Tuesday, June 05, 2007

"Any Given Tuesday" Podcast: Episode 2 featuring Salim, Pontiak, and Brian Adam Ant

Any Given Tuesday podcast

Following up on the first podcast with Thrushes (and trying to keep the show coming out on Tuesdays), the second episode is a radio-show format with tracks from Salim (read a review of Salim's album here), Brian Adam Ant (read a review of Separation Celebration here), and Pontiak. The podcast is produced in collaboration with SEN Baltimore.

Song List:
Salim - "Stresses of the City" from the album Hip Hop Revisited
Brian Adam Ant - "Our Artillery" from the album Separation Celebration
Pontiak - "Sun on Sun" from the forthcoming Sun on Sun

Visit SEN Baltimore to check out Episode 2 of Any Given Tuesday

Read AGT's review of Pontiak's current album, Valley of the Cats. Pontiak's Sun on Sun comes out in September. Expect a review of that soon.

lala.com To Incorporate iTunes, Allowing Users To Store Music Online. . .Free!

lala.com

Music trading service lala.com has announced a new web-based service that enables users to store their iTunes library online for free. This will allow users to play music from anywhere, share it with anyone (in theory, but what about DRM?) and purchase iTunes music anywhere, anytime.

In addition, lala will allow music fans to:

-- Host an iTunes or any other digital library and have them universally
accessible from any PC or Mac with an Internet connection.
-- Fill an iPod from the Web - a technological first in turning the iPod
into a connected, online device with loading from any
Internet-connected computer.
-- Share a library with friends or stream others' playlists.
-- Try before they buy and listen to full albums without limitations and
purchase music in either CD or digital form for iPods.
-- Future-proof their digital music purchases with the assurance that they
can get the physical CD for a small convenience fee starting at $2.99.

This might do me good as I make the transition from PC to Mac next week. I have all my tunes on an external hard drive that's formatted for PC, but I want to make it all readable (and writable) from my spankin' new Mac. With this new service, I can upload my library online, reformat my external drive, and then re-download it all onto the Mac-formatted drive so I can read and write to the disk. Awesome!

Album Review: Salim - Hip Hop Revisited; Free MP3: "Stresses of the City"

Salim - Hip Hop Revisited

Salim hails from Baltimore, and if we let him, he can be someone to show the rest of the country that Baltimore isn't just the crime seen on The Wire and that hip hop isn't just pompous flossing. While mainstream hip-hop is bloated with ice and SUVs, there is a subset of rap with great flow, great lyrics, and without the obsessing over shiny things. Don't get a hipster like me wrong, I like mainstream hip-hop as much as the next, but like many die-hard music fans, I need my hip-hop to have some more substance.

Take, for example, "Stresses of the City" from Salim's Hip Hop Revisited. An urban anthem with fiercely in-your-face flow, inspired by the mixed blight and majesty of Baltimore's southwest. With a voice and a message reminiscent of Talib Kweli (and maybe, just maybe a bit of Phife from Tribe), Salim eschews the glamorization of stereotyped hood life to open up a new window into the life of West Baltimore. Instead of a world often painted as without hope, "Stresses" speaks of a dichotomy of a less-than-perfect existence with perfectly normal and admirable ambitions. As the suburban teenager is not just a kid on a cul-de-sac with skateboard under foot but has dreams of becoming an artist or an accountant, the city youth is more than baggy pants and headphones and dreams of the same thing. Salim wants to bridge the gap: we all struggle, we all strive, no matter what our world looks like.

Taking it down-tempo on "Hip-Hop Glory", Hip Hop Revisited shouts out to those who came before as well as contemporaries like Pharoahe Monch and Mos Def, reminiscing on the halcyon days of hip-hop. "Untitled" is Salim's vision of life in Baltimore, capably backed with vocals by Green Tea.

But the album is not just about lyrics. Hip Hop Revisited is full of beats that should make Swizz Beats jealous (not to mention a flow that, in a perfect world, would silence Diddy, too). Producers The Last Skeptik and Sin*seer are just the kind of beatmakers that I picture in Baltimore, a wicked studio in a rowhouse basement cooking up sick beats.

