Welcome our newest contributor Lou Takacs out of good ol’ PGH. He took some time to chat with Mark Olson, formerly of the Jayhawks.

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Mark Olson – Clifton Bridge

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Mark Olson – Poor Michael’s Boat

Mark Olson’s singularly mournful voice—markedly unchanged from The Jayhawks’ first widely distributed release Blue Earth in 1989 to last year’s solo masterwork The Salvation Blues (Hacktone)—has always suggested someone far older in spirit than in age. But in forming that cult-legend band that jump-started the still burgeoning roots-rock/No Depression/Americana movement, Olson evinced this quality in his mindset as much as his singing. Read the rest…

In celebration of Thrushes upcoming Heartbeats Remixed CD release show at the Metro Gallery on Sat May 10, we’ve got a boatload of schwag from them and Dead Leaf Echo (NYC). Check out 2 tracks from the remix CD and one from Dead Leaf Echo’s EP Pale Fire.

Entry is easy! Just leave your name, location and email in a comment or send an email off to auralstates@gmail.com. Winners will be drawn on Fri May 9 and notified by email that morning.

Here’s the schwag up for grabs:

1 Grand Prize (must be Baltimore local, attend show)

from Thrushes: 1 copy of Heartbeats Remixed and Sun Come Undone, 1 shirt, 1 guest list, signed and numbered poster from Raveonettes show, copy of Hymnen CD Inferno in Vogue from Sonadors, stickers, buttons and whatever else Casey can fit into the giant black garbage bag.

from Dead Leaf Echo: 1 copy of Pale Fire, 1 shirt, assorted stickers

1 First Prize (must be Baltimore local, attend show)

from Thrushes: 1 copy of Heartbeats Remixed, 1 shirt, 1 guest list

from Dead Leaf Echo: 1 copy of Pale Fire, 1 shirt, assorted stickers

2 Second Prizes (open to anyone)

from Thrushes: 1 copy of Heartbeats Remixed

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Thrushes – Heartbeats

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Thrushes – Heartbeats (DtheNextLevel)

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Thrushes – Heartbeats (WKCsound)

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Dead Leaf Echo – Tears

Hey kids, new, streamlined interface with sleek WordPress innards.

Don’t miss our super-fantastic celebratory week of new content, including a whiz-bang contest sponsored by your friendly neighborhood Baltimore songbirds.

Greg’s take: I was happy that Myspace was granting us a second, more notable secret show than the Circa Survive thing. I mean c’mon, other cities got Smashing Pumpkins and Decemberists… And nothing was necessarily bad about the show, just nothing really good about it. I agree with most of Alex’s much more detailed take. Meligrove was middle-of-the-road, clean but simple mall-fodder indie pop-rock. What more could you expect from a Myspace-sponsored show? Tokyo Police Club were highly polished, but the “wow” factor that was expected to keep consistent with the hype was non-existent. Their music elicited merely a “that’s really nice” response. It was a free show, so I don’t really have any room to complain; if I had paid though, all bets would’ve been off.

Alex’s take: Coming out of the Tokyo Police Club “Myspace Secret Show” at the Talking Head Club last night I found myself thinking Aural States had committed its first major blunder—we got caught up in the hype surrounding a show that probably didn’t deserve as much attention as it got.

Upon receiving the announcement for the show, I was giddy with what I thought was fresh-and-breaking knowledge. Enough to make me forget my original opinion of Tokyo Police Club—a band that makes decent, though completely unremarkable indie pop songs a la mtvU. I had succumbed to dangerous Internet group-think (read: retardation), combined with a music blogger’s fear of missing fodder for snide comments fired at a distance. Read the rest…

Tokyo Police Club, as you all well know, are playing a Myspace-sponsored free show at everyone’s favorite B-more rock venue, the Talking Head Club.

Odds are good this is going to be the smallest venue these kids will play for a long time. Take advantage and get in line early. Doors @ 8PM and admission first-come, first-serve.

Continuing the theme of free goodies, here’s 3 tracks I’ve collected for you. Get pumped, see you at the show.

Tokyo Police Club – In A Cave

Tokyo Police Club – Graves (Daytrotter Session)

Tokyo Police Club – Nature of the Experiment (live on Dinner With the Band)
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This is coming a few days late and will probably be a lot too short. But hey, take these pills of MP3 forgiveness and read on, intrepid music fan.
All photos: Beau Finley

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Zulu Pearls – If It’s All the Same

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Double Dagger – Luxury Condos for the Poor

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Double Dagger – Camera Chimera

This show had great potential. Musically, I thought for the most part the artists kept up their end of the bargain. Double Dagger and Imperial China killed it. Zulu Pearls, not so much, but they were earnest, I will give them that. But come on DC; you had 3 (4, but I missed B&W Jacksons) prime and distinct sounds to get down to and you mostly failed.

Imperial China, this being their CD release, did get the most people moving. But Double Dagger’s performance was pure electricity. But let’s start from the beginning (well, mine)…Zulu Pearls.
Read the rest…

Finally, B-more getting some love from all over. First Spin last year, now name-drops in 2008 Rolling Stone, Blender, XLR8R. Now, Fox-syndicated giant social network Myspace joins the fray for their second Baltimore-based free show.

Tokyo Police Club @ the Head. This Sunday.
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Some tracks sitting in my inbox, figured I’d proliferate them. For all to enjoy or rag on. Opinions?

Though the track never fully releases its joyous tension, Lykke Li’s “Dance Dance Dance” is probably the best of the trio (her vocals kind of make me squishy inside and the sax solo just screams endearing exuberance), followed by the Forms. The Forms track has that distasteful modern rock radio edge to it that I find leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, yet it still manages to intrigue me to no end. The Annuals track is a little too over the top, trying to be “that track” a la the Shins or Coldplay.

Annuals – Sore

The Forms – Red Gun

Lykke Li – Dance Dance Dance

While reading, enjoy these Autechre tracks, “Flutter” from Anti EP and the others from Quaristice. If you like what you hear and read, support the artist and pick up their material.

Autechre – Flutter

Autechre – Simmm

Autechre – Notwo

When Kandinsky developed abstract art he looked toward music, and intense aural experiences. The result was totally organic expressions of form and color, paintings with no reference to a figurative world. In a similar way Autechre’s music has always been about total abstraction, about pure sensory experience.
Read the rest…

As a brass and tuba player, it is hard to find composers that really know how to utilize your instrument in a dynamic way that sounds great and feels great to play. I present to you, Hector Berlioz (pictured right). French composer whose pieces Symphonie fantastique and Damnation of Faust are an absolute joy to play and hear performed.

Berlioz had a great knack for composing expressive bass lines and arranging for powerful brass instrumentation.

The fourth movement is a propulsive march with a progressively more turbulent, unstable feel due to abrupt changes between passages, juxtaposing extreme dynamics and opposing string and brass lines in its final minute. Its melodies are longer, more drawn out phrases than typically seen, but consistent with the big sweep-and-swell motif established from the start of the first movement and really giving the march a more epic feel. Whet your appetite with this performance of the fourth movement by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded for Deutsch Grammophon.

Hector Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique – IV. Marche au Supplice (March to the Scaffold)

Marin Alsop and the BSO tackle Symphonie Fantastique as well as Prokofiev’s first piano concerto, featuring 20-year-old rising star Yuja Wang (Wiki) on piano. Performances at the Meyerhoff April 25-27, opening April 24 at the Strathmore in Bethesda. Tickets start at a low $15. Highly recommended.
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