Aural States

Sound Off!: Sick Sick Birds

Greg Szeto — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:23 +0000

01. MP3: Sick Sick Birds – Your Machine
02. MP3: Sick Sick Birds – Hearts & Their Minds

Sick Sick Birds open for Thrushes tonight at the Metro Gallery.

You might have noticed that tweens have a bastardized derivation of a once sacred screed from an Exploited album title: “Pop punk’s not dead.”

Few people outside the New Found Glory, All Time Low set find any merit in that statement; what’s moreso, some might argue pop punk was never alive. To those nay-sayers I offer Sick Sick Birds, who prove that you can successfully reconcile maturity, pop, punk, and artistic and musical merit. Tonight, their position opening for Thrushes is really a match made in heaven. SSB distill the essence of mature pop into the bittersweet and pensive melodies that fuel their songs. The heady thrashing of punk is relaxed to a more tension-filled, mid-tempo gait, but the bite is still there. The songs are all anthemic, filled with golden lyrical nuggets and political acumen that inform acerbic commentary moving seamlessly between politics (”We hold these truths. But you hold the reigns”) and life (”A missing information ban. Like only your loneliness can”).

The entirety of the Heavy Manners LP is a treasure, one that gets more rewarding and meaningful with each listen. Opening track “Buildings” is an ode to a reckless and carefree past life, and ignites a vivid wistfulness with its poetic and incisive verses (”Brash plans from late night talkers and beds made from bad ideas”). “Your Machine” coos sweetly, ebullient on the backs of rising horn lines that cut straight to that reflective and nostalgic corner of your brain. ”Hearts & Their Minds” bounces along like the best of the Clash, coming off as an indictment equally on political misdeeds and our complicity in them. ”Power Plant” starts off with a bit of resigned reflection on keeping people under control, before vaulting into a more resilient closing verse that brims with the slightest pangs of hope.

And really, that’s what SSB are all about: working through their complex and intertwined maturation of life, art, and ideology. We emerge with them: older, wiser, and maybe even a bit optimistic.

Album Review: Lonnie Walker – These Times, Old Times (Terpsikhore)

Zack Turowski — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:16:55 +0000

01. MP3: Lonnie Walker – Compass Comforts
02. MP3: Lonnie Walker – Summertime

As compelling as any album released this year, and possibly one with a chance to stand the test of time, Lonnie Walker’s These Times Old Times is easily one of the best albums I’ve been introduced to since I started reviewing music. It’s the payoff for sifting through countless faceless artists everyday. The kind of record that, after you’ve heard it, makes you wonder how you managed to not have it in your collection before (which is high praise indeed for free promotional music you recieve through the internet).

They’ve recieved scant mention in press thus far, popping up in a handful of North Carolina based blogs and prints (and here, on Aural States), but they seem almost destined for greater recognition. Originally the solo outing of Brian Corrum, Lonnie Walker are now a collection of ECU students who’ve been playing together for several years before recording These Times Old Times, which partially explains their obvious self-assuredness. Occasionally they are joined on stage by John Graham, who does improv painting during their set. Even the creation of their band name seems mythic, combining Lonnie Johnson (inventor of the super-soaker) and Starlite Walker, the first Silver Jews album.

From the start of “Grape Juice,” Lonnie Walker define their sound but aren’t content to sit within those comfortable alt-country bounds, even by the second verse embarking on wonderful detours of Neil Young-like electric guitar, and reaching singalong chorus parts by the end. Corrum is a born vocalist, with the magical ability to make some of his weirder nuances (check the repetitious noises in “Compass Comforts” and lyrics about pubic hair on “Summertime” for proof) seem natural. Musically the songs never stick in one place very long, and every new piece comes as a logical, although entirely unanticipated extention of their song’s original structures. It’s impressive enough when a band tosses off musical ideas effortlessly, but you get the feeling that out of probably hundreds of possible directions, the band has edited themselves down to their best ones. Somehow the hard rocking middle of “Back Home Inside With You” fits prefectly with the calmer rest of the song; the drum machine in “Summertime” is the perfect setup for the song’s staccato coda.

In addition to being a confoundingly self-assured debut, These Times Old Times is often compard to Bob Dylan’s electric period in most reviews, but this band casts off the occasional lapses into monotony and self-consciousness that mar Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. Vocally, Dylan is the easy comparison, but Corrum more often takes a page from Dylan’s modern interpreters like Bill Callahan of Smog or Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, whose weary white-trash poet laureate aesthetic Lonnie Walker has perfected. Occasionally there are hints of a bluesier, genuinely Stonsey (Sticky Fingers-era) combination of poignant songwriting and hard rock power.

Lonnie Walker’s musicality sets them apart from those artists who laid the foundation for lo-fi alt-country, bands like Smog and Silver Jews, who while maintaining a high quality of songwriting and lyricism, were not especially gifted musicians. Thankfully, from a purely musical standpoint, Lonnie Walker is consistently captivating. They are the rare band whose lyrics are a seamless extention of the music, where neither element dominates the other, and both are superb. The songs are rewarding whether they keep it simple, as on “St. Sleeper,” or when they choose to show off more complex musical muscle, as “Pendulum’s Chest” demonstrates. Lyrically Brian Corrum ranges from charming wordplay to humbling observations, a mix with which lo-fi country rock seems to be blessed. Even the longer songs (and there are four that cross the 5-minute mark) never drag, becoming only further testament to their ethic of crafting music so loaded with ideas, subtleties, and vitality to maintain your interest throughout. To do so is an impressive feat for a seasoned artist, and somewhat staggering for a debut.

The record ended leaving me desperate for more. A near perfect debut, and by any standards an excellent slice of music. I can only hope to hear more from this band in the future.

Label: Terpsikhore

Release date: Sep 15 2009

Track list:

1. Grape Juice
2. Compass Comforts
3. Old Birds in the Seas
4. Back Home Inside With You
5. Wider than White
6. Horse Boots
7. St. Sleeper
8. Summertime
9. Ships
10. Pendulum’s Chest
11. Country Crowded Trees
12. Crochet

Live Review: Leila Josefowicz Gives John Adams’ Violin Concerto Total Depth (2009.10.29)

Sam Buker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:16:23 +0000

John Adams’ Violin Concerto comes across like a melodic discourse on gravitational forces, but a touch more tender. Alien tensions built slowly from the BSO, with little far-off explosions. The center around which this Adamonic universe whirled was Leila Josefowicz.

She’s the personal champion for this concerto, making it her signature piece, a task only a Hilary Hahn could envy. She plays entirely from memory, giving full impression of a piece taken within — the raw stuff of notes — spit out with unexpected expression. I’d have to think even Adams is surprised at what she finds in it.

Without hearing a single other play it, I’m willing to bet she’s the definitive interpreter of the work. Who else could render this rhythmic riot of her 4/4 against the orchestra’s 3/4 without a hint of chaos? I’ve never seen a modern concerto solo melody played with such unflagging conviction. She’s diamond-bright in her tonality. Pizzicato strings start popping around her and she just plays on, joyful bow in free motion, fierce, fast and full of sass. Deft spasms twitch her shoulders and breast, yet she stands firm as a tree. Whipping branches are not suggested by arm movements but by flying notes.

Her solo moments bath one in a sense of strong stillness, well-adapted to the strangely non-emotional atmospheres Adams evokes. The end of the first movement is where the genius of this piece comes into being. Reminds me of everything I adore in Gyorgy Ligeti without a hint of borrowing.

Tubular bells strike, breeching through to a shimmering Chaconnne: Body Through Which Dream Flows. An expansive trumpet (thanks to Andy Balio) creates a blossoming space; a spell broken by Leila’s eerie tones and the return of the bell. The two spaces meet like a fast-dissipating cloud front. Woodwinds swirl and ripple. Synthesizer provides an undertow. We are nowhere and everywhere at once. Only we’re never lost. Leila makes sure of that.

The Toccare is your traditional Toccata, absolutely rising on the back of sixteenth notes. Leila crackles bright. Her chin juts attack, like she’s biting notes into being, as much as bearing down on her bow. All punk bands should study her stage presence, her divine driving precision. (Even BSO violinist Qing Li seemed to watch and learn, and was one of the first to clap). The final exchange of drum and Leila was perfectly timed. Her last solitary phrase sawed off time and space in such a way that we all gasped joyfully at the sudden release.

Robert Spano conducted, on loan for the night from the Atlanta Symphony. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was the perfect vehicle to let Jonathan Carney sweep in and enrapture us. He proved a lyrical storyteller with none of his usual pyrotechnics. The Allegro Molto crowned the movements with a flashy dusting of musical paprika and saffron in the “Festival of Bagdad” until we raced on the back of an Arabian steed of sound to the finale. Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite cinched this symphonic fairytale night. I think a few players were holding back in the Scheherazade, saving it up for the Adams. By the Firebird, they could fly home free. Their tones lush and lovingly paced by Spano with gentle ease. You might say the Adams’ concerto was the unworldly orphan between two dear Russian grannies — very much welcome into our hearts. How it got there? We’re not quite sure. It was a mystery. Leila Josefowicz holds the key.

Live Review / Photos: Islands, Jemina Pearl, Toro Y Moi @ the G-Spot (2009.11.02)

Greg Szeto — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:17:22 +0000

01. MP3: Toro Y Moi – Talamak from Well Tusked (2009)

02. MP3: Toro Y Moi – Human Nature (Michael Jackson cover) from CHUM ONAH: BxF celebrates the music of M. Jackson

03. MP3: Jemina Pearl – I Hate People featuring Iggy Pop from Break It Up (2009)

All photos: Greg Szeto | Full set

Toro Y Moi comes off initially like a variant of the whole indie dance shtick: solo artist pumping out insistent beats, synths and laptop samples while dancing around stage, the music is as fierce as any of his peers and leaves no 4/4 stone unturned. But there’s a twist. What elevates him above the chaff and detritus is both the subtlety and execution; the fact that he actually sings the featherweight and often soulful vocals and plays the synth lines to his own music makes all the difference. As a result, Chaz Bundick is downright intimate with his music: the payoff is much bigger, the riffs more electric, and everything overflows with funky heart and dance-worthy soul. Foot-tapping pop couched in lo-fi swirls often sampled on the fly, his set was a good benchmark for meaningful indie pop.

Headliner Islands carried the torch for interesting indie pop. Nick Thorburn’s post-Unicorns project is every bit a mirror of its cantankerous, and often brilliant pop songwriter. Touring behind their latest album Vapours, we find Islands’ has a scaled back live presence consistent with the paring back of their sound. The stage was littered with as many synths as it had guitars, as opposed to the array of instruments found in previous live shows. Ever the dramatic egoist, Thorburn posed on stage, alternating between brooding and whimsy, in a glinting, sequined cape. Luckily for him, his moody, over-the-top showmanship proved a perfect foil to the inspired pop that Islands craft: intricately layered guitar and synth melodies with bittersweet vocals that go straight for the musical jugular turned out a brilliant showing of complex pop.
The true treat of the night however, was the screaming dervish known as Jemina Pearl. The pint-sized ex-lead singer for Be Your Own Pet tore her way through a set of tunes that sits fondly at that evolutionary branching point of garage and punk. With boundless energy, surprisingly punchy vocals, and a taut backing band, she bested the other two acts of the night, and upturned the indie pop theme. Though replete with big riffs that wouldn’t be out of place in a pop song, the crunch and distortion applied to the songs live leaves no question that Jemina is still a piss and vinegar, garage and punk rock girl. The more subdued and varied vocals on recently released debut (Break It Up) are a distant memory, as Pearl wails and screams into the mic possessed. So it would seem that the reports that Pearl’s solo act may be tamed are a bit off point. Her set left you dizzy with glee, fuzzy in the ears, and gasping for more.

Live Audio: So Percussion @ Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:14:23 +0000

So Percussion
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD
October 28, 2009

Band:
Josh Quillen
Adam Sliwinski
Jason Treuting
Eric Beach

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the full set formatted as: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks after the jump.

Music for Pieces of Wood* (by Steve Reich)
Extremes (by Jason Treuting)
- September (by Jason Treuting)
- I Love You (by Jason Treuting)
- June (by Jason Treuting)
Drumming (by Steve Reich)

Notes:
Lineup:Holofcener-Zeiders>Gestures>Microkingdom>So Percussion>True Vine Trio
Show presented by Aural States
*with Adam Rosenblatt
Sound: Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Live Audio: Holofcener-Zeiders @ Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:13:28 +0000

Holofcener-Zeiders
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD
October 28, 2009

Band:
Adam Holofcener-laptop
Jeff Zeiders-laptop/midi controller

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the full set formatted as: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks after the jump

1. Entropicalia (parts A-E)

Notes:
Lineup:Holofcener-Zeiders>Gestures>Microkingdom>So Percussion>True Vine Trio
Show presented by Aural States
Sound: Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Live Audio: Gestures @ Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:16:04 +0000

Gestures
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD
October 28, 2009

Band:
Bob Chapman-trombone
Jon Lebovitz-tuba
Rebecca Mills-clarinet
Mark Cisneros-drums
Jess Matthews-drums
Kriston Capps-sax

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the full set formatted as: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks after the jump

1. Doritos
2. Honeybee Liquor Store
3. Goose on the Sidewalk
4. Squiggly Lines
5. Conceptual Seduction
6. Lost Troll Finds Elephant Friend
7. March of the Greyhounds
8. Homework
9. April 13

Notes:
Lineup:Holofcener-Zeiders>Gestures>Microkingdom>So Percussion>True Vine Trio
Show presented by Aural States
Sound: Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Live Audio: Microkingdom @ Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Microkingdom
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD
October 28, 2009

Band:
Marc Miller-guitar
John Dierker-bass clarinet
Will Redman-drums

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)
baltimore-taper.blogspot.com

Download the full set formatted as: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks after the jump

1. Shopworn Bloviating
2. Squirrel Level
3. Too Soon to Know*

Notes:
Lineup:Holofcener-Zeiders>Gestures>Microkingdom>So Percussion>True Vine Trio
Show presented by Aural States
*The Orioles cover
Sound: Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Audio / Contest: Thrushes, Sick Sick Birds @ the Metro Gallery (2009.11.06)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:55 +0000

Thrushes – Juggernaut early mix.

Thrushes have once again dropped some mana on us here at Aural States.

Not only are we exclusively previewing an early mix of the track “Juggernaut” from their forthcoming album Night Falls, but we’re running a contest for their show with the far-too-rarely-seen Sick Sick Birds, the always rockin’ Baby Aspirin and Brooklyn’s The Art of Shooting next Friday Nov 6 at the Metro Gallery.

To enter, listen to “Juggernaut” and give me 1 or 2 words that either nicely sum up your thoughts on the track, or best represent your knee-jerk reaction to it.

Here’s the swag that goes to one lucky commenter:

2 guest list spots
1 limited edition vinyl copy of Thrushes’ debut Sun Come Undone
1 new design t-shirt
1 copy each of Sick Sick Birds’ LP Heavy Manners and their two 7″s

All the prizes will be picked up at the show. A winner will be chosen next Wednesday based on any number of subjective criteria. Let’s hear those witty words of wisdom.

Live Audio: The True Vine Trio @ Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:10:36 +0000

The True Vine Trio
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD
October 28, 2009

Band:
MC Schmidt-electronics, percussion, vocals and stuff
Jason Willett-electronics and stuff
Owen Gardner-guitar/effects

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the full set formatted as: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks after the jump.

1. Improv
2. Improv

Notes:
Lineup:Holofcener-Zeiders>Gestures>Microkingdom>So Percussion>True Vine Trio
Show presented by Aural States
Sound: Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Boogaloo Times: A Discourse on Funk and Soul – Pax Nicholas & Seattle Funk

Nolan Conaway — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:30:00 +0000

MP3: Ron Buford – Deep Soul Pt. 1
MP3: Annakonda – Wheedle’s Groove
MP3: Black on White Affair – Auld Lang Syne

Funk ain’t what it used to be.

In their early days, funk scenes compiled as fast as trash in city wastebaskets. Each town had a somewhat distinct and independent scene, the fruits of which were destined to remain either in the caring hands of obsessed collectors or in the unexplored depths of record store bargain bins. As of late, many local funk bands boast more success based on their novelty value in hotel bars than their artistic credibility–a damn shame seeing as both soul and funk offer musical insights untouched by more popular genres. Granted, it’s difficult to look at a 6-piece funk outfit, wacky vocalist and all, as an artistic statement. Plenty of patrons even fail to make sense of the message when it’s easy: “Get Funky.”

In parallel with funk’s downer of a fate, a number of record labels are making their names known by prodding private collectors and scouring the aforementioned bargain bins for anything of worth. The good news? There’s a lot to be found, and nobody has much of a problem with re-release. The bad? Funk has, for the most part, mutated into a re-release/compilation industry. As you might guess, shifts in that direction only amplify the effect of the problematic stigma already associated with its specter. But the fact remains, there was a lot of music being recorded 40 years ago, and we’ve listened to an embarrassingly small percentage of it today. In actuality, much of it deserves a re-release. As a result, I’ll be using this space to investigate funk and soul by means of two wildly dissimilar re-releases in the medium: Na Teef Know De Road of Teef by Pax Nicholas & the Nettey Family; and the compilation Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75.

Some of these early funk LP’s are quite rare–about four-digit price tag rare. Na Teef Know De Road of Teef is one of those records. For a number of reasons, Pax Nicholas’ 1973 masterpiece was largely overlooked outside the Lagos (Nigeria) funk populace. It would have been completely forgotten if not for Frank Gossner, a selfless bin-scraper who found the dusty afro-beat LP at a record store based in Philadelphia. Recognizing the record’s potential, he brought together Nicholas and the kind people at Daptone Records (home to revivalists Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings), which is how Na Teef came to be re-circulated in accordance with its quality.

Afro-beat was still a young style in 1973, and for Pax Nicholas & the Nettey Family to have made an album that characterizes the genre so well would have likely caused some real racket in the community. The percussion is spread out thick n’ heavy–distributed evenly like butter on toast. Each tone resonates with the earth; melodies float like wind over the rhythm section’s grounded beats, making the occasional connection simultaneously natural and cathartic. The music itself requires some initiative to really get into, but afro-beat was never made for casual listening. And like any art, the amount of attention that you invest is directly relational to the magnitude of the satisfaction gained from it.

The packaging, oddly enough, is what divides Na Teef from its American counterparts. The fullness of twelve vinyl inches lends itself nicely to the communication of a complete thought, which is something a 45’ cannot rightfully handle. Na Teef’s particulars may very well be beyond my consideration, but even so, there exists a perceptible depth involved with the listener’s experience, a sort of fulfillment about the album’s path to conclusion. In contrast, western beats thrive in single format (excepting a few precious examples) because, to be honest, funk music seldom wants to express anything bigger. As popular as funk and soul may have been 40 years ago, the active musicians mostly just weren’t trying to change the world like their Woodstocking contemporaries. Although that’s neither here nor there in terms of pure artistic merit, the thought alone makes me wonder where it brought the genre to today.

And that’s what makes way for Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75, the 2004 release combing the depths of the Light In The Attic Records vault. Because of the weighty emphasis placed on singles and 45’s in funk’s early days, connoisseurs are finding it difficult to track their grooves down. Simply put, throwing together a half decent personal funk collection proves to be quite the costly affair these days—and the market that the genre originally existed in is almost entirely at fault. As a solution, plenty of record labels are appropriately accumulating these aged releases and re-pressing them for the general public.

LITA did a hell of a job here too. Their website awards full responsibility to a collaborative effort entitled Wheedle’s Groove, a producer-writer-musician amalgamation of sorts who ripped all the tracks on Seattle’s Finest exclusively from those forgotten 45’s I mentioned. And I, for one, am astounded at how subtly vibrant the Seattle funk scene once was. Compilation highlights include The Overton Berry Trio’s jazz-class rendition of “Hey Jude,” the killer percussion found in “Cissy Strut” (yes, the Meters’ tune) played by Johnny Lewis Trio, and the ass-kicking tribute to “Auld Lang Syne” by The Black On White Affair which closes out the disc.

