Photos: Beach House @ 2640 Space with Washed Out

Baltimore's favorite dream pop duo has now become the world's favorite, and Beach House finally came home from their massive 2010 world tour last weekend. They played the 2640 Space with Washed Out Saturday night, and it was an evening that did not disappoint their hometown crowd.


The highlight of the night was the sound, as Monozine brought in a brand new sound system that has never been used before at the church. Folks have often complained of sounds being lost in the deep rafters of the large building, but this system was enormous and it really showed. Victoria's voice bellowed over the crowd in a god-like manner that would only be appropriate in a space as holy as such, and low/high end sounds bounced off the walls with delight and ease.


Beach House's set list was heavy in material from their recent monster of an LP, Teen Dream which dropped via Sub Pop, but some classics were also displayed like "Gila", "Master of None", and "Turtle Island". There was fog, there were spinning glittery emeralds, and the lighting was spot-on as you'll see in Valerie's amazing photos below.

Beach House










Washed Out





Photos by Valerie

Giveaway: Twin Stumps - Seedbed LP + album release show the @ Golden West

Sean Gray and Chris Berry of Fan Death Records have recently displayed their knack for archiving loud sounds, and now it looks like they may have released their best and most challenging record since their inception last year. The 20th release in the Fan Death catalog is the new Twin Stumps LP, Seedbed.

Seedbed was produced by Ben Greenberg of Pygmy Shrews, as Ben aptly gets more heavy with things than the sounds emanating from their self-titled release on Dais Records. "Missing Persons" is the second song on this LP, and a fine example of the careful balance Ben took when factoring in the low end frequencies that are deeply rooted.



This is one of the most forward-thinking buckets of noise dumped on me in some time, and I had expected nothing less after seeing these guys blow faces off at recent shows here in Baltimore. There is a layer of scuzz on this record that is rarely obtained unless you frequent construction sites - one soaked in sweat, whiskey, and cement trucks. Devastatingly splintered bass is crushed up together with bleeding vocals and prehistoric rhythms - all of which are bent over backwards and chugging a fifth of Jim Beam.

The fine folks at Fan Death Records have hooked us up with a killer giveaway - a copy of Seedbed on vinyl, and a pair of passes to the album release party here in Baltimore. The show is Friday June 4th at the Golden West, and starts at 10 PM. Twin Stumps headline, while Leather and Janitor aid in support. Email us what type of animal Twin Stumps makes you feel like and why, and we'll pick a winner the week of the show.

Video Premiere: Baby Venom - "w2w"

Nathan Duncan from Baby Venom sent me over a new video to premiere, but attached with a bittersweet twist. The video for "w2w" is above in all it's rad and quirky glory, but unfortunately this will be the last notes to be heard from Baltimore's own Baby Venom.

The vibrant video for "w2w" or "what 2 where", a catchy beat-driven synth pop song, was directed by Nathan and Sun Hashmi. It features closets, skeleton face-painted Baby Venom folk, cross-dressing, and a blond girl being fondled near what looks like might be the old Hammerjacks building.

I've always enjoyed Baby Venom, and was super bummed to find out that they will be disbanding. Nathan is moving to Austin, Texas in July, and a long distance relationship with three drifting members shall lead to implosion. "w2w" is a fine visual documentation of the trio, and will likely get stuck in your head for the remainder of the day. Enjoy, and thanks for the sounds Baby Venom!

Clusterf*ck: Beach House @ 2640 Space, Weekends / Lemonade / Sisters @ The Pet Cemetary

We're going to keep it short and sweet for this week's edition. This weekend, the biggest dream pop duo in in the world right now finally comes home, and plays at the church. Saturday night Beach House play at the 2640 Space with Washed Out, and yes this one is very much sold out. Look out for our photo coverage next week.

Tonight, the Pet Cemetary has a monster of a party with Lemonade, Sisters, Weekends, and more to help celebrate the release of the new issue of Mapped zine. Friends Records will have copies of the new Weekends album, Strange Cultures, on limited-run cassette tapes. Come say hi, and this is your first chance to hear the Rob Girardi-produced Strange Cultures. There will only be about 20 or so copies of this available tomorrow.

