I did some show hopping last Saturday, first catching DC’s premiere instrumental rockers Caverns in their opening set for MD legends Clutch. Spreading their wings on the Main Stage, Caverns seemed a bit lost on the big stage. They definitely work best in smaller venues, but thankfully their massive sound fills out any gaps left untrampled by guitarist (and sole kineticist) Kevin Hilliard’s frantic scrambling and freak-outs all over the stage. Their second time opening for Clutch, they’re no stranger to the tunnel vision that often dominates the minds of many in Clutch’s fanbase. But ever resilient to chants and heckles beckoning for Clutch, they chip away more and more fans as their sound grows ever more massive in their set.  Quite possibly the loudest I’ve seen them since Aural States Fest.

They are sure to be even louder tonight at the Hexagon with bastard cousin Solar Powered Sun Destroyer, locals Lexanne and headliners Night Horse.

Caverns

From there, an abrupt mood and style shift as I headed over to mope territory at the Ottobar with Cursive and Tim Kasher’s emotive yowls headlining, and the ever-effusive Love Language opening.  To be brutally honest, I was underwhelmed by Cursive.  Progressively more adventurous in their latest efforts, to me they still fall short of capturing lightning in a bottle that was The Ugly Organ, that mixture of catchy, sappy, and adventurous that feels just right.  Sad but true.  Kasher’s bubbling stew was plenty big, but lacked much punch.

By contrast, openers The Love Language proved even more effusive than my last time seeing them. They are 2 for 2 wowing me with phenomenal live performances and presence.

Cursive

Thanks to Benn from Atomic for the heads-up exclusive scoop on Hampdenfest performances this year!  Looks super-solid.

The festival starts at 11. The Barrage Band Orchestra is a marching band that will march through the festival from 11 - 11:45.

The bands playing on stage will start shortly after that. And they run up til 7PM. Then usually there are post-festival shows at Golden West Cafe, El Rancho Grande and Fraziers.

Each stage is going to be hosted by performers from the Bar Bacon Comedy Night – so comedians.

There is also a film festival scheduled to take place all day in the Hampden Family Center.

And finally – a special guest appearance by Double Dagger tribute band - DAGGER DOUBLES – made up of Benn Ray and former Double Dagger members Brian Dubin, Mag Sabo.

STAGE SCHEDULE (updated Fri Aug 21)

Read the rest…

Let’s give a warm welcome to the ever-evolving panel of intrepid showgoers known henceforth as UnDetectable Genius. They will bringing us “the best and brightest” of the local scene (in a sense).

Metal’s Humanity’s most promising act took the stage on this sultry summer evening, serving riffs so fattening and sweet, one would compare it to taking in a Cinnabon…  not just listening to music created by the employees of one.

It is tough to define or describe Bob’s sound with the vernacular of mere mortals, but many have found comfort within the confines of one word: “Timeless.”  With influences like Limp Bizkit, Korn, POD, Sevendust, Limp Bizkit, and even Korn it is understandable that Bob is a band that has defined not just a new genre of music…. but a new movement.

Read the rest…

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MP3: Lands and Peoples – Bad Habits

This is only their second EP, and I daresay Lands & Peoples are one of the most intriguing new projects to sprout out of our city’s fertile musical soil.

There will undoubtedly be comparisons to other, more prominent textural haze-languishers on the scene, Beach House.  And there are definite similarities, as both make liberal use of echo-chamber vocals, warm and foggy aural landscapes, and a consistently slow-to-mid-tempo trot. Beach House reaches internally to wrangle dense and massive, backwards-gazing phantasmagoria, Lands & Peoples add a twist, willfully emerging from the haze for stark moments of lucidity.  In Beach House, I see awe-inspiring, almost otherworldly power whereas Lands & Peoples aims to better capture those more precious, personal moments.