You might notice that none of those choice cuts are originals, and that brings me to yet another concept funk has elegantly retained through its lifetime: the cover. Modern rock/pop artists performing songs by their contemporaries (or even influences for that matter) are scarcely listened to seriously; this is hardly the state of affairs in funk and soul. Covers are much more important than as mere B-side material in Seattle’s Finest. They’re tributes, often a signature act by many of these groups. For instance, I cannot imagine The Black On White Affair in a more enthralling place than “Auld Lang Syne.” So what makes me first point to the reinterpreted songs hidden away on Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75? It’s the fact that the songs are genuinely outstanding, and not just a petty replication of an old classic.

Funk isn’t dead, not even close. There are still dozens of meritable acts (examples: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, The Bamboos, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra) that have shown time and time again that their genre has still got some life left in it–and a market to sell in, for what its worth. Sly Stone is still doing shows! This piece may have predominantly discussed tunes that were recorded forty long years ago, and I’m hoping to modernize with Boogaloo Times’ next installment for just that reason. There exists a substantial amount of funk in the world, all of which relies on notions independent from most of the music we cover here at Aural States. I want to bring that old attitude back.

“Get Funky.”

No related posts.

Preview: Aural States presents So Percussion, Microkingdom, Gestures, Adam Holofcener + Jeff Zeiders, the True Vine Trio (Jason Willett, MC Schmidt, Owen Gardner)

Greg Szeto — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:54:50 +0000

Tonight will be an inspired night for music in Baltimore. Of course, that statement is a little biased since I’m putting it on.

Here’s some decidedly non-biased material suggesting you attend:

“Banging on Cans: And anything and everything else in So Percussion’s strange, not-just-percussion universe” (Baltimore City Paper)

“Roll Over, Beethoven: By Reimagining Format, Alt-Classical Musicians Are Going Mainstream” (Washington Post)

“Do You Hear That?” (Maryland Morning on WYPR 88.1FM)

Splice Today

and here’s what others are saying about So Percussion and their recent premiere of Imaginary City in Brooklyn:

“Drummers Map an Imaginary City” (New York Times)

“Yes In My Backyard: An Exclusive First Listen To So Percussion’s BAM Next Wave Piece Imaginary City” (Village Voice Music Blog)

“Top Live Show: So Percussion @ BAM Harvey Theater” (Time Out New York)

“So Percussion – playing ‘Imaginary City’ @ BAM” (BrooklynVegan)

Here’s some video we shot with Polygon Tree Productions of So performing Steve Reich’s Drumming Part 1:

So Percussion Perform Steven Reich’s Drumming Part 1 from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

It also bears mentioning that the line-up has expanded since our initial announcement to include two more sets. One features the premiere of a piece by local composers Adam Holofcener and Jeff Zeiders. The other is a True Vine power trio of sorts featuring Jason Willett (Leprechaun Catering, Pleasant Livers, Half Japanese), Martin Schmidt (Matmos), and Owen Gardner (Black Vatican, Janitor, ex-Teeth Mountain). Some more, press-release-y details on them after the jump.

Adam Holofcener grew up in the county and has played in bands around town such as the methamphetamines and eatadick.com. Currently, he composes and attends the University of Maryland School of Law. Listen to relevant things here: www.cuntemporaryrecords.com

Jeff Zeiders has received numerous commissions for his compositions, from original soundtracks to contemporary dance works. In the process, he has spent years serving as music director and conductor for various theatre programs, as well as performing actively as a professional percussionist and painting on commission. Zeiders currently studies at the Peabody Conservatory with Michael Hersch. Visit him at: www.jeffzeiders.com

Adam and Jeff will be premiering a new piece on Wednesday evening. An amalgam of styles for the ages.

Interview: Islands (w/ Nick Thorburn)

Nolan Conaway — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:15 +0000

In light of Islands‘ upcoming show at the G-Spot on November 2, I had the pleasure of extracting some information from indie music’s resident pro-circuit pop troubadour Nick Thorburn–known fondly as Nick Diamonds from acts such as The Unicorns, Islands, and Human Highway, among others.

Incidentally, Anti- Records recently released Vapours–yet another bigwig electro-pop record, sporting some of Islands’ best tracks to date. It’s definitely worth picking up, if only to see what else these guys could possibly have left hidden up their sleeves. I hear they host a killer show too, so you might as well venture over to the G-Spot while you’re at it–if you can find it–to see what else they’ve got to say.

Here goes:

Aural States- First off, an abridged history of Islands?

Nick Diamonds- The Unicorns broke up, and Jaime and I decided to keep playing music together. So we made Islands, and we made a record [Return to the Sea], and Jaime left shortly after the record came out–I kept calling us a band, and we toured that a bunch. And now we’ve made this new record [Vapours], and Jaime came back, and we had a new lineup, and that’s it in a nutshell.

AS- What were the circumstances around Jaime’s re-enlistment?

ND- I wanted to make a record that I thought was analogous to his aesthetic sensibility, to the things he was doing and had been doing since he left.

AS- What were you all thinking about, if anything, while making this new record?

ND- I was thinking I wanted to make a very specific kind of record. One that’s a little more upbeat, a little less dramatic than the last one. Less, you know, lush– or not lush, but symphonic I guess. So the idea was to pull back on the big arrangements and simplify a little bit.

AS- How do you feel about it in comparison to your previous work?

ND- I feel good, I feel like it’s some of the strongest stuff that I’ve done definitely. You know, I’m coming at it as a songwriter and looking at the songs compositionally.

AS- It’s curiously electronic for you guys, any particular reason for the shift?

ND- It was something I wanted to try. In a way, it was getting back to the kind of music I was making with the Unicorns, which was really synthesizer based. Getting back to basics a little bit, you know, but also kind of exploring different ways of treating songs. Some of these tracks were written before or around the same time as the last record [Arm’s Way], so I’m presenting them in a different style I guess, trying it out.

AS- You said you were trying to make this record less elaborate than you used to, has the songwriting process changed as a result?

ND- That doesn’t factor in really as much. There’s really a sort of style to the songs that lends itself to this sort of arrangement. But they’re simple songs, simple pop songs–but they’re not determined by the kind of sounds and instrumentation around.

AS- Any special plans for your upcoming tour?

ND- Nothing really. Just kind of do the tour, do the shows, the songs.

AS- Do you know who is opening?

ND- A girl named Jemina Pearl, she’s in a band called Be Your Own Pet, she just released a solo record. She’s opening, and this guy named Toro Y Moi, this kind of bedroom-pop-laptop sort of thing. Dance but still sort of garagey, you know?

AS- Is it difficult to recreate your sound in a live atmosphere?

ND- Not really. I mean, we’re very able musicians, and very flexible and stuff. There’s a lot going on with the two members besides Jaime and myself–Evan and Jordie. They’re doing a lot of switching instruments, you know, and even in between songs switching keyboards and guitars and basses. A lot of keyboard stuff, but I think we trade it well.

AS- Ever play Baltimore?

ND- Yeah, a bunch. I love Baltimore

AS- Is it at all different from playing other cities?

ND- Well, every city has got to be different, but it’s more show to show than town to town. The variations are nightly more than they are regional.

Baltimore has had a really good audience, but sometimes I get a really negative experience. I know one time I had someone in the audience in Baltimore echoing me pretty hard, and really getting a kick out of it, enjoying himself. He was really trying to throw me off a bit. And that was a negative thing, but people in Baltimore can be really awesome and supportive and there to have a good time. It’s always a mixed bag.

AS- So how often do you get those show hecklers?

ND- Not that often, that was one of the few times. Yeah, that was a bad one. You know, some people might yell out Unicorns songs. Which is fine, I can understand they want to hear a song they really like. Unfortunately we’re the wrong band.

Some people yell it out because they know it may be a sore spot for me or it might be inappropriate, but that’s not the way to go about asking. They do it purely to try and upset me or distract me, so that’s disappointing. That’s really pretty rare like I said, but it did happen in Baltimore.

AS- Have you heard Alden’s new record?

ND- Yeah yeah–I like it. I think it’s great. I’m really happy that he’s back playing music and performing. He’s a real talented creative individual, it was a shame that he was quiet for so long, I was afraid he would never make music again.

AS- Are you two still in touch?

ND- Yeah, definitely. He’s living in Montreal, so I don’t see him much because I’m in Brooklyn now. But yeah, we’re on good terms

AS- Well I guess time is running out, do you have any parting words for Baltimore’s readers?

ND- Nah, not offhand. That I’m just looking forward to hitting the city.

Live Review / Photos: Islands, Jemina Pearl, Toro Y Moi @ the G-Spot (2009.11.02)

Down the Vine Vol. 7 – Fair Brothers’ collection, new CDRs & upcoming events

Jason Willett — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:10 +0000

The True Vine
3544 Hickory Ave.
Baltimore, MD

Telephone: 410 235 4500

open hours:
Tues. to Sat. 12 – 9
Sun. & Mon. 12 – 6

hello,
this is jason speaking. there’s alot to say & not much time to type it but i’ll give it a shot.

today is wed. oct. 21st 2009 & at some point today jad fair’s brother david will arrive from coldwater, michigan to the true vine with a truck crammed full of vinyl for us to sell. jad called me last week to tell me that he & david have decided to sell both their entire large record collections to this shop. both collections have been in storage for a long time & some of these records were from their first record purchasing days in the 70’s.

if you know some history about half japanese then you could imagine as much as i could that there would be some very interesting music in these boxes. about 20 years ago when i had a record shop in frederick, md, david dropped off a pile of amazing records on my desk for me to borrow. everything in that stack was amazing & that was the first time i heard jandek. half of those records were jandek lps. the amount of records between the two of them is easily in the thousands & david’s drop off today will be part 1 of two drop offs. the next will be in about 3 months from now.

the true vine cdr series has now tripled in size. most have been assembled by me & a few have been assembled by owen gardner. owen’s titles are from nigeria, india & morrocco. mine are all over the place. here is a cut up montage of music from the new titles:

.True Vine CDRs Series Montage, Oct 21 2009

peter blasser has just finished a new instrument which is a much smaller sidrassi organ & it sounds amazing. it has two chaos wheels & two pitch wheels on the sides. this is different to the original, which has one of each located on the top. this means that you can manipulate the wheels on the side while playing the top with your thumbs. the sound is more full bodied & the touch sensitivity is higher than the previous sidrassi. he made three prototypes & we have one of them here for sale & hooked up so you can try it out. it’s hooked into a little stereo system which you will see on a glass case to the right when you walk in the door. the prototypes are $595 & at some point in the future when the right manufacturer is discovered
to make the circuit boards, the price will be lower. if you’ve never heard the first inacrnation of the sidrassi organ & you’re interested, here is clip that greg szeto made with me last year, doing a short demonstration:

Sidrassi Organ Demonstration by Jason Willett & Greg Szeto from Greg Szeto on Vimeo.

karl has plans for a new instrument & he will be ready to talk about it in our next update.

two nice receivers & one nice turntable just came in on consignment. call for details if you’re interested.

we now have a newly built record bin in the front window that is full of classical vinyl. this is an experiment, as classical vinyl can be a very slow seller but i want to try it because i’ve heard that a decent selection of classical vinyl in a record store is hard to find. we will see how that works out.

ALSO (owen speaking): look out for the “special” debut performance by brand-new true vine power-trio (jason willett, owen gardner, martin schmidt) opening for nyc’s premier post-classical drum square, so percussion, and appearing alongside balwash new music titans microkingdom and gestures. it’s all happening at the metro gallery at 8pm on wednesday, october 28th for $10 in advance or $12 at the door.

days later (halloween), a spooky spectacular at the golden west featuring dj jason willett. bring your costume!

weeks after that, a very lucky friday the 13th when the pleasant livers play the zodiac with janitor. jason djs afterward.

the very next night, you laugh and cry thanks to heavy head jandek, backed by a variety of local weirdos including our very own jason willett, twig harper, susan alcorn and a drummer yet to be determined. the venue might be 2640 but it might not, so we’ll let you know if we find out otherwise.

on the 20th jason djs a baltimore free school benefit on his birthday (also st. edmund’s feast day). come cheer on the birthday boy while you support a great local institution-to-be. that’ll be $5-$10 and on the 3rd floor of the h&h building.

last but not least, on december 5th come on over to floristree for a very special transmodern fundraiser at which you’ll have the rare pleasure of witnessing a collaboration between dj jason willett and baltimore’s cherished west side marching band. doesn’t that sound awesome?

back to you, jason:

amongst the many recent titles that have come in recently we have:

jason urick’s new full length lp with his head replacing the naked bodies of john lennon & yoko ono on the cover (partially in glow in the dark ink).

thank you’s new 300 limited press lp which is actually thank you being remixed in a non techno way by asa osborne/joe williams, jason urick, & dan deacon.

arrington dionyso’s new “rock” cd on k records which wont be released to the rest of the world until november. we also have two very limited tracks from the record hand lathe cut by arrington onto flexi disc with handmade art inside & out.

new releases on mississippi records.

rare blues, prog, techno, jazz & rock vinyl.

jacques dutronc double vinyl of his early mod cuts & francoise hardy picture sleeve 7″s.

lots of groovy/funky, avant garde, psychedelic & international cds.

on & on & on but no more time to type words so….

goodbye for now.

love,
jason

Interview: Office of Future Plans & the Jawbox Reunion (w/ J Robbins)

Greg Szeto — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:30:48 +0000

Photo credit: Greg Szeto

MP3: Report Suspicious Activity – The Night of 1000 Lies from Report Suspicious Activity (2005)

Office of Future Plans plays Oct 27th at the Sidebar with The Bomb, and a Halloween show on Oct 30th at Rock and Roll Hotel with Caverns and Imperial China.

On an anonymous street, nestled tightly amidst random warehouse facades in the neighborhood known as Better Waverly (funnily enough, south of Waverly proper), sits the Magpie Cage. From the outside, it appears to be no more than a steel-gated, two-car-width garage. But when you walk through the doors, it’s like entering a different world. A veritable oasis for anyone music-oriented, lined with warm wood tones, and contrasts of deep red while absolutely bursting with vintage and high-tech recording gear that strikes any artist like Pavlov’s Bell. Unlike many studios, this one is remarkably free of clutter, and streamlined interior design (perhaps a bit of insight into the mind of its proprietor).

This is the studio of one J Robbins, one of the bonafide icons of local music, earning his stripes as final bassist in DC hardcore band Government Issue, vocalist and guitarist in post-hardcore follow-up Jawbox, and more recently with duties in Report Suspicious Activity, Channels, and Burning Airlines. He also happens to be one of the most earnest, hard-working, and genuine people you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting.

I got the chance to gab with J in the studio before a day of mixing locals …soihadto…, who counts as one of its members the infamous Duff from Ace of Cakes. Our conversation veered all over: from the forging fires of his new project Office of Future Plans, to the driving forces behind the bizarre Jawbox reunion set on Jimmy Fallon, and tons more in Robbins’ very busy life.

Aural States: So…your new project, the Office of Future Plans. You were saying before we started that it was the guy from the Bombs that sparked it?

J Robbins: Jeff Dean, the guitarist for The Bomb, kept hammering away at me to play with them when they come through at the end of the month (Ed: Oct 27th @ the Sidebar).

AS: What about Channels?

JR: Well Channels became dormant when my son was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy. You know…things get prioritized very quickly and playing music went straight to the bottom of the list…

AS: Wow, I don’t think I ever really paralleled the timelines for those two events…

JR: We literally played our last show the day before the diagnosis. We played at Galaxy Hut for a friend’s birthday party. We already had scheduled an appointment with his pediatrician because we were concerned about his mobility and development…

I can’t remember if we’ve rehearsed since then or not…we’ve worked on some stuff, one song. And we have no desire to break up the band, but the reality is that it’s next to impossible for us to gain any momentum doing anything. We might be able to schedule a rehearsal, but we can’t get a rehearsal schedule together since my wife and I are both in the band.

We’d love to do it again, but on the other side of it, she’s starting to do some different music. I can’t seem to get away from rock–from playing loud rock music. There’s loads of other kinds of music I’d love to do too and I’m endeavoring to get into as much of that as I can, but the satisfaction of playing loud guitar, or bass, with Darren particularly playing drums. I can’t escape it.

Janet has been collaborating with this Australian singer-songwriter Greg Atkinson, who used to be in a band called Big Heavy Stuff. And before that a band in the 80’s called the Ups and Downs. Slightly famous, they rode a bit of the REM wave in the 80s. She’s been sending files back and forth with him. And she’s more interested nowadays into acoustic singer-songwriter, or really alien electronica, like she really loves Burial. So both of those kinds of things are easier for her to make at home.

AS: So both artistically and logistically Channels just wasn’t possible?

JR: Well mostly logistically with Channels. What I’m doing now was supposed to be…uhm…Like some people make plans and then they fulfill them. And that generally is not my M.O. My M.O. is I just start doing something and let it lead me along. The next thing you know, it’s turned into something else, because I just kept digging away. But I wasn’t really writing any music.

I was writing a little bit for this band Darren and I had called Report Suspicious Activity. That’s like the most hardcore band I have ever been in, with this guy Vic Bondi who was a teenage hero of mine. He used to be in Articles of Faith, a Chicago hardcore band. Very political. So the whole thing with RSA was just getting out our accumulated frustrations of 8 years of George Bush. A lot of the songs mention Bush by name, it’s all political. It’s all, to a greater or lesser extent, remedial pummeling hardcore punk. It was super fun and wasn’t a huge time commitment. Vic lived in Seattle, every once in a while we’d get together to rehearse a bunch. We did two records on Alternative Tentatcles and probably played a total of 8 shows in four years. So, it wasn’t a huge commitment and it was really fun. Like letting off steam. I wrote like a couple songs for RSA, but I wasn’t hunkering down and writing things.

Last October, my son Callum was hospitalized for 5 weeks with pneumonia. It was a super tense and terrible time; he was in ICU for 5 weeks. Janet and I were doing shifts. It’s easier for me to be up all night because I’ve always been that way, so Janet would do the day shift at the hospital, and then I would go there at night. I’d be there all night and get out at like 8 or 9 in the morning. I would stick around a little, but you can’t be in the ICU 24/7. You would go insane. And I could never sleep during the day, so I would have this dead time. So I would just come here, sit and play guitar into the computer and ideas just started coming out. I was playing and writing on the piano a lot too. I ended up with all this material, and I was not concerned about what I was going to call it, or whether it was for a band or anything. It was sort of therapeutic on the one hand, and on the other it was sort of like “Oh yeah, I remember this, this was great. I really loved doing this, it was important and I miss it.”

Over the next few months as I was getting this material together, more I vowed to myself to always make time to record something every week. Even if I didn’t have songs, I’d record a cover. I recorded a bunch of John Cale covers no one needs to hear…that kind of stuff. At some point, I said “I guess I’m making a solo record.” I’m on the fence about that idea. But that’s basically what it is. All this ass backwards progression to doing this project. The reason this line-up happened and this band, Office of Future Plans, happened was that Jeff Dean invited me to play with the Bomb. And I was like “I can not play a solo show. I can not sit on a stool at the Sidebar and try to croon Jawbox songs with an acoustic”–you know? Most of the music I’ve written just doesn’t translate to that kind of delivery period. So I called Darren, asked Brooks (Harlan) to play bass, called Gordon Withers who’s phenomenally talented and plays cello. I’ve called Gordon in to play on a bunch of people’s records, and recorded his record most recently. So we just started playing stuff.

AS: All the material is from that progressively accumulating solo output then?

