Baltimore: "The Greatest City in America" (mp3s)

It's a city with 1000 slogans, but no defining song. Baltimore's bred and acted as a magnet for untraditional instrument builders, Wham City's Fort-Thunder-inspired transplants, and the Baltimore Club stylings of DJ Technics, Rod Lee and many more, as heard on television's The Wire.

What follows is an audio sampling of some of the many Baltimore artists who will be making their music available for free non-commercial use on WFMU's Free Music Archive. Afternoon Penis, The Agrarians, Arc and Sender, Dan Deacon, Double Dagger, Food for Animals, Fuzz Unlimited, Human Host, Lexie Mountain Boys, LO MOdA / Low Moda, Nautical Almanac, Newagehillbilly, Ponytail, Sejayno, Teeth Mountain, Jason Willett, and WZT Hearts. There are many more who we're hoping to get in touch with, and we welcome your ideas by email or comment.

Afternoon Penis
Nate Nelson is half of Mouthus, prolific murk-metal masters and operators of the Our Mouth label. He also drums in Religious Knives. Although both groups are based in Brooklyn, Nelson's recently relocated to Baltimore. He's released a handful of CDRs and a Heavy Tape under the name Afternoon Penis. This track will blow your mind.
Afternoon Penis - track1 (mp3) from High Noon (Our Mouth)

The Agrarians
Matt Perzinski's now six albums deep into the creepy acoustic tape-hiss balladry and abstract folk. Here's a track from We Meet The Medicine, newly released on Baltimore's MT6 Records.
The Agrarians - Substitute for Monogamy (mp3)

Arc and Sender
An instrumental trio that's two parts Baltimore, one part Philadelphia. Philly's High Two label released their self-titled debut in 2005. Guitarist/baritone-guitarist Greg Pardew has recently been focusing on his quieter acoustic project Soon Clyde, with the help of his Arc and Sender bandmates and various other collaborators. Pardew says that "playing loud comes in cycles with us," and sent us an unreleased recording, indicating that Arc and Sender has a follow-up album on the way.
Arc and Sender - Hundred Year Flood (mp3) from Arc and Sender (High Two)
Arc and Sender - Squares and Circles (mp3) from Arc and Sender (High Two)
Arc and Sender - Map of the Stars Homes (mp3) - unreleased unmastered but still very loud demo

Dan Deacon
A few years ago, Wham City chief Dan Deacon and a group of creative post-college friends from Purchase New York relocated to a Baltimore warehouse in search of a more artist-friendly environment. Apparently it worked; now Deacon's playing the Whitney Museum, and Wham City's rainbow aesthetic has spread far beyond Baltimore. Deacon has advocated free music all along. He released a proper Creative Commons album in 2004 on Comfort Stand Recordings, an artist-run Net Label of (cc)-licensed music.

From Dan Deacon - Twacky Cats (Comfort Stand Recordings)*: Dan Deacon - Arms Saloon (mp3) Dan Deacon - Lion With a Shark's Head (demostration version) (mp3) Dan Deacon - Conor Kizer With Bead Jewelry (mp3) Dan Deacon - When I Was Taller (mp3) Dan Deacon - Ohio (demostration version) (mp3) Front Cover (jpg) Back Cover (jpg)

Deacon has performed on WFMU three times: 7/23/03, 2/21/04 and 5/27/06. Each appearance took place on Plug and Play, hosted by OCDJ, who has since relocated to Baltimore himself. Here are a few selections from his first visit:
Dan Deacon - This Crazy Mouse Won't Leave Me Alone (mp3)
Dan Deacon - The House I Was Isn't My Girlfriend's Porsche (mp3)
Dan Deacon - Song for Dina (mp3)
Dan Deacon - Piggled (mp3)
Dan Deacon - I'm Sorry Brian Wilson (mp3)

Double Dagger
Dynamic punk from Baltimore that would probably be on Dischord if they were from DC.
From Ragged Rubble (Stationary Heart):
Double Dagger - Luxury Condos For the Poor (mp3)
Double Dagger - The Psychic (mp3)

