Aural States

“That’s the way it is all through the States,” says Duffy Driediger, vocalist/guitarist of Ladyhawk, his irritation only slightly tempered by resignation after playing to an audience of around a dozen at Washington’s DC9 on May 11.

Dutifully, the four-piece had gone in front of the nearly empty room and laid down a rock solid barrage of gritty yet hook-filled numbers from their second full-length on Jagjaguwar, Shots, capped with the anthemic “The Dugout” from their self-titled debut, which the band (and they’re right) seems to hold out as a striking gem inexplicably languishing in the gravel bed of modern rock. A lot like Ladyhawk itself.
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Oh man, so that’s why I was feeling so off-balance at Ft Reno last summer.  Apparently, it’s due to ARSENIC IN THE SOIL.

BYT reports here.

NBC4 reports here.

WaPo blog reports here.

I hope this shit gets cleared up.  Soon.

This intrepid writer busted his foot while at this show. Jeff the Taper nearly killed himself by a bludgeoning to the head.

But you know what? Totally worth it. Monday night, Bmore again proved its mettle.

This show was a veritable who’s who of Baltimore (and even some DC) regional booty-movers-and-floor-shakers: Emily Rabbit, Dave Nada, Cullen Stalin, Scottie B, Blaqstarr, Rye Rye, it just goes on and on. Check after the jump for full review, more pics, and an Old Haunts track.

All photos: Josh Sisk

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Everyone give a warm welcome to James Rodd, our newest contributor. This is his first piece, on what he believes drives pop music and culture. It is also our first staff op-ed article, falling under the series State of Mind. Enjoy, and feel free to comment in agreement or disagreement.

All my life I have heard people, whether it be the media or someone else, say that popular culture is cyclic and repetitive. Basically this means, things that were once “in” and fashionable will come back full circle at some point and be “in” and fashionable once again.

I don’t agree with this at all. In fact, I sincerely hope it is a fallacy because I am not looking forward to seeing my pre-middle aged ass in spandex or leather pants again, reliving my metal head days ca. 1987 – 1995.

Here’s how I see it: pop-culture is an amorphous shape.

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So there’s this band called Snowden that made quite a good impression on me at the Talking Head a few years ago. They already get massive bonus points for naming themselves after a character in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.

Snowden - Anti-Anti

Snowden - Innocent Heaven

Do NOT miss this show.  This line up is going to explode Sonar from the inside out.  This is not hype, this is fact.  I have never been to a tame Death Set show.

Enjoy this Bonde do Role remix.

Bonde do Role - Melo do tabaco (A-Trak remix)

Holy shit. What a show. Set list, courtesy of cure-concerts.de. That’s right. An over 3 hour show. Fan-fucking-tastic. Review for BYT is up here. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Enjoy this Cure cover from WHY.

WHY - Close to me

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OK, so we drew some numbers from a random number generator and assigned winners for the Thrushes giveaway.

Grand prize - Brady Salzman First prize - April Gray Second prize (2) - Asa Eisenhardt, Paul Timer

Hooray, check your emails and respond if necessary with info. Don’t miss the show and be a sore loser. Tomorrow night @ the Metro Gallery. Check the flyer at your right for more info.

Fresh off a deliciously vintage early generation Creative Nomad audio player (Creative bought Rio, one of the pioneers making the first generation of portable MP3 players back in the mid-90s), Jeff the Baltimore Taper serves up some sweet sweet audio from the openers of the Teenagers-headlined bill at the Ottobar this week.  All photos: Victor Will

For Team Robespierre, go here.

For Smart Growth, go here.

Some context/set-up from Jeff:

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Download the entire set as FLAC files here, stream the MP3s below and download by clicking the song name.

Smart Growth

The Ottobar

Baltimore, MD

May 6, 2008

Smart Growth is: Dennis Bowen-drums, beats

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck41(hypercard)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3

Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC

Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

http://baltimore-taper.blogspot.com

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