JR: Yeah. We’re playing one song that I wrote for RSA, because RSA barely played. And I don’t think anyone really ever heard those records. I’m finally giving myself permission to play songs on which I was the principal songwriter in bands that I’ve been in before. Because they’re good songs and I miss playing them. There are some I wouldn’t do, but there are some where I can basically say I wrote that song. We dabbled with that when we first started playing, but it’s been great because everyone’s so good and there’s such a good vibe that we’re just moving forward. And I’d rather do the new stuff.

The reason it’s called Office of Future Plans is just because the notion of a solo band…I’m still wrestling with it. I think it’s great, for example, that Bob Mould can go and play whatever from his backcatalog of songs, and when he wants to play rock it’s billed as Bob Mould. But there was a time when I thought that was a load of horseshit, and I wouldn’t be interested in hearing him play–I would feel like it was a sell-out for him to play a Hüsker Dü song with a new band. I don’t feel that way now, because those are his songs, they’re great songs, and I would very much like to hear him play them.

But I don’t like to see my name *laughs* I think it’s always cooler, the idea of a band is kinda cooler–this construct.

AS: And bigger than just one person.

JR: Yes, and also–I remember there’s this band the Forms. A while ago they sent me a package of their releases, and there was very little information about the band. Very little real-world, people-type information. The way that it was couched, it was almost like the Forms were this other entity that is responsible for the music on the disc. It just made you take it on its own terms. And there’s this very imaginative other world associated with a band name. I think that’s awesome. I can’t help preferring it slightly to just seeing someone’s name and going “oh that’s that guy.”

AS: So being billed in a concert flier by name next to a new project kinda hurts you, in a sense?

JR: Well, it’s inevitable I suppose. I’m also pragmatic: if someone’s interested because of the connection to Jawbox, and that brings someone to see this band, then that’s great. Whatever.

AS: You were saying that the sound of Office is trending more towards the heavy rock realm?

JR: The recorded stuff is just all over the place. I’ve done some pieces that are all drum machine and keyboards and samples. But when it’s time to actually present something live, the most comfortable, easiest and quickest route to hearing something and having it cohere. Drums, bass, guitar–the cello is sort of the interesting, textural thing. I’m hoping that it’ll get weirder, but just right now it sounds like a rock band. We’re not on any kind of schedule to finish up. We’re going to re-record some of the material because it sounds way better as a band than me solo.

I have demos of stuff up until we started rehearsing, I was pretty sure it was just basic tracks, not demos. But I was building on these things over a period of months. Some of them will remain, but some of the songs just instantly sounded better when there are people in the room playing together. And that’s much closer to my heart as a working method anyway.

AS: This project has longer legs than just these two shows?

JR: Yeah, definitely. Now whether it goes back to being quote-unquote my solo record, we’ll work that out. It’s nice though since we’re all grown-ups, and we’re all pretty mellow about it. It’s fun for everybody, and that’s the whole point. I have no idea when it’s gonna be done, or how long it’s gonna take. There’s enough material for an album, but it’d be cool to have way more, and way more of it a range of things.

AS: Is Office going to be put on significant hold when you get together with the rest of Jawbox for the Fallon performance?

JR: Not really. That’s a total of two rehearsals. This project, we’re probably going to record in the first week of November. After that, I don’t think we’re gonna do too much before the first of the year with the holidays coming, and I’ve been fortunate to book a fair bit of work.

AS: Wow, I didn’t think the recording process was so near for you guys.

JR: Yeah, well we’ve actually been rehearsing for a couple months now, once a week. I feel like we’ve been really good with maintaining a regular practice schedule, and it sounds better every time we play. We’re gonna play two shows now. Everybody’s heads are just way in it, so it makes sense to take advantage of all that rehearsal. It’ll be great because I think the recording will put a nice period at the end of the whole sentence.

AS: OK, shifting gears if you’re not tired of it already: can we visit this whole Fallon reunion situation? It seems like he’s been scoring artists that people wouldn’t really expect…

JR: People were raving about the Sunny Day thing…but I haven’t really seen it.

AS: Did he approach you guys then?

JR: Well, I think the reason the music is getting good there is that the music booker on the show (Jonathan Cohen who co-founded Nude as the News)…used to work for Alternative Press. What happened with Jawbox specifically was connected to the reissue (Sweetheart). Kim (Coletta) hired Big Hassle publicity in New York to do PR for the reissue. Ken Weinstein and Bobbie Gale at Big Hassle were people we knew while we were at Atlantic. Both did publicity there. Then Bobbie was the label manager for the subsidiary that released our second Atlantic record. And we loved them.

AS: Yeah they’re great. They ran PR for Bonnaroo when I went a few years ago and it was like clockwork.

JR: They’re fucking awesome. So Kim hired them for the reissue, and Bobbie was just relentless. I’ve talked about doing reunion shows for a while. After all this time, I was like you know, fuck it it would be fun. Let’s revisit this insanely hectic time from our lives. I’m 42, and my memory of my 20s now is that I was insane. The energy I put into things…sometimes I’m in awe of it. The band was like this 24/7 devotion. But I also wasted a lot of energy, and it was a really emotionally fraught time for all kinds of things. It was just a really crazy, neurotic, psycho time. In addition to having been a great time. I kind of thought, now that we’re all older, and we have different priorities, we can look back at that time and just take the good stuff from it. Wouldn’t it be nice to get everybody together and go play, and say: “You know what? I’m really proud of this band.” I proposed the idea of doing shows, we all talked about it, but it seemed logistically next to impossible.

But Bobbie was relentless. And all of a sudden we got this call from the Jimmy Fallon Show. I think Bobbie just called the music booker, and knew that he’d be interested. And she also probably knew if we got an opportunity like that, it would be so weird and come so far from left field for us that it would be hard to resist.

AS: Too funny.

JR: Yeah, it’s a total set up. It was supposed to be one song, but now Bobbie’s saying: “They said you can do 3 songs. One for broadcast and two for download!” Now we’re getting all these emails asking if we want to play a show at Mercury Lounge warming up for it. I think Bobbie’s doing some serious machinations, like “you can just do 5 songs,” or “maybe do a 6 song set.” But that’s how it happened, I’ll lay blame squarely at Bobbie’s doorstep.

It’s weird to me on a lot of levels, but it’s so weird that I’m quite excited. I’m not that excited to be on television. I don’t give a shit about television. I actually think it’s evil, I’ve always thought it was evil. But I’m excited about it from the standpoint that it’s almost like it’s so wrong it’s right. For us, it’s almost like a practical concern. It would be very hard for us to get together and learn enough material to play a set, mix it up, and execute it all to a standard that does justice to our memory. The best occasions of Jawbox live are something we’re all really proud of, and want to live up to them.

I think it’s easier for us to conceive of doing 1, 3, even 5 songs, as opposed to trying to do 16 songs well and having a heart attack or have us just fail miserably.

AS: So is “Savory” going to be the broadcast?

JR: Yeah.

AS: Have you decided on the other 2?

JR: We’re working on it.

AS: Are they all gonna be from Sweetheart?

JR: Yeah, yeah. We’ve been having some negotiations on what to do.

AS: This coincides nicely with the re-release of For Your Own Sweetheart, and it’s pretty clear how the reunion show arose from that. But how did the reissue come about?

JR: It’s funny because Jawbox, when we were together, we were a band that planned a lot. Kim, the bass player who was like the manager of the band, was an excellent planner. Apart from a few things, like for example we never planned to sign to a major label, but when the opportunity arose, Kim was excellent at creating a structure in which to make decisions. For the most part, we were a band that came up with plans, then executed them. Crossed all the “t’s” and dotted all the “i’s.”

The reissue has happened more like my style. Dischord has been re-doing all their vinyl, and all the cutting as far as I know has been done at Chicago Mastering Service by Bob Weston (also of Shellac) and Jason Ward. Michael at Dischord mentioned to Kim there was a lot of demand from people, presumably asking about Sweetheart. The only vinyl pressing of Sweetheart was the one we did ourselves when it first came out. So it’s been long out of print on vinyl. When Kim was mentioning it to me, the words For Your Own Special Sweetheart and Bob Weston flipped a switch in my head.

Bob’s mastered a couple of records for me recently, where the low end turned out really spectacular. They were records where the bands cared about the low end. One of them was Wino, who was raving about the low end. And Wino is always like “What happened to the low end?” Every record he wishes there was more low end, you know? He was super particular about it, and Bob killed it. And the Clutch record I just did, same thing.

And with For Your Own Special Sweetheart, I would say my biggest reservation sonically about that record is the low end. I kinda love the sound of it, I’ve always been proud of the sound of it because it’s very abrasive, and it really suits the songs. But, the low end kind of recedes. I don’t know if it’s a 90s thing or what. As far as I understood, Bob was going to remaster it for vinyl so I thought, why don’t we make some low end happen? And then I thought, as long as that’s going to happen, it’s not that more expensive to make a CD, so why don’t we do a full-on reissue and let Bob loose on the low end? See if we can’t get it to really have that oomph, kick more ass.

AS: Over the past decade, you’ve risen to prominence more as a producer than a performer. How does it feel to be thrown into the spotlight more as a performer again, seemingly as part of this nascent wave of 90s indie rock interest? Big bill reunion shows of groups like Dinosaur Jr, Pavement seem to abound, and now you’re getting the chance to revisit Jawbox as well as take part in more high profile performances like the NPR collaboration with Chris Walla…

JR: Chris Walla actually called me. It was weird. I’d met him once for like 5 minutes, but we have a lot of mutual friends. Bob Boilen of NPR invited Chris to do the project song thing, and suggested that he have a collaborator. And Chris called me, for some reason that I still do not know. But I’m really glad that he did, because that experience is one of the all-time highlights of my musical life. There’s nothing I would change about that experience; it was completely magical. It was great because it was super pressure cooker, like if you fail you were failing in a spectacularly public way. Though I guess they wouldn’t broadcast it if it was a total debacle.

It seems like there’s a wave of 90s nostalgia right now. It’s weird for me because, in my life, I look at it as a continuum. I don’t look at it from decade to decade. I’m only interested in working. I just want to be either making stuff or assisting other people to make stuff, and I just want to dig in and keep going. There are definitely times when I look back and go: “Yeah, 1994. Fuck, it’s been 15 years. 15 years is a long fucking time.” Sometimes I feel the passage of time tremendously, and sometimes it’s just all part of the same stream.

It’s weird when you go back and talk about decades too. I remember I found it insufferable in the 80s, when I knew teenagers who were really hung up on the 60s, hung up on the Rolling Stones or whatever. And I’m just like “PAH-THETIC.” They were living a nostalgia that was weird because it wasn’t a part of their lives, but it’s the same amount of time we’re talking about here. 15 years or whatever. So, it’s bizarre just all the way around. I feel really weird because the things I wanna say about it are totally loaded when they come out of my mouth. I sound like that guy, it’s not cool.

I mean…But I think that…maybe the cool thing about the 90s and what happened in the wake of Nirvana. *pause* Let’s discuss. *laughs*

It was before the prevalence of the internet, email. Now things are so much more instant, and you’re so much more barraged, and things get old so much faster, and people are so much more jaded because they are just inundated, buried under information. Even though it seemed that way in the 90s, but now it makes the 90s seem almost idyllic. Quiet, by comparison.

And all those bands that were toiling in the underground, who maybe privately had dreams of rock stardom, but never realistically expected to have them be fulfilled, suddenly got swept up in a wave that actually made it possible for some. Everybody, the public at large, had their minds blown. A coming to public consciousness of something that was hidden, and here we are now where almost nothing is hidden. And nothing will ever be hidden again, everything will be instant from now on. From my personal experience, seeing people coming into the studio, I know there’s depth and impulses behind whatever kind of music they’re making, however beholden they are to their influences. Whatever they’re doing, when someone comes to make music, there is something genuine and real behind it still. And I think there always will be. But in the public consciousness, pop music kind of way, the early 90s was the last time that people had their minds blown by the fact that this kind of underground existed.

More to come this week…

Live Review: Three French Operas Meet Free Fall Baltimore (2009.10.19)

Sam Buker — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:34 +0000

The first up, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Adonis took us as close as you can get to an evening in Versailles without the price tag. My friend and I scored the last two tickets to be had. This free-for-all packed the house as part of Peabody Opera’s tie-in with Free Fall Baltimore.

My main beef with Rameau wasn’t the music, but the dulled-down story that was rather stiffly acted by the singers and dancers of Peabody Opera and Peabody Preparatory. When dealing with jealous goddesses and ancient Greek tales, I guess any old goddesses will do. Rameau’s opera pits lusty Venus against chaste Diane. And Adonis, as portrayed by Benjamin Shaver, comes across as an abstemious disciple of the huntress who suddenly discovers he’s got sex organs (or as he sings to Venus: “You gave me a heart to love with”). His vocal range fared better than the flimsy part he was given.

The “actual” Adonis, according to Baltimore’s own mythology maven Edith Hamilton (going along with Ovid), sprung forth from Myrrha, who seduced her own father by trickery and then fled his wrath. Venus, taking pittance turned her into the fragrant gum tree. When father’s arrow pierced the trunk, Adonis sprang out.

That would make a far more fantastic opera, don’t you think? But the story goes on: Venus “abducts” the babe and takes him down to the Underworld in a chest so that no other gods or goddesses my look upon him. But goddess of the Underworld, Proserpine peeks. The comely Adonis equally enchants her. So, by order of Zeus, each gets to have Adonis for a portion of the year. Call it joint custody. And all goes swimmingly until Diane gets mad and sends a boar after his arse… or else, Venus’ sometimes lover, Mars gets jealous and dispatches the rival.

But such a plot would not do for Jean-Philippe and the French court. Boars are to be hunted by King Louis XV, not brought into the palace. L’Amour must reign triumphant, with all garland-bedecked and singing in unison of love.

The opera orchestra, under the conducting of Adam Pearl, was not without flaws. One of the violins seemed a little overcome and almost wheezy. However, I’d welcome every possible chance to hear more Rameau, especially since the revival of his music has only heated up since the 20^th century.

Going forward a few years, vaulted into the contemporary life of 1759 but loosely dressed to seem present day, singers deliver the chansons of The Drunk Reformed. This Parisian love-comedy, reformed for Vienna audiences by composer Christoph Willibald von Gluck, gave the evening a good-natured tarnish of living in a Baroque painting by Franz Hals. Rolling and ridiculous arias build toward a trick-filled ending that does involve the Underworld we needed above. The Drunk is tricked into thinking he has died. His wife and niece play the Furies, shrouded in black veil. Consider the scene to be a funhouse mirror of the ending scene of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (which was, in fact, the later composition, originally called The Reprobate Punished). In Gluck’s work, the niece’s true love dons mask to play the punisher. In Don Giovanni, we have unbidden entrance of a massive stone statue, who condemns the rake to the fiery pit.

The spousal abuse theme grew stronger as the evening progressed. First, Love turns you into a tree. Second, Love marries you to a drunk (or tries to). Third, Love ends up getting you a spouse (or maybe even two) who “punish in proportion to their love.” Rita, by Donizetti, turns the usual romantic comedy plot on its head: two men fight to NOT win the woman.

The story opens with Rita’s first aria, sung by vixen-in-red Solen Mainguené. She was the first soprano whose voice dared test the reach of the outer audience and the balcony… thus the first to get performance-interrupting applause. Peabody Opera was holding it all back for the third opera. The night’s two piano accompanists, Ta-Wei Tsai (for Gluck) and John Wilson, gave the sprightly verve to back the singers well and up the energy in the hall.

Excellently timed slapstick ruled Rita’s stage — like devilish embraces Husband No.1 uses to grasp at the marriage contract tucked next to his wife’s breast. Good character acting couched uneven French pronunciation. Peppe, Rita’s Husband No. 2, seeing he “lost” his wife to her original spouse, executed a deft mid-air leap of which the Peabody Prep nymphs in the first opera should be jealous. Curtis Bannister’s clowning will take him far. Here the real fire of operatic joys began to catch. The crowded hall left happy. Would not say that I heard a true leading-man among the bunch, but heck, these are college kids! And it’s a free performance!

In case my mythological detour whetted your appetite: there is in fact a Myrrha – for three sopranos and a male choir. Composer Kristin Kuster debuted the work at Carnegie Hall back in 2006. The New York Times’ Allan Kozinn said Kuster’s choral writing “has an invitingly tart edge.”

MP3: Kristin Kuster – Excerpt from Myrrha (2006)

One Track Mind: True Womanhood – “Dignitas”

Greg Szeto — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:20 +0000

MP3: True Womanhood – Dignitas from Magic Child Digital Single (2009)

True Womanhood have taken direct aim at one of the main limitations I initially appraised in their sound, namely a lack of diversity. Without deviating from their dark and moody musical stew, they wring more refined permutations, nailing laser-precise shades of grey in their music to keep things always fresh and vital. This maturation over a short period of time puts them, in my eyes at least, in rarefied air: they manage to take early, lofty expectations and praise and burn through it as fuel, evolving fast enough to keep pace with the landslide of praise. And then outrun it.

To be brutally honest, part of their development is due to the fact that they have just gotten better at their respective instruments/roles. Thomas Redmond’s vocals are still a downtuned, somber affair. But this go around, his voice seems much more agile and versatile. No doubt some of the credit for improvement lies with J Robbins, who TW did vocal tracking with in Baltimore. Melissa Beattie’s bass work is more confident and firm as a foundation, Noam Elsner’s drumming more taut and expressive.

The density of TW’s sound has also greatly increased (despite the departure of guitarist Ross Kerr), with the number of different textures spiraling towards infinity thanks to an array of sound samples and effects that create a murky, mysterious, and lush aura. This is unsurprising considering their proclivity for unique sounds (”Five-Colored Hands” on their 2008 self-recorded demo), and the fact that much of the recording happened at Death By Audio, Brooklyn home for the similarly-named effects pedal empire with Oliver Ackermann of atmospheric rockers A Place To Bury Strangers.

To my ears, “Dignitas” is the stronger of the two tracks on this double A-Side single; this is more a credit to “Dignitas” than a diss on the great “Magic Child.” The title has been often ascribed to mean dignity, though in reality there is no direct English translation. Dignitas is a concept derived from ancient Rome, once thought to be the calculable sum of an individual’s personal influence. Ironically this has also been used as the name for an infamous Swiss assisted-suicide organization. I’m not quite sure which meaning they are invoking, but I’m leaning towards the latter with some of the lyrical turns “Dignity call on me,” and “What’s final is final,” not to mention the haunting despair of the track (remarkable even by True Womanhood’s standards).

The track is a complicated network of intertwined lines, darting vocal harmonies and dissolving riffs. The steady pulsing backbeat of Elsner’s drums and Beattie’s bass line flows forth like lava, providing the only real constant, and an almost hypnotic forward momentum impelling the track towards the inevitable. The slow-burning growth takes their moodiness to cathartic new heights. The huge crash of distorted guitar layers are backmixed behind the vocals, roaring like a nearby waterfall, while the mid-track interlude has a sexy sway about it that reminds us that underneath it all is this strong, catchy skeleton of pop.

All summed up, you’d be a fool not to cash in on this free download.

Exclusive Audio Leak: “One That Got Away” (The Anomoanon cover) – Ari Schenck

Greg Szeto — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:14:54 +0000

MP3: Ari Schenck – One That Got Away (The Anomoanon cover)

For all you night owls, we’ve got a little surprise for you tonight. Many thanks to friend Zach Kaufmann over at local webzine Splice Today for this leak of the first track from their Baltimore Does Baltimore compilation album of original covers (I think you can probably guess the running theme across the 10 tracks). The free download drops tomorrow, but we’ve got a track from Ari Schenck right here: a cover of “One That Got Away” from Anomoanon’s Asleep Many Years in the Woods (2002). The Anomoanon was a project from Baltimore transplant Ned Oldham (his slightly more famous, younger brother Will you may know is Bonnie “Prince” Billy) that also included Dave Heumann of Arbouretum.

