For those of you who have returned to the District (or never left) and have some time on your hands, there’s a great chance Monday night to experience some homegrown DC music. GODISHEUS are indie rock products of DC’s go-go scene, exhibiting a potent combination of rock, funk, soul, hip-hop, and social conscience. Monday night at the Black Cat they headline “Chocolate City Rocks,” along with other DC groups Violet Says 5 and The Farafina Kan Experience.

Yesterday AWOL caught up with GODISHEUS lead singer Om V–better known in DC music circles as Head-Roc–for a peek at what this show has to offer the college crowd:

“Come to a great rock show, man. If they know about Jimi Hendrix, they need to come to this Chocolate City rock show. If they know about Fats Domino, they need to come to this rock show. If they know about Little Richard, they need to come to this rock show. Folks don’t know about the history of rock music. There’s a social message in rock that’s really devoid today. We’re a band in town that’s still following in those footsteps. That’s who we are.”

“DC is an indie rock town,” Om V says, and he invites listeners to experience another side of that scene. “We have a song called ‘Boot Liquor,’ and when we tear into that song, folks get a-jumpin’ and the floor gets a-bendin’, it’s ridiculous,” he says. “It’s not what you’d expect from the indie rock of today, which is much too melancholy. They’re just droning on, everyone’s doing the same thing…”

The cover for “Chocolate City Rocks” is $10, and doors open at 8:30. You can find GODISHEUS’s music at their homepage, or check out this video for a taste:

I’m home in southeast Michigan for the summer, and one of the most flavorful of all the cultural oddities here is our proximity to Canada–Windsor and southern Ontario are just across the river from Detroit. This means that we get Canadian TV and radio signals pretty consistently in my house. I never thought I’d pick up on Canadian hip-hop, but I loved “Rose Garden” by Canadian MC Shad when I heard it on the radio.

Shad was raised in London, Ontario after being born in Kenya to Rwandan parents. He’s described in a Toronto Star article as “the Tim Duncan of Canadian rap.” As in, “the rapper-next-door,” with a “low-key, real-dude non-affect.” But “Rose Garden” still produces some pretty clever wordplay:

“I weigh two bucks and if I had two slugs to spray, like ‘rah rah’

Then Glenn Beck better duck like foie gras

Make shots poke his face like Gaga but Momma says forgive

So I’ll give him that bar like a Mars then let him live”

The video is posted below, and you can also find more at Shad’s “Bloggy-Blog.”