Straight from Double Dagger’s Nolen Strals:

Sonar
Main Room

EYES NIGHT 18th of DECEMBER, THURSDAY
FEET NIGHT 19th of DECEMBER, FRIDAY

$8 or $15 for a two day pass

EYES NIGHT Read the rest…

All Girl Talk Photos: Josh Sisk

At 16 I hit a crisis—I walked away from the classical training I began 10 years earlier. I didn’t give it up entirely, but I decided I wasn’t going to pursue becoming a classical cellist as a career. Very quickly the musical void left by the absencesof practicing multiple hours a day was soon filled by electronic music. I was introduced to avant-garde electronic music at an early age; so making sounds on the computer didn’t seem odd while all my friends were out starting punk bands. I eventually fell into Electronic Dance Music, and I never looked back.

My take on popular music may be somewhat unique, given that I moved from the more esoteric to the more mainstream, not the other way around. To make a generalization the more vanguard electronic acts, though they may be pushing into new territory, are also the lesser-attended live acts. The more trite, derivative acts, though lacking in that exploratory nature, are the larger draws. I think it is safe to say that this generally holds true for any genre, and I’d get into the realm of speculation if I were to attribute reasons to why this happens. But here are some concrete examples from last week. Read the rest…

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MP3: Girl Talk – Bounce That from Night Ripper (2006)

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MP3: Girl Talk – Let Me See You from Don’t Feed the Animals (2008)

This fella probably needs little to no introduction.  Girl Talk has undoubtedly exploded.  Look no further than the utterly and completely sold-out shows lining his tour trek, including his stops at 9:30 Club this Friday Oct 10 and Sonar this Saturday Oct 11.  So let’s just get right to it.

Aural States- Talk a bit about how you actually put together the mash-up. You don’t use Ableton, correct?

Gregg Gillis- I use Audio Mulch. Basically Audio Mulch is a program that you can do a variety of things in. It is primarily used for sound processing, running things through it and putting effects on it, or manipulating pre-existing source material. But I use it in a way that utilizes the looping functions on it. I use a lot of loop players, and kind of work around having hundreds of loops in front of me. I then isolate the actual pieces of music that you hear as much as possible.

Typically, during a set there will be two to ten loops playing at any particular time. The actual combination of material is usually pre-thought out. It’s not like I’m improvising on the spot. But the transition from segment to segment is often times not as thought-out. So basically it is a whole bunch of loops in front of me, a variety of material, usually a bit more than I want to play, so I have a bit of freedom to jump around. I put together sound collages in real time basically. The software, I have always just basically used it to bring in ideas. When I record an album, that’s how I edit myself. But live it’s all triggering the loops and samples on the fly.

AS- You did a video during Whartscape, where you threaten Youtube fan video makers with legal action. This must be a joke? Read the rest…

We’ve extolled the virtues of Vivian Girls here before.  In case you were hesitant to take advantage of their show at the Nerve Center, you are gonna get a boatload of new chances to experience them in the coming month, starting this Wednesday at the Ottobar with locals Baby Venom.

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MP3: Vivian Girls – Blind Spot (Daisy Chain cover) from the I Can’t Stay 7″

Tour dates & video for “Tell the World”:

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Sonar’s club stage was well-packed for a Sunday night.  The Dodos certainly had something to do with that, as I met one particular crew that drove up from Richmond VA for them.

But the big draw seemed to be hometown success story Wye Oak (recently named Best Upgrade in City Paper’s Best of Baltimore 2008).  The room appeared more packed for them than anyone else, and the crowd definitely tapered off after Wye Oak, leaving Au’s set only moderately attended.

One thing was overwhelmingly evident: being on the road has honed and refined Andy & Jenn’s skills to a razor’s edge.  They are tighter than ever before and have more of that professional polish on stage.  They are reading each other’s cues both perfectly and seamlessly, a rare sight for a pair this young.

Wasner’s voice has gotten more buoyant and feels much more assured; she toys with the cadence and tonality of the vocals more readily, frequently leaving sooner or lingering longer on a word or a verse.  We didn’t get to hear much of Andy’s vocals, but his drumming is ever-fantastic and more effortless.  He still stands as one of the most expressive percussionists around, both in mannerisms and playing style.

Their newer material really seems to be capitalizing on the more bombastic elements of their sound, working a lot with contrast, going between full-blown walls of sound and dropping the bottom out, silence hitting like a sucker punch leaving you gasping for air.  They are also writing some killer hooks, particularly the deliciously twangy guitar-jam on the cathartic “For Prayer,” the new song Wye Oak have been playing for a while and finally bequeathed a title to (goodbye studio name, “Magic Johnson”).