From their 3/26/06 live session on Pat Duncan's show:
Double Dagger - I Was So Bored I Wanted to Hang Myself On the Dancefloor (mp3)
Double Dagger - Rearranging Digital Deck Chairs (mp3)

Food for Animals
Fans of Dalek-style noise-rap take note: here's another experimental rap group who has collaborated with Faust. Formed in Silver Spring but now based in Baltimore. Their debut full length is out on Hoss in the US and coming out on Cock Rock Disco in the EU this summer.
Food for Animals - Planet Say (mp3) recorded with Hans Jochim Irmler from Faust last winter
Food for Animals - Elephants (mp3) from the 2006 Cock Rock Disco Free mp3 comp (download it here)
Food for Animals - Mutumbo (mp3) from Belly (Hoss)
Food for Animals - Shhhy (mp3) from Belly (Hoss)

Fuzz Unlimited
Mike Bell has played with Billy Syndrome, Jennifer Blowdryer, and Ed Wilcox's Temple Bon Matin. These days, when he's not driving a truck somewhere along America's highway system, he's playing music on his own, with Mary Knot as The Dirt, or with his friends from the DC punk era in Fuzz Unlimited.

From their most recent release Take a Hit on MT6:
Fuzz Unlimited - Camera Shy (mp3)
Fuzz Unlimited - Evil Twin (mp3)

Human Host
Sci-fi theatrical electro-punk, formed in Baltimore in 2002. Led by Mike Apichella, the group has been known to feature as many as six members, including Rick Weaver of the Ruined Frame and the Human Conduct label.
From their third album, 2006's Exploding Demon (MT6 Records):
Human Host - Tomb of Science (mp3)
Human Host - Six Realms (mp3)
Human Host - Escape From the Organ Chamber (mp3)

Lexie Mountain Boys
"Are they a cult? A hardcore band who forgot their instruments? A demented cheerleading squad? These six ladies from Baltimore specialize in schizophrenic ramblings, innocent playground chants, tourettian outbursts, down-home balladry, and bipolar moments of sincerity and frustration." Liz B wrote this spot-on description to preview the Lexie Mountain Boys' live performance on her show last June (archived here). They have also played WFMU's Record Fair and SXSW Showcase, and this isn't the first time we've posted their disected-speech-tunes on this blog. Clearly we like Lexie Mountain Boys a great deal.
Lexie Mountain - Dogs Hot (mp3) from Boys
Lexie Mountain Boys - Sweet Potato Sugar Tot (mp3) ** from their forthcoming Sacred Vacation (Carpark Records)
Lexie Mountain - track 2 (mp3) from Woodgrain Manicure (self-released edition of 50)
Lexie Mountain Boys - Venus Cleaners Sessions (mp3) self-released edition of 50

LO MOdA / Low Moda
An art-punk 6-piece steeped in the gospel of doom, Lo Moda grooves without any extraneous motions. They played a fantastic set on Liz's show in March, and left behind some cool stuff from vocalist Peter Quinn's Creative Capitalism "ARt + MuSic ACtion PRoduct". Creative Capitalism released the J Robbins-produced Gospel Store Front in 2006, with mp3's below. New material can be heard on the live session and here.
Lo Moda - Les Jardins (De L'bouli) (mp3)
Lo Moda - Electric World (mp3)

Nautical Almanac
Originally formed in Ann Arbor, Nautical Almanac's core members Twig Harper and Carly Ptak moved to Baltimore from Chicago in 2001. In search of a place to live, record music, and have shows, they bought a building that became known as Tarantula Hill. They also started a label called Heresee, releasing material by everyone from Wolf Eyes to Little Howlin' Wolf. Other Nautical Almanac projects include modified electronics/custom-built instruments and pressing records out of various objects with their record-cutting machine.
Nautical Almanac - Kraftwork (mp3) from "Something" Euro Tour 2005
Nautical Almanac - Various Cut Lazerdiscs (mp3) from Handcut Record Transfers
Nautical Almanac - One-Off Overcut Metal Laquer (mp3) from Handcut Record Transfers
Nautical Almanac - Clump Clump (mp3) from Cover the Earth
Nautical Almanac - Rolling in the Green (mp3) from Cover the Earth
Nautical Almanac - track 2 (mp3) from Rejerks vol 4