Their sound is, in a sense, quite of the moment.  Tying together the threads of some of the most gorgeously couched pop in circulation today.  The intro track “Six Weeks” swells with a swirling, amorphous sound mass reminiscent of High Places.  Vocal oohs fade in and out eerily, looped electronic fuzz and delicate percussive lines slowly layer atop one another, like drizzling molasses coating everything.  ”Bad Habits” builds further on this, taking some cues from Beach House’s dilapidated melodic progressions and the lingering, full vocals.  The juxtaposition of simple, staccato percussion lines provide a great, propulsive foil.  Where Beach House often feels so big it is almost overwhelming, Lands & Peoples are more prone to receding into a more fragile and nimble beast.  But this is not to say that L&P play the role of the timid wisp, as “Bad Habits” eventually works up the nerve to become quite the lush number.

“Awake” starts with glitched-out, downtuned synth lines before Moore’s voice punches through like some vivid mirage through a desert haze as the synth loop churns ever forward, a persistent tide of somnambulence.  The track also showcases some nice vocal acrobatics and harmonies with Beau Cole. The gorgeously seductive “Isabella” is a mind-blowing shift, and far and away the best track on the album.  Well worth the price of admission, the sparse guitar lines and longing,  rich vocal harmonies loom hauntingly.  The vulnerable tone shift of the guitar and vocals from mournful to gentle, optimistic lullaby is inspired.  Nothing short of bliss.  ”Cars Like Waves” rounds out the EP first with a gentle instrumental half, followed by something like a distorted melody ripped from a children’s carousel or funhouse.

Lands & Peoples traffic in rich, tender aural textures with a distinctly personal element, churning out one of the most promising releases from the local scene this year.  Catch them tonight at the Talking Head as they return from their tour to open for Philly’s Kurt Vile.

If you like “Bad Habits” and what you’ve read, pick up the album on the group’s Bandcamp site.

Conflict of Interest: Caleb Moore has contributed to Aural States before, but I think I am pretty unbiased in my assessments.  I mean, look how badly I treated him during his short-lived stint as Thrust Lab’s lead singer.

Label: Unsigned

Release Date: Jul 25 2009

Track list:
1. Introduction (Six Weeks)
2. Bad Habits
3. Awake
4. Isabella
5. Cars Like Waves

We’re driving on some backwoods highway through bum-fuck Indiana, damning our GPS’s guidance in return for a shorter, more scenic route, and we’ve been in so many Starbucks our sweat has taken on that caffinated, corporate-America aroma, but we washed that off in the lake we (no joke) bathed in yesterday, which was our first bathe-sesh on the tour. We’ve got 4 more shows before we make our way back to Baltimore for our last show. So far it’s been: A trailer deep in the Pennsylvania mountains, a cafe’ in Columbus, OH with a huge moon…like, extra-big, and a basement in Bloomington, IN. We’ve had to compete with the Deer-Dan-Age Round Robin show, twice already (damn those enticing Deacon people tunnels…it’s where all the kids wanna be) If they come ANYWHERE near you, you should definitely go see it, if only to get wasted and thrash around to No Age (so fun!!!).

We’re on our way to Chicago to play at the Ottoman Empire (2820 W. Lyndale St) and Unique Chique is gonna come out and play too!! Woohoo!!

Tonight is our last show with Secret Mountains and European Swans, which is pretty sad. We’ve had a fuggin’ amazing time. After tonight they are headed to Michigan for a couple of shows, Akron, OH, and Pittsburgh. These guys are the reason we’re on tour to begin with so, if you’ll be in these areas, check out they’re myspace for the specifics on these shows (myspace.com/secretmountains).

Alright, soldiering on down this curvy country road of cornstalks and abandoned barns, blanketed with little to no phone reception…CHICAGO HERE WE COME! We can’t wait to have your historic wind in our hair.

