So Spirited – Fevers
The Red Fetish – As Green As Grows the Pasture
Dove Lady – The Implication
Seba Yuri – Ethereality
maxine – another plane
Ben Williams – Things Don’t Exist
Caz and the Day Laborers – I Give Dub
Wicked Olde – Jenny Picking Cockles
Wildhoney – FSA II
Borracho – King’s Disease
Little Hunts – Nocturne (Part 2)
Dupont Brass – The Way
The Sea Life – Pray For Snow
Diggs Duke – The Pinnacle Of Class & Taste
Damu the Fudgemunk & Raw Poetic – Hole Up (Instrumental)
Kokayi – The MFN Yay
Will Copps – Rush
Future Islands – Long Flight
Buildings – Upward Through Ever-Expanding Light
Thievery Corporation – Transcendence

Logikbomb – The Heights (aka: Her Lips)
Suzanne Brindamour – The Arrival
Den-Mate – For Free
Lungfish – Constellations
Wye Oak – Dogs Eyes
Screen Vinyl Image – Edge of Forever
Jonny Grave – Afraid of the Dark
Brûlée – Driftin’
Fat Kneel – Solaris
Marvin Gaye – What’s Happening Brother
Oddisee – In Your Eyes
Sansyou – Best Ones Choose You
AXB – Flea Markets
The Sea Life – Prozac & Merlot
Lance Neptune – Umbrella Girl.
Beautiful Swimmers – The Zoo
G-Flux – Cumbia Cosmica
Bucky’s Fatal Mistake – Hello
Aaron Gage – Vinayaka
They’ll Have Dreams – Walk to Freedom

“It was time for us to leave,” emails Peter Lillis, a Babe City resident who runs the label’s publicity. According to Lillis, Babe City met the same fate as dozens of D.C. house venues before it: The property at 22nd and N streets NW is being “gutted and flipped and sold for big money,” he writes.

Lillis says he and his roommates have moved to a house near Fort Totten Metro. (For privacy reasons, he asked Bandwidth not to publish the address.)

After Babe City began hosting basement shows last fall, the spot became one of D.C.’s most reliable hosts of underground, rock-skewing bands, putting on at least a few gigs a month. Raucous New Paltz punk duo Diet Cig played there twice this year; pop-rock Virginians RDGLDGRN packed the basement in July.

When Jon Weiss (of The Sea Life and Witch Coast) and Erik Strander launched Babe City Records, the house became its headquarters.

But the location — in one of D.C.’s most expensive neighborhoods — felt temporary from the beginning, Lillis points out. “As much as we love it, [Babe City] was never meant to be our permanent home,” he writes. “We quickly outgrew the space, with five people living in a three-bedroom house, and many bands operating out of our living room and basement.”

Moving elsewhere promises to be a money-saver. “We were happy to move to a more comfortable (and cheaper) home up in north D.C.,” Lillis writes.

The second incarnation of Babe City hosts a kickoff show Dec. 27 featuring Babe City act Den-Mate, San Francisco’s Sports and a solo version of Maryland’s Go Cozy. Donations will be taken at the door.

In true punk-rock fashion, the residents of Babe City exited Dupont with little pomp and circumstance, Lillis says. “We packed and moved in the middle of the night with a 24-foot U-Haul,” he writes. “It was an experience.” 

Babe City II hosts its first show Dec. 27. See Facebook for details.

The party decor doesn’t feel out of place. This is a celebration. It’s the first anniversary of Babe City Records, a D.C.-based record and cassette label that captures the new sound of the city’s indie-rock scene — and the show is nearly sold out.

Formerly associated with Chimes Records, Babe City was spearheaded by musicians and fans who wanted to carve out a place for themselves in independent music. Now the label is on a mission to help other local bands do the same.

