Nick Hakim – The Light
Luxas – Arbo-domo en la Nuboj (Tree-house In the Clouds)
Big Hoax – Guerrero
Fat Kneel – Hoarse Siren
Dura – Lawns
Redline Graffiti – Beauty Mark 2
The Tender Thrill – Ally
Birds and Buildings – Horse-Shaped Cloud
Elijah Jamal Balbed – Checking In
Troy and Paula Haag – Fall For You
Mark Meadows – Somethin’ Good
Bobby Thompson – Soul Love
Oooh Child Ensemble – Cerafica (Live)
Peals – Floating Leaf
Fady D – No Fret
AXB – Easy Morning
rootbug – Red Moon
Barbara Papendorp and Oren Levine – For a Tree (Arbor Day)
Elikeh – The Conversation
Near Northeast – Cenote

Chopteeth – Weigh Your Blessings
Koshari – Into Shreds
Sligo Creek Stompers – Cuckoo’s Nest
Brian Whitmer – Kelly’s Lament
Peals – Belle Air
Young Rapids – Ugly
Five State Drive – Dry Clean Express
Teen Mom – Kitchen
Diamond District – Streets Won’t Let Me Chill
M.H. & His Orchestra – Cobblestone
Hailu Mergia and the Walias – Muziqawi Silt
The Caribbean – Echopraxia
Sara Curtin – A Little Again
Louis Weeks – Calder
GroundScore – Here We Are
Drop Electric – What Now, of Paradise?
Jonathan Parker – Sundown
Domingues & Kane – No. 5
Lo Fang – Invention No. 11
AXB – Quantum Chill
Wale – Love Hate Thing (Tone P Instrumental)
Elikeh – The Conversation
The Sweater Set – Lost At Sea
Warren Wolf – 427 Mass Ave

The group had creative differences, says frontman Massama Dogo. “Other guys in the band wanted to do more of a Fela [Kuti] thing,” he says, referring to the Nigerian Afrobeat star. But Dogo wanted to play bouncier rhythms from Togo, his native country.

Plus, everybody in the band was sick of playing small venues. “If we could play bigger clubs,” Dogo says, “it would give the band and the fans more energy.”

The band duked it out in a tense meeting earlier this year. By its end, a surprising thing had happened: Elikeh had written a new song.

That track is called “The Conversation,” and it opens Elikeh’s new EP, Kondona, out Nov. 20 on Ropeadope. Friday, the group celebrates its release at D.C.’s Rock & Roll Hotel.

Dogo may be unenthused about playing yet another intimate venue, but if he is, he doesn’t let on. He says the group is taking other steps to keep their mojo working.

“What we want do now is to focus more on the style of the music than what we are talking about,” he says.

That’s a big step for a songwriter whose lyrics — often in the Togo languages Ewe and Mina, but occasionally in French and English — have tackled substantive issues in the past. The son of a government minister, Dogo has warbled about political corruption and the late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Elikeh is a multinational band that includes a Nigerian lead guitarist, a Ghanaian percussionist and a bassist, keyboardist, drummer and horn players from the U.S. The group started as a solo project for Dogo, who came to D.C. in 2000 and recruited local players to record Nyade, his first album as Elikeh. Elikeh became a true band later on, releasing Adje!Adje! in 2010 and following up with Between Two Worlds in 2012.

Stylistically, the group skews old-school: It draws from ’60s and ’70s West African rhythms including Togolese agbadja and kamou, Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian Afrobeat tinged with jazz and funk. Their slightly throwback style doesn’t woo many young African immigrants in the D.C. region, who dance to Auto-Tuned African pop at clubs like Fire Station 1.

“Some people do listen to that kind and us, but most of them do not,” Dogo says. “It goes with style. They don’t dress traditional African. We are a band who uses African cultural stuff and mixes it with who we are.”

Elikeh’s new material has a strong basis in Togolese culture. Kondona is named after a Togo initiation ceremony that welcomes young men into the adult part of the community. Dogo attended one in his home village this summer. While crafting the EP at House of Jam recording studio in Beltsville, Maryland, he also incorporated sounds from that ceremony, as well as drumming from percussionists he’d recorded back home.

“We kind of produce ourselves. We don’t have an engineer here who is familiar with agbadja Togo music, and that is the direction we want to go now,” Dogo says.

Dogo thinks that Elikeh has taken steps that will expand its audience as the group prepares to release a full-length on Ropeadope next year. He says that featuring Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré and Furthur guitarist John Kadlecik on Elikeh’s 2012 record helped them reach new people. The group also aims to find an agent who can help book gigs in new places — something other than small rock clubs.

