If you are in the area, be sure to drop by Windup Space tonight for the release show tonight with Monster Museum.

Enjoy this last track off the EP, and check out the page at Aural Slate Recordings for more info on the release as I get a chance to put it up.

Related posts:

1. Aural Slate Recordings: “Weeds” from Small Sur’s Bare Black
2. Aural Slate Recordings: “Arctic Phantoms” from Caverns’ We Lied
3. Aural States Fest 2009: Live Audio – Lo Moda

Just so everyone knows that I haven’t been completely resting on my laurels in regards to Aural States and affiliated enterprises, I come to you with an offering. I’m very proud and excited to present to you, reader, the track “Weeds.” It serves as the opener, and first single, from our label’s third record: Small Sur‘s Bare Black EP.

With this EP, Small Sur take their music to new heights of beauty by laying down some breathtakingly lush sounds, expanding their instrumentation (guests include Susan Alcorn, Geoff Graham, Natasha Tylea-Cooke, and Kate Barutha), further refining their exploration of space and almost spartan arrangements, and embracing some gorgeous and organic drones. We’re beyond thrilled with this special release, limited to 200 physical CDRs with gorgeous letterpressed packaging and art from Justin Lucas. As always, digital downloads will also be available in FLAC and MP3 formats.

Check the EP page on the label site for more details, track previews and links to buy online.

Album art is forthcoming, as well as a phenomenal EP Release Show on Friday July 9th at the Windup Space with Lo Moda, Moss of Aura (J. Gerrit Welmers of Future Islands), and Ghost Life (Wheattie Mattiasich + ex-More Dogs). This is a doubly-relevant show since Lo Moda will be providing the fourth release on Aural Slate Recordings later this year. Stay tuned for more developments!

Related posts:

1. Aural Slate Recordings: “No Tears” – Lo Moda
2. Aural Slate Recordings: “Arctic Phantoms” from Caverns’ We Lied
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Noble Lake, Vincent Black Shadow, Height With Friends

This album is one of the most anticipated releases from a local artist in 2010. The anticipation is partly because, ever since their transplant here from North Carolina, Future Islands‘ rapturous live shows have caught on like wildfire, and partly because it serves as their debut on Baltimore fetishist label Thrill Jockey (who I hear may have signed yet another prominent Baltimore musician’s solo efforts). I am a bit ashamed to admit that I underestimated Future Islands. Frankly, I couldn’t have imagined they would deliver this strongly on an album. Until hearing their TJ 12″ EP and LP releases, I was convinced that Future Islands’ music was a gem that shone most brilliantly live, and lost the majority of its lustre in the studio.

Wave Like Home, put out on UK label Upset! the Rhythm, was characterized by a fair bit of mania, yet also (paradoxically) a uniformity of approach and tone. The parallels and comparisons to more prominent Wham City affiliates abounded. Synths were riding high and dominant in the mix, bass rumbled along turned to 11 (most often functioning as rhythmic propulsion), and Herring’s voice was unflinchingly raw and big. Though they surely traveled through many moods, they felt fleeting and devoid of any true weight. To my ears, their vision on that record was relatively less ambitious, aiming more to catalyze a dance party than anything else. In doing so I think that release was as close as Future Islands will get to channeling the electricity of their live shows onto a recording. However, with their closing track, they provided the best hint of future directions, delivering a standout ballad in “Little Dreamer.”

With In Evening Air, Future Islands seem to have had an epiphany. They have simultaneously fleshed out and grasped a distinct and ambitious vision of synth-laden pop, corralling it into something as seductive as their live shows (if not quite bursting with the same hysterical energy). What comes through more than ever before is their romantic core, that mysterious and soulful allure you get from Sam Herring’s vocals when frayed, at times histrionically, to their gravelly breaking point. Or from the slow, lyrical glide of William Cashion’s bass, when he actually slows down enough to give notes some space. Or the cloudy-eyed landscapes created by J Gerrit Welmers’ synths.

The wide range of Sam Herring’s vocals, from whispers to shouting melodrama, is fully utilized on this release. His distinct style has always been a hallmark of Future Islands’ sound. While he won’t be winning any awards for technicality, his vocals are phenomenally well suited for this music, and one of the most versatile drivers of mood on the album.

Compared to their previous efforts, this LP has a different approach to the mix, aiming for a smoother and more produced sound, lush and full. The rough edges that made Wave Like Home crackle have been sanded down to make for something that feels more balanced, and as a result, makes for more convincing shifts in mood that convey a genuine, almost overwhelming sense of weary romanticism.

The raw open wound of single “Tin Man” is a microcosm of the album itself: Cashion’s driving staccato bass line broken up with clarion moments of more legato melodies, Herring’s raspy and plaintive vocals belting out that confessional chorus (“I am the Tin Man”), Welmers’ synth and effects work creating an array of sounds, an almost tropical fantasy. Aside from “Tin Man,” my personal favorite track is “Long Flight.” The murky synth opening accompanied by the swiftly rumbling bass melody perfectly matches the narrator’s bewildering homecoming. You can almost imagine stumbling bleary-eyed onto the surreal scene of his love in bed with another man. The crescendoing music keeps pace as Herring works through the ordeal right up to the adrenalized catharsis at the distorted end of the track.

“An Apology” sees Welmer’s twinkling synth lines (more refined and developed in solo project Moss of Aura) dominate a track that often feels appropriately delicate. Title track “In Evening Air” delivers a dreamy instrumental interlude that is unexpected alone, but is perfectly sequenced on the album, following on the hushed closing of “An Apology.” “Vireo’s Eye” might also surprise you with the care taken in its gradually layered build.

There’s a lot to like, even love here. The album flows effortlessly as a whole, and a number of the tracks are irresistible even as stand-alones. Future Islands skirt a dangerous line of feeling too repetitious by working largely within the bounds of 4/4 using a number of fairly simple elements. But they end up wringing a surprisingly deep and diverse moods out of somewhat spartan ingredients, avoiding what might be seen as a pitfall of earlier releases. Part and parcel of the album’s high replayability, these songs just don’t grow old.

It seems that this LP is all about showcasing how far Future Islands have come. Exchanging energy for intensity, In Evening Air represents a huge maturation of their studio output, and even their entire artistic vision. While earlier releases may have felt closer to a live performance, this release feels closer to the soul of Future Islands. In an interview, Sam Herring once mused: “If we had time, we could write a great album.” We should all be thankful they finally found that time, and used it so well.

Label: Thrill Jockey

Release date: May 04 2010

Track list:

1. Walking Through That Door
2. Long Flight
3. Tin Man
4. An Apology
5. In Evening Air
6. Swept Inside
7. Inch of Dust
8. Vireo’s Eye
9. As I Fall

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Pontiak – Maker (Thrill Jockey)
2. Album Review / Contest: Double Dagger – More (Thrill Jockey)
3. Album Review: Arbouretum – Song of the Pearl (Thrill Jockey)

If you haven’t read part one, check it out. And celebrate The Oranges Band tonight at Comet Ping Pong or the Ottobar on Satuday.

Here’s part 2 of my interview with The Oranges Band’s lead singer, Roman Kuebler. A couple things of note: for our DC readers, the band will be bringing its anniversary celebration to Comet Ping Pong tonight. On the sadder side of things, City Paper recently reported that drummer Dave Voyles, who had been with the band since the start, has left for personal reasons. Lee Ashlin is taking his place behind the kit on tour.

This portion focuses more on the band’s three long players, the anniversary show (which I accidentally slipped up and called a reunion show, not my finest moment) and what lies ahead for the band.

AS: How do you look back on All Around, your first LP?

RK: One of my strong memories of that record is, when we finished… with all this– This was our first professional approach. So we went somewhere, to a studio, and we were there for two weeks, working everyday on this record. We had nothing when we showed up; we had to have an album when we were finished. And I had most of the songs, but I didn’t have all of the songs. And we were flying people in to do some guest spots here and there, trumpets and all this stuff. We were really ambitious. I wanna say it was a little bit overly ambitious, because we wanted to make this pop album.

‘Cause at the time it was all Strokes, all rock, all of this. And we were getting a lot of  Strokes comparisons with our earlier records, — although I was into The Strokes, I wasn’t influenced by them. I really just wanted to do this trashy garage stuff, but everyone said: “Oh, that’s like The Strokes.”

So all right, we’re gonna make this pop record. So we went through the process of making it, had its ups and downs. I needed to write a few songs while I was there, which I did. They came out pretty good. And the memory that I will take from All Around is that: Everyone had left, for some reason. And I stayed maybe one day longer. Everyone was flying to different places. I think it was Thanksgiving. I think people were flying to their destinations. Half the people had been done for a whole week, so they left a whole week ago.

And anyway, it was just me, driving home from Michigan to Baltimore, and I had in my hand the album that we made. And I must have listened to it, 5, 6 times, and I was just loved it. Can’t believe we did this, you know? It sounds good, the songs are cool. And I was really happy about it. That’s kind of what I remember about it.

I guess maybe I had learned more later. And now when I go back, “Oh, I could’ve done this differently. I could’ve done that.” You know? There’s a lot that I would have changed or would still change. But at the time I was really happy about it.

AS: It definitely feels like there’s a lot of songs on there I guess that are– I wanna say sort of relationship songs, I don’t know if that makes it a relationship record, but…

RK: That was when I was just kind of flailing on, riffing vocals and just trying to come up with something and then working that out. That album, to me, was a lot of symbolism. There’s a lot of Blade Runner references.

AS: Really?

RK: Yeah. Like that’s kind of what I was really into. There’s a few, at least. I remember trying to make it really mechanical, like “My Mechanical Mind.” That was a song about people as machines, you know?

AS: I guess I was thinking more along the lines of “I’m Still Right… Still.”

RK: Yeah, yeah.

AS: “North Carolina.”

RK: “North Carolina” is a song about my sister.

AS: Oh, okay.

RK: In fact, two songs about my sister on there. One is “Oh, Madalene,” which is my first niece. And my sister went to school in North Carolina, so. Those two songs, which are lighter, softer songs, are both about my sister– or kind of relate to my sister. And I like those, and they’re some of the more genuine things I’ve ever done. The execution, especially on “North Carolina,” was not the best. I feel like I could have done it better. But it’s pretty good.

But the other song “Opticalize, I Can See” is another robot song.

AS: You mentioned the sort of Blade Runner themes and the robot songs. Was there an overarching theme do you think?

RK: Not necessarily. In making albums, each one has certain themes, that when I was stuck for lyrics, I would kinda like say, “Okay, I’m gonna go this and see what I can get out of it.” Blade Runner was on that one.

AS: Yeah, why Blade Runner?

RK: It’s just one of my favorite movies. I actually studied it in college, so I felt like I knew a lot about it. There’s just incredible themes of humanity and, you know, the will to live, in so much as these robots have assumed humanity and have this will to live. And so I kind of got into this idea of the android, and the person who’s being built. And “Opticalize” was meant to feel like this really mechanical [in a machine-like noise:] duh-chichun-chichun-chechun. Like this assembly line of people putting eye balls into bodies. Sometimes I just wanted to paint a picture, not even telling a story. And you would never know that to hear the lyrics and stuff, but that’s always what I heard. And then like on the chorus [sings:] “All around/I can see all around” was like the eye balls open up and then the person can see, looking around. And then, that’s just my interpretation of it. That was the thing about kind of being loose with the lyrics is that, I was able to interpret it, just like someone else might be able to.

So those were the major Blade Runner themes. There might be a couple more that I can’t remember at the moment. I can’t remember exactly what’s on that album.

“Finns for Our Feet” was supposed to be like a fantasy tale. It’s pretty self-explanatory, people living under water.

See, I have these argument songs. “I’m Still Right… Still” is an argument song. The story behind that song is two people, one’s in Heaven and one’s in Hell or something.

AS: Really?

RK: That was my idea. I can’t remember how it goes. “I’m still catching up with you/But not so fast and only cause you want me to” is like the person in Hell saying, “I’m gonna catch you yet,” you know? “And I’m still right. I don’t give a shit what anyone says.” “Whether I’m down here…” Is it down here or up here?

AS: That’s kind of unique imagery. Do you remember how you conjured that up, or it just sort of came to you?

RK: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t remember. I think I was just like, riff off on some lyrics and started to be like, That’s kind of what this is doing. That’s what’s happening here. That’s kind of cool, you know? And same thing with all the “Finns for Our Feet” stuff.

Then there was the time where I said, I wanna make this really weird scenario. But then “Keep Your Teeth” was like this fighting song, which, also, “Success” was a fighting song. “Still Right” was an argument song, because these people– They’re conversation songs, where people are generally fighting. This, like, aggressive, physical fighting.

AS: Did that always come that naturally for you, writing lyrics?

RK: No, because at some point I wanted to be more articulate and tell stories better and get ideas across better. Like I said, no one would ever know these things are about these things unless I would tell them this is my idea of what’s happening.

So that was the challenge on The World and Everything In It. That was the challenge to me was to say, “Okay, I’m going to do better at this. I’m going to make more concrete imagery.” And it worked. I used my life. I used my experiences to do that, and The X-Files. That was that album: The X-Files and living on a beach when I was in high school.

AS: It definitely has a summery vibe to it, which I guess would explain the beach.

RK: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was doing that really consciously, and it was just kind of reminiscing about my life at the beach, which I just [pause]. What is it when you hold it up? Not fantasize, but, you know, you kind of immortalize…

AS: You built it up in your mind.

RK: There you go. You built it up. It’s just the greatest time. We had so much fun down there. And the sun– it was just great. So I was just remembering those times, which is why it’s kind of got this nostalgic feel to it. I was also really back into surfing at that time, because I had seen Riding Giants which is this documentary about riding huge waves by Stacey Peralta, I think. And so, I just really enjoyed surf rock and all this stuff. There’s a couple of obvious, really surf rock references. And I was just trying to do all of those things. And I was just like, “Yeah, I’m gonna make a beach record.” And then inside that, there’s all this really weird, a couple of really weird things, like “The World & Everything In It” and “Evil’s Where You Want It to Be,” like all these ploppings, dark little spots on this sunny kind of thing.

AS: “Drug City,” clearly.

RK: “Drug City,” yeah.

AS: Especially. I imagine that was about here.

RK: Sure, but in a really generic way. Those are pretty generic lyrics. They roll off pretty good. It’s also about traveling, you know how you kind of, maybe separating. Separate versus [travel], two totally different things.

And I remember I got the one line, I was going to Atlanta– We were going to Atlanta on tour and there was a back up, just red lights as far as you could see. And it felt like– I felt like I got this image that Atlanta, the city, was the heart and all the veins were leading in, you know? And then there were veins leading out.  And so that’s: “‘Red lights are devils, they’re’ something ‘leading you in/White lights are angels, they’re calling you back again.’”

So it’s got this kind of [sings] “City’s a whore/ Nobody sleeps alone.” So there’s two of these things where it’s kind of like putting these ideas on top of each other. And I was just separating ideas. I would come up with something over here, and then add this other idea over here, so they were kind of intertwined. So that’s what that song, to me, was– it kinda intertwined all these ideas.

And I was trying to do Paul Simon, like, all the backing vocals and all that stuff. It’s all just one big Paul Simon. Which, I actually think it does pretty well.

AS: Yeah. Absolutely.

RK: But yeah, so, I actually had another experiment on that album, which was: I had  grown frustrated with people reviewing albums and all saying the same thing about them. And I said, I’m gonna make a beach album, and I’m gonna tell ‘em it’s a beach album. Everyone’s gonna write about the beach album. No one is gonna talk about these weird little bits in there about space, and aliens and all this stuff. And no one did.

But really, the other theme on that album is the ambition, where I was coming to terms with my ambition, which was realizing that being overly ambitious is dangerous. And so “Atmosphere,” that’s what that is. It’s about a person– that’s not me. That’s actually Fox Mulder [Laughs]. I was just watching X-Files all the time at that point. And I just really related to those characters– their ambitions, their higher purpose, their drive. I just thought, they’re not rewarded for it, you know? Neither am I, necessarily. But in the end, what if they succeed? What if they find out the truth? What if no one believes them? Who cares. They’ve got this thing, you know?

AS: You use science fiction in a lot of these themes I guess.

RK: Definitely, definitely. I mean, I think it’s visual. It’s just these visual things that I respond to. I don’t read books. I just watch TV. And I’m just visual. And so, when I need something, I go to a visual place and I say, “It would be nice to have all those little things kind of repeating throughout.” I needed some place to go, I’d just just kinda play along with five things and just kinda said, “Alright, what do I do with them?”

AS: On that record I feel like the melodies were definitely stronger. How did you go about writing all that?

RK: I would sit up every night listening to the songs ’cause we recorded the album– 15, 16, maybe 17 songs –and recorded all the basic tracks and began the process of layering stuff on top. And where we started and where we ended were vastly different, so much so that when I gave the record to Dave, who played the drums and pretty much wasn’t really involved with all that, all the rest of it, I felt like he felt maybe he was listening to another band or something.

But, you know, I had fundamentally changed a lot of the things. And that’s one of the things I was really trying to do: get lyrics, melodies. There was a song that really followed the guitar line, it was “I’ll Never Be Alone.” It went [sings] Da-nuh-nuh-da-dun-dun-dun. That’s the guitar line, and I had a melody go in [sings a little faster] Da-nuh-nuh-da-dun-dun-dun. And I just go, Okay. Then I was like, Change that. I just kinda like, and then I go, [sings] “You-look-like-you-have-seen-a-dun-dun-da-nuh-nuh.” Which, I don’t know, I just was screwing around, and that’s what I came up with. And it was better, much better, and you know, the whole thing just worked. I just really tried hard.

AS: You said that ambition sort of burned you out near the end, but the results you can’t argue with, really.

RK: No, I agree. I mean, that’s the thing– I don’t regret it or anything like that. I’m really happy about it. There’s still, I hear things and I’m kinda like, “Why didn’t I change that?” But for the most part, I think about that album in a way that I can enjoy it, which is another thing that I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to enjoy something that I did. Before then I was just highly critical, you know? So I would listen and just be like, [in a voice] “Oh God, I can’t” [stops voice] “I can’t listen to this crap.” But that one, for the most part, 75 percent, I’m like, [voice returns] “Yes, yes” [disappears again] “I can’t believe it.”

AS: And on the last one obviously the one thing that record critics like myself have picked up on is that you make a lot of references to the sort of older Baltimore scene. Was that mostly just a nostalgic trip?

RK: No, it was really specific. It was sort of a way to– what was happening with the scene, people kind of getting popular, I felt like there was this situation where people were not recognizing what had happened before. I had specific conversations where, because I’ve been around music for a long time and a lot of Baltimore music is my favorite music of all time, and I would ask people working at the club, you know all the younger people, ask them whether they knew this. It was just this ignorance towards what had happened, you know, five years ago, six or seven or eight years ago. And it frustrated me, because I just felt like that’s a problem in this town, where people don’t respect the history in that way, and it’s hard for them to kind of show the support. In DC that doesn’t happen. You ask someone about Rites of Spring, they know who Rites of Spring is. They know where Rites of Spring went. They know about the history.

It’s possible that I’m kind of speaking cynically, because I don’t know a lot of the young people. But I just think that that’s a– People who come up in DC, play in DC, people that I know certainly, understand that their scene came from somewhere. And I didn’t think Baltimore felt the same way about its music. And it was really frustrating.

So my original idea was just to say, if I say some of these words, and if I take some of these lyrics and I put them in these places, people want to know what I’m talking about. And they go look it up, and they find out that this is what it’s about, that will be cool, you know? And if I say, you know, Ottobar after hours, I’m really talking about the old one. But the word Ottobar is appearing and someone says, “What is Ottobar?” That’s more for anybody, people here, people there. It’s just, “What is that?” They find out that this is what it is, it’s a real place.

Then there’s these really subtle references people wouldn’t get. I had this idea that I was writing an album for– at most, 200 people, like, would understand a lot of these things that had happened– putting in the lyrics from The Lee Harvey Keitel Band. Just using their songs in my song, just to have someone go, “Hey, I know that. Cool.”

Just narrowing the scope on the whole album, just saying, you know, I want less people to really understand it. But I still want it to be accessible, still catchy or whatever. They’re not that specific that they’re exclusive. If you understand it, you go, “Ah, I got it.”

Memory Lane, you know? “Do You Remember Memory Lane?” That was the name of the club in ’97-’98. That was the club. It’s where everything happened. I’ve seen more good shows there than I can, you know. Crazy good stuff. And there’s still a lot of people around here who were there, who really remember it. And so, to hear that, “I do remember Memory Lane.” That’s the question: Do you remember Memory Lane? Yes or no? If yes, then you’re in. You can understand it. If not, I hope you can find something else that you like, you know?

So it’s just stuff like that. And even with the clubs, like the Rev, same thing. And “Gordon’s Nightclub” is about a placecalled the Rev. The lyric is: “What happened to the Rev? It was here when I left, now it’s turned into Gordon’s Nightclub.” Because I used to go the Rev and then I moved away for a couple years and I came back, and it was Gordon’s Nightclub. Pretty direct in the reference. So again, same thing, just trying to say, “Ah, the Rev. I remember the Rev. It was cool.” You know? “It’s good stuff there.”

AS: Do you feel like the scene has gotten better in that regard? ‘Cause, I mean, you hear about all these bands that are just sort of nurtured, like I guess a Beach House or Future Islands, you know, they moved from North Carolina and now they’re signed to Thrill Jockey. And all these acts that seem to be, I don’t know, it seems like they’re here, and they get a lot of support, and then they sort of make it bigger, I guess.

RK: I don’t know Future Islands. But no, I mean, I obviously have mixed feelings about it in the sense that, I wish I have been, and recently I have not been, tied to the scene. And it’s not conscious, it just happens, you know? But, you know, it’s not like I’m bitter, or jealous of these people doing that. I think it’s great, you know? But I knew Victoria when she was in her old band, the Dagger Hearts, and– you know, I still know her [laughs] –I remember her telling me about the band she was gonna start. I remember being like, “This doesn’t sound like it’s gonna be as good.” They were into like raw, wild music, the Dagger Hearts. I don’t know if you ever heard or had any experience at all.

