Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City

This video by Fault Lines' Sebastian Walker just went up on the Tubes. It is a sobering look at the failures of the drug war as seen in our fair city. The Wire may not be taping anymore, but the same scenes are still playing every day.

2011 All Rap Round Robin

Last week I started posting videos of the 2011 All Rap Round Robin with videos of Height & Friends and AK Slaughter.  A year ago this weekend the best of Baltimore's alternative rap scene descended upon the Floristree and rocked it.  I did not make videos of all the artists, but the ones I did make are below.

ScapeScape Update - Tix on Sale!

Tickets just went on sale for ScapeScape at Missiontix.com and a four day pass is only $15.  No excuses.  Buy them now and go.  Follow this link here or check out ScapeScape's Facebook Page.  A couple bands are off the original lineup (Lo Moda), and a couple more hopped on (Squaaks, most of the people playing Sunday).

Here's the official breakdown by day;

scapescape 2012
8-30-12 thru 9-2-12
in Station North

THURSDAY NIGHT
@ Charles & Lanvale and the Windup Space

Celebration
Secret Mountains
Adventure
Holy Ghost Party
Moss of Aura
Believers
Santa Dads
Happy Family
The Slow Jerks

FRIDAY NIGHT
@ Charles & Lanvale, the Metro Gallery, and the Windup Space

Wye Oak
Big in Japan with Katrina Ford
Horse Lords
Co La
Mark Brown & Schwarz
Sri Aurobindo
Flock of Dimes
Yeveto
DDm
B1K
Slow Bull
Jacober
Lands & Peoples
Teenage Souls
Drums of Death
Raindeer
Brendan Sullivan
Beth Varden
Vlonde
Spitting Images
Balkan Falcon
Ike Shark
DJ Ferrari J
Dave Adams Ceramic Tones
Judge Mental
Brian Adam Ant


SATURDAY
@ Charles & Lanvale, St. Paul & Lafayette, the Metro Gallery, and the Windup Space

J. Roddy Walston & the Business
Dope Body
Cex
Roomrunner
Microkingdom
The Get 'Em Mamis
White Life
The Pilgrim
Weekends
The Convocation
The Degenerettes
The Flying Eyes
The Art Department
Witch Hat
Free Electric State
The Matrimonials
Rapdragons
Monster Museum
Sal Bando
Mickey Free
Wing Dam
Other Colors
Soft Cat
Plural MC
Which Magic
Whoarfrost
Beyond Say
Friend Collector
Plurals
Adam Lempel & the Heartbeats
House Dress
Squaaks
The Gold-Bug
Benjie Loveless
Bamboo
Teen Suicide
Oil Pan Boy
Lush Farm
The Wooly Moon
Dead Mellotron

also comedy in the Windup with hosts Chris & Mickey Freeland!


SUNDAY
@ Charles & Lanvale

Lafayette Gilchrist with the New Volcanoes
Labtekwon
Soul Cannon
Michael Formanek's Four Cool Blue Maniacs
Microkingdom (second set)
Saleem & the Music Lovers
The Violet Hour
Television Hill
Romantic States

Dismemberment Plan @ Metro Gallery

This past weekend the long-disbanded Dismemberment Plan dis-broke up to play a couple of shows, one of which was at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore.  It has been years since these guys have played out, and even longer since they have played new material.  Turns out they debuted eight new songs, and media outlets all over the blog-o-sphere have picked up on all of this.  Recording was not allowed at the show, which is why I didn't tape there, but predictably someone with a cell phone recorded the set and has posted the new songs.  Surprisingly, despite the poor quality of these recordings, Pitchfork and others have run with it online.  More proof that the rules have changed, and if you play your songs live, you are basically releasing them to the digital world.  I've already posted my views on cell phone recordings of live shows, but unless you kick out what seemed, at least last Friday, like a third of the audience or seize their personal property there isn't any way to prevent this behavior.  In the meantime, the Dismemberment Plan did record the sets with their own, 3 GoPro camera and dual Beyer mic set up, and are playing the Virgin Music Festival October 6th, 2012.

I totally stole the photo above from the amazing Josh Sisk and the Baltimore Sun.  Thanks dudes.

Filmish Fantastigorium this Sunday!

Once again Eric and I host a free movie night at the Metro Gallery.  Maybe you'll join us.  This Sunday, the 12th, with doors at 7:00pm.  The two features are going to be Thief of Baghdad and Italian Spider-Man, with some shorts thrown in.  Trailers below.

Height & Friends - Rock & Roll & Rap Round Robin

Height and Friends are on the move, about to begin a multi-season tour and ushering in their new album "Rock and Roll".  The fusion of rap and rock music has come full circle, and now are arguably in equal parts.  The results are unique, with Height's signature delivery anchoring the catchy hooks and letting the various messages land well-received.  You can catch them at the album release party this Friday at the Floristree, along with AK Slaughter, Co La, Which Magic and Chakra Con (Katrina Ford's new solo project with the clever name).  

In order to prep for the show, take a look back at Height's performance at the Floristree a year ago for the All Rap Round Robin.  Recorded August 19th, 2011, the powerhouse lineup of the best rappers in Baltimore featured three stages of music, with the performers going one song at a time and catering to short attention spans.  The video below is just a few of Height's tracks, and illustrates nicely why you ought to catch them live.

AK Slaughter - All Rap Round Robin 2011 (video)

Rather than continue to tape new shows and never post them, I'm going to go through all the stuff I have backlogged and clear off some hard drive space.  In that spirit, over the next week or two I'll be uploading 2011's fifth and final "All Rap Round Robin".  Normally around this time we would be enjoying a collection of Baltimore's greatest alternative-rap and hip-hop acts vying for our attention on multiple stages in some overcrowded warehouse.  Sadly, all things must pass but we can still look back and remember when...  Specifically, to August 19th of last year at the Floristree.


AK Slaughter killed it that evening, with Emily Slaughter and Aran Keating starting each round of the robin and displaying their prowess both at the mics and at sheer stage presence.  You can catch these two once again at the Floristree this Friday for the record release party for their pal Height (and Friends) so you can guess which video I'll be posting tomorrow.

Tonight! Ava Luna, Lands & Peoples, Weekends!

Three bands I've been following and really like are all playing the Metro Gallery this evening.  Ava Luna (Brooklyn, NYC) are a vocally robust swinging rock grooup that I've posted about here before.  Lands & Peoples are locals that have been perfecting their dream pop sound for a few years now, and I've posted about them multiple times.  Weekends, the loud duo from Baltimore, are no strangers to this blog either, as I made them a music video that got released last year.  You should go to this show.  It will be great.  Doors at 8pm, $8.

Lower Dens - Candy (video)

So Lower Dens just released another video from their new album Nootropics and it is weird.  The band, along with a few local personalities, enjoy some sullen company as they go wall climbing and swing from harnesses in the woods.  Throw in a few imagined company logos and you have yourself a thick batter of the ambiguous Candy in the form of a corporate retreat, complete with trust-falls.  Edited with non-sensical framing highlighting our world under a constant camera's eye, Candy is glued together visually with the type of digital distortion that has Alan Resnick's fingerprints all over it.  The song is a lovely, although not especially urgent, crooning wash of a tide vacillating between rebuke and reconciliation.  Altogether this video is a haunting, unresolved experiment in manufactured adversity.  Enjoy.