Singer/guitarist John Davis (Q And Not U, Georgie James), bassist Michael Cotterman (Kid Dynamite, The Loved Ones) and drummer Elmer Sharp (Roofwalkers) handled their WAMU session with consummate ease: The songs “I Don’t Need To Know” and “Low Cool” sprung to life with all the immediacy that might be expected from a band with new material simmering for so many months. (If you’re a longtime WAMU 88.5 listener, you might already be familiar with Title Tracks’ sound — an instrumental version of “Every Little Bit Hurts” was the opening theme for the station’s now-retired Metro Connection show.)

The band celebrates the release of Long Dream on Friday night at Comet Ping Pong in D.C. The album is available for pre-order via Dischord Direct.

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DJ Winterman – Finale
The Iris Bell – Globe
Reginald Cyntje – Wind
Nitemoves – Harbinger Group
Black Masala – Cool Breeze
Once Okay Twice – Indie Soul
Scenic MentaL Detours – Skip the Day
Elijah Cole – Stardust
Restoring Poetry in Music – Short Bus
Constant Alarm – Cairo
Adam Stamper – Movements of the Anansi
Luke Brindley – Time’s Arrow
Title Tracks – Piles of Paper
Spirit Plots – Pssst
Detox Retox – The Cult of Reason
Nerftoss – Virtue Walk
Bardoe – Flip it
Soleaux – Graffiti
East Ghost – Jericho
Clif Hardin – Gigue from Suite for Piano

Sam Redd – Sam’s Blues
Cheick Hamala Diabate – Djiri Mardje
Demetrius Zozul – Afield
Taiwo Heard – Front Page
TRU Band – The Road Unknown, Yet Known
Gordon Withers – Memories Of The Future
Mission South – Helicopters
Throwing Wrenches – Just Another Day
Fort Knox Five – Cinco to the Brinco (Instrumental)
Bumper Jacksons – Five Foot Two
Projekt Eins – Denouement
Higher Hands – That Shank
Jacob Gemmell – Let It Go
Disco Muerte – Descending
Ronny Smith – City Groove
The_Acorns – Oak Follies
Diggs Duke – The Pinnacle Of Class & Taste
Title Tracks – All Tricks (Instrumental)
Ken & Brad Kolodner – John Brown’s March
Paul Swartzel – My Father Knew Colonel Sanders

The Dwindlers – Pickering’s Hyla
Joy Buttons – Other
Cigarbox Planetarium – Oh! Tinnitus
Title Tracks – Piles of Paper
Emily Henry – Hands
Lenny Kurlou – Treat You Like a Lady (Instrumental)
Haint Blue – Undefined
Flash Frequency – Supreme Dream
Astronaut Jones – Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas
Redline Graffiti – Beauty Mark 2
Aaron Tinjum and the Tangents – The Wild and Beyond
Elijah Jamal Balbed – Lament For Booker
Luxas – Arbo-domo en la Nuboj (Tree-house In the Clouds)
We Were Pirates – Sunday Paper
Little Hunts – Derealize
Suzanne Brindamour – In the Sky
Bill Emerson & Sweet Dixie – All the Best
More Humans – Barbaro
Bossalingo – Round Midnight
Sri Rama – Refreshing

Title Tracks – All Tricks (Instrumental)
Beauty Pill – Idiot Heart
Masego – Disconnected (Shorty From VA)
Diggs Duke – Crazy Like A Fox
Yeveto – Remote Unelectrified Villages
Letzkus Lanou – Ted n Lindsay
Dupont Brass – Can We Talk
Opus Akoben – Ronin
Fort Knox Five – Swinging On a Rhyme (Instrumental)
Spirit Plots – Pssst
Stephen Allen Kochersperger – Headhunter Serenade
Deathfix – Hospital
00Genesis – Inside the Brown Paper Bag
Tereu Tereu – Savage Love
Stephen Robey – Charlotte’s Song
The Petticoat Tearoom – Kundalini
ZOMES – Black Magic Band
Teen Mom – Kitchen
Patuxent Partners – Victoria Waltz
GroundScore – Here We Are

“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.