AS: No, I didn’t actually.

RK: It was like a wild rock group with keyboard drums. And it was cool, I loved it. And then she wanted to do this other thing that was more mellow, and she was like, “What do I do?”

“But you’re in a really good band,” I remember telling her that. “Yeah, but what about this band? It’s really good.” But they’re taking off, so…

AS: The only reason I bring that up as an example is just, the support, I feel like, has definitely gotten better. And by virtue of seeing these bands all the way through their stages, they will be able to– I mean, they won’t be the same references you’re making, but they will have been there from the start.

RK: Sure. Yeah. There was always some kind of roadblock to building that seven years ago that just kind of broke through. You know, it’s been a long time. It’s the Ottobar being here a long time. It’s somewhere being bigger, having a bigger room to play, bringing in more out-of-town acts. It’s WTMD, which was not at all– There was no radio for so long, no way to reach people in the county. It was very difficult. Clubs were opening and closing. All those things were keeping it small, ’cause it was hard to follow. Now it’s easier to follow, and I think that there’s more opportunity for bands.

I don’t know, it’s weird. I feel like we– I feel like, in some ways, this just doesn’t relate to us at all. ‘Cause it’s not our scene, you know? I just don’t think we can convince the people who go to see those bands that [pause] that we have anything to offer. Maybe that’s cynical.

AS: How unfortunate is it for you, then, that this era, this earlier era that you were a part of and you were so plugged into then, doesn’t get the credit that it deserves?

RK: I don’t know. It’s hard to say how that would fundamentally change it. If people were getting famous, it’d be a totally different thing. And, you know, ’cause there was an attitude here that, “Say what you want, but you just can’t fuck with this scene.” Great bands. Great people. We get loud. Everything is crazy. There were bands that were coming here that knew people that could attest to like, “Baltimore’s a town that rocks. It’s a wild place.”

But, again, here we’ve got, uh [pause] Wham City. People are gonna look back at that and flip their minds, they’re gonna freak. They’ll be like: “Remember that shit? That was fucking insane.” And I would go to that stuff, but I just felt like it wasn’t for me, you know? It’s not just because I like rock bands and songs and I just didn’t like that music. But I wasn’t feeling negative about it. It felt exclusive to me, like, this isn’t kind of  my thing. But I think it’s cool.

So they’re going to have their own experience of it, you’re right. They’re going to have seen through a certain thing. I guess the only part that’s gonna be different is the part where they get famous, or did well– it sounds something derogatory by saying someone is famous, but that’s not the way I intended it –I guess that’s the only difference, really. But they’re all gonna have those experiences.

You can only get so famous in Baltimore anyway. It’s a town that doesn’t– the culture of celebrity is really frowned upon. John Waters hangs out, you know? He chills. And people go up to him and say, “Hey. What’s up?” And he says, “Nothing. How you doing?” You know? And it’s not weird. I think people accept that to a certain extent, and you’re saying, Alright well, we don’t want to be LA or New York. We don’t want to be the place where someone walks in the door and the crowd parts and it’s, “What can I do for you?” I just think of Baltimore, as a fundamental construction, there’s something we don’t do.

Which, again, plays into that idea about giving bands their props, this, that or the other thing. A certain amount of it is, like, Well, they were here, they were gone? Who cares? They were great. Big deal, now they’re gone. Like, what’s happening now? And I can get down with that. I like that attitude.

AS: The one thing I’ve always felt about this scene in my experience…

RK: Did you grow up here?

AS: Yes. But uh…

RK: Where did you go to high school?

AS: Dulaney.

RK: Cool.

AS: But uh, when I was younger, my friends were in a ska band, so I just sort of saw there shows, which were often times in the basements of churches.

RK: That’s definitely the high school experience, I think.

AS: Yeah, yeah.

RK: I didn’t get into music until I was mid-way through college, or I guess my freshman year of college I started to do a few bands and stuff like that. I wasn’t here, I was somewhere else.

AS: When I was in college, I was in College Park. And just, I couldn’t find– I didn’t really try enough, as I should have –there was no way I could find somebody to go to Baltimore to see such-and-such band. They’d say, “Who?”

RK: That’s an awkward spot.

AS: Yeah, definitely. But as soon as I’ve become more engrained, I’ve definitely noticed you’ll look around when you’re at a show and see all different people from all different bands in the scene. And they always come there to support each other, and I guess that’s sort of always been the case.

RK: Always been the case, yeah.

AS: That goes back to that cult of celebrity thing you were just saying.

RK: Which is great, in the sense that New York is not like that. That’s not been my experience at least. Everyone is out for themselves. It’s just too big. You know what? There’s 50 clubs. How can there be a scene around 50 clubs, or whatever? There’s just no scene. It’s just everyone trying to break it, you know? And trying to get everyone to be interested in them. Not to say that there aren’t pockets of scene, I guess, but I think in general, that’s the way it is. So Baltimore is the right size that it can be a scene still, which is really cool.

AS: Shifting gears, what can we expect for the reunion, for the shows?

RK: Well, it’s not a reunion.

AS: Why did I say reunion? It’s an anniversary show. I apologize.

RK: Well, the thing is people will likely get the sense that it is or have the impression that it is, because we haven’t played since 2008. The reason that we haven’t, though, is because Dave hurt his wrist, and then he hurt his finger. We had a tour planned, but we can’t go out for those reasons.

AS: Yeah, that was just a slip. I want that one back.

RK: It’s no big deal. But no, I mean, I’m just addressing it because it’s not the first time I’ve heard it. Although, you know, we didn’t play in 2009 at all, and that was a little bit of a conscious thing, like, Well, Dave’s hurt. You know, he needed a few months to get better. Then he broke his finger and needed a couple more weeks, and I just thought, Let’s just chill on this for a minute. We’re not gonna get it back. We lost the momentum from that. It’d be hard to build it back up.

In some ways it feels a little bit like a reunion, but it’s really not. It’s the 10-year anniversary, and it doesn’t feel like anything’s gonna be different. I had these ideas that I would do something different about playing certain songs or getting people to come up and play with us, but now that we’re in the practice room, we’re practicing, it feels like it always has. And we’re just the band that we are now, we’re not that band that we were then, so we can’t do all the same songs, you know? The songs that are the best are the ones that we’ve written recently and then, you know, a lot of The World and Everything In It. But we’re gonna hit everything, probably. But it’s kind of interesting to me that it’s sort of working out in that way, that it might not be wildly different than the show we did a year and change ago. We’re playing the same songs, and probably the same people are gonna show up [laughs].

But I don’t know. You know, I’m hoping– I’ve kinda stopped taking the approach that there’s gonna be this one thing that changes people’s minds about The Oranges Band and started to just kind of consider that it’s a long term phenomenon. I think if someone were to take a look at our body of work, they’d say, “Wow, this is impressive.” And that will be the foundation that we’re able to build upon.

For me it’s just a way to kind of mark this moment of, like, We’re proud that we’ve been doing this for as long. And with all the thing things that we’ve been through, it’s something. We’re happy to kind of mark the occasion for ourselves. It’s the type of thing where Baltimore is the type of place where, if you don’t tell people, they’re not gonna know. So everybody, this is what’s going down.

AS: And then what’s beyond that?

RK: Well, the tour rolls out before that, so we’re gonna do that. Then we’re doing the anniversary shows. We don’t have anything immediately planned after that. But ugh, I guess just more of the same, man.

AS: Any plans for maybe another record at some point?

RK: Yeah, I mean, I have tons and tons of material. You know, I do my solo stuff, too.

AS: Right, you’ve got a subscription service.

RK: Yeah. I’m actually restarting it. So, you know, I’m just always writing all the time. So I have a group of material that I think is gonna be the basis for the next Oranges Band record. We’ll see. We haven’t really figured out how to approach it. You know, we’re just doing the same thing, where we’re gonna work on some new tunes. We’re gonna try and get people interested. We always just throw it out there, try to get people to get on the train. And it feels like we’ve been successful at reaching a lot of people. So it feels pretty good. It feels like we have plenty of issues to keep wasting our time. [Yelps] Whoo!

AS: I don’t know about that [laughs].

RK: It’s just a laugh, really.

AS: Once I saw that on the Ottobar calendar I was really excited for it.

RK: Awesome. Oh good. It’s hard for me to kind of– I don’t know… Like I said, it’s always been hard, we never got a lot of response from people, so I don’t know if people are interested or are gonna be really pumped for this or not. You know, we haven’t played in a year and a half. But because Baltimore is the way it is, I think a lot of people are gonna be like, “Aw, did I miss that? Oh well. I’ll catch them next time.” Or maybe that’s just the ten years speaking [laughs]. Or hopefully it’s the start of a different kind of attitude about it.

Related posts:

1. Interview: The Oranges Band (w/ Roman Kuebler) [Part 1]
2. Interview: !!! aka Chk Chk Chk (w/ Nic Offer)
3. Interview: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (w/ Kip, Peggy, Alex)

1. MP3: Sri Aurobindo – Soul Vibrations of Man
2. MP3: Sri Aurobindo – Don’t Know

Sri Aurobindo are back again, this time with a release on Bmore Musically Informed‘s new imprint Friends Records. Cave Painting being their second full-length release, they really stepped up to the plate, delivering on expectations of a vital brew of psych goodness. The sound throughout the album oozes a primitivist feel, something less rooted in the realm of mind-altering psych and more in the ritualistic. You can easily imagine these songs soundtracking the Sris as a tribe, hovering around a billowing blaze barely contained by a stone circle.

Lead single “Soul Vibrations of Man” is a slice of classic psych, the blown out bass guitar line playing the foil to the lofty and crisp quality of the elevating guitar melody. Arinoldo’s vocals ring as if echoing through a metal canyon, and you get a solid sense of expanse and a bit of wonderment. “Don’t Know” roars to life with the rumbling storm of bass and rhythm guitars, a bed for the wailing the lead guitar to slowly percolate through. The doors are blown open when both guitars and bass tear into epic freakout solos near the halfway mark, gradually drifting off and dissolving into muffled, noisy moans. Easily my favorite track on the whole LP (aside from maybe the highly infectious “My Luv Is Stoned” with its ebullient, titular shouts).

Local psych enthusiasts already know they will love this (and most any) outing from the Sris, but this release manages to provide enough edge from other influences to make them sound much more unique than a simple homage to a genre. They continue to wrangle some fantastic guitar and bass tones (probably due in no small part to studio whiz Chris Freeland), yet this go-round they have crafted their most distinctive and cohesive offering yet. A blast to listen to, Cave Painting sounds ripe to give them broader appeal, something well-deserved and perhaps overdue.

Label: Friends Records
Release date/format: Spring 2010 / 140g colored vinyl LP
Track list:

Side A
1. Cave Painting
2. Soul Vibrations Of Man
3. Towards The Sun
4. My Peak Is Too High
5. Find The Door

Side B

6. My Luv Is Stoned
7. Banyan Grove
8. Don’t Know
9. Rest My Mind

Related posts:

1. One Track Mind: New Untitled Track – Wye Oak (Live from Whartscape 2009)
2. One Track Mind: Title Tracks – “Found Out”
3. One Track Mind: Cex – “Last Gazp” / Bonus: “Brains out”

1. MP3: Pfisters – She’s Mine
2. MP3: Pfisters – Cluck-U

Pfisters can be found in their native habitat, the live show, TWICE this weekend: the DNA Test Fest III pre-party at their home-base, Ruintown on Fri Apr 2nd, and the big show proper on Sat Apr 3rd at Sonar.

Punk for the musically capable is what crossed my mind on the first playthrough of Narcicity. That assessment certainly holds up when you break down Pfisters’ membership: the trio is comprised of Jason Donnells (The New Flesh), and Glenn Gentzke and Darren Bolk (both ex-Trash Camp), a veritable treasure-trove of local out-there rock talent.

Pfisters, (much like the New Flesh) forgo the mind-numbing and simplistic repetition of technically mundane elements, essentially eschewing the bricks and mortar for the majority of punk that takes off fast and hits hard. Guitar and bass on this album rip with startlingly proficient abandon and a garage-y twang; drums manage to attain accuracy both rhythmic and arrhythmic, whether flailing into anemic disintegration or propelling forward in tightly meted phrases. They also dabble in unpredictable tonal progressions and chords. However, their true hat-trick is that this release manages to pack so many elements that would normally be considered abrasive and challenging, into something effortlessly listenable. I attribute this partly to their uncanny ability to carve melodies out of madness.

The other part, I am laying squarely at the feet of guitarist Jason Donnells’ vocal wanderings. He readily admits there is a lot of “nonsensical” lyrical content; instead, “the process is an abstract one that focuses more on phrasing and delivery.” And more often than not, it strangely works. The slithering ear-worms of a rambled and slurred vocal line often feel like the tenuous and guiding sinew of the tracks. “Kavachi” opens the record with a bit of spastic guitar reminiscent of Ponytail. Donnells centers this track on a bug-eating high school classmate, and his fantasy of “ganging up…stringing him to the undercarriage of a school bus.” You can almost hear the taunts and jeers in the guitars and swooping vocals.

On “Princess Bride,” the trio revs up for almost half the track before hitting a wall and dissolving into new time. Like screeching out a 180-degree turn with the E-brake: the transition is tense, exhilarating, borders on losing grip, and emerges pistons firing. Lyrically, the track touches on Donnells’ thoughts about “…traveling and touring, and opening and headlining shows for…contemporaries who would eventually get much bigger…bands like Clockcleaner, Pissed Jeans, etc.” He is careful to note, however, that “the whole mood was less jealousy, but a pride I had about doing it right, really putting a product out there I was proud of and happy with.” You can almost chart the transition, from the chugging first half to the prideful second half of the song when its big hook sinks into you.

“Botfly” opens with a full-on punk assault before settling into the alternating pattern of a more settled garage verse followed by a chaotic and disorienting blast of noise, channeling the disruptive, parasitic nature of the titular organism. ”She’s Mine” kicks off like the best thrash track you’ve heard in ages, with a free-wheeling guitar line that tears through your speakers. The careening, almost intoxicated feel of the track might have something to do with its inspiration: it is rooted in Donnells’ fantasy about an attractive girl at the gym, and “thoughts of kidnapping her and putting her in my room in a cage, and hoping she would succumb to Stockholm Syndrome and fall in love with me.” “Cluck-U” is an allegory by Gentzke about “the commonality of eating and schooling.” “Attending Johns Hopkins is like eating Cluck-U‘s 911 wings,” he muses. “Everybody eats every day, but some choose to eat something punishing.” By emphasizing dissonant and imperfect intervals, they deliver on some of that abuse.

If there’s one area where this album might suffer, it’s that some of the tracks can blend together. I should be clear though, this is never rooted in boredom or a lack of quality. When this is the worst criticism that I can leverage, I know it’s a solid release and I’m just stretching. Narcicity will kick your ass and leave you aching for more. And you’ll like it.

Label: Fan Death Records (buy here)

Release date / Format: Mar 03 2010 / Vinyl 12″

Track list:

1. Kavachi
2. The Princess Bride
3. Ruintown
4. Botfly
5. She’s Mine
6. Stillman
7. 3 Feet
8. Cluck-U
9. Ships and Sharks
10. Red Pearl
11. Drag

Related posts:

1. Preview: Pfisters @ Ruintown (2010.02.19)
2. The Death Set – "Worldwide" album review
3. Album Review: Lizz King – All Songs Go To Heaven (Ehse Records)

1. MP3: The Work – Cain & Abel from Slow Crimes (1982)
2. MP3: Konk Pack – Off Leash Excerpt from Off Leash (2004)

Tentative plan for tonight: 930PM start, order (first to last) = Matmos > Leprechaun Catering > Konk Pack

Tonight, Baltimore is once again ground-zero for an atom-bomb of experimental improv talents. Firstly, there are few openers that hit harder than the one-two punch of local luminaries Leprechaun Catering and Matmos. The former’s ever-engrossing, stream of thought racket combines seamlessly with the latter’s deft compositions that somehow use unconventional tools to mine the deepest pits of experimentalism, and emerge with gleaming gold nuggets of pop.

But people around here already know that. So I’m going to take a second and introduce tonight’s special guests, British/German imrpov trio Konk Pack. The trio is comprised of improv vets percussionist Roger Turner, synth maestro Thomas Lehn, and the lynchpin for this show, multi-instrumentalist Tim Hodgkinson (usually reeds and guitar).

Hodgkinson began his long career in the 1960s as keyboardist and co-founder of English rock boundary-pushers Henry Cow alongside Fred Frith, a fellow Cambridge Uni student. The duo formed the core and broad vision for a cast of revolving collaborators and supporters. This personnel flux kept Henry Cow’s music a constantly evolving mass with progressive experimentalism in its mind, jazz at its heart, and improv as its soul. Their music was paradoxically as cerebral as it was visceral.

His next major splash was in the early 1980s with the Work. In early years, this represented perhaps the most traditional of Hodgkinson’s musical output, and they were closely closely associated with the post-punk movement. As the years wore on though, the group’s avant-rock and improv tendencies broke through with a truly unique sound.

Jump again, this time to 1997, where we find the origins of Konk Pack. The wildly improvisational nature of their music seems to finally be on par with Hodgkinson’s true interests, something that had constantly been hinted at and dabbled in with previous projects. Now, it would seem these aspirations have been fully realized (whether by circumstance, sagacity or some other development). These days, free improv is Hodgkinson’s primary domain, whether it be in Konk Pack or as a solo artist.

Konk Pack’s music is highly dynamic, some noting they can operate effectively at either the “threshold of silence” or in “barrages of volcanic intensity.” It would seem they are gaining ground even further, as they are stateside for this weekend’s stellar Big Ears Festival (scheduled for 3 sets including one with Tim Hecker).

Thankfully for us, Hodgkinson’s connection to Jason Willett has ensured that they will make a stop right here at home. Don’t miss out.

Related posts:

1. Livewire: Matmos @ 5th Dimension (2010.03.26)
2. Live Audio: Leprechaun Catering @ Whartscape 2009 Day 3 (2009.07.12)
3. Photos: Thank You, Wheatie Mattiasich @ Windup Space, Leprechaun Catering @ Hexagon (2009.01.02)

To start, Title Tracks sound nothing like Q and Not U, whose raucous clatter compelled DC post-punkers to dance in the early part of the last decade. Neither does Title Tracks remind you of the energetic indie pop of Georgie James, John Davis’ first post-Q and Not U band. Instead, Title Tracks produces mid-tempo power pop with all the requisite influences, {insert The Jam/Big Star reference here}. And they follow this formula quite well, crafting some tight and exciting songs in the process.

That’s the good news — if you enjoy that sound and feel, you’re probably gonna eat this up the way I ate up Abe Vigoda (who?) a year and a half ago. But frankly the formula is weary, old, and been done before, many thousands of times over. If you’ve decided to step into this arena you have to face the fact that there are a thousand other guys out there playing the same chords and singing the same “la-la”s. So what’s there to distinguish you from them? Usually the answer lies in strong vocals and melodies, and on both counts Davis is fine. In a world where ex-post punkers are embarassing themselves at an alarming rate, give the guy props because he certainly succeeds more often than he fails, but I wish he would take enough chances to do either on a large scale.

All of which is not to say the album sucks. Opener “Every Little Bit Hurts” stands out with its really crammed vocal lines (crammed as in word count, not necessarily crammed with meaning or awkwardly thrust together) on the verse, its barely-holding-it-together drums, and is capped off with a brilliantly slurred chorus line. “Piles of Paper” comes close to matching A.C. Newman’s regal arrangements, albeit few could replicate his formal precision and energy. Elswehere the songs stay true to the album’s title. Most are charming, affectionate pop songs: easy to play, easy to hum along with. None of the rhythms or melodies are challenging; instead Davis is happy to give us tightly constructed head-nodders. The two cover songs (Springsteen’s “Tougher than the Rest” and the Byrds’ “She Don’t Care about Time”) don’t disservice the originals, but neither do they fall far from the tree, and perhaps it goes without saying, but Davis’ voice is no match for Springsteen’s. “Hello There” introduces a cleaned-up dance-punk bassline that might be the album’s most fun moment, but it’s kind of lost under the streamlined production. With almost every song after the first, I found myself thinking “this is good, but could be better if…”

Davis cites creative differences as the reason for his split with his Georgie James collaborator Laura Burhenn, but I wonder if a little more creative tension wouldn’t have pushed the possibilities of this music a little further. Georgie James had a little something extra, a little feel of unpredictablilty that Title Tracks desperatley needs. Davis also claims he was feeling angry when It Was Easy was written and recorded but you don’t get a sense of that in the music except on the slightly up-tempo “Found Out”, which ideally would be nearer the front of the album. And while “Black Bubblegum” features some accusatory lyrics, any frustrations that might have been unveiled are quickly effaced by the almost giddy chorus. In fact there are bitter lyrical runs throughout It Was Easy, but they slide by without making much of an impact thanks to the crisp production and Davis’ carefree, unaffected vocal style. The acoustic bedroom-recording style of “At Fifteen” is remarkable as the sole exception to this rule, and maybe the only song after the opener that you’ll be compelled to replay.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty to like on this album if you’re a power-pop maven. My criticisms with this are the same as the oft-repeated criticisms of the genre as a whole. Unless you’ve got the eye for detail and the knack for perfectly subtle imaginative flourishes that bands like the New Pornographers possess seemingly ad infinitum, it’s difficult to leave much of an impression — not even a bad one. It Was Easy is surely better than most power-pop being made, but that’s like saying an Orioles pitcher who gets sent down to AAA is still better than most pitchers — it’s true, but that guy used to be in the major leagues. And Davis used to be the drummer in one of the must singular and exciting bands around. He still makes excellently done music that, to be sure, will find a home in plenty of iPods. But most people won’t hear these songs unless it’s on shuffle, and then they’ll look down wondering: “Who is this again?…oh yeah, I remember, it’s Title Tracks…” A bit of knowledge you’ll retain just until the next song starts.

Label: Ernest Jennings Record Co.

