To cap off this series of posts on Human Conduct Records, I exchanged a week-long email relay with all-around Human Conduct man, Rick Weaver. Our conversation exposed what my previous pieces attempted to avoid–the theoretical foundations of Human Conduct’s disposition. Coincidentally, it is my impression that we also received a remarkably profound character profile for Rick Weaver (whose works were covered extensively in Part 2).

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In between rehearsals for James Husband and of Montreal, we caught up with Jamey Huggins before both bands began a short eastern tour. Huggins, who has played drums, bass and keyboards (that I know of) for of Montreal since 1998, has just released his solo effort, A Parallax I. We spoke about being in two bands at once, being influenced by Guided by Voices and what the future may hold for of Montreal.

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1. MP3: The Swimmers – Shelter
2. MP3: The Swimmers – A Hundred Hearts

How does a band follow up a debut that received much love with NPR, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Magnet, and many others hailing the smart guitar-driven indie-rock sound they had created, when that same band found themselves disillusioned with the writing and recording process they had to endure to make that debut?

If you are Philadelphia’s The Swimmers, and you are following 2008’s Fighting Trees, you build a home studio, take control of the entire recording process, and rediscover who you are as musicians.  You release an explosive blast of modern new-wave-pop, that hearkens back to the best parts of New Order’s deep synth driven groove, yet at the same time borrows the deep noise explorations of Radiohead’s catalog, combining them with a sharp songwriting sense.

People Are Soft is a career defining point for the band.  Despite the success of Fighting Trees, the band has almost completely remade themselves by creating an album that, while a radical change from what came before, also exceeds the expectations that surrounded their stellar debut.

Singer/ guitarist and principle songwriter Steve Yutzy-Burkey recently took some time to talk with Aural States:

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On an anonymous street, nestled tightly amidst random warehouse facades in the neighborhood known as Better Waverly (funnily enough, south of Waverly proper), sits the Magpie Cage. From the outside, it appears to be no more than a steel-gated, two-car-width garage. But when you walk through the doors, it’s like entering a different world. A veritable oasis for anyone music-oriented, lined with warm wood tones, and contrasts of deep red while absolutely bursting with vintage and high-tech recording gear that strikes any artist like Pavlov’s Bell. Unlike many studios, this one is remarkably free of clutter, and blessed streamlined interior design (perhaps a bit of insight into the mind of its proprietor).

This is the studio of one J Robbins, one of the bonafide icons of local music, earning his stripes as final bassist in DC hardcore band Government Issue, vocalist and guitarist in post-hardcore follow-up Jawbox, and more recently with duties in Report Suspicious Activity, Channels, and Burning Airlines. He also happens to be one of the most earnest, hard-working, and genuine people you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting.

I got the chance to gab with J in the studio before a day of mixing locals …soihadto…, who counts the infamous Duff from Ace of Cakes among its members. Our conversation veered all over: from the forging fires of his new project Office of Future Plans, to the driving forces behind the bizarre Jawbox reunion set on Jimmy Fallon, and tons more in Robbins’ very busy life.

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MP3: Sick Sick Birds – Your Machine from Heavy Manners 12″ (2009)

On a particularly idyllic and cool fall evening this week, I sat on the steps of Charm City Art Space with founding member Mike Riley (the Spark, Pulling Teeth, Toxic Pop & Firestarter Records) to reminisce and reflect on the past, present and future of the iconic, long-running DIY venue.

They celebrate a mind-boggling 1000 shows this Friday with a secret, 5-band line-up.  It should not be missed.

Doors at 7PM. All ages and donations appreciated, as always.

Aural States: To start, can you flesh out the circumstances leading up to the genesis of CCAS?  What factors contributed to you and the other founders’ desire to start up the space?

Mike Riley: Well since I moved to Baltimore in ‘94, I went to UMBC.  I grew up in central New Jersey and there were shows left and right, bands I wanted to go see all the time.  When I came down here I didn’t have a car.  This was obviously not pre-internet, but pre the explosion of the internet.  My AOL search for Baltimore hardcore was this band called Compression, who are far from a hardcore band.

