Although the dizzying changes in music fandom over the past decade have been overwhelmingly to the good, there are lots of things I miss about indie rock circa 1999. Some of the things I miss are probably shared by any music fan my age: I miss listening to full-length albums in depth, instead of sifting through thousands of mp3s; I miss record stores; blah blah blah. This stuff has been re-hashed to death. But living in Washington, DC, there is something I miss that probably not too many others ...

I still have to do a write-up for Made Out of Babies, but today I want to sketch out some thoughts about the Dismemberment Plan , who are playing reunion shows this weekend. (I’ll be attending on Friday night.) Man, I was startled to see that they were getting back together! They’re doing benefit shows for Callum Robbins, and I support the cause, of course, but I am not sure what to think about the show. They broke up pretty recently, in 2003, but I was out of the country at the time, so I haven...

Friday April 13 (worth repeating from before): MADE OUT OF BABIES opening for DON CABALLERO at ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL HERE’S A CLIP OF MADE OUT OF BABIES: AND HERE’S A CLIP OF DON CAB: Sunday April 15: CHUCK BETTIS at WAREHOUSE NEXT DOOR CHUCK BETTIS IS A LOCAL EXPERIMENTAL MUSICIAN. I LOVE HIS VOCAL WORK ESPECIALLY IN THE BAND “ALL-SCARS” AND ALSO WHAT SONGS I KNOW FROM THE BAND “META*MATICS”. NOT SURE WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS SHOW BUT MIGHT TRY TO ATTEND. Monday April 16: THE LOCUST at THE BLACK ...

April is full of good shows that I don’t have time to go see (see: last night, when I was just too tired to go see Xiu Xiu ). This is kind of a good thing, ‘cuz it means that even if I just go to a third of the shows I’d like to, it will still mean a lot of rocking. Tonight I am debating whether to go out at all, but might be up for the Black Angels at the RnR Hotel. I’ve only heard a few songs by them, and haven’t listened lately, but I think they are good from what I remember. Fun psychedelic ...