All photos: Faith Desired

After what was, to be frank, a fantastic live performance at Bonnaroo, I promptly arranged to go see MGMT again in the club setting to see how they fared. What I stumbled upon was a mixed bag experience that, I’m not entirely convinced, is MGMT’s burden to bear.

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Photo 1: Edan Wilber

Photos 2,3: Frank Hamilton

I think I caught the words “Mai Tai” in the middle of “7 Souls”? It doesn’t matter, really; Ponytail have done away with words. Turns out they weren’t as important as we had thought. Singer Molly Siegel yelps and lunges across the stage amidst reports that she might have been sick, but if she performs every night the way that she has on the two occasions I’ve caught the band live — well, I’d be exhausted after one song. Ms. Siegel acts as a focal point for the sounds the other three band members produce, inserting punctuation marks into the musical phrases (instead of the music punctuating the lyrics) with wordless shouts and animalistic yips. The music is a fantastic burst of energy, exciting, flawlessly performed, even occasionally catchy.

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I’ve been combating my recent stress (and distress) with some fantastic new tracks. Thought I’d share a sampling. The first are a pair from an upbeat descendant of Dexy’s Midnight Runners. They are called the Rumble Strips and hail from the UK, and even made a bit of a remix of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” injecting some of their characteristic energy and throwback sound as a bubbling influence just underneath the surface.

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MP3: The Rumble Strips – Time

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MP3: Amy Winehouse – Back to Black (The Rumble Strips remix)

The last track is an electro-dance-fever inducing remix by Tepr of “A Cause Des Garçons,” a track from French superstar-to-be Yelle.

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MP3: Yelle – A Cause Des Garçons (Tepr Remix)

All photos and words courtesy of our in-house photog Caleb Moore!

Dear Baltimore,

Love of my life. Dastardly deamon of colors, body odor, and DIY artstuffs. Shitstorm of creativity and inspiration. A mistress after my own heart, and many many others.

I want you to know I will be bringing many friends to share your scarred, beautiful body. We will feast on it.

You’ve taught me so many things in my one short year as your humble resident. I don’t know where to begin. This was a truly epic, exhausting weekend for all; Whartscape being a most inspiring cavalcade of electronic wizardry, acoustical sublimation, and performance arting.

This is an event that makes dealing with your less attractive qualities ALL WORTH IT. This is why you are being seen (for better or worse) as a mecca of art and music, right under NYC! A cheap, dirty, violent, spastic mutation of your aforementioned big brother.

Whartscape is a culmination of the spirit, energy and honest artistic effort that you are becoming known for.

I just wanted to say thanks for everything, and fuck the police.

From,
Me

◊

TO THE READER:

Miscellaneous Items of Interest (in no particular order):

• Where did all of these attractive people come from? Where are you all hiding? (I’m talking to you, girl with the red patent leather fanny pack and checkered ray bans)
• Greg Gillis’ side project– Why, Why, Why is that girl in the band? What did she do exactly? Play off beat on purpose and “sing”? Whose girlfriend is this? Am I supposed to be asking these questions? Is that all a part of the master plan?
• Ray bans are getting a bit out of control in this town. For that reason, I will cry a single tear.
• EAR PWR will save the free world.
• Beach House has saved my soul. And they are the cutest band alive.
• That kid with the rash on his arms and the crazy eyes. I don’t want to say anything else because he might actually be special.
• Double Dagger– while throwing a tom into the crowd might seem like a good in the heat of the moment, the kid that got hit in the head with it will likely disagree. Control the rage, or instantly lose the respect of potential fans. Ed. Note: Actually, I am pretty sure I saw the big guy after the set and he seemed damn happy to meet Double Dagger. The bleeding head just seemed to irritate him. I could be wrong though…
• Ed Schrader should always wear a leotard.
• Narwhalz (of sound). The hater that we loved to hate love. Please come back and talk more shit about our town, you kicked so much ass.
• There’s NOTHING gay about interpretive dancing.
• Why is White Williams such an ambivalent hard ass (see below)? And since when does he play droney electronic ambiance?
• Baltimore is SMALL. I mean SMALL. Don’t make enemies here.
• Chruches get really dank and sticky when you cram 300+ hipsters into them.
• Lizz King, props to you for being neck-down-naked and melting your own face off almost.
• Creepers.

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ON TO THE PHOTOS!
These are in no order whatsoever (kind of). Please enjoy, and buy me a detachable flash for xmas. Read the rest…

Seems this month is just chock full of new contributors. Welcome Sam Buker, a new A.S. member with a taste for good classical and jazz.