While there aren’t any artists on the compilation who will be unfamiliar or surprising to current Baltimore music aficionados (nobody’s history really starts much before the aughties), there are some unexpected collisions of styles and genres that make for interesting twists and turns. Some of those include a Wye Oak cover of a Bmore Club standard by scene fixture Rod Lee, two very different takes on a big-hearted Future Islands ballad, and Caleb Stine finally putting to record one of my favorite live covers ever. Recording was done by each individual artist, and mastering by the Leffler-Schulmans’ Mobtown Studios. Album artwork by the ever great Kathy Fahey.

It seems like Zach and Splice, like us at Aural States, have started yearning to do more than just write about music. There are tons of sites and blogs that do so now to varying degrees of depth and competency. What few do is take that extra step and generate original content that adds to the greater pool of art. Hopefully this is a sign of many such efforts to come from Splice (their first effort The Old Lonesome Sound already proving their passion for such endeavors). We certainly have some fun plans for the very near future here.

Photos: True Womanhood @ the Hexagon (2009.10.17)

Greg Szeto — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:21:44 +0000

Live Review: Lorin Maazel Guides NSO to Technical Glory

Sam Buker — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:00:51 +0000

If we were the National Symphony Orchestra, we’d ask the 79-year-old conductor, Lorin Maazel, back anytime. A lot of great things happen under the baton of a man who took his first conducting lesson at age seven.

From the moment Maazel took the podium to conduct Night on Bald Mountain (the Rimsky-Korsakov arranged, Fantasia favorite by Mussorgsky), you knew the highpoint of the evening would be tight control — no matter the piece. A night of spot-on entrances and deft togetherness reigned in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

Maazel is the quiet lion of conducting. There’s very little fanfare in body presence, all energies go toward the sound. In fact, he hardly moves, except from the elbow down, each move as precise as the handle he gets on the orchestra. He only uses three simple pivot points: wrist, elbow, shoulder — in that order of importance — never in an untidy tandem. The baton moves effortless and often, doing most of the “work.”

By contrast, the night’s soloist, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, exuded deep-grunt style physical work, playing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. Now she did not break a sweat to get from an all-too-quiet piano to a bounding fortissimo, but she is the femme sportive when it comes to playing style. Think The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker striding onto the stage with a liberated, jaunty gait, and you have Nadja – bouncing to center front in trim white pants and a casual, beaded tank top. When she planted her feet firm, spread eagle, and swayed from side-to-side to follow the orchestra’s tempos, she seems as ready to swing a golf club as to hoist the violin back under her chin.

Does that kill her sound? Not at all. If anything, she opted for too soft a sound on the Barber’s sweeter, higher moments. The net result: neither she nor the orchestra tread upon the other, delivering seamless hand-offs until the Presto in moto perpetuo – where she ran headlong into undifferentiated notes, arm pumping, until a sudden halt, with one last ricocheting swipe on the strings to end.

Maazel’s own composition, The Giving Tree offered unexpected tie-ins to Bald Mountain and the D-minor symphony finale. If you’ve read Shel Silverstein’s book of the same name, you might not expect the part of tree to come across in cello obbligato. However, that’s what the Maestro called for, and his take on the story intrigued, but makes not a lasting contribution to the repertoire (I whispered to my seatmate: “I don’t see this becoming the Peter and the Wolf of our time”). But why expect Maazel to be Prokofiev, in this off-kilter half-lyric, half-dissonant little adventure? The touches of woodblock and xylophone kept the whimsy of Shel in the picture. Silences where only narrator spoke were a bit too grave, but romancing a tree’s happiness in unstinting sacrifice is not your ordinary tone poem content.

It is my personal feeling (in agreement with his contemporaries) that César Franck did not succeed in taking the French symphony to new heights in his D minor symphony, but merely rolled happily in a perpetuating “U” of gentle modulations. Again the maestro kept all on the ball from memory… as simple as turning a key and getting the NSO to purr.

All in all, a blustery program, good for head-nodding vigor, in which the music flows freely although the sentiments fail to ground into one concrete emotional catharsis. For once, this has nothing to do with the musicians and everything to do with the composers.

We also note that the flutist dropped every ounce of shyness over which we worried last week, and her counterpart in the oboe carried more than his weight to lightly vault us into the second movement of the Barber concerto and beyond.

An Hour of Kindness: Episode 3 – Fearsome Creatures

Greg Szeto — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:04:47 +0000

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 3- Fearsome Creatures- Little Girl from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 3- Fearsome Creatures- Hotel Rapids from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 3- Fearsome Creatures- Seventeen Seventy from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 3- Fearsome Creatures- Honestly from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

Live Audio: Jason Urick @ the Hexagon (2009.10.16)

Greg Szeto — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:32:31 +0000

Jason Urick
The Hexagon
Baltimore, MD
October 16, 2009

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the entire set as: FLAC or MP3

Stream or download individual MP3s below:

1. Boleo
2. The Eternal Return
3. Light Moves
4. Fussing & Fighting

Notes:
Lineup:Zomes>Dustin Wong>Vows>Jason Urick
Album Release show for Jason Urick’s Husbands
Sound: Josh Atkins
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Live Audio: Vows @ the Hexagon (2009.10.16)

Greg Szeto — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:35:15 +0000

Photo credit: Nate Dorr

Vows (Shaun Flynn of WZT Hearts)
The Hexagon
Baltimore, MD
October 16, 2009

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the entire set as: FLAC or MP3

Stream or download individual MP3s below:

1. Endless Concentric Void of Diamond Shapes

Notes:
Lineup:Zomes>Dustin Wong>Vows>Jason Urick
Album Release show for Jason Urick’s Husbands
Sound: Josh Atkins
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Live Audio: Dustin Wong @ the Hexagon (2009.10.16)

Greg Szeto — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:19:15 +0000

Photo credit: YiiioiiiY P, Dustin Wong @ No Rest Fest 2

Dustin Wong
The Hexagon
Baltimore, MD
October 16, 2009

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck4(card)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Download the entire set as: FLAC or MP3

Stream or download individual MP3s below.

1. untitled
2. untitled
3. untitled
4. untitled

Notes:
Lineup:Zomes>Dustin Wong>Vows>Jason Urick
Album Release show for Jason Urick’s Husbands
Tracking is arbitrary and definitely off.
Sound: Josh Atkins
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Sound Off!: Death Domain @ AMERICA (2009.10.16)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:05:23 +0000

01. MP3: Death Domain – A Pox on You from split tape with High Marks (2008)
02. MP3: Death Domain – Ethidium Bromide 2

There’s a lot of good going on in Baltimore tonight, particularly in Station North with the release parties for Height With Friends’ Baltimore Highlands Remix Album at the Windup, and Jason Urick’s Thrill Jockey debut Husbands at the Hexagon. But for something a little more under the radar and farther towards the extreme end of the spectrum, you should look westward to AMERICA.

Now, I’m going to say at the start, there’s a little authorial bias here.

Death Domain aka Adam Stroupe is a science nerd and, like me, wears it as a badge of honor. The name of his apocalypse-heralding solo project says as much (death domains are stretches of amino acids found in proteins that signal for apoptosis, programmed cell death). And let’s not get started on the bevy of overt scientific references saturating his songs’ titles (”A Pox On You,” “Vampyroteuthis infernalis,” “Toxoplasma gondii“) and lyrics.

To my ears, his sound is perhaps the most deserving of the ultra-vague, tongue-in-cheek designation of future shock. If you take novelist Alvin Toffler’s definition, “future shock” is merely a twist on “culture shock,” essentially defined as the disorientation arising from the speed of change. And DD’s music is undoubtedly one of the most bewildering, disorienting yet magnetic and infectious slices of downright bleak takes on synth-based dance music. So welcome this wayward son home from tour tonight when he stops off at AMERICA with tourmates Cult of Youth and a host of others from the House of Tinnitus venue/collective in Denton, TX.

Crucial details:

AMERICA, doors @ 8pm
122 S Stockton St (a side street, between Lombard and Pratt, in the perpendicular, and between Carey and Carrollton, in the parallel)

CULT OF YOUTH – Neofolk in the tradition of Death in June. These guys and gal barely play outside NY. Snagged them after the last date of their tour!

DEATH DOMAIN – Criminally overlooked local synth-based non-organic onslaught. Cold, catchy and clinical. Lamentations of the future-present.

LYCHGATE – Grim harsh noise from Denton, TX. Power electronics without the courtesy of misanthropicscreamers.

ASHES – On tour with Lychgate; also from TX. Like-minded harshness. Think FFH, Grey Wolves, Ahlzagailzehguh. Ashen colored nihilism.

CORPORATE PARK – Part of the TX noise package. Self-proclaimed back stabbers. Think Pedestrian Deposit, Burmese, Throbbing Gristle and where the best place to find a leather zentai suit would be.

Sound Off!: Indian Jewelry

Greg Szeto — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:16:11 +0000

01. MP3: Indian Jewelry – Temporary Famine Ship from Free Gold! (2008)
02. MP3: Indian Jewelry – Swans from Free Gold! (2008)
03. MP3: Indian Jewelry – Lapis Lazuli from untitled 2010 release (World Premiere!)

Indian Jewelry are students of drone and psychedelia. Formed by Erika Thrasher and Tex Kerschen in 2002, the logistics of this ever-evolving collective are baffling, seeming to expand and contract as frequently as the air we breathe. With a rotating cast of members that is kinda like a revolving door, it’s a wonder they ever get anything done. They have remarkably churned out two full-lengths (2006’s Invasive Exotics and 2008’s Free Gold!) along with refining a noted live spectacle. Happily, they have a third album on the way and we are premiering the track “Lapis Lazuli” above.

The result is one of the catchier distillations of mind-warping visions you are likely to see. Uniquely, they manage to wrangle a balance of psych and drone that is rarely seen; more often than not, you encounter one predominating and the other playing the role of hook or kitsch. IJ are relentlessly toeing lines: they teeter on the precipice of shoegaze with the clashing of distorted guitars, deploy drones that take them to the pearly gates of noise, paint often enough in textures to recall post-rock. All done while keeping aligned with the fundamental vision of psych: providing a musical framework for melding and moulding of consciousness.

“Temporary Famine Ship” displays these qualities perfectly, a simple psych guitar riff twirls amidst a cacophonic din of reverberating vocals and droning synths that might be considered neon if not so sinister, driven by a stomping set of tribalist drum beats; a paradox that is catchy and unsettling at the same time. ”Swans” feels appropriately ascendant in its guitar melody, leading to a gradual and righteous coalescence of the various droning components that feels not unlike basking in the sun after a sojourn through the dark woods. Slow-burning grower “Pentecostal” has a pipe-organ-like drone that recalls a sermon or ritual of titular origin, primitive power, and low-range vocals that could easily be mistaken for tongues. The excellently titled “Lapis Lazuli” shimmers with textures of guitars and synths in perhaps their most polished track to date; the track also brings them even closer to the sounds of post-rock, the proceedings having an ominous cloud above them.

With a sonic palette such as this, they’re well paired to open for Celebration along with Videohippos (premiering as a quartet featuring Jared Paolini and Adventure aka Benny Boeldt) at the LOF/T this Thursday Oct 15th, as part of the “Earth” installment of Celebration’s Baltimore Elemental series.

Check out the music video for “Lapis Lazuli” after the jump.

Video / Photos: So Percussion – Steve Reich’s Drumming Part 1

Greg Szeto — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:41:01 +0000

So Percussion Perform Steve Reich’s Drumming Part 1 from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

So we’ve got a show coming up with So Percussion on Oct 28th. Here’s a sneak peek. The So guys were down teaching at Peabody in late September and took some time to shoot a performance of Steve Reich’s Drumming Part 1 in a Percussion studio with us and Polygon Tree, curator behind the web-show An Hour of Kindness. Enjoy and be amazed.

I also took some photos of the shoot:

Live Review: Bartók vs. Bartók – BSO trumps National, Harmonia Lends Hungary For the Night

Sam Buker — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:00:54 +0000

Last weekend, a wonderful conjunction took place among the Baltimore-Washington musical spheres: Bartók’s music overtook its two great concert halls on the very same night.

To compare Baltimore’s own playing Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and the NSO’s take on Bartók’s The Wooden Prince is like pitting a Shakespeare tragedy against one of his comedies, and venturing that one is far better.

While it may not be fair to pit a concerto against a ballet score, we’ll give the BSO, under Maestro Marin Alsop’s baton, the upper hand. Both orchestras did fantastic things we’ve never quite heard before. Bartók brings out the best of an orchestra because he’s not something you can take for granted. You can take Beethoven’s “Pastoral” for granted. You might even take Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto for granted, but James Ehnes’ ample sprezzatura helped the BSO make a great case for Tchaikovsky, perhaps better than the composer himself when he called it “One violin concerto too many” – despite its being the only one that he composed.

Here’s what tips the scales in favor of B-more…

The Cleveland-based Eastern European folk ensemble, Harmonia, kicked off BSO conductor Marin Alsop’s immersion into this year’s theme: shared music roots (the gents stayed on for a second bonus concert that went on well past 11pm).

Let’s plunge into the Concerto for Orchestra.

A lovely creep in the cellos and basses rumbles the hall. First violins spread light tensions strong as spider’s gossamer. Then comes a haunting flute (very like tylynka flute heard in Harmonia’s opener – about half the size of a man’s body, played with one finger plugging and tapping the bottom). First violins come in screaming, sweep over the kettledrum, handing off to the woodwinds. Spot-on trumpet entrance ending in fanfare.

If the first movement had me sold, the second movement raised the bar. “Game of the pairs” begins with a tapping on the snare drum. Round, full-bodied percussion executed like a true soloist. We roll into capacious sound building from the trumpets and horns.

Same harp and miasma magic heard in The Wooden Prince, but here it’s twice as menacing. (Could it be the hall?) Modulations range from near-silence to slicing, eardrum-shaking riot. A kind of sarabande in the viola has drum support. Each movement revealed perfect sectional enhancements, like a fine pair of breasts supported by a stellar bra.

We fly from a racing oboe, fluttering, into a farty tuba, triangle trills away before the clash clash of the tam-tam.

For the finale, the instruments pass motifs without effort. We come out into the kind of triumphal peasant celebration one hoped for in the NSO’s Beethoven finale. All rumbles toward the end… but no, the harp leads now, ripples of sound wafting from the back, violins wince as the cellos add weight.

Marin throws arms back in glory triumphant. And, in case you missed the moment, the recording will be out on a future Naxos release.

Meanwhile, we also celebrate the NSO’s first full presentation of the entire score of The Wooden Prince. Again, we begin with a low rumble from the basses – this is the Prince. A horn calls and cymbals clash. Enter Fairy. Magic comes from the welcome addition of sax and celeste. The Prince sees the Princess and the string sections race one another before dissolving into cacophony – the Prince rejected by the Princess.

The harp and chime strike in perfect sync across the whole stage. Best moment of the evening had to be Ivan Fischer miming the dance of the wooden (false) prince that the fairy uses to fool the princess as he conducted. Bows on the basses tap jilty-lilty with drums.

With a trumpet call, the wooden prince is brought to life. Xylophone strikes out the steps of his dance. The whole orchestra takes up the blasting lurch, with much pumping on the basses. The princess brings back the wooden prince “who is completely disheveled” – according to the stage directions – which got much laughter. Now the princess sees the prince for who he is. She’s smitten, as the concertmistress Nurit Bar-Josef seductions attempt to dominate the basses. After the tormented strife of love is conducted to climax, Fischer brings the symphony’s players to a gentle close.

Where did the NSO misstep? Hardly ever. But if you had to put the flute players head-to-head: NSO’s principal comes across as shy. Her “quail” of Beethoven’s Pastoral quaked before entering under Fischer’s baton. Even in the Bartók, she didn’t fly out with the notes. By contrast, BSO’s Emily Skala’s flute lines fell onto us like fireworks, no wafting across the strings for her.

All told, Bartók opened both symphony seasons with glowing promise. Marin seemed to do much less work to get much more out of her players. In comparison, Fischer is left looking a little more like the wooden prince in the hands of the princess.

Preview: Dark Party featuring Eliot Lipp, Mux Mool, Cex, Mickey Free @ Hexagon

Greg Szeto — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:42 +0000

01. MP3: Dark Party – Status from Light Years (2009)
02. MP3: Mux Mool – Nausican from Just Saying Is All (2008)

I’ll be up in Boston this weekend to catch Built to Spill’s run at the Middle East.

But I’m regretting it as there are some stellar shows happening. Wye Oak is opening for Blitzen Trapper at a mammoth Saturday Ottobar event. Following the show, everyone’s favorite DJ Jason Willett will be hosting the after-party at the Golden West.

Tonight though, all eyes should be on the Hexagon who hosts a phenomenal Moodgadget-anchored orgy of dance music, courtesy of local label Environmental Aesthetics.

Out of towners Dark Party and Mux Mool bring electronic dance bliss (lush with hip-hop beats and influence) to the Hexagon, while opener Cex blasts you with his particularly visceral brand of electronic and beats-master Mickey Free lays down some rhymes. This is easily a can’t miss show.

Interview: Charm City Art Space – 7 Years and the 1000th Show (w/ Mike Riley)

Greg Szeto — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:13:47 +0000

MP3: Sick Sick Birds – Your Machine from Heavy Manners 12″ (2009)

On a particularly idyllic and cool fall evening this week, I sat on the steps of Charm City Art Space with founding member Mike Riley (the Spark, Pulling Teeth, Toxic Pop & Firestarter Records) to reminisce and reflect on the past, present and future of the iconic, long-running DIY venue.

They celebrate a mind-boggling 1000 shows this Friday with a secret, 5-band line-up. It should not be missed.

Doors at 7PM. All ages and donations appreciated, as always.

Aural States: To start, can you flesh out the circumstances leading up to the genesis of CCAS? What factors contributed to you and the other founders’ desire to start up the space?

Mike Riley: Well since I moved to Baltimore in ‘94, I went to UMBC. I grew up in central New Jersey and there were shows left and right, bands I wanted to go see all the time. When I came down here I didn’t have a car. This was obviously not pre-internet, but pre the explosion of the internet. My AOL search for Baltimore hardcore was this band called Compression, who are far from a hardcore band.

There were hardcore bands in Baltimore, just bands weren’t on the internet yet. So I was lost as to where the shows were happening in the area, I couldn’t find any info on the Loft, or anything in the area. So I decided I’d bring the bands in myself. I started doing shows at UMBC in ‘97. Did them there for a while. Then a friend told me about a space near University of Maryland, which was at the time the Supreme Imperial. I got involved with them, they let us rent out the space. Eventually when they got evicted we took it over. That became the Chop Shop. At that time, I met my friend Mike Wolf who had just moved to the area from Pittsburgh. Well, not just, he had been here a little while. He was involved in a space in Sowebo called Black Aggies, which was also the Laff n Spit. So we just became friends, kept in touch over the years.

Fast forward to 2002, and neither of us have regular show spaces to work with. DIY spaces. I was doing a lot of shows at the old Ottobar and the Sidebar. But we just wanted a non-bar venue where music was the focus. Mike and I met up at a show at the Bloodshed, a warehouse space on Preston. They had just moved in there, it was a cool, great space but I guess since people were living there, they didn’t want to do more than one show a month. Mike and I were talking that night and we decided we really needed to get a space together, that’s smaller and can help out smaller touring bands. So Mike found this place for rent in the City Paper Classifieds. We came and checked it out, and downstairs it was all walled off into little, separate rooms. Upstairs was a wig shop that had just closed down.

We thought, this’ll work. It was cheap. We tore down all the walls and that was our basement space. To come up with first month’s rent we got in touch with everyone in the Baltimore and DC area that we knew who might be interested in a space like this: “We’re trying to raise money for security deposit, rent. Help us out.”