There were hardcore bands in Baltimore, just bands weren’t on the internet yet.  So I was lost as to where the shows were happening in the area, I couldn’t find any info on the Loft, or anything in the area.  So I decided I’d bring the bands in myself.  I started doing shows at UMBC in ‘97.  Did them there for a while.  Then a friend told me about a space near University of Maryland, which was at the time the Supreme Imperial.  I got involved with them, they let us rent out the space.  Eventually when they got evicted we took it over.  That became the Chop Shop.  At that time, I met my friend Mike Wolf who had just moved to the area from Pittsburgh.  Well, not just, he had been here a little while.  He was involved in a space in Sowebo called Black Aggies, which was also the Laff n Spit.  So we just became friends, kept in touch over the years.

Fast forward to 2002, and neither of us have regular show spaces to work with.  DIY spaces.  I was doing a lot of shows at the old Ottobar and the Sidebar.  But we just wanted a non-bar venue where music was the focus.  Mike and I met up at a show at the Bloodshed, a warehouse space on Preston.  They had just moved in there, it was a cool, great space but I guess since people were living there, they didn’t want to do more than one show a month.  Mike and I were talking that night and we decided we really needed to get a space together, that’s smaller and can help out smaller touring bands.  So Mike found this place for rent in the City Paper Classifieds.  We came and checked it out, and downstairs it was all walled off into little, separate rooms.  Upstairs was a wig shop that had just closed down.

We thought, this’ll work.  It was cheap.  We tore down all the walls and that was our basement space.  To come up with first month’s rent we got in touch with everyone in the Baltimore and DC area that we knew who might be interested in a space like this: “We’re trying to raise money for security deposit, rent.  Help us out.”

We got over $1000 in donations, anywhere from $20 to $150.  And it’s never had to come out of pocket since. Read the rest…

Download the entire album: MP3 or FLAC

Stream and download individual tracks:

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1. Baltimore Highlands – Drew Swinburne
2. Mike Stone – Gavin Riley
3. Jackson Whites – Mrs. Paintbrush
4. The World – PT Burnem
5. Escape Tune – Lesser Gonzalez
6. Baltimore Highlands – Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow
7. The Woods – King Rhythm
8. Code Of Love – San Serac
9. Twelve Strings – Jones
10. Standing Up Asleep – Authentic
11. Woods Reprise – Drew Swinburne
12. Travel Rap – C.Y.O. (http://www.lowdworld.blogspot.com/)
13. Cold And Shaken – AK of AK Slaughter

Don’t miss the official album release party at the Windup Space on Fri Oct 16th featuring Lizz King, AK Slaughter, and Lesser Gonzalez!

Aural States: What motivated you to do a full remix of the Baltimore Highlands album?  You were releasing remixes sporadically for download on the Wham City label site.  What made you want to undertake this project too?

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Aural States sat down with Medeski Martin & Wood while they were in town for the 2009 Traffic Jam Festival to discuss their new three-record series, Radiolarians.

AS: I’m curious about the new approach to writing and recording music that you used for Radiolarians. This year, rather than recording a studio album and then touring in support of the album, you wrote the tunes on the road the previous year and then recorded and released a new live album every 4 months.

Chris Wood: I mean, we never ever really did it like that, really. I mean, you know, we loosely did it like that, but we never had, sort of, like the latest tunes that were hits. I guess we trained our audience early on by just playing whatever we want, when we want. *laughs* They sort of get what they get. But I think for this process, part of the incentive to set it up this way where we write new music, tour, record, three times is that it is a way for us to write a whole bunch of new music together.  And we didn’t have the constraints of a tradional record deal since we were doing it ourselves. We put out a lot more material, and we’ve always wanted to do that becuase it’s so long in a traditional record deal between each record.  It’s like a year and a half sometimes, and by the time the record comes out you’re already sick of the music.

