Friends and Friends of Friends:Lonnie Walker and B&P (formerly Bear & Pieces)

Friends and Friends of Friends was made available digitally for free this week, 60 minutes of new music somehow rooted in Baltimore by Friends Records.

Lonnie Walker is a country punk band with a knack for crafting songs drenched in Americana, along with a knack for a putting on one hell of a fun live show. They are based out of North Carolina, and grew up with the fellows of Future Islands.

Future Islands and Lonnie Walker are set to put out a split seven inch with Friends Records sometime this year (with a new Future Islands song that was written this month), but for now Brian Corum sent over a new track not off their stellar debut LP. The country-washed Pavement sounds of "Feels Like Right" will likely show up on the band's next release.



Check out a brand new track from B&P after the jump.


B&P is the solo project of Chris Day, a resident of Open Space and the creator of Lost Ghosts Records - one of the finest local proprietors of hand made musical collages and soundscapes. Chris had been dubbed Bear & Pieces up until a week or so ago, when he passed along "Greminals" and let me know he wanted to be called B&P from now on.

Chris designed and screen printed the poster for our first show back in January at the G Spot, and he is currently working on the inserts for the the new Sri Aurobindo LP. "Greminals" is an and eight and a half behemoth of a journey through moments and sounds, and is certainly the darkest moment of the cassette. Look for some more excellent new B&P sounds to come this year.

Friends and Friends of Friends: Sri Aurobindo, Shields, Daytime

Friends and Friends of Friends was made available digitally for free this week, 60 minutes of new music somehow rooted in Baltimore by Friends Records.

Sri Aurobindo have been making psychedelic rock and roll in Baltimore for years, but just last year released their debut CD. They also dropped Return Into Earth later in 2009, and now the second LP of the Friends Records catalog will be Cave Painting. This is their first proper full length, and first vinyl release.

Cave Painting is almost exactly 20 minutes on each side, and embodies everything this band has been about since their inception - Garage rock psychedelics with a pop twist. "Don't Know" is one of the finer chunks of proof that these are properly uncovered sounds. The band dug deep to contribute a live on-air gem recorded at College Park's WMUC a couple years ago.



Greg over at Aural States also premiered the studio version of "Don't Know" a few weeks back. Hear new things from Shields and Daytime after the jump.


Mike Romano was once a member of Vincent Black Shadow, but for the past five years has been with Sri Aurobindo. All while creating the psych rock sounds, Mike's had a knack for building blissed out hip hop beats under the moniker Shields.

You'll find Shields beats littered over Height's Winterize the Game, and on some of Jones' record. Mike was also behind "Cold Crush" which will be on Bed of Seeds. Shields has a new LP in the works, and "Dangx2" is a brand new track from this beat-smith.




Neil Renalda is Daytime, best known for his artwork and dedication to Open Space. Neal also designed the mega fancy cover art for Strange Cultures. Daytime is an experimental ambient noise project, melodic sounds that paint beautiful imagery of with often very rough edges. I've already highly recommended Mirrored World, and he's got a handful of other fine sounds available over at Lost Ghosts Records.

Friends and Friends of Friends: Future Islands, Jones/Food For Animals, Tapes in Space

Friends and Friends of Friends was made available digitally for free this week, 60 minutes of new music somehow rooted in Baltimore by Friends Records.

Future Islands release In Evening Air in Baltimore Friday night at Floristree, and the official Thrill Jockey release date is next Tuesday. Since hearing Wave Like Home a few years ago, there's been no other band's follow-up record that I've looked forward to more. Having now spent a couple months with In Evening Air, it's become clear that William, Gerrit, and Sam have crafted something really special.

"Virgo Distracts" is the second track on side A of In The Fall, the EP Thrill Jockey dropped this month on translucent blue vinyl. The Friends Records comp features a live cut of this track from the vaults of Willam Cashion, recorded at DubLab in Los Angeles. This is from September 8, 2008, a really early incarnation of the tune.




Friday's show poster by Kitty Kat Press (36/40 copies)

Read on for a new Food For Animals track remixed by Jones, and also Tapes in Space.


Jones has been cooking up some mighty fine beats, remixes and psychedelic hip hop around town, and used to make a lot of music with Height. He killed it on a remix of Future Islands' "Little Dreamer" last year, which originally appeared on the Splice Today comp and got pressed to wax for Post Office Wave Chapel.

Jones still has his own debut available on vinyl, which is beautifully packaged and available here. His contribution to the comp is a remix of a new Food For Animals song, complete with a warped-out and hazy banger of a beat.




Tapes In Space is the solo effort of Adam Lempel, better known as the dude who likes to stand on the drum set during Weekends shows. Adam has been recording a wide variety of different pop sounds at slow speeds, and then speeding them up.