We got over $1000 in donations, anywhere from $20 to $150. And it’s never had to come out of pocket since.

AS: One thing you said that struck me as really interesting, and relevant: you said you wanted to start a space focusing on the music, without alcohol. Alcohol is a thorny issue for any venue, especially with liquor licenses getting scarcer and scarcer. Could you expand a little on your motivations for the space, and divorcing the music from what many see as an inextricably linked social aspect, drinking.

MR: Right. I’ve worked at the Ottobar and stuff. A venue like that, in a space that big. Whatever they’re paying in taxes, fees…those costs add up. I know a venue like that could never survive without that alcohol revenue.

AS: Yeah, I definitely see in the case of legitimate venues with higher overhead how that could be an issue. But in a DIY space…what’s your take?

MR: I can tell you in every DIY space I’ve been involved in, though we try not to focus on any one genre, by default it’s mostly punk and hardcore. So it’s younger audience. The first thing that’s gonna get you in trouble is having young, drunk kids out and about. Causing trouble, disrespecting the neighbors, whatever. Obviously those things will attract the attention of the cops.

So that was our motivation behind the alcohol-free policy. 9 times out of 10, that’s the first thing that will get a place like this shut down. Cops come and see a bunch of underage kids trashed and it’s vague who’s in charge. We primarily want to keep it all ages. It’s ridiculous to shut out kids under the age of 21 from the kind of music we’re doing and the kind of community work we’re building and focusing on.

But really, our primary reason is survival. Don’t take chances that are unnecessary.

AS: Can you say a little more about your all-ages stance and your mission statement?

MR: As far as the all-ages part…growing up, being under 18 or under 21 and really wanting to see bands that were playing a venue that was age-restricted. I got really bummed out, and completely frustrated. Personal frustration from having to deal with that. Music, no matter what kind of music you’re into, is not restricted by age. I’m 33 and I listen to music that some people say they stopped caring about when they were 15. I know 12 year olds who are into jazz and classical.

The other parts of the mission statement, the people who were involved here to help get the space started…the other DIY spaces we were involved with kind of focused on music, and that was it. No matter what other ideas they had. Everything fell by the wayside to concentrate on music. We’ve really always tried hard to encompass the ‘zine library, and the gallery. Have more than one thing going on. We’ve always offered it out as a venue for community-oriented meetings or whatever. Not may people take us up on it, but it is there. To be more of a community space than just a music space.

AS: As a community space, how does the organization function? Commune, collective?

MR: I guess it depends. Certain people define collective differently. Our decisions are made more on consensus basis, rather than strictly democratic or collective. I feel like other collectives I’ve been involved with that don’t delegate responsibilities, try to keep it too…

AS: Horizontal power structure?

MR: Exactly. And decisions never get made because not everyone’s gonna agree. We’ve been involved in enough collectives to know that if 20 people are into something and 5 people aren’t, you’ll never get anywhere if you try to convince those 5 people the other 20 are right. So things are done more on consensus basis.

AS: Have you had a fairly stable group of people running the space?

MR: I’m a founding member and have been involved ever since. Mike Wolf, he’s since had two kids. Most of our discussion occurs on our email list-serv, so Mike’s still pretty involved there. He just doesn’t get to come out as often. Dan Bress, who plays bass in Dead Mechanical. He’s an original member; he’s still involved booking shows and his band playing here. John Bachman he’s pretty early on. Rob Sullivan who sings for Ruiner.

Those people are within the first year, and are still involved. We’ve definitely had high turnover. We get a lot of MICA people involved because we’re so close to the school. Obviously, once they graduate or get a little more involved in school, they might not be able to participate as much. I’d say most people that volunteer, become members, stick it out and stay active 3 or 4 years on average.

A lot of our members get into booking and music at the Space…punk, hardcore, indie rock, whatever. Then they sort of expand their taste and you see that at the Hexagon, Sonar, Ottobar.

AS: Kind of like Art Space alumni…

MR: Exactly. Tamara Gabai, an old member of the Space, is running a vegan bakery (Brunie’s Bakery) now. She’s gonna bake a cake for the 1000th show. You might consider Nolen Strals an Art Space alumni…he was very involved and did a lot of show fliers for us which has turned really successful. Things he was involved in at our space might have helped fine-tune things he was already doing with Post Typography.

AS: Would you say most of the group is pulled from MICA?

MR: It expands all the time. Primarily college kids. It’s people coming to Baltimore, Towson, Catonsville from distant rural PA or Maryland. They discover independent music is easier to seek out. Through the website or fliers they find that bands they want to see are coming here. Membership growth happens in spurts though.

There’s a community center in Pikesville that a lot of kids from that area played with their bands. For whatever reason, either they don’t have licenses or their parents don’t want them in the city alone. But they end up here once they get older. Some of them got involved, word of mouth spread, and a few years ago we ended up with a growth spurt of kids from Reisterstown and Pikesville.

I don’t think there’s one specific area though. Mostly college kids, area high school kids just moving into the city who are moving out of their parents’ house.

AS: Do you have a direct connection with scenes outside the city, like Celebrated Summer and Ten Car Pile Up in Towson?

MR: Well I’ve been friends with Tony since he worked at Reptilian. We have similar music interests so we’ve been tight ever since. His bands have always played here. Promotionally, we definitely help each other out. I like to think that maybe kids that are into music, goto school in Towson or areas where they might not have heard of the Art Space, they go into Celebrated Summer, see a flier and come down to get involved. At Ten Car Pile Up there’s Rob Sullivan, who’s been a member here for years, and books a lot of the shows there. Ten Car already had an established, Towson-area younger crowd who might not be able to come to the city. Once we got started up, and some of those kids started to hear about us, we eventually saw some of them start to come down.

AS: With the group and scene around it changing and evolving, have you felt the initial goals and your vision of the space changed significantly?

MR: Well, when we signed the lease in June, we thought “If we can make it through the end of the summer, we’ll be happy.” The fact that we’ve made it over 7 years has blown a lot of our minds. The fact that we’ve been so lucky about people in the neighborhood being supportive and cool, not calling the cops if there’s a problem and coming to us if there’s an issue. Cops drive by, and we’re not in a bad neighborhood by any means, but we’re not too far from one. Our theory is that the cops have better things to deal with than some kids playing music in a basement.

And knock on wood, things stayed OK. When we started, it was Mike and my social circle. Those were the people we went to. It was fairly tight knit, the musical styles were not too far-ranging. Just being here, with more and more people getting involved and telling their friends, it’s evolved so there are more people booking who are into more types of music. Definitely a goal. We never wanted it to be just a punk and hardcore venue. So that’s really exciting.

As far as the scene stuff goes, I like to think that between bands meeting each other here, becoming members and friends, that we’ve spawned new bands. And then both bands go off and do things. That’s another primary goal of mine. It’s a place where people who might not be able to interact with each other at a more typical rock club can come and meet people. They can work on music or art projects together to make new things that would’ve never happened otherwise. Not anything against the Talking Head or Ottobar…but a lot of it has to do with the way we’re set up here. Music in the basement, and a lounge and gallery area upstairs. People aren’t going to the bar in-between bands and just hanging out with their friends.

AS: And the space is different too. It definitely feels homey…

MR: Yeah, like a basement.

AS: It’s like when you get in an elevator. The social expectations for that situation are very different than in the lobby.

MR: Right. And when you’re this tight-knit, I think you’re bound to meet and talk to people you might never have met or talked to before.

AS: It seems like you can operate as an island, independent of any other scenes going on. That was part of the reason for creating the space, to create an island in the sea of sorts. Baltimore’s always been very fertile and underground, but now there’s a lot more mainstream attention, blowing up happening, because it seems a broader base is ready for what a lot of people are making. How has this growth in the city affected you guys, if it has?

MR: I don’t know that it has so much. Where I feel like most of the stuff that has gotten national attention and blown up, Wham City stuff say. They already had their venues that were the sort of scene centers. Bands like Pulling Teeth, Ruiner, Sick Fix, Dead Mechanical, Animal Poison. This is the scene center for these bands. If one of them were to blow up, we’d feel it a lot more. But none of them really has. We’ve had some of those (Wham City) bands or affiliated artists play here. But really, neither positive nor negative influence.

AS: Landmark shows throughout the history of CCAS. Are there any major ones you can point to? You said before that you’ve never really had anyone from the scene blow up, but that’s not entirely true.

MR: Oh certainly. It’s funny things like that, a hardcore band called Modern Life Is War. I did a show for them on their first tour, they had a 7″ out and there were maybe 10 people. Then they played here 2 years ago and you couldn’t possibly fit everyone in here. That’s always fun, bands like the Thermals. Glass Candy who got pretty big in the dance-rock scene. I can’t remember if they hopped on an existing show or if it was a short notice show. It was interesting because you’d see people who you would never see here beforehand. And it was great, everyone had a blast as far as I know. I wasn’t familiar with them at the time. That was sort of a show where, that kind of band isn’t necessarily always associated with the Art Space…but people came out and it was amazing.

Not too long ago a band called Polar Bear Club played here. Now, they’re doing a huge tour with like the Gaslight Anthem and they’re like a melodic hardcore band. Bands like that are cool because almost every member of that band played in older bands here to anywhere from 20 to 100 people. That’s really cool to me to see the evolution. And they’re from Rochester Syracuse, they’re an upstate New York band. So it’s not even a local thing. You just get to see the evolution of these peoples’ music through the Art Space. I really enjoy seeing that.

Then there’s bands that have come up through here, and maybe the Art Space can be a little too small for them now. Double Dagger, Ruiner, Pulling Teeth. The Art Space was a part of their history, and they haven’t really moved on, but they’ve outgrown those shoes.

AS: What about on the community side of things? Were there any periods of major growth or was it always kind of gradual?

MR: I’d say it was fairly gradual. I guess Nolen would’ve been the first person associated with MICA who came over here. . This was our first year. We’ve never done a ton of advertising because we’ve always been afraid of being shut down, so we’ve been kind of a word-of-mouth, fliers in selected places type of promotion. Nolen was hanging show and membership fliers around campus, and that definitely led to a huge stream of people from MICA coming in and getting involved.

The fact that we wanted to have it be more than a music venue. Have gallery stuff going. Nolen was our first sort of curator, but having that separate group of people that were somehow connected or had interest in local music. But their primary focus was visual arts. That’s sort of helped out as well, having people that are into music but more interested in the other aspects of the space.

AS: What about prickly, on the precipice moments?

MR: Yeah, definitely when the Bloodshed got shut down. We got really paranoid. There was a lot of interaction between our spaces where we would sort of do fests where the afternoon would be here, night time there. Things like that. So when they got shut down there definitely was a ring of paranoia about the space. We sort of went even more low-profile for a while. We might have gone as far as taking the website down. But nobody ever bothered us.

AS: So for the most part, you’ve been entanglement free…

MR: Yeah, the very first thing we did when we moved in, we talked to the old neighbors and let him know what we were doing. Ralph, who used to live upstairs, said “That’s cool, but during the week I have to get up at 4AM for my job, so if you can cut the music by 10PM that’d be great.” And we’ve kept that 10PM curfew ever since. So we’ve always tried not to be like “We’re here, we’re doing this. Fuck everyone else.” We knew better.

AS: I gather that you never really thought about a 1000th show at the beginning. For you personally, and for the space, how is the show significant?

MR: For us as a space, we kind of got going modeling ourselves after ABC No Rio in New York, Mr Roboto Project in Pittsburgh. Gilman to an extent…obviously they’re on a much larger scale. Mike was good friends with a lot of the people who got Mr Roboto going. They were a ton of help to us when we were getting started. Other than those spaces, I couldn’t name another volunteer-run, DIY arts and music space in the US that’s lasted this long. We’re certainly proud of that and feel lucky we’ve been able to do it for so long.

And personally, the fact that I’ve seen people come and go and get burned out but I haven’t gotten burned out. The first few years, I had the mentality that if I didn’t book 5 or 6 shows a month, we were never gonna get by. And I sort of burned myself out on booking, and lost a lot of my own money doing things that way. I realized that I needed to take a step back from being a primary booker. I still do shows from time to time, but now I’m more comfortable being involved in the behind the scenes stuff.

AS: Can you give any details on the show?

MR: The line-up’s a secret, only 2 space members know the line-up. Even the bands that are playing don’t know the other bands. My one wish is that instead of wanting the 1000th show celebration BE the actual 1000th show, we would’ve done a celebration of 1000 shows and not have the date be so specific. Shows get booked as short as 2 weeks notice, so we’ve been kind of waiting to see when the actual show will be. That left us with only 2 weeks to get bands together. A lot of bands that would’ve been amazing had to say no because they didn’t have enough time to get practices together, or they already had commitments…

For the 2000th show celebration, it’ll be more of a celebration of 2000 shows, not the ACTUAL 2000th show. So we have some more time to get cool stuff. The line-up this time is still great.

When we move into the new space, we wanna have a weekend celebration. I’m hoping we can get a lot of those bands that were interested and would’ve been like holy shit in the basement deals. And that’ll be announced. But we just thought that this would be a fun thing to do. And it’s not so much about the show, it’s about the space. So just come out, have fun and watch some cool bands. As far as genre-wise goes, it’s pretty eclectic.

AS: All local?

MR: If you count DC. And this is memberwise, not necessarily bandwise.

AS: Having any anxiety about capacity for the show?

MR: Actually I don’t really know what to expect. People might think “Oh it’s a secret, I don’t want to take my chances. I’ll just goto the bar.” But I hope people come out to celebrate the fact that we’ve been here for 7 years and 1000 shows. When you get here, the lineup will be posted. Hopefully that’ll get people talking to their friends about it. Or they’ll get here and think “I was expecting something bigger.” That’s the thing with the secret show. People keep hyping it and rumors. It’s kind of funny.

We try to keep track and click for every show and I think 155 came for Andrew Jackson Jihad and Delay. Andrew Jackson Jihad are kind of acoustic, so on that kind of thing we can open the front door. And people for that show were everywhere, in every room and on every step.

AS: So is this going to be the last show before the move?

MR: We’re still trying to figure out from the landlord when we can move in. It’s this garage next door.

AS: The move is by choice then?

MR: Yes, completely by choice. When we first moved in here, the guys in the garage did installations for sound systems in vehicles. The first few years they were around a lot, but then we started seeing them less and less and less. A couple years ago, I asked the landlord what’s up with the garage next door? We’re looking to expand to a bigger space. He said the guy’s still paying rent and using it for storage. I just happened to ask him about it again like 6 months ago. He said the guy hasn’t been paying rent, and he’s looking to clear and rent it out. He let us in there and basically right now it’s jam-packed full of vehicles, garage junk.

The landlord got ahold of the guy and said he has until the end of November to clear his stuff out. The guy basically said if he doesn’t get to it, to clear it ourselves. So hopefully we can get in there and work on it, clean it out for a month before we start paying rent. It needs a lot of work. We wouldn’t be able to just stop here at the end of November and get started there at the beginning of December. We’d have to keep the current space at the same time, but there’s no way we could pay rent for both.

AS: But CCAS won’t be expanding to have two spaces?

MR: No…some people thought about it for a while. The one concern is we wouldn’t be able to help out as many small bands as we do now. We still do lots of small shows for like 10 or 20 people, and the current space would be good for that. We’re working on ways to still do this and keep it financially feasible. We’d like to keep the ‘zine library and gallery section going. Since the new room will just be one straight room, we’re also still trying to figure out a way to keep them safe.

AS: How big is the new space?

MR: I describe it as roughly the size of the Sidebar. Probably from the bathrooms to the front. It’s nice and long. A lot of our promoters do as much as they can here, but stuff that’s too big occasionally has to go to the Talking Head or Sonar. To be able to keep all that stuff here would be amazing. The rent in that room is double what we pay now though, so we’re going to have to come up with more benefit shows and develping things like a new structure for taking money from the door.

AS: Is the capacity double?

MR: It’s more than double. 50 is like comfortable, 75 jam-packed, and we’ve done shows of 100+ in the basement. Shows of 200+ are doable and comfortable in the new space. The other thing we could never do here is go legit as a venue. We don’t have any rear exits, things like that. Whereas this new space we are pretty sure we can go 100% legit. How we go about doing that, we’re not really sure. I know Hexagon did something where they registered as a record store to enable them to have live music.

AS: What are the other benefits of going legit at this point?

MR: Not having to be paranoid all the time if we’re gonna get shut down in the middle of a lease. We’d probably incorporate…it’s never happened before but if someone were to get hurt, me being the lessee wouldn’t be screwed over. Be a little bit more visible. And possibly, since we’re in Station North, getting grant money. So that’s the eventual goal.

AS: Is that the biggest future goal right now? What else are you shooting for short-term and long-term?

MR: Yeah, going legit. For now, saving as much money as we can. We’re probably gonna work out one or two more benefit shows before we move in to help pad our pockets before our expenses double. Then just getting in there and fixing it up.

I think with a space that isn’t a cramped basement, that will open us up to more people. Take a band like Sick Sick Birds. They don’t play around a lot locally. Their draw tends to be friends, an older crowd and maybe not one that is super cool being in a cramped basement with sweaty teenagers. To be able to appeal to more people because it’s a more comfortable space.

We tried to do film and movie screenings before, but the current space isn’t really ideal for that. To be able to try and do more things like that, maybe something like what MicroCineFest did. It would be really great to supply a venue for something like that.

I like the fact that us and the Hexagon, the Metro Gallery, the Talking Head or the Ottobar. We all help each other out whenever we can. I’d like to continue to foster that. I’m in a band that goes on tour a lot. I see and hear about venues shutting down other venues because they don’t want the competition. I think it’s amazing that in Baltimore, you don’t ever hear of that at all.

AS: Where do you see your involvement with the space going? Do you ever see yourself leaving CCAS to concentrate on other things like your labels,Toxic Pop and Firestarter?

MR: That’s definitely a question I find I’m asking myself a lot lately. Not just about the Art Space but music in general.

I’d say when I first got involved in all of this in the early to mid 90s, you rarely saw people that were involved beyond the age of 35, 40 even less. These days, for whatever reason, it’s far more common. I’ll probably not be doing loud, fast aggressive bands past another 3 to 5 years. With music, when you hear it you can tell whether the band’s goals are more financial than creative. I’ve always been into bands that are more into the creative side. So I’ll probably do labels for as long as I can afford it and have the time for it.

Over the years, I’ve seen myself become less involved in booking and promoting of shows, but as long as the Art Space is around and I’m in Baltimore…I’ll be involved behind the scenes. I think one of the biggest assets I can provide is my experience. The fact that I’ve been involved in DIY spaces for so long, I’ve seen the things that help and hurt…whether it’s venues, bands, whatever. And I can impart my wisdom on people.

I’m just super stoked we’ve been able to do this for so long, and I’d love to see it continue. And maybe do it on a slightly bigger level, where we can provide a bit more.

Album Review: Built to Spill – There Is No Enemy (Warner Bros.)

Zack Turowski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:44:05 +0000

If you’ve seen Built to Spill live in the last few years, you probably got a preview of a few of the tracks on There is No Enemy. “Good Ol’ Boredom,” “Life’s A Dream,” and “Done” are the kind of drawn out songs that originally had me suspecting the new album would follow in the vein of You In Reverse. However, while those are some jammier tracks that probably needed road-testing, the band has largely reined in the more free-form, improvisation-based structures that carried the day on their 2006 release. Instead, they have returned to the mastery of the sometimes overlooked process of recording and editing. That same process set them apart from the alternative slacker icons who ruled the scene when they started (and have since become relics of the past).

