Busy Signals: Olivia Mancini

"YOU CAN ALWAYS make time for the things you love," Olivia Mancini said a year and a half ago, when indie-pop-rock band Olivia Mancini & The Housemates was new to the D.C. scene. Now, it's become almost a motto. The way she says it, it's less a cliche and more a kick in the pants.

This is a roundabout way of saying that Olivia Mancini is a busy woman.

"I'm not monogamous," she says with a laugh, referring to the four bands she's a part of. "I like to play a lot of different instruments, and I like a lot of different kinds of music."

Two of her bands will play this weekend: the Housemates on Friday at the Black Cat and Washington Social Club heading up the "Washington Social Christmas" at the 9:30 Club with Jukebox the Ghost, Exit Clov, Caverns, The Dance Party and Laura Burhenn on Saturday.

The Housemates were born when Mancini had written some songs that didn't fit with WSC. She assembled a band to play her upbeat, playful tunes. "I knew I wanted Ed Donohue to play guitar, and he was living in this house ..."

Mancini was hanging out and playing music with Donohue and his housemate Jonathan Roth, a drummer, when Kristin Forbes, the third housemate, appeared. "She was like, 'Hey, guys, sounds good,' and then she left with a guitar case," Mancini says. "I turned around to John and Ed and said, 'Does she play? Because that would make this whole thing very easy.'"

It's not just Mancini who likes to juggle: Forbes (bass, vocals) has the Kristin Forbes Band. Donohue (lead guitar) has Donny Hue and the Colors, which also features Randy Scope (guitar) and Dan Swenson (trumpet, organ, guitar). And so on. Also, the Housemates no longer live together; though Roth still lives in the same Arlington house, the others have moved on — Donohue to New York.

"We're a very modern band," Mancini says, explaining that the group communicates via e-mail and phone and sends MP3 recordings back and forth. For their upcoming album, "This Kind of Life," the instrumentation was recorded in two days, and Mancini and Scope produced and recorded the lyrics over the course of the next year.

The Housemates may play for a living, but it's hard work. Mancini recalls a practice session during which, after a particularly tough song, Forbes exclaimed, "Hey, look at my bass!" "And it was just covered in blood," Mancini says. "She must have nicked her finger and she just kept going.

"That's the kind of tenacity that I appreciate."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Junior League and Vandaveer, Fri., 9 p.m., $10; 800-551-7328. (U St-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Rachel Kaufman
Photos by Chris Combs/Express