On all her previous records, Baltimore-based singer/songwriter ellen cherry’s principal instrument is guitar. And as the title implies, her new EP, Please Don’t Sell The Piano, represents a break from that tradition, as she explores black and white keys for the duration of the six songs. Having long since found a distinctive songwriting voice on her primary instrument, ellen cherry is taking a risk here, stepping out of her comfort zone.

[See post to listen to audio]

The gambit at the heart of Please Don’t Sell The Piano is an unqualified success on at least one front: it sounds great. Country singer/songwriter Caleb Stine produced the EP, and his simple, direct way of recording ellen cherry’s performances, playing the piano and singing simultaneously, captures both an undeniable sense of intimacy and a comfortably spacious room tone. On two tracks, Stine overdubs string arrangements that only enrich that sound, particularly on the colorfully textured “Pickett’s Charge.”

Something is lost, however. In the past, ellen cherry has often seemed brimming with personality and humor, especially in her live performances. Whether she is adopting a deliberately different persona for Please Don’t Sell The Piano or simply hasn’t learned to loosen up as much behind a piano as behind a guitar, that playfulness and charisma is missed. It does return in flashes, particularly in the relatively upbeat title track. But then, at only six songs, the slower, more somber mood of the EP isn’t given time to wear out its welcome. And after all, she wouldn’t be the first singer/songwriter to vary her music widely when playing guitar but then reserve the piano primarily for ballads.

Gary B & The Notions play short, snappy guitar pop songs with funny, idiosyncratic titles and lyrics that almost dare you to underestimate them. But their forthcoming second full-length album, How Do We Explode, out on May 8th, retains the light, amiable mood of the Baltimore band’s previous recordings while cranking up the volume and, more crucially, the nervous energy inherent in frontman Gary Lee Barrett, Jr.’s songs. The result is something a little more compelling, a little sharper, than the seemingly lightweight power pop the Notions built their rep on.

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The appropriately pyrotechnic sound of How Do We Explode comes down to personnel changes since the Notions’ last record, 2009′s New Twist & Shout. Here, Barrett Jr. and founding bassist Kris Heath (also of Aldo Nova) are joined by drummer Rick Bowman (also of The Frauds) and guitarist Bryan Elliott (also of Liars Academy). In the past, the Notions has been a power trio with only Barrett the band’s only guitarist. The addition of Elliott in particular makes the Notions’ sound thicker and more textured than before, making possible songs like the brief, surging pop gem “It Could Be” and the wailing fretwork of “Too Busy For An Ambulance Ride.”

[See post to listen to audio]

The fourth track on How Do We Explode, “Lyndsy Fonseca,” is named for the actress seen as Ted’s future daughter on the TV series “How I Met Your Mother.” It’s hard to tell from the lyrics exactly what the song has to do with her, but it’s easy to imagine Barrett, Jr.’s offbeat imagination turning to a beautiful girl who occasionally pops up on television, and the gears in his head turning until they crank out another strange, catchy song.

The Dialogue is a band that has helped spearhead Baltimore’s indie-rock scene. The group has thrived as part of the city’s cultural renaissance, but their new album “Wet Dreams” is poised to enter the collective consciousness of music fans beyond their beloved hometown.

The band has spent the past 2 years performing in just about every state on the east coast, and supporting a huge range of national bands including: Matt and Kim, Surfer Blood, Rogue Wave, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, All American Rejects, Girl Talk, Twin Shadow, Shiny Toy Guns, Twin Sister, Rooney, Steel Train and more.

The Dialogue came by Mobtown to rework a lot of their favorite songs. The guys put on a great show and the recordings are proof. Enjoy the show!

