Photos: Height with Friends / AK Slaughter

Height w/Friends stormed the Windup Space last Friday, joined by the likes of Ak Slaughter, Lizz King, and Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez. We made it in time for the final three acts, along with Valerie who snapped some excellent photos that are all below.

This was the album release party for Height w/Friends' Baltimore Highlands remix album, but AK Slaughter also just dropped some love. Aran and Emily's mixtape, which you can grab here for free, is pretty stacked with all kinds of fun cuts from the duo. They killed it yet again live on Friday, and appeared to be having a grand old time doing it. They've got another show this Friday at Sonar.

Height w/Friends featured Mickey Free and Emily Slaughter backing up Height vocally, and they did a damn fine job doing so. The beats hit loud, Height was as amped as always, and Mickey and Emily were essential in weaving it all together. Look for more to come from all three MCs, including a new full length on the way soon from Emily's AK Slaugter. Peep the rest of the photo set below, or click here for the set on our Flikr.


Photos by Valerie

Free Album Download: Rapdragons - Ten Stories High

Baltimore has been brewin with tons of choice off-kilter hip hop as of late, with a beat and rhyme suited for every type of party. Rapdragons began schilling their variety back in May, and are now in full effect having just dropped their first full length.

In addition to Ten Stories High, their debut album, Rapdragons have something else in the works to be pretty stoked for. The duo will soon also release a project called Featuring Baltimore, a mixtape that samples a different local band on each track.

But right now, you can download Ten Stories High for free at the bottom of this post. For whatever reason, this one had me reminiscing of the careless days of high school revelry. It's a feel good affair all around, and deserves to be thrown in your rotation.

The highlight for me was "Bigwams", Greg Ward and Nick Often's take on Bob Dylan's "Wigwam". The duo sports their signature party-themed flow, all layered over snazzy drums and paired with the original Dylan track's horns.

The opener "Moon Rocks" feature's a hook courtesy of Reading Rainbow's theme song, a beat using David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream", and some pretty anthemic vocals. Other samples throughout the album derive anywhere from Edwin Starr to the Electric Light Orchestra, to even Disney's Out of the Box TV series.

These guys are a ton of fun, and as mentioned above, have some other excitement in the works. Featuring Baltimore is being finished up now, and two tracks are already available. "Camp Everywhere" re-works "Camp Nowhere", the last track on Weekends' stellar debut disc. You can stream "Camp Everywhere" in all its glory over on their site. Until the rest of that mix drops, snag their promising debut below.

Full Album Download: Rapdragons - Ten Stories High

Jason Urick: Husbands

I am extremely excited to present you with our first piece from James MacMillan. Jimmy is a friend, musical mentor, and record junky that has inspired me aurally in many ways. If he's not working at Soundgarden gushing over a hundred different records you must buy, he's at home tending to his ridiculous collection of vinyl. His first review is about a local icon's recent solo affair, and is one that hit him very close to home. You can catch Jason Urick at the Hexagon tonight, with Zomes, Dustin Wong, and Vows. (photo by Josh Sisk)

Husbands, which hits us via Thrill Jockey, is the debut solo LP from former WZT Hearts wizard Jason Urick. Consisting of four tracks that break the 44 minute marker, one thing is very clear early on in this record: this is not a WZT Hearts record. Gone is the overwhelming confusion and disorienting chaos. What remains is a masterful piece that moves gracefully from beginning to end. Urick operates with such precision and grace you would think that the album was an effortless creation. You would be wrong. Intricate and highly detailed, the textures on this record shine with various elements that all culminate in what could be one of the best records of the year.

Album opener "Strides" is a slow builder that sets the tone for the whole record. Gently rolling back and forth while an ever present and foreboding tone builds from underneath until it is bubbling over the top by the end of the song. The song evokes intimate images and quickly transforms the listener to the dream like state that they will remain in until the end of the album.

