Drop Electric – We Will Be Humans, Finally
Cigarbox Planetarium – Gothic Meth Lab Party
Anchor 3 – Left Fielder
John Battema – I Can’t See Home Anymore
Echo Broke Alone – Something Beautiful
The Moderate – Drugs/Young Men
Snail Mail – Thinning
Fellow Creatures – Seance (Shuka)
The Rail Runners – Crash Burn Learn
Mellow Diamond – Namesake
More Humans – Disaster
Logikbomb – Greenline to Ana
Sound of the City – Waiting (Sumthin 2 Ride 2)
Eva Cassidy – Ain’t No Sunshine
Jeff Cosgrove, Frank Kimbrough, and Martin Wind – The Owls
Lungfish – Necrophones
Grogan Social Scene – Mercury Is In Retrograde
Terracotta Blue – DreamVintage (part 1)
Luke Reddick – Can’t Be Bought
Screen Vinyl Image – I’m Not

It’s unclear whether Reddick is legitimately curious, or if he’s just fond of the sound of the words.

The song (watch the video below) came out of “thinking about architecture and how similar of an art form it is to music,” the 19-year-old Arlington resident writes in an email. “Both performing music or constructing an object can take very long or happen very quickly and either way a product is made that can be either really interesting or really boring.”

The band is similarly abstruse about its origin. Reddick — formerly of D.C. punk band Dudes — formed Bless earlier this year with the intent of “understanding and transcending boundaries of what the average person thinks is possible in music and sound.” He works out arrangements with Sapperstein — whom he describes as “very classic, almost immortal” — and Wuerker.

The trio recorded its recent Bless Tape at Wuerker’s house in Brookland on a reel previously used by fellow D.C. artist Andrew Aylward. A sample of one of Aylward’s songs appears at the end of “Tru Bless House.” Reddick calls its inclusion “kind of a mystery.”

“Tru Bless House” is a moment of quiet reflection on a cassette release clattering with surf guitar, swinging rhythms and stuttering percussion. Reddick’s baritone voice falls somewhere between a croon and a moan, often trading call-and-response vocals with Sapperstein’s high-pitched warble. The result is a delirious vision of rock ‘n’ roll, akin to Royal Trux or Alex Chilton’s weirder solo albums.

Reddick hopes the Bless Tape will encourage “rocking out and allowing as many people as possible to touch and feel our music with their hands and bodies.”

Bless has a slate of upcoming gigs — including a tape release show Wednesday at Comet Ping Pong — but Reddick remains down to Earth about his goals.

“I would like to eat a nice sandwich in the near future,” the musician writes, “as well as maybe read an interesting book.”

Bless plays a tape release show July 22 at Comet Ping Pong with White Mystery, Dirty Fences and Homosuperior.

Francy Graham didn’t mean to create an homage to Kendrick Lamar with “My Vibe,” a previously unreleased track from her now-defunct punk band, Dudes. But that’s kind of what she did.

Graham, who also plays in Chain & the Gang, says she probably heard Lamar’s 2012 track “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” at some point — but she didn’t really take the time to listen to it until deciding to release this track from her band.

“Of course I’ve like, been at a party, and heard it and stuff, but I’d never really sat down and listened to it. And so I did,” says Graham. “I mean, [Dudes’ version is] pretty similar. I just think it’s adapted to my lifestyle, I guess.”

At their core, both songs are about self-preservation in the face of undesirable forces, but the Dudes track is a stripped down punk anthem, with Graham’s slightly sardonic vocals topping a bare-bones bass line (played by Luke Reddick, who usually handled drums) and beat (from Laurie Spector, who usually played bass). Graham says she wrote the lyrics during a chill jam session; she remembers Reddick saying “bitch, don’t kill my vibe” and she decided to run with it.

“In my head I was like ‘Wow, my vibe, I just got this great idea that no one’s ever come up with,'” Graham says. “But, like, everyone’s done that.”

Graham’s lyrics bring a different sensibility to her band’s song, too. There are not-so-subtle digs at that kind of art-school, too-cool culture: “Sea punk, art school, goth you’re so lost/I don’t care, just don’t kill my vibe.”

