Noise: Archive for February, 2009

Walking away from the triple bill headlined by Matt and Kim—the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based dance-punk carnival band that was the darling at last year’s South by Southwest festival—at the Ottobar Thursday night, we were wracking our brains trying to think of another band, or any sort of live act, that does as good a job...
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Although Bmore Originals released the Lyricists‘ full-length L3 last year, Transmittin’ Live is the Port Huron, Mich., underground act’ first musical collaboration with DJ Excel. Excel’s blueprint is the boom-bap you expect from a crew called the Lyricists, but one of Baltimore’s most ubiquitous beat makers grabs some of club music’s energy and avant...
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George Clinton is a rare breed: a living legend who still tours the earth as tirelessly as any young unknown band, whether he has a new record to promote or not. At 67 years old, he is still perpetually on the road with some form of Parliament-Funkadelic, playing long, rowdy sets of the funk...
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Last Friday, Baltimore metal fans swelled within the sold-out Meshuggah show at Towson’s Recher Theatre to partake in a wide range of experimental metal, while a line of chilly hopefuls hugged the exterior of the building. Long waits and tight security checks aside, the night was worth the discomfort as each band provided a...
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Thee Lexington Arrows | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam When I saw local quartet Thee Lexington Arrows last year, they were squeezed at the end of a show with a tight curfew, racing through what they could of their set in 13 minutes. So it was good to see the band take its time...
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Web zine Splice Today posted a free compilation today you’d be wise to check out. Titled That Old Lonesome Sound after a Jim White quote describing Southern folk music, the compilation, in large part drawn from Baltimore talent, is a collection of current folk songwriters covering folk traditionals to lovely, and powerful, effect. Locals...
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Tiger Hill | Image by City Paper Digi-Cam Baltimore quartet Tiger Hill only formed a few months ago, in October of last year. But at the Charm City Art Space on Sunday night, while cold wind from Maryland Street found its way into the basement performance space, Tiger Hill sounded like a band that...
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It’s been interesting to watch the slow rise of We Read Minds. Like it or not, Baltimore can often be a town where if you’re friends with the right people, it can be maybe a little easy to get on a good–or at least “hip”–bill. Regardless, We Read Minds has advanced steadily from some...
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The Los Solos Series, a monthly event featuring female solo performers from a wide range of art forms, takes place at a venue called the Carriage House, which is located down a dimly lit alley in Charles Village. Inside, the Carriage House is a small theater with a stage and wooden chairs arranged both...
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Beach House | Image by Graham Hill . . .is at the Zodiac with Beach House, the Creepers, and newish Tall Grass tangent the Dodgers. Donations are being taken at the door; proceeds go to the ailing York Road movie house. Starts at 10 p.m. (The other benefit is at the actual theater, starting...
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The annals of rock history don’t want for passionately perturbed malcontents who punt from and perch precariously upon piano stools–Tori Amos, Elton John, Alicia Keys, and that dude from OneRepublic immediately leap to mind. Ben Folds is, nonetheless, a special case. As frontman for the egregiously named Ben Folds Five and later as a...
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Philip Glass | Image by Josh Sisk Most big-deal music festivals suck. Yes, that’s just one writer’s opinion, but crowds, lines, abbreviated/overlapping/distant performances, predatory locals/vendors/law enforcement—you can have it. Then there are the fringe festivals, the music-nerd gatherings, events such as Mutek, High Zero, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Whartscape, and, now, Big Ears, festivals that...
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The first time I sat down to interview Samir Singletary, better known as Baltimore club producer Debonair Samir, it was for City Paper‘s 2006 Big Music Issue. At the time, he had just begun a fruitful business relationship with Aaron Lacrate, the Baltimore native and streetwear fashion designer who’d spent the last few years...
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Mark Linkous | Image by Josh Sisk Watching the staff of the Bijou Theatre–a century-old, elegant three story venue with supernatural acoustics–during copyright insurgent Negativland‘s Sunday afternoon performance was almost as fun as the show itself. Sometime during the first half of the show, the trio’s “Christianity Is Stupid” T-shirt, lying on a lobby...
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Future Islands’ Sam Herring | Image by Josh Sisk Word through the crowd on Thursday was that that night’s Golden Filter show was one of it’s first few live. The new disco outfit, a minor blog storm, has been primarily a studio project. And, even as a studio project, the band’s relatively untested—it’s first...
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It’s interesting to chart the relative reactions to the announcement of this record and the record’s actual release. It’s been a month and a half since K-Swift’s final mix officially dropped, and it hasn’t garnered much discussion, at least nationally. It’s near enough to make you wonder how large the subsection of people interested...
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Arbouretum | Image by Josh Sisk When the Baltimore music blog Aural States announced it was putting on a show to celebrate its first year of existence, it was hard to predict just what the bill would look like, other than that it would reflect the site’s wide reaching tastes. When the Aural States...
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