"Let There Be Love" drifts along with the promise of something bigger for all of its 10 minutes. Being the only track to feature some sort of a vocal melody it feels like it is constantly building up to become a huge, bright and stunning anthem of a song. However the song ends as competently as it begins. Leaving "what could be" to the imagination of the listener may be where this album succeeds the most.

The epic "National Treasure" is the highlight of the record for me. For over 17 minutes this track hypnotically reveals itself, twisting along through multiple rhythms, it never really settles in one particular landscape. After many many listens, I still get something unique and fresh out of this song every time i hear it.

Closer "The Eternal Return" opens up the floodgates and Jason Urick finally seems to make good on the promises that the album seem to make with each of its previous songs. It opens with a collection of samples featuring children speaking. About a minute into this a fuzzed-out buzz saw of a tone seems to cut through the whole thing with deliberate attack and the song has begun. Just as delicately timed in the swaying tempo of the previous 3 tracks, this one veers off course and suddenly the safe dreamscape is gone. It is loud and obtrusive and it demands your attention.

Urick has made one of my favorite records of the year and it will find its way onto my turntable for a long time to come. He seems to have everything exactly where he wants it and it is dispatched exactly when he wants. However, "Husbands" is the kind of album that I would never trust a review of. The whole record is left up to the interpretation of the listener. This collection of songs inspires heavy doses of imagery, those mental pictures are often very personal and up to the individual listening to the record. If you are in a happy place this album will often sound shiny and promising with each new sound. If you are in the midst of a dark point, the album can seem very gloomy and apocalyptic.

This is the kind of album that should not be read about, it should just be listened to and experienced for what it is worth. Nobody should give you any expectations about what you should feel when you listen to this record, as it is a very personal and intimate experience for both you and Jason Urick. Be sure to pick up a copy of this vinyl only release as it is limited to just 800 copies.

Tonight: Celebration at Load of Fun

In a week packed with not-miss shows, this one stands above the rest. If you've caught any of Celebration's amazing local performances this year, you'd understand.

Celebration have been churning out their Baltimore Elemental Series all year long, with each show being pretty special in its own right. The series started with Fire at the Windup Space, then Whartscape was the Water installment, their outdoor show with Beach House was Wind, and tonight at Load of Fun is Earth.

This isn't just a big show for Celebration, as Videohippos have something new in store. Premiering tonight with two new members, the band is working to become more live with no prerecorded beat or melodies. Videohippos now also feature Jared Paolini, and Benny Boeldt AKA Adventure. Both new members rock pretty fantastic solo efforts, and should certainly aid in Videohippos becoming even more of a force.

The show tonight also features the psych drones of Indian Jewelery, rounding out a pretty stacked bill all around. This one will run you just $10, and doors are at 8:30.

Photo Review: Le Loup at the Ottbar

Photos by Valerie

If you missed out on Le Loup's dense melodic folk last Friday you weren't alone. The show had a pretty lackluster turnout, which was a shame. But man, if I knew the secret lineup down at CCAS that night for their 1000th show included Double Dagger and Sick Weapons, I would probably have been gettin' sweaty in a basement instead too.

The mediocre attendance, and just generally odd crowd (I swear I saw some drunk jerk break dancing at one point), had no effect whatsoever to the level at which Le Loup performed. This force of an ensemble not only recreated some of Family's gems, they built them from the ground up all over again at the Ottobar Friday.

These songs are meant to be heard on full tilt, growing each and every melody with organic wonder and deep spirit. The new record has a very natural feeling to it, and it comes to life in their performance. Even the tracks off the debut were given new meaning, and hopefully more will take notice next time these guys come around.

Don't sleep on my interview with Sam Simkoff, once Baltimore resident and current Le Loup brainchild. Peep Valerie's excellent photo set from the evening here and below, which includes shots of Nurses, Eureka Birds, and We Read Minds. I didn't catch the first half the show, so hum to yourself what you think the openers sounded like while you look at their pictures in the set.

