Hampden Fest 2007: September 15; Free MP3s From Bands Playing The Festival

As always, hosted by Atomic Books, get ready for this year's Hampden Fest on September 15. The fest runs 11-7 on the Avenue. Tons of great Baltimore bands, many of which have been reviewed here at AGT!


***STAGE SCHEDULE!***
CITYPAPER STAGE (36th & Roland Ave)
11AM - Private Eleanor (read a review of Sweethearting)
12PM - Payola Reserve (read a review of 200 Years)
1PM - Caleb Stine & The Brakemen
2PM - The Jennifers (read a review of Colors From The Future)
3PM - Impossible Hair
4PM - The Oranges Band
5PM - HAMPDEN IDOL

PATUXENT PUBLISHING STAGE (36th & Chestnut)
11AM - Stalking Horses
12PM - Water School
1PM - Frenemies
2PM - Television Hill
3PM - Arbouretum
4PM - Chelsea Graveyard & The Screams At Midnight
5PM - June Star
6PM - The Beltways

ATOMIC STAGE (36th & Falls Rd)
11AM - Baby Aspirin
12PM - Jason Dove
1PM - Secret Crush Society
2PM - Double Dagger
3PM - The Ubangis
4PM - Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad (read a review of Brian Adam Ant's Separation Celebration)
5PM - The Barn Burners
6PM - Electric Junk Band

Free MP3s:
The Jennifers - "Lion In Winter"
The Payola Reserve - "Henrietta"
Private Eleanor - "Temporary Homes"

Metallica and Philosophy: New Book by William Irwin

Have you heard about this book? It's called Metallica and Philosophy: A Crash Course in Brain Surgery (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) and while the title almost sounds like it is an instruction manual for neurosurgery, it's by an author who connects philosophical topics to popular culture. William Irwin has also written Seinfeld, The Simpsons, The Matrix, and plenty other versions of this book. By linking classic Metallica tracks to philosophers such as Nietzsche ("The God That Failed"), Descartes ("One") as well as different schools of philosophy (existentialism, metaphysics, ethics, not to mention aesthetics), "Metallica and Philosophy" can prove that metal is not idiotic, but a cathartic experience as well as a platform for social discourse.

Sample the book and then go buy it. Philosophy is the most fascinating, mind's eye-opening discipline there is, and this book along with Dr. Irwin's others should be proof positive that it is intertwined in the social fabric. Philosophy exists in everything we experience, from our most comedic and tragic experiences down to the molecules of the chair you are sitting in while you read this. In the most fundamental sense, philosophy is the study of existence, of being. Forget anatomy and physiology, this is the study of what the more "real" sciences cannot, by definition, analyze. As a philosopher, you will search whether quantifiable science can really "know" what it claims to be natural law. And music is the perfect vehicle for philosophy. Through music, artists can expound on abstract notions of justice, morality, love, and dozens of other key concepts and human values that defy definition. And it can be done in an aesthetically pleasing way (which is philosophical in itself)!

Album Review: Brian Adam Ant - Separation Celebration; Free MP3s from the album

Brian Adam Ant is Baltimore's answer to Jeff Mangum, AKA Neutral Milk Hotel. Obtuse lyrics bordering on psychedelic, warbling vocals, and hypnotic instrument experimentation blending folk, blues, indie, and alternative sounds, Brian Adam Ant is either going to strike you as utterly deranged or fanatically dedicated to musical revolution.

"Rainy Winter Weather" is a guitar-strumming blues track, dismissing love as a "rat race baby, and there ain't no f****** prize." The track forces humor with hieroglyphic lyrics sung over jaunty guitar with a quavering voice. The hallucinatory lyrics of "Our Artillery" can be sung along to, while "Crushed Up Pills" is an apparent reinterpretation of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", with a monotone, underwater vocal effect and a chorus that screams David Gilmour.

On "The Other Side of the Street", over a reverberating guitar, Brian Adam Ant appears to be singing about unrequited love. Love gone bad is a recurring theme in the album, muddled in tales of a chemically dependent hero who could be quite picaresque after a bout with detox (which it appears our hero is undergoing, according to his MySpace blog).

Separation Celebration is the first solo album from Brian, who also plays bass in Baltimore alt-rock outfit Evolve, as well as the Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad, another uniquely "Baltimore" project.

Catch Brian Adam Ant with Private Eleanor (read Any Given Tuesday's review of Sweethearting, their latest) and Wailing Wall at Lo-Fi Social Club in Baltimore May 31.

Buy the album from CD Baby, or at Sound Garden in Fells Point or Atomic Books in Hampden.

Free MP3 Downloads from Separation Celebration:

Brian Adam Ant - "Rainy Winter Weather"
Brian Adam Ant - "Our Artillery"