Newagehillbilly
Newagehillbilly is the experimental solo project of Alex Strama. He runs the most excellent label MT6 Records (and MT5 Tapes), releasing music by a ton of excellent bands, many of whom are featured in this post. Newagehillbilly is one of several MT6 artists who post free live audio to archive.org, and his live shows are known to feature boxers and machine gun fire.
From IV: White Walls, released in 2005 on MT6:
Newagehillbilly - Control Factor (mp3)
Newagehillbilly - Rock and Roller (mp3)
Newagehillbilly - Lights on Einstein (mp3)

Ponytail
Ponytail is a four-piece with two shredding guitarists (including Dustin Wong, formerly of Ecstatic Sunshine), a spastic drummer (see Jeremy Hyman in action here) and super-energetic vocalist Molly Siegel. Elements of atmospheric krautrock, noise-rock virtuoso mess, and Satomi Matsuzaki yelling indecipherable positivity. Their forthcoming album Ice Cream Social, produced by J Robbins, will be released by Baltimore's own We Are Free, check the video preview (.mov). In the meantime, enjoy these tracks from their Creative Capitalism debut Kamahameha:
Ponytail - Burning Saddles (mp3)
Ponytail - Start a Corporation (mp3)

Sejayno
An electro-acoustic experimental trio consisting of Peter Blasser, Carson Garhart, and Severiano Martinez. Blasser designs, builds and sells custom instruments (check out Daniel Higgs playing his Namasitar). These inventions fuel Sejayno's musical experimentations. Sejayno's website offers many mp3's and images, and describes the new Reverse Time Apex cassette as "a 90 minute quantum leap through a fabricated time loop, an funny odyssey through cavernous bath houses, ancient barns, bird ceremonies, guitar center, aristocratic feasts, dust tunnels, hawk fields… Through the first person perspective of numerous characters and animals, intricately woven together into a singular ‘eye’".
Sejayno - Orgium (mp3) from Laity (Megaphone Records)
Sejayno - Reverse Time Apex cassette side 1 (mp3)
Sejayno - Reverse Time Apex cassette side 2 (mp3)

Teeth Mountain
Teeth Mountain sports a singing saw, a distorted cello, and a computer running Fruity Loops, along with four drummers playing floor toms and a communal cymbal. Group members put on shows and live in a place they call the Comfort Dome. Here are some samples from their forthcoming 3-way release: 50 cdrs on discos compulsivos/luv luv in Spain, 100 cds on Nail in the Coffin records, and 500 LPs on Shdwply.
Teeth Mountain - Keinsein (mp3)
Teeth Mountain - Ghost Science (mp3)
Teeth Mountain - 13 (mp3)
Teeth Mountain - Black Jerusalem (mp3)

Jason Willett
Willet is an essential contributor to Baltimore's music community in a number of ways. He's played music as/with Can Openers, Jaunties, Pleasant Livers, X-Ray Eyes, Attitude  Robots, Dramatics, and Leprechaun Catering, and collaborated with the likes of Jad Fair, Chris Cutler, Ruins and James Chance. He runs the label Megaphone Records, which has released material from Fred Frith, The Work and Tim Hodgkinson. Willett owns and operates the True Vine Record Shop, with Ian Nagoski and Stewart Mostofsky. His own music is all over the map, with a pots-and-pans approach to drumming, fuzzed out everything, and a sprinkle of bachelor pad abstraction. MT6 just put out an excellent compilation of previously unreleased tracks that didn't make it onto Willett's many Megaphone releases over the past 13 years. Here are some samples from The Sounds of Megaphone Limited:
Jason Willett - Beautiful Song w/ Kick Drum Solo (mp3)
Jason Willett - Song Recorded Immediately Upon Return from X-Ray Eyes tour '96 (mp3)
Jason Willett and Jad Fair - Or So I've Been Told (mp3)
The Attitude Robots - Instrumental with Funky Midsection (mp3)
The Jaunties - Chewing Gum (mp3)