Release date: 2010 Feb 23

Track list:

1. Every Little Bit Hurts
2. No, Girl
3. Black Bubblegum
4. Piles Of Paper
5. Hello There
6. Tougher Than The Rest
7. Steady Love
8. It Was Easy
9. At Fifteen
10. Found Out
11. She Don’t Care About Time

Related posts:

1. One Track Mind: Title Tracks – “Found Out”
2. Live Review / Photos: Imperial China, Title Tracks, Edie Sedgwick @ the Black Cat (2009.01.07)
3. School of Seven Bells tracks

Height With Friends plays the Windup Space with The Snails, Dope Body, and King Rhythm on Sat Mar 20. Doors @ 9PM, $7 cover.

Height is on a roll. Not only did he and his Friends drop some free knowledge on everyone earlier this week via the release of a free EP (Druid Hill Lake), but he also bids our fair city a temporary farewell with a tour send-off show this Saturday (the show is formerly known as a record release party). The crew hits the road on tour with Nuclear Power Pants.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the release of his next LP, Bed of Seeds, had to be delayed. Fortunately, the latest EP is culled from those tracks, so you get a good sense of what they have to offer. Let us add one more bell to that Pavlovian response as we premiere “Cold Crush.”

On Bed of Seeds, Dan and his cohorts’ impeccable ear for quality samples and beats has broadened to include a wider and more dynamic range, stretching from the expected territories of blues and soul, into the frontiers of gentle acoustic balladry and bubbly pop melodies. “Cold Crush” features a simple, smoldering sax line to back Height’s reflective narration on hip-hop pioneers The Cold Crush Brothers’ brush with wider fame and recognition. The track is as much celebration as lamentation, its descending lines underscoring the group’s fading hopes of eventually nailing down mainstream success and exposure.

While not quite a household name in hip-hop, the influence of the Cold Crush is undeniable, from their infamous live performances and tapes, to a number of moments where they seemed on the brink of blowing up. Their most high-profile run-in occurred with a donated verse on classic anthem “Rapper’s Delight.” Member Grandmaster Caz hoped to get some reciprocation for his goodwill to Hank of the Sugar Hill Gang, but got no such love. Down the line, he eventually spoke his peace on the matter with the retort “MC Delight.”

Tour dates for Height With Friends and Nuclear Power Pants after the jump.

ITINERARY:

3/31 Greenville, NC – Tipsy Teapot†
4/01 Raleigh, NC – Tir Na Nog†
4/02 Charleston, SC – Outer Space†
4/03 Athens, GA – Farm 255
4/04 Asheville, NC – New French Bar
4/05 Nashville, TN – The End
4/06 Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
4/07
4/08 Milwaukee, WI – Eagle’s Nest
4/09 Minneapolis, MN*
4/10 Chicago, IL
4/11 Detroit, MI – Division Gallery
4/12 Kingston – The Mansion
4/13 Montréal, QC – Casa del Popolo
4/14 Burlington, VT – 242 Main
4/15
4/16 Boston, MA – The Cottage
4/17 Providence, RI – Building 16‡
4/18 Worcester, MA – Firehouse
4/19
4/20
4/21 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – Bard College
4/22 Brooklyn, NY – Death By Audio
4/23 Philadelphia, PA – The Ox
4/24 Baltimore, MD – the Good Son

†w/ Lonnie Walker
*w/ Dan Deacon
‡w/ the Chinese Stars

Related posts:

1. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Noble Lake, Vincent Black Shadow, Height With Friends
2. Album Review / Exclusive Audio: Height With Friends – Baltimore Highlands (Wham City)
3. One Track Mind: New Untitled Track – Wye Oak (Live from Whartscape 2009)

Some of the facts:

- Contra debuted as the number one album in the country, selling 124,000 copies in its first week. It was only the 12th independently-released album to do so. According to Billboard, their previous best sales week was when their debut self-titled album netted 28,000 sales in the opening week.

- Almost every U.S. show in support of this album has sold out. Locally, the band has progressed from the Rock and Roll Hotel (capacity 400 people) in early 2008, to two nights  at the 9:30 Club (1,200) later that year, to DAR Constitution Hall (3,720) this coming April. All  sell outs.

- In their second video in support of this album, for single “Giving Up the Gun,” we get a futuristic tennis match featuring Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal as players, Lil Jon as a French-speaking instructor and RZA as a Neo-from-The-Matrix-like referee (no joke). This is almost as random/absurd a group as another video starring Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It (On the Alcohol),” which also features Forest Whitaker, Ron Howard and Foxx himself rolling up to the club in a Rolls Royce to party with Samuel L. Jackson, T-Pain and many more. Seriously.

- On March 6, the group made its second appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

All of the above accomplishments, including the ability to cobble together such a large swath of the cultural zeitgeist for one music video, demonstrate that Contra has launched Vampire Weekend from the flavor of the month to one of the biggest bands in alternative music. They have managed to do this by writing catchy tunes that can hook in somebody oblivious to the hype while incorporating technical elements that appeal to portions of the indie set.

Of course, big sales and increased coverage don’t equal good music. In fact, these days the opposite is usually true. What makes these achievements so impressive is that the band has been able to reach these milestones without compromising anything artistically. Even more impressive, they have managed to do all of this with a great pop album that takes one step from the Graceland-rip off accusations, and nudges the band’s sonic palette in new directions.

In recent years, the standard play for bands attempting to change their sound has been to throw on layers of electronics or go electronic altogether. Vampire Weekend are no different, as the thumping club bass of “Horchata” and the bleeps and bloops of “White Sky,” the album’s first two tracks, show. But unlike most, they have put them to use in an understated way that doesn’t drown out everything else. It is more of an embellishment than a style shift. The album is full of them.

Though Ezra Koenig and his head-scratching lyrics (more on this in a bit) are simultaneously the face of the band and the reason many people loathe them, this album really belongs to producer and multi-instrumentalist Rostam Batmanglij who, in addition to playing guitar, splays everything from synths to M.I.A. samples against the tight backing rhythm of drummer Christopher Tomson and bassist Chris Baio.

Songs range from soft keyboard ballads, “Taxi Cab” and “I Think Ur a Contra,” to the straightforward pop rock of “Holiday” to club-reggae hybrid “Diplomat’s Son.” The world music influences, featured so prominently on the band’s first album, are still present but toned down in places and woven together with electro-pop. They’ve taken their sound and added new layers, new bells and whistles, new intricacies. But it’s done in a way that never overloads the senses or loses accessibility. Again, it goes back to moderation.

They’ve taken their version of the pop song and dressed it up in a different way, but  they didn’t overdo it. At their core, all of these tracks are tightly-wound and hook-heavy. That is the key to this band and its success. Despite the added complexities of some of the arrangements, Vampire Weekend are still able to craft great pop that effortlessly switches from genre to genre and can be richly dense or blissfully simplistic.

Lyrically, Koenig’s efforts show a little more focus but are still fairly hit or miss.  At times it feels like he’s torn between attempting to make Stephen Malkmus-esque turns of phrase– ones that aren’t nearly as good as Pavement’s –and actually getting a message across. Frankly, there are times where I don’t have the faintest idea of what the hell he is trying to say.

But he hits the mark on tracks like “Run,” a song about the temptation for lovers to abandon the upper-crust Manhattan world so often linked with the band, in favor of a place “Worlds away from cars/ And all the stars and bars/ Where a little bit of conversation means so much/ And a little bit of change is all your fingers touch.”

In “White Sky,” he chastises the elite for their “sins of pride and envy,” specifically, gobbling up pieces of modern art in excess and depriving the general populace from witnessing their greatness in art museums. Yet, Koenig still gazes amidst New York’s many looming condo towers with wonder and aspiration: “Look up at the buildings/ Imagine who might live there/ Imagine your Wolfords in a ball upon the sink there.” For the record, Wolfords are a brand of tights that will run you over $40. Not exactly slumming it.

Make no mistake, this attempted divorce from wealth and privilege feels mostly like a flight of fancy. We still get songs about drinking fancy drinks and partying with the sons of diplomats. It’s this kind of imagery that seems to draw the ire of a lot of people, including the Village Voice, who saw what they thought to be the band towing the line for the blue bloods and pleaded, “Please Ignore This Band.” But if we are to assume that all “the worst” is true, is it really fair to write off a band for being true to themselves? Is their music any less valid because it comes from a perspective different from our own? In this reviewer’s mind, the answer to both questions is no. While tales of middle and lower class strife may be more compelling, and more in line with the experiences most of us go through on a regular basis, that doesn’t give them any sort of higher level of authenticity.

And then there are some who see dress shirts instead of thrift store flannel and write it off as preppy douchery.  Koenig is conscious of all this, telling MTV that the image gracing the album’s cover is “…almost like a Rorschach test, because some people get very mad when they see a white blond girl in a Polo shirt. It makes you realize how much you can imagine about somebody when you know nothing about them, based on only a few signifiers.” A thinly-veiled stab at his critics, saying, don’t judge us solely on the fact that we wear button-down shirts and went to an Ivy League school.

Nor should you. Their appeal is not about nice clothes and higher education. It’s not about ripping off Paul Simon, either. It’s about the ability to create popular music that doesn’t compromise, and yes, pop music that draws on outside influences, including world music, that some listeners wouldn’t bother to find otherwise. Like Simon, they have managed to do this and somehow found their way, against all odds, into the greater collective consciousness– which seems a lot harder to do now than it did over 20 years ago.

Label: XL Recordings

Release date: Jan 8 2010

Track list:

1. Horchata
2. White Sky
3. Holiday
4. California English
5. Taxi Cab
6. Run
7. Cousins
8. Giving Up The Gun
9. Diplomat’s Son
10. I Think Ur A Contra

Related posts:

1. Vampire Weekend, goddamn bloodsuckers…
2. Album Review: Elvis Perkins in Dearland – S/T (XL Recordings)
3. Album Review / Audio: Deleted Scenes – Birdseed Shirt (What Delicate Recordings)

Jason Urick (ex-WZT Hearts) had a banner 2009. Finally releasing his solo outing signed to Thrill Jockey, Husbands is a glorious burst of swirling experimental instrumentals, at once sunny and brooding. The album received much fanfare, both local and national, and Jason played a number of phenomenal shows locally before shipping off on a European jaunt in early 2010. He even worked on a killer split 7″ with Jason Willett for WildfireWildfire. This is his first show since coming home, and the perfect opportunity to see and hear how his worldly travels have affected him.

Fellow WZT Heart Jeff Donaldson isn’t doing so shabbily himself, continuing to push the boundaries of the chiptune genre with his noteNdo project, and some killer game system-generated visuals. Since WZT Hearts’ dissolution, Donaldson has been working out of New York around the Tank and 8bitpeoples scene. After playing the Windup tonight, he will hang around town for a the 8-Bit Alliance show on Sunday featuring fellow NYC’ers Anamanaguchi at Sonar. Check out our exhaustive interview with Jeff from 2008.

Microkingdom will debut their newest iteration, Prism Leisure: the core of Will Redman, Marc Miller and John Dierker will be supplemented by experimental cellist Audrey Chen and Microkingdom first-timer Chris Pumphrey on Fender Rhodes piano. Their abstract jazz paintings are near and dear to us at Aural States, playing one of our favorite sets of 2009 opening for our showcase featuring So Percussion. According to Will, we can expect a little bit of old, a little bit of new, and surprises as always. One of Baltimore’s most challenging and extreme acts, on what’s sure to be a night filled with instrumental bliss.

Related posts:

1. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 4 – Jason Urick (2010.03.05)
2. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 4 – Microkingdom (2010.03.05)
3. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 4 – noteNdo (2010.03.05)

MP3: Nathan Bell – Moonsblood from Nathan Bell @ 2640 (2008)

Nathan Bell probably needs no introduction, particularly to those of you familiar with Baltimore music. In recent years this elder statesmen of Baltimore music (one-time bass player for Lungfish) has come to prominence for his transcendent instrumental expeditions on banjo, as well as his Human Bell project with Arbouretum’s Dave Heumann. Bell explains the appeal of solely instrumental compositions simply: it’s all about “room.” He laments that vocals can often make a song feel confining to the listener, and the extra space for interpretation and musical exploration is appealing to him. Leaving the imagination wide-open for one to wander wherever the musical spirit takes you is key to his approach. Local label West Main Development captured Bell’s solo music in most glorious form with its release of a intricate live performance at the 2640 Space in 2008; the result is perhaps the most expansive and epic EP I’ve ever laid ears upon.

What may be most exciting about his headlining set tonight, is a potentially Earth-shaking collaboration with local sitar-wielding treasure Ami Dang. She was a casualty of inclement weather at Aural States Fest II, one of the more disappointing things to happen that night. The chance to catch up with her playing, a relative rarity nowadays as she records with Ehse Records for a highly anticipated release, will be a welcome opportunity.

Related posts:

1. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 3 – Nathan Bell (2010.03.04)
2. NoVo / Nouveau: Introductions
3. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 5 – Holy Fingers (2010.03.06)

Tonight’s headliners are one of the newest acts on NoVo’s roster. Baltimore duo The Water only really started playing out in 2009, and swiftly gained some traction and notable fans around town, snagging big gigs like the Metro Gallery’s Rufustival. Comprised of Dan Cohan (drums, electronics) and James Klink (guitars, keys, electronics), their self-titled and self-released EP was recorded with NoVo co-curator Matthew Leffler-Schulman in 2009, and serves up a strong cut of straight-up post-rock. Technically tight, but not overly complicated, their music works in the realm of nuance with an ear for great arrangements.

All well and good, but it doesn’t do justice to their immersive and dazzling live show. This is to be expected, considering what Dan told WYPR’s the Signal at the end of last week: “We spend a lot of time on what a show should look like. As much time as we spend on what it should sound like.” Undoubtedly, their pièce de résistance is a fast-track to myth, homemade “light obelisk” that changes color when they play. And as anyone can tell you, light shows and post-rock go hand-in-hand like chocolate and peanut butter.

The pot gets even sweeter when you consider that tonight’s set will feature a collaboration with guest drummer Mike Lowry of Lake Trout & Big in Japan. The lineup also features experimental guitarist Carlos Guillen’s The Expanding Man project and DJ JDay. Check out live footage of The Water’s set from Rufustival by Guy Werner after the jump.

Related posts:

1. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 2 – The Water (2010.03.03)
2. NoVo / Nouveau: Jason Urick, Microkingdom, noteNdo
3. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 4 – Microkingdom (2010.03.05)

What I feel towards American Folklore is an unusual kind of fondness. It’s distinct from a critical or artistic penchant, but still very apparent. I don’t think I understand it quite yet. Granted, I do kind of like how the name “American Folklore” looks in print, how it rolls off the tongue–but that can’t be the whole of it. Maybe it’s because I so rarely hear decent music coming out of Westminster, a town whose coffee houses and thrift stores often serve as a necessary go-to evening spot away from my relatively sightless hometown. I mean, what with McDaniel College’s artsy influence weighing upon the town, it only seems natural that a few Westminster-based projects should surface sooner or later. Despite the facts, only a handful of meritable musicians from the area have been brought to my attention.

So sure, perhaps my keenness for Lucas Rambo’s (also from Human Host) American Folklore can be attributed to some sort of quasi-hometown pride–or maybe it’s just the music. With “Arrows” as evidence, I’ll point towards the latter.

It’s a slow moving, folky number; and I’m certain that at least a couple of you are going to turn your noses outward in favor of the now-classic “sounds too much like Animal Collective” critique. And you know what? Screw that noise. Animal Collective started releasing music ten long years ago, and the artistic community should surely be allowed to react to their influence by now. To refuse American Folklore’s sound on the basis of an Animal Collective likeness is akin to refuting the validity of the last decade’s garage rock revival because it sounds too much like Marquee Moon.

Bullshit.

“Arrows” is almost entirely defined by Rambo’s drowsy croon. Its harmonies are watery and relaxed, but they still manage to come off boldfaced to an absurd extent. Rambo’s minimal lyricism shows a perfect compliment: “and if we knew/the things we’d do/if no one had/something to prove”. Lucas–you ain’t got nothing to prove here. American Folklore’s latest album, Trapped In The Game, is pending release out of the soon-to-be-renamed FirecrackerFirecracker Records. It’ll be worth checking out, don’t you think?

Related posts:

1. 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
2. Sound Off!: Boogie Boarder
3. Sound Off!: François Virot

1. MP3: Celebration – I Will Not Fall
2. MP3: Celebration – Open Your Heart

Celebration are one of Baltimore’s more reclusive groups, and one of the city’s best treasures with a sound that is always captivating, always evolving, and always delivering a show-stopping live set. Their darkly brooding, churning songs have outstretched the bounds of the genre portmanteau “punk cabaret,” reaching far and wide with high-profile (TVOTR) and local (Ami Dang’s sitar) collaborations that have wrought a distinct and unhinged sound.

They signed with one of the more revered and high-quality indies (4AD) in 2005, and released the stellar Celebration (2006) and Modern Tribe (2007). Over the past couple years however, they have cast aside the traditional music industry business model associated with being a band. In early 2009 they parted ways with 4AD, choosing instead to engage in a number of increasingly intriguing and mysterious projects including releasing free songs under the banner of their Electric Tarot series, and restricting their 2009 live appearances to elemental-themed performances in non-traditional venues (along with the occasional festival or one-off collaboration with friends).

The final show in their Elemental series was originally scheduled to take place on January 29th, but as most people around town know, the host venue was the now-dissolved LOF/t under the direction of Ric Royer, shutting down a scant few weeks before the show.

This all brings us to today, with a performance that seems to fall outside the scope of their Elemental series. In its stead we have a bonafide Celebration double-header featuring one acoustic and one electric set, aptly named the Yin Yang show. The show tonight doubles up for early-comers as an open house for the upstairs resident studios at the Creative Alliance, an opening of a new exhibit by Lauren Boilini and Becky Alprin downstairs, and a chance for a cheap chili dinner if you are so inclined. The space is great, and the music grand, so I can’t imagine a better place to spend a blustery Friday night.

Oh and it’s free.

Related posts:

1. LO MOdA Live @ Creative Alliance
2. Livewire: Celebration @ The Patterson (2010.02.26)
3. Photos / Live Review: White Magic, Daniel Higgs, Zomes @ the Creative Alliance (2009.09.04)

1. MP3: Lizz King – Mr. Fella
2. MP3: Lizz King – Till They Do

Where do I begin? All Songs Go To Heaven was, to me, quite unprecedented. Honestly, I didn’t even know about its release until Greg posted a preview for Lizz King’s album release party at the Windup Space.

Shows how informed I am. I’m just glad to not have missed out. Now, although there are a number of routes I might take to describe the accomplishment that is All Songs Go To Heaven, none of the obvious directions sit well with me for more than a sentence or two. This record’s brilliance is an odd breed, and I’ve been hunching over my laptop for hours thinking about how I can explain that more substantially. I’m utterly baffled to this moment.

How’s this: All Songs Go To Heaven plays just as well as a singles collection as it does an independent piece of art. Normally that sentence would gather a few intrigued rereads, but what’s even more impressive is that Lizz King’s sound is anti-homogenous in the most extreme sense. And, it being the case that I can’t locate the words in me to present a bona-fide album review, I’d rather talk about how moving each of the tracks are standalone.

Following a brief shrieking episode, Lizz King’s sensuous voice opens All Songs with “Proletariat Delinquint.” The song is more or less a display of the ground which King intends to cover during the remainder of her record–slow & sexy folk, heavy-beat electronics, steadfastly accessible pop sensibilities–it’s all in there. Next up, King’s mournful banjo breaks way in “Teeth And Lips,” one of All Songs’ darkest moments. “Oh, shit is all fucked up. Emancipated with this empty cup,” King laments. Pessimism, it would appear, is essential to her success. “K.O.” is a gloomy come-on, intoxicated, downtrodden, and absolutely infectious; “Booty Queen” does its best to observe the absurdity of a sexy Disney princess by means of a super-steamy dancefloor jam (check out the video for Lizz King’s interpretation).

“Tongue Tied” is the very opposite of “Booty Queen”–a hauntingly sincere folk number. Lyrically, “Tongue Tied” shows King at her best. I typed out the first few verses because they’re just too good to skip out on:

“I don’t know, who I should miss,

tongue tied with a kiss.

I feel shame; it’s a shameful world.

‘Cause there have been, too many men,

I don’t know how to begin.

I’m ashamed, I’m a shameful girl.

So now you know where I have been.

So many roads, too many men

want to give it to me and I gave it to them oh…

You know how it ends.”

Absolutely stunning.

The psychedelia of “Speak Human” embodies All Songs’ finest mixing: its melodies interact in ways that I never would have thought a low-budget artist could capture. The song is, for the most part, driven by its faultless production, where King shifts between at least three different (and startling catchy) aesthetic paradigms –none of which are particularly predictable. Following up, we are presented with “Mr. Fella,” a Shakespearian “Booty Queen” of sorts. It’s astonishing to me how sexy King’s vocals sound on the track, especially considering that some of her most mournful work appears mere seconds later on “Either/Or”–yet another teary-eyed folk number.

“Either/Or,” like its sister “Tongue Tied,” contains its own lyrical bounty: “and I know nothing’s absolute/so I’ll be square with you…I think you’re cute.” More earnest words have rarely been spoken.

Now, for all my trying, it took me a few days to pick up writing this post after I had completed that last paragraph. I needed some time to digest. Perhaps this was the fault of  “Zardogz,” King’s last electronic hoorah in advance of her markedly acoustic album closers. Impartially speaking, “Zardogz” is without doubt an excellent track, but the manner in which it prolongs All Songs–following the sublimely conclusive “Either/Or”–proves unnecessarily taxing to the active mind. There’s a distinct re-upping to be noticed once “Either/Or” ends, and “Zardogz” begins. This concern is probably related to sequencing though, and I wouldn’t like to attend to that portion of All Songs extensively, for this review’s purposes anyway.

“Kissin Part,” “Ballad Of The Unknown Unknowns,” “Till They Do,” and “Twit” close All Songs in just the next 9 minutes, emphasizing the collective nature to Lizz King’s record. All four tracks, like the bulk of All Song’s tracklist, feel generally unrelated. Both “Kissin Part” and “Till They Do” are essentially vehicles for more of King’s heartfelt lyricism. “Ballad Of The Unknown Unknowns” is twee-folk caught without it’s smirk, and “Twit” gladly locates a jubilant place for an otherwise somber album to close.

