Rapdragons is an incredibly cool rap group here in Baltimore. They pick stellar samples, their rhymes are infectious, they don’t take themselves too seriously, and they simply know how to have a good time.

Their forthcoming record “Featuring Baltimore” samples a ton of Baltimore bands, including: Weekends, The Agrarians, The Art Department, Mr. Moccasin, Lo Moda to name a few. It’s an interesting concept and this is a record to look out for. You gotta dig the Baltimore love.

For their microshow, Greg and Nick had the idea to, instead of using a sampler, bring in the people who performed the samples originally to play live on top of the beats. Jeff and Corey from Secret Mountains, Dustin Wong from Ponytail, Aran K from AK Slaughter and Sam H. from Future Islands are a few of the guests.

This set was perfect for our first spring-ish microshow. We know you’ll enjoy this set as much as we all did last night.

Technical info: All MC mics: Sennheiser 421, Room mics: AT boundary, Dustin/Corey guitar amp: Sennheiser 509, Jeff guitar amp: Shure SM57.

Download MP3s - 64.32 MB

Mosno’s record produced by Paul Mercer is dropping next month and I had the pleasure of mastering it. It’s a great mix of middle eastern, world and alt. rock. There are some pretty stellar guests including Acacia Sears and Seeno on vocals, Charmaine Nokuri on trumpet and Kristen Jones on cello.

Let the music speak for itself. Here are two of my favorites:

Melissa Undone

[See post to listen to audio]

Be With (f/ Seeno)

[See post to listen to audio]

The Baltimore duo Beach House’s first two albums were fairly popular on an indie level, and made a good number of year-end lists. But that all seems like a prelude now to the massive reception that the band’s Sub Pop debut, Teen Dream, has enjoyed since its release in January, as one of the most universally acclaimed albums of 2010 so far.

To be sure, Teen Dream is a marked step forward in quality from 2008’s Devotion, which I never particularly loved, but the aesthetic differences are subtle. New producer Chris Coady removes some of the hazy gauze of reverb from their earlier work, and it sounds like he’s moved the musicians closer to the microphones and captured more precise performances. But there’s still a thousand yard stare quality to Beach House’s songs that makes them more enjoyable as background music than active listening. It’s slow, pretty music, but it never hits you upside the head with striking beauty or haunting emotion. Victoria Legrand’s throaty, almost androgynous voice is still one of the band’s most distinctive traits, but aside from her impassioned performance on “Real Love,” she rarely projects a strong persona or emotional state.

[See post to listen to audio]

Still, Teen Dream is not without its charms or surprises. “Used To Be,” with its jaunty, lively piano melody, or the pounding climax of “10 Mile Stereo” are things I never would’ve expected to hear on a previous Beach House album. And “Lover of Mine,” with its strong backbeat and shimmering keyboards, is almost the band’s lackadaisical take on synth pop. More often than not, however, touches like the dragging, almost drunken-sounding slide guitar on “Norway” underline how Beach House can find ways to be creative and unique while remaining largely in their comfort zone of pretty background music.

Last Thursday, Secret Mountains stopped in for a microshow. We first heard them when they shared a stage with Kadman and Cotton Jones a few months back and we’d been looking forward to their visit to Mobtown for quite a while. Somehow they fit 5 of their 6 members on to our 6′x10′ faux stage. They stripped down their usual show, re-arranged their songs and pulled together a breathtaking set of old and new originals and wonderfully selected covers.

Kelly seduced the crowd with her haunting voice. Chris held everything together playing impeccably on a small Gretch kit complete with shakers and other various toys. Jake played the MicroKorg, banjo and concertina. Cory played what I call the “crying guitar” as well as bass on one track. And Jeff drew us in with his contrastingly dark guitar playing.

Technical info:
Kelly’s vocals: Neumann U87, Room mics: AT PZMs, Keys: MXL990, Concertina/Banjo: Sennheiser 441, Guitars: Cascade Fathead Ribbon.

Download MP3s - 54.75 MB

DC’s Caverns will be releasing their new EP next week. This record is a progression in both dynamics and layers from their previous efforts. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear some vocoder!

Our neighbors, J. Robbins and Chris Freeland recorded it and I mastered it. This record will be the first of many EPs on the Aural Slate Recordings imprint. In a time when the record label seems more and more irrelevant, I feel like what Greg is doing with his label actually makes sense. Small, easily digestible slices of music. There you have it. The record drops next Friday ($5 CD and $4 digital download). And there’s also a Frodus cover that rips.

Enjoy these two samples. I had a great time working with these guys – band and label alike. Listen to the snare in Arctic Phantoms. It’s incredible.

Arctic Phantoms
[See post to listen to audio]

I. Fight. Vampires
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I also really liked the album art. Caleb Moore did a great job. I hope to see more of his work soon.

Big In Japan functions as not just a side project or offshoot of the long-running Baltimore quintet Lake Trout, but as effectively a subset of it — all three of Big In Japan’s members also play in Lake Trout, and even the two musicians in the latter who aren’t members of the former have sat in with Big In Japan during live shows. Still, Big In Japan have now been doing their thing, with on-again off-again live residencies full of low key improvised grooves, for over a decade themselves, and have grown into a distinct entity. While Lake Trout focused more and more on song-based studio creations, Big In Japan remained exclusively a live concern, only issuing live recordings as albums.