Drew Shaffer- Vocals/Guitar
Brian Pollack- Guitar
Justin Goodman- Bass
Jordan Goodman- Drums

Engineered by Aaron Wold
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Technical info: Kick: EV868, Snare: SM57, Overhead: SM81, Bass: U87, Brian’s guitar amp: Oktava ribbon, Drew’s guitar amp: SM57, Vocals: SM7

Download MP3s - 75.67 MB

]]> http://mobtownstudios.com/the-dialogue-microshow/feed/ 0 http://mobtownstudios.com/lands-peoples-pop-guilt/ http://mobtownstudios.com/lands-peoples-pop-guilt/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:12:45 +0000 Mat Leffler-Schulman http://mobtownstudios.com/?p=3915

I had the pleasure of working with Lands & Peoples last fall mixing their debut record, Pop Guilt that was recorded by Chris Freeland (Oxes, Wye Oak, Lower Dens) and mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering. The band itself is pretty hard to pigeonhole, but if you can imagine putting Simon & Garfunkel and Ghana postal workers canceling stamps in a blender, you might approximate something close to what Lands & Peoples are doing. Needless to say, these guys are some of the nicest people in Baltimore. It’s an added bonus they make beautiful music for all of us to enjoy.

Here are two of my favorite cuts on the record (white vinyl with artwork from Chris Muccioli from Secret Mountains!) due out soon on Analog Edition Records. Pre-order your copy today!

Ghosts
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Sexting
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Youngster was recently in the studio with Alex to record their first EP! The record turned out amazing. Youngster pushes out electronic jams, but done so organically with no MIDI syncing between the musicians. There is a keyboardist, sampler, bassist and guitarist. They crank out serious groovetronic dance jams a la The New Deal, Underworld and Daft Punk.

Enjoy two of my favorite cuts:

Hoedown
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Acid Roach
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On a recent day in September, music fans everywhere reacted to the news that R.E.M. had decided to break up. However, the same day a much less famous band, but perhaps one that still had a bit more potential for future growth, also announced that it was calling it a day. The breakup of the wonderful, inventive Baltimore quartet Ponytail was not exactly a shock — in fact their split had been preceded by a lack of touring and lots of speculation about the band’s status — but it was still sad to hear. But the band left behind one last album, Do Whatever You Want All The Time, released earlier this year before calling it quits, and it’s a worthy addition to their legacy.

The seven tracks on Do Whatever expand on the already expansive palette of sounds Ponytail displayed on 2007′s Ice Cream Spiritual. Guitarist Dustin Wong’s ear for unique textures has even grown with the experiments of his 2010 solo album Infinite Love, and vocalist Molly Siegel continues to be an inimitable, indefinable presence rather than a typical frontwoman.

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“Flabbermouse” stands out as one of the best tracks on the album, beginning with sweetly melodic guitar licks that could be out of a ’60s surf rock song,. But soon Ponytail are pouring a dozen other sonic elements into the pot, and letting the intensity of the track rise and fall in gentle waves, too subtle and unpredictable for a stereotypical post-rock band’s simple loud/quiet contrasts. The members of Ponytail may have had their reasons for disbanding, but their final album sure sounds like a band still thrilling each other with the joy of creativity.

Baltimore’s Dré Jones recently came in to record the first single for his sophomore album coming out next year. We had a blast layering a ton of vocals. He’s one of the most hardworking r&b/pop singers in the city! Take a peek at Merry Go Round below.

[See post to listen to audio]

In a way, the continued existence of The Death Set doesn’t really make a lot of sense after the 2009 death of one of its two founding members, Beau Velasco. Not that remaining frontman Johnny Siera shouldn’t have pushed forward, but the band’s hyperactive fusion of hip hop and dance beats and pop punk sugar rush hooks simply doesn’t seem like a creative vehicle that can handle that kind of sadness hanging over it, and even the Death Set’s name feels awkward and perhaps even in poor taste now.