This album features lots of collaborations, with the above producers, as well as Theory (and, to give credit where credit is due, Salim produces some of his own, too). Singers Green Tea and Brianne Hemphill, turntabling by DJ Spontaneous, and appearances from Salim's band The Music Lovers also add to the reverie created by the album. But there's no fanfare in the cavalcade of guests. The cast of this album appear for the sake of the music.

Hip Hop Revisited could also be called Hip Hop Revised. A welcome reprieve from slick beats with no substantive rhyme, Revisited also avoids the unfortunate problem of many political/philosophical rappers who are cursed with mediocre tracks to lay their heavy rhymes on. The album is solid both in sound and substance.

You can purchase the album from Salim at his website.

Free MP3 Download: Salim - "Stresses of the City"

Monday, June 04, 2007

Free MP3: The White Stripes - "Icky Thump"



Coming on June 19, Icky Thump from The White Stripes. Don't let the silly name fool you, this song is riff-tastic, and Jack White has proven once again that he is a guitar-lick machine. If you aren't playing air guitar when you hear this, you've got issues.

**UPDATE 7/22/07 - Dead Link**

Click on the album art to pre-order the album, and get your Stripes at the Patriot Center on July 28.

Upcoming Shows Courtesy of Filter Magazine

Here's what's hot and coming to the Baltimore/DC area over the next two months:

6/4 Deftones, The Fall of Troy@ 9:30 Club
6/5 Two Gallants, Les Claypool @ Rams Head Live
6/7 The Cinematics, The Bravery @ 9:30 Club
6/8 EL-P, Hangar 18 @ 9:30 Club
6/8 Kenna, Nelly Furtado @ Patriot
6/9 Califone, Bitter Tears @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/9 RJD2 @ Starscape (read a review of RJ's last visit to Baltimore)
6/9 Loney, Dear, The Sea & Cake @ Black Cat
6/10 Architecture in Helsinki @ 9:30 Club
6/10 As Tall as Lions @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/10 Electrelane @ Black Cat
6/12 Favourite Sons, Voxtrot, Au Revoir Simone @ Ottobar
6/13 Voxtrot, Favourite Sons, Au Revoir Simone @ Black Cat
6/13 Feist, Grizzly Bear @ 9:30 Club
6/15 French Kicks, Bon Savants @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/16 VHS or Beta @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/19 Great Northern @ Black Cat
6/19 Illinois @ Rock and Roll Hotel
6/20 The National, Talkdemonic @ 9:30 Club
6/21 Panda Bear @ Ottobar
6/21 Wilco @ Merriweather Post Pavillion
6/22 Shiny Toy Guns, Stars of Track & Field, The Hourly Radio @ Sonar
6/23 Bryan Scary @ Velvet Lounge
6/24 Lovedrug, Sparta @ Black Cat
6/28 The Fray, OK Go, Mae @ 9:30 Club
6/30 The Polyphonic Spree @ 9:30 Club

JULY
7/3 Morrissey @ Rams Head Live
7/5 The Fiery Furnaces @ Black Cat
7/7 Tortoise @ Black Cat
7/17 Dirty On Purpose, The Besnard Lakes @ Black Cat
7/20 Violent Femmes @ Power Plant Live (FREE: learn more)
7/23 The Ponys @ Black Cat
7/25 James Morrison @ Verizon Center
7/27 Paid Dues International Hip Hop Festival: Brother Ali, Hangar 18, Sage Francis, Mr. Lif, Living Legends and more @ Pier Six Pavilion
7/28 The White Stripes @ The Patriot Center

AUGUST
8/07 Ra Ra Riot, Tokyo Police Club @ Black Cat
8/21 Wolf Parade @ Black Cat

So So Indie: Wilco Makes A Licensing Deal With Volkswagen

Wilco

Wilco have brokered a deal with Volkswagen to use songs from the band's new album, Sky Blue Sky in car commercials. The first song will be "The Thanks I Get."

I'm sure Jeff Tweedy and the boys are getting quite a few thanks (read: $$$) from the German carmaker. Forgive me for being so cliche and decrying the whole "selling out" issue, but what is it with so-called indie bands selling their wares to become muzak and commercials? I know there's a lot of cash involved, and if I were the artist, yeah, I'd probably go for it. I just hope the indie scenesters aren't too far gone to understand that this move is decidedly un-indie. Wilco is not an indie band, folks. They are major, both in label and in marketing value. Same with Of Montreal and all the other bands you think are so pure and wholesome.

