Noise: Archive for September, 2008

Jimmy Jones | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam Baltimore club is one of the few music genres where the producer is the star, and vocalists by and large take a backseat. Usually that’s either because the vocals on the track are sampled, or either performed by the producer himself or some anonymous kid who...
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| Image by City Paper Digi-Cam A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak at the Making the Right Moves Entertainment Conference, and took no pleasure in reporting that the event fell victim to poor planning and low turnout. Baltimore may not be a music industry city, but there’s no reason the more...
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It’s somehow easy to imagine indie-rock folk in, say, Seattle watching this and responding, “Whoa, how’d they manage to clear all the drug dealers off the streets?” And, indeed, it’s nice to watch something that will reach a relative mass that captures so well how lovely and dignified Baltimore can be, however chilly and...
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Earlier this month, Baltimore got a rare mix of brutality as the Exhumed to Consume tour, honoring the much welcomed reunion of grind patriarch Carcass, made one of its few U.S. stops at Sonar. Seven bands gave fans the opportunity to experience the best and most intricate form of extreme metal, namely grindcore. The...
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Nadastrom It’s funny how these weekends take on themes. It’s almost like Baltimore’s promoters get together in some underground bunker and decide, “This is going to be a folk weekend. Any objections?” This weekend’s theme is house. And so house is all over the damn place–the Ottobar, the harbor, Canton. And it’s the good...
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As was announced earlier this summer, the City Council is planning major changes to how live music venues are regulated in Baltimore. It’s fairly simple on its face: Instead of being governed by zoning, live music establishments will be, if the legislation is passed, subject to a license process remarkably similar to the city’s...
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Chrissie Hynde | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam™ I was pretty pumped when it was announced that the 2008 Noise in the Basement Creative Conference would be bringing the Pretenders to Baltimore. You couldn’t, however, help but raise an eyebrow that the Hold Steady would not only be sharing Friday’s bill at Sonar, but...
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Two things you have no excuse for missing this weekend: 1) at least one night of High Zero, which ends Sunday, and 2) one show by the Evolutionary Jass Band, which has at least three local shows lined up between tonight and next Tuesday (so, you have some time). So, try fitting that in...
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Faraquet | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam If there’s one tradition that defines the Washington’s Dischord Records, it’s the transience of many of its acts. With a few long-running exceptions, like Fugazi, Dischord bands rarely last long enough to record more than an album or two, and inevitably its members spin off to form...
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Kix | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam Every year around this time, hair metal’s hometown hero Kix does a brief string of reunion shows, culminating in a big bash in Baltimore. (Last year’s at Rams Head Live was the best show I saw in 2007.) Still, the band hasn’t recorded a new album since...
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The True Vine has a new home. Find the venerable Hampden record shop now around the corner on Hickory Street and minus one of its co-owners, Ian Nagoski, who’s on to full-time music making and the like. This all started several weeks ago, but it looks like the transition is complete–the shop is throwing...
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Snacks Is This Awesome Welcome back to the Really Short List, which only includes stuff I recommend, late-breaking shows, and shows I just plain forgot until today. It’s looking like a noise weekend, but make of it what you will. Enjoy and don’t get hurt. FRIDAY The Donnas, who unfortunately saved pop-punk from both...
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City Paper Digi-Cam | Image by Profitt Productions Local hip-hop promoter Steez Promo put together an exceptionally good bill for the Ottobar on Saturday night, with a number of quality local acts supporting legendary New York rappers/producers the Beatnuts. The only problem, however, was that there were a few more openers besides the quality...
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Here we go again. As announced in a MySpace bulletin yesterday by Dave Tat, scheduled to play last Saturday night at the Hexagon, the recently opened nonprofit/cooperative club was contacted last week by a representative from ASCAP. The rep wanted money for a license that, naturally, the bare-bones space doesn’t have. Dave Tat and...
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The Extraordinaires | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam Every listing, flier, and poster advertising we’ve found for Wednesday night’s show at the Ottobar only mentioned three bands, sometimes with the addendum “and guests.” So we have no idea who the fourth band was onstage when we entered the club. But it was pretty damn...
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Ruthe Charles | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam We’ve been to Noise in the Basement, the weekly showcase at Fletcher’s presented by 98 Rock’s local music program of the same name, a few times before. But it wasn’t until this past Monday, as we walked up the stairs to the club, that we realized...
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The Get Em Mamis | Image by J.M. Giordano The full mixtape, Material Girls, will be out later this fall on Darkroom Productions via free download from the Mamis’ MySpace page, but its first two singles landed in our in box this morning. And, yeah, it’s damn hot. Like, two fire-breathing MCs spitting over...
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Blue Leader With Hurricane Hanna on the way, we’d really just planned on buying a bunch of water, putting a diaper on the dog, and hunkering down, but if we get a break, there’s plenty of more entertaining places to stay dry in Baltimore. Friday: Adam Gonzo and Mark Brown’s newish dance party Sorted...
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Over the long weekend, local house diva Ultra Naté e-mailed out a link to the Karl Giant-directed new video of her current single, “Twisted,” and it’s a scorcher. (See video, below.) It’s a single from Ms. Ultra’s most recent release, Alchemy: G.S.T. Reloaded, a two-disc hit parade of her No. 1 club hits remixed...
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