Last month Mobtown and The Windup Space produced a week-long festival that highlighted (mostly) Baltimore instrumental bands. The festival was called NOVO (ie. No Vocals).

Russell (Windup’s owner and a generally swell guy who also makes a mean Jim and Coke) curated the shows (with a little help from us) and I recorded and mixed every night with Alex, with the plan to release the tracks on Aural States as an extension of the festival.

Some of the bands included Nathan Bell (Human Bell, Lungfish) featuring Ami Dang, Microkingdom, Jason Urick (WZT Hearts), Expanding Man, Yeveto, Insect Factory, Notendo, We Used To Be Family, JDay, Dustin Wong (Ponytail), The Water and members of the Out Of Your Head collective.

We had an awesome turnout and we’re already in the planning stages for 2011. Props to David at TeamAdelle for all the hard work on the visuals and design and Tedd Henn from HennPict for the wonderful photography. Here are some audio samples of my favorite performances. You can stream and download the entire festival over at Aural States.

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This past spring Cameron Blake put together a live show that benefited The Maryland Food Bank at the Village Church in Hampden. Cameron Blake, E.Joseph & the Phantom Heart, and Caleb Stine & The Brakemen played. Eric and I had the opportunity to record that amazing night and had a great time in the process.

We had such a fun time mixing Caleb’s set we decided to put a few songs from the night up here.

Be on the lookout. The live record will be released July 23rd.

Lonesome Kid

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I’ll Fly Away/Will The Circle Be Unbroken

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Live music is something more than a simply part of my life. It’s part of my being. Yes, it’s true, I don’t really go to many shows as of late, but listening to live music in the comfort of my home has become an institution for learning and appreciating an extension of recorded music. This is why some of my favorite records are either recorded live in concert or live in the studio with little to no overdubs. There is something that happens as a group playing live that can never be reproduced in a studio with overdubbing parts separately.

1. Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense
2. Bad Brains’ Live
3. Erykah Badu’s Live – Regardless of Erykah’s sick emotional and moving capabilities, Charles “Poogie” Bell, Jr’s performance on this record is worth it alone. He’s slick as shit.
4. U2′s Rattle & Hum – As overdubbed as you can get, it’s still tremendous music. The intro to “All Along The Watchtower” still makes me cringe when I hear it. It’s just so overdubbed!
5. Underworld’s Everything Everything – Wow, an electronic outfit you could honestly call a band. And they tour. Wild!
6. Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison
7. Fela Kuti’s Live! – There’s something about Nigerian funk that speaks to me. And this show is no exception. Fela was spot on.
8. Frank Zappa’s You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol 2 – Helsinki’s greatest treat from 1974. Napoleon Murphy Brock, Chester Thompson (and his gorilla), George Duke & Ruth Underwood were at their finest that night.
9. Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan – “This next one…”
10. Miles Davis’ Live at the Fillmore East – This is one dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty piece of music history.

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