According to Jenn & Andy, they are off to tour Europe for a few months, then coming back home in December to get some work done on the new album.  Exciting stuff.

But enough chit-chat.  Grab the excellent audio below, another collaboration between Aural States and the Baltimore Taper.

Download the entire set as a ZIP file: MP3 or FLAC.  Or just check after the break for streaming links.

Read the rest…

All photos: Robert Jacobs

Get Ponytail’s entire set at Beatbots A/V Club!

Compression have been around for a while (1993 to be exact). To quote front-man Greg Scelsi “probably before most of you could drive.” They started the night on a solid, forceful note. Being the first somewhat hardcore (with plenty of metal flavorings) band I’ve probably seen in about a year, I can say they have a fury about them. Their sound is a truly percussive, gale force wind that knocks you off your stride and takes your breath away…often by brute strength. Muscular riffs tear through each song like a prize-winning thoroughbred, awe-inspiringly powerful yet exceedingly graceful. Read the rest…

Alexa’s Take:

On a Sunday, I was curious to see what crowd would show for this rainy summer night of punk-ish madness. Sonar introduced Ratsize, leading the show with a loud, messy performance, including a cover of the Adolescents’ “No Way”. Lead vox Pat Martin put on a pretty good show, ramming into the crowd and spitting beer on himself, but the band lost momentum when they paused between songs. Right when you got a steady beat, hyped up and ready for more, the song would end and they’d take a minute to recall next-up on the set list. Maybe it was just Pat getting some Oxygen after choking himself with the mic cord.

Next up was Vincent Black Shadow, and I’m not sure if it was the gangly long-haired bassist rocking out across from me, or the loogie that hit me around the third song, but something about this act was disgustingly exhilarating.

Read the rest…

All photos: the esteemed Josh Sisk

“FUCK YEA!”–both the name of the tour, and my general impression of the night.

Though The Death Set were the only band actually hailing from Baltimore, I felt the rest of the groups (excluding one) were honorary Baltimoreans for the night. Monotonix have played here often, and recently. They share the intensity, and the weirdo aesthetic of our town. Kim Schifino, of Matt and Kim, said the city was beginning to feel like home.

“Honestly, for a second, I thought we were in Brooklyn. You just keep seeing people at every show. It’s like ‘Oh, yea, it’s that person,’” Kim said (Aural States then explained the Smalltimore effect to her). Read the rest…

All photos: Josh Sisk

Dan Deacon is a showman.  If you have ever seen him live, you know he fucking kills it.  But what I find remarkable about him, and unique to just a very few other individuals, is his ability to completely control the crowd.  Performing on the floor amongst a rowdy crowd draws the apt comparison to a lion tamer with his head down the big cat’s throat-what a show, but he’s really putting it all out there, and it could all go wrong quickly.

In both cases, absolute confidence is needed.

Read the rest…

TaxLo closes up its insanely high-quality 6th anniversary festivities with a spectacular show at Sonar this Friday May 30, headlined by Diplo, Dan Deacon and DD/MM/YYYY.

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to our still-going Presets contest, you, lucky reader, have another contest to enter!

To enter, it’s simple: comment on this post or email your name and location to us at auralstates at gmail dot com.

One lucky winner will score the following:

• 2 Tickets to TAXLO featuring DIPLO, DAN DEACON, and DD/MM/YYYY on May 30
• CUT COPY tote bag
• TAXLO 6-Year Anniversary Screenprinted Poster by Kevin Sherry
• BONDE DO ROLE sticker
• CUT COPY 3-D glasses
• DAN DEACON t-shirt
• 2 TAXLO buttons
• BONDE DO ROLE sticker
• DIPLO “AEIOU” CD
• CUT COPY “In Ghost Colours” CD
• BLAQSTARR “Shake It to the Ground” 12″ featuring RYE RYE
• BLAQSTARR “Shake It to the Ground” remix CD single feat DROP THE
  LIME, Santogold, Switch

TaxLo is seriously blitzing, with two other chances to win at BYT and Butterteam. Tasty downloadable Diplo and Dan Deacon bits here. Videos for “Crystal Cat” and “Okie Dokie” after the jump.

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Dan Deacon – Wham City from Spiderman of the Rings

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Dan Deacon – Okie Dokie from Spiderman of the Rings

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M.I.A. (Diplo Mix) – Fire Bam from Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1

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