A Recording & Mastering Studio in Baltimore
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.
“Stick with Rejoice for only the first two and a half minutes or so, and Baltimore’s Secret Mountains sound like any another band getting by on a familiar style of earthen, acid-eaten psych. The feel is hymn-like and meditative, with its amorphous swirl of feedback dipped guitars, mounting storm drum fills, and strange inflections of English folk. It’s all pretty recognizable, save for the smoldering female vocal that stands out front. That’s Kelly Laughlin, and she’s a hell of a presence indeed. It’s odd considering how subtle her delivery is. The band gives her more than enough space to go for a full-on Grace Slick– Laughlin certainly seems capable– but she seems to recognize the power of simplicity. As the song unfolds, it becomes clear that Secret Mountains boast more than a dynamic frontwoman, breaking into “a joyful noise” [Laughlin's phrasing], heavily steeped in jangle-pop and an anthemic, twee-like sprightliness.” – Pitchfork
While a great write-up Pitchfork neglected to talk much about Jeff’s insanely great lyrics or his innate sense for song construction nor Cory’s sense for dissonant harmony.
That said, Rejoice was recently recorded in Philly and Friends Records just release it! On this EP they inlcluded on of my favorite songs from their microshow earlier in the year.
You can hear the track below and underneath that track is my favorite song off the record.
It’s Been A Long Time
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Dead Sea
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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 Cory from Secret Mountains, Dustin Wong from Ponytail, Aran K from AK Slaughter and Sam 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.
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.