The label’s Jon Weiss, 24, and Peter Lillis, 28, are also musicians: They both appeared onstage during the anniversary show, handling guitar in Jules Hale’s band Den-Mate. (Weiss also sings in Babe City group The Sea Life.) Weiss and Lillis play major roles behind the scenes, too: They quite literally live Babe City, which shares its name with their group house and DIY venue in D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood. The guys moved into the house in August 2014 and started hosting shows the following month.

Co-founded by Erik Cativo (aka Erik Strander) and Weiss, Babe City is now operated by a small group of friends. Cativo and Weiss handle key roles behind the scenes, including production and booking, respectively. Lillis serves as the label’s publicity guru. More help comes from Kevin Sottek, a member of Babe City signees Witch Coast, who’s the label’s art director; Jen Pape, who recently joined as a project manager; and Michael Andrade — an occasional Bandwidth contributor — who’s Babe City’s official photographer.

“We’re all nerds about something,” Lillis says. “Everyone comes into it with their own background and passion and it fills out all the space in between.”

Babe City likes to be inclusive. For the 9:30 Club gig, the label roped in D.C. bands The Max Levine Ensemble and The El Mansouris, poppy rock ensembles with no official tie to the label. With the slogan “everyone’s a babe at Babe City,” the imprint doesn’t want to be thought of as male-oriented or sexist (though the anniversary gig’s lineup was heavily male).

Weiss says David Combs, the longtime leader of The Max Levine Ensemble (and also a Bandwidth contributor), was his first musical role model when he first started to probe the D.C. music scene at age 16. “Having him on this show was awesome,” says Weiss, a Rockville native who’s only eight years younger than Combs.

In an indie-rock scene as transient as D.C.’s, it doesn’t take long for scenesters to become elder statesmen. Weiss has been involved with The Sea Life for eight years, and he thought his experience could be helpful to rising bands like Young Rapids. The musician says his desire to support other local groups was a major impetus behind Babe City’s creation.

“When you have this album that you’re proud of and you can’t put it out, or you don’t know how to put it out, or you don’t have direction for it,” Weiss says, “it’s very defeating.”

Lillis agrees. He says Babe City is here to help.

“Bands can get bogged down in the non-music stuff from recording, to booking shows, even finding a place to practice,” Lillis says. “There are so many logistics that can be a detriment to bands. We want to let them be the musicians, and we’ll get the rest of it done for them.”

Now Babe City wants to take its mission a step further. They want to work on getting their music licensed for media, sign more out-of-state bands and grow into a national — as well as local — label. And they’d like to expand into vinyl.

“[Vinyl] is our favorite format,” Weiss says. “We don’t want to be just a cassette label. Most of the labels we look up to are primarily vinyl. To be viewed by them as peers would be an awesome goal for us.”

But while the 9:30 Club gig felt like a party, both Weiss and Lillis say the work has just begun.

“We’re happy and excited, but we’re not patting ourselves on the back,” Weiss says. “We’re not ready to do that yet. We want to just use it as motivation and validation to work harder.”

Second photo: The Sea Life at 9:30 Club, by Michael Andrade

The original version of this post contained errors and imprecise language. Due to a reporting error, it incorrectly identified Peter Lillis, who works on the label, as a co-founder. (Jon Weiss and Erik Cativo are co-founders.) Second, due to an editing error, we described Babe City as a cassette label, but that’s not entirely accurate: It has released music both on vinyl and cassette. Third, Babe City is better described as an affiliate — not a direct descendant — of Chimes Records. Finally, we first referred to Young Rapids as “younger” than The Sea Life, but that wasn’t the best word choice. We meant the band has existed for less time. The language has been corrected.

NPR received more than 5,000 eligible submissions to the national competition, which gives musicians a shot at performing a live concert at the radio network’s headquarters in D.C. But fewer than 60 submissions came from inside D.C.’s borders.

