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Melting pot? New York City is Cibo Matto’s (loosely translated as “Food Madness”) own private nuclear reactor. Singer Miho Hatori and keyboardist, sampler, and producer Yuka Honda have worked with everyone from the Beastie Boys to Sean Lennon to Soul Coughing’s Sebastian Steinberg, giving equal play to hiphop, Ellington, and the arcane beauties of 7-Eleven cuisine. Defying misogyny as well as xenophobia (says Honda: “There are people who think that women can’t operate studio equipment”), the Japanese expats have been winning over the Lower East Side hipster setand receiving plenty of old-fashioned critical acclaimsince the release of their 1996 appetizer Viva! La Woman. The uberperceptive émigrés show us how it’s done (with Jack Drag opening) at 8:45 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $10. (202) 393-0930. (Amanda Fazzone)