Though each track is precious, none of them are particularly empathetic in relation to each other. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe Lizz King pieced all of this together in an attempt to spotlight her dramatic nature. I hope Lizz responds to that. I can’t bestow enough praise onto All Songs Go To Heaven, and I don’t think you could do yourself a better favor this month other than to seek it out at Ehse Records.

Label: Ehse Records

Release date: Jan 10 2010

Track list:

1. Proletariat Delinquint
2. Teeth and Lips
3. K.O.
4. Booty Queen
5. Tongue Tied
6. Speak Human
7. Mr. Fella
8. Either/Or
9. Zardogz
10. Kissin Part
11. Ballad of the Unknown Unknowns
12. Till They Do
13. Twit

Related posts:

1. Preview: Lizz King @ the Windup Space (2010.01.08)
2. Preview: AK Slaughter, Lizz King, more @ Load of Fun (2009.08.28)
3. Show Review: Daniel Johnston, Lizz King and Jason Dove @ the Ottobar

Pfisters, Landlords, White Suns, Needle Gun @ Ruintown, Doors @ 9PM / $5

Tonight, roll, don’t walk, to your friendly neighborhood multi-use warehouse space as the concert venue cum industrial skate space Ruintown hosts yet another killer show.

The highlight of highlights will likely be the ferocious and aptly named headliners Pfisters. Fortunately for most, unlike their homophonic namesake, Pfisters will violate you only in ways you will enjoy. Rest assured that there will be ripping and shredding, but it won’t be painful. It’ll be glorious. Take my word for it, this new 12″ continues the stellar quality that has fast become synonymous with local upstarts Fan Death Records (for some real classic e-tainment, check out the dramatic brouhaha they stirred up at Washington City Paper).

Narcicity is a release full of piss and vinegar, the record bucks and thrashes like a righteous, punk-fueled bronco. This is unsurprising when you consider vocalist/guitarist Jason Donnells lays down bass lines in the New Flesh. A flurry of guitar and bass whips into a frothy frenzy with halting vocals and manic drums, possessing a combined stopping power not unlike a magnum. Technically, there is much more meat here in each song than your average punk or thrash band has over a full album, and it all cuts through the mix crisp and clear thanks to great production that polishes without buffing off the aesthetic edge. Pfisters even toss us a few experimental curveballs.

Keep your eyes peeled, because I’m definitely recommending this LP as its release nears with a proper, full-sized review. In the meantime, check out the track above and beat your feet to Falls Road tonight.

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Pfisters – Narcicity (Fan Death Records)
2. Preview: Lizz King @ the Windup Space (2010.01.08)
3. Preview: Celebration’s Yin Yang Show @ the Creative Alliance (2010.02.26)

A week from today, our newest venture (EP label Aural Slate Recordings) will launch with the release of Caverns’ EP We Lied. Caverns have long been one of my favorite local artists, providing a unique take on the stale formula of rock and an explosively engaging live show. I’m really proud to have them on-board as our inaugural release. The first release show will be on Friday February 19th at Comet Ping Pong in DC with Detox Retox, and Prisms. Release shows in Frederick and label party in Baltimore will follow in the spring.

We Lied was recorded with Chris Freeland at Beat Babies, and J. Robbins at the Magpie Cage. Mixing duties fell on Chris Freeland and Matthew Leffler-Schulman of Mobtown Studios, who also did the mastering. Album art was designed by the multi-talented Caleb Moore of Lands & Peoples.

To give all you loyal Aural States readers a taste of the album, today we present the opening track (and lead “single”), entitled ”Arctic Phantoms.” Coincidentally, it is also the only track on the EP recorded with J. Robbins at the Magpie Cage, and really sets the stage for the rest of the EP.

More from lead guitarist Kevin Hilliard:

The opening track, “Arctic Phantoms,” operates as the mission statement for this EP. In fact, we titled the EP We Lied because this song steps outside of the purely instrumental confines our music has remained in up to this point by incorporating a heavily effected vocal melody and atmospheric synths into the mix. Our drummer, Ross Hurt, programmed glitchy electronic drums to add yet another texture previously absent from our compositions. The beginning of this track might even sound like the work of an entirely different band if it weren’t for Patrick Taylor’s lead piano line, which maintains a continuity between “Arctic Phantoms” and our earlier work. As for the lyrics…we’re not at liberty to discuss them, but if anyone figures out what they are, we’ll give you a free t-shirt.

Find out more than you ever wanted to know at our label site (including more track previews, links to buy etc), and stay tuned for more exciting announcements throughout the year. Starting next Friday, a limited run of 200 CDRs will sell for $5 at shows, and the album will be available digitally on Bandcamp (which means you could even get it lossless!) for $4.

Related posts:

1. Aural Slate Recordings: “Weeds” from Small Sur’s Bare Black
2. Aural Slate Recordings: “No Tears” – Lo Moda
3. Aural States Fest 2009: Live Audio – Caverns

1. MP3: Lee Fields & the Expressions – These Moments
2. The Sound Stylistics – The Taking of Peckham 343

Production does a lot for the music we listen to. Just think about it for a moment–some sort of production must have, at one point or another, generated an effect upon every single vibration that has ever passed through any set of speakers worldwide. Period. Whether the result can be found in the artist’s instrument selection, microphones, choosing between analog or digital recording methods, editing, or in your speakers themselves–everything is produced somehow. I can even casually identify the names of a few prominent artforms that bank entirely on the ability to digitally interpret sound–electro, IDM, krautrock, chiptune, D&B/jungle–things like these would be nothing without audio editing. Furthermore, the manner in which an album is produced can occasionally transform otherwise inadequate sound into a critically lauded Pitchfork 8.7 (ahem, the xx?). Just sayin’.

Bringing it back to the Boogaloo though: I don’t think anyone would be particularly astonished to realize that funk and soul are not exempt from the presence of this phenomenon. Although both genres are traditionally analog-based, and, for that matter, stuck in the past, there are still ways to tastefully produce both using modern techniques that do not alter the aim or consequence of either. To illustrate this, I’ll examine the impact modern production displays on two of 2009’s most qualitatively dissimilar releases in funk and soul–Lee Fields & The Expressions’ My World, and Greasin’ The Wheels by The Sound Stylistics.

My World, released on Truth and Soul Records, blew the shit out of this twenty-year-old-middle-classer’s mind. Fields’ vocals–tender, crackly yet vivacious–sound better today than they ever have before. But that’s not where My World really shines. The heart of the record belongs not to its charismatic frontman, but to The Expressions. Their instrumental tracks, each one of them, are spectacularly affectionate; “Expressions Theme,” “These Moments,” and “Last Ride” are all, for their funky chops alone, more entertaining than any lone voice. Naturally, there are also tracks (namely “My World Is Empty Without You”) that would flop outright if not for Fields’ soulful contribution. As it stands, however, soul is practically marinating in the midst of all its voices; what’s really valuable is a backing band talented enough to construct soul without a throat. The Expressions may well be musicians of this caliber, but there’s still no question that they benefited from an upgrade in production.

If you compare The Expressions to say, Sharon Jones’ Dap-Kings, a markedly different aesthetic becomes perceptible to most anyone. The Dap-Kings, part of Sharon Jones’ chaste revival-funk outfit, strictly choose to utilize only those production methods that would have been available to artists in funk’s heyday. Judging by the way My World sounds, this probably isn’t exactly how things work in the studio with Lee Fields’ Expressions. Contrasted with the Dap-Kings’ faithful approach, the Expressions appear crisp, clean, limber, and at times, even unrealistic. The Dap-Kings, in turn, are top-notch troubadours of classic chunky-funk style–plagued with analog fuzz, and lacking dimension. These shortsightedly insignificant distinctions become more pronounced with every subsequent listen; eventually the connection and mutual influence between these two groups (which are quite strong) obscures considerably.

As a brief aside, however, I’d like to quickly resolve an innocent misconception that this last bit may have induced. Although according to my previous depiction classic funk production might seem less alluring in comparison to the new stuff, there’s still never been anything more funky than heedlessly overlooking production values in the pursuit of groovy gold. Funk’s just as much an attitude as it is a sound; Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings have both in spades.

Contemporary funk production isn’t all sunshine and dandelions, though. 2009 alone yielded a handful of releases that seemed to do their very best in showcasing modern techniques at their most tawdry: the dilution of respectable sound down to watery faux-funk. Greasin’ The Wheels by The Sound Stylistics (from the first-rate Freestyle Records), for instance, might have delivered to its listener a prime kick in the rumpus if its production values hadn’t defected. The record is chock full of ineffective rhythm sections alongside leads that sound like they were recorded to accompany Starbucks coffee. Frankly, it’s boring. Now, that’s all somewhat to the fault of the musicians themselves, but their production still would have done some good to trash the sterile mix and throw in a little grit. The bulk of what has relatively recently become labeled Neo-Soul has likewise found its way into coffeeshop-cool production extravagance. There are plenty of singles coming out these days (some of which I will discuss in the next Boogaloo Times) that plainly betray their implicit vow to soulful authenticity by senselessly lathering on layers of glossy shit in an attempt to make their work more smooth. That just ain’t right.

[Note: Greasin' The Wheels does occasionally contain spectacular funk music; "The Taking Of Peckham 343" is a superb example. Listen in for a hearty dose of star-gazing space-funk.]

Funk’s relationship with modern production has, at last, also been a major player in the discovery of several other rhythm-based genres. A few of the digitally dependent styles I listed earlier are of just this heritage. That being the case, I intend to provide an ample survey of these funky offshoots for Boogaloo Times’ third installment. When initially apprising genres such as funk and soul, most people usually lack any sort of real comprehension about how supremely rich the field is. In reality, these grooves require deeper examination than most. My hope is that the Boogaloo Times column improves awareness for all those who read it. And, although this post only included two examples of funk and soul in all their diametric modernity, my current plan is to employ a much greater number of releases in the discussion for the next Boogaloo Times. For now, lets all just take a listen to some cuts and, you know. Get Funky.

Related posts:

1. Boogaloo Times: A Discourse on Funk and Soul – Pax Nicholas & Seattle Funk
2. Grooves & Glitches: Soul Jazz Records Presents New Orleans Funk – New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk 1960-75
3. Boogaloo Times Preview: Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul Revue @ 9:30 Club (2009.11.10)

Centered around a shared rehearsal space/ studio, and away from the sometimes harsh glare of Philadelphia and Baltimore, a small independent music scene is starting to grow, flourish, and gain some well-deserved attention in Lancaster, PA. While independent describes their approach, it is the collective power of all the groups that share the studio that give the scene its strength. Over the course of the years, a strong core of musicians and bands has come together to write, record, and play music together. They share stages and shows, and at times even band members. They come together to work on individual ideas and group projects. And while there is a decidedly alt-country feel in the air, there is no one defining sound. Bands tread from one end of the musical spectrum to the other, moving from the more alt-countrified sound of Slimfit and They Were Only Satellites, to the fuzz-folk of Stinging Nettles, to the more rocking improvisation of Felix Lighter.

Recently they have seen the influence of another musical realm as Joe Jack Talcum (guitarist/ singer of legendary punk band The Dead Milkmen) has become involved with the scene. Talcum has provided guidance and a sense of inspiration to the younger bands. He also occasionally plays shows with them, sometimes sitting in during their sets. He even recorded his last album at their studio.

Saturday night at Quips, one of the many Lancaster venues that support live music scene in the area, Felix Lighter played thirty plus songs across a lengthy three sets. It was the type of performance you rarely get to see: a band playing all night, with nothing to lose and everything to gain. They played as if they were personally trying to reach every person in the place, from fans right in front of them to those standoffish people at the back.

The first set was a solo acoustic set from lead singer/ guitarist Paul Skozilas that at its conclusion quickly moved into two full-band sets. The two full-band sets featured adventurous, guitar driven rock that would in an instant go from balls out rocking, to an inventive prog-rockish movement, to a subtle acoustic strum. Songs were not neatly tied up in a box. There were dangling solos, jangly jams, and a passionate intensity that brought each song to life. The first set was dominated by old-school favorite “Stomach.” It was a serious work-out in which drummer Marshall Fischer and bassist Adam Horita built a steady foundation allowing room for guitarists Rich Caloiero and Skozilas to work to the slowly building climax, which found Skozilas shredding his vocals as he delivered the final verse in Spanish.

Near the end of the first set, Talcum who had been lurking around the stage all-night, joined the band for a fiery version of Bob Dylan’s “Isis.” This was not the subdued Desire version, but the raging Rolling Thunder version. Talcum brought the heat, delivering Dylan’s classic harmonica lines with a ferocious punch.

The addition of a few covers in their set helped give insight into the wide ranging influences of the band. Dylan, Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Gardenhead,” Dave Mason’s “Feeling Alright,” and Bombadil’s “Johnny” all help to give a brief glimpse into what comes together to make up Felix Lighter’s diverse musical palate.

The 2nd set was classic Felix Lighter: a whiskey-soaked, psychedelic rush of classic guitar rock that found the band stretching out, taking chances, linking songs and finding a groove that got those standoffish people in the back up and moving. It was the type of night you hope to have when you go see live music. It was unabashed fun, it was late nights, it was ripping guitars and hard-hitting drums, it was a discovery of new music that moved you. But most importantly, it was quite simply Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Related posts:

1. Live Review: Whartscape 2010 Days 2 & 3 (2010.07.23-24)
2. Live Review: Arctic Monkeys, Sleepy Sun @ Rams Head Live (2010.04.07)
3. Photos / Live Review: English Beat, Fishbone @ Rams Head Live (2010.02.24)

Over the past year, Sick Weapons have steadily been amping up their live show from heady racket to straight-on punk freight train. Opening for the Frodus reunion show at the Talking Head, they tore the roof off with raucous abandon.

Lead singer Ellie Beziat drops some knowledge on us regarding their in-the-works full-length:

The artwork is being designed by Nolen Strals of Double Dagger. Highly, highly conceptual and intellectual-as one would expect from our brain combos. Three of Baltimore’s best engineers have their fingers in the mix including Adam Cooke, J. Robbins, and Christopher Freeland. And it includes the hits like “Orgy on the China Train,” “If You Love Me, Take Me to the Hospital,” etc. as well as some new tunes, “I Got Mental Illness” and “Anthony Bourdain’s Earring”.

When I first saw Ami Dang, I was in awe. Her innovative blending of classical Indian influences and use of modern experimental electronics, her earth-shattering vocals…I firmly believe she is one of the most innovative musicians in our fair city, and I can’t wait to see her new vision merging her experimental side with her poppier side. In addition to doing some recent collaboration with local behemoths Celebration, she is also working on an album with Ehse Records which we can all only hope will be out in the very near future.

Related posts:

1. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Dustin Wong, Sick Sick Birds
2. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Lands & Peoples, Jack Chick
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Office of Future Plans, True Womanhood

I think we can all agree that Dustin Wong (likely you know him from Ponytail) knows his way around a guitar. Every effect-laden note found in his work, both solo and otherwise, is deeply imprinted with a profound familiarity for the instrument. Combined with his exceptional pneumatic awareness, Dustin Wong’s sound is surely nothing to take lightly. Recently the two of us sat down together, miles apart (or so I presume), and had ourselves an email chat about his solo work. Here lies the result.

AS: So, can you describe what exactly it is you’re trying to say with your compositions?

Dustin Wong: I definitely want the whole set to be an experience, kind of a loose narrative or a journey. Towards the sky with a sense of humor.

AS: How does that differ from your work with Ponytail?

DW: I use my pedals completely differently, although they are set up in the same way. Ponytail has a more horizontal build vs playing solo things build vertically, sounds stack up. Ponytail is my extrovert, and playing solo is my introvert.

AS: Your compositions are pretty bereft of structure–what is the writing process like? Do you look at your music linearly? Stream of consciousness?

DW: It’s definitely more of a stream of consciousness thing. I think my film background has an influence as well. I write music as if I’m editing video.

AS: What urged you to compose Seasons? Why the four seasons? What was the general conception like?

DW: I think it was realization and conception at the same time. There were a bunch of songs accumulating and I realized that they sounded like the season they were recorded in, so I just went for it.

AS: Greg sent me a copy of your “Matthew and Kenneth” demo, is that going to be featured on an upcoming release? Anything new in the works?

DW: I’ve been talking to Justin Kelly about releasing a cassette tape, and this was one of the tracks that I wanted to have on that release. Starting to think about it more concretely these days. Also in the process of recording my current set, hopefully I’ll get that done soon.

AS: Your set at the Hexagon last October was pretty fantastic, how do you usually go about your live performances?

DW: Thanks! I actually play a little better if I’m slightly nervous, maybe its because its heightening something. Also I love it if I feel like I’m inside the music rather than out.

AS: Looking forward to seeing anyone in particular at Aural States Fest II?

DW: Leprechaun Catering is going to be incredible. I’m looking forward to Sick Weapons and Lands &Peoples. Also, J. Robbins’ new band Office of Future Plans!

——

Sick Sick Birds reconcile a sage and poetic approach with the sound of pop-punk, something normally associated with the trite and disposable. This, in and of itself, is reason to be impressed. Their dynamic live show carries all the energy of punk while channeling the bittersweet reflection of something more measured. Given that I practically wore out the grooves on their 2009 LP Heavy Manners, their inclusion in the fest is hardly surprising. Their live presence is still a relative rarity in these parts, so come out and bask in it. Here’s hoping they have an active 2010.

Related posts:

1. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Sick Weapons, Ami Dang, Liveshitbingepurge
2. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Lands & Peoples, Jack Chick
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Thrushes, Death Domain

Editor’s note: This is a long overdue report from the show’s first engagement. Thankfully, it is more relevant now than ever since a second weekend of Gründlehämmer performances is fast approaching 2640 Space on the weekend of Feb 19th-21st (Fri – Sat @ 7pm, Sun @ 5pm). And this time, you’ll be able to take a part of it home with the 2-disc studio album packed with songs of heroic deeds and villainous mischief.

If you are feeling particularly generous, drop by and show your support Jan 28th @ the Brewer’s Art-hosted fundraiser.

All photos: Andy Cook

1. MP3: Baltimore Rock Opera Society – Vengeance & Guide My Hand
2. MP3: Baltimore Rock Opera Society – Hear Ye (rough mix) * preview track, the final version will be available along with the album, at the show dates.

When the four founders of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society talked up an epic production, they spoke every bit of truth.  Epic is undoubtedly the best word to describe Gründlehämmer, the 3-hour long, debut rock opera from the creative quartet of director Aran Keating, music coordinator & actor Dylan Koehler, band director John DeCampos, and propmaster & floor manager Eli Breitburg-Smith.

I found that Gründlehämmer has few parallels to what has become known as the rock opera.  Unlike nearly every conventional rock opera that begins too often as an asinine conceptual album (recent, less asinine examples include Dream Theater’s Scenes From A Memory, the Decemberists’ Hazards of Love, Mastodon’s Crack the Skye), Gründlehämmer was conceived and developed with the stage in mind. Point of fact, this production shares much more lineage and motivation with traditional opera, and musicals.  Much like classical opera from its late 19th century, Verdi and Wagner populated heyday, Gründlehämmer operates in almost hysterical extremes, firing on all cylinders: the epic, archetypal storyline, the completely over-the-top sets and costumage, the showy and at times complex music and expansive cast and huge choral / dance routines. Hell, they even span the theatrical spectrum by including a shadow puppet dream sequence.

But the most recent cultural touchstone in my mind is the musical episode (“Once More With Feeling”) from Joss Whedon’s cult-favorite TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  A full-bore masterpiece of entertainment encompassing multiple genres of music, dance and theater.  The bulk of the episode’s appeal lay not in any extreme technical proficiency, or necessarily excellent acting or singing (by contrast, all of which Gründlehämmer has in spades).  For Whedon’s creations, the appeal lies in the disposition of the journey, the viewer’s bond with the characters, and the meticulous nuance in every facet of the production.  Whedon juggles a massive cast of characters and multiple sub-plots.  He delivers winking, self-aware acknowledgements of standard tropes, multi-layered arrangements, engages in endless pop-cultural referencing and homaging, and takes painstaking detail with props and sets.

So it is with Gründlehämmer.

The plot is a familiar one: the kingdom of Brotopia, plunged into darkness by a dark overlord (Lothario) who murders a noble king.  This king’s infant heir (Benedon) is miraculously rescued and orphaned to a distant agrarian hamlet called Coxally Glen.  We follow the kid as he grows up, learns how to slay on his ax (literally and figuratively, his guitar/weapon/implement is a crudely-fashioned ax), through his quest to ultimately become the king he is fated to be.  As it is in Buffy, the outline of the plot is fairly generic: clearly evil antagonist does some horrible things and breeds conflict before he is finally confronted and destroyed.

But as I said before, the magic is in the details of the journey. In Gründlehämmer, the extremes of detail are baffling, from those that are massive in scope to the minute, ridiculous accents that complement them.

Everyone in Brotopia has a stringed instrument of some sort, representative of their trade or place in society (farmers get pitchfork-headed guitars, grandma gets a tiny lute, villains play on sick metal \m/ axes with skulls and various pointy edges).  The sets were surprisingly elaborate and polished, using a diverse set of color palettes to set the mood of each scene. Equally impressive were the various iterations of Medieval costumage.

But for me, the crowning visual achievements of this phenomenally crafted spectacle were the highly-anticipated reveals of the titular weapon itself, and the monster (Gründle) who guards it.  The former is a gaudy, devil-horn-throwing, head-banging piece of nerd-gasm. It picks up a pop-cultural spare by channeling every phallic, pointy symbol of power and masculinity from every 80s and 90s childhoods filled with cartoons and video games (He-Man, Power Rangers, Thundercats, Voltron, Zelda, Strider, Final Fantasy, and nearly every action-based anime in existence with their novelty sized weaponry).  When the house lights were cut and the various LEDs and lasers embedded into the weapon shone like a lighthouse beacon slicing through a fog-enveloped darkness, you couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy.  The latter is an inspired bit of ridiculousness: a giant, green, multi-armed, cave-dwelling beast that uses the limbs of its dismembered victims to craft the grotesque instruments of its one-monster band, fretboards made of bones strung with muscle and sinew…a perfect candidate for a new volume of Grimm’s.