WZT Hearts Pronounced "wet", they're an ambient noise four-piece. Heat Chief came out on Hit Dat and Hoss Records, and here's a track from last year's Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones, released by Carpark, the local label that's been putting out a shit ton of great Baltimore music recently.
WZT Hearts - Hearth Carver (mp3) **

more fun Baltimore links:
-The Ed Schrader Show (YouTube) featuring interviews with Jason WIllett, Human Host, and more. And for something completely different, try Ed's podcast
-Jimmy Joe Roche's Ultimate Reality Arnold Schwarzenneger True Lies/Conan mashup audio/video (YouTube)!
-Episode-by-episode guide to the real Baltimore club music heard in The Wire, put together by Baltimore's on-the-ball City Paper
-Wildfire Wildfire, a great label that's put OCDJ, Thank You, Video Hippos and Ecstatic Sunshine

All mp3's in this post are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 United States license except *Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 and **composition licensed cc-by-nc-sa with label permission to post the file.

Thanks to all of the artists and labels for letting us share their music -- please support them if you like what you hear!

Comments

[Tim Wisniewski]

Hey,

My wife and I run a label in Baltimore called Spleencoffin. You folks played a recent 7" that we put out by Rosemary Krust a few times, so I was hoping you would have mentioned them here. They are one of Baltimore's best and most underrated bands. Also, we make our releases available free online via creative commons-licensed mp3s on our archive site. So please feel free to use any of our stuff there for your free music archive.

best,

Tim

[Jason]

Tim -- Thanks for commenting! I wish I had known about Spleencoffin beforehand, I'm browsing your digital archives right now to make up for lost time. I'll get in touch about the FMA, good thing we've got comments...-Jason

[Hell's Donut House]

"The Streets of Baltimore" pretty much always defined it for me:

Well I sold the farm to take my woman
Where she used to be
We left our kin and all our friends
Back there in Tennessee
And I bought those one way tickets
She had often begged me for
And they took us to the streets of Baltimore

Well her heart was filled with gladness
When she saw those city lights
She said the prettiest place on earth was
Baltimore at night
Well a man feels proud to give his woman
What she's longing for
And I kinda liked the streets of Baltimore

Then I got myself a factory job
I ran an old machine
And I bought a little cottage
In a neighborhood serene
And every night when I'd come home
With every muscle sore
She'd drag me through the streets of Baltimore

Well I did my best to bring her back
To what she used to be
Then I soon learned she loved those bright lights
More than she loved me
Now I'm a going back on that same train
That brought me here before
While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore
While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore

[Woody]

wow, nice post! you really hit a ton of great stuff here (or over there in b-more). I've been wondering with the price of real estate there (a house costs the same as a few cases of Nattie-Boh) and its historic quirkiness, if B-More is the current capital of east coast music.... not to mention the east coast capital of 24 hour korean restaurants!

There's also a lot of cross-over between these folks and the more improv scene (and some of the other folks living in the H&H building).

I'm thinking cellist Audrey Chen, homemade instrument guy Neil Feather, everyone at the High Zero fest at the Red Room, saxophonist John Berndt, steel guitarist (and recent transplant) Susan Alcorn, and many more... also, banjo freaker/Lungfish vocalist Dan Higgs...

[JGW]

videohippos videohippos videohippos videohippos

[Sarah]

You mentioned DJ Technics, and Rod Lee, but you forgot the two biggest names in Baltimore Club music now:

DJ Excel and his label Bmore Original Records, who is blowing up because of both his Bmore Club (Pop That Kitty, Bakin Soda) and his hip hop producing. (bmoreoriginal.com)

AND

DJ Scottie B from Unruly Records, who is the godfather of the scene, and actually put DJ Excel's first vinyl out in 1995. (unrulyonline.com)

Other than that, good job looking out on the Baltimore scene!

Oh, and Abby Mott is making delicious music these days, too!

[Katey]

What about The Celebration? Pretty great stuff...

[Katey]

oh, and Human Bell!