Photos by Valerie

Interview / Mixtape / Photos: AK Slaughter

I recently had the privilege of putting together a photo shoot with local hip hop duo AK Slaughter, as their A Personal Matter's choice cuts continue to infiltrate my playlists. The new mixtape is also absurdly good, and you can download it here for free, or stream it at the very bottom of this post.

This photo shoot/interview sesh involved Valerie's super fun light writing photography, and was a whole mess of fun to help out with. No photoshop necessary, all light effects in the photos were "written" live at the shoot by Emily, Aran, Joe, and me.

I also asked Emily Slaughter and Aran Keating about the mixtape, the new album they are working on, the show on Friday at the Windup Space, and hypothetical photo shoot-based scenarios. Read on to peep the interview, pics, and mixtape.

You just dropped a free mixtape, what went into putting this together?

Aran: It's a DJ mix that I have wanted to do for a while. It is basically a vehicle for a bunch of tracks that we don't really think of as fullly-produced "songs." So we took all these tracks that we have been doing live for a long time, where the beat is really just a loop of a song we liked and I linked em all together with other tracks, acapellas, instrumentals and live stuff that we wanted to use. It is especially fun to take other people's acapellas and hear what, say, Yung Joc sounds like on an AK Slaughter beat. Then I did some new mixes of our tracks and made it all do the mashed potato and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Your mixtape ranges from sampling Elvis to Cutty Ranks to the Cardigans... who are your biggest influences and in what way have you incorporated them with AK Slaughter's music?

Emily: Aran and I both listen to a bunch of different music, I think that shows in our own music... especially our super sample heavy beats. He listens to way more rap than I ever have and I would say is more lyrically influenced by rap music than I am (is that true Aran?). When I listen to rap, I mostly listen to the old school girls having fun stuff like Roxanne Shante, her rivals JJ Fad and Salt n' Pepa. If I could write lyrics like Kool Keith I would die like a thousand times. Country ballads like The Carter Family's "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes", Tammy Wynette's "The Ways to Love a Man" and "Apartment Number 9" have a big influence on me lyrically. Any music about shit going bad basically rules and serves as fodder for my songs, like Joy Division for example. We're working on a new song that samples Bananarama, oh yes.

Aran: We are always gonna pull samples from everywhere that we can think of: if we dig it we'll sample it. So, I like to think that we are more influenced by this old-school mid 80s mindset of artists like Rick Rubin or Prince Paul who would sample a Doobie Brothers or some obscure garage rock song as easily as a james brown drum break or a rap song that was just released. I think what's great about hip-hop is that you can be really shameless about where your samples are coming from....as long as you are flipping a track in a new way, you can jack an entire song (like we've done with out Hall and Oates jams) or you can pull small bits of samples from all over the place and compose something from the ground up.

I had fun attempting to draw upside down crosses over your heads. You both dig pentagrams, apparently. Emily tells me you guys are working on your next album, are you moving in a more black metal direction with your stuff? Do you have some dark metal party jams in store for us?

Aran: Yes and yes.

Emily: I only got into black metal like a year ago. I've always listened to the more mainstream stuff, like Metallica and whatnot, but I kept hearing about these insane Nordic guys and I had to check them out. My adventures in the realm of darkness have been kind of half-assed: I read Lords of Chaos and got a friend to give me copies of Mayhem, Celtic Frost albums... etc. I really really like the way it sounds, it is exciting and kind of exhilarating, I need to make more of an effort to expand my library. I'm also really into the imagery and the history of the movement. The album and t-shirt art is amazing, we actually based our own t-shirts on that aesthetic. The contemporary history of the genre is pretty ridiculous (with the church burnings and murders and all) but the I think Norse history and folklore is very interesting.... I've been researching the pagan rituals and the gods associated with them for various projects.

As for AK Slaughter, I'd say the t-shirts and the casual use of pentagrams and upside down crosses will be about as far as we go into the dark world. I think a black metal/rap hybrid would end up sounding like rap rock and no one wants to hear that.

Yeah, probably a terrible awesome idea anyways. What was the best place you ever vomited?

