Blaqstarr—Roses by Interscope Records

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He expects the club to be opened mid-next week. Tonight’s Freddy Redd Quintet show has been cancelled, as has tomorrow’s Ebony and Irony performance.

Of course, the more stuff that gets cancelled, the greater the odds are that the storm will be a tinkle.

Finally, Monday night, City Paper received an e-mail from Carlos Guillen on behalf of the Hexagon’s board of directors. It seems those closing plans have been accelerated, to put it mildly. The Hexagon’s been evicted.

There were several unfortunate circumstances that led to our eviction, but the final act was made by our landlord when she changed the locks and forced us to remove all our valuables from the space. We decided that a legal battle was not going to improve our situation, so we decided to go along with our eviction and we moved out of 1825 N. Charles on Thursday, May 20th.

Much of our ability to survive was because of our inclusion in the Station North Arts District, and so we may not be able to find a new location elsewhere in town and still survive. The current Board of Directors and volunteers members are doing everything we can to move the shows we currently have booked to new locations. Our website will be updated as moves get finalized.

Everyone involved in The Hexagon Space is very happy that we had so much support from the music & arts scene in Baltimore. We could not have made it this far without everyone’s help, and hopefully we will get the chance to continue contributing to the artistic culture of Baltimore in the future.

As of right now, the Hexagon’s web site hasn’t been updated with new information about shows moving elsewhere or even that the space is closed. In an e-mail to the Elf Wire Google Group and shared with CP, Baltimore SDIY founder Logan Mitchell Sr. laments about his currently in-limbo two-day SummerFest: “I started working on these shows in March. So much time, effort, hopes & dreams………..gone in an instant.” And, as for what those “unfortunate circumstances” are exactly, we have an e-mail into Guillen. Stay tuned for updates.

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 2 years and 11 months since The Hexagon Space was started, and we’ve had some really fantastic shows and art gallery openings.  Baltimore has supported us through thick & thin, and we thank every band, artist, volunteer, and audience member who has helped us survive to this point.  THANK YOU ALL!!

It’s unfortunate, but after a lingering phase of collective turn-over running from sometime late last summer until this past winter, the space hasn’t been nearly the same as the Hexagon that achieved booking coups on regular basis, scoring acts such as Tim Hecker, Matt and Kim, or Mullyman. As for what’s to become of the space itself and why the lease won’t be renewed, we have a call in to owner Joy Martin (who also owns the Club Charles and Zodiac) for comment.

Wye Oak covers Danzig

Maybe this weekend we’ll be checking out the totally awesome underground culture of the nearly third of all children in Baltimore living below the poverty line, or that super-exclusive 10 percent of Baltimoreans that get by on less than half of the poverty level.

Enjoy this new song/video from Baltimore’s Bethany Dinsick, making lovely out-folk ambience equal parts song and ritual: slow, falling-off guitar strums; honeyed, burrowing vocals; and background texture courtesy of an MRI machine (according to the video’s notes). Also: more, more, MORE triangles.  It seems like Disnick doesn’t appear out all that often–at least under said given name, and not as Square Pi or with duo Downward Facing Dog–but still a local figure to keep track of.

Whore of Baltimore from Bethany Dinsick on Vimeo.

Do Whatever You Want All The Time from WEAREFREE on Vimeo.

First up, the first new song in years from erstwhile Baltimore spazz-punk band the Death Set. And it’s probably the heaviest, most breaking-things track the band’s ever done—Johnny Siera stops shrieking just long enough for a weird mechanical sampled chorus to cut in, backed by a guitar that seems almost metal. Punishing and kinda unexpected.

The Death Set – Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap from The Death Set on Vimeo.

Next, one of the final Electric Tarot song/video unveilings before Celebration releases Hello Paradise, its first album since 2007′s The Modern Tribe. The video, a line-drawn illustration brought to life via stop-motion, in its closing seconds captures a few things about Baltimore near perfectly, while the song is ace Celebration-brand pop swoon.

Celebration “Honeysuckle Blue” from Friends Records on Vimeo.

Finally, Dog Leather is rap/noise/what in the hell? guy DJ Dog Dick plus Sewn Leather, a fellow sub-underground noise traveler that makes me think of a post-apocalypse sewer-dwelling Diplo. The result. . . is this.