New Kurt Cobain Biopic: "About A Son"

Kurt Cobain

About A Son is a forthcoming Kurt Cobain biopic based on more than a day's worth of audio recordings from Michael Azzerad's Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

The soundtrack is due on September 11, and will feature R.E.M, David Bowie, Bad Brains, and more.

Tracklisting for About A Son:

"Overture," Steve Fisk and Ben Gibbard
Audio: Never Intended
"Motorcycle Song," Arlo Guthrie
"Eye Flys," the Melvins
Audio: Punk Rock
"Banned in D.C.," Bad Brains
"Up Around the Bend," Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Put Some Sugar on It," Half Japanese
"Son of a Gun," the Vaselines
"Graveyard," Butthole Surfers
Audio: Hardcore Was Dead
"Owner's Lament," Scratch Acid
"Touch Me I'm Sick," Mudhoney
Audio: Car Radio
"The Passenger," Iggy Pop
"The Borgeois Blues," Leadbelly
"New Orleans Instrumental No. 1," R.E.M.
Audio: The Limelight
"The Man Who Sold the World," David Bowie
"Museum," Mark Lanegan
"Indian Summer," Ben Gibbard

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Tonight at Fletcher's: Circa Survive MySpace Secret Show

Circa Survive MySpace Secret Show

Tonight at 6PM, doors open at Fletcher's for Circa Survive. The show is FREE, and it's all ages. Also playing: Cages and Except After Sea.

Thanks to Joe at Instrumental Analysis for tuning me in to this today.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Gary B & The Notions Release Party Relocated

Gary B & The Notions

As previously reported, Gary B & The Notions are celebrating their CD release on June 8 (read Any Given Tuesday's review of Get Those Crazy Notions!). However, due to the recent developments with Lo-Fi Social Club, the event has been moved to Mobtown Theatre in Hampden (that's still in Baltimore, for those not in town).

$3 bucks, drinks for sale, and the album is available for $5. Get in on it, Baltimore!

The Cure To Announce North American Tour

The Cure

While The Cure have already agreed to a few US festival dates this year (Download Festival and the already-passed Ultra Music Festival), it would appear there is a 19-date North American tour in the works.

Michael Jackson Owns Eminem (and Bjork, and Beck)

Eminem

Eminem must be getting fired up, because Michael Jackson has just purchased Famous Music, LLC from Viacom (Famous Music being a publishing company, not owner of sound recordings), giving Jacko the rights to Eminem's songs (not to mention Bjork, Shakira, and Beck). The King of Pop already has the publishing rights to a significant portion of the Beatles catalog.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Help Fletcher's Snub The Pretentious

Fletcher's Petition

"Suburban kids who mostly have more money than talent or sense"? IT'S ON! Fletcher's can't let their neighbors say that about them in the public record! I have a strong feeling the person who wrote this has more money than respect for the zoning board who has to read letters with such hostile commentary. If that's not the case, or if you feel your letters were taken out of context, please share why you feel so strongly about the picnic tables. I'm genuinely interested.

Caveat emptor: If you live in Fell's Point, you're going to be around nightlife.

Thanks to my good friend Ginger for sharing this story.

Maryland Deathfest VI: May 24 & 25, 2008

Maryland Deathfest logo

Just after the end of this year’s festival, it has been announced that the sixth annual Maryland Deathfest will take place on May 24th and 25th, 2008 at Sonar here in Baltimore, MD.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Lord Baltimore Recording Grand Opening, Saturday June 16: Print This Page For Priority Access

Lord Baltimore Recording

Lord Baltimore Recording, home of Thrushes and WZT Hearts, is about to celebrate its Grand Opening! And what better way to do so than with an awesome party? Sets from Baby Aspirin, Thrushes, The Death Set, and one more band TBA, not to mention free food! The sets will all be recorded live, so your screaming voice will make itself part of the permanent record of the event.

If you are interested in attending this FREE event, print this page and bring it to the event as your invitation to ensure priority access. And shoot me an email (blawk359 at gmail dot com) or leave a comment so I know to say hello to you there!