Aran: I loved it when Emily vomited into my mouth. It was a happy accident.

Emily: The Roman Colosseum. It sucked. I writhed in the grass for several hours while my friend toured the ruins with his parents.

If you were climbing out of an abyss and only one of you could make it out alive, who wouldn't get sucked into the theoretical neon chasm?

Emily: Aran and I are a team. We would help each other out of this hypothetical abyss and then high five in the air.

Aran: Em and I are tighter than C3PO's underoos. We would tunnel out of that bitch with our bare hands.

You guys have a pretty rad show this Friday night at the Windup Space, whats your favorite Height w/Friends jam? Lizz King jaunt? Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez song?

Emily: Picking a favorite Height track is hard... narrowing it down to just Height with Friends songs makes it a bit easier, because there are less of them. When I listen to Mike Stone, I can't help but stomp and shake, it is totally cool in every way. I'll say Mike Stone for now (check out the video!) but tomorrow I'll probably have another favorite. Lizz King is the bomb.

Aran: I feel that AK Slaughter has a lot in common with Lizz King. Her music is part weird, part dance, part theatrics, part rock, part trad...I dig her stuff a lot. I also really can't wait to hear the new Height record. That song Link Wray and the one called Something Lagoon I've heard live a few times and are blowin my brain.

Photos all by Valerie

Harlem: Free Drugs :-)

Austin by way of Tuscon garage rockers Harlem dropped an LP last year called Free Drugs. They'll be in Baltimore on Wednesday, with the local jangled pop of the Sugarplums and Philly's excellent psych scuzzed Junkers.

If you're a fan of a rowdy garage pop sing-alongs, these guys should certainly be in your repertoire. Free Drugs is packed with loads of fuzzy melodies and dirty riffs, and at times is a clear ode to some of the finer garage psych of the 60s.

"Red Herring" hits you at the end of side B with tighly coiled perfection, yet is rough on all the right edges. They most certainly haven't re-written the genre by any means, but their knack for clever chords and unfuckwithable melodies proves worthy. I dare you not to get "South of France" stuck in your head for the day.

These guys craft songs soaked in honesty, the way in which writing songs about drugs and girls probably should be. While the lyrics might be far from inspiring, there's always something to be said about a song called "Psychedelic Tits".

Harlem, with Junkers and Sugarplums, play the Golden West this Wednesday night, October 11. The show starts at 10 PM, and you can stream some choice cuts from Harlem's album below. Sign into Imeem for the full versions.

Clusterf*ck: Shows in Baltimore this Weekend

Another weekend in the city that reads, and another two nights packed to the brim with some serious decisions to be made. While all signs point to a concert overload, I'll try and provide you with some deets to help you make some calm and rational choices. Let's start with deciphering tonight's pair of options.

I myself am seriously conflicted with tonight's spread, as one of Baltimore's most storied venues is celebrating their 1000th show. Citypaper did a really nice piece on the Charm City Art Space this week, as CCAS is throwing a show tonight that features five secret bands that won't be named until this evening. Apparently the bands don't even know what other bands are playing, so roll the dice if you're feeling lucky tonight.

If gambling isn't your thing, the electro-melodic folk chant force that is Le Loup will be serenading the Ottobar.

Le Loup mastermind, and once Bmore resident, Sam Simkoff was kind enough to shed some light on their amazing new album by answering a handful of questions for me. However, I'm not entirely sure he understood what I meant by "impeccable" when I described the Ottobar's restrooms. Either way, this show get's a high recommendation.

Saturday's got two double header's going, but only one possess the local folk noise heroes Wye Oak. Andy and Jenn are playing the Ottobar again, the scene of their release party for the exceedingly beautiful LP The Knot. With them will be Blitzen Trapper, some west coast boys that sound increasingly like some Bob Dylan with each release. I prefer the spazzed out country rock of their earlier releases, but the new stuff on Sub Pop ain't too shabby either.

