My Cousin, The Emperor may just be the band to make you reconsider your long-standing dismissal of country music. Winner of WNYC’s Battle of the Boroughs Brooklyn Throwdown, they’ve been converting rock ‘n rollers by filtering their classic country sounds through low-fi nuances, such as heavy guitar reverberation and lower-quality recording techniques to add the ‘alt’ to their ‘alt-country’ categorization. “Long Way From Home” won the Independent Music Award for best alt-country song, and features finger-pluckin’ quick enough to challenge any Appalachian band, and in “Montevideo,” lead singer/ songwriter Jason Reischel laments about lost love to the accompaniment of country music fundamentals pedal-steel guitar and banjo. – Katherine Bennet

Somewhat reminiscent of an acoustic, lo-fi version of The New Pornographers, Like, Mountains employ their indie-pop sensibility through an amalgamation of techniques, layering seemingly simple and catchy melodies with untraditional sounds. In “Call Me A Liar,” chimes punctuate the concerns of a 20-something (“What are you doing/ With your life?”), in the title track off the band’s latest EP, “If We Break Up Right Now,” accordion plays in chorus with male and female vocals musing about the material side of a relationship, and in “Mexico,” French horn and trumpet harmonies accompany tales of west-coast kids’ escape to the country that’s the “closest “furthest” place from what they know.” The band’s currently planning an early 2011 tour with Brooklyn neighbors Field Mouse, and hard at work on a full-length release. – Katherine Bennet

It may take a few days to nurse yourself back to health after your New Year’s party hangover, but I’ve got news for you:  The music scene waits for no one.  So be prepared, stock up on water and junk food so you can recover as soon as possible.  2011 is going to be a great year for local live music.

And what better way to get it started than with a night of new (but classic) D.C. post-hardcore?  Sounding reminiscent of a heavier Sonic Youth, with female/male vocal tradeoffs and no shortage of guitar breakdowns, Gangland Buries Its Own will be playing at Velvet Lounge on Thursday, January 6.  (Doors 7:30PM/Show 9PM/21+/$8)  Memories From the Space Age will be the opener.

Make a resolution you can keep this year:  Rock till you drop and support local music.  -Jarrett

Prominent in the city’s anti-folk scene, Cheese on Bread’s songs sound raw and unfinished. This is probably due to the fact that the duo recorded their album in their bathroom – initially because of purely economic reasons, later from habit. But because of their low-tech recordings, the songs sound more authentic, like if they were recorded by a couple of friends, and thanks to this the people and places in their stories sound more familiar and real. They’re silly and undeniably charming in a Kimya Dawson way, their songs bearing the same honesty and emotion as high school lovebirds. – Katherine Bennet

With an impressive list of recording credits, including indie rock legends TV on the Radio, Regina Spektor, and Pete Yorn, Eric Biondo still has time to front his own modern big-band, wittily named “Beyondo”. Biondo adds trumpet and a falsetto akin to fellow Brooklynite Justin Rice (Bishop Allen), to reggae-inspired down-tempo tracks. Following the pattern of many of his songs, “Gambler” is calypso jazz, structured around quick African drumming, a full acoustic back-up band, maracas, and funky organ chords. In traditional jazz style, his songs are built off improvisation, and have energetic, spontaneous, and definitely danceable attributes. – Katherine Bennett

Telltale play with the same macabre overtones as goth-wave god Robert Smith (their lead singer even looking a little like him, with wiry black hair and sunken eyes, entirely black ensemble) use as much feedback as noise-pop pioneers The Jesus and Mary Chain, and drown in distortion along with My Bloody Valentine, quavering vocals secondary to the calculated chaos of the guitar. Atonal walls of sound employ reverberation to create shimmering ripples of guitar echo, layering noise upon noise until the sound becomes a tangible presence, shaking your skin and quickening your heartbeat. – Katherine Bennett

After quitting a woodwork apprenticeship in Nevada three years ago, Amber Rubarth picked up the guitar for the first time and started writing songs, and gaining a steady fanbase, ever since. Her soulful, thick, unique alto reflects the blues influence of idol Tom Waits, and her songs tell stories in traditional folk fashion; in “Washing Day,” winner of the 2010 New Song Mountain Stage Contest, she sings of lost love, “too much whiskey, too much smoke/ Last night’s tears hang on my coat.” She will be recording a new release with Grammy Award-winning producer Jaquire King (Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Norah Jones). Check out the top 2 top songs on the Myspace list.