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Photo credit: Ed Marshall

Dysrhythmia unleashed devastating sonic lethality this past Saturday at the Talking Head. I talked with guitarist Kevin Hufnagel before the show about rad metal, the role of theory in songwriting, and his participation in the reincarnated legendary avant garde metal outfit Gorguts.

Aural States: I ran into you at Summer Slaughter Sunday July 19th. What do you think was the highlight of that show?

Kevin Hufnagel: Unfortunately I was really tired. The night before was our CD release show and I stayed out until five am, so I left right after Suffocation…Suffocation was probably the highlight, but Origin was really good too. Origin and Suffocation killed it. Read the rest…

The Hexagon has a bit of history.  For those unaware, in a previous life the much beleaguered space was home to the Lo-Fi Social Club’s disastrous attempt at becoming a legitimate, traditional venue.  Needless to say, this fell flat due to its proprietor taking the equivalent of Sherman’s march through the arts community, leaving a reputation with an aftertaste somewhere between two-week old flat beer and swamp water.

Lucky for everyone four plucky friends (Josh Atkins, Karl Ekdahl, Miguel Sabogal, and Matt Sterling) decided to take over, and oh how things have changed.

With more than a little sacrifice and effort, the growing community has established a viable, intimate venue with a unique atmosphere that is proving to be a gem in the burgeoning Station North Arts District.  But alas, times are tough and business tougher, so they are making a thrust to move the venue into non-profit territory to open themselves to alternative, more philosophically amenable funding sources to help stabilize the space and expand its mission.

This Saturday night, the monthly BOLT! Dance Party is hosting a 1 year anniversary party for the Hexagon, and doubles as a fundraiser.  Proceeds will help pay for the application to gain non-profit status.  Surely not to be missed, the night features New Yorkers Ava Luna, Polygons (Sabogal and Atkins’ electronic project), DJ Lemz and James Nasty.

Josh was kind enough to answer some questions on past, present and future of the 6-sided beast.

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MP3: Santa Dads – Lion Song

A friend of mine uses three categories to sort his record collection: “rock”, “pop,” and “weird shit.” Santa Dads’ Anima Mundi is definitely one for the “weird” rack, but nobody said nuthin’ ‘bout that being a bad thing. Enjoy some ukulele-beatbox songsmithing as you read on, dear audience.

(Josh, the uke-playing half of the duo, loves caps lock, apparently.)

1. What sort of headgear would Whartscape wear if it were a person?

- AN ARROW STRAIGHT UP THROUGH THE HEAD

2. Name 3 words that describe Wham City.

- FREE ETERNAL TROUBADOURS

3. What personal connection do you have to Baltimore as a city?

- BORN IN ITS BURBS – LIVED AROUND THIS SHIT 85% OF MY LIFE – DEVELOPMENT OF INSPIRATION AND IMAGINATION THRIVES IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT IS VACANT, CHEAP, AND, THEREFORE, PROUD OF IMPOVERISHMENT, VIRILITY, AND ADAPTABILITY

4. Is Whartscape like Christmas to you guys, (do you wear santa hats for it)?

- WHARTSCAPE IS LIKE THE INVERSE OF CHRISTMAS BECAUSE WE ARE THE TOYS THAT MUST PACKAGE OURSELVES AND GIVE COMPLETELY TO SOME CHOSEN STRANGERS, ONLY TO HAVE ALL OF OUR WORK TORN TO PIECES AND OURSELVES DEVOURED BY OUR THANKFUL MASTERS. NO SANTA HATS; WE WEAR THE SHACKLES OF OUR NECESSARY TRUTH. JUST KIDDING, YEAH, CHRISTMAS IS GREAT!!

