Horse Lords 03/02/11

Horse Lords are hard to describe.  Imagine if a bunch of noise musicians and experimental, abstractly-minded kind of guys got together to jam.  That's what seems to be the case with this newer collaboration.  The whole set, while short, was pretty entertaining and is below.  Recorded March 2nd at the Metro Gallery.



Horse Lords @ Metro Gallery 03/02/11 by Guy Werner

Transmodern HEAD 2 HEAD Fundraiser! February 25th, 2011

Lots of fun stuff with this one.  The Transmodern Festival's HEAD 2 HEAD Fundraiser at the Floristree last month was a big success, with the colorful cast of miscreants providing the entertainment for the evening taking a good portion of the blame.  With Lexie Mountain as the mistress of ceremonies, wrestling matches to the death (or some resolution) played out before a stunned but rarely silent crowd.  Theresa Columbus, a.k.a. Her Last Mouse Cub, and Mason Ross prognosticate upon their respective fates.  Kaitlin Murphy and Evan Moritz thumb-wrestle for the ages.  Sam Shea and Dennis Pradhan start off like a Harry Potter fan club and end up like an aging glam-band from LA on the floor with mannequins and teeth in their mouths.  Robby Rackleff has trouble sleeping, and Monica Mirabile has trouble with cranberry sauce. Rebecca Nagle and Ben O'Brien wrestle.


There were some musical performances that evening as well.  The performance from MATMOS's Martin Schmidt turned into a tribal meltdown with Drew Daniel (the other half of MATMOS), Jason Willett and Dan Deacon.  I have included the audio below.

Matmos vs Dan Deacon vs Jason Willett by Guy Werner


Sadly I wasn't able to tape the whole thing, as I missed Jack Topht and the Vegetables and Jenny Graf.  I've made a short video with the performances I did catch.  Watch below...

Dan Deacon closed the evening, and it was a great set.  It had elements that were classic Deacon, with a dance contest and "Crystal Cat" at the end.  

Wye Oak & Lower Dens @ Black Cat on NPR!

Last week the Black Cat in DC had an all-Baltimore all-star lineup with Lands and Peoples, Lower Dens and Wye Oak.  I told you to go, but if you didn't you can still hear the sets.  NPR just published them.  Go here for Wye Oak and here for Lower Dens.  Enjoy!

MI AMI, Max Dunbar, Moss of Aura, Max Kasey @ FLORISTREE Sunday, March 13th!

Head to the Floristree this evening (Sunday night) for the entertainment.  I'll admit I'm not familiar with some of the acts, but I do know Mi Ami can bring the noise and the pure rush of energy that makes a great show.  I caught them a couple of years ago at the Floristree on their way to SXSW, and you can do the same.  Here's a bit of their performance last time...

Lower Dens in DC tonight with Wye Oak!

The Black Cat in DC is the place to be tonight with an all-Baltimore bill of Lands and Peoples, Lower Dens and Wye Oak.  Lower Dens is kicking off what will be a great tour with a few dates with Wye Oak domestically and then it is off to Europe with Deer Hunter.  Can someone say fast track?  I caught Lower Dens at the Metro Gallery last August for the record release of their breathtaking album Twin Hand Movement.  Listen below.  If you haven't seen their weird and creepy video promo called "Batman" yet, you should.  It will make you feel vaguely uncomfortable.

Lower Dens August 1, 2010 by Guy Werner

LOWER DENS - BATMAN from gorillavsbear.net on Vimeo.

RYAT

RYAT is a duo out of New Jersey (near Philly) that are making some of the best electronic music I've heard to date.  Christina McGeehan and Tim Conley craft haunting, bold movements with a depth and a dynamism that is simply overwhelming.  The writing is excellent and the execution well-practiced.  Their first album "Avant Gold" is a masterpiece.  Christina's voice is bewitching, reminding me of Beth Orton and Bjork.  Go to their BandCamp page to listen to remixes of some of those tracks.  The Botany remix of "Not for this Lifetime" is absolutely sick.  They played the Metro Gallery March 2nd, and I recorded the set.  Sadly most of it didn't come out (my fault) but "Not for this Lifetime" and "Time Worn" sound pretty good, and are posted below.

Ryat @ Metro Gallery 03/02/11 by Guy Werner

Mobtown Modern with Todd Reynolds and LEMUR Tonight!

Mobtown Modern is a new music series in Baltimore that I have collaborated with many occasion.  They've managed to bring all sorts of performers to Baltimore that you wouldn't normally catch, and really push the boundaries of both audience expectations and composition.  Tonight's show is one you shouldn't miss, as Todd Reynolds returns to Mobtown with some unique guests.  Mr. Reynolds plays violin, heavily processing it through Ableton Live and looping what he plays into thick sonic environments.  I taped him last time he came to town, and have posted a clip below.  He'll be backed up by a group of robots from the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR).  I could try to explain these things, but you should just watch the video below instead.

FUTURE ISLANDS Live @ POINT EPHÉMÈRE, PARIS

Back in early October of last year Baltimore's own Future Islands played in Paris and Grandcrew.com uploaded a stunning video of the show.  You can watch the performance in its entirety, and the audio and video quality match that of the performance.  It has been up for a while, but I wanted to bring it up because Future Islands is playing an extra-special show with Arbouretum and Celebration at the 2640 Space this Saturday.

Arbouretum October 6th, 2010

This Saturday there's a heck of a show happening at St. John's Church, 2640 St. Paul St.  Arbouretum and Future Islands are opening up for Celebration's Hello Paradise album release.  Gonna be good.  I'll be assisting with a fairly elaborate set up to dazzle participants in this event, as well as recording, of course.
Arbouretum played the Metro Gallery a few months back and I caught it on tape.  While I'm not sure of the track listing, I know they're mostly from their new album The Gathering.
Arbouretum 10-06-10 by Guy Werner