Camp is back. 2 weeks ago I saw Adam Shenk light up the bored, mid-week, after-hours crowd at The Bitter End. A silky crooner best described as a broadway-modeled singer-songwriter for whom no time has passed since the ’90s, Adam Shenk is a singular man somehow possessing the courage to perform (and grind successfully to) Mariah Carey’s "All I want for Christmas".
Complete with suit and skinny tie, Adam Shenk would have looked at home sipping cosmos on a yacht with Peter Cetera and Kenny Loggins. There are a million reasons I could use to try and convince you that this shouldn’t work, but with Adam Shenk it most definitely does.
Brooklyn is full of musicians convincing audiences of the newly found fun of forgotten pop music trends. While this spirit certainly animates the anachronistic R&B and neo-soul sound of songs Suitcases and Taste, the sincerity of Adam’s incredibly enthusiastic delivery will make you think he came up with these styles himself…and through his own unique reinventions, he has. Check him out live when he plays The Bitter End again January 18 at 8:30pm. – Mike Levine

It’s once again that time of year to get awesome with DC’s glorious icons of rock, Rattler. Prepare for the greatest New Years of your life this Friday at the Rock N Roll hotel as Rick Rattler (Vocals), Scott Rattler (Back up Vocals), Mickey "Hollywood" Fangs (Lead Guitar), Rattlesnake (Drums), Frank "The Deuce" Williams (Bass), and Bobby "Coils" Williams (Rhythm Guitar) descend upon the stage and rock your earballs ’til you blackout while they soak you with beer, if you’re lucky. Do yourself a favor and check out their release Incoming (available on iTunes) and let classic tracks such as "Getting Awesome", "Blood Sweat and Beers", and "Cocaine Migraine" sink into your brain so you can chant along. It’ll most likely be one of the greatest nights of your life.

A whole bunch of awesomeness will take place all over RnR Hotel, so for more details check out their site. –Dawn

Since she’s been moonlighting in a lot of garage bands around Brooklyn like Crystal Stilts and Vivian Girls, it was only a matter of time before Frankie Rose dropped her own album on pop label Slumberland Records which came out this fall. Having the label help pick up the production values and Kickstarter to fund a tour van, Frankie Rose and the Outs were busy touring around the US and Europe this past fall delighting their fans with three part female harmonies backed by plenty of reverb and distortion. Now taking a little winter break from touring, Frankie sat down to answer some questions about her past and future. – Read Simon Heggie’s Q&A with Frankie here.

Typically comprised of Olivia Mancini (guitar, vocals), Ed Donohue (guitar), Kristin Forbes (bass, vocals), Randy Scope (drums), and Julia Mancini (vocals, percussion), DC’s pop folky Olivia Mancini and the Mates are a group of musical friends who have been playing together since 2005. Randy and Olivia used to be the rhythm section of the now-defunct Washington Social Club. 2007 saw the independent release of their first album, This Kind of Life, which they quickly followed up with The Chatterbox EP, produced by Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller, Rhett Miller). Now they’ve got a new record, You Can See the Mountains From Here.

They return to the DC stage in the new year at the Black Cat on Jan 7, 2011 @ 9 PM.

Danish music veteran Jesper Mortensen and New York upstart Leah Hennessey brought their glam-punk rock band Make Out to The Mercury Lounge on December 16 and the results were very promising. Capably assisted by band mates Anders Christiansen on bass and Olivia Aliminiana on drums, the thrash, bash and pop quartet delighted a dancing, animated and sometimes moshing audience that included non other than NY Doll David Johansen. Hennessey confidently took command of center stage, while brains-behind-the-project Mortensen slashed pop chords and harmonized to the lyrics he wrote. The band just released the single "I Don’t Want Anybody That Wants Me", which finds Leah singing with a sneer in her voice about being on the prowl to "find a lover tonight," only to petulantly reject all interested parties. Jesper’s four chord chorus (and primary hook) precisely marks out the vocal melody as Anders strong bass line is punctuated by Olivia’s sharp percussive accents. Their debut EP is due out February 2011. Dave Cromwell