Opera as an art form was really the first to marry theatrical moments directly to a musical soundtrack representative of what was going on on-stage.  Broadly speaking, in Brotopia you’ve got the forces of good commanding gentle, folksy tunes or righteously twinkling duets of prog riffs a la Queensryche versus the evildoers’ chugging soundtrack of various heavy variations on metal or hardcore.  Remarkably, all the tunes settle into their respective styles excellently, never inappropriately jarring transitions, and the house band constantly surprised with its versatility (a careful eye will notice multiple personalities from local music groups throughout the band and cast).

Ultimately, a spectacle like this is hard to evaluate based solely on technical merit alone.  On this basis alone, Gründlehämmer excels. But at some point, the scale of it all sweeps you away, and the social experience becomes inextricably linked to the actual production, and you’ve got a whole ‘nother class of entertainment.  Considering how strongly and easily this symbiosis was in Gründlehämmer, you know that they’ve gotten it right. This is undoubtedly a show you can’t, and shouldn’t, miss.

Related posts:

1. Livewire: The Baltimore Afrobeat Society @ the 5th Dimension (2009.12.12)
2. Small Sur Record Release Party @ 2640 Space
3. Live Review: Asobi Seksu @ Rock and Roll Hotel (2009.03.28)

Photo credit: Pete Duvall

Office of Future Plans are, in the loosely phrased wording of J. Robbins, just a bunch of old dudes who barely find time to practice. Anyone that has seen them perform (one of their only two shows), reports quite the contrary.

OOFP is J Robbins’ new full-time musical outlet when he steps outside the studio box. He is backed by a tight and talented cast: bassist Brooks Harlan (accomplished engineer in his own right at Lord Baltimore Recording, member of Avec), Jawbox-obsessed rock cellist Gordon Withers, and Darren Zentek (long-time Robbins collaborator and monster drummer).

One quick listen finds that Robbins hasn’t skipped a songwriting beat, lyricism and aggressive, angular riffs all intact and sharper than ever. Much to long-time fans’ delight, Robbins has recently decided to allow himself access to parts of the Jawbox catalog, making the appearance of a song like “Savory” in an OOFP set not that unusual. Whet your appetite with this video from the Buddyhead Halloween show at Rock and Roll Hotel in DC this past October, and prepare yourselves for a monstrous set and a sure-fire winner of a full-length later this year.

——

MP3: True Womanhood – Shadow People from Basement Membranes EP (2010)

True Womanhood is quite the talented trio, garnering much praise from J. Robbins himself. Even from the frail and uneven sounds of their self-recorded demo, DC’s True Womanhood have always conveyed a certain amount of mystique and intrigue. It would appear they only needed some sage guides for their musical journey to funnel all that creative energy. Their freshly J. Robbins-mixed & David Levin-produced EP sees them cashing in big on their promise, finally enabled to develop that small peek of a vision into a wide gazing aural spectacle that could wow even the most jaded of ears.

One of the fastest maturing and evolving groups in the area, it was a no-brainer to have them play a set at this year’s festival. Lead-singer and guitarist Thomas Redmond took some time to rap about their EP Basement Membranes (digitally released today so buy it here), and other miscellany:

AS: I know you were running back and forth to record part of your EP at Death By Audio over the summer, and part at the Magpie Cage with J. Robbins. Can you break down your motivations for recording with each studio, and the contributions they had to this EP?

Thomas Redmond: Our producer for Basement Membranes was David Levin, live sound engineer for A Place to Bury Strangers, founders of Death By Audio. David’s knowledge and capabilities regarding sound recording are vast, so we were thrilled to have the chance to work with him. Beyond that, Death By Audio is the kind of place that gets it all right- a killer underground live venue, practice spaces for countless amazing bands, and an effects pedal factory that pushes the the boundaries of extreme noise. Once we had all our instrumental tracks recorded, we went into the studio with J Robbins in Baltimore to mix. J. is amazing and an absolute pleasure to work with. The songs really came together, and with J’s expert assistance, I was able to record some pretty sweet vocal tracks.

AS: When we talked last year, you mentioned that you were really trying to more effectively explore different moods. I think you definitely achieved success on this front, particularly with the tracks “Rubber Buoys” and “Shadow People.” Could you say a little about how each of those tracks developed, and what types of things you are doing musically?

TR: These are actually the first two songs that the band first started performing live way back when. As our oldest songs they were, by far, the most difficult to record. “Shadow People” is essentially just a drum loop and a metal guitar riff. It took us a long time to settle on a direction for the song to go but some tribal drumming and vocals sung into giant wooden pipes did the trick. The song has already been played on DC101– score!  ”Rubber Buoys” was also a tough song for us because its beat is built around the iron volcano, a big metal funnel, which proved very hard to record. Eventually we got it by running the iron volcano through a distorting vintage tape echo and adding some reverb. Another stand out section in that song is the bridge which features what sounds like a string quartet. It’s actually a sound I got by playing guitar through two consecutive reverse gated reverbs.

AS: You really managed to eke out a myriad of textures in your sound. Where do you find inspiration for your array of experimental sounds, things like the iron volcano funnel?

TR: During our various travels we are always seeking out big metal things that go boom, clank, and pow. The iron volcano is just a small part of our arsenal. As big fans of electronic music, our goal is to create “acoustic electronic” music by using found objects (as well as our own homemade samples of objects) and playing them in electronic styles, but live. The idea is to search out new, more organic textures for electronic rhythms and apply them to our songs. We are continuing to move even further in this direction and even adding some new tricks to the guitar and bass.

AS: How did you get involved with Baltimore-based Environmental Aesthetics for the release?

TR: A lovely afternoon lunch in the beautiful courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery in DC’s Chinatown. When John from Environmental Aesthetics first approached us, Basement Membranes was nowhere near completion. Over the course of finishing up the recording with J. in Baltimore, we became familiar with the Baltimore scene and a pattern started to emerge. We thought, what do all these young, hardworking bands have in common? The answer- Environmental Aesthetics!

AS: What are your big plans for 2010?

TR: Festivals, tours, and a full album that’s already underway.

AS: Who are you excited to see at the fest?

TR: Everyone! We are especially excited to see J. Robbin’s new band, The Office of Future Plans, and we are excited for him to finally see us live as well! Some other bands we will not miss are Lands & Peoples, Benjy Feree, and Dustin Wong.

Related posts:

1. Interview: Office of Future Plans & the Jawbox Reunion (w/ J Robbins)
2. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Thrushes, Death Domain
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Sick Weapons, Ami Dang, Liveshitbingepurge

As the saying says, when one door closes, another one opens. In 2009, Baltimore folk outfit Noble Lake saw the departure of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, whose own band Wye Oak reached new levels of success that swallowed most of their free time. James Sarsgaard, the band’s leader and singer who lived in Brooklyn for a period, managed to keep writing and performing, sometimes soldiering on as a solo act. But he’s back in Baltimore now, with a new album in tow and a pretty solid cast of Baltimore musicians backing him when available. Where some of the city’s other folk acts tend to deliver fuller, more power-packed compositions, Noble Lake’s music treads in a more time-lost and timeless arena, feeling more delicate and sticking to some strict narrative forms.

We talked with Sarsgaard about the project’s transitional period and plans for the future:

AS: You’ve mentioned that 2009 was a bit of a chaotic year with regard to the ever-shifting lineup, and a new album. Is it a bit of a relief to just get up on stage and play?

James Sarsgaard: Yes. I wish we could play more often. I’m still working on getting a more permanent lineup in place, and just getting things rolling again has been a bit tough. I’m not very computer savvy and as a result I don’t go after shows and promotion and such quite as aggressively as I should.

AS: You’ve also remarked that you tried “to get a handle on this whole band thing once and for all.” Was there ever a point where you thought the band wouldn’t go on, or that you and Justin would have to soldier on as a duet?

JS: I don’t know. I mean, I’ll always be writing songs and playing them in some fashion. When I was living in Brooklyn last year, I was basically playing as a solo act. It’s been kind of tough, and a bit discouraging for me lately, the whole nuts and bolts of playing music. I’m 32, and I work full time as a carpenter which makes it hard to devote a lot of time to the band. But it’s an ebb and flow thing for me, and I have a feeling this year might find me back on the horse again, to use a silly metaphor, with Noble Lake.

AS: How did that situation change the writing for the new album?

JS: The new album was mostly written between ’07 an ’09, so it captured a lot of the transitions that were going on over that time for me and everyone involved. I certainly wrote most of the songs, at least the music, with a vision of them being played by Andy, Jenn and Justin, and we went into the studio with that in mind. The songs I’m writing for the next record are more adaptable to new ideas, and I think when I start recording it will be a much different process.

AS: Were Steve Strohmeir and Walker Teret part of the recording/writing, or did you and Justin write parts for them, and other possible fill-ins, to play?

JS: They weren’t involved at all in the recording or writing of the last one. They both are down to play with us when they can, and I hope to play more with them in the near future. They’re both great players with a lot to offer, I don’t feel the need to write anything for them!

AS: You also mentioned that the band was looking for a label to release said album. What’s the latest?

JS: Nothing yet. Seems like a tough time for that. We’re still looking though, and one way or another I hope to have something by spring or summer.

AS: Can we expect a tour to start 2010 right?

JS: I’m hoping to do a southeast tour this spring. Then maybe Europe solo in the summer

AS: Who are you looking forward to seeing at the festival?

JS: I’m glad to be sharing the stage with Leprechaun Catering. They can play the shit out of a rubber band. Also totally psyched to see Pontiak, of course. There are alot of bands I don’t know of particulary so I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Of course, of course VBS, Caleb Stine, Height and all my Baltimore love children. Can’t Wait!

——

MP3: Vincent Black Shadow – Sheer Heart Attack (Queen cover) from Nazi Gold b/w Sheer Heart Attack (2009)

Raucous rabble rousers Vincent Black Shadow make one hell of a racket. They deliver one of the most visceral and party-heavy sets around, and were one of the first must-have artists that sprang into my mind when I started coordinating the lineup. If you haven’t experienced them, you are in for a treat. Their latest release last year Nazi Gold b/w Sheer Heart Attack shows them doing what they do best: kicking out the jams (including an inspired Queen cover) with sweaty, shit-eating grins on their faces.

Guitarist Dan O sends along this dispatch so you know what to expect for 2010:

The Shadow boys have been taking a break from playing out (cept the occasional rager here and there like this festival) cause they’re writing a record. It’s called BALTAMONT. It’s the be-all end-all Baltimore fuck off scum rock record. Rob Girardi at Lord Baltimore Recording is going to capture the tracks, Forcefield Records out of Richmond is gonna put it on the street, and the boys are going to take it on the road this fall. After 2009 put the zap on our heads and our asses in the gutter (and friends and family in the god damn grave), you better believe we’ve got 2010 by the balls good and early.

——

MP3: Height With Friends – Travel Rap (Nasty Millionaire Remix)

Height With Friends is one Dan Keech (Height), backed by an ever-evolving, always interesting collective of producers, beat-makers, rhyme-sayers, and verse-speakers. This project is arguably the frontline of a burgeoning group of young hip-hop acts in Baltimore, which is appropriate given how much their sound and style just feel spiritually aligned with the city.

A weighty, reflective, complex melange with no small amount of poetics. Height took some time to let us know about current affairs in the HWF world:

AS: You’ve got a new LP ready to drop later this year. Fill us in on what it is (Height solo, Height With Friends or something new).

Dan Keech: The new record is called Bed Of Seeds. Almost all of the songs were crafted by the five people that currently perform live as Height With Friends. (Mickey Free, Gavin Riley, Emily Slaughter, Travis Allen and myself).

AS: How does it differ from Highlands?

DK: It’s totally different. With a few notable exceptions, most of the music was composed by me, and brought to life by Mickey as a producer and Travis as a musician. I wrote the words, but Emily and Gavin put extreme work into making vocal arrangements that work well live and on record.

Unlike all our other releases, the songs have chord changes and bridges and other elements of traditional music. I was influenced by rappers who use non-rap song structures, (like Whodini), and non-rappers that kind of rap, (like Andre Williams).

AS: What do you have planned for your summer tour? What towns are you hitting up that you are looking forward to?

DK: We are touring the whole country in April and May. The album won’t be officially out by then, but the whole idea is to spread the word that it’s about to drop. We’ll be touring again soon after that. Charleston, South Carolina is my favorite tour stop. We’ve played there four or five times and its always seemed like a crazy uptopia where people like music and don’t act the fool.

AS: Who are you looking forward to at the fest?

DK: I can’t front. All parts of it are going to be fire, so I can’t really single one act out. I will say that Pontiak closing the night is a great look. I played at an Independence Day show that they put on in Virginia called Friendstival. They ended the night with a long, epic set. I was really into it.

Related posts:

1. Preview: Farm Fest 2009 feat. The Black Hollies, the Flying Eyes, Vincent Black Shadow and more!
2. Jay Reatard, Vincent Black Shadow, Ratsize @ Sonar
3. Live Audio: Vincent Black Shadow @ the Talking Head (2008.11.07)

Photo: Linda Kokenge

Avec is four-piece rock band from Baltimore with a punchy individualistic sound, formed in 2003. They delivered a memorable set Saturday night at Ottobar. There are some real gems here from If I Breathe I Fall Asleep (2005) and Lines (2007), along with a slow surfy instrumental you need to hear called “Ouija Boyfriend.”

Outstanding.

Avec
Ottobar
January 16, 2010
Baltimore MD, USA

Shawna Potter – guitar amd vocal
Brooks Harlan – guitar and vocal
Adam Yeargin – bass
Scott Tiemann – drums

Streaming player:

MP3 links:

1. Man In Space (3:58)
2. House (3:49)
3. In Character (4:51)
4. Deceptive Cadence (5:36)
5. Bozarth (5:46)
6. Ouija Boyfriend (4:52)
7. Beat of Pulse (4:53)

Total time: 33:44

ZIP links:

Entire set in mp3 format

Lineage:

AKG 414 mid/side pair -> Zoom h4n 48/24 -> Nuendo (stereo encoding, limiting) -> MP3

Recorded by:

David Carter(carteriffic@gmail.com)

Related posts:

1. Livewire: Lake Trout @ the Ottobar (2010.01.16)
2. Livewire: The Multiphonic Choir @ The Windup Space (2010.01.14)
3. Livewire: Solar Powered Sun Destroyer @ The Red & The Black (2010.01.08)

1. MP3: Nile – Sacrifice Unto Sebek
2. MP3: Nile – Lashed to the Slave Stick

Nile played one of the best metal shows I heard in the past year at Sonar two Fridays ago. I am deaf writing this. If you are an adult with a job that requires hearing, or if you are a human being who has ears, you may want to follow these tips for preventing deafness at metal shows:

First, stuff something in your ears. You might try ear-plugs, available for a dollar at most clubs. However if the show is good like this one was, you will start head-banging and shaking your freshly cultivated crop of almost shoulder-length hair to and fro and the earplugs will fall out. You will not notice this at first, and by the time you do notice, it will be too late: What sounded before like a circular saw slicing through your mind will now sound like cottage cheese mixed with cornmeal mush. Use wadded up toilet paper instead. It works great, just make sure not to stuff it in too far. The second tip is do not remove the wadded up toilet paper from your ears.

Now on to the music. The lineup was all death metal, with most of the acts leaning in the technical direction. Doors were at six and I got there before seven thinking I would be fine to catch all the bands. I missed all but four minutes of Nightfire from Delaware, which sucks because they were great: A really tight precise sound, technical drumming and complex, clean, spidery guitars. What I heard reminded me a little bit of early Psycroptic and a little bit of Decrepit Birth. They have a demo on their website that they recorded in one night and it sounds great.

Dreaming Dead on the Sonar club stage also had a good clean guitar sound. I especially dug Elizabeth Elliot’s vocals, which have a high black metal edge. I started listening to all the songs on their website, and I kept feeling like it was too straight ahead and melodic, and then they would go someplace really cool and catchy. I’m still listening. Krisiun and Immolation both play what I would call straight ahead death metal, i.e. metal that sounds sort of like Deicide and Morbid Angel. Immolation especially had good stage energy from the get go.

Nile killed. Within the genre of death metal I most enjoy bands that are more complex and technical. Within technical death metal, I most enjoy bands like Origin and Nile who achieve harshness and intensity as well as technical precision. For me these two bands define the pocket of brutal technical death metal. Without really deviating from their signature sounds they make challenging, appealing music that rewards repeated listening, built on simple but well developed musical ideas. Basically, good songwriting with the incredibly deep, abrasive, dissonant sounds that you will develop a taste for if you keep listening to extreme metal.

Key elements of the Nile sound include: extremely detuned guitars (to low B flat or A), warbly high guitar parts with lots of harmonics, very simple and melodic low phrases punctuated by (or developed into) extremely fast and complicated riffs, and lots of Egyptian-inspired Phrygian sounds.

Lyrically Nile is about ancient Egypt, especially ancient Egyptian religion. The night’s set included “Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend To the Underworld” (amazing), “Hittite Dung Incantation,” and “Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is in the Water” (amazing). You’ll have to buy the album to hear “Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Crescent Shaped Horns.”

Drummer George Kollias has helped shaped the Nile sound since 2005’s Annihilation of the Wicked. Machine-like precision and consistency seems to be the guiding norm behind a lot of extreme metal drumming. By contrast, Kollias’ drumming, although definitely not imprecise, has a natural, jazzy feel that somehow meshes well with the brutality of Nile. Buy his DVD if you want to learn how to use the kick pedal very fast. Nile’s live guitar sound is really good…loud, intense, but clear. Sanders and Dallas Toller-Wade both use a lot of pinch harmonics not only in solos but also in the main themes of the songs. High sounds (e.g. solos) often get lost in live metal performances. Nile have perfected their live tone and everything came through almost crystal clear and made everyone look at their friends with a look that was like “oh shit unbelievable!”

Well, I did that. I was not paying that much attention to what everyone else was doing, but I hope they were enjoying it half as much as I did.

Related posts:

1. Live Review: Marduk, Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Tyrant’s Hand @ Sonar (2009.11.23)
2. Photos / Live Review: Sunn O))) @ Sonar (2009.09.23)
3. Live Review: Whartscape 2010 Days 2 & 3 (2010.07.23-24)

Photo: David Carter

The Multiphonic Choir played Thursday night at The Windup Space. They were there to resolve a critical shortage of music “based on the cryptic and taboo-breaking geo-political philosophy of AFRO-GERMANICISM”. This is an experimentally-minded outfit with five saxes, an electric bass, and a drumkit, all of whom were on the stage in last month’s Baltimore Afrobeat Society shows. It’s adventurous music with some great moments and a baffling blend of free jazz, neoclassical, afrobeat and krautrock influences. We also learned a little about The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland and Neue Slowenische Kunst along the way.

The Multiphonic Choir
The Windup Space
January 14, 2010
Baltimore, MD, USA

John Berndt: Alto Sax, Rhythm Prism, Band Leader
Chris Pumphrey: Alto Sax
Rose Burt: Baritone Sax
Tiffany Defoe: Tenor Sax
John Dierker: Tenor Sax
Dan Breen: Electric Bass
Paul Niedhardt: Drums

Streaming player:

MP3 links:

1. Introduction (Berndt) (1:24)
2. Lagos-Badden-Badden (Berndt) (14:44)
3. In The Deep (Berndt) (8:56)
4. Watusa (Sun Ra) (4:01)
5. Musicalawi Silat (Daktaris) (8:00)
6. Banter (Berndt) (2:33)
7. A Sharper Nimbus (Berndt) (10:13)
8. Neon Lights (Kraftwerk) (7:53)

Total time: 57:44

ZIP links:

Entire set in mp3 format

Lineage:

AKG 414 mid/side pair -> Zoom h4n 48/24 -> Nuendo (stereo encoding, limiting) -> MP3

Recorded by:

David Carter(carteriffic@gmail.com)

Related posts:

1. Livewire: Melissa Moore @ The Windup Space (2010.01.14)
2. Livewire: Small Sur @ the Windup Space (2010.03.01)
3. Preview: Lizz King @ the Windup Space (2010.01.08)

MP3: Thrushes – Skywave from the forthcoming LP Night Falls

The Baltimore music scene has gotten loads of press over the past couple of years, but there are still plenty of bands that we love dearly that never get the recognition they deserve. Thrushes, your friendly neighborhood shoegaze/noise pop outfit, has managed to avoid the limelight in spite of the beautifully fuzzy “Wall of Sound” they produce. Fortunately, they have a new album, Night Falls, coming out in March.

We chatted with guitarist Casey Harvey about the upcoming release, and lead singer/guitarist Anna Conner chimed in to inform us about the themes on the group’s sophomore effort.

AS: I read that Casey and Rachel recruited Anna during a pick-up baseball game in 2005. Does anybody still play? I’m glad to hear people still play. It’s usually hard to get the right amount of people together.

CH: Unfortunately, it looks like that group of pick-up baseballers drifted apart over the last couple of years. It was a sunday friendly game that was pretty active for a few years and a lot of fun.

AS: Yay or nay on Andy MacPhail?

CH: Nay

AS: You guys have got a new album coming out in March! What can we expect?

Casey Harvey: Night Falls ups the stakes in every department. Thrushes’ trademark wall of sound, widescreen guitars and technicolor noise-pop are brilliantly polished to sparkle. Opening single “Trees” finds Thrushes in full on “Dazzle” mode. Bells ring, drums thunder, guitars chime, hearts break. “Crystals” is a conscious nod to ‘60’s girl group’s cotton-candy coated odes to fallen love. Night Falls illuminates the dark edges of town on brooding tracks “As Much to Lose” and “Juggernaut.”

AS: “Crystals” sounds a little more poppier, a little more uptempo. Was there a conscious effort to speed things up a bit on this record?

CH: I don’t think there was neccesarily a conscious effort to up the tempo, these just happened to be the songs that came out during this time period.

AS: Have you had much of a chance to work the songs out for the live setting?

