So last month I was waxing enthusiastic about the Sockets showcase at the Black Cat, and I went and brought a bunch of friends. And it was great! But I got a little burned out on all-Sockets, all-the-time music thinking, and so I’m just getting around to writing it up. It was a solid show, all 5 bands were good, and the whole night had a lot of good vibes. There was a nice turnout and a lot of enthusiasm for the music. And I talked to members of several of the bands, discussed things with my fri…

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 …