Email us at auralstates@gmail.com or comment this post for a chance to win a Caverns prize pack featuring a bunch of new merch (shirts, lighters, stickers, buttons etc). Winner drawn next week.

Two of our DC favorites, Imperial China and Caverns, are playing a show with True Womanhood tomorrow night at the Black Cat Backstage. And it seems DC is starting to pay attention, with this DCist Three Stars interview feature.

To whet your whistle, here’s a slew of A.S. exclusive downloads, “Radhus”(an old fan-favorite) off Imperial China’s Methods: EP and a few older ones from Caverns:

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MP3: Imperial China – Radhus

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MP3: Caverns – The Family that Slays Together Stays Together

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MP3: Caverns – Turkish Bathhouse Armageddon

While you are listening, read our interview with Kevin from Caverns, our review of Imperial China’s EP, our live review of their show at the now-defunct Lo-Fi…or just check out all of our previous coverage on Caverns or Imperial China.

Caverns are working on their first full-length album, Silk Scorpion. You can check out the progress on their blog. They will be heading into the studio over Labor Day to throw down some new tracks for you, dear listener.

Imperial China are busy honing their live show, shopping up some new material and making daytrips up to Baltimore to check out all the cool shit we have going on.

Everyone welcome our newest contributor, Julia Conny!  Her first piece is a review on a disc much-beloved in the ancient halls of Aural States’ labyrinthine lair…

Catch their show this Friday July 11th @ the Metro Gallery with Sonadors, Sun Tornado and Sawhorse.

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MP3: Imperial China – “There is no translation”

Methods: is a tumbling combo of post and experimental flavors. DC trio Imperial China are full-strength with their note-bending and stocked case of effects pedals. Post-rock, punk and hardcore, electronica, prog and even, dare I say, grunge are all celebrated and sampled. Slicing through like a house of knives in an earthquake, Methods: practices astute musicianship, expansive ideas of melody and layering, and a sort of fluidity that buff up the whole package.

But when the bass lines bounce of the scratchy riffs on the beginning of “Sirens”, the instrumental tangents are, in an odd way, predictable. Vocalist Brian Porter starts up his sing-speak, hollering like blunt DC visionary, Ian MacKaye or Marc Paffi (Bear Vs. Shark), and it’s almost too easy. The erratic guitar excursions. The pinpoint bounce of the snare. The spacey romanticism and hope on “Space Anthem”. It flows so well, it may flow too well.

But maybe that’s the point.

Read the rest…

Bit of cross-posted action to BYT for the These New Puritans show at DC9.  A number of things conspired to drag the show down, some act of god shit, some artist fault.  Read on, intrepid reader.  Photo set courtesy of BYT’s Lexie Moreland.

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…

Imperial China impressed us in their last outing @ Lo-Fi with Caverns. A lot.

I don’t have time right now to really review this track and lavish the praise it deserves, but I will later today. I just wanted to get this out there.

Imperial China has their EP release party this Friday in DC with Baltimore’s own Double Dagger at the Rock and Roll Hotel. This should definitely be worth the drive.

Thanks to Matt, Brian and Patrick for leaking the lead track to us. Great, spacious post-hardcore/post-punk/post-take-your-pick, reminding me at times of my old favorites Snapcase. Watch them closely.

Imperial China – There is no translation
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DC sent some of its premier music-makers to Baltimore this past Saturday. Imperial China specialize in a decaying, spaced and fuzzed out, tribal brand of post-punk. Some apt comparisons have been thrown about to Battles. I would challenge that they are a sight more intense. They played a ferocious set that was highly percussive. At times having 2 members on drums, their lines created a sense of anticipation and foreboding. Both front-men doubled duty on guitar and bass, switching frequently. This fed into the chaotic feel of the music and was topped by the twitchy guitar and bass work, post-punk flavored and coming down like sheets of rain. The entire set was utterly haunting and senses-smashing. They have some great musical ideas and it will be exciting to see where they take things.

And now, onto Caverns.

What can I say. These guys are 2 for 2 in my book. They absolutely destroyed. Their songwriting possesses perfect control of pacing and packs a lot of guitar, drum and keyboard depth into digestible and cohesive tracks. Guitarist Kevin’s energy was through the roof, frequently thundering down off the stage to romp around the floor amidst the audience mid-song, ax flailing and wailing. He even chased off a pre-set heckler within the first minute of the first song. But when appropriate he pulled back in a stunning showcase of his ability to not only shred but inject serenity and nuance into his playing. “The family that slays together stays together” is probably the best example of this.

Patrick’s keyboard work was lush and immersive, but almost overpowering. In fact, the whole sound was pretty damned deafening (as has been commented on before by Jeff the Taper). But the songs even held up in the din of induced tinnitis. I would have liked more clarity from the guitar in the mix, but nothing could be done on Caverns’ end of this. It was hard to pick out the drums most of the time, but when they came through they seemed on point. The thing I really appreciated this go-around that I overlooked last time with Say Hi was the electronics by Ira. Asking to have all the lights cut out, I realized they lug around their own lighting. And it does a spectacular job of accenting the music and setting the mood, simply with the colors amber and white.

Spectacular set, personal highlight being “This are Syntax”. It was also nice to hear the title track off their newest album, “Silk Scorpion.” Talking to Kevin after the set, he said that Caverns will be in the studio and pre-production for the album for the next month or so, emerging to play again with Imperial China at Velvet Lounge at the beginning of May.

Thanks to both groups for coming up. Good luck to Caverns in the studio. We can’t wait to hear some new material.