So this fall, the Decemberists triumphantly return to the road for the Bridesmaid Revisited tour, dragging along 3 new, limited-edition, 12″ singles.  Each contains a new song that has been played live for a bit now.  The first of these vinyls drops in just over 2 weeks, Oct 14th.  The lead track is “Valerie Plame,” referencing the recent scandal, has just popped up on Youtube.  If you look hard enough, you can also find some other tracks like this live version of one of Meloy’s latest epics, loosely titled “Night/Rake.”  And don’t forget to catch Meloy et al when they drop into Rams Head on Nov 08.

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MP3: The Decemberists (Colin Meloy solo) – Night / Rake (Live)

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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Well, kind of.  Just saw this and knew it needed posting too.  P4k.tv scores the premiere of Wye Oak’s first music video, for “Please Concrete,” directed by Bmore’s own Caleb Stine & Eric Diga.  Baltimore rejoice!

Hometown boys the Death Set take over Pitchfork.tv this week.  Live, on a rooftop, as P4k.tv is wont to do.  Choice cuts here and after the jump.

And don’t forget about our old coverage, including a live recording from their show with Matt & Kim at the Lo-Fi earlier this year.

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MP3: The Death Set – Negative Thinking

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MP3: The Death Set – Impossible (Dan Deacon remix)

“Negative Thinking”
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Enjoy this vinyl-rip off AFX’s Smojphace EP, a remix of the Bug & Daddy Freddy’s “Run the place red.”

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MP3: The Bug & Daddy Freddy – Run the place red (AFX mix)

At a recent party, when the DJ dropped a bass-heavy Baltimore Club track, a man turned to me and proclaimed, “I want my epitaph to read: Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom!”

Well said.

Bass is powerful, you feel it hit in the sternum, feel that air being pushed. Bass, the word itself, is such a great example of onomatopoeia; it reads like it sounds. I think of a recent King Lear production were Edmund delivers his bastard monologue accompanied by a bass player–apt given the heavy alliteration on the “B” sound and the pun on base/bass. “Why brand they us/ With bass!” would read the play if it had been written by another, more current, Londoner, Kevin Martin aka The Bug. His new album features a multitude of ragga-tinged guest vocalists, and of course centers around bowl shaking bass.
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Pitchfork.tv continues the Bmore love-in this week. Wham City member and all-around unitard-sporting fun guy Benny Boeldt aka Adventure just released this new music video to accompany “Ultrazone,” the lead single off his excellent self-titled Carpark debut, dropping in September.

He plays with EAR PWR tonight at DC’s Velvet Lounge.

Video below, our free audio and interview here and here.

Beach House seem to be making the e-rounds as of late.  Their latest appearance: Pitchfork.tv‘s in-house series “Juan’s Basement.”  They star in a 3-parter this week, part one pairs a live performance of “Gila” lovingly shot in vintage soft focus with an interview on Devotion.

I make no secret of my love for Joss Whedon. He is able to adapt to any medium with his distinct style and complex, rewarding and believable characterization.

Foraying into TV, movies and comics, he really has mastered quite a few mediums of art and delivery. But his calling card and hallmark achievements will always be his TV series (Buffy, Angel, Firefly). His penchant for interesting concepts lead him to produce a number of intriguing and compelling TV episodes, such as the silence-dominated Buffy episode “Hush” and the Buffy musical.

Whedon’s latest project, the web-based music tragicomedy Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, stars Neil Patrick Harris and follows his trials and tribulations as an aspiring supervillain and love-struck, socially awkward dork; it was written and directed with his brother during much of the writer’s strike and is packed with a host of familiar faces in the Whedon universes. The mini-movie is laden with hilarious musical numbers, filled with Whedon’s hallmark of charming characters and snappy dialog, and features a distinctly Whedonesque twist near the end.

I really can’t recommend this more highly.

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MP3: Beach House – Apple Orchard from self-titled (2006)

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MP3: Beach House – Heart of Chambers from Devotion (2008)

One of Baltimore’s finest gets into the ever-fantastic London Black Cab for an inspired performance of Heart of Chambers.

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MP3: The Rumble Strips – “Time”

Someone has finally been brave enough to take up the mantle of Dexys Midnight Runners. UK’s the Rumble Strips deliver uptempo, criminally joyful pop. At first listen, it is quite tempting to mistake them for a Dexys’ clone…but in fact, they share just as many similarities with those infamous Dexys’-covering third-wavers in Save Ferris.

The Rumble Strips’ sound is a frothy blend of passionate old soul, infectious and kinetic vocals in the vein of Dexys’ Kevin Rowland and the horn-blaring energy, tempos and plucky positivity of third-wave ska. It is likely one of the happiest records you’ll hear all year, grinning from ear-to-ear…we’re talking laughing to tears happy. This is both the album’s greatest strength and reflexively its greatest weakness.

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