What does 50 and Counting refer to? Not the number of groupies immortalized in song by Mick Jagger or the number of known hallucinogens ingested by Keith Richards during the ’80s. It’s actually the name of the current Rolling Stones North American tour (celebrating the band’s five decades of playing together), which kicked off in Los Angeles May 3 and will wrap up here in Washington June 24 at the Verizon Center before the Stones head back to the UK.

Tickets for the DC show go on sale Monday, May 13, via the band’s website or Ticketmaster, with a Citibank presale beginning Friday, May 10. One thousand $85 tickets will be available for different sections of the arena. For more information about the current tour, visit the Stones’ website.

Georgetown students who made it into school early Monday morning for the last SOCI-124 class of the semester were rewarded with an hour-long phone call from a very special guest speaker: Jay-Z. Student newspaper The Hoya reported that the rapper and entrepreneur called the class from Europe, where he’s accompanying his wife, Beyoncé, on her sold-out Mrs. Carter tour.

Granted, this wasn’t any old sociology class. Professor Michael Eric Dyson, an academic who’s written books about figures from Malcolm X and Bill Cosby to Marvin Gaye and Tupac Shakur, was wrapping up Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z, a class exploring the meaning of the artist’s life and work, and his role in black culture. “He’s a friend of mine, so teaching this class on him was an exercise in both the critical engagement with a towering icon and an attempt to understand the nature of his craft and his appeal in the world,” Dyson said in a phone interview.

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To listen to Mission South—a DC-based three-piece consisting of guitarist/vocalist Dan Miller, bassist/vocalist John Beck, and drummer Max Harwood—is to be transported via rumbling guitars and Miller’s smoky-tinged voice to a slow, hot night on a Louisiana bayou. To speak to Mission South—Miller, in particular—is a different experience entirely. The loquacious musician, at 22 (all three band members just recently graduated from college), knows that despite the band’s old-school sound they operate in a modern climate where tastes and fortunes can have the same lifespan as your average Internet meme. Mission South are set to release their second EP, Migration Vol. 2, on April 13 (Vol. 1 came out in September 2011), and we caught up with Miller by phone to talk about making music for the short-attention-span generation, finding a foothold in the local music scene, and seeking advice from current smash hits the Lumineers.

You guys are about to head out on tour. How do you get around—plane, train, automobile?

We travel in an old Ford Explorer, as we’re just sort of getting our bearings for everything. We met the Lumineers—they came to a show of ours—and they advised us we should be as uncomfortable as possible when traveling as a band, because it’s part of the experience. When you find yourself in situations like that, it tests your dedication for sure. And it sometimes it seems more authentic, like it means more when you accomplish things.

What do you do while you’re on the road?

We’re all avid readers—I’m not sure if you’re looking for some rock-star answers [laughs]. Everyone always asks what music we listen to, but when you’re touring at that level . . . I don’t want to say you get tired of music, but we listen to a lot of comedy. We’ve been best friends forever, so we have a similar sense of humor. Sometimes we watch movies—I have a Bob Marley documentary in my bag right now.

Speaking of being best friends, you all grew up together—how did you actually meet?

We met in elementary school. We like to joke that we met on the dodgeball court; John was good at dodgeball. But we grew up within walking distance of each other’s homes, so we’d hang out all the time.

And when did you start playing music together?

We all came into music individually—Max has a very musical family, my mom pushed me into it—and it all kind of fell into place. Our beginnings were characterized by impromptu jam sessions, where we’d walk over to John’s house and roll him out of bed to play. We started playing as Mission South in high school, and back then we were playing talent shows, a couple tiny gigs, not anything real, but we really loved music and played all over DC. Then we went away to separate colleges—we all had musical ambitions, and we played with a ton of people in college, all across the board. Max is a total jazz head, John did orchestra on upright bass, I played with so many bands, probably 10 to 20 different acts. We all realized in the end the best chemistry we had was together, so come senior year we made that decision. We recorded our first little EP and traveled to each other’s colleges to play shows, so we got ourselves ready by doing that, and it worked out really nicely and naturally.

Did playing with different acts change your sound as a group?

Oh, 100 percent. I came back from being in New Orleans and everyone said, “You adopted this soulfulness to your voice.” That stuff lives and breathes.

Your first and second EPs are part of a planned three-series set—what was the thinking behind that?