[See post to listen to audio]

Despite all that, their second album Michel Poiccard manages to both retain the Death Set’s unique energy and pay fitting tribute to Velasco’s memory. That takes shape in many ways, from the clip of Velasco’s voice at the beginning of the album, to songs like “It’s Another Day”  and “I Miss You Beau Velasco” marry the band’s speedy, yelping aesthetic to pretty, reverb-heavy guitar tones and memorably melancholy melodies.
Mostly, however, The Death Set is the same funny, chaotic band they’ve always been. “Kittens Inspired By Kittens” is a hilariously strange, short collage of beats and meows, while “Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap” takes their aesthetic to nearly irritating extremes while remaining as catchy as possible. Instead of taking a tentative step forward after tragedy, or squeaking out one more album before an uncertain future, Michel Poiccard sounds like The Death Set affirming that they are still alive and kicking.

[See post to listen to audio]

White Life is something of a departure for Jon Ehrens, the prolific and chameleonic singer-songwriter previously best known for indie bands like the idiosyncratic Art Department and the lo-fi Repelican. For one of the first times in his career, Ehrens is sharing vocal and production duties on White Life’s self-titled debut, which was recorded with Chris and Mickey Freeland at Beat Babies, and features several lead vocal performances by his sister Emily Ehrens. But more significantly, White Life is a big stylistic left turn for Ehrens into the world of synths, drum machines and unabashedly pop vocal performances.

I Want Love
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The eight songs on White Life’s album, out this week on Ehse Records, each offer different variations on the project’s polished aesthetic and retro sensibility. The closer “I Want Love” is the album’s most overtly R&B track, with a bubbly synth bassline and a euphoric vocal by Emily Ehrens that could pass for an early ’80s boogie classic by Deniece Williams.

Follow
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Elsewhere on the album, the ’80s evoked by White Life is more along the lines of brooding synth pop, with Jon Ehrens offering some of the most passionate vocals and nakedly emotional lyrics of his career, which effectively lend a sense of gravity and sincerity to what could otherwise be an exercise in campy, ironic nostalgia. On one of the best tracks in that vein, “Follow,” his staccato verses give way to a chorus. that soars with help from backing harmonies by Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak.

Rjyan “Cex” Kidwell has been consistently revising and switching his modus operandi for recording and releasing music since his career began in the late ’90s. Early Cex releases featured instrumental IDM, before he began rapping, then singing, and later returning to making beats without vocal accompaniment. His first handful of albums tended to run an hour or more, before he began to favor concise 40-minute albums and even shorter EPs. And after beginning his career with high profile national releases on the trendsetting IDM label he co-founded, Tigerbeat6, Kidwell has released much of his music in recent years on deliberately low key vinyl or cassette-only releases, while remaining as prolific as ever. And since some of his best music yet has been on less heralded records like the 2007 Steely Dan sample collage Dannibal or the 2009 experimental club music of Bataille Royale, it’s proven worthwhile to give every new Cex record close attention.

One of Cex’s more low key recent releases is Evargreaz, a brief four-track album released digitally and on cassette by Automation Records. While many Cex albums feature some kind of conceptual hook or unifying theme, there’s no explicitly stated idea behind Evargreaz to distinguish it from his other instrumental records, other than a consistent mood that sounds like these tracks could have all been knocked out in the same rush of inspiration. In some ways, that’s a weakness, but that also makes it easier to take the music at face value as a pure aural experience, not refracted through the personality or agenda of its creator.

[See post to listen to audio]

“November Reign” continues in the tradition of Cex titles that obliquely reference the ’90s rock of Kidwell’s youth like the album Maryland Mansions or the song “Never Mind.” But rather than containing any elements of the Guns ‘N’ Roses epic, “November Reign” is an ethereal midtempo track, with melodic vocals run through such a heavy filter effect that the words, if there are any, are completely inaudible. That allows your ears to instead focus on the song’s rich textures, as a simple hand drum loop foregrounds the bouquet of synths and vocoders that keeps gradually evolving, like a time lapse video of changing seasons. Not every track uses that approach to such enjoyable results, and “Day Of 1000 Radiant Suicides” gets a little too easy listening, but in general Evargreaz is a worthy if nonessential addition to the Cex catalog.