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Archive for the ‘Baltimore’ Category

Hopkins: it spits out indie kids

Posted by Larissa on May 22nd, 2010

A few nights ago I couldn’t contain my star struck excitement when I ran into Adam Lempel from Weekends. I was holding a bottle of wine in my arm and ordering a falafel from the Hopkins dubbed late nightspot, uni mini. I noticed a hipster to my right wearing blue skinny jeans, accentuating his emaciated frame and his bobble head with a messy hair. A moment went by before we recognized each other. Adam, being the sweetie he is, said hello, introduced me to the other band member, Brendan Sullivan, and remembered that I was interested in conducting an interview.

Adam and Brendan were grabbing a bit to eat before leaving for New York City to perform more shows. So I took advantage of my run-in to ask a few questions. I didn’t record the answers so I’m not going to claim accuracy but I do remember the answer I got for the question,  ‘How did Hopkins spit you out?’

Adam understood what I was talking about. Hopkins is far from liberal-artsy. We have one arts building that the majority of the campus makes sure to avoid (they think the building is ugly). We are a research institution and everyone acts accordingly.

Adam’s answer was that he didn’t really spend a lot of time at Hopkins during his days here. His experience reminded my of one of my classmates’ – He’s a DJ who has infiltrated the Baltimore scene and brings influences from the west coast, from his home state down south and more. Adam was also a DJ for some time – frequenting Baltimore venues. But according to him, he got sick of playing other people’s music and decided to bring his own to the table.  Luckily, he already had the skill, being a trained guitarist from a young age.

I guess being indie at Hopkins kind of makes you an outcast. It’s unlike other scenes where everyone is in a competition to be the weirdest kid on the block, to the point where being weird is no longer weird. Here, you hear stuff like, ‘They’re playing that Collective Animal shit up there.’ I’m not saying Hopkins is unique, but it sure is a different environment – a research oasis in the middle of the funky, indie, creepy Baltimore desert.

I think this pushes kids like Adam stand out and rebel to new levels not found elsewhere.  Once he’s pushed the boundaries, he also find welcome in the city around him that has spit out artists like Beach House, Animal Collective and Wye Oak.

My Morning Jacket at the Merriweather Post Pavilion: How to Rock Out

Posted by Larissa on May 4th, 2010

First, find yourself a chill crew of music loving friends – preferably ones with a rooftop porch, grill and plenty of cheeseburgers. It’s okay if they decide to warm up with a little bro music, some OAR, some Dave. Look around, make sure the weather is in the eighties and there is not a cloud in the sky. Also keep an eye on at least two of your friends so that they can safely drive you to the Merriweather Post Pavilion and back.

Before you leave for the concert however, pack extra food, fill your flasks and secure other nourishments. A great trick is to find a relatively close parking lot not associated with the MPP. This way you can avoid exiting traffic and the cops. Arrive at the concert grounds somewhat early so that you have first picks on lawn spots. Make sure you’re not behind one of those giant poles. Take a few moments, or hours, to meditate on the grass.

Finally take in Jim James’s chilling voice – the only distinct feature of My Morning Jacket. Their strength is their ability to hide distinctions by blending. They blend genres of music – rock with indie with folk with country – and then add a touch of psychedelics. They blend the aural experience with the visual experience. This blending is done so masterfully you forget to separate the senses, and genres in your mind. Without separation their performance induces a synesthesia. You perceive the stage lights to be directly linked to the tonal fluctuations in the music. This is what made the concert so incredible, they found a completely novel way to introduce a sensory experience.

Ha, anyway, personal favorites were “Touch Me I’m going to scream”, and “Wordless Chorus.” “Wordless Chorus” introduced me to My Morning Jacket. Some song he sang in a black cape and others in a civil war style jacket. I was only disappointed that they never played “Librarian”!

Railroad Earth: “aren’t losing sleep about what ‘kind’ of music they play”

Posted by Larissa on April 27th, 2010

I swear they didn’t need to play a note, I was already in awe looking down at the set up on stage – the combination of 6-7 guitars, mandolin, and banjo… I have a soft spot for banjo.  Then the 6 man band, Railroad Earth began to play. The fiddler dueled with the flutist in between the verses. The upright bassist rocked out in the back until his moment for a solo came. Then guitarist put down his guitar, picked up the mandolin and began to duel with the flutist turned banjoist. If they didn’t sound so together my head would have been spinning. They managed to play as one beautiful melody, beat and energy. The energy seemed to be created through pauses, solos, and anticipation. At one moment, the fiddler had just finished the last few notes of his solo, the entire band seemed to take one breath, the drummer struck up a beat, the lead vocalist struck a chord and they bounced right back into the song. This moment of anticipation built up so much energy the entire audience erupted in cheer. Here is a video below of Railroad Earth playing at the 8×10 on April 22.

I love how they describe themselves, “And like The Band, the members of Railroad Earth aren’t losing sleep about what ‘kind’ of music they play – they just play it.” Composing without discrimination of genres is one of the reasons I love indie music. Railroad Earth is an interesting example because if you had to be discrete you would most definitely label them as bluegrass. However, the great thing about Railroad Earth is that they make bluegrass extremely accessible. They haven’t gone as far as Deer Tick (strictly indie), they didn’t dumb their music down and they didn’t go mainstream, they just gave it emotion.

Weekends return to Baltimore and release new song!

