SXSW lineup
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Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Over the horizon: this weekend
This weekend will be a good one for local music lovers.
Big shows comin up this weekend:
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Friday
White Williams
w/ Ecstatic Sunshine, Rings and Smarts
Ottobar
Doors 9PM, show 10PM
Saturday
J Roddy Walston and the Business
w/ Glenmont Popes, American Aquarium
Ottobar
$10, doors 9PM, show 10PM
Transmodern Age Benefit Show featuring:
Matmos
Floristree
$10, 9PM.
The Aquarian Birthday party featuring:
Squaaks
w/ the Gold-bug, Los Doggies (NY)
Metro Gallery
$3 doors, 8PM , BYOB.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Vampire Weekend, goddamn bloodsuckers...
It's here. Last week, NYC's Vampire Weekend dropped their hotly anticipated, highly hyped, self-titled and first LP on XL Recordings.
Reading more and more of the hooplah, reaching supernova levels, I really wanted to hate this release. But goddammit, every once in a while, there's actually something that comes out that meets the expectations. For me, this was like Michael Bay's Transformers. I didn't think I liked the people behind the scenes and I thought they didn't know the material they were working with and were just delivering phoned-in approximations and reinterpretations.
Man was I wrong. More comments to come. Anybody else that can't get this damn CD out of their player/MP3s out of their MP3 player?
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Vampire Weekend - A-punk
Stripped down punk warmth, courtesy of the Thermals
I have a confession. I am addicted to Portland's most-prominent purveyors of earnest, politically charged punk, the Thermals. I drove to NYC this past August to catch them with Ted Leo in the basin of NYC's largest pool, drained, in the middle of McCarren Park.
I didn't want to tell Ted, but I was there more for Hutch and Kathy.
Behold, the latest Daytrotter session here. Wherein the Thermals are doing their thing. Albeit with a little less of the frantic, lightspeed tempo of their reputed live shows.
And apparently, with hints of what the new album will sound like...and I personally cannot wait. Couple vids off The Blood, The Body, The Machine for you after the jump.
Has dissent-punk ever been this endearing, heartfelt and fun? And during this election year, has it ever been more needed?
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The Thermals - "Returning to the Fold"
Leaving a big hole in my heart.
I know that this post is somewhat out of place, but I can't help but comment on it.
More than I actually listen to music throughout my day, I listen to the local NPR station, WYPR. Supposedly that acronym should stand for Your Public Radio. Yesterday, I turned on the radio at work in the morning, and at 12, waited for the always illuminating Marc Steiner Show to come on. It didn't. I assumed I must have been accidentally picking up DC's WAMU (88.5). I wasn't.
Photo credit: Steve Ruark, Special to the Sun
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In something reminiscent of the Colts leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night, WYPR had decided to fire Marc Steiner, a founder of the station, without warning. A half-assed excuse of "ratings" was given as the reason for his termination.
In Baltimore, the name Marc Steiner is synonymous with Public Radio. By hemorrhaging this connection, WYPR has effectively stunted or stopped the growth of public knowledge of Baltimore City politics and news. They have also broken my heart. Where else can I turn for in depth, accessible, coverage of candidates' positions before election day? Where else can I listen to well moderated and well planned discussions of things I didn't even know I was interested in before I turned on the radio? These things, and many more that I'm not cognizant enough to list right now, were the reasons I became a member of WYPR. The destruction of these things will be the reason I reconsider staying a member of WYPR in the future.
For more information, please visit Marc Steiner's blog.
BAM! BAM!
BAM (also known as Brooklyn Academy of Music) is holding their 2nd annual Brooklyn Next Fest from February 15-24. The festival is tasked with the unenviable job of celebrating that stagnant music scene up in Brooklyn (sarcasm).
Notable performers include the excellent White Rabbits, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, epic heartbreakers the National, My Brightest Diamond, country-folk artist Laura Cantrell and a healthy dose of electronica from Excepter.
Check the official site here for more info.
And as usual, some vids/tunes after the jump for your perusal.
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The National - "Fake Empire"
Monday, February 4, 2008
Yelle out loud...it's ok. She likes it.
Yelle is the name of a French electro-pop vixen that has made some deadly-catchy dance music. Check some videos after the jump, and maybe some fanboyish rantings later in the week.
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Je veux te voir
D'accord! Encore, s'il vous plait! Vive le Freedom Toast.
DJ Blaqstarr at Sonar
Baltimore based DJ Blaqstarr will be headlining an upcoming TaxLo at Sonar on February 29th. Tickets are only $8. Surely, this will be an event likely to happen once every four years, at most. (See what I did there...).
What's it going to be like?
A lot like this:
"Shake it to the Ground" by DJ Blaqstarr, f/t Rye Rye (a 14 y/o Baltimore rapper).
Panda Bear hat give away on Fader
Okay, I think this is really cool.
Reppin' Maryland, reppin' Person Pitch.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Dub gets the academic treatment
Dub, born out of Kingston dance halls and soundclashes, will be the topic of an upcoming lecture at Peabody Conservatory. On Wednesday, February 6 Michael Veal, of Yale University, will give the free talk on the bass-heavy, reverbed-out reggae offshoot . And later that night a bunch of Peabody students, otherwise known as Soul Cannon (Baltimore's live hip hop band) hit the stage of the Talking Head.
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UPDATE: I have been obsessed with dub-step master Burial's 2007 LP Untrue lately. 3 tracks for your listening pleasure...--A.S.
Dub icons Lee "Scratch" Perry and Mad Professor
Soul Cannon
--Bez
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