Sonar's also got one Saturday, with The Dodos and The Ruby Suns coming to town. I was a huge fan of the Ruby Sun's first release with Sub Pop, with it's swirling eccentric vibes that bubble along so smooth you might swear floating in a raft off the coast of their native New Zealand. The Dodos were pretty terrible last time they came around with one of the guys being sick, so lets hope they make up for it this time. However their new release is pretty poor, so I wouldn't bank on it.

And last but most certainly not least, the Hexagon's got a solid one, and it's free. Not only only will it cost you nothing, but one of Bmore's best new duos is headlining, Weekends. These guys have been incredibly busy this year pouring out a stellar full length, and an EP dubbed Suburban Dome. Certainly not an option to sleep on.

Choose wisely, folks.

Ticket Giveaway: Sunset Rubdown at Sonar

Indie rock workhorse Spencer Krug is bringing his most medieval project, Sunset Rubdown, to Sonar next weekend. Sunset Rubdown headline the club stage Saturday, October 17, with New Villager opening the night.

Since 2006's Shut Up I Am Dreaming, the project has been creating complex art rock compositions that dabble in varieties of fabled landscapes and characters. The group continued on with Random Spirit Lover and this years's Dragonslayer, the LP in which this tour is in support of.

The sound is unique, yet easily recognizable if you're familiar with Wolf Parade, Krug's guitar driven powerhouse of a band. Sunset Rubdown is steeped in fantastical chivalry, and find's Krug beckoning stories of surreal imagery and mythical spirits. The result, is often epic anthems that are intricately woven and delivered with heart.

I've got a pair of tickets to give away to this one, so go ahead and send an email to bmoremusicallyinformed@gmail.com if you're interested. The show is October 17 at Sonar, and I'll pick a winner the day before for the two spots on the list. Peep the video for "Black Swan" below, off their most recent LP Dragonslayer.

Photos: Future Islands / Lonnie Walker / Small Sur

Zodiac had a nice one last Thursday, with the very busy Future Islands headlining the affair. Some fellow Carolina boys dubbed Lonnie Walker performed, along with local talents Small Sur and Jared Paolini.

Chrissy captured the last three acts below, in what was an incredibly solid show. Bob Keal's Small Sur was yet again comfort music at it's best, painting tales of nature ideal for an early fall night. Andy Abelow's accompanying sax shined through quite a bit, and the new tracks played were certainly promising.

Having never heard these guys before, Lonnie Walker were a more than welcome surprise to the evening. They rocked country drenched Americana with a heavy guitar presence.

Aural States dug them too, and I couldn't help but notice the heavy Pavement influence in some of the songwriting and vocals. But, I guess not too many artists aren't influenced by Pavement these days. Look for more good stuff to come from these guys.

Another Future Islands show, and another hell of a good time. These guys continue to grow tighter as a three piece, and continue to be one of the more fun local bands to catch live. It's impossible to stand still as they pair their ridiculously catchy synth beats with Sam's totally theatrical vocals. Disco ball and all, this was just another stellar performance under their belt.

Look for a ton to come from Future Islands in the near future, some of which we're hoping to premiere right here. Dudes are working on a remix project, a split release with Lonnie Walker, and are right in the middle of churning out their next full length.


Photos by Chrissy

Photo Review: Jay Reatard and No Bunny at the Ottobar

Photos by Chrissy

After a 2 hour power nap, the result of an all day free beer hook up at the Fells Point Festival, I stumbled on down to the Ottobar Saturday just in time to catch No Bunny and Jay Reatard. Immediately as I walked into the club, No Bunny's lead singer was dangling next to me only to have his red tighty whitey's pulled down in front of my face.

Now, I'll go ahead and say that I'm not the type of dude that enjoys male butts in my face. But, just two songs in and I was already sure I had a new favorite band for the evening. From here on out, their show provided me with exactly what I'd expect based off this totally NSFW arrival to the Ottobar. The photo set below is SFW, by the way.

