Roomrunner is fronted by former Double Dagger drummer Denny Bowen. He was the first to release music after the bands’s unfortunate breakup. Roomrunner is definitely more melodic than Double Dagger. But at the same times there are still underlaying tones of aggression and angst a la early 90s rock, but all the best possible ways. I see Denny as a Dave Grohl. The dude can’t do anything wrong. He’s a great drummer and is clearly promising to be a great singer and guitarist.

I got to chatting with Denny in the B Room at Mobtown prior to their microshow. There was a nervous energy with him. I was slightly befuddled. Denny has clearly played some pretty huge shows. However, it was possible he wasn’t used to performing in front of an small audience five feet from his shoes. Either way, we had a great conversation about Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and Foo Fighters and lots of crazy awesome bands and mutual friends. I’ve always felt like success with bands (aside from writing awesome songs) lies mainly with being nice dudes and getting along as a band. Luckily they have it all. And do so effortlessly.

Denny Bowen: guitar, vocals
Jeff Byers: guitar
Dan Frome: bass
Bret Lanahan: drums

Engineered by Sean Mercer
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Download MP3s - 60.01 MB

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Raindeer began as a solo project for singer and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Hughes. But as he’s brought on additional members to fill out the band’s live quartet, the off-kilter lo-fi pop sensibility of Hughes’s early Raindeer recordings has been preserved remarkably well. That may be due to the fact that the other three members, Devin Byrnes, Liz Vayda and Nicky Smith, contribute primarily synths, guitars and bass, with no live percussionist replacing the loops and drum machines.

So when Raindeer came in for their Microshow, it was exciting to hear the songs from the self-titled 2012 release fleshed out, but not rocked up or drastically rearranged. “Moon Child” in particular simply just sounded right in this context. The result sounds like early rock’n’roll balladry filtered through the cutting edge technology of the 1980s – a similar process to, say, Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A. with a very different result. One cover in the set, of the Talking Heads’ classic “Don’t Worry About The Government,” which is perhaps more relevant than ever now, was filtered heavily through Raindeer’s aesthetic, putting their own stamp on it instead of just being another band that tries to sound like the Heads.

Charlie Hughes: vocals, acoustic guitar, keys, samples
Devin Byrnes: keys, bass, percussion
Liz Vayda: keys, vocals
Nicky Smith: guitar

Engineered by Sean Mercer
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Download MP3s - 103.35 MB

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I knew Austin Tally from when he played in another band that I recorded a few years ago. They were pretty folksy. When I heard he was in a new band I instantly wanted to get in touch and see what they were about. He send over a cassette. It was pretty jangly and weird. I dug it. But it wasn’t until they came in for the microshow last month I truly understood what was going on. There are serious pop hooks going on underneath all the thick yet detailed sludge of guitars. I keep hearing early 90s Dinosaur Jr. & Smashing Pumpkins with out all the drama, bombast and crazy tempos. There’s room to take a breath. And there is an articulation to the songwriting one can totally sink their teeth in to.

Wing Dam is Austin (Soft Cat, Omoo Omoo, Silent Whys) on vocals and guitars, Sara Autrey (Dan Deacon, Bitch Cave, Which Magic), who plays bass and sings and other various sundries in an amalgum of other bands is amazing talented and a super swell person and Abram Sanders (Lower Dens, The Snails) is their drummer and does just that. He’s an incredible drummer with a great sense of time and focus and at the end of the day can still be heard over Austin and Sara’s bombast of destruction.

Please enjoy this microshow like I have been for the past month.

Abram Sanders – drums
Sara Autrey – bass guitar / vocals
Austin Tally – guitar / vocals

Engineered by Sean Mercer
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Download MP3s - 76 MB

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The variety of styles in Us and Us Only’s back catalogue, as well as the versatility of “Dark Cloud Past” itself makes it difficult to pigeonhole the band to a limited genre or style. Apocalyptic horns make foreboding tracks like “Dark House” seem that much darker next to more buoyant tunes “Seed” and “You Were a Writer.” Above it all, vocalist Kinsey Matthews’ unmistakable voice and the vivid pictures painted by his deeply personal lyrics make every song instantly recognizable as the work of Us and Us Only.