CH: Some of the material, such as “Trees” and “Night Falls” were written almost immediately after we finished Sun Come Undone. So we’ve had those for a while. “Used to You” was written about a week before we started recording this album so we’ve got a good mix of road tested and fresh new material.

AS: Back in your marathon interview with Greg in 2008, Anna mentioned that some of the newer songs were about “angry heartbreak.” Is this a theme you developed further on Night Falls? What other themes did you touch on?

Anna Conner: Some of the songs on Night Falls are about heartbreak. Songs like “Night Falls,” “Crystals,” and “Juggernaut.” They were written at a time when I was facing some personal demons, and they really were helpful in the healing process. I like playing those “angry heartbreak” songs because they show me what I was going through then, like re-reading an old journal entry.

But not all of the songs are about heartbreak. The songs written after that period are about what happens after you’ve been through the worst of it: learning more about yourself, about who your friends are, and eventually about finding love again and finding the people in your life you can rely on. Night Falls tracks a journey for me. As the band evolved musically, I was evolving emotionally.

——

Get into it with some of his latest releases including an 8-song tape on Jerkwave (limited to 100 on silver tape), a 3 song 7″ on Army of Bad Luck (limited to 300, silk screened glow in the dark cover), and a 2 song 7″ on Dark Entries (limited to 400, silk screened glow in the dark covers with 100 of each nucleic acid, A/100, C/100, T/100, G/100). Look for a reissued split tape with High Marks, limited to 150.

What others are saying: Still Single, Freak Scene (Fader)

Related posts:

1. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Lands & Peoples, Jack Chick
2. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Office of Future Plans, True Womanhood
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Sick Weapons, Ami Dang, Liveshitbingepurge

MP3: Moss of Aura – Never

The Metro Gallery was understandably vacant two Thursdays ago. After all–it was a weeknight, substantial storming had been predicted, and, to top it all off, an unfamiliar group (Austin’s The Sour Notes) was headlining. To put it lightly: the present viewership didn’t exactly make performing worth the artists’ while. But that doesn’t mean the night was uncomfortable or awkward. I’d actually say that the lack of occupancy had quite the opposite effect.

Some might think of crowdless shows as uneasy, self-conscious situations, but I’m inclined to think that an open room can often supplement an artist’s music. Because of the way the Metro Gallery is organized, the audience tends to quickly become aware of itself when the headcount is small; the room’s atmosphere acquires a much greater sense of tranquility as a result. Taking into account the majority of the artists scheduled were of a sit-down variety, the night was a pretty good time. Conversations were kept down at the back of the bar, and the audience members (all eight of us) looked content in their respective locations. All of this, of course, counts for naught without a decent lineup.

Previously featured on monthly webshow An Hour of Kindness, Fearsome Creatures were first to take the stage. Allyson Little’s distinctive vocals were already doing their very best to fill the empty space–then at its most occupied–as I walked in. For all her effort though, guitarist Stephan Kaplan consistently soiled any progress the duo made. He would, in poor taste, mutter crowd-directed vulgarities between songs (ex: “how’s it going, cocksuckers?”). And, sure, his comments could have been slightly humorous for whatever that’s worth, but Fearsome Creatures have clearly made their stake by now–Crudeness is plainly not a thing that can be tolerated when the whole aim of your project is to make pretty music.

Moss Of Aura followed, and this side project of J. Gerrit Welmers (better known as the keyboardist from Future Islands) unquestionably dominated the night’s attention. What Welmers’ does with Moss Of Aura is simple: he lays down “phat-as-phuck” beats on top of mushroom cloud atmospherics to impressive effect. It’s a formula that he demonstrates ample proficiency with, but also one that I can’t imagine contains a whole lot of workable variability. In other words–If your music project is going to feed heavily off of a procedural infrastructure (such as Moss of Aura does), diversity is something that will grow more difficult to come by every second of the way. I wouldn’t insinuate that Moss Of Aura is going to become uninteresting anytime soon though: Welmers’ endlessly replayable self-released debut, Still Parade, suggests that variation isn’t a necessary part of the equation. The specifics will prove difficult to describe in a mere paragraph or two (and Welmers’ live act is essentially the same as his release, anyway), so in lieu of writing a formal show review I’ll just recommend that you ready your best pair of headphones and listen to what we post. ‘Cause god damn.

Now, I left midway through The Sour Notes’ set (partially because I fear snowy Western Maryland roads and partially because it was terrible), but here is the impression I received. They presented half-thought indie pop tunes whilst standing motionless, scarcely revealing any signs of human emotion. They apparently found no possible way to address their audience without creating a tense silence. That being said, they did have one of the most animated percussionists I’ve seen in a long while. Just a word on him: in his own unique way, Travis Hackett of The Sour Notes retained complete control over the rhythmic domain for my observation’s entirety. He approached his work with plenty of bumps and bounces, but executed it flawlessly. Concentrating on Hackett’s actions genuinely improved how the rest of the Sour Notes sounded. And they are sour. Sure, indie pop has been thoroughly excavated by now, but that’s still no excuse for lacking originality in the grandest sense of the term.

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Moss of Aura – March (Unsigned)
2. An Hour of Kindness: Episode 3 – Fearsome Creatures
3. Live Review / Photos: Wye Oak, Pomegranates, Cakes of Light @ Metro Gallery (2009.05.16)

MP3: Lands & Peoples – Awake

There’s little sense in me trying to sum up the sound of Lands & Peoples, other than to say that whenever they try their hand at something, the results are pretty fantastic. They can veer from Grizzly Bear-esque chamber pop with “Ukulele” and then shift gears to pulsing electronics and lush harmonies on “Awake,” all the while managing to sound like no other band out there.

We talked with the trio’s frontman, Caleb Moore, a lapsed blogger for this very site, about their possible upcoming LP, their ever-changing sound, and the wonderful ligature that is the ampersand.

AS: I read on your Tumblr that you were in the studio back in December, and that the result was either going to be an EP or LP. What did you decide?

CM: We are shooting for a full length LP, which will (we hope) be released by an “actual label,” and eventually (sexual favors) make it to vinyl. Also want to mention that in addition to the full length– we’re doing a 7″ split w/ our friends THIN HYMNS. They make amazing, beautiful music and they’re from Chicago.

AS: What’s it going to be called?

CM: We have to have a band seance before any big decisions such as that are made. No freaking clue!

AS: I’ve found it’s really impossible to pin you guys down to any one genre or aesthetic. How do you keep evolving your sound?

CM: We just can’t fucking help it– it’s good and bad for us. On one hand, we all have an immense appreciation for music that stays pretty tight in one aesthetic. I think that’s one way to really make an album an album. Wavves, Beirut, Nite Jewel, Washed Out, Beach House– they’re all different from one another, but have a VERY consistent sound on each album.

But also, we think diversity within a record/live performance can be really important and have a palate-cleansing type effect. So, for now it’s happening because we can’t control it, but one day maybe we will have a very specific sound? Seems hard to imagine for me.

AS: Maybe I didn’t poke around the right corners of the internet, but I didn’t see too many interviews with you guys. What’s your backstory? What inspires you guys, musically or otherwise?

CM: That’s a big question. Back story is that i made the L&P myspace to post some weirdo audio experiments that I’d been making w/ my computer, loop pedals, and stuff. Then i started writing songs– Amanda and I played for the first time in my old apartment in Charles Village above Donna’s. She sang harmonies on “Isabella” with me at a tender lil house show that I curated w/ buds of mine.

Beau was there that day too, visiting from NYC and playing a couple of his songs. Amanda and I kept playing, and I finally convinced Beau to move down here from NYC. Mostly because NYC sucks hard– errrr it can be a challenging place to live for anyone that’s not rich as fuck .. err.. Baltimore is cheaper.. shit. I don’t know. Point is, it worked out very well for him. We’ve all 3 been playing together since he moved down about a year ago, and we’re now toying with adding a bass player!! Whooohoooo!

AS: Your first EP was called &, and you make a point of punctuating your band name with an ampersand. Do you have a particular fondness for the ampersand? Why?

CM: Yes, I have a ‘&’ tattoo on my chest, the only one so far. They are just oh-so-pretty to me. Such a satisfying line to follow, and to draw. I got it w/ my friend Kate in order to seal our bond as super-friends forever, under the eyes of God, and the hairy tattoo artist that applied da ink.

AS: Who are you looking forward to seeing?

CM: EVERYONE. But, specifically I’m super pumped to see Height w/ Friends for the first time, whom my friend Mickey raps with. Also, True Womanhood and Dustin Wong both put on really great, interesting shows, and are nice dudez. The other people I’m actually very inexperienced with– so that will be fun to see a bunch of new Bmore music for the 1st time.

——

01. MP3: Jack Chick – Why Don’t You Do Right
02. MP3: Jack Chick – Untitled

Jack Chick are a project that has been simmering and gestating for some time now. And I would’ve been none the wiser if not for my conversations with Jack Moore, El Suprimo head honcho and member of Mopar Mountain Daredevils (whose release in 2009 I highly recommend). While Mopar Mountain are on hold, Moore (keys) is joined by fellow Daredevil Derrick Hans (drums), and boyfriend-girlfriend duo Chrissy Howland from the Degenerettes (vocals, bass, keys) and studio whiz Rob Girardi (guitar).

With such a strong pedigree, it’s no surprise that their darkly swirling, experimental vision of psych is gripping. Their ever-evolving sound is remarkably atmospheric for being so weighty (check out some of their raw practice demos above). I can’t wait to see what surprises they have in store for their debut live performance at the fest.

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Lands & Peoples – Lands & Peoples EP (Unsigned)
2. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Thrushes, Death Domain
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Office of Future Plans, True Womanhood

MP3: All Mighty Senators – Culture Shock, Live @ All Good Music Festival 2008 from Live Music Archive

Of all the crimes committed in the first decade of the 21^st Century, none may be greater than the fact that the All Mighty Senators did not become the biggest band in the world. Their music is a combination of hard grooving rock ‘n’ funk and an other-worldly stage show: lead singer and drummer Landis Expandis – usually decked out in some Superhero pimp outfit – standing front and center on a bright pink standup drum kit, guitarist Warren Boes and bassist Jack Denning flanking him, and a trio of horn players behind. The Senators blasted out weird transmissions of funk that seemed to originate from some planet that worshiped Parliament Funkadelic, Sly Stone, Frank Zappa, and the Meters with equal gusto.  The sound they create is a wholly unique musical experience.  There was a moment right before the decade dawned when it seemed like they might take over.  But bad luck, illness, and the usual band dysfunctions seemed to steal the wind from their sails.

For a generation of people in Baltimore, The All Mighty Senators, still represent the pinnacle of what live music can be.  And following Expandis’ lengthy battle with kidney failure, the band was off the road and out of the spotlight for far too long. All this made The Senators’ “Boxing Day” show (the day after Christmas for those who don’t know) that much more special.

All Mighty Senators’ shows are high-octane affairs, with the band in a constant swirl of motion and energy.

Drummer Expandis is the center, bashing away, talking to the crowd, holding everything together. Longtime musical partner Boes  is an underrated guitar god, whose sharp lines give The Senators an edge that meshes ever so sly with the band’s deep underlining funk. Bassist Denning, with his thick tangle of hair and beard, seems to perpetually live in the pocket. The pair prowl either side of the stage, stomping and strutting as their giant steps move them from club to club.

Showing little wear from their lengthy time away, The Senators shook off the rust quickly, opening with a double dose of old school classics: “Trendsetter” and “Culture Shock.”  The crowd bounced along like they had never been gone.  It was a reaffirmation of everything that made The Senators great. A party that exploded from the stage the moment the first note was played?  Check.  Funk that made your ass drop into uncontrollable dancing? Definitely.  Songs that immediately had you singing along about Chuck Norris, flexing and releasing, having a fresh booty, and other absurdly awesome topics? You know that’s right.

The night was an extensive affair, with The Senators working through a nearly two hour set before finally exhausting their setlist somewhere during the first encore.  This prompted Expandis to jokingly explain, “That’s it for the entire setlist, what can I say we have only been a band for a month.” After which they proceeded to play another five tunes before finally wrapping the night up with long time classic, “Kung Fu Masters” evolving out of the tail-end of a cover of the Ashford and Simpson staple “Rock.”

After that, after the lights had come on, after the band left the stage, after jumping up and down as if you were on a giant trampoline, after nearly twenty-five songs and two hours of rock ‘n’ soul, only after all that and more, did you finally feel as if a small bit of justice was served.

Related posts:

1. Live Review: Kenny Liner & Caleb Stine @ The 8×10 (2009.12.08)
2. Live Review: JFJO & Lafayette Gilchrist feat. The New Volcanoes @ the 8X10 (2009.04.16)
3. Interview & Review: Robert Walter Trio @ the 8×10

Sockets is having a label showcase at the Black Cat Mainstage on Fri Jan 22nd including Imperial China, Hume, Buildings, The Cornel West Theory and Big Gold Belt.

First, let’s address the unavoidable: few can discuss any independent music act coming out of DC without mentioning Dischord Records. This is not without good reason since Dischord casts a long shadow, more a movement and culture than anything so narrowly scoped as a record label. Since its output, while significant, began to dwindle in the late 90s, there has been arguably no real engine of creativity to rival its explosive, pioneering hey-day. DC has steadily kept up with musical trends and , building a strong cast of devoted locals, but no real movement or creative hub has emerged. DC is a town in flux. This is something both artist and label are acutely aware in this situation.

With Imperial China’s signing, DC label Sockets appears well poised to step in and pick up the torch where Dischord laid it down. Preparing to catalyze a genuine movement again, they have amassed a strong roster featuring some of DC’s most exciting and ambitious music makers (notably Buildings, and Hume). All of their acts seem to be mindful of striking that careful and electric balance between experimentalism and accessibility, as well as being painfully aware of the Dischord void.

Imperial China debuts on Sockets with their full-length Phosphenes, a release I’ve had the luck of following throughout its life from birth through live performance, recording and refinement with Devin Ocampo at the famed Inner Ear Studios, to its completion and finding a home at Sockets. It swiftly became one of my favorite albums to listen to last year, so I am very confident it will be in my top albums of this new year (the year of its official release).

Opener “All That Is Solid” is a strong, smoldering statement brimming with push-and-pull tension. All too fitting given its lamentation on the quagmire of the maturing musician that inevitably gets jaded with the music scene (“contempt, shame, I guess it comes with age / tell me, please, is there nothing in between? / say it, please, am I really in this scene?”). An ideal showcase of all that Imperial China do well, the pulsing bass and drum lines rumble beneath sheets of various contorted and shredded guitars. 3/4 of the way through, the track takes a sharp turn into a cathartic instrumental closing.  ”Bananamite” sees the trio veering closer than imaginable to a dancehall, or reggaeton track with its skittering hybrid “riddim” of electronics and drums, framing lyrics that are interestingly “relationship” oriented. It is the most unusual track on the album.  ”A Modern Life” serves up some guitar tones and vocals that bear some remarkable resemblance to Tool. Accordingly, this may be the most brooding track along with its introspective lyrics on an unsatisfying life lived. These two tracks, moreso “Bananmite,” are the only moments where the album falters a bit.

By contrast, instrumentals are one area where Imperial China truly shines, showing off their keen ear for writing catchy yet technical and distorted passages full of electricity and vitality. “Mortal Wombat” is one huge, exhilarating instrumental crescendo, the older sibling of “Radhus” from their EP, ramping the volume and tempo to 11 with a simple yet highly addictive bass line. “Corrupting the Integrity of the Grid” is yet another instrumental, this time much heavier on the synths, its more unusual sounds and textures giving it a chilly, almost robotic feel compared to the considerably warmer, fuller and more organic tones on “Mortal Wombat.”

“Invincible” and “Letter of a General” showcase the group’s more atmospheric side as they approach the gates of post-rock, painting subtly with a wide range of guitar tones and taut, perfectly phrased drums. “Go Where Airplanes Go” is their most spacious and airy cut that wouldn’t feel out of place on a High Places record. “The Last Starfighter” is an appropriately cold track that has a frenetic, darting feel thanks to constantly changing bursts of riffs and vaguely paranoid vocals: “Things aren’t what they seem, soon you’ll see / difficult to see the forest through all those trees / patterns will remain, they are heard and seen / difficult to see the forest or even leaves.”

Imperial China are perhaps the Sockets artist most clearly hewn from, and weaned on, the seminal acts of the Dischord legacy; unsurprising considering 2 of its members grew up admiring these artists and the third was a peer, playing in early 90s group Pitchblende. Equally unsurprising is that this conflict– how best to respect and progress from such a lengthy shadow — undoubtedly fuels many of their lyrical and musical themes. After listening to Phosphenes, it is clear this trio is not content with merely replicating their influences. They have produced a sound more evolved from them, rather than rooted and mired in them. This album is the perfect documentation of their growth as a band as their songwriting has matured leaps and bounds over the past year. Despite having significantly shorter average length, the songs on Phosphenes are all noticeably denser, and more fulfilling. Tighter, more nuanced and textured, when compared to the four track debut EP Methods:.

Phosphenes is a testament to Imperial China’s distinct sound, meticulously alloying innumerable flavors of rock and pop into something both fresh and familiar. Not without some imperfections, but overall the album is a confident, well-developed debut of a unique and vibrant voice in a somewhat stagnant scene. A sign of a fertile future for both artist and label, and if we’re lucky, one of the first major volleys in a bonafide new movement.

Label: Sockets

Release date: Feb 14 2010

Track list:

1. All That Is Solid
2. Mortal Wombat
3. Bananamite
4. A Modern Life
5. Corrupting the Integrity of the Grid
6. Invincible
7. Go Where Airplanes Go
8. The Last Starfighter
9. Letter of a General

Related posts:

1. Live Audio: Imperial China @ the Ottobar (2008.12.22)
2. Live Audio / Photos: Imperial China @ the Hexagon (2009.11.13)
3. Aural States Fest 2009: Live Audio – Imperial China

Photo: David Carter

Solar Powered Sun Destroyer is a DC band, captured here in an opening slot for Sainthood Reps and Caspian at The Red & The Black. Only about a half hour of music here, but they have a very nice genre-defying sound going. Track 3, “Some Assembly Required,” is especially fine. Solar Powered Sun Destroyer will be appearing again at The Rock and Roll Hotel in DC on Friday February 5.

Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
The Red & The Black Bar
January 8, 2010
Washington DC, USA

Justin Horenstein – guitars
Jimmy Rhodes – drums
Dave Davies – guitars
John Kniep – vocals, guitars
Ross Hurt – bass

Streaming player:

MP3 links:

1. Ender (3:21)
2. On the Shelf (5:19)
3. Some Assembly Required (4:44)
4. More or Less (6:20)
5. Ghost Light (4:54)
6. Intromission (1:33)
7. The Roulette Year (4:40)

Total time: 30:51

ZIP links:

Entire set in mp3 format

Lineage:

AKG 414 mid/side pair -> Zoom h4n 48/24 -> Nuendo (stereo encoding, limiting) -> MP3

Recorded by:

David Carter(carteriffic@gmail.com)

Related posts:

1. Sound Off!: Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
2. Livewire: Caspian @ The Red & The Black (2010.01.08)
3. Photos / Live Review: Appleseed Cast, An Horse, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer @ Sonar Club Stage (2009.04.15)

1. MP3: The Ruined Frame – My Sex Is A Dead Thing from Breath & Pulse (2009)
2. MP3: The Ruined Frame – Two Travelers from The Weight of ALL Filth (2008)
3. MP3: The New Flesh – A Lesson In Manners from Hall of Heads (2009)

In this post I’ll attempt to provide a brief survey of a few fresh releases from The New Flesh and The Ruined Frame–in what might otherwise become known as “the Rick Weaver Hour.” Now, this is not to say that Mr. Weaver doesn’t deserve it. In addition to his percussive work for the New Flesh, the Human Conduct co-founder also acts as frontman for The Ruined Frame. Once more, his name probably emerges in the credits for a great number of other releases within the label–and pretty much everywhere else when you’re talking about Human Conduct. Honestly though, I don’t see how we can so effortlessly unite The New Flesh and The Ruined Frame outside of the Weaver link. Side by side, the two projects represent oppositional musical polarities: the harsh distortion typically penned by the New Flesh feels even more brutal in the face of The Ruined Frame’s freaky folk rock. Where one group’s desolate waveforms attempt to rid their listener of an appetite, the other uses satiated song structure to fill their audience’s stomach.

As I already established in the last post, I’ll be examining the sound of Human Conduct Records using descriptive criticism almost exclusively. The full endeavor is to ignore, as much as I deem it necessary, my longing to investigate abstract logic as it relates to artistry. You can check the last post for my in-depth statement of intention. Without further ado, here’s the Rick Weaver Hour:

The Ruined Frame – Breath & Pulse

Rick Weaver makes songs. Not tracks, not jams, not tunes, not singles. Songs. He condenses what could be–and often is–a grandiose artform into an effective all-purpose package: few-verse melodies with attention to detail. Weaver’s shredded vocals sound like a bad trip to the carnival; his subject matter scarcely deviates (song titles include “My Sex Is A Dead Thing”, “Shot Of Terror”, and “Scenes From The Levels Of Suffering”), but who says value can’t be found in the disturbed? Breath & Pulse is equal freak for its folk, less filler per minute, and streamlined for optimal potency. In other words, an easy favorite.

The Ruined Frame Quartet – The Weight of ALL Filth

Unfortunately, The Weight Of ALL Filth doesn’t quite match Breath & Pulse. All the affectation in Weaver’s vocals seemed to have vanished, and the instrumentals feel like a flat faced indie-rock headache. I picture a half-baked beer-buddy “supergroup,” lead by one Rick Weaver, too caught up in his fruitless guitarwork to consider what could be made: more of the phenomenal aesthetic that his Ruined Frame name produces so well. If you want the real Ruined Frame experience, just pick up Breath & Pulse.

The New Flesh

The following images were drawn in response to The New Flesh’s Hall Of Heads and Dog B/W Memory Scrap. The subject matter, medium, and presentation are all an attempt to more accurately interpret The New Flesh’s aural proposition.