We chose it for a couple reasons. We’re a product of the 21st century, when attention spans are very short, and there are up-and-coming bands coming out with full-length records and charging $10 because they had to cover costs of making the record—but if you don’t know a band, you probably won’t listen to 12 songs. So we wanted to break it up into small, digestible portions so the audience can listen as we grow. Recording and playing live are two very different beasts musically, so this is our opportunity to figure out the recording process. These are kind of snapshots of our development, and we wanted to share that. A lot of bands try to go the conventional route and pitch their first album to a record company to be marketed, but that didn’t seem really real. We want to show our close-knit audience the steps of our development, so hopefully on that big first release we’d be ready and have that “Mona Lisa” of a project to give people. It seems like more of a grassroots, authentic way to do it—thank God I didn’t say organic. There seems to be a general theme to it, which is transition, the idea of being a 22-year-old.

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Catch Paul McCartney at Nationals Park this summer. Photograph by Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com.

First Fenway Park, now Nationals Park. Paul McCartney—formerly of a band your parents might once have talked about (and no, we’re not talking about Wings)—is coming to Southeast DC for a stop on his Out There tour July 12, his first Washington show since 2009. The Nationals teased the news on their Twitter feed earlier this morning.

Can Paul McCartney, arguably the greatest songwriter of the 20th century, rival the Boss’s almost four-hour-long show last summer in terms of greatness? Can he redeem himself for his less-than-stellar rendition of “Hey Jude” at the London Olympics’ closing ceremony in 2012? We jest, we jest. Tickets for the Fenway Park shows go on sale tomorrow at 10 AM EST via Live Nation’s website—as yet there’s no mention of the Nationals Park show on McCartney’s own site, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for updates.

Cold War Kids are not the next Kings of Leon. Yes, their last album, 2010’s Mine Is Yours, was produced by Jacquire King, who was responsible for KoL’s massive Only by the Night. Yes, their new album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, has a bigger, more polished, arguably poppier sound, thanks in part to new guitarist/producer Dann Gallucci (formerly of Modest Mouse). But amid the synth drums and gospel-choir sound effects, fans of the SoCal band’s multi-layered, gritty-around-the-edges songs will still find their signature unusual instrumentation and intelligent, achingly poetic lyrics.

The first single, “Miracle Mile,” has been streaming since January, and the album itself comes out Tuesday. On Wednesday the band heads out on a tour that includes a sold-out stop at the 9:30 Club. We got frontman Nathan Willett on the phone to talk about working with a new guitarist, pushing his creative limits, and the conflict between attracting new ears and keeping the original fans happy.

So where are you at the moment?

I’m at home in LA. Next Tuesday the record comes out, and we’re going to be touring then. We usually are on tour either when a record comes out or before; we like to stay busy.

Do you ever get apprehensive before a new record comes out?

I totally do. I try to push it away, but I always have a feeling of . . . I think it’s the thought of, “What if there too many mid-tempo songs?,” just kind of dumb questions, questions you’re way past doing anything about. The thing about recording that’s so strange is there is a place where you have to let things out of your hands and just know that how it’s perceived, how it’s heard, is kind of beyond me. It’s really hard to do that, but you have to.

You’ve played some of the new songs at shows already. What’s the reception been like?

It’s been good, especially for the song “Miracle Mile.” We’ve been playing more local shows, Southern California shows, and people have known the words to that song, so that’s been cool.

This album sounds like quite a departure from your other ones—it’s a bit less rock-y and there’s a bit more of an ’80s electronic sound. Was that new vibe a conscious decision?

We didn’t set out and have a conversation from the start, but I think one thing that might have led to that more ’80s electronic, Depeche Mode/Bauhaus sound sneaking in—I think on a couple of the songs we did what we normally do with them, and that’s where Dann as the producer came in. And he and Lars [Stalfors, another producer on the album] made changes to things, and we had to say, “Do we like this? Is this us?” It was kind of a whole process with a lot of different factors, one where we needed to make some choices that scared us a bit, made us ask ourselves “Why wouldn’t we do that? Are we allowed to do that?”

Is there a song in particular that made you feel that nervousness?

Nervous isn’t quite the right way to say it—we were excited about it. “Lost That Easy” and “Loner Phase” got that treatment the most, and that could rub some people the wrong way who like our band for different reasons. It’s a continuation of what we started for the last record—we’re not doing the same thing over and over again, so we’ll see what people think about it.

When bands change their sound, people like to say they’re “selling out.” Is that ever a concern for you—being able to evolve and grow your audience without alienating your current fan base?

I think it applies to us. It’s something where we’ve kept ourselves under a strict set of rules for a long time . . . [and] it’s a good thing until you get to a place where you need to make some musical changes. And those don’t have to do with labels or anything surrounding the band. I think indie music listeners, and people in general, are more savvy about genres, so selling out doesn’t mean playing a certain genre or verging from your genre, it means a clear compromise to do something that’s unlike yourself. I don’t think we’re in breach of that any time soon.