What: Lord Baltimore Grand Opening w/ live music and free food
When: Saturday, June 16 at 5:30 PM
Where: 100 E. 23rd Street, Baltimore, MD (Home of Lord Baltimore Recording)
Cost: FREE (if you print this page and bring it as your invitation to make sure you get in)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

NowChild Nation Is About To Turn This Mutha Out!

NowChild Nation

NowChild Nation is a funk rock band based in Baltimore and is comprised of former members of the legendary Parliament-Funkadelic and active members of the P-Funk family. Their shows have been known to feature surprise appearances by other former P-Funkers, so watch out!

Just another example of Baltimore's awesome history and even more awesome present!

NowChild Nation has two Baltimore shows coming up:

Friday, June 1, 2007
First Friday Music Series
Reginald F. Lewis Museum
7:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 30, 2007
The Patterson Theatre
7:30 p.m.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Metal Monday: Ion Dissonance; Free MP3 - "Kneel"

Ion Dissonance

Meet Ion Dissonance (whom I knew as ID357 for longer than I'd like to admit before I got a clue). These Canucks make brutal grindcore that will be visiting VA for the Summer Slaughter Tour and Allentown, PA for Infest 2007. I just listened to their latest track, "Kneel", and this is a preview of what I am convinced will be the band's most mature, technical album to date. As a huge fan of metal, prog, and so much more, I am thrilled to see heavier and heavier bands get more and more technical.

Ion Dissonance's new album, Minus the Herd, comes out on June 5.

Free MP3: Ion Dissonance - "Kneel"

Friday, May 25, 2007

Tippy Canoe and The Paddlemen Paddle Into Baltimore In June

Tippy Canoe

Tippy Canoe, the Neko Case meets Tiny Tim, ukelele-strumming songstress from Oakland, CA, is about to hit Baltimore for the first time with the Paddlemen, Don Peyton and Chris Ciattei.

Thursday, June 14
DC9 - Washington DC
with The Parlor Scouts
and The Chaos of Birds

*********************
Friday, June 15
The 14Kt Cabaret - Baltimore, MD
with Citizen Rahne,
Secret Crush Society
and special guests

*********************
Saturday, June 16
Sangha - Takoma Park, MD
with
The Fleastompers
and Skizz Cyzyk

*********************
Sunday, June 17
The Stolen Heart Cabaret - Baltimore, MD

Thrushes to play The Annex in Baltimore this Saturday

Thrushes

Thrushes will be playing a new Baltimore venue this weekend, since the Lo-Fi Social Club is in the midst of finding out its fate (good luck to the club, everyone is pulling for you!). The details:

The Annex

419 E. Oliver Street, 3rd Floor (use outside stairs).

Starts at 9pm

Check out Any Given Tuesday's review of Sun Come Undone, Thrushes' debut album, and download Episode 1 the Any Given Tuesday podcast, featuring an interview with the band.

Check Out: Radio Chemist - Baroque Hip-Tronic With A Message of Philosophy

Radio Chemist

Radio Chemist is from sunny and plastic Hollywood, California. I caught him on MySpace a while back, and when I saw that his music was inspired by and motivated by philosophy (I studied philosophy), I had to give him his propers. Music that invokes Underworld, Handel, and Michel Foucault deserves to be heard. Fans of postmodern philosophy, classical music, and the apocalypse should enjoy it.

Check out Radio Chemist at the foregoing link, and learn more about his Postmodern Baroque movement here.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Friday Happy Hour Free Concert Series at Power Plant Live!

Power Plant Live - Baltimore

Power Plant Live! has resumed its Friday Happy Hour free concert series. Last week, Papa Roach and Anamide (read Bob Suehs' review at SEN Baltimore) and Mr. Greengenes graced the plaza.

This Friday will feature Shane Gamble. Future performances include:

June 1 - Jimmie's Chicken Shack (gotta love these Annapolis guys)
June 8 - Mr. Greengenes (again)
June 15 - Never Never (Baltimore classic rock)
June 21 - Mambo Combo (Baltimore party band)
June 22 - Better Than Ezra
June 29 - Into The Sun
July 13 - Mr. Greengenes (again?)
July 20 - Violent Femmes (this one's for you, Kristen)
July 26 - Crushing Day
July 27 - Anamide
August 3 - Will Haguewill
August 17 - Mr. Greengenes (again?!?)
August 24 - Vs. The Earth
September 7 - The Reagan Years
September 21 - Kristen and the Noise