Between songs, Matthews engaged the audience in playful banter, offering jokes on a variety of his favorite topics – pagers, Star Wars, Chris Farley, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Randy Newman and, of course, his fellow bandmates. Those familiar with the band’s output attempted to suppress laughter, as the group put together an impromptu reggae cover of one of their early originals, “Postcards.” Though they had to rearrange many of their songs for the smaller, cozier venue, Us and Us Only delivered a performance that registered as intimate, without once losing any of the passion or power of their louder shows.

Kinsey Matthews – guitar
Jacob Foster – bass
Mike Suica – violin
Sean Mercer – drums

Engineered by Sean Mercer
Mixed by Mat Leffler-Schulman

Download MP3s - 52.36 MB

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After the release of 2010′s Wildspace (Friends Records), a darkened, dreamy collection of songs inspired by the thriving wilderness located in urban settings, Neil Sanzgiri took a year away from music to finish up his fine arts degree in Interdisciplinary Sculpture. What started as bedroom a recording project grew into a baroque ensemble consisting of horns, flutes, cello, violin, banjo, classical and electric guitar. For the majority of Soft Cat’s early existence it was rare to see them perform anything but acoustic, playing anywhere from farms and backyards to living rooms and art galleries.

In February of 2013, Soft Cat returns with Lost No Labor, an EP that marks a step forward in Soft Cat’s sound pushing the delicateness of arrangements and the richness of tones to a much more mature level. With the live formation constantly rotating from members traveling inbetween cities, Soft Cat at its core has become Neil Sanzgiri, Kate Barutha and Brendan Sullivan and features members of other Baltimore bands such as Secret Mountains, Strange Fur, Wing Dam, and Weekends. Lost No Labor attests to the band’s scale and warmth and marks and shows a steady progression towards a new full length.

Their microshow is no exception. They came together last month to play a breathtaking and moving show for all of Baltimore to hear. Neil is a serious songwriter here in Baltimore and we can’t wait to see what else he has to offer.

Neil Sanzgiri – vocals, acoustic guitar
Brendan Sullivan – electric guitar, drums
Kate Barutha – cello, vocals
Evan Merkel – violin
Austin Tally – bass

Download MP3s - 84.65 MB

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Leaf House is a Baltimore supergroup of sorts that came together as the result of a friendly bet between Ruby Fulton (Rhymes With Opera, Holland Symfonia, orkest de ereprijs, Bang On A Can, Boulder Philharmonic) and Michael Shank (Ike Shark, Barnyard Sharks, We Used To Be Family). Seeking to answer the question of whether the beast of a drummer DJ Rice (Teenage Souls) could be “tamed,” they formed a trio, waging instrumental battles for months before deciding a singer was needed to round out the group. After lengthy auditions, Raj Sharma (Three Red Crowns) was chosen as the vocalist of the newly christened Leaf House, as the band refined their killer formula of skittering beats, skronky blasts of soundmass and pop sensibilities.

The diverse backgrounds of each musician in Leaf House add up to a whole that is difficult to pigeonhole, although the spacious grooves and adventurous textures recall the likes of Talking Heads and ESG. Although they’ve played several shows over the past year, their Microshow marks the band’s first publicly available recording, and we’re honored to help introduce them to the world. Cellist Andrew Histand (KissKiss Players, We Used To Be Family) also accompanied the quartet for the occasion. Our studio was filled to capacity with curious audience members, who were mesmerized for the better part of an hour, and then gamely participated in the vocal escapades involved in a cover of the Animal Collective song from which Leaf House took their name. -Al Shipley

Rajni Sharma – Vocals
Michael Shank – guitar
Ruby Fulton – Keys
DJ Rice – Drums

Download MP3s - 106.94 MB

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