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MP3: Lizz King – Til’ They Do

Still have faith in the rock opera format, even after the Decemberists’ valiant but failed attempt at validating and reigniting interest in the genre earlier this year? Well, maybe Aran Keating, the AK from AK Slaughter, has the recipe for you in the form of Grundlehammer, a full-on and homegrown rock opera by the Baltimore Rock Opera Society.

Tonight’s show at the LOF/T in Load of Fun features AK Slaughter, Lizz King, Macgregor Burns, Wild Bonerz, and a host of others in a variety show benefit for the BROS production of Grundlehammer. Get in on it.

THE GOLDEN WEST CAFE FESTIVAL 2009 kicks off TONIGHT.
1105 W. 36th St

Tickets 6$ in advance, $8-$10 night of

$20 for all four nights.

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MP3: Crazy Dreams Band – Separate Ways

Thursday, August 20
Crazy Dreams Band
Jana Hunter (purportedly last Baltimore show of the year!)
Jones
Young & Rusty presents his Cocaine Sex Jams
Brian Adam Ant

Friday, August 21
Lo Moda
Ed Schrader
The Matrimonials
Benjamin Pranger (Payola Reserve)
Zach Kaufman

Saturday, August 22
Mishaps
CEX
Old Thunderheart
NECKLACE
the Midnight Society

Sunday, August 23
PILGRIM
Macgregor Burns & VCR
Mickey Free
Boner Jamz
Child Bride

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)

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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).

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: Cursive – Art Is Hard from The Ugly Organ (2003)
MP3: The Love Language – Nightdogs from The Love Language (2009)
MP3: Deleted Scenes – Ithaca from Birdseed Shirt (2009)

Commenter Emily is the winner!  Check your email!

There’s this great show coming up at the Ottobar.

A little label called Saddle Creek has some band called Cursive that is coming through town, with phenomenal openers The Love Language and DC-locals Deleted Scenes.

Thanks to Monozine, we’ve got two pairs of tickets to giveaway to the two most creative and compelling commenters on this post. Have at it.  Winners will be chosen at 5PM the day before the show.

We are giving away a pair of tickets to Saturday’s show @ the Talking Head with DC’s Rattler. Comment with some sort of euphemism about how hard Dysrhythmia rocks.  Winner chosen on Friday.

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MP3: Dysrhythmia – Sleep Decayer

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MP3: Dysrhythmia – Appeared at First

Dysrhythmia play dissonant (sometimes), technical (sometimes), catchy (always), progressive, metal-influenced rock music. Everyone says their music is really hard to describe but this not true. Imagine the cover of Joe Satriani’s Surfing with the Alien. Now imagine that cover colliding with a strange dimension and becoming a bizarre, dark cubist rendering of the Silver Surfer. And then imagine that as a piece of music. That’s what they sound like.

It is tempting to describe their music in terms of the clichés symptomatic of “progressive” and “experimental” music that they manage to avoid: Words like “restraint” come up a lot in reviews. Their music provokes comparisons to other heavy instrumental rock groups like Don Caballero, and avant garde jazz guitarists like Bill Frisell and Sonny Sharrock. Comparisons to jazz and experimental rock are well motivated and seem accurate, but they are belied somewhat by the emotional payload of Dysrhythmia. To the extent that the terms “technical” and “experimental” suggest music that is interesting but that you cannot get down to, disregard those terms in reference to this band. One reviewer suggests that their special appeal consists in the fact that they make music that is challenging but enjoyable and emotionally stirring. I concur, and for me this puts their albums in a very special category alongside jazz and metal classics like A Love Supreme and The Sound of Perseverance.

Individually the members of Dysrhythmia demonstrate incredible technique and musicianship. However, on their records you will not hear anything showy that might make you exclaim “That drummer rules!” even though drummer Jeff Eber is awesome. More often than not, you will hear deceptively simple musical ideas explored and developed in a way that makes you pay attention.

On their earlier recordings (especially No Interference which I’m listening to as I write this) guitarist Kevin Hufnagel uses a warm, twangy, Strat-y sound which makes for an organic and live-sounding listening experience. His playing never really sounds “technical,” although he is playing complicated parts. Listen to one of the long trance-y songs (e.g. “Let You Fall” from No Interference) for some tasteful and subtle guitar (no 64th note triplets, but that is what we have Necrophagist for). Their two most recent albums Barriers and Passages and this year’s Psychic Maps sound more metal than their first three. I like former bass player Clayton Ingerson, but Colin Marston definitely brings something cool to the mix (to my ear a heavier sound). All their recordings have a tight, collaborative feel and emanate musical hyper-competence and a magical energy.

I have never seen them live and I am really excited.  You should be too.