NPR’s data shows that more than half of entrants from this region identified as Marylanders or Virginians, many of them far outside the beltway in places like Bluemont and Clarksburg. And if you watch all 130 local submissions like I did, you’ll find that many went the coffee-shop route: a solo performance, usually involving an acoustic guitar and a tender song.

But those who took another path made a big impression. That’s why — if you asked me to judge a regional Tiny Desk competition — I’d hand the prize to D.C. hip-hop artist Kokayi.

The established producer, vocalist and rapper from Deanwood has been nominated for a Grammy. He was a member of ’90s-’00s hip-hop ensemble Opus Akoben, who had a short stint on a major label. He’s prolific — last year he challenged himself to release a new track every day — and he’s taken hip-hop to Senegal with the grant-funded DC2DK project. So it’s no surprise that Kokayi brought his A game to his Tiny Desk submission.

On a song called “The Lick,” Kokayi sings, speed-rhymes, plays the keys, chair-dances and punctuates his verses with goofy faces. NPR’s official Tiny Desk Contest rules say that stage presence and charisma make up 20 percent of the judges’ criteria. Kokayi nailed that category, all while sitting down.

As for the rest of the field, I’m finding it tough to pick a clear runner-up, so how about I just name a bunch? D.C.’s M.H. & His Orchestra, Stranger in the Alps and Virginia’s The Plank Stompers turned in dynamic performances — and brand-new local band The El-Mansouris made a strong impression for a group that hasn’t even played its first show yet (see their debut Feb. 26 at Transformer).

I also enjoyed the videos from Reston’s Space Waste (they start the song by chanting “Yoko! Ono!”), Takoma Park guitarist Angie Head, Silver Spring smooth-pop trio The Walking Sticks and D.C.’s Be Steadwell, Sara Curtin, The Sea Life, Boon and The Highballers.

Watch Kokayi’s video plus 12 handpicked runner-ups in this playlist, below. NPR announces the national Tiny Desk contest winner on Feb. 12.

Want to share this playlist? Find an embed code on YouTube.

D.C. acts Baby Bry Bry & The Apologists, BRNDA and The Sea Life have more or less cornered the city’s market for noisy, oddball pop that delves into all varieties of other stuff, from The Sea Life’s hazy lo-fi to Baby Bry Bry’s throwback garage punk. They’ll be playing with kindred spirits What Moon Things, the “dreamo” ensemble based in New York.

For Sunday’s show, the bands and their cohorts at The Sea Life’s label Chimes Records will release an eight-song cassette (plus a download card) with two new songs from each of the bands. The label produced 200 tapes for the show, which will be given out free to the first 200 folks who turn up. All these bands plus a tape for $15? Not bad.

“All of the bands on the bill this Sunday are buds, so our excitement about finally getting to play together made us want to make the show feel as special to the audience as it is to us,” says Baby Bry Bry frontman Bry (Bryan Gerhart). A tape giveaway is also a pretty good way to fill up a club on a Sunday night.

Today Bandwidth premieres four songs from the limited-run tape — one from each of the bands. But don’t let that excuse you from hitting up the show this Sunday and nabbing your own copy.

Warning: Some explicit language.

Baby Bry Bry & The Apologists, “Reluctantly Inspired”

BRNDA, “Serious Band”

The Sea Life, “Let Me Out” (Live Demo)

What Moon Things, “Insturment”

That’s not to say the single, released today on The Sea Life’s Bandcamp page (and available on cassette), is somehow weak or ineffective; far from it. The song beats back its demons by casting shadows, brightening occasionally with light, ringing guitars. It all sounds held underwater until the tune breaks to the surface with a flash of psychedelia and distortion.

“Did you take your meds today?” creaks singer Jon Weiss before offering some dubious medical advice: “Don’t forget the wine.”

The Sea Life plays tonight at Black Cat with Humble Fire and Sun Club.