Posted by Larissa on April 22nd, 2010

Listen to “A Defining Love” here

Weekends

are returning to Baltimore for a show tomorrow at The Hexagon. I need to get my tendency to be completely star struck under control; I always get really excited reporting about Weekends (since I’ve known the guy from Hopkins!) Adam has already agreed to an interview – can’t wait to hear how Hopkins boy turned Indie. In other news, today, they released their song off the Friends and  of Friends compilation. Check it out above…We can thank our own Adam Lempel for the album artwork. Also, I’m digging this song. The glo-fi vocals on top of the acoustic plucks of the guitar produce a really fresh combination. Wish I were around to hear them this weekend.

Tek Subport: DJs giving you Planet Earth at its best

Posted by Larissa on April 19th, 2010

These guys really had it down in every aspect of their performance except one. Their music, their image, their atmosphere, and their originality were perfection, but I really suggest that they change their scene.

Tech Support Tek Subport played at the ODDSAC screening After-party held at the Senator Theater. They paired fresh beats with vintage eighties songs, they paired dance music with looped flutes and guitars, and they paired a helicopter baseball hat with Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth. That was probably my favorite part of their performance – behind them, a giant screen showed some of the best clips from Planet Earth. But the music was not right for the crowd before them. If you’ve ever seen hipsters dance you know what I mean – they need funky stuff to throw their bodies around to. If the music is too controlled they don’t know what to do with themselves. If you haven’t seen hipsters dance please see my post about Dan Deacon.

Anyway, Tech Support Tek Subport had a really controlled sound, perfect for the kind of dancing I had been doing at Power Plant on Friday night but not perfect for hipsters. In fact, they sounded a lot like the stuff I heard being played all over clubs like Mynt in South Beach, Miami. They have a Dubstep feel so they’re definitely joining the emerging genre of dance music.

I congratulated them after the show and they said they play somewhere in Baltimore every Friday night. They are seriously impossible to find online so check them out below – we need see more of these guys in the future.

Correction (4/20): Tek Subport is spelled as such, not like the geek squad people.

Animal Collective Returns to Birthplace: ODDSAC Screening in Baltimore

Posted by Larissa on April 17th, 2010

The creepy,

visual album, ODDSAC, is screening tonight at the Senator Theater in Baltimore. ODDSAC is a masterpiece produced by Animal Collective in collaboration with filmmaker Danny Perez. The Director and members of Animal Collective will be at the screening to answer questions and hopefully they’ll stick around for the After-party.

I’m not really a fan of Indie music videos. They tend to ruin songs for me. Watching the video for “In the Flowers” seared images of tiny dancers, dolls and masks into my head that reappear every time I relisten to the song. The symbolism of these freaky plots and visuals bypasses me completely.

Apparently ODDSAC is especially disturbing. Yet, I’d say it gained unprecedented prestige in the ‘normal’ film community. This January it had its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival. I mean, that’s cool, but at Sundance, they still weren’t quite sure what to make of it.

It’s kind of funny, if you read the Sundance review of the film, the reviewer sounds kind of confused and overwhelmed – he’s not quite sure what he’s supposed to say and basically writes that he’ll leave it to Pitchfork to sort out.

What I do know is that ODDSAC definitely doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen at Sundance, or maybe even in my life, and at its best moments captures some of the aural layers and intensity of the band’s music itself. If you’re going for “visual album,” I’d say that’s pretty good.

George went to the screening in Chicago a few weeks ago. He was disappointed that only Geologist was there to answer questions. According to George, some girl raised her hand to criticize the anti-feminist message of the film. George said the director looked confused and the crowd began to boo her complaint. I guess if there is some sort of anti-feminist undertone, AC was not aware.

Anyway, take a look at the trailer below and you can be the judge.

Dan Deacon, dancing like a dead bug

Posted by Larissa on April 13th, 2010

Dan Deacon knows how to get a dance party started – here’s a clip of him at Hopkins in 2008. I was there but had no idea what was going on.

Last night, we spotted Dan Deacon dancing at Metro Gallery with a wooly, pink sweater tied around him. That’s not why he caught our eye though; it’s because he was leading a group of ten people in a game of follow the dancing leader. It works like this: Everyone stands in a clump, facing one wall on a relatively roomy dance floor. The person toward the front of the group takes on the leadership position and makes up dance moves to the beat of the music. Everyone behind that person mimics his or her moves until that person passes his or her role off to someone to the left. The group turns to their left to face that wall and follows the person in front again. You continue round and round in circles.

We joined in because it looked like fun. The most ridiculous dancing always occurred when Dan Deacon was leading the group. I mean, at one point everyone on the dance floor was laying on their backs with their hands and feet up in the air like a dead bug.

With a Lot of Time, Construction Paper and a Guitar

Posted by Larissa on January 25th, 2010

Hopkins provides us with one gift, and it’s called intersession – the time between winter break and the start of the semester that occupies most of January. It is a period during which we have time to do everything and anything we want and for most of us, that is doing absolutely nothing.

However, for the more ambitious, intersession gives us time to create masterpieces like what you will find below. A video, made ‘with a lot of construction paper and a guitar.’ The creator, a particularly brainy Hopkins student, admitted that he ‘needed something else to do’ during his free time. Although, in the interview below, he doesn’t consider himself an artist or guitarist, I sure do hope that we see some more creations from him in the future before he goes off to med school. Because I’m pretty sure they don’t grant you anything like intersession there…

When asked what he’d like to tell us about the video, he wrote…

‘First, I am not an artist or guitarist just a hack. I made this video during winter break from college because I needed something else to do. I was playing too much guitar and wanted to give my hands a break-I thought I was getting carpal tunnel.  I usually play classical guitar, but onlyhave my acoustic at home and came up with this little riff while messing around playing John Denver and Grateful Dead tunes.  The dog that crashes the party is a miniature dachshund puppy named Luigi (Wuigi)!’

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