The most striking thing about There Is No Enemy, their sixth album, is its openness. Where previous albums maintained a similar tone from start to finish, their latest finds them approaching each track with a different attitude. The group manages the always-difficult task of marshaling an even ratio of new tricks to familiar sounds. The first few seconds of “Aisle 13″ might throw longtime listeners for a loop (electronic noises?), but these ominous beats only last a few seconds before being overrun by Built to Spill’s trademark team of guitars and drums, a cascade of disjointed pop sounds that would have fit seamlessly on Keep It Like A Secret. “Aisle 13″ actually ends up being one of the strongest and most rousing pop tunes in the band’s oeuvre, especially on the chorus’ ever-so-slightly-out-of-tune, double-tracked guitars.

Never a band to rest once they’ve reached a plateau, “Hindsight” breaks out the steel guitars for an indie-country (and Western) track. That the band employs the kind of focus and taste that would allow a writer to label a particular track as “country” influenced is emblematic of the spirit of this album as a whole. While the transitions don’t happen as unexpectedly as they did in the band’s early years, the individual songs breathe a little more and have a better sense of identity. At this stage of their career, they seem comfortable letting the sing-song backing vocals of “Life’s a Dream” stand completely separate from the messy rush of “Pat.”

Lyrically, Doug Martsch is as specific as he can be, musing “What about Canada?” as he describes a kind of person who chronically and purposelessly hates on their surroundings. Elsewhere his observations play less on the epistemological turns of phrase of epics like Perfect from Now On, and speaks more of strange acts like “called by name to clean Aisle 13″ as well as to universal themes such as choosing between “the meekness of love or the power of pride.”

Ultimately Martsch’s lyrics are at their best as graceful bit players when compared to the density of the music. His vocabulary is utilitarian–on “Planting Seeds” he repeats a line he used sixteen years before when he sings “Make up your mind / make it up as you go.” His lyrics are sometimes closer to syllogisms than poems. There Is No Enemy, much the same as Built to Spill’s best albums, is a journey on the backs of the band’s stunningly defined rhythms. Martsch’s melodies, his words, his seemingly endless deck of studio manipulations and effects are characters you meet along the way, wandering around in the night, revealing themselves for a furtive moment and then slinking away unaffected.

Built to Spill’s MySpace page reports that Doug Martsch basically lived in the studio for the recording of the album, evidenced by the sheer diversity of sounds on display here. Few other bands put as much thought into constructing an arrangement as these guys do and where the band’s classic rock heroes (re: Neil Young) might have thrown a guitar solo (the close of “Done”), Built to Spill are more likely to layer three or four gradually shifting rhythms. When Martsch does decide to solo, it’s never an attempt to cram as much filler into one space as possible, or to play as atonally as possible. The notes remain precise and vital. That same MySpace report claims that Built to Spill were considering retirement. But as long as there are still melodies this compelling to be coaxed out of the darkness, we can only hope there are many more years to come.

Label: Warner Bros. Records

Release date: Oct 6 2009

Track list:

“Aisle 13″ – 3:17
“Hindsight” – 3:38
“Nowhere Lullaby” – 3:59
“Good Ol’ Boredom” – 6:31
“Life’s a Dream” – 4:53
“Oh Yeah” – 5:21
“Pat” – 2:40
“Done” – 6:53
“Planting Seeds” – 4:26
“Things Fall Apart” – 6:15
“Tomorrow” – 7:40

Interview / Audio: Height With Friends’ Baltimore Highlands Remix Album, an Aural States Exclusive Release (w/ Dan Keech)

Greg Szeto — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:31:59 +0000

Download the entire album: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks:

Baltimore Highlands – Drew Swinburne
Mike Stone – Gavin Riley
Jackson Whites – Mrs. Paintbrush
The World – PT Burnem
Escape Tune – Lesser Gonzalez
Baltimore Highlands – Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow
The Woods – King Rhythm
Code Of Love – San Serac
Twelve Strings – Jones
Standing Up Asleep – Authentic
Woods Reprise – Drew Swinburne
Travel Rap – C.Y.O. (http://www.lowdworld.blogspot.com/)
Cold And Shaken – AK of AK Slaughter

Don’t miss the official album release party at the Windup Space on Fri Oct 16th featuring Lizz King, AK Slaughter, and Lesser Gonzalez!

Aural States: What motivated you to do a full remix of the Baltimore Highlands album? You were releasing remixes sporadically for download on the Wham City label site. What made you want to undertake this project too?

Dan Keech: Well, Bob O’Brien, who helps run Wham City Records and is in Nuclear Power Pants, the whole idea was his. Specifically to do a remix of every song and put it on an album. Understandably, he pushed for bigger name people, indie acts, to do remixes to get the word about Baltimore Highlands out. That kind of fell apart, which I really feel glad about. A lot of people known and unknown had to bail out. And I’ve done the same thing before with remixes, I sometimes just run out dry of ideas.

There was a time originally when one rule I set for myself was: no one should be involved that was involved the first time. It’s all these completely other people’s takes. Then I thought, well, these guys are standing by, ready to do beats and stuff, so let’s see what they wanna do. And I’m really happy it went that way, because they’re the people I work well with anyways.

AS: Can you tell us about some of the people who worked on the remix album?

DK: Tobacco from the band Black Moth Super Rainbow. That’s probably my very favorite remix on the album.

AS: Which track did he do?

DK: He did “Baltimore Highlands.” One is by him, and one that’s also really tight is by Drew Swinburne. But that’s probably my favorite. It’s kinda the most over the top. I really like the San Serac one. He did a straight-up hip-house, like Snap!, remix. Not snap the genre, Snap! the group. Gavin Riley, who’s the newest person in Height With Friends, his version of “Mike Stone” is definitely one of my favorites. He’s been playing shows with us for a really long time, putting all his beats aside for this one project he’s still working on. None of his productions have ever mixed with my stuff and I thought that was pretty awesome. ”Jackson Whites” remixed by Jackson of Grand Buffet. That one is kinda extra special to me, because he takes over the song and puts in a new hook sung by him. It’s really over the top, in a cool way.

AS: Did you have your hands in any of the remixes? Are you doing some of the finishing touches and mastering?

DK: Yeah, but I’ve definitely tried to keep my involvement to a minimum. There’s just been a couple of parts in stuff where I’ve been like “I’m not too into that.” If people presented it to me as done, it seemed like we were always in agreement. But if people were asking “What’s your opinion on this?” I’d make a couple of suggestions. I’m kind of just riding shotgun for the final mix, where we had to get the tracks even enough. King Rhythm is the guy who knows what he’s doing for that.

AS: Did you go into the studio at all for these or did you just send out a call for remixes?

DK: For PT Burnem’s remix of “The World,” he did it…I might not have the technical know-how to explain this…it was like a live mix. He had everything routed through his MPC, all the pedals and everything. He’d do it once, ask how’d I like it and do it again.

AS: What is the significance of a remix to you? A lot of people remix each other, increasingly so. It’s become this disposable PR stint, one-off remixes just get pumped out and there’s little time or care taken with them. How is your approach different?

DK: I’ve always been opposed to the Radiohead thing. Where everybody could just get the files and remix everything. I always thought there was something kind of shitty about that. Like, you’re kinda doing their job for them. You’re helping them promote their record. And they’re not even necessarily going to check out your remix. You know? Not that it’s not cool to try and do one of those, but it’s kind of callous marketing.

That’s why from the beginning, even if I’m calling somebody that lives down the block, I wanted it to still feel like in ‘91 when you’re hollerin’ at Pete Rock to do a remix. What was cool was that it became even more like that, as it became people doing beats the first time doing beats again. I asked them because what they do means something to me.

AS: Do you have any thoughts on why the remix was so central in hip-hop, but became so distorted now, viewed more as a marketing gimmick?

DK: I dunno, maybe it really fit the genre. I can’t imagine it with a Pixies song, making as much sense. It couldn’t really have been done earlier in history, at least not as easily, than in the 70’s and 80’s.

AS: When you think of a remix, I’m assuming you are thinking broader than just changing up the mixes and tempos?

DK: Well, like I said this is my first time doing it this way. But, almost no one even wanted the files from the beats. All they wanted was the vocals. It’s like their own take on this set of words, you know? Instead of tinkering with samples or anything like that.

AS: You mentioned before that there would be two bonus tracks on the physical copies. What are those gonna be?

DK: One’s going to be a version of “Mike Stone” by Al Lover, who did one of the beats on Baltimore Highlands. Then a super-long remix by Cex of “The Woods.” It’s like 9 minutes long.

AS: Why did you decide to set those apart?

DK: Well, something had to be special for the CD. But beyond that, I originally just wanted it to be one cycle of the original track listing. Because everything that goes twice would feel like a remix of a remix. So those would be bonus tracks. But Drew Swinburne’s “Baltimore Highlands” was one of the perfect intro tracks, so it didn’t quite work out that way.

AS: What genres did people take you into that you were unfamiliar with?

DK: The strangest ones for me, my friend DJ Authentic from Tokyo did the song “Standing Up Asleep.” He did more of a boom-bap kind of beat than I would ever pick on my own. But I was so happy to hear it. I would hear it, think it was cool, but for some reason think “oh that’s not for me.” If he thinks it’s for me, then it’s for me in this case. Which turned out awesome.

Then the hip-house remix by San Serac. Both of Drew’s are also kind of in the IDM realm. And Cex’s take on “The Woods.” I don’t know my electronic genres too well, but I think it’s trance, maybe?

AS: Did you meet anyone that you’ve never really worked with before?

DK: Well Tobacco. We’ve done work before, I did one track for him and I’m working on another. But we’ve never actually met in person, and I just realized that now actually.

AS: Where is the remix album taking you that you didn’t expect initially? What were some of the most surprising things?

DK: I think every track has really been a surprise. I could be wrong, but I don’t think any other Height remixes have ever been completed really. I don’t want to leave anyone out who did something awesome, but hearing these is the first time I’ve ever heard remixes of our stuff and I was surprised by every track in different ways.

AS: The source material, did you feel like you wanted to make a strong statement on that? How did that translate through to the remix?

DK: I definitely had something in mind for the original album. For me, I really like the idea of short albums that aren’t EPs. That have a beginning, middle and end, that come in hard and are kind of relentless. I don’t know if I achieved that or not, but the remix album definitely wasn’t that. Which was cool. So many are the longest Height tracks ever. It’s strange to get used to hearing your voice in this long dance song, something totally different than what you do.
AS: What do you hope people take away from the remix album as opposed to the original album?

DK: Most importantly, I hope people are impressed with what these producers have done. That’s kind of #1, I guess. I also hope people will like the songs that might not have liked them before. But that’s it.

Photos / Live Review: Future Islands, Lonnie Walker, Small Sur, Jared Paolini @ Zodiac (2009.10.01)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:10:27 +0000

All Photos: Greg Szeto

MP3: Lonnie Walker – Compass Comforts

A sweaty grower of a Thursday night show, from the blissful haze of expertly layered guitar loops to the serenity of nature, followed by big-riff country-fried rock and capped off with high-energy, soul-filled dance songs.

Jared Paolini’s measured performance matched his meticulous and painstaking live layering of guitars to produce vast and glorious escapist textures. Small Sur’s set was pitch perfect, some new cuts being played, while Andy Abelow often stole the show with his ever-improving, excellent sax work (nary a squawk or hesitant entrance in earshot, and rich, full tones abound). This is no small feat considering Bob Keal’s soaring vocal work and subtle, lyrical guitar, and Austin Stahl’s deliberate and expressive drumming. Future Islands provided the soulful dance party we have all come to expect, Sam Herring’s emphatic, raw vocals and uniquely theatrical delivery proving ever effective. Will Cashion’s bass work also proved spot on, providing a much needed, kinetic bass line you could feel, compensating for the somewhat hollow drum machine beats in the background.

But for me, the big find of the night was how much I absolutely fell in love with Lonnie Walker’s foot-stomping, knee-slapping, crunchy and rousing Americana rock. Building each song from rambling country riffs and vocals to huge guitar shredding payoffs, frantic vocals, and ramped-up, urgent tempi. So versatile was their approach that they even dropped one of their songs into something like a syncopated ska beat. Expect to hear more from them in these pages in the very near future.

Photos / Live Review: Double Dagger, HEALTH, Pictureplane, Shams @ Sonar (2009.09.26)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:00:55 +0000

All photos: Greg Szeto

01. MP3: HEALTH – Die Slow (Tobacco Remix)
02. MP3: HEALTH – We Are Water

An odd night to say the least. Two solo openers that relied heavily on iPod-beats to move bodies versus two bands using traditional instruments with ear-shattering consequences. These evolutions of the spastic electronified rock that characterized many Wham City acts has morphed into a more “adult” realm of music with booty-shaking club influence weighing heavy on the proceedings. The contrast is marked: the wide-eyed innocence and playfulness of Dan Deacon’s tunes meets the bump-and-grind, down and dirty.

Shams peddles his tonic well, selling his heavily distorted vocals through twin mics and iPod-backing tracks with a somewhat ritualistic spectacle of a live show, complete with amulet, and various charms. Overtones of amateur voodoo shaman-ism, more for fear factor than any sort of true belief, echo in his vacant, ironic and subtle-as-a-freight-train lyrics: “I want to cut your face / while I’m fucking you.” Yet something was strangely compelling about the sensationalized violence and misogyny that made it all work. Maybe it is just the charm of depravity with a wink and a smile.

I found Pictureplane’s music was a harder sell (but clearly I was in the minority amidst the sweaty and dancing crowd). Much heavier club and dub sounds filled this set, heavy beats that were easy to move to. The fact that the house lights were cut, leaving on flashes and LED strips to light the way, didn’t hurt with the immersion either. I think living in Baltimore has us spoiled though, as I kept thinking I was listening to a sub-par Bmore Club DJ you would find on any given weeknight. While he no doubt dropped some smoking-hot cuts, these moments of dance-floor bliss were too few amidst a sea of shallow replicas.

HEALTH provided no small racket, their primal rhythms and screeching vocals hitting hard and fast. But they seemed a pale shadow of themselves from their Ottobar performance a little over a year ago, and their luster was dulled. I think they would be well served by some time off the road, to recharge their electricity. The exaggerated swings of their guitars and flailing spasms seemed little more than half-hearted artifice. Still, underneath such a din HEALTH didn’t seem so out of place with the previous two openers, most of their songs possessing strong tribal dance circle rhythms that can sway bodies.

Double Dagger however, was the odd man out. Funnily enough, they possessed far and away the best bass lines of the night, yet they are the furthest removed from dance fare. But with Nolen as front-man, I don’t think there will ever be a lackluster DD show. Bruce’s frenzied bass and Denny’s frantic drumming only add fuel to the fire. As Bruce’s bass cut out mid-song, Nolen finished the verse before apologizing and positing the hypothetical: “maybe we should’ve played with iPods like everyone else.” Considering what came before, I think it was clear that the answer to this is a resounding “no.” I walked away from the night a little disoriented by the shifting styles, and not quite sure what to make of the line-up. I was only sure that I had had my fill of iPod-backed acts, but could listen and watch Double Dagger another ten times before drifting to sleep.

Grooves and Glitches: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic – Faultline (1989)

Greg Szeto — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is a brother project to the better known Mission of Burma. Regardless of reputation, they were visionary musicians, producing a sound that might be argued as still ahead of its time. They produce something akin to classical lounge music (but infinitely more interesting than that moniker connotates). One might think because of their instrumental and prog-ish nature, Birdsongs’ compositions would be more akin to free-jazz, improv rantings and ravings. But the reality is much closer to something uniquely cinematic, compelling linear narratives written with music. Their music benefits from the structure of a somewhat classical approach to composition, punk’s energy, post-punk’s experimentalism, and tonal explorations fueled by jazz and classical.

Faultline is one of the watershed moments in Birdsongs history, as it marks the addition of reeds by new (and soon-to-be permanent) member Ken Field, as well as marking the first departure of Roger Miller. On this, the jazz influence really takes root and grows on later releases. I had the fortune to see Birdsongs when they played the Talking Head at the tail end of July this year and took some photos (lineup: Bierylo, Miller, Lindgren, Scott). Their sound, if a bit dated, still feels wildly inventive and utterly unique. In a musical landscape that sees more and more brazenly experimental formulations every day, that is something of a testament to Birdsongs’ eclecticism and vision.

Here we present Side One of the record in its entirety. Hopefully your interest in piqued and you go out and grab this great album.

MP3: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Faultline Side One

Artist: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic

Album Title: Faultline

Label: Cuneiform Records

Release Date: 1989

Track listing:

Side 1

The True Wheelbase
They Walk Among Us
Coco Boudakian
I Don’t Need No Crystal Ball
Chariots of Fire

No related posts.

Live Review: Time for Three Takes The Carpet Center Stage at the BSO (2009.09.24)

Sam Buker — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:00:09 +0000

MP3: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs – Orange Blossom Special

Move over Tchaikovsky, step aside Brahms. Time for Three steals the season opener from the classical crowns. Tf3 does what Hilary Hahn did last season: highlight the skills of fellow Curtis Institute heavyweight and composer Jennifer Higdon.

This time, the blues-jazz-gypsy trio of classically trained fellas takes on Higdon’s Concerto 4-3. The name is a little schticky, but the East Tennessee bluegrass fiddling and bass-slapping ring sincere. As she did for Hilary, Higdon composed this piece especially for the trio, debuting in Philly last year.

Zach De Pue started us off, his violin chugging like a shaking train. The bassist enters with slaps down the strings, the second violin starts racing, bow hairs already breaking…and we’re off.

Of the three, bassist Ranaan Meyer holds the reins. Highly-endorsed are his beatings of the cello’s body with naked fist. The two fiddlers, Zach and Nick Kendall seduce with hipster charms, perhaps hamming up their onstage personas a touch too much. They listen well to each other – the mark of any good improv group – but they amplify the pantomime of listening with foot nudges and shoulder-hunkerings, just as they amplify their strings.

I’d say Higdon left the symphony with little to do. Although, when the players were called upon, what came through strongest was the passion of conductor Marin Alsop. These are the works Alsop digs! It’s all in her shoulders and her tempi. And that is a great sign for a season opener: conviction.

Frankly, I missed a lot of what happened in Higdon’s Violin Concerto: orchestra section stars playing one-on-one with curious pairings against the soloist. In this case, Higdon trivialized the moment by letting too much of Zach v. Nick rock the stage. Whenever the orchestra entered we tended to get majestic arcs of sound that were brief – probably for fear of turning torrid, then insipid.

What matters most perhaps is that the bejeaned guy next to me, clearly on a date, felt happy enough in the hall to kick off his shoes, and enjoyed Tf3’s encore, “Orange Blossom Special,” completely open-mouthed. This encore really cemented the night on the family porch feel, strongly contrasting Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #4 that closed the show. Movement 3 was a highlight: pizzicato strings formed little eruptions like popping corn straight into grade A oboe work. The vigor of the finale had Peabody kids in raptures, but I remain unconverted to Tchaikovsky.

Photos / Audio: Thrushes @ Lord Baltimore (2009.08.29)

Greg Szeto — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:00:31 +0000

Baltimore’s Thrushes have had a bit of a time this past year, losing drummer only Ryan Sterner only to see founding percussionist Matt Davis return to the fold.

Casey, Rachel, Anna and Matt were kind enough to extend an invitation to have us poke around Lord Baltimore Recording while they were in the studio to wrap up tracking sophomore full-length, Night Falls. As of now, the new album will feature eleven tracks including one cover. Stylistically, the pace is often much quicker (said semi-sardonically to be a result of Thrushes just “getting better at their instruments”), yet often the music is much heavier than their 2007 debut Sun Come Undone. Casey Harvey in particular has pulled out all the stops, dragging every musical instrument in their summed collections into the fray short of the clanging pipes of the kitchen sink. When I entered, they had even just finished tracking with a guest organist. The result is more diversity in texture of their “wall of sound,” as well as increased density. They are really exploring the entirety of their sonic palette. Anna Conner’s vocals have become more emotionally diverse, less frequently going to the place of crushing, almost destructive despair and anger oft present in their debut. Instead, we find a more mature and measured heartache that still floods you with emotion. I didn’t sit in on any of the vocal tracking, and only heard a few tracks played back. So maybe there’s even room for some hope?