No Bunny didn't invent the wheel in regard to any type of genre, but they sure as hell put on a full set of raunchy garage rock splendor. Think King Khan crossed with Nodzzz, and mash that up with some Replacements, and voila... you've got No Bunny. The band was awesomely rowdy, parading around the set in a sloppy yet effective manner. Their LP Love Visions is certainly worth your time, as is catching these guys next go around.

Jay Reatard took the stage to a properly prepped crowd, and quickly ripped through a set full of all the goods. Dude is a prolific songwriter, having already poured out a full on catalog of singles fit for those that have been in the business for decades. His live set lacked the bells and whistles of production and added glitz, but made up for it with pure guitar riff power. His songs sounded great as a three piece, and he was probably more deserving of playing an encore than the crowd made it sound with their weak and awkward concluding applause.

Interview: Le Loup with Sam Simkoff

In 2007, an area project dubbed Le Loup churned out a pretty addicting record. Hardly Art has just dropped their follow up, one of the most naturally gorgeous albums I've heard all year.

Family builds on all the fantastic looping melodies and beautiful ideas of the first LP, a testament to the band's blossoming sound. I recently had the chance to pry the mind of the group's mastermind, and once Baltimore resident, Sam Simkoff.

We discussed the new record, Bmore, and the Ottobar's bathrooms. Le Loup are beginning their national tour with an album release party at the Ottobar this Friday, October 9th. Check out the interview after the click...

In addition to the name itself, Family has a far more cohesive feel than the debut. What connected?

it's funny, because we were concerned during recording about it not cohering in terms of some of the stylistic elements. the band had expanded from a two to a six person outfit, and that meant a lot of different musical opinions and outlooks thrown into the mix. it was something we'd gotten accustomed to for live performance, but not something we'd ever tried in terms of song-building and recording. so there was a sense during the creation of the album that we had to tread carefully to avoid things sounding like too much of a hodgepodge. i mean, a song like 'morning song' thrown into the same album as 'forgive me...' there was a lot of careful orchestration to make sure that'd work. at the same time, we knew we didn't just want to make a rehash of the first album. i'm still very proud of what i did with that stuff, but we didn't just want to sit on the older aesthetic. we'd gotten really used to the energy and dynamics of the live show, and we wanted to showcase all of it in some sort of meaningful, coherent way. i like to think we succeeded. i certainly think so when i listen to the album.

Nature is one of the many repeated themes throughout the LP, was this due to the studio environment in North Carolina?

i think the mountain cabin thing could be taken pretty lightly. we went there in the last two weeks of recording, and while we got a lot done there, the stark majority of the album was recorded in DC and mixed and messed with in our very own b'more. i don't live there anymore, can i still say 'our very own?' i loved it there. anyhow, a lot of those lyrics had been pretty much committed to paper by the time we got to NC, i don't think we wrote any that stuck when we were up there. i think the 'nature' lyrics are more just a weakness of mine- i love getting into nature, and living in a city makes you really pine for it. so a lot of the songs had to do with wishful thinking, i guess, or this notion of nature as it stands in your head when you can't get there yourself.

The sound itself is much bigger and warmer than your debut, was the recording process different?

yeah, it was completely different. for starters, the first album was recorded entirely through that little hole in your laptop where the mic is, and put together in garageband. the physical setup was a little more sophisticated this time (although not by much)- we'd invested in a couple condenser microphones, and an audio interface, and the cheapo version of protools, which one should never use, by the way. we actually had to find creative ways to inject warmth into it- fully digital recording has a tendency to kind of sap stuff of some of its humanity, and we had about as digital a setup as it got- digital preamp, digital effects plugins, digital EQ, digital mixing. so we had to be really careful about how we recorded things. we experimented with a lot of different mic setups, and running vocals through amps and then micing the amps rather than running them directly into the interface, or using a tube amp head as the preamp before running a mic into the computer.

i think a lot of that eventual warmth just came with five of us playing live as a group rather than just me overdubbing stuff on my lonely, lonely computer. there's a palpable difference (within the album, i mean) between the instances when we had to overdub a lot of stuff and when we could play the songs as a live setup and then work with the live takes.