Also, definitely don't sleep on the endless amount of awesome the Maryland Film Festival has to offer this weekend. I highly recommend going to check out the world premiere of 0s and 1s on Saturday, whose director I interviewed yesterday. You also certainly couldn't go wrong with a Dan Deacon-endorsed screening of Total Recall, or Bill Callahan presenting Faces.

Interview: 0s & 1s Director Eugene Kotlyarenko

The Maryland Film Festival goes down this weekend in Baltimore. While this is primarily a music blog, we're always eager to explore how music shapes other forms of art. This year's film festival features all kinds of aural-related ongoings, but one film premiere stood out in particular.

0s and 1s is a film by California's Eugene Kotlyarenko. The film is shot entirely within computer operating systems, and is fueled by a killer soundtrack that ranges from Ariel Pink to No Age. I recently had the privilege of chatting with Eugene, who offered a rare glimpse inside the creative mind behind such a unique work.

Brett: Tell us about 0s and 1s.

Eugene: 0s and 1s is a big idea, with a classic narrative. Semi-relatable, flawed, anti-hero type loses his computer; tries to figure out who stole it and how to get it back. It is the simplest form of episodic story, like The Odyssey or the picaresque of Don Quixote. Something archetypal. But obviously the flipside of that coin is that 0s and 1s is also a code; a code that has come to rule our lives. Most of us don't know how the binary system works (including me), yet it is the operational language that takes up a good chunk of our emotional and physical energy. Making a movie right now that explores a computer interface is like making a movie about rail travel in 1902. I mean, did you know 20% of all films in the first 10 years of moviemaking, were just a camera on the edge of a moving train. Watching that footage was undeniably gripping. They were really into that, they understood how everything was moving all of a sudden, all over - the image and the machine of transport both chugging away and completely changing everyone's reality, every second. It would be completely fucked not to acknowledge something like that.

How did the idea behind the film come about?

Well if you stare at anything long enough or you use a certain system long enough repeatedly it really does rewire the way your brain works. With that acknowledgment, I think a person with expressive inclinations naturally reflects on all sorts of brain-changing, life-altering phenomena, whether it be social, political or personal. And so I wanted to reflect on that. But not just in an observational way that showed how the characters' behavior was affected by our computer lives, but to actually integrate that rewiring into the way the story was told and received. I'm trying to utilize this radical mental shift incubating in many of us and say that a story can and should be told differently to address it or exploit it. All of a sudden our brains are looking for a new set of cues and clues to help it figure things out and the movie is just attempting to be a narrative manifestation of that urge.

I mean I still can't believe everyone isn't trying to make movies like this. It seems so obvious to me that all our lives are being completely altered. To not even attempt to include that in the storytelling mechanism seems willfully blind or harmfully conservative or something. I mean this idea has been brewing in me for a long time - I made a short version of 0s & 1s about 5 years ago that only my friends have seen - but yeah it's been percolating and growing and I didn't feel comfortable pursuing anything else until I tried to slay this.

How many hours a day do you spend at your computer?

Well when I have an opportunity to work on the movie and am not on some 9-5 or 6-8 job, I end up spending sooo much time on the computer, like 15-20 hours - just overseeing shots, and working on the cut and giving feedback to the amazing artists who work on the project, and trying to figure out ways to promote this unfinished beast, and I used to update our Tumblr a lot. I basically fall asleep on the couch next to the computer right after I've kicked off a render and just sort of naturally wake up two minutes before the 5-hour render is over. I become a slave to the completion of the movie (which is beautiful) and consequently a slave to the computer which facilitates that (which is horrible).

How do you think today's electronic media and networking shape our social interactions?

I mean they essentially make everything easier. They make being funnier easier and they make being a creep easier. And actually the fine line between being funny and being creepy becomes really razor-thin on the net...basically, better make sure you send the right cock shot. You can get obsessed if you're a romantic or disgusted if you are a rager, or just feel a sense of virtual connection. I mean I remember how cool it felt when I was in 9th grade to do a bit of searching and find out all of a sudden there was a Yahoo group with 18 members, who all liked beat happening...just like me. WOW! I mean now, in our post-MySpace, Facebook times, that sort of "unbelievable connection" is a joke, to the point where I can be righteously spiteful towards the complete obsolescence of obscurity, but when you're 13 in the suburbs...that Beat Happening Yahoo! Group is fucking inspiring.