[Bateman]

How about some Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad? They already have a ton of free shows on archive.org, so they're sure to be up for it. Plus, they were on FOX's "Next Great American Band", so you know they're good ;)

[Stacey]

Also, DLake

http://www.myspace.com/thedlake

[Dan]

Junestar is awesome. Please add them to your list now.
http://www.junestar.com/

[Neil Freebairn]

Attention all bands, performers, bartenders, soundboard engineers, Djs, and patrons of Lo-Fi Social Club. I implore all of you to boycott Lo-Fi Social Club. I have kept quiet about this for far too long and feel that it is important for all to know the story of my involvement with the club.

I am the former booking agent and curator at Lo-Fi Social Club. After pouring my heart and soul into that club (even scrubbing the floors on my hands and knees with gasoline to get the putty off from the floor after it was installed, for no money whatsoever), I have been completely let down for the last time by Neil Freebairn, the proprietor of the club. I was put in charge of booking at some point in December. I did the best job I could with what little resources that were available to me. Neil told me he didn’t want to bother with the booking anymore and this would be an easy way for me to make some money while the record store was being built (I was to be manager as I will explain shortly). I was the only person doing any booking at that club save a show or two that Neil promoted heavily because his former band was playing, booking around 100 bands and I was working for peanuts, and these are peanuts that were never paid to me.

Prior to my working at Lo-Fi Social Club full time, and after having organized the most successful night at the club when the club was at the former location in Brooklyn, The Pain of Being Dead art show, he promised me a position as curator at the new location at 1825 N.Charles. He never paid to ship back artwork to artists that were in this show and I still have several art pieces from that show that rightfully belong in the hands of the artists that spent their money and time to send the artwork to the club for the show. He told me he would pay for this and never did. This show was on April 13th of 2007. In addition to his promise to give me the position of curator, he promised me a position as record store manager when the new location opened. Regretfully, I gave my 2 weeks notice at my then current job. Needless to say, the record store never opened, though he continually promised me that it would over many months. He offered me 24k a year plus health benefits to manage the record store and curate the art shows there. This never happened. He promised for months that he would stock the store and that he was dealing with Morphius to stock the store. I spent countless hours writing up an inventory for which I was never paid. I also began construction of the record store in my backyard with a fellow Lo-Fi staff member because Neil said that if we wanted it to happen, we needed to show initiative. Well, we showed the initiative and spent the majority of my time trying to make that aspect happen and I wound up in the poorhouse for it.

Opening night was a disaster as you may all well know. I had stressed to Neil the need to count heads at the door as I knew the club would be packed that night and we would have eyes on us. He decided that “it wasn’t important” and decided to stop counting heads. It actually was very important, as several bands including Durden, Squaaks (and I believe this was supposed to be their cd release party), and Thrushes did not get to play as the police rightfully shut down the show considering it was a fire trap with that many bodies inside and outside of the club. Neil saw this disastrous night as a minor setback, but this left a sour taste in many peoples mouths, including mine, and rightfully so. This was an omen of worse things to come.

After a stream of unsuccessful shows Neil booked, he offered me the opportunity to do all the booking for the club, offering me $x amount for each show I booked. I spent months booking every single show at the club and spent a tremendous amount of time talking to bands and setting up 90% of the bills from January through March. In addition to this, I was managing both the myspace calendar and calendar on the official website very diligently, also taking and uploading 90% of the photos and creating content like interviews on the website. I was also videotaping and making and uploading almost all of the videos that are located on the website. I was working extremely hard for Lo-Fi to get off the ground.

To make a long story short, Neil Freebairn, after giving him more than adequate time to pay me (he was supposed to start paying me in January, and this left me heartbroken and destitute over the next several months causing me great mental and financial turmoil.) has still not payed me for my booking at his club. Expecting that he would make good on his obligation to pay me, many times over months, he has run me around in circles promising payment. All the public apologies you have seen Neil make, were because I told him it was in his best interest to do so. He seemed to not really care when he left five bands standing outside a locked club for a show that had been booked at least two months in advance, while he decided to go skiing instead of running his club. He chalked this up to a miscommunication even though the show was on the calendar. Peter Goode

PS: He also might be fleeing to canada or trying to find work as a web designer or programmer, all will lead to terrible dissapointments and losses from employeers, BEWARE

[Lesner Brydge]

Impossible Hair(oranges band/lee harvey keitel band/buttsteak) is a tight charm city outfit too. you should give them a listen.