I was in Baltimore’s record store, Sound Garden, on Tuesday night. I was mad because I had clearly missed Wye Oak’s free performance celebrating the release of their album. When I ran into the record store they were cleaning up. I didn’t have a chance to let my head explode by my luck before I asked them,”Did you guys finish?” Jenn turned around gave me her hand and said “Yeah, we started at 7:30. I’m Jenn.”

“Hi, I’m Larissa. Yeah I had a meeting and I was really trying to make it,” I said. She had no idea that inside my head I was screaming, “Oh my god! I was just reading about you on NPR?! and like.. your photo was there! And now here you are in front of me, talking to me!” I have this problem where I get really star struck.

Anyway, I totally got a signed free poster and shook their hands and even talked to Andy about how we’re neighbors. He lives in Hampden which is less than 2 min away from me. I even pulled out some of our sweet Aphera business cards and told them I’m a fan!

Then, I bought their CD and left. Just crazy! At the same time, so completely normal. In fact I wish I had been a little more effusive! It was all happening inside my mind. I think I was outwardly a little too nonchalant.

However, the point of this post is that I bought the CD(shown above). Music in hard copy form. I have so little of that. In December George and I purchased Kanye’s Dark Twisted Fantasy on CD and played it the whole drive home from Philadelphia. The piano trill in the opener was so much crisper, the beats were crisper – the sound was awesome. Since then, I’ve made a few purchases of some of my favorite albums: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Civilian, Psyence Fiction and Radiohead’s Newspaper album, whatever that may be.

CD purchases, I encourage that. Don’t have a great argument for it but it feels good to have something to show for the music you’re listening to. And it sounds good and maybe, like in The King of Limb’s case, there is artwork included.

By this time last year, I remember incessantly playing LCD, Beach House, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer, and revisiting Passion Pit, Discovery, Metric… the list is longer! And forgive me if I’m a bit anachronistic, the point is, the array of choices didn’t force me to comb through my massive itunes library and rekindle old flames.

Today, out of boredom more than curiosity, I listened to everyone of Pitchfork’s songs on their “Playlist”. And as usual, I was disappointed with every pick except Radiohead’s “Give Up Ghost”. Pitchfork seems to be promoting this, let me quote, “twinkling, moonlit R&B protestation all made the more sensual by an anonymous, butter-dripping voice challenging a lover’s relationship with suggestive come-ons.” In other words, most of the stuff on the playlist is either really poor 90s grunge revival or this “slow-syrup” swanky lounge music. I can only imagine myself in D.C., sitting in a red velvet couch, sipping a drink, and watching a victorian chandelier twinkle above dancing people’s heads. This is not where I want good music to take me.

Good music can create various vignettes of emotional experiences, like The Knot, one of our 2009 Top Ten Albums did. Breaking my music doldrums is Wye Oak, releasing their new album on March 8, 2011. Celebrating this release, they are playing a free show at Baltimore downtown record store, The Sound Garden. Their blog announces the show to begin at 730 pm on Tue evening. Although, I’m too busy to make this show – I may skip our of my previous obligations in order to dive into a fresh music scene. Check out this album titled single!

I <3 NPR so much when they offer exclusive first listens for great bands like Wye Oak. Click for  NPR’s first listen to the new album.

Wye Oak – Civilian by cityslang

School of Seven Bells, on the other hand, sounded timid. The lead singer, although enchantingly beautiful, sounded as fragile as she looked.

Click here to open the player and hear Active Child

These are Brandon Medrano’s visual representations of the show. They are more than photos. From them, emotion, meaning, and story emanates. For more of his work go here… http://brandonmedrano.com/

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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.

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”!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.