A rare treat in the summer: classical chamber taking a brave stance. Try a sonata (1979) by American George Rochberg, a serialist composer who turned back to tonality after the death of his son. Great deep force from the piano — enough to slam the front seats back a foot. Fantastic thrusts from violist Peter Minkler. But he and Lura Johnson were just warming up for the Shostakovich. Read the rest…

Thursday night, the first night of Whartscape, had that still new and fresh feeling…virginal maybe? Open seats were hard to find in theater 1 of the Charles. Wharstscape posters adorned the wall with phrases like “Worm Paste,” and “Owl Dad.” As with much of Wham City, I have no clue what either poster means, and it’s implied that I’m not supposed to know.
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MP3: Bela Fleck – Foggy Mountain Special from Bluegrass Sessions V.2

If you are a musician, especially an instrumentalist, you have likely heard the name Bela Fleck. If you are a lover of bluegrass, you have likely heard the name Bela Fleck. If you are a banjo lover, you have likely heard the name Bela Fleck.

The list goes on, endlessly. Bela Fleck is one of the most versatile musicians of our time, excelling as both a genre-defying instrumentalist and an arranger. His instrument of choice: the banjo. Raised in New York City and named after the famed composers Bartok, Dvorak and Janacek, he has quite a legacy to live up to. Like so many others, Bela started out on the guitar. But his love of Earl Scruggs’ definitive banjo work in bluegrass and country quickly swayed him onto the banjo. Like the next logical progression from Scruggs, Fleck takes many of the aspects that Scruggs introduced into bluegrass (strong jazz influence, lyrical quality, fluid phrasing, awe-inspiring and complex licks) and takes them to the next level.
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Whartscape 2008′s Friday show was at the 2640 Space, a church undergoing renovation assisted by the Red Emma’s collective. In exchange for their services, they get to hold events provided there is no alcohol sold/drunk on the premises…house of God and all.

This year’s line-up has more variety with a less shotgun-based approach of toss whoever, together whenever (as intimated by Adam in our interview). And what more perfect theme for the 2640 Space than a night focusing on folk, performance art and generally softer music and calmer music than the electronic spazz rock Wham City is better known for. The hallowed and empty space, presided over by stained glass cut with sacred and holy images, is one cavernous room. An orator’s dream, as well as any musician or vocalist.

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Easily the most striking thing about the new Abe Vigoda album is its production, which is downright poppy relative to tour-mates No Age. Spindly guitars with bizarre effects take up odd angles against each other and tumble from the speakers like Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s used to do when he played in a rock band. Vocals are occasionally intelligible in the mix, performed with a discernible charisma, sometimes chanted, with a dedication to pitch and harmony that recall Eric Gaffney. They’ve also clearly taken a textural shade from another Pride of Baltimore, Animal Collective, minus their obvious influence of that fucking catbird that sits outside my Parkton window every morning and insists upon squaking until I wake.

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This is one of the few times my personal views will really skew a post on this site. I really shouldn’t even be posting this as it is so non-musically related, but hell it’s my ship and I’ll turn the rudder when I want to! First the music business: this may be the best use of Machina-era Smashing Pumpkins track…EVER (Nolen from Double Dagger agrees).

Watchmen is, in my eyes, one of the greatest works of fiction in any genre. Following the tortured existence of superheroes in an alternate reality 1985 Cold War USA, characters such as Rorschach, a vigilante force-of-nature whose only superpower seems to be tenacity and resilience, make the work truly engrossing. It puts brutally realistic and flawed characters in extremely unrealistic situations, while addressing universal themes and philosophical struggles.

One of the few works truly deserving the descriptor epic (it would seem I am in good company, as Time magazine agrees in its All-time 100 Novels feature in 2005). The news-stand meta-commentary and analysis running concurrently with the main storyline. Intrigue. Love. Death, unceremonious and final which is such a rarity in the graphic novel/comic book genre. For me, this work is probably the most compelling argument for the validity and power of the graphic storytelling medium, proving that it is just as valid as any other method of storytelling and can carry as much weight. In fact, the visual elements by Gibbons are so well done, so integral to the pacing and meaning of the work, it’s hard to imagine ever writing this story without the aid of visuals. Which bodes well for the film adaptation forthcoming from 300 director Zak Snyder. His attention to detail and fantastically accurate reproduction of scenes from the graphic novel onto the big screen will likely be a big asset.

If you saw The Dark Knight this weekend in a mainstream theater, then you’ve already seen this and probably though “WTF is this about?” If you haven’t then please, take a gander at this.

Now start salivating and praying this is more substance and less flash than Hollywood is used to.