Casey was kind enough to leak an early mix of one track with us for streaming only purposes…just to whet your appetite a little more until the targeted winter 2009/2010 release. Stay tuned for more leaks as mixing finishes up and the album release nears. In the meantime, here are some photos from the session with sound engineer Brooks Harlan of locals AVEC.

Thrushes – Used to You (early mix)

An Hour of Kindness: Episode 2 – Weekends (MD)

Greg Szeto — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:06:34 +0000

Great set by Baltimore’s Weekends. Their debut CD, which dropped earlier this year, was great. And they even dropped the follow-up this summer!

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 2- Weekends from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

Photos / Live Review: Sunn O))) @ Sonar (2009.09.23)

Greg Szeto — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:14:12 +0000

All photos: Greg Szeto

MP3: Sunn O))) – Big Church from Monoliths and Dimensions (2009)

I’m just going to lay it out there. Sunn O))) blew my mind and disappointed me at the same time.

Sunn O))) are a spectacle and an experience. Their particularly glacial blend of drone, doom metal and many other things dark and heavy demands, and depends, on such deep immersion for its effect. This is why, no matter how enormous the sound or foggy the room, their set at Sonar couldn’t even touch the experience of reading about their set at First Unitarian in Philadelphia. From all reports, had I been there it would have instantly ranked in my all time concerts list. The crowd’s refusal to take part in the immersive experience early on rendered the introductory hypnotic monk chants largely ineffectual, and even a bit farcical as grumbles about the New Age-y trance track mounted. Despite this initial falter, they still put on a mammoth show.

After a lot of fogging, Sunn mobilized in monk robes to take the stage and drown us all in over an hour of the deepest, darkest, sludgiest doom drones outside of whatever hell dimension true metal comes from. Apropos their latest album title, Monoliths and Dimensions, their deliberately paced, deafening assault was truly monolithic. Their sound was, in fact, even more massive than I had expected. At times, I felt my ear drums were going to implode from the pressure of the sound waves, and my heart most certainly skipped beats to match the rumble of the low octave chords that made up their endlessly mutating drone. Never throughout the set did they let up on the intensity or artifice of their roles. They produced probably the closest thing to a demonic ceremony that I will ever witness, through ritualistic and crushing worship of music (even playing their instruments with no small amount of melodramatic flare ie- bass impalement, guitar offerings to the sky). One kid in the front row even took to periodic bowing and praising Sunn, only reinforcing the strength of their musical liturgy.

What proved most fascinating about their music though, was the absolute insanity of their vocalist, aptly named Attila. Stunning vocal acrobatics, dipping into octaves that may very well reside in the underworld, were the linchpin of his performance, as well as stratospheric screeches. His demented variation on the entrancing tropes of New Age chants was simultaneously impressive, disturbing, and enthralling. His costume was easily the most outlandish, as midset he activated his laser fingers (fingertip-less gloves with laser on each finger) and started a possessed game of Cat’s cradle and even donned the king of all crowns, a giant hat with huge metal spikes protruding on all sides. The summation of all these elements was a complete and total immersion in something challenging, offensive, mesmerizing, and haunting.

As you walked out of Sonar, the fog spilled out of the front door not unlike smoke from a burning building. Your chest struggled to recuperate from the pummeling it had just received as your ears strained vainly to regain some semblance of auditory function. You maybe even felt a bit of burning in your lungs. And maybe that was from sulfur in the air…which confirms your sneaking suspicions that you’ve just witnessed something truly otherworldly.

Album Review: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Honest Jon’s)

Greg Szeto — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:11:35 +0000

01. MP3: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – War
02. MP3: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Sankofa

As a biologist, I think a lot about the future of mankind. For example, genetic engineering: will it ever be useful, technically feasible, or morally acceptable to genetically engineer humans with a vast array of traits?

Then, I find out about projects like Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Inheritance of musical ability the old fashioned way: juice of the loins, incubate in the womb, pop out kid, pass down craft. Phil Cohran did this times 8, to be precise. His name may be more familiar to you in the context of the Sun Ra Arkestra (too crazy NOT to be true), where he played trumpet.

Hypnotic is a pure brass and drums instrumental band (8 horn players, all Cohran’s sons, and a drummer) forged in the fading flames of Chicago’s once fiercely active, and still ferociously inventive jazz scene. In this context, the band’s sound and catalytic energy should be expected, but it still manages to take your breath away every time. Look no farther than their collaborations with Blur’s Damon Albarn, Tony Allen or Mos Def for more vetting.

Capitalizing on a number of traditions, Hypnotic have created a sound that is as refreshing as it is steeped in legacies, by cherry-picking the best aspects of diverse genres and proceeding to “mix em all up into one bowl.” You can hear the ages of New Orleans brass bands, soul, the entire lineage of jazz from its origins in Chicago to modern-day avant-garde approaches to rhythm and horn arranging (though mostly steering away from dissonance), over to big band and marching bands complete with synchronized movements. In many ways, their arrangements are reminiscent of marching bands more than traditional jazz, with solos backed by constantly evolving undergirding lines that are just as dynamic and tuneful. And like big band arrangements (and much of popular music), songs are often developed in strophic form. Distinct hip-hop grooves and backbeats are sculpted by precise drumming and the interplay of horns that hit in solid unison resulting in irresistable headbobbing and toe-tapping rhythms. The only downside I can hear in Hypnotic’s sound is that they trend more towards this type of percussive attack, even at times when it might help to keep things a little more soulful and smooth. A minor flaw in a serious gem.

“Alyo” with its big trumpet chorus leading into an old-soul solo, both floating atop a funk backdrop punctuated by titular vocal shouts cheerleading the track’s namesake: star dancer Alyo Tolbert of the Montu Dance Company. The entry of low brass gives you chills early on in “Gibbous,” before everyone proceeds into nimble contrapuntal runs throughout the wax and wane of the track. The sectional choirs of horns on “War” sound off like battle cries, sparring and parrying each other with staccato verses, all while a lamentatious trumpet solo coasts above the fray. ”Marcus Garvey” channels some lush and racy Latin sounds reminiscent of that drum corps standard “Malagueña.” Further World influence can be found on album standout “Sankofa,” a track drenched in the funky Afrobeat stylings of its source material: Tony Allen’s “Losun.” ”Ballicki Bone,” its title a loose echo of its melody, was written as an homage of sorts to the members’ childhood. As such, its development feels much like a precocious child’s adventure into the wilderness, progressively exploring and adapting right up until the closing fade-out of a capella vocals. Even the frenetic and meandering “Rabbit Hop” (and its unfortunate remix) aren’t nearly enough to bring down the solid gold found in every other track.

This release is undoubtedly one of the most vital, invigorating and listenable releases this year (potentially many years). An unsurprising accomplishment considering Hypnotic make a conscious effort for an “organic style” as described by trombonist Saiph “Cid” Graves to The New York Times; a self-avowed reaction to the increasingly technologically reliant music of today. Graves said the ensemble aims to craft a form of “musical medicine” that can “touch those people who don’t want to be touched.” In this respect the album is a homerun.

Following this philosophy, the ensemble has recently moved to NYC and plays spontaneously around the city on street corners and in subway stations. This is part and parcel of Hypnotic’s return to the basics of early brass bands: bringing music and entertainment to the average man, and affording them the opportunity to partake in the enterprise. Distinct in a way from more so-called professionalized troupes such as the Dirty Dozen, Hypnotic call to mind the more community-minded and open nature of early brass bands. This is partially due to the rawness on the record: the sound has large dynamic range and is well produced, but the playing is not technically flawless (unlike the immaculately polished Dirty Dozen’s). Brass bursts can crackle or splat at times, an occasional note will waver out of tune before finding its center. But rather than detract from the recordings, it makes them all the more endearing and electric, infusing it with their already infamous live energy.

I can’t emphasize how highly I regard Hypnotic’s ethos and the product of their endeavors. When Graves says their music flows ”from our soul to the soul of everyone within ears’ reach,” I believe it. They truly live and breath music, managing to take disparate threads from multiple genres and weave them into cohesive and universally appealing songs. ”We try to write a song that everyone will listen to,” Graves states matter of factly.

And with albums like this one, they need not worry. Everyone will.

Pick up your copy at the True Vine (and see if you can track down some of the vinyl singles they released beforehand online).

Label: Honest Jon’s

Release date:May 8 2009

Track listing:

Alyo
Gibbous
War
Ballicki Bone
Flipside
Marcus Garvey
Jupiter
Party Started
Rabbit Hop
Sankofa
Hypnotic
Satin Sheets
Rabbit Hop (Version)

Preview: Aural States presents So Percussion, Microkingdom’s Pro Hour, Gestures @ the Metro Gallery (2009.10.28)

Greg Szeto — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:27:22 +0000

For Immediate Release: All artists are open to press inquiries, interviews and more. For more information regarding any of the artists or this show, please contact Greg Szeto at auralstates@gmail.com.

01. MP3: So Percussion – Drumming, Pt. 4 (Steve Reich)
02. MP3: So Percussion – June
03. MP3: Microkingdom’s Pro Hour – Double Abacus from Wrenches:My Heart/Double Abacus (2008)
04. MP3: Gestures – Doritos from Nice EP (2009)

Aural States presents So Percussion, Microkingdom, Gestures, more TBA at the Metro Gallery on Wed Oct 28th

(BALTIMORE, MD — Sept 14 2009) — Defining the boundaries of what we know as music and classifying its endless offspring are both ever-evolving, vital enterprises. In celebration of this constant growth, Aural States has brought together musicians who we feel excel at making music a malleable and dynamic entity through bold experimentation. We are proud to present So Percussion, Microkingdom, and Gestures at the Metro Gallery on October 28^th 2009 in the Station North Arts District of Baltimore.

Brooklyn-based quartet So Percussion take up the cause of showing the world that percussion is much more than a primitive means to an end, expanding far beyond drums laying down beats. Lauded as “revelatory” (David Lang), “brilliant” and “consistently impressive” (The New York Times), and “astonishing and entrancing” (Billboard Magazine), their genre-bending work has lead to collaborations with innovative musicians like Dan Deacon and Matmos, with whom years of work will bear fruit in a late Spring 2010 release on Cantaloupe Records. They’ve prepared bracing performances of pieces from visionary composers such as David Lang, Steve Reich, John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, as well as crafting their own compositions. Their music has taken them around the globe to stages and audiences of all shapes and sizes, from the Lincoln Center Festival to Carnege Hall, the Kennedy Center, and even Whartscape 2009 at the Baltimore Museum of Art where they performed excerpts from Steve Reich’s Drumming. This summer, So created an annual summer institute at Princeton University consisting of an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college percussionists.

In their only Baltimore/DC area performance, in an unusually intimate venue, So will perform works from Steve Reich, their 2006 album Amid the Noise, and their latest original work entitled Imaginary City, which has its world premiere just a few weeks before as a commission for the 2009 BAM Next Wave Festival.

http://www.sopercussion.com/ || http://www.myspace.com/sopercussion || http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1259

The trio known as Microkingdom’s Pro Hour is one of Baltimore’s avant-garde powerhouses. Its members hold pedigree second to none: guitarist Marc Miller of math rock pranksters Oxes, percussion whiz and composer Will Redman, and the musically polyamorous John Dierker’s fierce reeds. Playing “sinuous, powerfully dynamic improvisations” (The Wire) or self-described “No Jazz,” Microkingdom have been called “dynamic, challenging, confident” (Pitchfork). Over the past couple of years Microkingdom has played shows with: Wzt Heart, Ecstatic Sunshine, Thank You, Singer, Food For Animals, Daniel Higgs, These Are Powers, Jack Wright, White Mice, Talibam!, Peter Brotzmann, Pontiak, Extra Life, The Homosexuals, and many others. They’ve also self released color vinyl Wrenches: My Heart/Double Abacus as well as putting out the CD-R EP Spectacular Edges on Human Conduct. This fall will see them playing Brooklyn-based Death By Audio’s You Are Here: The Maze installation and performance festival in late September.

http://www.microkingdom.com/ || http://myspace.com/microkingdom || http://www.willredman.com/

Gestures’ “shambolic drums-n-brass band” was named D.C.’s “Second-Best Use of Air Pressure” by Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. 2009. A horn and drum collective consisting of tuba, trombone, saxophone, clarinet, and two drum kits, think manic marching band meets frantic free-jazz structures and you’ve got a pretty close approximation of their sound. Fascinating and brazen blasts of dissonance test and probe the limits of your endurance while simultaneously forming vivid mental images and narratives like some crazed sonic bard, drunkenly dragging off-kilter harmonies out of entropy. Gestures’ debut EP Nice will be out soon.

http://www.initiatedeyerecordings.com/gestures || http://www.myspace.com/gesturesdc

Venue Information

The Metro Gallery, 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore MD 21201

http://themetrogallery.net/ || http://www.myspace.com/metrogallery

Tickets $10 in advance. $12 day of show. 21 and over only.

Photos / Video / Live Review: Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jay Electronica @ Sonar (2009.09.16)

Greg Szeto — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:00:43 +0000

All photos: Josh Sisk

Full set here

I have always had a giant personal dilemma in regards to hip-hop. The genre is filled with landmines that derail my systematic approach to digesting and enjoying most other genres of music. In my mind, the most compelling genius of music happens in live performance. The convergence of visual, aural and atmospheric factors should make for a unique, vital and one-of-a-kind experience.

I tend to abhor live hip-hop shows (battles are a different story), as you tend to lose a large portion of the visual with the focus on one singular performer, often without any backup other than a backing track. This has led to the egoism of the hype-up approach in order to catalyze a feedback loop of energy from the crowd to performer, and it often ends up distasteful at its worst, laughable at its best and nearly always obnoxious. Things devolve into pep rallies reminiscent of adolescence more than should be allowed.

Jay Electronica fell into this trap horrifically. His ‘tween song banter ranged from bad to insufferable, yet somehow the crowd seemed trained to eat it up. Maybe that’s because when he put aside the ego and the role of hypeman, picking up the mic as a rapper, he delivered some of the best rhymes of the night. His style is wordy, dense and filled with vivid metaphors, yet his flow is smooth and steady, like raging waters smoothing over a rocky riverbed. Counting among his repertoire a number of cuts with J Dilla beats, his set excised from the B$ could have potentially outshined both headliners. As it stands, the set was marred by awkward silences and particularly momentum-killing moments where he was having mic feedback and when he had his backing DJ searching for a line to play back from some unknown track.

Talib Kweli, by contrast, flowed forth not only with his words but with the show itself. Rarely, if ever letting silence rule the space between songs, Kweli packed every second with agile turns of phrase or phenomenal scratching by his DJ. A master of crowd control, the charismatic Kweli had the perfect balance of crowd interaction and sensing when to stow it and drop knowledge on everyone in a set largely culled from his collaborative efforts with DJ Hi-Tek. His steady and rapid-fire rhythmic skills while rapping a capella were top-notch, and his energy and intensity were off-the-charts on cuts like “Get Em High” and “Get By.” He even gave a birthday shout-out during a Marley sing-along that proved he’s can be as gentle as he goes hard.

Mos Def most clearly recognizes the need to fill the energy gap as he has taken to becoming a more versatile, multi-instrumental performer. The visual energy from watching him play the drums while rapping is remarkable, and its contribution to the performance immeasurable. Unsurprisingly, Mos Def performed the majority of The Ecstatic in gripping fashion. The end of the night heralded the reunion of Kweli and Mos Def as Black Star, the union which originally thrust them into the spotlight. The power of that performance almost dwarfed the individuals, and makes you wonder whether either of them has truly stepped out from the shadow of their earliest, arguably finest works?

It turns out Music Without Labels had a camera crew in the house and got some great live footage of Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Soul Cannon. Check it out after the jump.

Talib Kweli Part 1

Talib Kweli Part 2

Album Review: Nuclear Power Pants – Wicked Eats the Warrior LP (Wham City)

Greg Szeto — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:11:42 +0000

MP3: Nuclear Power Pants – Graveyard

The CD Release party for Wicked Eats the Warrior at Floristree this Sat Sept 26th with Witch Hat , Blue Leader and the joyous Santa Dads opening!

Their live shows are absurdist carnival freakshows from the surreal and paranoid tail-end of an acid binge. The spectacle, when you are experiencing it, makes the music feel ancillary. This is a group that self-avowedly began in the trappings of concise, party-driven songcraft awash with feedback and artificially-siamese vocalists.

How, then, do Nuclear Power Pants possibly transition this to recorded medium? Well, in today’s climate you roll with it, as noise and absurdity are approaching a level of ubiquity in music today not unlike the presence of guitars in rock.

Opener “Got Soul, Need Body” has an awkwardly funky synth beat driving the stumbling franken-track along amidst the groaning, distorted vocals and feedback squall. Only twice (mid-track and in its last minute) are we given room to breathe from the claustrophobic din, as the track opens into an insistent freakout that would make any indie dance purveyor proud. The lyrics mirror the music in their feverishness, lamenting the lack of a body for the soul. The whole thing constitutes an eerie conjuring ritual to find something to contain the wildly flailing and stray layers of noise.

“Graveyard” with its walking bass line and verses filled with a blunt (almost childlike) sense of macabre (”Tonight we sleep in the graveyard, because ghosts are scary and I wanna see one”) is reminiscent of various subsets of rockabilly. Echoing its lyrical outlook, it is also one of the album’s simple, guilty pleasures (and its shortest track). The downtempo “Survivor” has surprisingly harmonious backup vocals rising like succulent cream above the dissonant music, the whole piece anchored by the consonant vibrations of a low octave pentatonic scale. ”Partytime U.S.A.” finds NPP firing on all cylinders, managing to find the perfectly addictive, mildly grating combination of feedback, distorted and clean vocals and party-ready rhythm and bass lines. It is quite possibly the best track on the album, and most representative of the band’s philosophy.

Often their formula of divining something engaging and listenable from squawking entropy don’t yield complete results. A great bass melody and intricate percussion are the saving graces on the often listless “Teeth of a Lion.” Similarly, “Screwdriver” has a great melody and stomping rhythm that almost, but not quite, makes up for the ungainly vocals. The cacophonous wails of “Destroy Destroi” don’t enjoy much of any help.

Nuclear Power Pants seem to have achieved their goal on this album: to distill and corral the feel of their chaotic yet enthralling live spectacle onto record for posterity. While they’ve produced something much stronger than I expected, and there are some standouts that are entertaining listens outside the context of NPP’s spectacle, if you’ve witnessed said spectacle much of the album ends up framed by your previous experiences. And whether Wicked merits a closer listen is highly dependent on how much you enjoy their live show, and how much of that enjoyment is dependent on watching black-light lit neon costumes prance absurdly around the stage.

Label: Wham City Records

Release date: September 26, 2009 7:41 PM (Ascendant in Aries 0° 0′ 0″)

Track listing:
A:
Got Soul, Need Body
Uh Oh
Graveyard
Partytime U.S.A.

B:
Survivor
Screwdriver
Destroy Destroi
Teeth of a Lion

An Hour of Kindness: Episode 2 – Secret Mountains (MD)

Greg Szeto — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:01:07 +0000

It’s Secret Mountains love-fest today as we feature not only their recent performance on An Hour of Kindness, but their EP Kaddish garnered a Recommended Albums designation from Nolan.

Don’t forget they are playing with the equally fantastic Lands & Peoples (their most recent release also in Recommended Albums) at Flat Tuesdays on the UMBC campus Sept 25th.

