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MP3: Radiant Dragon – Oysters

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MP3: Radiant Dragon – Cloud Seeding

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MP3: Girls – Lust for Life

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MP3: Girls – Hellhole Ratrace

Sarah: Uncharacteristically silent until now. Queen of Hoxton gave me the willies. The neighborhood, Shoreditch, was awash with trendiness + suits. Bad vibes were just oozing all over.

Queen of Hoxton ceiling art

A very frat boy/Wall Street vibe. Hostility everywhere. Thousands of disco balls making me seasick as I tried to cross the room.

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MP3: Abe Vigoda – Don’t Lie from Reviver EP (2009)

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MP3: Cats In Paris – Get Out Of Jail Free Card

Dave again. I’ll handle the account of our trip up to the Midlands since I spent a good many months nestled in Central England a few years ago. First off–our Saturday night support slot in Nottingham:

Wallpaper eating Nathan in Brighton

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MP3: Blossom Dearie – I Like London In The Rain

It fucking rains in England.

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The longest day of days…

Baltimore: Dave is petting Fred. Sarah is arguing with her dad about pasta sauce. “Just a disagreement” … Fred is a good dog. “Not running away” .. We’re sitting in the frontyard waiting for Dave’s parents 2 send us off. Strawberry fresa goya under the evening sun. “It’s like 15mins til 6 and I’m cooking pasta” – Sarah … We leave for BWI at 6.

upset tummies

What time is it?!?!

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Everyone welcome Dave, Sarah and Nathan of Baby Venom. They’ll be doing some guest tour-blogging while they head over to the UK. I’ve taken the liberty of cheesily naming their column “Running Am-UK.” Enjoy!

Head over heels

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MP3: Baby Venom – Frank

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MP3: Baby Venom – Moms and Dads

We are about to go on our first ever tour. Our first ever shows outside of Baltimore City.

We = Baby Venom.  From left to right: Natal Duncan, Davey C. Section, Sarah Bortion.

You will hear about our experiences on tour for the next month (spoiler alert: we’re playing with Deerhunter May 18th!).

[Author's Note: this is a dual review. Alex is doing part one, and I'm finishing it up. let us know your thoughts, plz. thx!]

ROUND ONE – ALEX MUDGE

Opener riot grrl group Kill Meow, were, well named Kill Meow, and sold thongs at the merch table. I guess that speaks for itself.

Baby Venom, as I have said before, was a surprising treat to stumble upon. I had doubts about the live show, and there were some slips-ups (a pedal failed, some awkward transitions, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed). As a whole the set was impressive. Perhaps that is not the right word—the set was endearing.

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Check out Baby Venom along with the Vivian Girls (already shouted-out) October 1 @ the Ottobar.

We here at Aural States receive a surprising amount of music to review, or at least I find it surprising given that our blog hasn’t existed for more than a year, and our original goal was to possibly get into some shows for free. And, as has been stated before, a surprising amount of that music is decent, but most of that music comes through online promotions companies. Sometimes we are given music directly from an acquaintance, or someone that somehow knows about our involvement with Aural States.

These encounters make me cringe, because I usually have a pre-existing relationship with the person, and I don’t have the nerve to honestly tell them what I think if the material is poor. I generally try to avoid these situations. So when my friend Dave (Coldspring Lane food service unite!) gave me a CD-R of his band’s EP, I was bracing for the worst. But I should have known better. Baby Venom has a solid pedigree. Needless to say, I was surprised (there is that word again) by the inventiveness of the group. Read the rest…