I understand you've spent some time in Baltimore, what do you miss about the Charm City?

i miss a lot about baltimore. there was an amazing sense of neighborhood and community there. the street on which my wife and i lived, there was always somebody out on the stoop, ol' lloyd was always fixing something on the block and shooting the breeze, and by the time we had to leave, a lot of younger people had moved onto the street and we were having these amazing summer mini block parties every weekend. and i felt like that feeling permeated the entire city. wherever you went, there was this sense of everybody sharing some sort of similar experience. there was a weird sort of openness i don't think you'd get if you just visited the place, you know? also, i miss: matthew's pizzeria, the brewers art, the visionary art museum, and our friends mike and laine. god, what a city.

You chose the Ottobar for your tour-starting record release show, besides the impeccable bathrooms, any specific reason why?

you know, i've never actually been there? that's one thing i was really terrible about when we lived in baltimore, going to live shows. lame, yeah? but we hear great things about ottobar. never heard the bathroom thing, but i think i would have chosen it solely for that. an impeccable bathroom ought not be underrated.

Celebration: Video for "Shelter"

Celebration's beautiful Electric Tarot project keeps on floating along, as the new video for "Shelter" is now available. This is easily the finest visual work the project has had to offer so far. Oh yeah, and the song ain't too shabby either. Check out the video plus details on an upcoming show after the click.

"Shelter" is currently only available in the video format below, but like all the other Electric Tarot material it will be offered as a free download soon. Celebration are playing a show at the Load of Fun on October 15, with Videohippos and Indian Jewelery.

Photo Review: Wavves and Ganglians at the Ottobar

Photos by Chrissy

The busted California lo-fi pop of Wavves blasted ears here in Baltimore on Wednesday, and brought with them the extra fine Sacramento-based Ganglians. Two complimentary but very different sounds serenaded the Ottobar, and you can read on for Chrissy's full photo set and some more wordage a la me.

A small gathering got there early enough to witness Ganglians, which is a shame because these guys were the real deal. Having put Monster Head Room on heavy rotation, I was expecting warped Beach Boys melodies and limited but generous amounts of reverb. What I got, was a whole onslaught of songs not on that album... that all rocked. There was a ton more garage influence, a ton more reverb, and the songs were all pretty incredible. Look for more good stuff from these young'uns to come.

Wavves has a new drummer, and holy crap is he better than the prior dude. I don't blame Nathan for throwing glass bottles on stage (or whatever) at the last guy, because Zach Hill is quite possibly the biggest upgrade of all time. Dude belongs in a talented hardcore band, as he conquered his basic kit with mad diligence. Zach completely stole the show, and tracks played off of Wavves' debut were amped up heavily with his presence.

While there were no outbreaks worthy of the jerks at Pitchfork getting all hot and bothered for, Nathan Williams did manage to piss off the sound guy enough for him to ditch the booth after the second song. The Wavves frontman was persistent in getting him to turn everything up to the maximum, with splintered ear drums already in full effect. With Nathan's guitar volume fully cranked and abusive amounts of reverb in use, it was tough to hear the vocals throughout the set. Luckily, vocals are certainly not the highlight of Wavves anyways.

All in all it was a solid show, and I'm stoked to hear whats to come from both acts.

Photos: Hollywood at the Golden West

Photos by Chrissy Abbott

Hollywood lit up the Golden West last Thursday, and Chrissy walked down the street to take pictures of it. She dug them again, and so did I at Hampdenfest when they were one of the day's highlights. Unfortunately, yet also fortunately, I was at the Windup enjoying Air Waves and The Art Department. Click below for the full Hollywood set.

Look for some photos soon of the show the same night at the Windup Space, as Valerie and I were in attendance. Chrissy took some real nice shots of Hollywood, view all of them below, and be sure to check these guys out next go 'round.