Dan McNabb, the band’s guitarist, lead singer and primary songwriter, concedes his preference for a simpler approach.

“I like the three-minute pop song for its brevity, and [I] appreciate being left wanting more,” the Mount Pleasant resident writes in an email.

Like any great pop song, “I Found You Out” was built to be short, catchy and relatable. But McNabb would rather not delve into the lyrics.

“I don’t like songs to be too much about one specific thing,” he writes. “I like the mystery of other people’s songs. Give me the mystery, let me try to figure it out for myself so it can be mine. I want to make sure I give people the same opportunity.”

McNabb started The Beginner’s Mynd several years ago as a solo recording project. The name refers to a Buddhist term for the endless possibilities open to a novice — and that cute “y” in “mind” nods to the creative spelling used by ’60s psych-rock bands. McNabb calls the moniker “a name to write on the demo tapes that I thought nobody would ever hear.”

But when McNabb shared his early recordings with two Alexandria friends — keyboardist Carrie Ferguson and drummer Larry Ferguson — they loved the songs, and they started filling out their arrangements.

The trio released a self-titled cassette in 2013 through garage-rock powerhouse Burger Records. The tape earned them acclaim, but the band wanted their next release on vinyl, so they moved to Austin-based 13 O’Clock Records.

McNabb wants “I Found You Out” and its B-side, “When You Go,” to be the first in a series leading up to an LP. On wax, of course.

“Burger [isn’t] focused on vinyl as much as cassettes,” McNabb says, and vinyl is “where I want to be right now.”

The Beginner’s Mynd plays Sept. 21 at Comet Ping Pong. “I Found You Out” and “When You Go” are released on vinyl Sept. 22, and available on Bandcamp now.

Pop Zeus’ scrappy and heartfelt guitar-pop tunes caught the ear of Orange County label Burger Records, and the imprint put out Hodges’ 10-song debut in 2012. A year later, Hodges hit the road again; he relocated to Portland, Ore., then Los Angeles. He released a promising EP on Gnar Tapes and began working on more music with Wyatt Blair of the psych outfit Mr. Elevator And The Brain Hotel. But he would never finish those recordings. On the afternoon of Dec. 18, 2014, Hodges was killed in a motorcycle crash in downtown L.A. He was 29.

Blair is one of the founders of L.A.’s Lolipop Records. After Hodges died, the label tidied up and published the one song they’d finished: a nugget of squealing power pop that sounds descended from the ’70s pop band Shoes and supplemented by punk rock and Ariel Pink. It could be Hodges’ best song ever. But its words assume another layer of significance in the aftermath of his death. Singing a story about dumping a no-good lover, Hodges sounds relieved when he cries out, “I’ve never been more alive.”

Copyright 2015 WAMU’s Bandwidth. To see more, visit http://bandwidth.wamu.org/.

Buildings, Other Colors, Big Hush, and Howling Void
Friday, March 28 at the Dunes, $10

Buildings is back! The arty instrumentalists—quiet for a while now—typically perform in front of film projections, which makes sense: the band’s proggy math-rock would conjure images even if they weren’t placed in front of your face. Joining the quartet at this Columbia Heights art space are Baltimore’s lo-fi experimental pop group Other Colors, D.C. fuzzy rockers Big Hush, and newcomers Howling Void. (Catherine P. Lewis)

Alsarah and The Nubatones
Friday, March 28 at Tropicalia, $8-12

A Sudan-born Brooklyn resident with a background in ethnomusicology, Alsarah takes a somewhat academic approach to performance, which—as she told the Guardian in 2013—occasionally involves explaining to her American audiences what she’s doing onstage. At the D.C. release show of her new album “Silt,” let’s hope she doesn’t have to take too many talk breaks: Songs as funky as “Soukura” don’t need to be unpacked to be loved. (Ally Schweitzer)

Dudes, Blizzard Babies, BRNDA
Friday, March 28 at CD Cellar Arlington, donations only

Young local three-piece Dudes is the band every rebellious, punk-rock kid wanted to form when they were 17. The songs on the band’s debut recording, “Greatest Hits,” stick to simple and sassy, with lots of funny interplay between co-vocalists Francy Graham and Luke Reddick. That pair—charismatic as they are—will probably wind up on a magazine cover (e-magazine cover?) one day. But before that moment comes along, let’s just enjoy hearing them scream dumb, profane lyrics at each other, most of which are unquotable on this family-friendly blog. (AS)

Warning: This song contains explicit lyrics.

The Day of the Beast, Vitality, Death Penalty
Saturday, March 29 at the Lab, $8-10

D.C. isn’t exactly famous for its metal scene, but there’s a huge variety of heavy bands in the greater D.C. area. This show features three bands who play on the faster side of things: death/thrash band The Day of the Beast hails from Virginia Beach, with thrash openers Vitality (from Frederick, Md.) and Death Penalty (from Northern Virginia). In true D.C. fashion, this show is hosted at Alexandria DIY space The Lab, which is affiliated with the Convergence Church—so leave the booze at home. (CPL)

Dead Heart Bloom, Tone, Cavallo, Talk It
Saturday, March 29 at DC9, $10

Dead Heart Bloom is based in New York City, but is a D.C. band at heart, featuring two core members of the late D.C. band Phaser. Dead Heart Bloom continues down the path of Phaser’s shoegazy psychedelic pop and has released a series of excellent EPs over the last six months. This is a co-headlining show with D.C.’s post-rock guitar army Tone and also features Brooklyn instrumental band Cavallo and ex-Eggs project Talk It. (CPL)

The Jet Age, The Caribbean, Early American
Saturday, March 29 at Comet Ping Pong, $10

This show celebrates old bands with new releases: Longtime indie rockers The Jet Age have just released their newest album, “Jukebox Memoir,” which features guest vocals from Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin and Ride’s Mark Gardener. Those two guys probably won’t be at the show (alas!), but fellow old-school experimental pop band The Caribbean will be, playing songs off their newest album, “Moon Sickness.” (CPL)

Cosmonauts, Black Sea
Monday, March 31 at Black Cat Backstage, $10

California label Burger Records is micro-famous for peddling a slackerly, California-flavored kind of fuzz pop, and noisy Orange County band Cosmonauts has a natural place in the family tree. But it’s also more Loop- or Spacemen 3-driven than many of its Burger buddies, and that’s pleasantly evident on its 2013 full-length, the melodic-but-chunky “Persona Non Grata.”

This is more of an awards show than a concert, but we also recommend:

TMOTTGoGo Honors at Howard Theatre
Thursday, March 27 at Howard Theatre, $20-25

Since the mid-’90s, there’s been no better source of information on D.C.’s go-go scene than TMOTTGoGo. Tonight, the go-go news resource hosts another installment of its annual honors show, which recognizes some big names in the local scene. Among them: noted keys player and go-go celeb Sweet Cherie, photographer and poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, Rare Essence bassist Funky Ned and saxophonist Donnell Floyd, E.U. drummer Ju Ju House, and musician and activist Jason Lewis. Informally recognized all night, of course, is the music that TMOTTGoGo has been championing for nearly 20 years. (AS)

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.