-Beau

Celebration
Metro Gallery Lot
Baltimore, MD
August 7, 2009

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck21(subcard)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Full set downloads: MP3 or FLAC formats

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1. MP3: Comets
2. MP3: Pressure
3. MP3: —
4. MP3: —
5. MP3: —
6. MP3: What’s This Magical
7. MP3: —
8. MP3: I Will Not Fall
9. MP3: —
10. MP3: Heartbreak
11. MP3: —
12. MP3: —
13. MP3: audience/dialogue
14. MP3: E: Billie Jean*

Notes:
Lineup:Beach House>Celebration
Outdoor show.
*Michael Jackson cover/with Beach House
Thanks to Adam for the windscreens
Sound: Natasha Tylea Cooke & Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Beach House
Metro Gallery Lot
Baltimore, MD
August 7, 2009

Source: Peluso CEMC6/ck21(subcard)>PS-2>AD-20>NJB3
Transfer: NJB3>PC>SF-7>Wav>FLAC
Taper: Jeff Mewbourn (jm292@yahoo.com)

Set has been taken down for the time being. Maybe later gator, as Beach House gets closer to their album release!

Notes:
Lineup:Beach House>Celebration
Outdoor show.
Thanks to Adam for the windscreens
Sound: Natasha Tylea Cooke & Adam Cooke
SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC

Tired of not finding a place to dance until dawn cracks over Fed Hill? Grab a pair of leather-soled shoes and get fresh with Afro-Brazilian roots at an Argentine milonga. Between now and Monday morning at 3 AM, you can dance all-day and all-night in the ballroom of the grand historic Tremont Plaza Hotel at 22 St. Paul Place.

Tango Element Baltimore gives three nights of freedom to dance (in 2/4 time) for as long as you can last. Master your feet with blind instinct, hand on the flesh your partner bares over red denim pants. Unlike your usual club circuit follies, the name of this game is infinite trust. Dare we venture it? Intimacy. But don’t worry, the scene’s not without it’s eyebrow piercings and black-painted toenails, shaved headed sweethearts, cargo pants with high heels and plenty of tattoos (some peeping out from under a flash of skirt during a leg kick). This is a heaven of tight skirts and pantylines. No one is shy.

Excepting old friends, most of the conversations are conducted by shoe. A white leather shoe speaks volumes when it crosses a red heel. The red heel rebuffs then relents in a serpentine twist that’s untangled in a flash.

Eyes closed, breath bated, you’re ready to follow your partner’s lead. There’s the chiding tease of the instep, a coquetry unmatched by any bump and grind for subtly of seduction. A foot brush is a request. The lady can request right back. The beauty of tango is about delineating boundaries in order to break them. (Astor Piazzolla’s tangos break as many rules as the almighty Beethoven did.)

There’s the art of looking open and ready to dance even when sitting down, bidding an invitation to stroll onto the floor. When I asked waiting dancer: “Why tango?”

She responds in a heartbeat: “It’s the best cure for a break up.”

She then confides that it’s a “smart” dance. Smart did not only mean sharp footwork. She said she met more PhDs per capita dancing tango than through any other scene. This prowler trekked all the way from Montreal to seduce cheek-to-cheek.

Really all that’s missing is a live bandoneonist, someone who makes fast and bold as lightning on those buttons. Yes, one who plays that sweltering squelch of air and sex box we call the bandoneón. The rumor is one used to play church music on this Argentine cousin of the concertina. So what better sounds to soak into these hallowed old walls of Grand Lodge of Masonic templedom? I had it from the organizer of the event, Callie, that the developer of the new Tremont Grand building came into this space and didn’t have the heart to tear it down. Thanks to him, you’ve got a chance to twine legs in a Gothic church under heavy candle chandeliers, facing a painting of Christ Jesus and his many sainted compatriots on one end, before swinging by the DJ table on the other.

The guests, top-notch performers who show you how it is done didn’t even hit the dance floor until 2 a.m. Mariano “Chico” Frumboli take Mariano Montez into close embrace just as I was bound for the door. (Sigh. Some of us have work at 9 am the next morning).

