Alessandro Bosetti is a composer and sound artist splitting his time between Baltimore, Berlin, and Milan. In November of last year, Bosetti released African Feedback with the European publishing house Errant Bodies. It’s an audio project and accompanying book that explores the response of the Dogon villagers of West Africa to Bosetti’s favorite experimental,...
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Noise caught up with the ever-touring Dan Deacon, currently warping young minds in Australia, and psychotronic DJ/video artist Mark Brown for the scoop on Wham City’s latest venture. The collective’s brand-new, more-than-just-music label debuted earlier this month with Wham City Box #1, a multimedia compilation featuring a CD and DVD, along with hawt-couture goodies...
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Tags: dan deacon, girl talk, wham city
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Editor’s note: The below first appeared in the True Vine Record Shop’s e-mail list. Reprinted here with permission of its author, local musician, True Vine co-owner, and erstwhile City Paper contributor Ian Nagoski. We liked it so much we asked Ian if we could share. On a sweltering afternoon two summers back, a guy–white,...
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Sir Richard Branson, of airline, cell phone, and hair fame, brings his Virgin Mobile Festival back to Baltimore for its third year on Aug. 9 and 10 at Pimlico Race Course. The acts for the “largest music and art event on the East Coast” won’t be announced for another couple of weeks, but the...
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Tags: richard branson, vigin fest
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Each generation grapples with its own self-image and ideas of coolness as it gets older, begins to procreate, and wonders how to stay hip while pushing a baby stroller. And the current iteration of that endless cycle has, in these self-conscious and media-saturated times, begotten countless trend pieces on “hipster parents” and how the...
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Tags: neal pollack, thrushes
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| Image by Frank Hamilton Baltimore, home of Natty Boh, might be one of the only places in the country where Pabst Blue Ribbon doesn’t have the market cornered on cheap beer popular among the young, hip, and broke. And either because of or despite that fact, the company brought its PBR Art Contest...
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For the past few months, rakish electronic musicians and recent Bmore transplants, Matmos have been busy settling into their new digs and wrapping up their all-synth album Supreme Balloon. Slated for a May 6th release on Matador Records, Supreme Balloon uses an array of vintage synthesizers, some quite rare, and features guest collaborators including...
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| Image by Liz Flyntz Next week marks the release of Beach House’s lovely new record of slippery dream-pop, Devotion, and, to help celebrate, the duo teamed up with local music blog Butter Team to give away stuff. Good stuff. And you don’t even have to do anything for it–no talent, no tricks, no...
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Tags: beach house, free stuff
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Providence, R.I.’s 19-piece What Cheer? Brigade thunders into Baltimore this evening, bringing its polyglot, anarcho take on the old-fashioned marching band to Atomic Books for a free performance at 5 p.m. and, later, to the Lo-Fi Social Club. Boasting a repertoire mixing traditional Balkan and New Orleans brass band with samba, hip-hop, and Bollywood...
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On opening the door of the Depot on a recent Sunday, it was clear that Nightmoves, a new twice-monthly DJ night, had already created a buzz. Though it was early in the evening–resident DJs Ari G (Ari Goldman) and Prettyboi (Sam Turner) had just arrived–a small crowd was sidled up to the bar. The...
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“It’s funny that I’m not in Baltimore right now,” DJ Excel says over the phone from his current Denton, Md., home across the Chesapeake Bay. His label, Bmore Original, is just now picking up steam. At 32, he has spent the last couple years slowly getting back into the Baltimore club and hip-hop scene...
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Rodney “Skinny Suge” Thomas was a fixture of the Baltimore rap scene, with his own record label and numerous hip-hop DVDs, long before he became the central figure of a national controversy. And even after one of his less music-based DVDs, the notorious Stop Fucking Snitching, made headlines for its threatening messages toward police...
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We get a number of boastful e-mails from local hip-hop labels, and trust us when we say they’re not all newsworthy. But pretty much anytime Juan Donovan, who along with Jamal Roberts makes up Darkroom Productions, sends out an e-mail blast, he’s got something genuinely exciting to tell us. Every few weeks there’s another...
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Tags: darkroom productions, the wire
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Taken too seriously, the slo-mo dream-pop of Beach House could be a bit much to bear, and here’s about the perfect way to diffuse it. Baltimore underground film mainstay Skizz Cyzyk‘s “You Came to Me” video starts out in some super-claustrophobic David Lynch in-between universe with Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally being all slow-motion...
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You’ll be forgiven if you thought that the 13th Floor and the Owl Bar were the only places to grab a beer in the Belvedere Hotel. We, too, were unaware of a third nightspot in the Mount Vernon institution until recently, when local hip-hop label For the People Entertainment invited us to Suite, a...
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Tags: baltimore hip-hop, belvedere, busy bee, for the peope entertainment, ogun
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With it’s reverential hush, 2640 Space at St. John’s Church is the ideal spot for a quiet performance. The sanctuary’s crumbling walls, soft lighting, and strings of garland arcing from pillar to pillar foster the bohemian coziness of a basement show, but with a touch more glamour. Last Friday, True Vine Records, the Hampden...
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Based on the official South by Southwest lineup, released yesterday by festival organizers, it seems that Baltimore does in fact exist, repping nine bands, DJs, and others at the five-day Austin, Texas, festival. That’s not including off-campus performers, which could, like, double the number. Which would still be probably less than Portland, Ore.’s contribution...
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Tags: lexie mountain boys, ponytail, scottie b, sxsw, video hippos, wye oak
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On Friday night, two awesome Baltimore bands, along with two visiting Philadelphia bands, piled into the Lo-Fi Social Club’s narrow room on Charles Street. The local guys and gals of Karmella’s Game and Avec were largely responsible for one of the best shows of 2007, in our opinion, so they were the primary draw,...
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Sean Finnegan, drummer of early Dischord Records hardcore/metal outfit Void, passed away last Wednesday due to a heart attack. He was 43. The Columbia band, existing for a mere three years in the early 1980s, is considered one of the first to stuff hardcore punk with metal and thrash–bringing on whole new levels of...
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Tags: dischord records, punk, sean finnegan, void
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A few months ago, Ninja Tunes imprint Counter Records snatched up locals-by-way-of-Australia, the Death Set. After numerous 7″s and several EPs, it’s finally releasing a full-length of their raucous blitzkrieg pop, titled Worldwide, this April. In the meantime, here’s a new video for its old crowd-rallying anthem “Negative Thinking,” a deceptively upbeat ode to...
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