Related posts:

1. Sign On!: Human Conduct Records, Part 3: Interview (w/ Rick Weaver)
2. Sign On! – Human Conduct Records, Part 1 – Detox, Form A Log, and Occasional Detroit/Gay Bomb
3. Countdown to Whartscape 2009: T-0 DD/MM/YYYY | Double Dagger (Nolen Strals, Denny Bowen) | What Cheer! Brigade (Lyndon Cordero) | The New Flesh (Rick Weaver)

Photo credit: Frank Hamilton (The Bellevederes)

MP3: Tommy Tucker – Keep Good Time from Green Is Gold (2009)

Can we talk about how wonderful the Wind Up Space is for a moment? An awkwardly placed bar area lies on the right side of ten feet’s worth of concrete; everyone seems to be gravitating between the bar and three black support pillars acting as a not-so-arbitrary boundary linking the bar discussion with the art gallery/venue space on the opposing wall.

This is a perfectly designed space.

It offers a wealth of readily available mingle topics–the bar, the art, the space, the band, etc–in perhaps four or five semi-secluded areas. I walked in with time enough to hear the MC for the evening, a well-dressed, sunglasses-wearing man, announce Tommy Tucker’s (or Tucker Mayer’s) upcoming set.

Even though his folk-based 2009 release, Green Is Gold, scarcely shows it, I now know for a fact that Tommy Tucker has got some soul in his blood. One finds a faint indication of this in album standout, “Keep Good Time,” where Mayer’s astounding falsetto leads a bedroom percussion ensemble to glorious heights. His New Year’s Eve set at the Windup demonstrated to everyone that Tommy Tucker is unquestionably a soul man nowadays. His backing band The Supernaturals (which happens to feature both members of Wye Oak), compares favorably with any typical backing group–to be on pitch, on time, and to contribute a dependable foundation for Mayer’s irreplaceable stage exploitation proves itself a faultless backing design. Oh, and how precious his antics are: Mayer’s frenetic dancing is, like his voice, the absurd extension of a soul stretched to its limit. The spirit of pain channeled through Tommy Tucker’s very embodiment (Andy and Jenn from Wye Oak also performed their own adorable take on the Talking Heads’ classic “Naïve Melody,” perhaps to catalyze the evening’s climax).

“I want to know for myself that when I look back, and when I tell my children what I was doing in the first second of the ‘Tens–what I was doin’ when those ‘Tens started–well, I was dancing.” At that point, the night of had been stolen by Tommy Tucker.

Later on, after everyone in the crowd had downed a few glasses of champagne, Baltimore’s resident 9-piece soul/funk outfit took the stage. Fronted by two women so dainty that I’d never even guess could sing well, much less belt, the Bellevederes were surprisingly tight given their large numbers. Their lyrical matter may be in dire need of improvement, but musically the band need not change a thing. The Bellevederes represent in themselves a funk-for-funk’s sake sort of aspiration. That is, I’m not quite sure about why they’re playing soul and funk–other than to get funky, of course–but I’m not rightly going to criticize such an objective. Plus, they’re a riot live which is justification enough. Do yourself a favor and be sure not to miss The Bellevederes next time they play in the area.

Related posts:

1. Photos / Live Review: Celebration, Lone Wolf, Ami Dang @ the Windup Space (2009.02.20)
2. Photos: Thank You, Wheatie Mattiasich @ Windup Space, Leprechaun Catering @ Hexagon (2009.01.02)
3. Livewire: The Multiphonic Choir @ The Windup Space (2010.01.14)

1. MP3: Lizz King – Mr. Fella
2. MP3: Lizz King – Till They Do

Lizz King is a joy to behold; her opening performance for Daniel Johnston back in 2008 was an astounding moment that still sticks with me today. So, it is with equal joy that I announce local label Ehse Records is finally releasing her debut full-length All Songs Go To Heaven. It is a smoky, almost labyrinthine charmer of an album that channels the spirit of Lizz’s live presence better than I could have imagined. Nearly every track crackles with that raw and naked, imperfect sound that she plys so well. You can almost feel her fingers trailing on her ukulele strings; you can almost see her body alternating between desperate sexual thrusting and slow, hypnotic swaying.

Lizz is easily one of the most complex and compelling acts to rise from within the Wham City ranks. An endlessly imaginative enigma, she operates by stitching together disparate elements of the heart-achingly open country-bluegrass tradition (likely acquired from time spent in rural Maryland and West Virginia), the effervescent, fuzzed-out electronic experimentalism made infamous by her Wham City cohorts, heavy-hitting aspects of soul, and even bumping beats of club music.

You would be wise to head over to the Windup Space this Friday Jan 8th for the official record release show, featuring support from Holy Sheet, Videohippos, and Bethany Dinsick. This also doubles as a send-off show for Lizz’s US tour. For those unfamiliar with Ehse (who released the excellent Harrius and Sejayno records last year), their MP3 downloads operate on the “name-your-price” business model. Real, physical medium (vinyl and CD) costs real, set prices though. All can be had through their website, or at the True Vine.

Check out two sides of Lizz right here, right now: the precious “Till They Do” and the heavy “Mr. Fella.”

Related posts:

1. Preview: AK Slaughter, Lizz King, more @ Load of Fun (2009.08.28)
2. Album Review: Lizz King – All Songs Go To Heaven (Ehse Records)
3. Show Review: Daniel Johnston, Lizz King and Jason Dove @ the Ottobar

So I lied a tad. One last post before 2010, I just couldn’t resist (thank a newly unsecured WiFi connection here in Paris for this bit of joie).

Matt Papich & Dustin Wong (one past iteration of the constantly evolving Papich project Ecstatic Sunshine) dropped some gifts onto especially good little boys and girls today.

Here’s one of two Christmas tracks the duo recorded and emailed out. This will only be up for a few days, so catch it now before it’s gone. And don’t forget that Dustin (pictured right) will be playing a set of his solo work at Aural States Fest II on Jan 30 2010.

Related posts:

1. Live Audio: Dustin Wong @ the Hexagon (2009.10.16)
2. NoVo / Nouveau: Live Audio, Day 5 – Dustin Wong (2010.03.06)
3. Aural States Fest II: Spotlights – Dustin Wong, Sick Sick Birds

In case you were wondering, we’re on hiatus until 2010. I’m in Paris for Christmas and a bit beyond.

Before I left last week, I picked up the wonderful self-titled album of American jazz singer Blossom Dearie (released in 1957, it was also her Verve Records debut). I’ve always enjoyed her voice, but lately have been utterly in love with it. Though with a bit of an accent, she sings many songs ever-so-enchantingly in French (after spending much of the 50s there). She had a bit of a second-wave of exposure in the mid-00s with her song “Tout Doucement” being covered by indie-star/NPR fetish Feist.

I think we all know which is superior, but enjoy the original and the cover. And stick with us for an exciting 2010.

Related posts:

1. Preview: Pfisters @ Ruintown (2010.02.19)
2. Live Review: Felix Lighter @ Quips (2010.01.16)
3. Livewire: Avec @ the Ottobar (2010.01.16)

The fourth album from SeepeopleS, and the follow up to 2008’s Apocalypse Cow Vol. I, finds them returning to their roots and exploring that narrow chasm between rock and electronica.  It is a tricky area to navigate, and many a band before has wandered into this neither-region only to find themselves with an album of half-baked musical ideas that seem to fall flat, never quite taking hold.  SeepeopleS have emerged from their exploration of this potentially dangerous area with Apocalypse Cow Vol. II in tow, a lush soundtrack of dreamy sonic landscapes that perfectly straddle that narrow gap. It also finds the band getting back to what made their sophomore album (The Corn Syrup Conspiracy) such a glorious guilty pleasure of swirling power-pop.

Apocalypse Cow Vol. II picks up where Vol. I left off.  Lyrically, it follows in much the same vein as its predecessor, with principle songwriter Will Bradford exploring a darker side of life.  A life confused by the hardships we see every day.  “But when I try to comprehend the meanings of anything / I guess I never thought life could be so hard, ” sings Bradford on “These Games.”  As recognition of these hardships, the band is allowing the album to be downloaded for free from their website for what they call a “musical financial bailout,” at least until its proper release in Spring 2010.

Musically, the album enlarges on the ideas and concepts that Bradford first hinted at on Vol. 1: namely a combination of dense electronica, blasts of jangly guitar balanced by lilting melodies, and delicate keyboard work.  The band also toys with both ends of the tempo spectrum, moving from the balls-out, barreling groove of “The Most Famous One” (its lyrics shouted through a megaphone) to the gentle acoustic strum of “These Games.”  The new album finds these ideas worked to a more complete end, with the addition of former Perpetual Groove keyboardist Matt McDonald providing a moody, atmospheric layer to the proceedings.

While SeepeopleS have often seemed not to garner all the attention they deserve, Apocalypse Cow Vol. II is a majestic epic of psychedelic power-pop, and the sound of a band at its peak making a bold statement.

Label: Unsigned

Release date: Sept 4 2009 (Digital) / Spring 2010 (Physical)

Track list:

1. What ‘s Missing ?
2. What Makes It Go ?
3. Modern Times
4. Used to Know
5. Face The Day
6. These Games
7. When You Can ‘t Stand
8. Big Heart (Modern Love Song )
9. I Got One Thing
10. The Most Famous One
11. Round 12
12. Last Breath Reprise

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Secret Mountains – Kaddish EP (Unsigned)
2. Album Review: Moss of Aura – March (Unsigned)
3. Album Review: Soft Cement – Think About It EP (Unsigned)

Teaser image to the right, proper flyer art coming from Nolen Strals of Post Typography/Double Dagger fame.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Aural States announces line-up, details for Aural States Fest II

December 11 2009 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore-based music website Aural States (auralstates.com) is proud to announce Aural States Fest II, our second anniversary blow-out at Sonar Club Stage & the Talking Head on Saturday January 30th in Baltimore, MD. This will likely be the final year for Aural States to be based in Baltimore, and hence, the final Aural States Fest.

The line-up for this year includes a wide variety of acts from Baltimore and DC, crossing generational and genre boundaries:

Pontiak (www.myspace.com/pontiak)

Leprechaun Catering (www.myspace.com/leprechauncatering)

Vincent Black Shadow (www.myspace.com/vbskicksoutthejams)

Sick Weapons (www.myspace.com/sickweapons)

Office of Future Plans (J Robbins of Jawbox | www.myspace.com/officeoffutureplans)

Caleb Stine (www.myspace.com/calebstine)

Benjy Ferree (www.myspace.com/benjyferree)

Sick Sick Birds (www.myspace.com/sicksickbirds)

Noble Lake (www.myspace.com/noblelake)

Dustin Wong (www.myspace.com/dustinclarence)

Height With Friends (www.myspace.com/height)

Thrushes (www.myspace.com/thrushes)

True Womanhood (www.myspace.com/truewomanhood)

Lands & Peoples (www.myspace.com/landsandpeoples)

Ami Dang (www.myspace.com/amritakd)

Liveshitbingepurge (Newagehillbilly, Decapitated Hed, and Pawly Walnutz | mt6records.com)

NARC (www.myspace.com/iamthenarc)

Stay tuned for additional line-up announcements in the coming weeks.

Like last year, early arrivals with ticket stubs will be rewarded with a limited-supply of generous grab-bags filled with CDs and merchandise from (mostly) local artists and businesses, including Atomic Books, Video Americain, Baltimore Jazz Alliance, Thrill Jockey, Natty Paint, and many more.

This year we are proud to team up with our younger regional cousin Bmore Musically Informed (bmoremusic.net) to present our festival as Night 2 of the “Blogtimore PWNS” weekend. Night 1 takes place Friday January 29th, when a combination of Aural States Fest alums (Arbouretum, Wye Oak, Sri Aurobindo) and fresh local talent (Weekends, the Violet Hour) will play the last show ever at the G-Spot.

Tickets for Night 1 are $10ADV/$12DOS and available through missiontix.com. Tickets for Night 2 are $15 and available through sonarbaltimore.com. A limited supply of 50 double-header tickets are available for a discounted rate of $20 through (sonarbaltimore.com and missiontix), and will guarantee access to both nights.

Related posts:

1. Preview: Marduk and Nachtmystium @ Sonar Club Stage (2009.11.23)
2. Photos / Live Review: Appleseed Cast, An Horse, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer @ Sonar Club Stage (2009.04.15)
3. Photos: Aural States Fest II (2010.01.30)

Editor’s note: We are proud to welcome new contributor/taper

Photo: Frank Hamilton (2007 performance)

The Baltimore Afrobeat Society plays the music of the late Fela Kuti, a hugely influential Nigerian musician and pioneer of the afrobeat genre. I have loved Fela’s music for many years, and could go on about how his music makes me feel. But a more interesting introduction would probably be Bootsy Collins’ first-hand account of going to Africa as a teenager with James Brown, and meeting the man in person.

Fela had such a unique vision and approach, blending traditional African influences and passionate political invective with western instruments and sheer manpower. I find The Baltimore Afrobeat Society’s renditions of his songs amazing. Their carefully rendered, yet loose and free channeling of Fela’s spirit is energetic, vital, and just plain fun. This is a local treasure, and a testament to the magnitude of the Baltimore scene that feeds into this monster quasi-annual event.

Enough of that, however; let us chairdance. For THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

The Baltimore Afrobeat Society
12/12/2009
H&H Building, 5th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland

MP3:

1. MOP (24:39)
2. Shakara Oloje (21:54)
3. Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense (27:21)
4. Coffin For Head of State (30:41)
5. JJD (18:42)
6. Colonial Mentality (19:17)
7. Original Sufferhead (33:54)
8. Zombie (21:40)
9. Open & Close (12:03)

ZIP:

baltimore-afrobeat-society-12-12-2009.zip (400MB)

Band:

Chris Pumphrey (leader & alto sax)
Rose Hammer (baritone sax)
John Berndt (alto sax)
John Dierker (tenor sax)
Calvin Tullos (tenor sax)
Tiffany DeFoe (tenor sax)
Ben Forstenser (tenor sax)
Mike Cerri (trumpet)
Chris Manthorne (trumpet)
Geof Manthorne (trumpet)
Tom Boram (vocals, piano)
Shawna Potter (vocals & dancer)
Katie Pumphrey (vocals & dancer)
Tara Cariaso (vocals & dancer)
Freda Mohr (vocals & dancer)
Dan Breen (bass)
Erich von Marko (guitar)
Matthew Dickinson (guitar)
Chris Donoghue (guitar)
Mike Wright (drums,percussion)
Zak Fusciello (drums,percussion)
Steve Windows (percussion)
Moziah (hand drums)

Lineage:

AKG 414 pair (mid/side) -> Zoom h4n 48kHz/24bit -> Nuendo (stereo encoding, EQ, limiting) -> MP3

Recorded by:

David Carter (carteriffic@gmail.com)

Related posts:

1. Livewire: Matmos @ 5th Dimension (2010.03.26)
2. Live Review: Baltimore Rock Opera Society presents Gründlehämmer @ 2640 Space (2009.10.03)
3. Livewire: The Multiphonic Choir @ The Windup Space (2010.01.14)

MP3: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Even Heroes Have To Die from the upcoming album The Brutalist Bricks (2010)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists have been a staple food in my musical diet for a long time.  His shows are always uplifting, riotously fun affairs jam-packed with killer guitar, resonant lyrics, and an air-tight band.  Whenever he comes into DC (his one-time residence, and essentially second home), he always packs the 9:30 Club or the Black Cat (as he did this past Thursday) to capacity.  I decided to change things up a bit for his recent string of East Coast dates, and made the drive to Philly to catch him last Wednesday at First Unitarian. I’ve been to shows at First Unitarian Church’s Sanctuary before, and was curious to see Ted in a different setting than a standard rock venue.

Odd fate struck when I walked down Chestnut, as I was diverted to the basement for the true DIY cred of a church basement show. Much like the VFW hall centered scenes that dot the suburbs of this country, church basements are a furnace of activity for the underaged showgoer that are blackballed by 18+ and 21+ traditional venues.

As it turns out, this choice of venue over the sanctuary was an inspired one. The crowded, modestly appointed interior perfectly channeled Ted Leo’s exacting DIY ethos and the energy of his effervescent pop punk. Instead of that blockbuster, celebrity rockstar vibe you can get when Ted plays one of the aforementioned venues, you get an altogether different experience, something truer to his spirit and roots.  What’s more, for those of us who still remember youthful adventures in such spaces, Leo’s more sage and introspective repertoire brought on a wave of acute nostalgia, and even that increasingly derided feeling: hope.

In this way, Ted Leo will always be an oasis in relatively bleak times. A unusually apolitical show (particularly after the official escalation of war in Afghanistan), Ted paused only once to acknowledge the state of current affairs as less than desirable. But he followed quickly with an affirmation of purpose: “But let’s not talk about that tonight. Instead, I’ll just continue writing, and singing, songs about it.” I can think of few other callings that could be more important, more rewarding, more necessary.

More photos after the jump.

Related posts:

1. Photos / Live Review: Sunn O))) @ Sonar (2009.09.23)
2. Photos / Live Review: Bat for Lashes @ 9:30 Club (2009.08.15)
3. Photos / Live Review: Dungen, Woods @ the Ottobar (2009.08.17)

A 70s throwback with the sideburns to prove it, Mopar Mountain Daredevils create a swirling thicket of heavy psychedelia that has more to do with stoner metal than any current psychedelic rock trends. But where loud bands with less songwriting talent or imagination settle down with the almighty riff, Mopar Bloody Mopar remains unhinged throughout, careening from one passage to the next, never looking back.

That’s not to say they’re the most innovative band out there, the sounds on the EP are mostly well-worn, time-tested winners, but what they lack in ground-breaking ideas they make up for in chaotic rumble. The first thing that hits you on Mopar Bloody Mopar is how crisply the guitar effects pan out of the speakers, almost glistening, and in sharp contrast to the acid bath of rhythm lurking underneath. It is almost as though someone took rhythm tracks from a long lost 70s heavy metal band, and grafted beautiful spiraling fractals of guitar wank onto them in a thick-knit fabric woven of modern technology and 40 year old psych aesthetics. Like the best Sabbath albums, Mopar Mountain Daredevils’ heaviness always comes caked in an irresistible sludge. The riffs don’t pound so much as they wallow, with very little clearly defined at first listen. Bits and pieces peek through like glimpses of some half-witnessed swamp thing.

“Mopar Bloody Mopar” begins on a Kyuss-like intro riff, but quickly loses its heaviness to washes of noise, suffocated on the verses and chorus. Even though that bass figure repeats for a good portion of the song, it’s usually so obscured it’s the third or fourth thing you notice. “Yeti Stomp” practices the same kind of deconstruction as “Mopar Bloody Mopar,” beginning with the informative, declarative bursts of staccato notes, and the promise of a riff that is quickly effaced by the swirling mix. All 4 songs on this EP forsake structure in favor of amps-turned-up-to-11 style noise that would have been right at home on old Sabbath album, but the last track alone, “Tiger’s Pause” has the greatest range, at times acquiring a doomed sense of quietude as the band languish on a nine-minute death-trip.

The whole EP sounds like it might have been recorded on top of a Himalayan peak, with space and wind being the dominant elements of the effects board. The longer songs are interesting, but I bet are more exciting live than on record, occasionally lapsing into mindless, ritualistic jams. Excess has been the norm with psych bands, but the effect is for the album to fade out, strangely becoming more minimalistic as the songs get longer, and the beast settles back into the murk.

An engaging debut from a promising band.

Label: El Suprimo

Release date: Mar 26 2009

Track list:

1. Mopar Bloody Mopar
2. Yeti Stomp
3. Breathe
4. Tiger’s Pause

Related posts:

1. Album Review / Audio: Heartless Bastards – The Mountain (Fat Possum)
2. Album Review: CANNOT BE STOPPED – Mountain (Unsigned)
3. Live Review / Photos: Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Teeth Mountain @ 9:30 Club (2009.05.17)

“I go into a convenience store and I will hear someone say something and I know that is going to go into a song somewhere,” explains Nathan Moore, about how he gathers inspiration for his songwriting.  It is something he says he is doing constantly, all day, his eyes and ears noticing the way people say something; it is what he calls “the filter through which I see the world.”

And it is this attention to detail, to the minutiae in conversation and daily life, to the ways and worries of the people around him, that make Moore such a devastatingly accurate storyteller, with everyday life brought alive through his songs and his words.

Moore’s new album, the aptly titled Folk Singer, is a stripped down affair, with Moore, a guitar, and his “filter” telling the stories of what Moore sees and hears around him, those same stories which you live.  The album is a step away from Moore’s previous band ThaMuseMeant and his widely entertaining side project Surprise Me Mr. Davis (with The Slip and Marco Benevento).  In the eight songs on Folk Singer, Moore evokes the spirit of protest and folk singers from a time long gone, instantly placing his name along side those legendary storytellers of the past – Havens, Dylan, Guthrie.

Much like those legends before him, Moore’s strengths lie in his ability to absorb the experiences and sights around them, and distill them into a three-minute song that sums the feelings and meaning of those moments.  Folk Singer is a perfect representation of those distilled moments.  Whether it is the simple, wishful ruminations of man in love from “I Can Make You Smile” (“I don’t know what you’re thinking/ I just know what I’m hoping/ and wouldn’t it be something if they were the same”),  or the acid-tongued take on our economy, “Hard Times” (“Hard times ain’t just some old-folks song/ Fannie and Freddy were sweethearts/ We got pirates on the ocean, we got pirates on the AIG”), one thing is clear: this songwriter has been watching and listening to the world.

Label: Royal Potato Family / R.E.D. Distribution

Release date: Aug 18 2009

Track list:

1. Tombstone
2. Hard Times
3. Bending Spoons
4. Travelin’ On
5. Everybody Dreams
6. I Can Make You Smile
7. Invisible Guy
8. All I Can Do Is Dance

Related posts:

1. Novo / Nouveau: Nathan Bell (feat. Ami Dang)
2. Album Review: Dreadful Yawns – Take Shape (Exit Stencil)
3. Album Review / Contest: Morrissey – Years of Refusal (Lost Highway)

Ed. note: The photos from this review are from the first of two consecutive nights, while the review is based on the second.

