Dave Jacober’s solo identity away from the Dan Deacon Ensemble, Holy Ghost Party and Dope Body is called Jacober. I mastered Jacober’s debut record due out on Friends Records. Aside from being a swell guy, an amazing drummer and a great arranger, he’s put out a collection of very interesting music.

“in a swirling bedlam of melting pastels and exotic sea life of the living room tank variety. The slow churn and complexity of Brown’s visualization seems to match Jacober’s colorful poptronica and even suits his understated delivery, though all good things come to an end and eventually the maelstrom melts over him in a consuming pink tide first, then allowing an upside down gathering of jellyfish to shift into gear.” – Decoder Magazine.

Here are two of my favorite tracks from Water Karaoke:

Set Adrift

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Steps

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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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INEVERYROOM has evolved from experimental pop into textual compositions exploring live and sampled sounds. In 2010, Lands & Peoples and INEVERYROOM created a split cassette that got Pitchfork’s attention. Shortly following that, Local Baltimore label, Friends Records released a self titled 7-song cassette and digital download. For their microshow they were inspired by healing and easy listening, R&B, carnivals, textures found in nature and their friends in Baltimore.

Sometimes I am not sure what’s going on with Amy and Chase’s music. Part mad scientists part Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois. It’s completely genre-less. You just don’t know what you are going to get – but you keep wanting more and never wanting it to end. And that happened last week when INEVERYROOM, unfortunately, played their last show.

Chase O’Hara: Vocals, Keyboards, Drum Pads, Sampler
Amy Reid: Vocals, Keyboards, Contact Mic, Drum Pads

Engineered by Alex Champagne and Sean Mercer
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Technical info: Amy’s mic: AKG 414, Chase’s mic: Shure SM7, Micro Korg, Sequential Circuits Six-Trak, Roland SP606, Roland Sampling Pad, Contact mic through mixer: All DI, Room mics: AKG D58, Audio Technica AT871R.

Download MP3s - 76.95 MB

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Lands & Peoples has become one of my favorite bands here in Baltimore, not to mention one of the nicest and most giving. Literally impossible to classify, they blend aspects of pop, folk and musique concrète. Fresh off playing a few shows with Wye Oak and Secret Mountains they were able to squeeze in a Microshow here at Mobtown. They certainly are a band to catch live and this show is no exception. Their perfect yet interesting harmonies blend seamlessly here as well as adding a their friend Evan on viola to the set. Enjoy the show!

Caleb Moore: Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Toy Piano, Ukelele
Beau Cole: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums
Evan Merkel: Viola

Technical info: Kick: Neumann U87, Snare: Senheisser 441, Tom: EV468, Floor Tom: EV468, Overhead: AKG 414, Caleb’s Vocal Mic: Blue Mouse, Beau’s Vocal Mic: MAudio Sputnik, Beau’s amp: Shure SM7, Caleb’s amp: EV RE20, Evan’s amp: Oktava ML-52 Ribbon.

Engineered by Paul Mercer.
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Download MP3s - 54.02 MB

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The intriguing title of Microkingdom’s latest album, Three Compositions Of No Jazz, made me wonder if the Baltimore trio were making some kind of statement, serious or tongue-in-cheek, about their genre affiliations or how composed or improvised their music is. As it turns out, the title is a nod to both Anthony Braxton’s Three Compositions Of New Jazz and the ’70s post-punk “no wave” movement, and those reference points in and of themselves make a potent statement about where Microkingdom is coming from.

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I’ve had the pleasure of working with Secret Mountains for the past few weeks. We’ve mainly been recording three separate singles that will be released over the next few weeks. The first of them is Weepy Little Fingers – A song they also performed at their microshow last year. It will be available shortly on a Friend Records compilation.

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