Kaleidoscope

No, seriously, quiet down. Joshua Britton and his band Psalmships are up there making music even more withdrawn than the Gothic Americana he dished in The Sweetheart Parade. But the stuff he's singing about: way, way heavier. In Psalmships, he digs further into the melancholy, using last year's Smoke + Vein to tackle crises of faith, our place in an uncertain world, and other meaty topics that will fly right over your head if you talk overtop him. So how's about nursing that Baby Boy Triple Bock this Wednesday night at Triumph in Old City, and lending the guy your ear?

Oh yeah. It's DJ Omega's birthday today, and that means everyone gets a special treat. Omega is Wale's tour DJ, so to help celebrate, the D.C. MC himself will rock a special live performance in a rare intimate setting, Walnut Street's Denim. After a string of buzz-worthy mix tapes, Wale dropped his debut album in November, and the steam doesn't seem to be stopping.

"Most women in the audience can identify with the characters onstage because they've been through the same journey," says Bud Martin, producing artistic director of Society Hill Playhouse's Respect: A Musical Journey of Women (through April 18), in which four characters sing and dance their way through a century of music. "Women in the [show] gain a great deal of self-respect by the end of the production," Martin continues, "and that's why the audience is up singing along."

—Julia West

National nonprofit Future of Music Coalition is leading the discussion of what the digital download era should look like for fans and artists, but all that lobbying and summitting doesn't come cheap. You can slip 'em a fifty this Saturday (Jan. 30) at their high-society shindig, and then eat their food, drink their beer and bid on their music-related swag. You gotta RSVP; See futureofmusic.org for time, location and other details.

—Patrick Rapa