It wasn’t long ago that Dan Deacon was touring via Greyhound bus and living the unglamorous, underground art-collective lifestyle. Well, he still does. Mostly. But last week, it was announced that he’ll be scoring the new Francis Ford Coppola movie, Twixt Now and Sunrise, starring Val Kilmer. Late last week, City Paper caught up with Deacon briefly via e-mail to find out how exactly this opportunity came up and why it actually makes great sense.

City Paper: How did this come about?
Dan Deacon: I guess it came about when he heard me doing an interview on NPR. He contacted me after that and invited me out to his vineyard in Napa [Valley, Calif]. We hung out there and talked about the changes in each of our “industries” and how working outside the existing framework can be beneficial. We talked about a few ideas and concepts for a project and, late last summer, we began more serious talks about the project.

CP: How are you feeling about this?
DD: My thoughts are that I couldn’t be happier. I love performing music, but my main passion is composing it. Being able to work on a project of this scope that is SO different from what I am currently known for is an artistic dream. I can experiment freely with dissonance, atonality, and nonpulsed music without disenfranchising my current “dance music” fan base. It’ll give me an opportunity as a composer to really explore territory that otherwise would have seemed like a really severe aesthetic shift.

He’s also one of the nicest and humble people. Every time we talk I get so excited. At first I was really nervous around him, but he quickly made me feel comfortable enough to share my thoughts and ideas. It’s been a great experience so far and I can’t wait for the next few stages.

Dunno the context for this aside from it being Dave Heumann sitting alone on a hill during the fall sometime. The song is “When Delivery Comes,” off Arbouretum‘s forthcoming The Gathering, and you’ve got to appreciate how heavy he can make it even minus all of the full band’s electric churn and gravitas. No idea what I’d do if I heard a voice like his coming from up the trail, reverberating out in the open just so perfectly.

Arbouretum – When Delivery Comes (solo acoustic) from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Thank you, Arthur.

Which is a league away from Ultimate Reality head-tripping but, anyone who’s paid deep attention to Deacon’s music shouldn’t be all that surprised: some fast tempos and bright colors aside, Deacon’s a force as a composer. Next month, he unveils a new set of compositional work as “Dan Deacon’s Electric Bus”–in Ontario, alas.

I sent some questions out to Deacon, like, just now so expect an update.

Bossman – Illuminat by user3690305

Dunno really how it started, but local MC Bossman has had some beef with Washington, D.C. MC-done-good Wale, emblemized, naturally, in a diss track. The latter got shit-talked on 92Q to the tune of, “Wale is going to get beat at the show tomorrow,” according to the Bmore Beckham blog.

Wale’s (off-air) response to 92Q’s Porkchop and Squirrel Wyde is legendary:

And, then, this morning, Bossman tweeted that the beef is “over.” Somehow I doubt it.

“What sets Mobtown Modern apart is that we haven’t been afraid to make the experience of contemporary music less formal while at the same time not taking the art less seriously,” curator Brian Sacawa wrote in an e-mail this morning.

Mobtown Modern will recieve the award at the 33rd annual Chamber Music America National Conference Jan, 15 in New York City. The series continues next Tuesday at the Metro Gallery with a retrospective of works from vocalist and composer Ken Ueno.

. . . for music. Specifically, their song “Yeah I” is up for “Best Original Song” in the adult industry’s annual celebration of its best and brightest. Dirt and Bank’s competition can be found on AVN’s list of nominees (PDF, Page 55) for every one of its nearly 100 categories.

Anyhow, this is the one. Video directed by former City Paper photographer Carlos Batts.

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, interesting, and original content.

Send a bit about yourself, what you want to write about, and a couple of things you’ve written to mbyrne@citypaper.com.

We got late notice about this show so it’s not in today’s print edition, but Sleigh Bells performs Sunday, Sept. 26, at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $12.

An unofficial FreeFest afterparty takes over the Ottobar with a not-at-all shabby lineup of the Death Set, PoPo, Wavves, MIA’s DJ Asma, Christmas Island, DJ Pierre, and the Tax Lo DJs. We’ve been advised that there could be some super-special guests involved.  The show begins at 9:30 p.m and tickets are $10.

And while it’s technically not the weekend, tomorrow night has New York “hipster Tragedy” Japanther making a sweaty pile at the Penthouse Gallery, with the second-to-last show for Baltimore’s Blood Baby and Dope Body ruling heavily. Doors open at 9 p.m. and the show is $5.