“We have the dedication to doing the grassroots thing,” he says, “but if you do it too long, that’s where the frustration comes in.”

It seems like Elikeh’s near-breakup helped Dogo and his bandmates in the long run. But on “The Conversation,” the band tells the story of its turning point with music, not words.

“We didn’t think lyrics could represent what happened that day,” says Dogo, “so we thought about having a horn and a trumpet express that.”

Elikeh plays an EP release show Nov. 6 at Rock & Roll Hotel.

Megafaun and Grandma Sparrow
Thursday, May 1 at DC9, $14

Before Justin Vernon recorded as Bon Iver, he was in a Wisconsin indie-rock band called DeYarmond Edison. Vernon’s three former DeYarmond Edison bandmates, now based in Durham, North Carolina, are the psychedelic rock band Megafaun. Merging vocals reminiscent of Fleet Foxes with off-kilter instrumentation and a lo-fi aesthetic, the trio might not be quite as famous as their former bandmate, but Megafaun’s folk/post-rock style is well worth hearing. Opening the show is the psychedelic Grandma Sparrow.

Nakatani Gong Orchestra
Friday, May 2 at tBack Alley Theater, $12

Friday, acoustic sound artist Tatsuya Nakatani leads a group of 11 local musicians in a large gong ensemble. These instruments, both bowed and struck with mallets, produce a sound both melodic and percussive; Nakatani’s last visit to D.C. saw him performing at the Kennedy Center, so the DIY feel of the Back Alley Theater will give this ensemble quite a different feel. Preceding the ensemble performance, Nakatani will perform a solo percussion set.

The Whigs and Nikki Lane
Friday, May 2 at Rock & Roll Hotel, $15

Athens-based garage rock band The Whigs blend their noisy riffs with some serious pop-influenced hooks—not surprising influences for a band that’s toured with acts ranging from Kings of Leon to Band of Skulls. The fuzz and distortion that permeates their music is perfect for a sweaty Friday night. Opener Nikki Lane has a distinct country point of view; her sassy twang is reminiscent of early Neko Case.

The Funk Parade
Saturday, May 3 on U Street NW; free

Coordinated by the folks behind Listen Local First, the inaugural Funk Parade is an all-day street festival with a participatory parade (from their web site: “Get up, get into it, get involved!”), dance performances and workshops. At night, the funk moves into many of U Street’s top music venues—DC9, Tropicalia,  U Street Music Hall, Patty Boom Boom, and Twins Jazz, among others—with free-admission performances by performers including Cheick Hamala Diabate, Elikeh, and Sugar Bear and EU.

Kohoutek, Taiwan Housing Project, Tulsa
Sunday, May 4 at Velvet Lounge, $8

Kohoutek used to be a D.C.-based band, and the group’s drummer, Scott Verrastro, regularly put on DIY shows at his home on Florida Avenue NW. Those days have passed now that Verrastro has moved to Philadelphia, so Kohoutek’s improvised psych-noise shows in the District are a much rarer occurrence than they used to be. Verrastro still knows how to put together a killer lineup, though: joining Kohoutek are Taiwan Housing Project (a collaboration between Kilynn Lunsford of Little Claw and Mark Feehan of Harry Pussy) and Tulsa, a band featuring members of the psych-shoegaze band Dark Sea Dream.

Jessy Lanza, Ricky Eat Acid
Monday, May 5 at Black Cat Backstage, $12

This week Stereogum declared that R&B-tinged electronic music—inescapable for the last three years—had reached its saturation point. I can’t disagree, but I’m not quite ready to take Jessy Lanza’s electronic-meets-R&B album “Pull My Hair Back” out of my headphones. The whispery Canadian vocalist and producer is too good at earworms. A live video she recently recorded for KCRW is entrancing, particularly her deft performance of “Keep Moving,” a highlight from “Pull My Hair Back” (and my running playlist). Monday night, she’s supported by College Park, Maryland’s own Ricky Eat Acid. (Ally Schweitzer)

Also recommended this week:
Heavy Metal Night at Port City Brewing and Foul Swoops, Flesh Panthers, and Neonates at The Dougout (tonight); Typefighter, Shark Week, Sunset Guns, and Teen Mom at Rock & Roll Hotel (Saturday); A Minor Forest and Two Inch Astronaut at DC9 (Sunday); The Dead Women and Nice Breeze at Galaxy Hut (Monday).

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.