While down at the Talking Head last night, checking out a few friends of mine who play in a local synthpop band called Baby Venom, I stuck around long enough to see D.C.'s own Ra Ra Rasputin, invites of the show's headliner, freaky Russian punk-ish band Mr. Moccasin. I'd never heard Ra Ra Rasputin before, but their dancy noise pop, driven by synths and funky bass riffs, with the occasional Afrobeat drum breakdown and flashes of noise guitar solo, had the whole crowd in a sweaty daze. Occasional frontwoman Anna Rozzi (a D.C. middle school science teacher by day, as she told me) has a particularly kick-ass voice, and can rock out on guitar too (hot!). Think of them as D.C.'s answer to TV on the Radio, and when their debut album comes out early next year I expect a lot of good things to come their way. Until then, you'll have to make do with a couple of short, not very well recorded YouTube videos. They don't have any songs on their MySpace, and even YouTube only has half-a-dozen videos or so (everyone's too busy dancing to fuck around with their cell phone cams). None of those videos come close to what I saw last night, so just find out when they're playing next (oh, tonight at the Velvet Lounge in D.C.), and Go. See. Them.