So the focus of our inaugural content, the White Rabbits, has been signed to TBD Records. They are now label-mates with a little band called Radiohead. Congrats to the guys.

We will be checking in with them in a few weeks before they hit the area on their latest tour with Spoon and the Walkmen. Man these guys keep good company.

In the meantime, check out our interview with lead singer and keyboardist Steve Patterson as well of our reviews of their last show with the Walkmen at the Ottobar.
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I knew I should’ve gone to Austin. Psychedelic 60′s icon Roky Erickson pairs with Okkervil River for one of his signature tracks? Sign me the fuck up. Check the video here at spin.com.

And for those unfamiliar, here’s the full MP3 from a Roky anthology. Song should be familiar to those of you who love John Cusack’s High Fidelity.

“You’re Gonna Miss Me Baby” (MP3)

Another vid of merely Okkervil after the jump. And if you’re lucky, by the end of the weekend, I’ll compose and post a psych-influenced mix.
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I can’t find anything remotely interesting going on this weekend. I guess I’m resigning myself to sitting on my couch and watching the ACC basketball tournament. I might be okay with that.

But did I miss something? Is there anything going on this weekend? Post suggestions here so I can go get drunk and embarrass myself among perfect strangers (after my alma mater UNC takes it all).

I’ve been looking around, and here’s a list of things that I can’t get exited about:

Reaction at Sidebar on Friday night. Come on, it’s drizzling outside.

Buying a Wham City-Box-o-crap at Atomic Books… even if it is heralded by the Whitney Museum.

Watching the intentionally shocking and emotionally deadening Funny Games at the Charles. (By the way, did anyone else hate No Country for Old Men?)

Getting help with preparing my taxes at Enoch Pratt on Saturday.

Yep… I guess it’s basketball for me.

Writing about Brother Ali presents a problem. On the one hand I feel dwelling on his background undercuts his music; he even feared this, being so reluctant early on to discuss his race that some mistakenly reported him as African-American.

But on the other hand, an MC isn’t exactly a detached writer striving for Negative Capability. And as his career has progressed, Ali has been increasingly vocal about his Midwestern roots and what the region’s artists have to offer compared to coastal hip-hop, as well as his race and background.
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If you are anything like me, you are absolutely foaming at the mouth with anticipation for My Morning Jacket’s upcoming release Evil Urges, salvation comes in the form of a YouTube-like stream of videos live from their recent stop in Houston.
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OK kids, get your giggles out. Yes, this duo from the UK, comprised of one Andrew Hung and one Benjamin John Power, is called Fuck Buttons (Wiki). Ludicrous name. But to the matter at hand. This week, a copy of their debut full-length called “Street Horrrsing” dropped in my mailbox and I popped it in for a listen.

If you aren’t ready to be immersed and engulfed by sound, or despise repetition and noise, please turn this review off now.
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Guitarist Kevin Hilliard, one-third of DC’s hard-rocking instrumentalists Caverns took some time out to chat about their music and other miscellaneous topics like the role of vocals in metal.

Below are a smattering of streamed tracks for you to enjoy while reading the interview after the jump. Don’t forget to catch them when they lay down the gauntlet with fellow DC-kids Imperial China, next to Baltimore’s own Moscow Telephone and UK crunchy-pop-punk from Buck Brothers on March 21st at Lo-Fi.

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Baltimore tried its hardest to become Ibiza or Miami with last night’s Justice show. Walking into the show mid-set for DJ Mehdi (pictured right), we saw a densely-packed main room with arms flailing high above heads in the flicker of stage lights and strobes, bass-heavy beats pounding you into the ground. I had to double-check the date to make sure I wasn’t at a Buzz event in now-defunct DC nightclub Nation circa 2000. Mehdi established what would be the theme of excellence for the night: flow.
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It was about a year or two ago when French electronic duo Justice was making it’s first US tour. Philly was the closest they were coming to Baltimore, and The Rapture was the opener for that night to boot. I never made it to that show, and I’ve since been wondering what I missed that night.
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I drink too much.

I’m confessing here, under the expand button. I had fully planned on doing a show review of the Cadence Weapon/Born Ruffians show… but it didn’t happen like that.
I got real drunk at the Ottobar Wednesday night during the show (if you need proof, just check out the quality of the picture).

There were very few people in the Ottobar, probably less than 100. The poor attendance was pretty bothersome to me and after a couple+ beers, one thought permeated my mind: “I’ll show Cadence that Baltimore appreciates him!”.

I noticed Rollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon) had been drinking Pilsner Urquill and it was almost empty during his set. So, I went up to the bar like “THREE Natty Bohs… Please!” I should mention that I’m not a total cheap ass, I’m just really poor. I take the extra Boh, after distributing the other two between my boyfriend and my stomach, and go put it next to Rollie’s pilsner on stage. Anyway, he finishes his beer, finishes his set, and grabs the Natty Boh and walks off stage.

(My boyfriend is like “What are you doing???” the whole time).

And I see him take a sip of it (Yes!!) and then he looks all grossed out (NO!) and walks back out on stage, grabs the mic and says “Listen, I grabbed someone else’s beer by accident, sorry”. And he sort of carefully and gently sets it back down in the exact spot he picked it up from, like it never happened.

This is all very obvious to the other 60 people in the Ottobar because I’m not very sneaky about the whole thing – in fact I’m pretty awkward. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking (I wasn’t.) So, I stand around for a while and eventually we left half way during Born Ruffian’s set because it wasn’t very good. It was about 12:30 and I was sleepy. I went home, sent a bunch of weird messages to people that I barely know on Facebook, ate two tacos and went to bed.

I’m a force to be reckoned with..