Trans Am and Heavy Breathing
Thursday, May 22 at the Black Cat Backstage, $10

Trans Am isn’t based in D.C. anymore, but it will always be a D.C. band: the Bethesda-born post-rock trio has been steadily releasing albums on Thrill Jockey since 1996 despite its members now being scattered across the country (guitarist Phil Manley is a recording engineer in San Francisco, and drummer Sebastian Thomson joined the progressive metal band Baroness last year). The group’s latest (and 10th overall), Volume X, continues the group’s heavy electro-rock tradition with a dash of thrash (!) and some bizarre vocoded vocals. Opening band Heavy Breathing will set the energy bar high, so come ready to move.

Ayman Fanous and Jason Kao Hwang, Jaimie Branch, Nine Strings
Thursday, May 22 at Back Alley Theater, $10

Get your experimental/improvisational fix here: This is the CD-release show for Egyptian guitarist/bouzouki player Ayman Fanous and violinist/violist Jason Kao Hwan, who have just released their first album together, Zilzal (the Arabic word for “earthquake”). Also performing is trumpeter Jaimie Branch and a double bass/cello duo called Nine Strings.

Fu Manchu, Electric Citizen, Borracho
Friday, May 23 at Rock & Roll Hotel, $15

Most of the area’s metalheads will be in Baltimore this weekend for Maryland Deathfest, but those who stay in town will find their way out to this heavy show, featuring SoCal stoner-rock band Fu Manchu. On its last two trips through D.C., the band played two of its older albums in their entirety, but since they’ve just released a new album (Gigantoid), this show will likely (finally!) feature some new Fu tunes. Opening the show will be Ohio’s Electric Citizen and local stoner band Borracho.

TEEN and The Sea Life (Update: This show has been canceled.)
Saturday, May 24 at the U Street Music Hall, $15

When Kristina Lieberson (aka “Teeny”) left the Brooklyn indie-rock band Here We Go Magic, she teamed up with her sisters Katherine (drums) and Lizzy (keys) and unrelated bass player Boshra AlSaadi to form the R&B-laced alterna-rock band TEEN. Not to be confused with that other four-letter band featuring sisters (the one with the bass face), TEEN’s new album The Way and Color is synth-driven and saturated with vocals from all four of the group’s members. Local indie-rock band The Sea Life will open.

Estonia in Concert: The Music of Arvo Pärt
Tuesday, May 27 at the Kennedy Center, free

This show is a rare opportunity to see legendary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in person and hear some of his best works performed—for free. His intimate show at the Phillips Collection on May 29 has been sold out for months, but the Kennedy Center is hosting this Estonia In Concert event, featuring the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, with a repertoire hand-selected by Pärt scholars at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. The President of the Republic of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik, will also be in attendance. The performance is free, and tickets will be distributed at the Kennedy Center beginning at 4:30 p.m., so queue up early. If you’re interested in learning even more, there’s an Arvo Pärt panel discussion at George Washington University on Wednesday.

Wild Luck, ShowPony, Penguin Gentry
Wednesday, May 28 at DC9, $8

Wild Luck is a new D.C. post-rock instrumental band, very much in the vein of Explosions in the Sky or Drop Electric’s instrumental work. This will be their first live performance, following an EP that they released last December. They’ll be joined by math-rock group ShowPony and funk/rock/jam/fusion band Penguin Gentry.

 Also recommended this week:

The Sun Ra 100th Birthday Celebration at Bohemian Caverns (Thursday); Deleted Scenes, Celestial Shore, and Laughing Man at Rock & Roll Hotel (Thursday); Mobb Deep at Howard Theatre (Friday); The Great Noise Ensemble at Atlas Performing Arts Center (Friday); Oumar Konate at Tropicalia (Friday); The Caribbean, Nice Breeze, Marriage Blanc at Velvet Lounge (Saturday); The Flatmates, Foul Swoops, Expert Alterations, and DJ Archie Moore at Comet Ping Pong (Tuesday); Teen Mom, Minka at Black Cat Backstage (Wednesday).

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.