The Shifters are DC’s newest early-Reggae act playing shows all over the Nation’s capital (and hopefully beyond)… But to only state the obvious would do this group injustice. This Washington, DC outfit plays the oft-overlooked Jamaican music genre of Rocksteady: the mid-1960s successor to the Jamaican Ska movement and the precursor to what is modernly thought of as Reggae. Pulling together a mixture of classic Rocksteady and Reggae rhythms, Motown sensibility, upbeat horns, harmonized vocals, and a class act female lead, The Shifters are sure to have you dancing all night, and humming their tunes the next day.


To date, The Shifters are comprised of national and international Reggae, Ska, Soul, and Rock veterans along with some fresh faces ready to take their stylistic offerings to the streets and on the stage. Members included have been associated with acts such as Los Granadians (from Spain), The Delegators (from London), The Checkered Cabs, The Ambitions, The Hi-Lites (from San Diego), and Weezer. Together, The Shifters are forging ahead a sound that reminisces of a time long forgotten, yet is excitedly new and innovative all at once.

So, the almighty HAVE NOTS have arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of two Boston punk mainstays, STRAY BULLETS and CHICAGO TYPEWRITER (ok, that may be a bit dramatic, but you get the idea)…featuring Jameson Hollis, Steve Patton, and Matt Pruitt from ChiTy, and Jon Cauztik from SB, HAVE NOTS play the "ill ragga punk" that makes the kids dance and occasionally get so excited that they puke on themselves (the kids, not the band…the band pukes on themselves for entirely different reasons…ask Pruitt why he doesn't wear a scarf when it's cold out anymore).

Classic, face-smashing, broken bottle punk is all but lost on the Pitchfork-worshipping, women's jeans-wearing masses whose idea of youth rebellion is going to see American Idiot on Broadway. Well, with that being said, allow yourself to feel the old school fury of the Attack. Formed by Charlie Bender, one-time frontman for the Orlando, Florida-based ska band the Spitvalves, and his partner in the acclaimed screen printing company Enemy Ink, Brad Palkevich, on guitar alongside bassist Mikey Cortes and drummer Tito Esquiaqui, this quartet delivers the kind of vintage melodic hardcore that will take true punkers right back to the days of CBGB's Sunday matinees on Of Nostalgia and Rebellion, a self-released call-to-arms featuring 12 tracks loaded with punishing breakdowns, gang-style singalongs, and riffs as crushing as a curb sandwich. Fans of the Cro-Mags, Lifetime, and Agnostic Front will certainly relish in the rage of such key tracks as "Prove It", "Matters", and an incendiary cover of CCR's "Bad Moon Rising" that just might prove John Fogerty had roots in punk rock after all.