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 2- Secret Mountains from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

Album Review: Secret Mountains – Kaddish EP (Unsigned)

Nolan Conaway — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:00:51 +0000

MP3: Secret Mountains – Kaddish

The first eight minutes of Secret Mountains’ Kaddish EP are nothing short of breathtaking. You’ll find gorgeous crescendos shimmering on both opening tracks, “Kaddish” and “Gate/Gate/Paragate,” two undeniably Baltimorean songs operating on an EP that plays more like a dream than it does music. Like Beach House and Wye Oak before them, Secret Mountains replicate a peculiar brand of euphoria, one that strikes more closely at the vein of beauty and is in touch with pure, unadulterated splendor. What we have on our hands today is a pretty damn promising debut.

At it’s best, Kaddish is a powerful narcotic; Secret Mountains’ straightforward instrumentation raises the heavens with a blunt echo, their listeners need do little to follow suit. Kaddish’s masterwork, “Gate/Gate/Paragate” resides in this state as a force of nature, it works fundamentally around an earthy chic-beat and a progression rooted in old folk. The notes have a way of testing your confidence: each count becomes a new leap of faith, falling into place like a snowflake on a bed of winter dust.

“I Have Been Awake” is Kaddish’s easy anthem, lyrics somehow mightier than the bony post-primal percussion point up the track’s attention, “I have been awake today. What have I done? What have I done?” It’s about reconciling self-knowledge and human nature, personal right, social wrong, the various cycles of life. Heavy stuff. These themes aren’t merely skimmed throughout the remainder of Kaddish either. In fact, most of the subject matter eagerly sisters with virtuous artistic abstraction. Gladly, and surprisingly, Secret Mountains have found an amiable middle ground between overzealous conceptual wankery and transparent secularism. The polished production reflects a similar position, intuitively revealing their stargazing eye sockets equally as well as their soles, planted comfortably in the soil.

What’s really impressive is that, for a home-cooked gem, Kaddish is sequenced immaculately. Sure, you’ve got the occasional mistake littered about on the flooring (which only adds to how deeply personal the EP is), but for something so homemade to sound this unified is quite simply uncalled for. Each piece moves seamlessly into the next devoid of the slightest friction; Kaddish never loses momentum between songs or within. Never. And that alone is worth being proud of.

Label: Unsigned

Release date: Aug 2009

Track list:

1. Kaddish
2. Gate/Gate/Paragate
3. Countries
4. Growing Season
5. I Have Been Awake

Preview / Album Review: Sri Aurobindo – Return Into Earth / The Violet Hour – The Violet Hour

Greg Szeto — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:18:31 +0000

This Saturday, psych afficionados of all creeds should converge onto the Metro Gallery for a fantastic double album release party featuring 2 acid-drenched locals: Sri Aurobindo and the Violet Hour.

Sri Aurobindo – Return Into Earth (Unsigned)

From the earliest creators of psychedelic music, the manipulation of consciousness has been the foremost inspiration in their songcraft. The 13th Floor Elevators, on their landmark debut Psychedelic Sounds, describe their motivations simply yet profoundly: “It is this quest for pure sanity that forms the basis of the songs…”

With this epic-length instrumental release, Sri Aurobindo give their most convincing vehicle for fulfilling this journey, and come up with successes on a number of fronts. Now, clocking in at over 32 minutes long, its length alone may have some people running the other direction. And while I readily admit this is not something that I’m going to put into the CD player on a regular basis, I think this release has a special and unique place in any collection.

For any single track of this length, its primary concern is taking the listener on an engaging journey (presumably the “quest for pure sanity”). As such, it’s clear that the Sris took meticulous care to carve out a picturesque sonic sojourn, from the wisps of ethereal, airy jazz flute to deep, warm earthy drones. The primal shamanistic beats and melodies sweep you away in that classic, consciousness-expanding tradition of psychedelia. Each of three large, crescendoing sections feels like a distinct, raw trip tapping into some immense wellspring of inspiration from the natural world. Sections successively bring more visceral sounds and instrumentation (ie: heavier guitars, less haze), building upon the foundations of the last. When the big, burned out electric guitars finally emerge 2/3 of the way through the track, you are more than ready for their stream-of-consciousness revelations, hopping from motif to motif and getting closer to the horizontalization of the hierarchy of thought espoused by the Elevators.

There are some really great moments on this release. Sri Aurobindo have embraced more varied instrumentation, and display great maturity in songwriting by channeling all manner of spiritual and elemental forces in pursuit of that holy grail of psychedelia: “pure sanity.” Since they cannot walk the journey, only show you the way, how close they get to achieving this is largely determined by you.

The Violet Hour – The Violet Hour (Creative Capitalism)

MP3: The Violet Hour – XXXVI

The Violet Hour’s (Andriana Pateris and Beth Varden) long-delayed debut CD is a strong musical manifesto: silky smooth vocal harmonies (weighty with mid-range) mixing with reverb-heavy, meditative guitar and measured drums into a hypnotizing brew. ”Peripheral Vision” is as smokily moody as its lyrics sung on “two hearts on fire.” ”Southern Cross” is remarkable for the twinkling luster of its arpeggiated opening (a likely homage to its astronomical namesake) and a stark contrast amidst a sea of more worn and foggy sounds. The track’s lyrics intwertwine themes both spiritual and celestial.

The strongest track to my mind is the closer (”XXXVI”) which picks up the pace along with a few earlier tracks, but ultimately their net effect is a sort of bas relief to the rest of the album, rather than a lasting, lifting one. As a result, I think the record suffers under the unyielding weight of downcast moods, mostly downtempo pacing and similar keys, while simultaneously gaining a beautiful sense of consistency and cohesion. The soaring vocal harmonies and the distinct mood created are the most compelling aspects of this album, and point to very bright things in the future. I can’t think of a better pairing of sounds for Saturday’s show.

Interview: Medeski Martin & Wood – Unconscious Musicians (w/ John Medeski, Billy Martin, Chris Wood)

John Poirier — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:30:03 +0000

Aural States sat down with Medeski Martin & Wood while they were in town for the 2009 Traffic Jam Festival to discuss their new three-record series, Radiolarians.

AS: I’m curious about the new approach to writing and recording music that you used for Radiolarians. This year, rather than recording a studio album and then touring in support of the album, you wrote the tunes on the road the previous year and then recorded and released a new live album every 4 months.

Chris Wood: I mean, we never ever really did it like that, really. I mean, you know, we loosely did it like that, but we never had, sort of, like the latest tunes that were hits. I guess we trained our audience early on by just playing whatever we want, when we want. *laughs* They sort of get what they get. But I think for this process, part of the incentive to set it up this way where we write new music, tour, record, three times is that it is a way for us to write a whole bunch of new music together. And we didn’t have the constraints of a tradional record deal since we were doing it ourselves. We put out a lot more material, and we’ve always wanted to do that becuase it’s so long in a traditional record deal between each record. It’s like a year and a half sometimes, and by the time the record comes out you’re already sick of the music.

AS: I was surprised by how fast each installment came out. A lot of well-established bands are experimenting with making records without a deal. Do you think that the internet is helping democratize music?

Billy Martin: It’s complicated… it’s hard to know how people are talking about the music, passing it around, buying it, and ripping it or whatever. It’s hard to know. The internet makes it less transparent, in a way.

CW: It seems like for everything that’s inspiring and exciting about it, there’re things that are overwhelming and bogging down the business side of it — and we were just talking to our manager recently about this — because there are so many different avenues to put out music, and because of that it’s been created for a manager. There is exponentially more work because all these little things require decisions and contracts and managing of some sort or another or paperwork, you know, it’s just an incredible amount of work.

AS: More than the old days, photocopying press kits and booking gigs?

John Medeski: Well, I mean it’s different now becuase you know, in the early days it was the three of us gathering names and sending things and actually making the shirts and all that stuff.

BM: Selling stuff off the stage, doing our own bookkeeping, driving, doing it all.

CW: I don’t know, I guess we’ve never been one of those bands that makes most of their income from CD sales. We make it from touring, but from a manager’s or business point of view trying to manage the music that gets out into the world since CD sales are so down, you try to take advantage of all these others avenues. But just to get all that happening creates so much work because instead of just dealing with the record company, you are dealing with this website, that website, your MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, CDBaby, iTunes, Amazon.com, it’s so much to keep track of. It’s exciting and challenging.

BM: All the music we’ve been releasing, it’s a lot this past year. So we’re busier working on the music, recording it than others years so that’s the difference. Then how do we release a CD every 4 months for the past year and now a boxed set.

AS: How does tripling your recorded output change your creative process?

BM: Well, that’s why we created this schedule for seasonal recording where we write a set of music for that time that we’re in, whatever we’re into and that makes us produce more. We are the kind of people that can create that, and by setting this schedule up we finally are getting more music out. We could record a arecord every day.

JM: It’s allowing us to do that. It’s easy for us. I mean we could do 5x as many records, it’s just a matter of you know it takes time to record, it’s gotta be mixed…it’s not a question of coming up with the material. This is just a chance for us to open a few more holes in the creative box to let some stuff out. It’s in there all the time.

CW: Get us in a room together. Give us a deadline. We’ll come up with a bunch of stuff.

JM: Yeah, in a way we created it as a form for us to work with. “Hey, how can we structure the year so that we can lose as much money as possible and make as much music as possible?”

And we did it. *all laugh*

BM: If we could cut the money out and just create music all the time and just maybe this plan of making money doing music–

JM: It’s over.

BM: It’s more about the music.

JM: That’s how we started!

BM: I know!

AS: Are you conscious of your audience?

CW: It depends on the audience. It depends a lot.

JM: We play for our audience is as far as it goes.

CW: It’s like when you meet someone for the first time. Whether you feel a strong expectation that maybe is so strong that maybe it makes you want to go this way instead of the way that they want to go. Ultimately… in general, we’re focused on what’s going on on the stage, in the music. There is a lot of improvisation going on, and the feel of the music is so important that most of our attention is on each other. Just listening to what’s happening and not whatever is going on out there.

JM: We’re just trying to create a certain energy together. We’re trying to get to a certain place… and that involves the audience. It’s almost like you can’t — and every venue is different — it’s almost like you even separate the venue, the audience. There’s a feeling you get from the room and people in it. Sometimes you can’t even see the people and sometimes they are right in your face. Every room is so different.

AS: In terms of “writing a set of music for the time you’re in”, how much is your music affected by what’s going on in the world? For example, to me, “End of the World Party (Just in Case)” seemed very timely around the start of the Iraq War.

JM: I would say totally, but not consciously. We decided to do this — I don’t know when — before a lot of changes happened. I think it’s natural for a musician that, especially if you’re in touch with where music really comes from, you’re going to be in tune with what’s goin on. It’s not an intentional thing, like we’re going to “be political.” We’re reacting to what’s going on. That’s kind of how music works as a force in the world. As a healing force or whatever it is music does…as an inspiring force, it’s got to interact with what’s going on. I had never even thought about that before until you just said that. It’s definitely 100% what it’s all about. We go deep within ourselves to create, we’re not conscious musicians… *all laugh*

Album Reviews: Modest Mouse – No One’s First, and You’re Next | Sonic Youth – The Eternal | Son Volt – American Central Dust | Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs | Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

Zack Turowski — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:30:15 +0000

A few big names released albums while I’ve been away the last couple months so here’s a brief recap:

Modest Mouse – No One’s First, and You’re Next

MP3: Modest Mouse – The Whale Song

Any time a band as huge as Modest Mouse drops a new album there’s usually plenty of fanfare and press to go around, but this EP came out to relatively little attention. But I suppose it’s easy to be dwarfed by new singles by Radiohead and Jay-Z and Kanye West, and the news of the Beatles remasters to be released on the 40th anniversary of their break-up. No One’s First and You’re Next is definitely worth checking out if you were a fan of the last two productions. Although the EP is made up of songs that didn’t fit on those albums thematically, the sound is consistent and it’s generally easy to see which songs came from which session.

There’s nothing bad on here, in fact the quality of songwriting is very high, with none of the self-indulgent repetition that afflicted this band’s outtakes and studio sessions in their early years. It’s not cohesive from one song to the next, but you shouldn’t expect it to be since it wasn’t recorded with a theme in mind. This eclecticism goes a long way to making the record feel more lightweight than the slightly overwrought Modest Mouse that appeared on the last two albums. It’ll be fun to see whether they can grow without heavy guitars in the same way The Flaming Lips did in their second decade.

Sonic Youth – The Eternal

MP3: Sonic Youth – Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)

This album abandons the delicate post-rock sound they’ve opted for recently and culls a blast of 90s rock. Heavy and loud like they used to be back then, but a bit more nuanced and colorful with a better ear for production. Kim Gordon is revitalized and as sexually charged as she was twenty years ago (although “Anti-Orgasm” seems a bit over the top) and Thurston’s vocals are laid back and mostly playful.

The songs are immediate and bracing and off the cuff in a way Sonic Youth never has been, but also demonstrates a warmth with the clanging chords of “No Way” and the straightforward rhythms and jangly leads in “Sacred Trickster.” The affability of the songs plays to Mark Ibold’s strengths. He anchors them with some lush chordal bass lines and propulsive riffs that bounce more than music this dissonant has any right to. Perhaps the real stunner is that this album entered the Billboard charts at their highest position ever (#16). And why shouldn’t it, when the previous week Grizzly Bear opened at #4?

Son Volt – American Central Dust
This album, released a week after Wilco released their self-titled effort, puts into stark relief the differences between the two bands and shows why Jeff Tweedy become an indie superstar and Son Volt has more or less maintained an audience that enjoyed Uncle Tupelo. Not like it’s been a competition since that band split up fifteen years ago.

It wouldn’t be a fair fight to match Jay Farrar’s broken collection of world-weary observations set to a country-rock backing band with Wilco’s distanced, effortless pop songs. Farrar cares far more about the words he’s singing that Tweedy ever did, a blessing and a curse. The songs make more of a direct impact, but are often cast in an awkward phrasing, forcing lines that don’t match the rhythms of the music, insisting on meanings that require a little more grace when introduced in a three minute rock song. The accompanying music is consistently understated, with occasional keyboard flourishes and electric but not twangy or heavy guitars that are occasionally touched with a flange or chorus pedal. It isn’t bad, but it’s not strikingly profound either.

Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs

MP3: Yo La Tengo – Here To Fall

It wasn’t until 1997’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One that Yo La Tengo assembled their eclectic and occasionally contradictory influences on one disc. They repeated that trick in 2006 with the awkwardly titled I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass.

Popular Songs continues in this tradition ranging from soul (”If It’s True”) to modern pop pastiches (”Here to Fall”) to epic length post-rock numbers (”More Stars than there Are In Heaven”). Another fantastic album from a band who seems to do no wrong even in their most casual and unpretentious releases. Catch them at the 930 Club on Sept 17th.

Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

MP3: Dinosaur Jr. – Ocean In The Way

I’m really proud of Dinosaur Jr. for sticking to their guns their whole existence. I get the feeling that J Mascis knows exactly how he wants his songs to sound and isn’t going to change them for anyone’s approval other than his own. I actually like this collection better than Beyond for its energy and for containing just enough tricks to keep things interesting. The wah-wah on “Over It” to Lou’s vocal harmonizing on “Your Weather” to Murph’s delicate drumming on “See You”. Actually all three members have learned some new tricks, where Beyond was more a re-affirmation of their strengths. Always the most conscious of his surroundings (of the three), Lou’s began to modernize his songwriting a lot, turning in the most concise and energetic tunes, and Murph has added some bounce and some impressive structure to his drumming. J is more precise than ever in his fretwork, but also in his tasteful use of effects (even is he still hogs the limelight a bit much for my taste) and there are some moments when the guitar parts harmonize beautifully. Also, has no one picked up on how cool the cover art is?

An Hour of Kindness: Episode 2 – True Womanhood (DC)

Greg Szeto — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:30:12 +0000

The DC scenes great revitalizing youth in True Womanhood show us some of their old and new material. Check out our interview with Melissa and Thomas earlier in the year.

Sounds like their impending EP release, recorded at Death By Audio in Brooklyn with A Place to Bury Stranger’s sound engineer, will be chock full of new treats.

An Hour of Kindness- Episode 2- True Womanhood from Polygon Tree Productions on Vimeo.

Album Review: The Degenerettes – Bad Girls go to Hell (Creative Capitalism)

Zack Turowski — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:33:32 +0000

Editor’s Note: This CD comes packaged with some great custom 3-D poster art!

MP3: The Degenerettes – Truck Drivin’ Girlfriend

Lou Reed sang in 1969 that “no kinds of love are better than others” and I’m not inclined to agree–as Dante demonstrated in Purgatorio, there are plenty of variations on love gone awry–although I think what Lou really meant to say, more precisely, was that no acts of consensual fucking are better than others.

The Degenerettes (Baltimore’s all-girl, self-proclaimed “queer art rock power trio”) don’t sing about fucking. Not in the kitschy way that Elastica managed to make sound cool…there’s no songs about groupies or doing it in the backseat of a Camaro. Nor do they slosh around in the hyperbolic, gory detail that Babes in Toyland kind of scared you with, no “Swamp Pussy” or “Spanking Machine” here. The nastiest they get is the occasional jokey metaphor like “I want me an all-terrain girlfriend, mountains of desire, valleys of sin.” Given the cesspool of mindless sexuality on display on TV 24/7, that would have the Degenerettes splashing their feet somewhere in the shallow end. They don’t treat homosexual love with the kind of coquettish coyness that Kevin Barnes sometimes fantasizes about, and that’s certainly for the best because the last thing the world needs is another person writing songs like Kevin Barnes.

All of which describes what the Degenerettes don’t do, because in some ways it’s more interesting to write about than what they do do. They occasionally pretend to be bad girls, but underneath the façade is a collection of dirtied up Buddy Holly songs recorded on some primal equipment. The album’s linearity and brevity effectively captures a late 70s punk ethic, something even more bare bones than most of today’s noise-rockers (Vivian Girls, Wavves, et. al) because they don’t employ any effects of production.

As the feminine suffix tacked onto their mock-1960s girl group name might suggest, the songwriting is largely a throwback to a bygone era. Lyrical references to paranoia about the CIA and dancing with mummies evoke those years with a B movie camp that is distinctly Baltimorean. Elsewhere the record passes from retro to downright conservative. “Truck Drivin’Girlfriend,” if not directed from one girl to another, could well be a country-rock song title. The Smiths’ “Ask,” which appears in trimmed-down fashion, is a vignette for anyone of any sexual orientation who has brushed with unrequited love. But the Degenerettes render Morrissey’s originally hopeless lament into an unembellished statement of purpose. Bad Girls Go to Hell never slides into romanticism, matter-of-factly tumbling through songs like “Queer for You” and telling an ex-lover to get over themselves in “Get Out.”

Like a gay Beat Happening, the Degenerettes play raw and repetitive songs, with a childlike mix of shamelessness and innocence. But instead of making heterosexuality weird, Bad Girls go to Hell pulls off a strange trick: it makes homosexuality mundane. For better or worse, they successfully normalize the usually subversive tone of campy queer music. The Degenerettes are to be commended for never falling into stereotype or sensationalism, but the tracks that are specifically about lesbian love are rendered somewhat bland. Perhaps that’s a positive effect, because a good record oughtn’t pander to those same stereotypes. It does need to be musically captivating, or if that’s not an immediate option it can hope to inspire critical discussion. This album, for me at least, falls more in the latter category, and for that purpose it’s been quite good.

Label: Creative Capitalism

Release date: June 2009

Track list:

01 Truck Drivin Girlfriend
02 I Was A Teenybopper For The CIA
03 Never Say Never
04 Fell In Love With A Mummy
05 Queer For You
06 Shake Baby Shake
07 Get Out
08 Ask
09 College Type Jo
10 Baltimore

01 Truck Drivin Girlfriend

02 I Was A Teenybopper For The CIA

03 Never Say Never

04 Fell In Love With A Mummy

05 Queer For You

06 Shake Baby Shake

07 Get Out

08 Ask

09 College Type Jo

10 Baltimore