Tell us about the "language" you created for 0s and 1s.

It's the language we're all used to: instant messages, cellphone texts, some Super Mario here, some Doom there, a powerpoint presentation, a search engine, some twittering, some social profiles, a game of solitaire, bunch of gifs, some in-the-know blog...you know these day to day experiential and linguistic blocks that inundate us, fly into our ears and spew out our souls as we surf through our lives.

Is the avant garde style that this film is presented in represented in your choice of music for the soundtrack?

Well, I think the musicians are just as relevant and dynamic as the concept is accessible. You might think this movie is confusing at a surface glance, but it's pretty damn easy to watch once you sit down and take a real look at it. And similarly, I wouldn't go so far as to call the musicians avant-garde, but they are definitely intelligent, boundary-pushing, crafty as hell songwriters. I mean this is music that sounds good and that a lot of people can and should be listening to - and they only aren't because maybe they are not exposed to it.

When I originally chose many of the tracks two years ago, a lot of the bands were a bit more obscure on a national scale - No Age right before Nouns, or Dum Dum Girls or Wavves when neither of them had more than a song on their MySpace, or Ariel Pink (whose music has been popular in certain circles for a while, but has recently gotten a lot of exposure in his downtime, as a godfather figure) - and have since become slightly more prominent across the country. The fact that a lot of these bands are now known nationally, ultimately speaks to the quality of the music to break through and is simultaneously a reflection on the lag time it takes for people to catch up with non-NYC local music exports.

Who will we hear on the soundtrack? Why were these artists chosen?

Originally I wanted to put just my straight up favorite current musicians in the movie, so was gonna contact Cause Co-Motion, Fiery Furnaces, Girls, Ponytail, Tyvek, Nodzzz, Ariel Pink. But then I realized the movie was sort of lacking a strong sense of LA-ness to it and I thought if we kept the soundtrack strictly LA it could add that energy, if even just on a conceptual awareness level. So I limited it to musicians from LA or who made the chosen songs when they lived in LA. And so you have bands that helped grow The Smell (all-ages LA Venue) scene like No Age, Abe Vigoda, Mika Miko, The Mae-Shi, Foot Village. And some neo-folk/country musicians like Graham Forrest, Whispering Pines and the Chapin Sisters. Then people who I'd never heard before but discovered from hours of MySpace searching in late 2008, like Wounded Lion and DumDum Girls. And lastly just great musicians I'm lucky to be friends with like Brock Potucek, Celia Rae Hollander, Jon Mandabach -- super prolific people who don't play regularly and don't release stuff, but have lots of amazing recordings.

You told me that music is one of the most important elements of the film, how does music help shape this story?

Well one of the main characters, Cole, is a musician and he gets in there with his logic and reality. But beyond that, the conceptual basis for me is how the rise of the personal, never-ending soundtrack has been synonymous with rise of the internet and personal computing. People are always listening to music while doing everything else on a computer, and so I just wanted to reflect that. In some ways, this really isn't how music is used in movies - these songs are not expressly for big moments, montages or intricate visual sequences (although we did use them in these manners on occasion). The music is threaded through from beginning to end. I think there are only 4 or 5 scenes in the entire film without a song playing in the background. Obviously, I picked songs I loved that I thought worked for the energy or emotion of the scene, but the main idea is to just keep the reality of being inside the operating system going and that meant incessant music.

Do you think the "failing" music industry is in any way credited to electronic media?

I mean, I remember Napster. It's just funny to think this peer-to-peer facilitator program, essentially run BY THE PEOPLE, the ones who who write "Crimson and Clover" by the Velvet Underground and "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Bob Dylan, really did take down the multi-billion dollar brainwashed-sound industry, but it happened. Such a powerful centralized cultural force completely replaced by a gelatinous sound zoo. Is it good? Maybe yes. Maybe no. Depends who you are and if you can hustle.