The result is Tapes In Space. "Bat Meat" also features Chase/Winks playing casio steel drums, and is part of a batch of tracks that "mixes and matches genres" and will be on an upcoming release. Adam is also responsible for the cover art, a photo he showed me recently at a print fair up in Philadelphia by David Grahm.

Friends and Friends of Friends: Moss of Aura, Brendan Sullivan, The Violet Hour

Friends and Friends of Friends was released for free yesterday, 60 minutes of new music somehow rooted in Baltimore by Friends Records. I'll be featuring a handful of tracks each day all week, and today we're really excited to present you with new sounds from Moss of Aura, Brendan Sullivan, and The Violet Hour.

Moss of Aura is Gerrit Welmers, a fellow who is largely responsible for the Future Islands LP that's about to drop in a really big way - In Evening Air. One-third of Future Islands, Gerrit has been putting out releases under the Moss of Aura moniker since 2006, and there's a batch of CDRs I highly recommend perusing here. Below is a brand new track from Moss of Aura called "Generations", which will be blasting side A of our cassette off into 80s montage wonderment.



Listen to new tracks from Brendan Sullivan and The Violet Hour after the jump.


Brendan Sullivan is 1/2 Weekends, and has a plethora of tapes under his belt under his own solo moniker. Many of said recordings are worth a super heavy gander, and "Young Thunder Pt. 1" is alot like some of the new sounds heard in his stellar set played after Male Bonding at the Golden West a few weeks back. This is part one of two of a piece, on a release that's currently TBA.




The Violet Hour opened up our first show back in January, after releasing their brilliant debut in 2009. This is a brand new song from Beth Varden and Andriana Pateris called "Echoes", which will hypnotically and beautifully close out side A of the tape comp. We're really stoked for more to come from The Violet Hour, and also quite excited for a tape Beth is working on with Lost Ghosts Records.

Friends and Friends of Friends:Lands & Peoples, Height with Friends, Winks

Friends and Friends of Friends is the first Friends Records compilation, and will feature new and exclusive tracks from Friends Records artists and their friends. The digital version was wrapped up last night and made available for free today right here.

Clocking in at an hour, there are 15 tracks of mostly Baltimore based music - a hand picked batch of all different shapes and sizes that that we've been cooking up around town for the past few months. All this week I'll be featuring tracks from this comp, starting today with new sounds from Lands & Peoples, Height with Friends, and Winks.



"In Living Colour" is a brand new song from Lands & Peoples that will appear on their upcoming debut full length. This is the current incarnation of the tune, recorded by Christopher Freeland at his Beat Babies studio. Lands & Peoples play the Ottobar May 14 with Wye Oak and Ami Dang.

Brand new Height with Friends and Winks are after the jump.



"Current Floor" won't be on the new Height with Friends LP, and features a beat that got passed around between Height and his friends, originally stemming from a King Rhythm track off of Hardships & Head Trips. HWF heads back out on a national tour this week, and their new LP called Bed of Seeds will be ready for turntables shortly. The album release party will be May 28th at the Hexagon with Weekends and more TBA.



Winks is Chase from INEVERYROOM, with the help of Adam Lempel (Weekends) and others. This is a brand new song that features Renee Clark's beautiful vocals as well, and is another gem under this new project's belt. I highly recommend checking out Winks' debut, and you can now grab a physical CDR courtesy of Environmental Aesthetics.

Weekends - "A Defining Love (acoustic)"

In honor of Weekends playing FOUR shows this weekend starting tonight in Brooklyn at the Impose party, Friends Records is releasing a taste of its first compilation called Friends and Friends of Friends. Below is an acoustic version of "A Defining Love".



This special version will be the first track on the Friends Records comp, which will consist of many other sounds from Friends artists and their/our friends. The collection will be released for free digitally very soon, with a limited cassette available next month. It will have new and exclusive tracks from Weekends, Future Islands, Height with Friends, Sri Aurobindo, Lonnie Walker, Moss of Aura, Brendan Sullivan, Winks, Jones, Tapes in Space, Shields, Daytime, Lands and Peoples, Bear & Pieces, The Violet Hour, and more surprises.

"A Defining Love" is a new song that has slowly crept its way into recent set lists. It somehow manages to be even catchier than "Raingirls", which is one-upped x100 on this acoustic take. The recorded electric version will rear its head on a split tape with Total Slacker, due out on Breakfast of Champs soon. This alternate version for the comp is part of an acoustic batch of recordings currently in the works, details forthcoming.

The "pot of gold" artwork above was envisioned by Adam from Weekends, drawing over a photo he found at a print fair we were at up in Philadelphia last weekend. After the jump is another possibility for the cover art. Let us know which one you like better and look out for the full comp soon.