Old Software – Medieval Techno Dance-Off
Dan Harris – End of the World
Big Sky Conspiracy – Tornado
Lance Neptune – Circle Rose
Ben Dransfield – One Too Many
Dammit Eugene – Said My God
Theater of Soul – Dance Happy Remix
Low End String Quartet – Shut Up and Listen
Gus Voorhees – The Man of Kent and Step Back
Sweetnova – Soldier
Ben Williams – Moonlight In Vermont
Nerftoss – Big Wish
Atoka Chase – Tick Tock
J.R. Flynn – Across the Campfire, Part I
Benoit & Sergio – Bridge So Far
Louis Weeks – Calder
Terri Bocklund & Curr Kowalski – Isabelle
Brian Forehand – Sit Back
Redline Graffiti – Beauty Mark 1
Middle Distance Runner – The Fury

Birdlips – Home
Medications – Brasil ’07
Wytold – Titania
Nick Hakim – Heaven
Drop Electric – Brooklyn’s Nightmare
Mud Rey – Never Satisfied
Sweetnova – Soldier
Will Eastman & Caleb L’Etoile – We Gon Make It All Happen
Lands & Peoples – Colleen’s Wedding
Middle Distance Runner – Brother John
Near Northeast – North Star
Mathugh – THe! Fearsome Twosome.
Warren Wolf – Natural Beauties
Pete Frassrand – Special K
Fugazi – Break
Shark Week – Desire
Damu the Fudgemunk – Overtime Intro – Instrumental
Raw Feels – Waiting / Wasting
Ben Dransfield – Nostalgia
More Humans – You’re a Liar

Wes Swing – Instrumental 1
Extra Golden – Ilando Gima Onge
Asheru – Boogie (feat. J-Live & Oddisee)
Will Spelker – He Was Mensa
David King – Razor Sharp + Interludes (Bend Language, Sketches 1 & 2)
FeelFree – Fishery
So Spirited – FakeFangs
Terrill Mast – Gifts (feat. Ryan Selove, Jed Lingat, Radhika Bhatt, Morrison Mast)
Dove Lady – Waiting For A Delivery
Sriram Gopal – Bapuji
Middle Distance Runner – Sweettalker
Timmy Sells His Soul – Platinum Card
The Red Fetish – The Rain That Feeds the Meadows
Power Pirate – Alone
aerialist – computia
Projekt Eins – Denouement
The Cowards Choir – Name the Fear
Ken & Brad Kolodner – John Brown’s March
CrushnPain – Night Terrors
Borracho – Empty

Trouble Funk – E Flat Boogie (Instrumental)
Kid Claws – Link
Teething Veils – Dinner Date
Protect-U – Time 2 Technique
Middle Distance Runner – The Fury
Otis Infrastructure – Oxbow
Sriram Gopal – Sink
Nick Garcia – Sun Jam
Drive TFC – Pocket Bitters
Waltz Brigade – Sarsparilla
Ken & Brad Kolodner – Skipping Rocks
B Side Shuffle – Introducing
Carolyn Malachi – Blowing Smoke
Power Pirate – Bring Them Back
Tom Espinola – Blackberry Blossom
aerialist – shputnuck
GoldLink – Palm Trees/Late Night ft. Masego
The Harry Bells – Rum and Coca Cola
The Linemen – Mystery in the Making
Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie – Three Day Beard and a Rusty Jeep

“It has a sort of negative connotation — of amateur bar bands,” says the leader of Virginia indie-rock troupe The Beanstalk Library. He doesn’t think the term represents the high-quality music coming out of the D.C. region.

So when Walker talks about the Magnificent Intentions Music Festival — a two-day concert he and bandmate Brian Pagels host in Arlington and D.C. this weekend — he calls the lineup “D.C.-area,” not “local.” He contends that people here shouldn’t care about these performers because they’re local — they should care because they’re good.

“We realized that there were a lot of bands and acts in the D.C. area that were making really good-quality, original music that’s largely not known outside of the area,” says Walker, 36. “We wanted to put on a festival that puts a spotlight on all that.” 

Now in its second year, the Magnificent Intentions festival takes its name from Charles Dickens’ famous quip that D.C. is a “city of magnificent intentions.” Walker says the moniker refers to something he considers scarce in the regional music scene: big dreams.

“One of the things I noticed growing up… is it didn’t seem very much of a hallmark for [D.C.-area] bands to have ambition,” says Walker, who lives in Arlington. “There are a few exceptions, but I’ve noticed a lot of bands… start to get some buzz outside the area, and then they break up.”

Or local artists who want to go national — like dream-pop duo GEMS and rappers Logic and GoldLink — simply move elsewhere.

When it kicks off Friday evening at IOTA Club & Cafe in Arlington, the Magnificent Intentions festival will host about five hours of music that Walker considers not just local-good, but all-around good. Fairfax singer-songwriter Jacqueline Pie Francis opens the bill, followed by several rock bands with promise, including rough-edged groups Short Lives and Spirit Plots and pop rockers Lighting Fires.

Saturday’s lineup at DC9 skews even poppier, with sets from producer Louis Weeks, the jaunty Title Tracks and polished rockers Middle Distance Runner, among others. (The El Mansouris had to cancel.)

“If you’re into what’s going on on a national level musically, these are things that are not of lesser quality than that,” Walker says. “In some cases, these are acts for whom ambition is not a bad word.”

The Magnificent Intentions Music Festival takes place Dec. 4 at IOTA Club & Cafe and Dec. 5 at DC9. Photo by Flickr user John Athayde used under a Creative Commons license.