Barn Aid, a benefit festival of quality local talent such as Wye Oak and the Celebration side-project Birdland, has been moved from Springfield Farms in Sparks to the Golden West, and from Sunday to Monday, Sept. 20. The cost of the Sparks event was $50, and after “sluggish” sales, things have been condensed to the smaller-scale show, where a sliding-scale donation of $10-$15 gets you in and that donation goes to the sustainable/natural farm’s barn-related legal woes. The show begins at 9 p.m., with the Pilgrim and DJ Jason Willette on the bill as well.

Both Sound Garden and the True Vine made Rolling Stone’s “Top 25 Spots For Unique Vinyl and CDs.”

Noise wonders how somebody organizes an all-day Station North Fall Music Festival (Oct. 9) and books but one local band.

Check out “Scottie B’s Baltimore” on XLR8R TV for a look at the city through the club master’s eyes: rim shops, King Tutt, Dimensions in Music, Cullen Stalin, more. (Disclaimer: this writer is an XLR8R contributor.)

Sometime in the very early morning of Saturday, Aug. 21, DJ Rice–of one-man band Teenage Souls and one of the nicest humans around–was attacked after leaving the Copycat building. He was found sometime later off Loch Raven Boulevard with multiple but nonfatal skull fractures and spent eight days in the ICU. The Floristree holds a benefit to help cover Rice’s medical expenses Sunday, Sept. 5, with Future Islands, Weekends, Holy Ghost Party, and . . . In Every Room. $5-10 at the door. 9 p.m.

Tonight, catch Dope Body–aka Baltimore’s current most owningest punk meltdown band–who guests at Deep in the Game at the Hippo.  $5. Doors at 10 p.m.

Guitar looper/vibe controller Dustin Wong has a record coming out in October from Thrill Jockey. With it, you get a bonus disc of video candy. A taste below.

Dustin Wong – Infinite Love preview from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

J-Roddy Walston and the Business is blowing up.

Back in April, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s The Retriever published this handy guide to “the portal to hell,” or the Copycat Annex. In it you will find the most bizarre bit of conservative/boring youth student writing this side of a Young Republican e-mail blast. Future stars of cultural criticism Becky Hunter and Paul-William deSilva were also kind enough to print the Annex’s address.

Speaking of the Copycat, there’s a good show there tonight with Rapdragons, Moss of Aura, Flesh Epic, Romantic States, and Archer Twins. It’s at the Good Son.

Friends Records is putting out a new Celebration full-length, on vinyl, which will be the first for the band since ditching 4AD a few years ago and taking on the Electric Tarot. Look for it this winter, but label boss Brett Yale notes that every song on it will be made available for free online in the interim.

And speaking of Friends Records, last night the BiMA fest was kind enough to host a label showcase for Friends–that the label had nothing to do with, and had actually turned down weeks earlier, according to Yale in an e-mail. And Mullyman, scheduled to perform at the Windup Space Saturday night, now actually lives in Atlanta and had no idea he was supposed to perform until last week, when City Paper contacted him about trying to schedule a photo shoot in conjunction with our BiMA coverage. He says he will not be performing tomorrow night.

Mobtown Studios just announced its second annual Moblove anniversary event at the Windup Space on Sept. 18 with Soul Cannon, Secret Mountains, Austin Stahl, the Water, and We Used To Be Family, and e.joseph.

If you missed the quickie bursts of Oxes on Howard Street during Whartscape, never fear: the rock trio is giving a full show late this Saturday night at the Windup Space. Doors at midnight; $8. The venue would like to emphasize that this is happening at midnight and not a minute earlier.

New video from Height With Friends by Team G, for the title track from the recent Bed Of Seeds.

Height With Friends “Bed of Seeds” from Team G on Vimeo.

And a new Under Sound-produced video from Baltimore-via-California rapper UllNevaNo, a four-elements roots MC new to the scene as a soloist. Really promising.

UllNevaNo – Bright Sound from Under Sound Music on Vimeo.

And yet more great video news–just try and look at this epilepsy-inducing vid from Matt Porterfield for Dope Body‘s ruling song “Enemy Outta Me” and not feel like breaking a skateboard over something.

Dope Body / “Enemy Outta Me” from Matt Porterfield on Vimeo.

Send news tips and hate mail to mbyrne@citypaper.com.

Baltimore’s growing indie-rap army once again performs in the round, with Mickey Free, Jones, Height with Friends, Food For Animals, PT Burnem, Rapdragons, Plural MC, and King Rhythm taking turns at the mic Saturday, Aug. 7 at Floristree. 9 p.m., $7.