In 1988, KRS-One assembled an all-star cast of East Coast rappers as the Stop the Violence Movement to release a protest song called “Self Destruction,” which became the standard bearer for hip-hop artists banding together to make a positive statement, the genre’s equivalent of “We Are the World.” In recent weeks, many local hip-hop...
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Last week, the Hexagon Space, the Station North DIY gallery/music venue, announced it would be shutting down as of July 1. Its lease was set to expire, and it would not be renewed by the space’s owner, Joy Martin (of Club Charles/Zodiac fame). In a phone call to City Paper, Martin explained, “They just...
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This week’s City Paper features a story on White Life, the latest and perhaps greatest project from the prolific young formerly Baltimore-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Ehrens. But a lengthy April interview with Ehrens yielded a more comprehensive overview of his prodigious output of self-proclaimed “mixtape rock” than could fit in the print article,...
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Uncle Jesse, club music boundary-pusher and maker of some of the only tolerable moombahton out there (see “Boat Shoes”), just put out “Samson,” an excellent though not exactly categorizable electro track. Let’s start with the drums, which could pound like every other dance song and be just fine, but instead kick and flutter like they’re...
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On a balmy Baltimore night in May, the cream of local salon society crowded around Paul Cassedy’s table for another great night of what he calls “dinner and music.” It’s no mean feat for a Baltimore rowhouse. Cassedy introduced Alexis Tantau, the night’s singer, and her piano accompanist, Elizabeth Brown. He toasted them with...
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The Hexagon Space, for a time an indispensable DIY performance/gallery space in Station North, has announced that it intends to shut down July 1. A posting on its web site reads: Sorry folks. We’ve lost our lease. Effective JULY 1ST, 2011, The Hexagon Space location at 1825 NORTH CHARLES will be CLOSED. It’s been...
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The secret is that pretty much every Future Islands song is a huge bummer. Recent acoustic shows (and the EP, Undressed) have revealed the heavy heart behind the super-fun dance beats and, here, as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, the group’s kinda stripped down take on new-ish songs like “On The Water,”...
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A promising up-and-coming Baltimore rapper named Ellis, who released his first mixtape barely more than a year ago, has been getting some well-deserved buzz on bigger out-of-town hip-hop sites like Rap Radar and kevinnottingham.com with his video for the songs “Bmore Boys” and “Oh Lord,” both off of his recent album, Bluray E. LP....
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Just in case you thought hanging out with Francis Ford Coppola had turned Dan Deacon irreparably fancy, IFC.com premiered Hilvarenbeek, an absolutely insane short film directed by Deacon’s pal Jimmy Joe Roche and scored by Deacon. Hilvarenbeek starts out in a church with a hipster chorus humming, led by Deacon himself. Then, there are...
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At the time of this interview, which was arranged and conducted in the span of several hours after it was announced that Will Adams was leaving Lower Dens on April 25, there was a growing local controversy surrounding an ExxonMobil commercial touting oil-sands technology. The reason: the oil company licensed the opening guitar chords...
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Around 4 p.m. this afternoon Sonar–the club Lonnie Fisher co-opened in Canton in the summer of 2001, which opened at its 407 E. Saratoga St. downtown location October 2003–announced via its Twitter feed and Facebook page that it was shutting down immediately. The two messages–here and here–claim that the venue’s liquor license and corporate...
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DJ King Tutt’s Say Hello to The Bad Guy mix is an hour of unabashed house and electro. No Baltimore club productions. And none of Tutt’s own electro work either. Just 19 tracks of the cheap, strong stuff. Big booming songs from guys like Tiesto, Laidback Luke, and the Bingo Players. Also: Some Underworld...
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OC Alternatives Sizzlin’ Summer Calendar: Assateague Island National Seashore, North Point State Park, Rehoboth Beach, and more 5/15/2013
Real-Life Embarassing Sex Stories Feature: Submitted by City Paper readers 2/13/2013
Murder Ink Murder Ink: Murders this Week: 5; Murders this Year: 77 By Edward Ericson Jr. 5/15/2013
Crazy Horse Film: Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman puts his focus on Le Crazy Horse de Paris, the French cabaret By Lee Gardner 4/4/2012
Sizzlin’ Summer Sizzlin’ Summer: Summer in Baltimore is a sensory explosion, from the scent of Old Bay-smothered steamed crabs and the taste of marshmallow-topped chocolate snoballs to the smell of Ocean City salt water mixed with sunscreen and the vision of fireflies. 5/15/2013
How to Throw a Louisiana Style Crawfish Boil! Sizzlin’ Summer: Ordering 1. Figure out how many people you have attending. I usually do this by selling tickets for $25 each via Paypal. 2. Once you know how many people will be attending, you can figure out how many pounds of crawfish you need to order. The suggested a By Ben Claassen III 5/15/2013