The last time singer Grace Potter had an extended stay in D.C. was for President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. “I just fell in love with the city: the energy, the f...

Patti Smith’s music has been with me since my teens, when I also dutifully consumed Camus and Rimbaud in the classic moody-teen-girl search for meaning. Until Saturday, I’...

If Mario Batali and Redman somehow had a love child, it would be Action Bronson. The 300-pound chef-turned-rapper from Queens is hilarious, vulgar and yet very polite. His foo...

I recently Tumbld toward Downed City Rise, where John Davis of Title Tracks (and sundry other great bands) lets you root through his personal shoebox of D.C.-scene memorabilia...

Veteran stoner-metal band High on Fire released its sixth album this past spring, the blistering “De Vermis Mysteriis,” an ambitious collection about Jesus’ time-traveli...

When we left R. Kelly’s sprawling, 22-chapter hip-hopera “Trapped in the Closet,” it was 2007. Main man Sylvester (Kelly) and a dozen other shady characters were trackin...

Marco Benevento is not famous. His songs don’t get played on the radio. He doesn’t get mentioned on indie-rock blogs or appear on late-night talk shows. Yet for the past d...

Kaki King doesn’t just strum her guitar. On her sixth studio album, “Glow,” the Atlanta-born musician pounds the instrument like it’s a drum, tapping manically along t...

Stephin Merritt hates touring. The frontman for indie legends the Magnetic Fields is bored by the constant travel, the grueling routines and the anonymous accommodations. “I...

In another era, they’d have been called “touched”: musicians who have channeled the pain and confusion of severe mental illness into a certain kind of genius. Austin alt...

November is Gratitude Month, and this year I’m thankful for: Growing up in the Detroit area and having so many amazing radio stations form my ecumenical musical interests. T...

When Gary Clark Jr. tells an audience “you gonna know my name by the end of the night,” it’s not a warning; it’s practically a guarantee. The 28-year-old Austin, Texas...

Every toiling indie musician dreams of getting into a breakout band, selling hundreds of thousands of albums and filling venues all over the country. But for members of the Po...

Though it’s the opposite of quiet time, heavy metal is like meditation in that it forces you to think about things you might otherwise ignore. Two new full-lengths from D.C....

In one version of the backstory, Major Lazer is a Jamaican warrior who survived a zombie attack to gain lasers for hands. In reality, Major Lazer is a collaboration between su...