Graham says she wrote the lyrics while beginning college at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. “Moving to Baltimore was kind of a shock for me because there were all these people who were trying to figure themselves out and who were so happy to be out of their parents’ house,” Graham writes in an email. They “were trying to act all crazy, and I just felt more independent, and less of a need to be like, ‘Waaaghhhh, lets be crazy!'”

The musician would prefer that those people not, you know, kill her vibe.

“My Vibe” remained unreleased for a variety of reasons, including the disintegration of Dudes itself (“We’re kind of all in different places right now,” Graham says) and fear of negative reactions to the song. Eventually, Graham realized she couldn’t do anything about potential backlash, and she liked the song too much to let it disappear.

Dudes recorded the track in April 2014, in the basement studio of Coup Sauvage and The Snips‘ Jason Barnett. For a while, Graham thought of an alternative way of releasing “My Vibe” — she had a feeling it might make a good match for a vibrator commercial, and she even considered contacting a pleasure-piece manufacturer. She hasn’t yet, but there’s still time.

Channels, Soccer Team, Bells≥
Friday, May 30 at Rock & Roll Hotel, $12

Baltimore rock band Channels features J. Robbins (from Jawbox and Burning Airlines) alongside bassist Janet Morgan and drummer Darren Zentek of Kerosene 454. Their recorded output in their 10-year career has been relatively minimal (one album and one EP), and their live shows seem even more rare, so this is an excellent chance to check out these almost-locals. They’ll be joined by D.C. rockers Soccer Team and Brooklyn instrumental band Bells≥. (Catherine P. Lewis)

Foul Swoops, Nic Fits, Anchor 3, and Luke Reddick
Friday, May 30 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church, $5 to $10

St. Stephen’s doesn’t host benefit shows as often as it used to, but it’s back at it this weekend with an all-local lineup that will benefit UNICEF’s work to help Syrian children. The show features Arlington rockers Foul Swoops, D.C. punkers Nic Fits, D.C. indie-pop band Anchor 3, and Alexandria’s Luke Reddick (of Dudes). (CPL)

Eels and Chelsea Wolfe
Saturday, May 31 at Lincoln Theatre, $35

This is Chelsea Wolfe’s “acoustic with strings” tour leg, which I hope means the gothic-folk/rock artist plans to perform a whole set of gorgeous tunes like this special version of one of her best songs to date, “Flatlands.” Wolfe’s last album, the synth-infused Pain Is Beauty, had plenty of memorable moments (especially the thunderous “We Hit A Wall“), but I always return to the seething, lower-key Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs. Here’s hoping Saturday’s show (with headliner Eels) coaxes out more of that understated beauty. (Ally Schweitzer)

Outputmessage, Paperhaus, and The Effects
Saturday, May 31 at 945 Florida Ave. NW, free

A solid lineup of local performers, free admission, and dogs? I can’t think of many reasons to miss this show, co-presented by DCist.com, which takes place Saturday in the parking lot that formally hosted District Flea. Electronic wizard Outputmessage and indie-rock mainstays Paperhaus top the bill, but new band The Effects is worth an ear, too, featuring members of Medications, Buildings, and Deleted Scenes. The dogs come courtesy of Metro Mutts, which hosts a “Canines and Cocktails” happy hour before the show. (AS)

Priests, The Shondes, and Pinkwash
Monday, June 2 at Black Cat Backstage, $10

Local punk band Priests isn’t one for social media, but it’s all over the press, both locally (on Bandwidth and in the pages of Washington City Paper and the Washington Post) and nationally. The group finally drops its debut EP Tuesday—a step up from its previous cassette releases—but its DIY ethos still rages on. Opening group The Shondes joined this lineup after being booted from the Washington Jewish Music Festival because of their support of Palestine. (CPL)

Also recommended this week:
Internationally Known Global Hip-Hop Showcase at Tropicalia (Friday); Drop Electric, The Walking Sticks, and The Raised By Wolves at the Howard Theatre (Friday); Janel Leppin’s Volcanic Ash at Twins Jazz (Friday and Saturday); Queering Sound at Pyramid Atlantic (Saturday); The Menzingers, Lemuria, Pup, and Cayetana at Rock & Roll Hotel (Sunday); Br’er, Wei Zhongle, Three Brained Robot at the Paperhaus (Monday); Louis Weeks at Anacostia Arts Center (Wednesday).

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.