Philadelphia Camerata Orchestra‘s goodwill tour hit B-more with its first concert in a three-part series honoring two bicentennials: the death of Haydn and the birth of Mendelssohn.  An Die Musik offers two more nights of music at 8 pm on July 16 and July 20. Cellist Steven Framil is the star of the series, hands down.  This is not the first time I’ve heard him, and it won’t be the last.  Both times the audience has been so thin that it’s a sin.  Come for Steve alone, and you’ll not be disappointed to get his friends in the Camerata.

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MP3: Videohippos – Narwhals

Photo credit: Josh Sisk (Whartscape 2007)

It’s surprising to me how few people know of Videohippos. I mean, they’ve been around the block more than a few times; they’ve been doing the Wham City thing since anyone can remember, not to mention their thumbs up from Pitchfork. And from Stereogum. And Oh My Rockness. Even so, if you ask your typical college-age trendy-type who’s hip to what’s indie, they probably haven’t a clue about the Hippos. Which is a big shame. Want to benefit your community for once? Tell your favorite music fan about Videohippos.

1. Do you have any particularly fond memories of Whartscape past?

- 2006: having to cancel the videohippos performance because it was so hot in the copycat bldg that my projector (mounted on the ceiling) was starting to melt. the first time jeremy and I performed Ultimate Reality- it was kind of a train wreck, but everyone was still freaking out, particularly Rjyan kidwell on top of the giant subwoofer that guy werner had let us borrow. somehow i thought i could handle playing with blood baby during a psilocybin experience. pete cut his finger in the industrial fan and it freaked me out real bad. getting to see the coughs and matt and kim play in my living room.

- 2007: videohippos set had a symetrical three screen video installation at Floristree- the videos we normally use were flanked by two mirrored screens of amazing footage that jim shot from the car window in Idaho. a temporarily crippled lizz king playing her set with a cane in the alley behind load of fun. impromptu butt stomach set on borrowed instruments when one of the bands didnt show up on time.

- 2008: funny clown crowd surfing. sewn leather starting his set by announcing “I gotta shart”, michael petruzzo performing topless, lizz dancing behind the creepers wearing only a life-size white tiger head.

2. Chances of Videohippos reforming as a bubblegum pop band?
– Not on my watch.

3. Any predictions for this year’s festival?

- Lots of personal space being invaded in the best way possible.

4. You guys have done your fair share of collaborating with other Wham City artists. Anything due to be released soon?

- We have a 10″ record coming out soon on vicious pop records that has three new songs. Each one is a collaboration with different friends: “firefoot” features Ed Schrader on vocals, Kate and Andrew of Teeth Mountain added percussion and strings to “bottles,” and DJ dog dick put the icing on “High Dive” with thoughtful lyrics and his trademark layered electronic sonics.

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MP3: The Art Department – Censor

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MP3: The Art Department – Second Nature

The Art Department has graciously provided us with 2 previously unreleased, unmixed tracks from their forthcoming and as-of-yet untitled album that looks to feature more of their signature quirky sound, replete with high-pitch quaver-vox and delicately picked lines.  While conceptually forged from random bits of Ehrens’ aural fixation on high-neck capos, the Art Department’s sound often bears eerie similarity to work from DC’s Q and Not U.  Jon Ehrens also took time out to answer our questions!

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

At last years Whartscape, when Oxes took the stage, they began their set with a tense guitar build-up. They hadn’t played in years and it was the first time that I – or anyone there – had seen them in several years. As the guitars chugged, drumless, and the anticipation built up, a police helicopter flew overhead, shining it’s spotlight on the band, and then the audience. The place went crazy, the band kicked-in and the set ruled harder than I could have ever imagined.

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

JANITOR!

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

Lunacy – I’ve recently come to realize that Baltimore is making me insane, and I either have to indulge this and resign myself to lunacy, or move away and become a normal productive member of society. Of course I’ll choose the former, and participating in a festival in which over 130 bands play in 3 days for 20 minutes a piece will only encourage me do descend into madness.

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

Why would I say no?

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MP3: Sick Weapons – Orgy on the China Train Live @ the Talking Head, taped by the Baltimore Taper

Photo Credit: Shawn Breen

Sick Weapons rock.  Flat out, no question.  Just listen to “Orgy On the China Train.”  Lead vocalist Ellie Beziat takes time to humor our line of questioning:

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

I ate a handful of mushrooms during Wzt Hearts last year. I remember drinking a strawberry daiquiri out of a pineapple. It is our first year playing Whartscape. We are super excited. Bring pineapples. Or mushrooms.

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

Vincent Black Shadow are playing at 4:20 and that’ll be cool. We are using their equipment so we are stoked that they are playing!

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

Nerds. Look around man.

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

One of our guitar players is Wham City. But I don’t know if ‘they’ came calling or if Peter O’Connell got drunk and put Dan Deacon’s head in a toilet.