Noise: Archive for November, 2010

The catalog of songs, whether famous or obscure, written about Baltimore or that simply mention Baltimore is vast and varied. But when taken together, those songs do form an interesting city portrait and how it exists in the hearts and minds of songwriters and music listeners. Last Saturday at the Creative Alliance at the...
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By the time Trampled by Turtles played “Wait So Long,” the first song on its breakthrough album Palomino, and the final song of its set Saturday night, the wooden floorboards of the 8×10 were reverberating from the stomping, clogging, pogo-dancing sold-out crowd. And the youthful quintet from Duluth, Minn., had sparked this reaction with...
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If there’s any one band that rises above the past decade of the increasingly mediocre, derivative rock subculture known as emo, it’s Say Anything. Between the fascinating, hilarious lyrical persona of frontman Max Bemis, distinctive and creative guitar work, and proggy, ambitious song structures, Say Anything is simply one of the more unpredictable and...
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Spermwhales songs have titles like “Daydreams,” “Dwell Forever,“ and “Surf Out Of Forever” that telegraph the cerebral, blunted atmospheres that Spermwhales’ Brent Grant taps into with little more than a guitar, effects pedals, and an impeccable melodic intuition. His prismatic, hypnotic drones, tonal-pond ripples, and Wavves-esque surf-noise is nothing short of beautiful. Occasionally, as...
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For the last decade and change, Devin Ocampo has been widely regarded as one of the Washington, D.C., area’s most technically proficient musicians in the Dischord Records orbit, playing drums in Smart Went Crazy and Beauty Pill and singing and playing guitar in the short-lived Faraquet and now Medications, which released its second album...
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When Wilson Savoy plays with his regular band, the Pine Leaf Boys, he usually plays a single-row button accordion, the bleating instrument that’s the bedrock of the Cajun dancehall sound. But when Wilson plays with his parents and brother as the Savoy Family Band, that’s not an option, because the quartet already boasts the...
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No, seriously. The writing world isn’t all shit like this and this. You have thoughts and ideas and can express them well in language–you should get some actual money. We’re looking for a couple more people who can write about local music. Maybe some show reviews, but mainly quickie previews, Q&As, single/video reviews. Witty,...
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