David Marc Alterman – Tango for Violin and Piano Opus75
Pan American Symphony Orchestra – A Tiempo
Motion Lines – The Yearbook
junhee – Home
South Rail – Wandering Soul
Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes – Stormy Monday
Warren Wolf – Grand Central
Famous For A Century – War
Young Rapids – Goods
Night Kitchen – Chief
Drive TFC – Summertime Unkind
Thievery Corporation – Samba Tranquille
Benoit & Sergio – Your Darkness
Terri Bocklund & Curr Kowalski – Aurora
Knuckleberry Finn – Disney World
Foozle –
Lands & Peoples – Lullabye
Smoke Bellow – Middling 1
Ronny Smith – 95 Drive
Q and Not U – Wonderful People

Cruzie Beaux – Mrs. Dick Van Dike
Warren Wolf – Howling Wolf
Brûlée – Flamingos Above
Birdlips – Under Crooked Trees
U.S. Royalty – De Profundis
The Mind Set – Head Times II
The Beanstalk Library – Drawing Glasses
The Internal Frontier – The Spell
Caustic Casanova – Your Spirit Festooned On the Bedposts
Peanut Butter and Dave – Open Letter
Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes – Blue Moo
Q and Not U – Soft Pyramids
Brian Forehand – House of Sax
Tom McBride – Cutting Up LA
Arthur Loves Plastic – Metro Morning
Theater of Soul – Slow Drag in the Woods
Constant Alarm – Privy to Your Pain
Frau Eva – Cosmophobia
G-Flux – Voodoo Instrumental
Outputmessage – Try Again

Higher Hands – Due Dilla-gence
Le Loup – I Had a Dream I Died
Miyazaki – Apparition
Oddisee – Fievre
John Lanou – Blackbird with Landon Letzkus
Vandaveer – Ways & Means
South Rail – Wandering Soul
Dale Holmes – Summer Rain
Tom McBride – Cheap Thrill
PS Music Group – Waiting
Xamin – Humidity ft. Alex Leipold, Rebecca Schrader
Max D – Slick
Peanut Butter and Dave – Egon
Q and Not U – We Heart Our Hive
Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes Septet – Warm Woman Blues
Frau Eva – Interlude
RDGLDGRN – Hangout
Outputmessage – Goldilocks Zone (Julius Jetson Remix)
Language of Sleep – Epilogue
Lungfish – Constellations

Ben Williams – Lost & Found feat. Christian Scott
Fields Burning – Maysong
Steiner – Twisted and Broken
Mary Chapin Carpenter – Livingston
Aaron Agre – Nocturne
Todo Mas – Aftermath
Q and Not U – When the Lines Go Down
The Soul Searchers – Ashley’s Roachclip
Dale Holmes – The Huntress
Terrill Mast – Wings (feat. Jed Lingat & Radhika Bhatt)
Nunchucks – Zebra
Coatsworth-Hay – 1682 Doves
Drive TFC – Summertime Unkind
Misun – Promise Me
Deleted Scenes – Ithaca
Eric Maring – A Fine Balance
Akira Otsuka – First Tear
Terracotta Blue – Silver Nights
Machines on Vacation – Waving Goodbye
The Fuss – Just For Show

Screen Vinyl Image – The Midnight Sun
The Orchid – Decompressor/The Last Dive
Jon Camp – All Is Fine Past the County Line
Aaron Agre – Time Window
Dissonance – Chlorophyll Daffodil
Elijah Cole – Green Dolphin Street
The Jet Age – The Only Difference
NUNS – False Architect
The Funk Ark – Bouzouki Song
2nd Story Band – Junior
Beautiful Swimmers – Running Over
Sriram Gopal – Bengali Dhun
Exit Vehicles – Paint
K-Loe Black – 144 Thousand
Wicked Olde – Old Joe Clark
MUDGE – Adora Jar
Flasher – Tense
Romantic States – Hourglass
Q and Not U – Wonderful People
Pilesar – Stickbag 1ne

Jonny Grave – After the Wake
Machine Drift – Sensory Fiction
Q and Not U – Soft Pyramids
The Orchid – You Cannot Pave The Warpath
Exit Vehicles – Face Behind
Sansyou – The Dilettante
The Mind Set – Head Times II
Near Northeast – This Old Head
The Buzz – Sweet Manitoba
Dela Sante – Crumpets
Curse Words – Sunk Rock
Double Tie – Diameter #7
Sleeves Off a Vest – Home Made
Pupils – It’s Good To Have Met You
Disc Image – Icheb
Mooks – Song For Bella
Terrill Mast – Voyd (feat. Jed Lingat)
Matt Tarka – Very Little
The Funk Ark – Headband
Rob Shaw – Un Manatial

Lance Neptune – Pyxis
Scythian – Columbus Stockade Blues
the Sobel 4Tet – Modo
The Mind Set – Hemlock Smoothie
Go Cozy – Our Best Reflections
Jonny Grave – Worried Life
Q and Not U – We Heart Our Hive
Kali Uchis – Speed
David Wright and the Wright Touch Horns – Wherever It Takes You
Jon Camp – Interrupted Transmission
BOOMscat – CATCHME
We Were Pirates – Into Thin Air
Brûlée – The Wagon I’m On
Tree Surgeons – The Bridge
Iritis – Theory
Exit Vehicles – Circular
Sherwood Gainer – 404
Pupils – Take The Time To Tell Them
Dale Holmes – Unchained Melody
Save the Arcadian – Walrus

Davis and Richards — the Washington Post pop-music critic — began the indie-folk project Paint Branch in December 2010, releasing their first tunes under the name in 2012. This time, they sounded different, but the partnership felt the same.

“It seemed natural to work together again,” says Davis, 38, who’s also played in D.C. bands Georgie James and Title Tracks. “Chris said, ‘Hey, whenever you want to start your country band, let me know.’ We tried it, and it worked.”

On June 15, Paint Branch released its second set of recordings, a self-titled EP that recalls some of the recognizable sounds of Davis and Richards’ earlier work — two are new versions of songs that first appeared on the band’s full-length debut, I Wanna Live — but with a deeper exploration of folk, country and lyricism.

“We have a chemistry, because we’ve done this before… but it is still different, because this wasn’t the way we were writing songs before,” Davis says. “The way we are writing in Paint Branch is a distinct thing.”

The EP’s “a little bit country” feel isn’t just found in its music: Paint Branch recorded the release near Springfield, Virginia, on property owned by the duo’s pal, Elmer Sharp, who plays drums on the record. They tracked the songs in a shed fashioned into a studio.

Davis’ desire to hone in on songcraft is particularly evident in the EP’s opening track, “Patented Plagiarists” (listen below), which sets a tone that’s both mellow and subtly aggressive.

“The theme to that song is sort of in praise of people who do, and don’t say,” Davis says. “I like people — and maybe even strive to be someone — who just go and do it and don’t seek congratulations just because [they] showed up.”

But Davis acknowledges that his song could be heard in other ways.

“It’s hard to explain your own song, because hopefully the lyrics do that for you. But they don’t always,” the songwriter says. “What makes sense to you is a personal thing… and everyone projects their own interpretation onto the song.”

Paint Branch plays Red Onion Records July 19 and Paperhaus (as part of the In It Together Fest) July 30.