While we’re on that topic, I was surprised to hear “Miracle Mile” on an episode of the CW show The Vampire Diaries, which seems like it would attract a much different audience from your typical fans. Can you tell me how that came about?

That’s another thing that applies to the last question. They asked us to use the song, and we’ve been a little tighter-fisted with licensing songs in the past, but the more time that passes, the more that bands just . . . partly because it’s one of our only ways to make money, the rules have changed on that. The Black Keys had kind of a seminal role in seeing how many commercials you could get for one song, and that ideology has changed to where now [the philosophy is] get people to hear the songs and seek out the band. Obviously it does matter where it is, but it’s not as snobbish.

Speaking of changing consumers, it seems like the music scene is so single-driven now. Does that affect the way you put together an album?

I don’t think it affects the way we write or put a record together; it affects things in the way that we’re inevitably aware of it. Bands can get really big from one song, and you can definitely make the argument it’s always been that way. Singles can make a band really big, partly, but the record does matter a lot. The culture of a band is all over the record, all over everything else you do, and that’s been the most important thing. So while songs may stray from an original style of the band, I think we try to make the record as a whole be attached and be cohesive.

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The Howard Theatre hasn’t even been open a year since its $29 million renovation, but the venue can already boast two visits from Washington’s most popular cultural patron, Michelle Obama. The First Lady stopped by the theater last night for the second time in 2013 to take in a show by Grammy-winning gospel group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

FLOTUS has long been a fan of the all-female, a cappella troupe, whom she described as “one of my favorite groups in the whole wide world” at a performance at the White House in February 2009, praising them for their commitment to “the African-American tradition of using music and song to advance freedom and social justice.”

At last night’s show, where she was spotted wearing a blue blazer and black pants, Mrs. Obama was accompanied by her mother, Marian Robinson, special adviser to the president Valerie Jarrett, and Dr. Sharon Malone, the wife of Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as six others.

The Kennedy Center this morning announced its lineup for 2013-14—Michael Kaiser’s last season as president—and among big news is that the center breaks away from classical music for a bit to host multi-platinum rapper Nas, the son of jazz musician Olu Dara. Nas is know for the 2002 single “One Mic,” which is the name of the weeklong festival at which he’ll perform. “One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide” will celebrate “emceeing, deejaying, B-boying, and graffiti writing,” through exhibitions and performances, Kaiser said this morning. Somali artist K’Naan, who sang the promotional anthem of the 2010 World Cup, “Wavin’ Flag,” will also make an appearance.

Speaking of celebrity appearances: Under the leadership of artistic adviser Jason Moran, more than 70 jazz performances will pop up at the KenCen this year by the likes of NEA Jazz Masters Ramsey Lewis and Cecil Taylor. The legacy of trumpeteer Arturo Sandoval is celebrated with a one-time concert, “50 Years: The Life, Passion, and Music of Arturo Sandoval,” at which actors Bill Cosby and Andy Garcia will also perform.

The debut International Theater Festival, taking place in 2014, will feature the theatrical works of companies from all over the world. Titles include The Green Snake by the National Theater of China, The Petrol Station by Kuwait’s Sulayman Al-Bassam Theatre, Incendios by Mexico’s Tapioca Inn, and a rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by England’s Bristol Old Vic and the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. The festival will represent ten total countries and will also host complementary readings and forums.

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Manon Lescaut (1893) was Giacomo Puccini’s third opera, but it was his first unequivocal success. The decision to adapt Abbé Prévost’s novella—about a young woman torn between love and her desire for the good life—was nothing short of audacious, as less than a decade before, Jules Massenet had turned that same heartbreaking text into an opera of enduring popularity. Puccini, however, was confident: “Manon is a heroine I believe in, and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. Why shouldn’t there be two operas about her?”

Why not, indeed. Manon Lescaut bears all the hallmarks of the composer’s greatest works: ravishing melodies, searing dramatic tension, wonderful orchestral writing. In this early work Puccini exploited the forces in the pit as skillfully as he ever would, composing music of an almost symphonic quality, crucial to the advancement of the story. In terms of harmony and how closely integrated the orchestra and singers are, and the way certain motives recur in telling ways, the piece shares a few traits with Wagner’s music dramas. The work is also tricky to pull off, not just because of the vocal challenges, but also because of the wild swings in mood, moving from a first act full of ebullience to a finale steeped in pathos and dread.

