm your funny bone (or at least your sense of outrage) on this appropriately cold winter morning? Well, look no further that the hijinks of Virginia's legislators. We thought that Virgil Goode's silly attacks on Rep. Keith Ellison were all the entertainment that the commonwealth was likely to offer in the short term. But, as NBC4 reports, state representative Frank Hargrove has come to the rescue, committing two enormous......

When architects, developers, and laborers set about transforming the former Columbia Hospital for Women into the massive Columbia Residences complex at the intersection of 25th Street, L Street, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, they placed the area within a protective cocoon of chain-link fences. Inside the fences, just across L Street from the back door of Marcel's restaurant, went a little-known monument commemorating a joint international agreement to reduce military forces patrolling the Great Lakes. With......

With a career spanning over three decades, the eclectic Kronos Quartet has covered a lot of ground. But even with their reputation as a true rock n' roll "classical" ensemble, watching violinist David Harrington growl in German was a sight to behold at GW's Lisner Auditorium on Sunday. The audience suppressed giggles as the string quartet launched into an arrangement of the 1983 song "Armenia" by the influential industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten, with each member......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned. They......

NBC4 has the word that several area grocers, including Giant and Wegman's, are making preparations to begin stocking fresh spinach again. The supermarkets will have signs telling customers where the spinach comes from. Both chains said they get their spinach from Canada and Colorado. It's the spinach from California, where the E. coli problem is believed to have started. There's probably no issue that breeds more hysteria in the U.S. than reports of food contamination......

Did you get caught on Connecticut Avenue near the Uptown Theatre last night? Were you blinded by the sight of limos and more barricades than you can shake a stick at? We were. And, boy, was traffic, both of the automobile and pedestrian sort, a riot. Looks like it was all courtesy of the premiere of the movie The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher and Sela Ward. We didn't spot any stars, but, according......