NOVO Instrumental Music Festival

A new musical festival in Baltimore gets going today, and continues to run throughout the rest of the week. The NOVO Instrumental Music Festival will take place at the Windup Space.

The festival will be a five night event, each paying tribute to local music of the word-less variety. Each show will run you five bucks, with the exception of tonight's show which is free. A fifteen dollar pass is available that will grant you access to all five nights.

The lineup is worth noting throughout the week, but the standout night has to be Friday with Jason Urick, Microkingdom, and Notendo rounding out the bill.

Get the full schedule and each night's lineup after the jump.

Tuesday, March 2:
Out of Your Head's One-Year Anniversary
Set One--8:00pm
John Dierker-reeds
Cam Collins-reeds
Brent Madsen-trumpet
Rachel Gawell-cello
Alan Munshower-drums

Set Two--9:30pm
Ellery Eskelin-sax
Michael Formanek-bass
Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar

Set Three--11:00pm
Ellery Eskelin-sax
Eric Trudel-sax
Blake Cramer-vibes
Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums

Wednesday, March 3:
The Water
Expanding Man
JDay
doors 9pm, show 9:30, $5

Thursday, March 4:
Nathan Bell
Yeveto
Insect Factory
doors at 9, show at 9:30, $5

Friday, March 5:
Jason Urick
Notendo
Microkingdom
doors at 9, show at 9:30, $5

Saturday, March 6:
We Used to Be Family
Leisure Icons
Holy Fingers

Tomorrow: Quartet Offensive Covers Pavement

Tomorrow night's show at the Ottobar boasts several reasons to attend, one of which is rather glaring. Local free jazz outfit Quartet Offensive will only be playing Pavement covers.

Covering Pavement traditionally is one thing, but translating Pavement's classics into jazz pieces is clearly a whole other thing entirely. The group will perform tracks taken from Wowee Zowee, Brighten the Corners, Terror Twilight, and Crooked Rain. I've also been promised that personal favorite "Flux = Rad" is on the menu.

If the Pavement covers don't entice you, Quartet Offensive's LP Carnivore most certainly should. Their debut album is filled with punked out off-kilter jazz, and is sure to be original and fresh to the ol' eardrums. With such a wide range of talent, these guys will certainly not disappoint tomorrow night either.

Headlining the show is Jerseyband. Yes, this is quite possibly the worst band name ever. But after a few initial listens, the genre that they claim to have created seems like a pretty accurate description. Jerseyband proclaims "Lungcore" as "A new genre that infuses a horn-driven band with heavy metal values". The idea does seem unique, and actually sounds as if it works pretty well.

Opening is Soul Cannon which features members of Quartet Offensive, and also Leisure Icons. This show is at 9 PM on Thursday night at the Ottobar, and will run you 8 bucks.