This transformation is embodied by the character of Manon, a young woman of modest means who must choose between true love with the impoverished Chevalier des Grieux and a life of luxury with the older, wealthy Geronte. The American soprano Patricia Racette, singing the role at the Washington National Opera’s revival of Manon Lescaut, exquisitely spans the emotional range: coquettish and carefree in the first act, vain and indulgent in the second, anguished by opera’s end, when she realizes too late how disastrous her life’s choices have been. Racette’s characterization possesses real depth, but it’s her singing that’s so exciting, by turns warm and bright, expansive and intimate, tender in the quiet moments and rising to ecstatic heights when the music opens up in its most intense moments.

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Photograph of Corbett by Bo Derek.

Never accuse John Corbett of settling for an easy life. The actor, known for his roles on TV (Sex and the City, Northern Exposure) and film (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Raising Helen) released his second album, Leaving Nothin’ Behind, in February and is currently touring with his band across the US. The glamour of filming isn’t behind him, exactly—he just signed on for a lead role in CBS’s NCIS spinoff—but it’s fair to say it’s on hiatus while he’s on the road.

“It’s tough, I’m not going to kid you,” says Corbett. “We’re generally in a Chevy; I do all the driving, I book the hotels on Priceline. I can see how it’s easier for artists who have big buses, but doing it this way, like teenagers, when you’re 50 years old takes its toll on you.”

Compared with the rigors of touring, acting is “kind of easy to do,” says the West Virginia native, 51. He fell into it with a 1989 guest spot on The Wonder Years but grew up making music and had his first band at the age of ten, playing with friends on plastic keyboards and a $40 drum set from the supermarket. “We had little cheap instruments,” Corbett says, “but we learned how to play, and we learned how to make beautiful noise, and I’ve been goofing around like that ever since.”

Corbett belongs to a generation of actors who moonlight as musicians—from Kevin Costner to Hugh Laurie to Jeff Daniels, each of whom has passed through Washington with their bands during the past few years. The Bacon Brothers, a country-rock duo made up of Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael, play the Birchmere March 1 through 3, and actress/singer Megan Mullally (Will and Grace) plays the same venue March 8 as half of country act Nancy & Beth, with Stephanie Hunt (Friday Night Lights, Californication).

“It takes some balls to get out there and sing and express yourself like that,” says Corbett of actors who turn to music. “Nobody likes to sing in front of people—we all have that kind of shyness about us. But if you get over that, it’s a fun thing to do. We play a three-hour show to 400-person crowds and by midnight there are still 350 people there. So they like it.”

Corbett recorded his self-titled debut album in 2005, after a chance meeting with country star Joe Nichols at the CMT Music Awards. The two had some drinks and started playing together. “He said, ‘You’re not bad, you ought to come back and make a record,’” says Corbett. “Within a month we’d taken a trip or two and made some demos, and the thing took on a life of its own.”

“What makes this a winning debut,” read an Allmusic review of that album, “is that it feels natural and genuine, as if Corbett isn’t trying to parlay his fame into a music career; he’s simply making the music he wants to make. . . . That’s a very tricky thing for an actor launching a singing career to pull off.”

If the first record was rock-country, Corbett describes Leaving Nothin’ Behind as Americana, with a more laid-back sound. His distinctive vocals will always remind fans of his most famous characters, but his rootsy music stands on its own merits.

“It’s easy, when you’re acting, to have somebody do your hair, and to put on a nice suit that somebody picked out for you and had tailored,” he says. “Somebody gets you coffee, and if you mess the lines up they just say, ‘Oh, take two, do it again.’ This is tough. But when you walk onstage and there are 500 people there to see you, that’s where the glamour is.”

John Corbett and his band play Hill Country Live March 21.* Tickets ($20 to $25) are available at Hill Country’s website.

An edited version of this story appears in the March 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.

*Since this story was published, the date of the concert was changed to March 21.

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Sweetlife, the “music and food festival” sponsored by the salad chain Sweetgreen, returns to Merriweather Post Pavilion on May 11. The lineup this year features, among others, Coachella headliners Phoenix, Boston-based Passion Pit, rapper Kendrick Lamar, Gary Clark Jr., and noted lip-syncer Beyoncé’s sister Solange on the main stage, plus bands such as MS MR and Holy Ghost! on the Treehouse stage.

Tickets go on sale Friday, February 8, at 10 AM; prices range from $75 for general admission lawn seating to $150 for VIP, which includes covered seating, special food options from Rogue 24’s R.J. Cooper and Toki Underground’s Erik Bruner-Yang, and complimentary Sweetgreen salad tastings. Follow @sweetgreen on Instagram to access a presale code available Tuesday the 5th at 9 PM; ticket sales will open to those with the code the following morning at 10 AM.

For a recap of last year’s Sweetlife festival, check out our earlier post.