All photos: Shantel Mitchell

MP3: Pixies – Dancing the Manta Ray from Doolittle 20th Anniversary Live Sampler

The whole entire-album-in-one-concert trend has been derided as an attempt by artists to cash in or dumb down the concert experience to something as predictable as pushing play on your iPod. The Pixies had flashes of both at their show in Washington on Tuesday night, where they dusted off Doolittle and its B-sides. But then you remember, “Oh yeah, this is the f-ing Pixies,” and you count your blessings for being able to see what turned out to be an awesome show.

Maybe it’s because this is the last U.S. show of the Doolittle tour, but the band sounded so incredibly tight as they ripped through the 15 art rock sonic blasts from the 1989 classic. Black Francis was still able to hit all the shrieks and screams on cuts like “Tame” and “Crackity Jones,” while still being able to break out the lush melodies when called upon. Joey Santiago’s surf rock-tinged guitar riffs were crisp all night. Drummer David Lovering and bassist Kim Deal made sure the loud-quiet-loud formula the band pioneered stayed on the rails, with Deal adding her ever-sweet harmonies to serve as the yin to Francis’ howling yang.

Just after “Tame,” two songs into the album proper, Lovering nodded assuredly with a big grin on his face behind his drum kit. He knew the band was cooking, and he was right.

Catchier songs like “Debaser,” “Here Comes Your Man,” and “Wave Of Mutilation,” with their sing-along hooks, were definite crowd pleasers. All of the weirder, spacier tunes still had the flourishes that made them jump out on the album, and ultimately smoothed out the back-and-forth flow from sci-fi-influenced art rock to melodic punk-infused surf pop. The show opening and first encore were made up of the album’s B-sides. These songs, particularly “Manta Ray” and “Into The White,” managed to hold their own with the rest of the Doolittle material.

Now for the supposed pitfalls. For slightly over half the time from opener Mew’s departure to the Pixies taking the stage, there was a message being broadcast on a massive video board hawking CDs and USB wristbands with recordings from that night’s show available for sale. Tickets were just a shade north of $50, and t-shirts priced at $30. All this and the band’s stage presence, Deal being the only one to talk to the crowd between songs, made you wonder if the other three were just worried about the number of zeroes on the check.

But I find it hard to begrudge a band like the Pixies for reaping the benefits of their latter-day success after spending most of their peak years as critical darlings with little to show for it in America. The first reunion was life-changing for the group’s members, and if there’s any band who deserves the new found recognition, it’s these guys, particularly when you consider all the great bands in their wake that love to name check them as an influence. As for the stage presence bit– well, at least it looked like they were having fun with each other. That couldn’t be said over a decade ago. It couldn’t even be said for parts of the first reunion.

The dumbing down part is a little more complicated, because a good portion of the people in the second level of seats remained seated for most of the set.

Yes, during a Pixies concert.

As an aside, the floor was a madhouse during the show I saw at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom in November, so the phenomenon is not universal. It wasn’t until the band finished “Gouge Away,” and thus the album, that some of these people got off their bums to give the group a standing ovation.

Maybe this is why the band came out with a thundering, high-energy second encore that effectively put the group’s collective foot up the ass of anybody who dared to remain glued to a cushion.  They tore through high-energy rockers “Isla De Encanta,” “Broken Face,” “Something Against You,” and “Vamos,” causing fans in their theater seats to dance, jump around, even headbang . Though it looked like the band was done for the night, they decided they were having enough fun to stay on and cap off the evening with Surfer Rosa classics “Where Is My Mind?” and “Gigantic.” Whether it was the spontaneity of not knowing what was coming next or the raw energy from the music, it was clearly the rousing high point of the show.

That could probably serve as the perfect example for why the album-in-a-show concept should be eliminated. Then again, hearing a band like the Pixies deliver a masterwork with such virtuosity is a reason to keep kicking the tires.

Set list:

B-sides
Dancing The Manta Ray
Weird At My School
Bailey’s Walk
Manta Ray

Doolittle
Debaser
Tame
Wave Of Mutilation
I Bleed
Here Comes Your Man
Dead
Monkey Gone To Heaven
Mr. Grieves
Crackity Jones
La La Love You
No. 13 Baby
There Goes My Gun
Hey
Silver
Gouge Away

1st Encore:
B-sides
Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Into The White

2nd Encore:
Isla De Encanta
Broken Face
Something Against You
Vamos
Where Is My Mind?
Gigantic

Related posts:

1. Grizzly Bear @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (NYC)
2. Photos / Live Review: Bat for Lashes @ 9:30 Club (2009.08.15)
3. Live Review: Modest Mouse, Mimicking Birds, Japanese Motors @ Rams Head Live (2009.03.12)

Over the past two years, The Harlan Twins have gained a reputation among everyone from the hipster set to the aging folk-rock cognoscenti as the best band in Pittsburgh, resulting in scenes like the overflow, sell-out crowd at the unveiling of their self-released debut disc this past summer.

Covering ground from Allmans-esque jams to subdued high-lonesome folk and beyond, the band casts an eye to a century’s worth of Americana influences without letting it contain their creativity or enthusiasm. Be no more surprised to see a banjo or mandolin appear than to be immersed in swirling loops or pummeled by a bone-crushing deconstruction of an ’80s goth classic. James Hart lays down some of the finest guitar leads you’ll see anywhere while he and Carrie Battle trade off tailor-made Appalachian-tinged vocals. Their allegiances here won, it’s time for the Twins to get on the radar of roots-rock enthusiasts everywhere.

The Harlan Twins perform at Golden West Cafe in Baltimore on Fri December 4 and at Cafe Nola in Frederick on Sat December 5.

Related posts:

1. Album Review: Secret Mountains – Kaddish EP (Unsigned)
2. Sound Off!: Small Sur
3. An Hour of Kindness: Episode 2 – Secret Mountains (MD)

1. MP3: The Swimmers – Shelter
2. MP3: The Swimmers – A Hundred Hearts

How does a band follow up a debut that received much love with NPR, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Magnet, and many others hailing the smart guitar-driven indie-rock sound they had created, when that same band found themselves disillusioned with the writing and recording process they had to endure to make that debut?

If you are Philadelphia’s The Swimmers, and you are following 2008′s Fighting Trees, you build a home studio, take control of the entire recording process, and rediscover who you are as musicians.  You release an explosive blast of modern new-wave-pop, that hearkens back to the best parts of New Order’s deep synth driven groove, yet at the same time borrows the deep noise explorations of Radiohead’s catalog, combining them with a sharp songwriting sense.

People Are Soft is a career defining point for the band.  Despite the success of Fighting Trees, the band has almost completely remade themselves by creating an album that, while a radical change from what came before, also exceeds the expectations that surrounded their stellar debut.

Singer/ guitarist and principle songwriter Steve Yutzy-Burkey recently took some time to talk with Aural States:

AS: You had such a different approach to the recording of this album, doing it all in your home studio and having total control over the whole process (unlike last time). How has it been to finally release the album since it was so much more of a personal project than last album?

Steve Yutzy-Burkey:  It’s been a little tough.  It was interesting to see how people have responded to it. It has been mostly quite positive, though I can understand people who were fans of the last record being slightly turned off by this record because it is very different than the last record.

AS:  Was that a conscious effort to make it so different or just a product of having your own studio?

SY:  It was a conscious effort to do it for ourselves.

AS:  Do you feel this is more who you are musically, this deeper darker side, or do you think it is just a side of what you do?

SY: I think for sure it is how I write.  I feel like I am on the edge and I can sorta push myself to be more accessible when I need to {laughs}, but I am definitely more attracted and listen to more music in this vein.

AS: Is it hard now to go back and listen to the last album?

SY:  I don’t want to say that.  It is not hard for me to listen as much as it was just a different space.   We actually recorded that album three years ago. There was a pretty big shift between the two records.

AS:  Was that shift a slow gradual thing or was it just waking up one day and saying this is who we are?

SY:  It was gradual, but there was also something after the last record where we knew wanted more control.  We actually wanted that first record to be a little weirder than what it actually was.  There were some definite reactions to the last album when it was done.  There were also just gradual shifts in taste changes in the last couple of years.

It was definitely a choice to sound more interesting this time.  I think the last record probably sounds better sound wise because it was recorded in a better studio.  I think for now at least, we are much more in this vein of doing our thing.

AS:  Was there any particular music that seemed to influence your music and writing after the last album?  Maybe something new or rediscovering something?

SY:    Yeah, I think I was listening to records that didn’t pop out as much as single songs as I did when I made the last record.  I listened to a more experiential album kind of thing.  At the time of recording I was listening to a lot of Deerhunter and Radiohead In Rainbows, and New Order and stuff like that.

AS:  More of a full album experience?

SY:  Right.  Exactly.

AS:  Is there any thought to go back and reinterpreting some of your older songs and making them feel more part of what you do now?

SY:  We have gone and reworked some of them, but some feel so far out of the realm of what we are doing that we rather just keep going and add new stuff to this.  

AS:  Besides the new studio, was the writing and recording process for People Are Soft any different than last time?

SY:  Something that happened this time was I was working a lot more closely with Scott [French], the drummer, who writes a lot of stuff.  He wrote three songs this time, where he only wrote one on Fighting Trees.  We found a way to work together that really works for us.  We have never been able to sit in a room and write a song together, but we found a way by trading demos and mixes and chopping them up and adding stuff. Adding parts from other demos and sending them back and forth, that really worked for us.  It happens in our own spaces and we can email ideas back and forth, and begin fleshing them out. It made the whole process a lot smoother.  We have a lot of snippets and demos leftover for the next record.

AS:  How do you approach your song writing?  Do you have an organized process?

SY:  It is never organized {laughs}.  It is always like magical in some way, and I can never figure out how to go and do it again {laughs}.  I really always have snippets and lyrics.  I write down every time I think of a line, or record every snippet of music I hear, and then just try and put things together later.  I have found I am putting more stuff together on the computer lately, which is a big change.  I can’t really start with a blank page though; I need bits and pieces to work from.

AS:  How does it feel to you, moving away from that organic guitar way of writing and moving more towards using a computer?

SY:  I was definitely not comfortable with that two years ago {laughs}.  I think that has been one of the big shifts between the two records.  I was always much more organic, everything has to happen as a band, where it makes sense with me playing it by myself on an acoustic guitar or at a piano.  Most of the time on the new record I didn’t give any thought to that.  It is frustrating, but at the same time I don’t necessarily mind it. I am trying to let go of that feeling of being forced to hear it organically.

AS:  The songs from the new album are definitely more complex and intricate than before. Have you been able to work them up and make them playable in a live setting?

SY:  We have been able to work up all the new songs for the stage except for the last one (“Try to Settle In”).  It took awhile to do it, but it has worked really well.  We ended up using some sequenced sounds on stage because we are just four people and can’t pull off everything we want to do.  It was something I thought I would never do, but for these songs I feel like there is just stuff we can’t do without on stage.  I feel like we pull off almost all of the parts.

We have also added a couple of other things to it, like tom up front or some other percussion or a xylophone so we have other things happening live because I think things can look really canned if you start playing a lot of prerecorded stuff as a band.  It is important to have the energy of extra instruments on stage.  We pull off a lot on stage, both organically and with the tracks.

AS:  Does it become like work on stage with all you have to do?

SY:  Yeah, it can. It can go both ways, but I feel it is getting more and more comfortable each day.  It is becoming second nature and we are becoming more of a band as opposed to just playing all these different parts.

I feel like I want to keep shifting and moving. I don’t want to keep the recording process the same the next time.  So next time maybe I would like the arranging to happen more organically for the band.

AS:  I think that is a great thing for a band to be confident to do, to be able to change their identity and what they do and how they do it between albums.

SY:  I think there is that definite shift between the two albums.  But I also think with this new record, there is that shift between songs.  We really worked on each song to its conclusion, with no thought about the rest of the album, and just do what it needs and not worry about creating a cohesive sound.  When I think about the future and I think about the next record, I think I might want to have a more cohesive sound.  But for this one we went for the sound of each song being the sound of each song.

AS:  It seems like you are already looking forward.  What is the plan for the future and your next album?

SY: I would love to start recording next year if possible.  We just have to see how it fits in with everything else if we will do a full record or just a couple of songs or an EP.  I am almost more interested in doing things in the moment.  Just putting out singles and EPs, keeping constant content coming from us while we have the setup at home.  Just keep releasing things online and in different formats.

Related posts:

1. Interview: The Pietasters (w/ Steve Jackson)
2. White Rabbits Interview (w/ Steve Patterson)
3. Interview: The Secret Machines (w/ Brandon Curtis)

Human Conduct was founded in Baltimore during the late 90s by Ari (Ari and the Shanks) & Abe Schenck along with Rick Weaver (The New Flesh), who appears on a number of their releases. Since then, HCR has garnered quite the reputation in many anti-traditionalist circles. Coming straight out of their website, they apparently specialize in “lo-fi, hi-fi, and mid-brow” jams, mostly local but not always. That being said, I now welcome you to the world of Human Conduct Records. I’ll be going through their most recent releases by the way of our own Zack Turowski, sans alcohol. I hope to present a meaty survey of Human Conduct’s most current catalog–whilst attempting to circumvent my beloved rants about the theory (or potential lack thereof) behind experimental music.  Later segments will be focused on individual artists.

The Human Conduct - Detox Program

1. MP3: White Suns – Summer Tape Mix
2. MP3: (D)(B)(H) – Egg Bag

The following is an inventory of the contents found in a Dogipot plastic bag (one of those bags made for ‘cleaning up’ after your pet) labeled “The Human Conduct Detox Program:”

1. A four-page packet. The title page is basically a vague introduction that never exactly explains why you’re “detoxing” in the first place. The second page is filled to the brim with what looks like Times New Roman at 4pt. I didn’t bother to read it, and my eyes thanked me. The third page (the “Table of Contents”) is a concise tracklist, and the fourth page details the credits for each track.
2. A show flyer with a lovely little note on the back, wishing me well.
3. A CDR with the word DETOX sprawled on the front (in all caps).

And with that, I knew I was in for a treat. I’m not sure if the audio is meant to be listened to in the context of an album or as a collection, but the artistry appears to be less fluid than one could expect from a straight-play record–so we’ll assume that the Human Conduct Detox Program is a bona-fide compilation. The tracklisting mostly concentrates on HCR’s free noise department; and to spare you what easily could turn out to be an endless dissertation on the relative quality (and faults thereof) regarding each artist, I’ll just run through the highlights.

Put in bold terms, White Suns kicked the most ass per-capita with “Summer Tape Mix.” It’s so good that even conceptualizing this sort of sound seems like a gifted act, much less laying it down to disc. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Elsewhere, (D)(B)(H) worked in a few exceptional contributions; “A Rotten Gestating Sea” is already-atypical free-jazz sent through a lo-fi filter, and the remarkably affecting “Egg Bag” sounds like it might actually just be someone stomping around in shredded glass for sixty-three seconds–which does not, in fact, imply that the track lacks any amount of ingenuity.

However, the same cannot be said for many of the tracks. Along with the slightest bit of less-inspired sound (namely Byron House’s “Nighthawks,” and both “Stage Magic” and “Hands Tied” by Gang Wizard), the entire disc loses momentum–and the listener suffers a correspondingly large drop in motivation. Harsh vibrations just get a bit draining when there’s no life in them. When you get down to it, Detox would do far better to exclude the more sterile tracks–even if the comprehensiveness of the collection is at stake.  Then again, there’s no stopping the noise while it’s good, and on this comp it usually is.

Occasional Detroit / Gay Bomb – Collaborative 7”

I love it when an avant-garde piece retains some semblance of selfhood throughout its whole. What’s great is that every wave on Occasional Detroit & Gay Bomb’s Collaborative 7” realizes its place in the cut immediately.  Although the product can’t rightly be called smooth-surfaced–I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a bumpy ride either. It has a distinct way of acting jerky and frictionless simultaneously. The end result is a pristine collection of electronic samples, popping like a Saturday Morning cartoon.

Likewise, there’s still more to love: Occasional Detriot & Gay Bomb’s outrageously ardent excursion into sample-bred grandeur lacks any real, practical inhibition. Their particular aesthetic seems to be one that fears nothing but momentary contact with stern minimalism. In that way, the material becomes uniquely endearing–a 7″ that hasn’t reflected on whether or not its individuality might work against the aims of its experimentalist method–and I’d say the minds behind the sound are all better off that way.

Form A Log – Logged and Loaded [CS]

I don’t know what the fuck to make of Logged and Loaded. There are varying points on Form A Log’s cassette where you’ll find their silly-yet-artistic experimentation play out at its most robust–yet other sections will quickly decline such an inviting aesthetic in favor of overdone future-space atmospherics. It’s a lot of hit and miss.

To be fair, every sample considered is interesting in its own right–it’s just the fluctuation that’s the trouble here. And you know what? None of that would cause much of a stumble if they’d only included a tracklist in the citrus-orange case. Something to denote parts from a whole would undoubtedly help this listener, if only to add a visual representation of the ground covered. I’d definitely listen in if I were you, but be warned: Logged and Loaded runs deeper than even the thickest of HCR’s experimental noise.

Related posts:

1. Sign On! – Human Conduct Records, Part 2: The Many Faces of Rick Weaver
2. Sign On!: Human Conduct Records, Part 3: Interview (w/ Rick Weaver)
3. Countdown to Whartscape 2009: T-4 Height | Human Host (Mike Apichella)

1. MP3: Jody Redhage & Fire in July – This November
2. MP3: Jody Redhage & Fire in July – The Botticellian Trees

Ancient Star is the debut album for cellist, composer and vocalist Jody Redhage and her chock full of brass and percussion ensemble: Fire in July. If you’d like to try before you buy, Fire in July plays An Die Musik on Thursday, November 19 at 8pm (more info and tickets). In the meantime, here’s my take on this jazz-fueled riot of mod poet motets:

If you’re looking for an album that resonates like a happy child, one singing more for joy of sound than sense, you’ve got 14 tracks of good music. Strangely enough, the title track  ”Ancient Star” does the least for me. The constant repetitions of the line “It’s a strange courage you give me/Ancient star” just don’t rock my world or soothe my soul. Are we supposed to hit profundity? I’d hate to blame the poet William Carlos Williams, since he provided the words for Redhage to voice. Fans of Laurie Anderson and Lorenna McKennitt alike could find a new songstress to follow. The vocals tend toward thin piping, but come near the clean purity of an 11-year old who is about to become a castrato. Still, you can’t beat the overall bright and colorful timbre in this music. The frivolity borders on the fantastic, and deftly avoids ho-hum derivation.

I kept waiting for Jody’s unbridled cello, which I finally get hardcore in Track 13:  ”Zip.” The wickedly fast solo work would look and sound fierce live, but feels orphaned on the album. Fire in July throws in mostly fun bagatelles, populated by lyrics like “cherry blossom make-believe” that crest with pop-sounding cheery drums or trumpet fanfares. Whimsy is the main show here, with a side of mysterium. I like when the crew flies forward into jazz riffs, but other times I find myself longing for the deep solidity of Palestrina’s layering of tonal lines in a Renaissance madrigal. That Redhage attempts to draw the forms together with rhythm over melody is laudable. This ambitious, intriguing project shows potential to blossom live — as we get with most improvisers. I’d take in the show if you want to hear how a cello gets tight with a vibraphone that loves a trombone who harkens to the bass clarinet.

Release date: Sept 15 2009

Track list:

1. Sometimes There’s God So Quickly (6:04)
2. Rum Point (5:12)
3. Ancient Star (9:32)
4. As the Cat (1:45)
5. Dawning of Day(5:35)
6. This November (6:31)
7. This is Just to Say (1:21)
8. Sister, My Sister (4:42)
9. Calming (2:19)
10. The Botticellian Trees (5:16)
11. Elevation (2:13)
12. I Wonder Why (5:15)
13. Zip (1:34)
14. Greenport Slide (6:11)

Next up from New Amsterdam: the debut recording of a Baltimore School for the Arts (2000) grad: violist Nadia Sirota. Shall we call it the usual story of a hometown girl makes good? Probably, seeing as she’s escaped from Baltimore and seems to dwell in the heart of Brooklyn forevermore. You’d sooner find her playing Le Poisson Rouge than here, but we’re doing what we can to convince her to share the goods down South. Until then, you’ve got her album: First Things First.

For starters, the better your stereo system, the happier you’ll be. This atmospheric set of seven works hinges on subtlety; it deserves the best. No way in hell the MP3 is really gonna do the trick. As for mood, this one’s best enjoyed on a quiet summer’s twilight or a misty winter day.

Of the two albums, Nadia’s really shows you what a string instrument can do. Nadia has the help of cellist Clarice Jenson for the opening track and the Chiara String Quartet for the closer. She gives her viola a full workout. Technical mastery rules without frills and trills.

First Things First offers serious depths. You might call it “traditional” post-modern, if there exists such a category. I venture the great atmosphere is due in no small part to its being recorded at Smith College’s Sage Hall. Tones resound and billow forming a substantial fabric built from one continuous thread that runs throughout the diverse composers: Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, and Marcos Balter.

Marcos Balter’s “Live Water” has all the spunk of a P.J. Harvey song infused with gentle mystery. Whispers and tensions flit through shimmering echoes. Nico Muhly’s “Etude” and “Etude 1A” whip by with verve. Three tracks separate the pair, giving us sophisticated comic relief and welcome continuity. You can tell Nadia’s bow bristles with curiosity for the next big reach. If you secretly enjoy shadowy alleys at night or enjoy reading Charles Baudelaire poems, you’ll love the fluid heft of this album.

Label: New Amsterdam

Release date: May 19 2009

Track list:

1. Duet No. 1, “Chorale Poiting Downwards” (10:10)
2. Etude 1A (03:42)
3. Ut (05:20)
4. Escape (14:04)
5. Live Water (06:05)
6. Etude 1 (03:34)
7. The Night Gatherers (12:59)

Related posts:

1. 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
2. Album Review/Live Review: Steve Hudson Chamber Ensemble Debut: Galactic Diamonds (2010.12.06)
3. Album Review / Exclusive Audio: Height With Friends – Baltimore Highlands (Wham City)