This Saturday, DC's experimental indie rockers, the Vita Ruins, return to their hometown (at the Red Palace,) after a couple months of shows up and down the east coast.  Their first LP, A Day Without A Name, (released in March), is hands down one of the best albums of the year, so expect to be shaken to your knees with gorgeous tracks like "Coffin Dodgers" and "I Was Hoping That Our Stardust Was In Someway Connected." Recently, they've let loose a demo of a new tune to be featured on their upcoming EP to be released in early 2011.  Super excited over here! (photo credit Colleen Vivori)

  The Vita Ruins - The Towns (Demo) by thevitaruins

'Washington D.C.'s very own Alvin Risk takes the stage Saturday, November 13th, at U Street Music Hall, for the release of his debut EP The Making Of. Part glow-fi dance party, part electronic opera, The Making Of is a sketchbook into the promising future of the next transformative figure in post-rock music.' Also on the bill is the gorgeous lush electro artist Painted Face, and Brian Billion, U Street's resident DJ. It's gonna be epic. Preview Risk's EP on Soundcloud.

Baltimore's psych-folk rockers Arbouretum have set the date on their 4th release, The Gathering (out 2/22/11.) It is to a large extent inspired by The Red Book by Carl Jung, or more specifically, Jung’s pursuit of the inner images that led to the book’s writing.  Dave Heumann, the singer, guitarist and main lyricist of Arbouretum, has long been a fan of experiences that surpass comprehension and describe the numinous. The narrative of “losing one’s way and finding it again” resonated deeply and it was in this context that the songs that comprise The Gathering came to be.

Check out his acoustic performance of the featured track "When Delivery Comes" below.

Arbouretum - When Delivery Comes (solo acoustic) from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Hailing from Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Impossible Hair have been quietly constructing pop songs, conspicuously jumping up and down on stages, and convincing rooms of people that it’s OK to move at rock’n’roll show.

As is to be expected from a horse racing record, their latest release, Toast a Dozen (on the outside), is a high-energy, fast-paced affair with fifteen songs flying by in just over thirty minutes. Song titles like “High Official,” “The Girl & the Echo” and “White Knuckle Flyer” would seem as at home on a Preakness Stakes exacta as they do on the back of this record.

“The band’s sound hearkens back to those indie rock glory days of the ‘90s, but with more precision than disheveledness; think hi-fi Guided By Voices production…” – Washington Post