Tonight: Compact - A Tape Culture Night

Tonight there's an event at the Windup Space that looks to bode well for analog enthusiasts. Lexie Mountain is presenting Compact, a free-form tape culture night.

Starting at 9 PM, anyone and everyone is invited to come and bring their cassettes. The event is meant to share collections and/or catalogs, buy or trade tapes, and have the chance to play them live on the decks in a "freedom format". Lexie also proclaims, "ALL TAGS NO GENRES! ANYTHING EVERYTHING GLOBAL PARTY PORTABLES!"




Friends Records will be in attendance. We're bringing our tape dubber and cassette making supplies, and we'll be, yes... making tapes. Friends Records just announced the release of Moss of Aura's new LP, and also the re-release of all five of his prior albums on cassette. Tonight we'll be making the first two titles, Circle in the Corner and Rushcrusher. Zu Shapes' Merigold EP will also be available for the first time.

The event tonight starts at 9 PM, is at Windup Space, and is free.

Mixtape: Baltimore: Spring 2011

  art by Caleb Moore

This morning I posted a new seasonal mixtape on Impose, titled Baltimore: Spring 2011.


DOWNLOAD: [SIDE A] Baltimore: Spring 2011
1. Zomes - "Openings"
2. Weekends - "Home Alone (acoustic)"
3. Ken Seeno - "Cedilla in My Monogram"
4. Lands & Peoples - "Sexting"
5. White Life - "Real Things"
6. Eachothers - "Wild Yonder"
7. Microkingdom - "Aire Metal (Chopped and Screwed)"
8. Ponytail - "Honey Touches"
9. Adventure - "Feels Like Heaven"
10. Daytime - "Life / Afterlife (edit)"
11. Ecstatic Sunshine - "Hello Money"


DOWNLOAD: [SIDE B] Baltimore: Spring 2011
1. Celebration - "Only The Wicked (acoustic)"
2. Zu Shapes - "Olivia"
3. Moss of Aura - "Charter"
4. Winks - "Slap Me Choke Me Cum On You"
5. Dope Body - "The Shape of Grunge To Come"
6. Inflatable Mattress - "Green Tea Girlfriend"
7. Thank You - "Pathetic Magic (Dan Deacon remix)"
8. Avocado Happy Hour - "Daytime Television"
9. Gem Vision - "Untitled 1"

Zu Shapes - "Speak In Sheets"

Just announced: Zu Shapes will make his live debut at the Hexagon on Saturday (4/23) where he'll be opening for Raindeer, Co La, and Happy Family. The show starts at 9 PM.

Friends Records is debuting a handful of brand new cassettes over the coming weeks, one of which is the debut from Zu Shapes who I introduced you to a few weeks back. Zu Shapes is Beau Cole of Lands and Peoples and Raindeer, and his debut is called Merigold. More new sounds have now surfaced, take a gander at "Speak in Sheets" below.



"Speak In Sheets" has been stuck in my head for the past month, but I sure as fuck don't mind. These sounds emanate the surf-pop of the 60s, but do so from the perspective of modern day bedroom pop with a jaded twist. "Speak In Sheets" is Zu Shapes' oceanfront sing-a-long, a glowing anthem that the late Dennis Wilson would likely be proud of.



You can pre-order Zu Shapes' Merigold cassette from Friends Records right here.

Zu Shapes - "Olivia"

 art by Na Kim

A new solo project from Beau Cole of Lands & Peoples and Raindeer - I present you with Zu Shapes. The debut EP got started last summer and is being finished up as we speak, and Beau recently shared the first track to be heard from the debut, dubbed "Olivia".



"Olivia", the first heard track from Zu Shapes, is a catchy-as-fuck slow-building pop song that eventually erupts with luminous chants and a beat strong enough to summon your inner-glee. Beau tells me the song is about social anxiety, living in your mid-twenties, and watching old girlfriends get married and have kids.

I was chatting with Beau last night, and along with an abundance of other info about the new project, he filled me in on where the moniker "Zu Shapes" came from:

"Zu Shapes is this game my mom and I used to play one the highway in Mississippi. There's kudzu EVERYWHERE there. It takes over everything: trees, powerlines, entire buildings. My grandmother called it "foot-a-night" because it can grow more than a foot in a 24 hour period. My mom and I used to call out what the kudzu forms resembled, and she'd make me laugh with silly voices and we'd just have a good ol' time."

Beau Cole plays with his two other bands this week in Baltimore, starting with tomorrow night as Lands & Peoples play the Talking Head with Colour Revolt. On Saturday night, you can catch Beau as part of Raindeer who play the Golden West with Weekends, Winks, and Holy Ghost Party. Look for more to come from Zu Shapes in the coming months.

Premiere: Wigflip Comp - SUN SUN SUN

I am extremely excited to premiere a brand new compilation from our friends over at Wigflip Records. Caleb Moore (Lands & Peoples / Dead Drums) passed along this doosey of a release last night, the first compilation to come out of the new Baltimore label.

The comp is called SUN SUN SUN, and features new and exclusive things from a whole mess of Baltimore goodness. It is available as a free download, which Bmore Musically Informed is proud to premiere at the link below:

Wigflip Records Compilation - SUN SUN SUN

Wigflip's compilation sports some pretty heady ambient jams from the likes of Dead Drums, Semya, Winks, Zu Shapes, Brendan Sullivan, Amy Reid, Run DMT, Dustin Wong, Happy Family, Rod Hamilton, Dygn, and Amanda Schmidt. It's a bright and dreamy summer adventure, one that's best served with an open mind and deep spirit. Caleb, who curated the tracks and put together the art, had this to say about the release...

"Some of these people are my close friends, and some of them are acquaintances that I simply respected the shit out of. Over the course of this project those two lines were blurred, my relationships with the participants grew, and our musical tastes shifted ever so slightly. This has been in the works for about six months. For me, this compilation is a perfect representation of everything I love about the Baltimore music/art community."

Get the full track list after the jump, and look out for a physical release to come.

Dead Drums - "Voicemail"
Semya - "Stardust Magic"
Winks - "Bongy Rubble"
Zu Shapes - "Fakin' It"
Brendan Sullivan - "Plans To Make"
Amy Reid - "Nooks"
Run DMT - "Abulanceone"
Dustin Wong - "Soft Metal"
Happy Family - "Cat Videos"
Rod Hamilton - "Snowden"
Dygn - "Snowed In"
Amanda Schmidt - "Theme For Daytime Television"