[See post to listen to audio]

Live At 8×10 2009 was released for free by The Biggest Label Ever, the same website that issued Lake Trout’s recent live album. With numerous improvised pieces edited down into a handful of untitled tracks, the structure is identical to Big In Japan’s debut release, 2001’s Goodlove Sessions Vol. 1, but the formal similarities highlight the differences in content. Big In Japan may still be playing at the 8×10, the Federal Hill club that’s been their stomping grounds since the ’90s, but musically they’ve continued to develop and diversify their sound away from the jazzy flute riffs and drum’n'bass rhythms that used to be their signature.

“Untitled 05” is the record’s real gem, with a busy but restrained rim-tapping rhythm foregrounding some evil synth bass and spooky, ethereal vocals. On the flipside, though, “Untitled 06” is vintage Big In Japan, with the bass guitar thumping out relaxed whole notes over a tight, funky beat and a repetitive synth pattern. Still, Live At 8×10 2009 sometimes feels a little too edited down at only 33-minutes, and some tracks, like “Untitled 03,” which starts out with the album’s most raucous noise but quickly peters out, feel like they’ve been cut too short. They do get credit, however, for leaving you wanting more, and “Untitled 07” ends the set on an offbeat note, with what sounds like a harmonica solo, albeit one run through enough delay and distortion effects to make it all sound thoroughly Big In Japan.

Mr. Moccasin came in last week for a microshow. They stripped down to a four-piece. Hanna on vocals, Jared on guitar/vocals, Chris on guitar/stylophone and Christiana on drums/vocals.

The band totally brought it. And brought something a little different than their typical live show including a stylophone and a few new tracks fresh off their killer music making machine. An awesome time was had by all. Highlights include Black On Black, Himalayan Marmalade and Ari Schenck’s Ah Well.

Technical info: Hanna vocal: Sennheiser 441, Jared guitar: Cascade Fathead Ribbon, Jared vocals: AT 3060 Tube, Chris guitar/stylophone: Cascade Fathead Ribbon, Christiana vocals: Sennheiser 421, Snare: SM57, Overheads, SM81s.

Download MP3s - 48.8 MB

Kadman’s first record was one of the first Baltimore records I heard after I moved here a bunch of years ago. It was simply not anything I had heard out of Baltimore. Or what I thought “Baltimore” sounded like (little did I know!). I thought this band was incredible. There was something different about them. I’ve still yet to find a band here in Baltimore that sounds like them. That said, I am drawn to bands that think outside the box and do things differently. That is one reason why we worked so well together. We did a mini-EP last year (that will hopefully someday see the light of day), but I felt like we could do so much more together. I was happy when Dave (the singer/guitarist) came to me to produce his sophomore effort.

Anything
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This record went through a few stages. We scrapped the drums a few times, muted a ton of guitars, re-tracked bass tracks, wrote one song in the studio, I played theremin, re-thought the vision and then rinsed and repeated. It was a four month process from start to finish but felt like one. Dave was a great musician to work with. I’d ask him to “add this pedal” or “let’s try this room mic over here” or “hmmm, this section really doesn’t need that acoustic guitar in the chorus” and he wouldn’t flinch. Of course, Dave brought his own thing to the table as well. He’d bring in a keyboard part or a drum idea or a harmony. It was a two way road in building this record.

Mountain Song
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Dave put together a solid and vibrant band for a rather subtle yet dynamic sound. Frank Corl, the drummer, came from more of a pop/rock background but really understood the nuances of Dave’s music. He really put forth the art of the snare. We ended up using a half dozen snares on the record. James Bahleda came from an electro/goth background. But he is this beast of a bassist who can not be stopped. Be it on upright or electric. There are some lines he put down that still amaze me even after the umpteenth listen. And he has good taste in Scotch. Last but not least, I brought in Dawn Dineen and E.Joseph to sing on a few tracks. Dawn duets with Dave on one song called “An Army Rises.” E. Joseph and Dawn are both amazing singers and writers on their own. Both due out for another record soon, as well!

There are really few words to describe the record, it should speak for itself, but I’ll try. It’s a record of nuances. It’s intense – it’s acrobatic – it’s very different than their last – it’s dreamy, it’s loud, it’s quiet, it’s dense. Enjoy the samples!

Little Darling
[See post to listen to audio]

As 2009 came to a close, it became clear that More, the third album by Double Dagger, was one of Baltimore’s most acclaimed albums of the year, on both a local and national level. Unfortunately, I’d been attempting since its release in May to identify the album’s appeal, to no avail. The power trio’s Thrill Jockey debut, recorded in a vacant space above the Current Gallery, is as raw and loud as the band’s popular live shows, but for whatever reason, it took a while for me to warm to it.

[See post to listen to audio]

Ultimately, it was the More’s second track, “Vivre Sans Temps Mort” that provided my entry point to appreciating the album, with its slow burn groove stretched out over five minutes in contrast to the album’s faster and shorter songs. But of the latter, the frantic groove of “We Are The Ones” is another highlight, bringing to mind Stay Afraid-era Parts & Labor.

Still, I remained frustrated that Double Dagger’s commitment to their punk roots has manifested itself in vocals so perfunctory, and at times inaudible, that I almost wish they were just an instrumental band. Songs with titles like “Surrealist Composition With Your Face” and “Helicopter Lullaby” probably have interesting lyrics, but I can’t make any of them out given how low the vocals are in the mix on More, and “Half-Life” packs the album’s catchiest riff, but the vocals that accompany it completely skirt the melody. Double Dagger are definitely a band to watch, but I’ll be waiting until the next album to see if they make something more up my alley.

Baltimore producer, King Cakemix, came back to Mobtown this month to master his next release with us. Here are two of my favorite tracks. A catchy dense track and a dancy club hit.

Where Do We Go?
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Next Girl Will
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