What records are frequenting your turntable right now?

Gotta be honest, don't wanna be addicted to stuff like coffee, cigarettes, pills or buying records. If I get it goin' anyone of those could easily become an addiction. So I try not to do things like buy drugs or a coffee maker or a record player.

That being said, at the beginning of the year, I went through these shoeboxes of tapes that my friend gave me, that were his uncles. Most of the tapes are like AcidJazz/FreeJazz, but a few are just classic shit, like Stones, Bowie, etc. One was labeled Spacemen3/SonicBoom, i put it on and it blew me away. I must've listened to Playing with Fire 100 times in January. And I just think Sonic Boom is a genius. "How Does it Feel" kills me. I was really intrigued to hear that he produced the new MGMT album -- they're not really my thing, but I wanna check that to see where he fits in.

The other album is actually The Beach House album. Was obsessed with that the first few months of 2010 too. So beautiful. So right on. Luckily, I was videotaping Abe Vigoda in the studio recently and got to hang out with Baltimore native, Chris Coady, who also produced Teen Dream. I asked him a bunch of questions about the Beach House experience that made me appreciate the album even more.

And I gotta admit, of course I checked into that Ariel Pink leak. The new album, like all of his stuff, hits immediately, groovingly. And then on top of that it starts to grow inside you. Grow like a snake. Like a snake in that classic cellphone game Snake.

0s & 1s is screening this Saturday at 5pm and Sunday at 11:30am at the Charles Theatre.

Run DMT / Happy Family - Banana Split

I've been stoked for a lot of the releases to come out of the Wigflip ranks this year, but there was one brewing all along that the mere thought of had me foaming at the mouth. Will aka Happy Family emailed me Banana Split last week, a split release with Happy Family and Run DMT. I have not listened to much else since.

We got the first taste of this release a few weeks back, when Run DMT's "Spruce Bringstein" seemed to appear magically on the interwebs from up and out of the clouds.



"Spruce Bringstein" is a clear departure for Run DMT, an incredibly catchy 60s vibe pop song that is a long ways away from the experimental sound collages painted on Bong Voyage and Get Ripped or Die Tryin'. While I was (and still am) a sucker for the his first two releases, this jam is easily one of the best single tracks I've heard all year. In what could be one of the more intriguing on-stage collaborations I've heard about, Lands and Peoples joined Run DMT on stage to play this live down at Total Bummer. L&P claims they butchered it, but they can do no wrong in my mind.

While the A side is full of four new tracks from Run DMT, the B side sports three new gems from Happy Family. "Youtube" made it's way to the internet a few weeks ago, but is now the official single of the release. Check it out in all it's glory.



I raved about Happy Family's debut EP last year, and its clear Will has one-upped his game and has is ambitions set high. "Youtube" is one of the prettier tracks I've heard this year, with sounds that warm your insides and calm your brain cells . There's a spacey and ghostly feel to all this beauty, like the feeling one gets when they go bowling with space-spirits somewhere on Mars for dollar beer night. If that didn't make any sense to you, please listen to "Youtube" once more. Yes.

Banana split is closed out with Happy Family's "Laura's Diet" and "Going To", two tracks that flow seamlessly into one another with a very pure and upbeat grace. Wigflip will be offering the split in either compact disc or cassette tape form, both of which you can pre-order right now.

RUN DMT + HAPPY FAMILY
BANANA SPLIT

RUN DMT
1. spruce bringsteen
2. murder she wrote
3. heavy vibin'
4. cash for gold

HAPPY FAMILY
6. youtube
7. laura's diet
8. going to

Available June 1st.

Photos: Future Islands, Double Dagger, Lower Dens, & Dustin Wong @ Floristree

Last Friday night, Future Islands celebrated the release of their new LP at Floristree here in Baltimore. In Evening Air is their debut full length on Thrill Jockey, and is the culmination of years of incredible live shows and recordings in Bmore, North Carolina, and the world over. The hype was deserved, as this LP is truly epic.