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MP3: Polygons – Miami to Key West

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MP3: Polygons – Potential

If you were to interpolate that electronic music meisters Polygons have some connection to the Hexagon, you would be dead on.  Not only are the duo of Josh Atkins and Miguel Sabogal 2/3 (the other 1/3 being Karl Ekdahl) of the crucial reshapers of the old Lo-Fi space into a vibrant, collective-run venue.  They also somehow find time to drop nuggets of organic electronic goodness.  Check some of the tracks from their forthcoming album.

Miguel Sabogal

1. What is your most vivid memory of Whartscapes past? If this is your first time playing/attending, explain yourself/selves!

Whartscape 2009 is the first time that Polygons is playing. We’ve experimented with electronic music for quite some time but only started gigging under a name as of this year. As a show-goer this would be my 3rd Whartscape. Usually more bands than you can see are playing so stating a favorite moment is a bit tough. Perhaps it should be the bright image of Dan Deacon’s trippy green skull above the audience at the Floristree. That picture ended up as a screensaver on my cell phone until it broke.

2. Who are you most excited to see this year?

I’m most excited to see Chandeliers play this year. They are from Chicago and have played the Hexagon a few times this past year. They are by the most exciting live electronic band I’ve seen so far.

3. Choose one word to describe whartscape, and what it means to you.

Recalcitrant

4. When Wham City came calling and asked you to play, why did you say yes?

Both Josh and myself are friends with a person in Wham City. She had been to a few of our shows and is really supportive of our music. That’s how we got the offer to play this year. We said yes because we want to make people aware that the music we make is completely improvised. I’m personally fond of any opportunity that presents itself in which we can play our music loud and with a lot of bass.

Josh Atkins

1. What is your most vivid memory of Whartscapes past? If this is your first time playing/attending, explain yourself/selves!

Polygons has not played Whartscape before. However, two days before Whartscape last year my friend DJ invited me to play guitar and synth in his band Teenage Souls. He writes these really incredible, but super intricate electronic pieces and typically plays solo drums along to them. I remember practicing with him for the first time the day before his slot and it sounding great, but I felt like I had no idea how to remember all the changes in his songs. The next day we woke up super early, practiced again, and then carted all our gear over to the Whartscape stage. Sunday at Whartscape last year was one of those sweltering hot Baltimore days and setup was a whirlwind because the stage was being assembled as we loaded our gear onto it. I think we ended up playing two improvisations and two of his compositions that day. I got really nauseous from the heat right after we took down our gear and had to go home. I ended up passing out all afternoon and didn’t get back until the middle of Double Dagger’s set. I did get to see Denny chuck a drum into the audience which was equal parts horrifying and punk-as-fuck.

2. Who are you most excited to see this year?
Equally excited for Chandeliers, Liturgy, Beastmaster, Soft Pink Truth, Leprechaun Catering, Wolf Eyes, DJ Dog Dick, and Nautical Almanac.

3. Choose one word to describe whartscape, and what it means to you.
Chaos. This is about as DIY as festivals of this scale get. Pretty much anything can happen for better or worse.

4. When Wham City came calling and asked you to play, why did you say yes?
Who wouldn’t say yes? We don’t have any egos to stroke. Great festival, great bands, great people running it = no brainer.

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Teen noise-niks Needle Gun should not be overlooked.  Their age belies their impressive experience and aggressive experimentalism.  Their inclusion amongst the vast and diverse MT6 roster speaks volumes.

1. What is your most vivid memory of Whartscapes past? If this is your first time playing/attending, explain yourself/selves!

I only went to whartscape 07, got to do some improv with human host during the day, do not remember most the bands that day but the location and weather were super rad, the show that night at floristree from my memory was super crowded and hot, first time ng playing whartscape though.

2. Who are you most excited to see this year?
Infinity window and C Spencer plus the local goodies

3. Choose one word to describe whartscape, and what it means to you.
“Gathering” hopefully it will be much like the gathering of many many juggalos looking for the same stage with a miller or bud in their hand

4. When Wham City came calling and asked you to play, why did you say yes?
good bands, good freinds, why not?