Try out a milonga for $10-$15. Click here to see the full schedule. Drop in during the day for classes.

All you need: stamina, passion, and leather-soled shoes. (Strappy heels for the ladies).

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MP3: Beach House + Celebration – Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover)

I thought this little tidbit deserved its own space.  And given that I didn’t really make a big to-do about Michael Jackson’s death, I feel like this is a good, locally-grown tribute.  Let me break it down for you.

The formula: Beach House + Celebration + Michael Jackson + Metro Gallery Outdoors + Cool Summer Night = Win.

This special collaborative cut served as a wonderful nightcap.  After Celebration’s last song, the bands merged for an encore treat: Michael Jackon’s “Billie Jean.”  Victoria Legrand and Katrina Ford traded off vocals while the rest of Celebration and Alex Scally reproduced that supple, instantly recognizable throbbing beat that just moves you in the way few can.  A faithful rendition with a bit of added flourish in the form of richer synth tones, some and vocal tweaks.  Two of Baltimore’s best, covering one of pop’s icons.  Doesn’t get much better.

Stay tuned for the full sets from both Beach House and Celebration (taped by the Baltimore Taper) later today.

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MP3: Microkingdom – Aire Metal (Chopped and Screwed) from Spectacular Edges (2009)

I still don’t know what to make of Microkingdom’s core duo, Will Redman and Marc Miller. It seems like they’re out to do exactly what they’re doing, and sounds like what they make is on-par with their standards.

But what of the people themselves? They met in a high school cafeteria; both went on to create lives revolving around music in one way or another (Redman getting his PhD in music composition, Miller working with Oxes). Years later, both living in Baltimore, they met up and began jamming once more, a practice that eventually turned itself into what we call Microkingdom. Basically an umbrella term for the works of Redman and Miller.  I had a chance to talk to percussion guru Dr. Redman after their improv-rock set at Whartscape 2009, and strikingly enough, he appeared to be the most stable minded individual at the whole damn festival. Coming from the man whose music often moves like a swarm of angry insects, I figured he’d be a little more in the clouds. Not the case, for he was straightforward, easygoing, relaxed, all of those neutral qualities employers look for in job interviews, and then some.

After our short conversation, the compostion maestro handed me a copy of Microkingdom’s latest effort, Spectacular Edges. Now, unlike the disc’s title, it finds the free-jazzers in a softer, more deliberate place compared to the rocky landscapes of 2008’s Wrenches: My Heart/Double Abacus. Where the latter hikes chaotically through the cavernous trenches of the trio’s (including Mr. John Dierker’s) raw instrumental prowess, the former gladly gains some composure and takes some time out for production to work its magic.

The music is cushy: oversampled sax lines feel like feathers across the surface of Redman’s amoeba-like rhythms. I hesitate to bring up the word “glitch” in this post, mostly because a free-jazz-glitch genre sounds too ridiculous to be real, but hell if Microkingdom don’t give it a shot. The clipped reedwork of John Dierker gives “Squirrel Level” and “Aire Metal (Chopped And Screwed)” just the right amount of pizzaz necessary to pull off the tracks without having sounded like remix jazz. And even if you’re looking for more standard issue Microkingdom jams, the good people behind the name have even planted a taped session (by Jeff Mewbourn), entitled “Family Day Red Room,” containing some of their finest material.

The release ends on an unpredictably beautiful note: “Quring Startet.” Composed by Will Redman, this is a piece written for a simple string quartet, its electronic accompaniment adds a little spook to its already lonesome nature. Though it sits as Spectacular Edges’ odd duck out, it effortlessly characterizes the bulk of Microkingdom’s recorded catalog–and in just over a minute at that. Chasing one of their songs feels like navigating through an unfamiliar city. You can’t tell if the sounds you’re currently hearing are going to go anywhere, but you most definitely want to find out. Then, at long last, it’s all over. But you want just a little bit more.