Today's Top Stop: Jesse Malin at Iota

Map It:  Clarendon 

JESSE MALIN is an archetypal musician who's absolutely beloved by fellow artists and critics, but, despite turning out superlative pop-rock songs for years on end, ends up playing the Iota Club and Cafe and doing interviews with the Falls Church News-Press in 2006. At least Paul Westerberg, who Malin sounds a great deal like, gets to play the 9:30 Club.

Throughout the '90s, Malin fronted D Generation, a New York City band that's hard to categorize more specifically than "hard rock." They looked and played kinda glam, but they also sounded kinda punk, though they were never street enough and far too poppy to be accepted by the hardcore set. In other words, if D.G. had emerged in 2003 instead of during the Soundgarden era, they could well have been bigger than the Strokes. Despite touring with bands such as Kiss, Green Day, Social Distortion and the Ramones, drafting Agnostic Front guitarist Todd Youth into the band and convincing the Cars' Ric Ocasek to produce their timeless "No Lunch" LP, you've probably never heard of D Generation.

Only with the towering expectations that Malin's talent encouraged could such a career be considered a failure. In the face of their "failure," the D broke up. Malin turned toward a sound that's alternately Stones-esque and alt-country and had his old friend Ryan Adams produce his solo LP, "The Fine Art of Self Destruction," early in the new millennium. The pair also formed the hardcore novelty band the Finger. "Destruction" was a minor hit in England. Meanwhile, Bruce Springsteen had his band learn Malin's tunes and play them live.

Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong has signed Malin to his label, Adeline Records, and expects to release a new record by the New York rocker this fall. If history's any guide, the disc will be roundly praised in music magazines and adored by a relatively small number of fans. Meanwhile, Jesse will keep his day job.

» Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 8:30 p.m., $15, with Jon Delise; 703-522-8340. (Clarendon)
» MORE OF TODAY'S TOP STOPS can be found here.

This post was written by Express' Tim Follos