Damaged City Fest
Thursday, April 10 to Sunday, April 13 at the Dougout, St. Stephen’s Church, The Pinch, and Dance Institute of Washington

The Damaged City Fest, D.C.’s DIY punk extravaganza, returns for its second year this weekend, boasting a jam-packed lineup at St. Stephen’s in Columbia Heights on Friday night and all day Saturday, plus a pre-show tonight at The Dougout, after-shows at the Pinch and a Sunday matinee at the Dance Institute of Washington. The lineup is insanely packed, from California powerviolence pioneers Infest to D.C.’s Priests and Give, but the real draw—especially for locals—is a reunion of Government Issue‘s 1980 lineup, featuring John Stabb, Jon Barry, and Brian Gay, performing early demos and the “Legless Bull” EP. Presales are now all sold out, but there will be a few tickets available at the door (tip: get there early!).

Title Tracks, Passing Phases, Cane & the Sticks
Friday, April 11 at Comet Ping Pong, $10-plus donation

After the passing of Windian Records founder Travis Jackson in January, there have been a number of benefit shows for his wife and 1-year-old son. This is another (so donate freely at the door!), featuring John Davis’ power-pop project Title Tracks, pop-punkers Passing Phases, and fuzzy rockers Cane & the Sticks.

Vanguard Festival
Saturday, April 12 at Union Arts, $20

Put on by the noise-embracing collective Select DC, the inaugural Vanguard Festival brings together artists, producers and DJs to showcase “outstanding explorations, tastes, and talent.” Highlights include electronics guru John Wiese (who in addition to his own projects has also toured with Sunn O))) and performed with Wolf Eyes), Earcave/Peoples Potential Unlimited founder Andrew Morgan (who put together this exclusive mix for Bandwidth), ex-Black Eyes member Ital, and local electronic duo Protect-U.

Tereu Tereu, J. Flax & the Heart Attacks, Mattress Financial
Saturday, April 12 at the Beehive, by donation

If you missed Tereu Tereu‘s headlining show at the Black Cat a few months ago, here’s your chance to see this offbeat rock band play a much more intimate venue. Also performing are Norfolk surf-punkers J. Flax & the Heart Attacks and a Two Inch Astronaut solo project called Mattress Financial.

Over N Out, The Oddities, Threads, Arkestry
Saturday, April 12 at the Electric Maid, $5

Despite having a fairly active concert calendar, the Electric Maid always seems to slip under the radar. Reacquaint yourself with the Takoma Park space for this pop-punk/emo/hardcore lineup featuring Baltimore’s Over N Out, D.C.’s The Oddities, West Virginia’s The Threads, and D.C.’s Arkestry.

GoldLink and Lakim
Saturday, April 12 at U Street Music Hall, $15

Who is GoldLink? While the Virginia-based MC has released a string of increasingly promising recordings—culminating recently with his new EP “The God Complex”—he’s remained anonymous. In a recent interview with Bandwidth, the “future bounce” artist wouldn’t divulge his plans for Saturday’s release show, which you’d think would involve donning a mask à la MF Doom. Then again, maybe this will mark the first time he lets fans see behind the veil. (Ally Schweitzer)

Warning: This track contains explicit lyrics.

Carcass, The Black Dahlia Murder, Gorguts, Noisem and Coke Bust
Sunday, April 13 at The Fillmore Silver Spring, $26.50

This tour, sponsored by Decibel Magazine, puts together two death-metal bands who released comeback albums last year: Carcass, whose “Surgical Steel” was the group’s first album in 17 years, and Canada’s Gorguts, whose excellent “Colored Sands” broke the group’s 12-year silence. Michigan melodic death-metal band The Black Dahlia Murder and Baltimore’s death/thrash youngsters Noisem are also along for the ride. As an added bonus, if you don’t get enough Coke Bust at the Damaged City after-party Friday at the Pinch, this is your chance to see them again on a significantly larger stage.

Beds, Sellout Youth, Curse Words
Wednesday, April 16 at CD Cellar Arlington, by donation

Shows at a record store are always awesome because you have time to browse between bands. This show is a benefit for the DIY festival Fest Too, happening in June at the Lab in Alexandria, and the bands performing are Sterling, Va., emo-punk outfit Beds (who are apparently basketball fans, given that one track on their “Michael Jordan” EP is called “Dunking on Patrick Ewing”), Alexandria’s garagey Sellout Youth and D.C. punks Curse Words.

Cloud Nothings, Ryley Walker
Wednesday, April 16 at Black Cat, $15

Cloud Nothings’ “I’m Not Part Of Me” is one of this year’s catchiest rock anthems. But instead of sticking it on the A side, the band made it the final track on its recent third album, “Here and Nowhere Else” (out now on D.C.’s own Carpark Records). Getting there is no slog—the album is full of good cuts—but once you’re there, you’ll probably understand why they made you wait. (Ally Schweitzer)

These and other show listings can be found on ShowListDC.