Future Islands put together a super strong supporting bill, with Double Dagger, Lower Dens, and Dustin Wong all playing to a crowd rumored to be over 450 people. It was hot, and there were some technical glitches with the PA system, but all in all it was some of the most fun I've had in awhile. You may not have been able to hear Nolen's vocals during Double Dagger's set, but a good chunk of the crowd helped out - and who doesn't love a good ol' fashioned DD sing-along?

Nolen serenades Dan Deacon

"Oh it's so hard... Oh it's so hard... Oh it's so harddddddd..."

Peep photos from the entire show after the jump compliments of Valerie.

Future Islands








Double Dagger






Lower Dens





Photos by Valerie

Do While - Do While

A few weeks ago I realized that I should probably just start a weekly Wigflip feature on their new releases, and yes here I am again with another release to rave about from this new Baltimore music outlet. However this one is rather special in that it is their first "official"release, and their first to be available digitally.

In addition to being an official and tangible object, this is by far the most beautiful piece to grace the label's catalog to date. The release is the debut self-titled album from Do While, and it's a full length record that you're absolutely going to need to go ahead and check out. Here's a generous taste compliments of Wigflip called "Balloons/Balloon Clouds (Alt. Master)".



Do While is John Somers, a Baltimore fellow with a knack for creating ambient sounds using guitars, vocals, and fluffly white clouds. I may or may not have meant that last one in the literal sense, but if this LP doesn't have you feeling like you're floating within the stratosphere 10,000 feet above the ground, then you are listening to it all wrong.

The album is filled with soft and fuzzy ambient soundscapes that uplift your mind and warm your soul. Do While has been a late night go-to for me as of late, a record full of mellow tones yet rich with vibrant color. While this will be, and probably should be, labeled an ambient record, every ambient vibe is counteracted by positive and elevating sounds that really give Do While's sound a unique feel. His ability to create such huge momentum and energy within such relaxing confines is truly special.

This was an excellent choice to kickstart Wigflip's official releases, and I can't wait to see what's next. Will at Wiglfip recently had nothing but amazing things to share with me about their upcoming works - things that I can't share with you just yet. You can pre-order the new Do While record here, and stay tuned for more to come from Wigflip.

DO WHILE

1. One2
2. Dancing On Diamond Water
3. Balloon Clouds
4. Balloons
5. A Candy Coated Slow Down
6. Poppies
7. I Know You Said
8. At The Edge Of A Drifting Dawn

Bed of Seeds Album Release Party

The fourth release in the Friends Records catalog will be Bed of Seeds, the new LP from Height with Friends. It will be limited to 500 copies on vinyl, and available in the coming weeks. Height with Friends is currently out on the second leg of their national tour, but will be coming back to Baltimore to celebrate the release of their finest record to date on Friday, May 28th.



Last year's Baltimore Highlands via Wham City Records turned many heads in Height's direction, but Bed of Seeds is a whole new look and the first to truly represent the full group feel. After many spins of the test press copies last week, it's become clear that Mickey Free's production on this record might be the best thing Mickey has ever been apart of... and that dude's cooked up some fine tunes in his day.

To help celebrate, Height has put together a "mega show" lineup that features an all-star cast of cronies. Performing on stage as Height with Friends will be Mickey Free, Emily Slaughter, Gavin Riley, PT Burnem, Travis Allen, Brendan Richmond, Liz Aeby, Pam Kurowski and Rob Dowler of Nuclear Power Pants. Yes.



In addition, Weekends will be in attendance and their new record MIGHT be ready on vinyl by the time of this show. If not, we're also cooking up cassette tapes of Strange Cultures that are sure to be raddest sounds to grace your Walkman's presence ever. We'll also have the Friends and Friends of Friends tapes ready for the taking as well.

To cap it all off, Lord Grunge of Grand Buffet will be performing. The show is Friday, May 28th at the Hexagon. Look for more surprises to be announced in the coming weeks.

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.

The Ed Schrader Show - March 11, 2010

Guy Werner just posted the new Ed Schrader show, which took place at Open Space last month. Peep the Double Dagger performance above, and watch the full episode below.

The Ed Schrader Show - March 11, 2010 from Guy Werner on Vimeo.