Great American Canyon Band – Baltimore Magazine

My Favorite Music of 2016

Lydia Woolever — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 15:20:00 +0000

Weekend Lineup: April 22-24

Lydia Woolever — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.

EAT

April 22: The Gathering Season Kickoff

Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy. 5-10 p.m. $4.14-45.

If you didn’t get your fill at The Emporiyum last weekend, you can continue to keep your bikini body at bay with Baltimore’s seminal food truck rally The Gathering. Outside on the BMI waterfront, some 20 local food trucks will corral for the first time this season, toting culinary treats like Asian fusion bibimbap from The Green Bowl, crab-covered French fries from Gypsy Queen, gourmet grilled cheese from Grrche, and Baltimore’s favorite ice cream from Miss Twist. The parking lot will also feature beer, wine, art, crafts, and live music by funk and soul band Higher Hands. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the museum.

DRINK

April 23: WTMD’s Brews & Bands

1 Olympic Pl., Towson. 1-5 p.m. $30.
410-704-8938.

WTMD is full of great ideas: streaming Animal Collective at the BWI Airport, setting up concerts for Baltimore bands at the baggage claim, and offering the best way to spend your lunch break with its weekly showcase of awesome acts like Hozier, San Fermin, Sinkane, and Thao & The Get Down. Now, for the second year, they also bring us this fantastic festival for local music and beer. On Saturday, sample unlimited sips from more than 15 local breweries. Whether you prefers IPAs, wheats, saisons or stouts, WTMD has you covered with the likes of The Brewer’s Art’s Choptank’d, Monument City’s 51 Rye, Peabody Heights’s Old Oriole Park, and Union Craft’s Steady Eddie. All the while, soak up the sun and the sounds of local musicians like alt-rockers Among Wolves and local soul-man Brooks Long.

SEE

April 24: Only When It’s Dark EnoughCan You See the Stars, ft. :3ION, Tariq Toure, Sunny Cowell

Peale Museum, 225 N. Holliday St. 12-2
p.m. Free.

After its foodless food truck performance from last fall, The Contemporary, a nomadic arts organization based in Baltimore, is back with a brand-new, groundbreaking exhibit. Launched last Saturday and on display through June 11, New York-based artist Abigail DeVille has transformed the historic former Peale Museum into an experimental installation that examines the unruly nature of history. During its stint downtown, it will also shine a light on local performers, poets, storytellers, and musicians through its “Sunday Salons” series. Starting this weekend, you can see specials guests like accomplished local writer and public speaker Tariq Touré, futuristic R&B artist :3ION (pronounced Elon and reviewed in our upcoming June issue), and singer-songwriter Sunny Cowell. In the coming weeks, expect the likes of spoken word artist Kondwani Fidel, multidisciplinary artist/taxidermy enthusiast Robert Marbury, and legendary artist Joyce J. Scott

HEAR

April 23:

Nudie Suits, Joy Postell, Amythsx, etc.

E.M.P. Collective, 307 W. Baltimore St. 8 p.m. $5.

Last fall, local duo Nudie Suits released its first EP, Summer Fun, which seemed to capture the unspoken, ordinary, human corners of that warm-weather season: the sluggish humidity of a hot afternoon (“Gotta Be”), the ethereal skies of full-moon night (“Mom song”), the raw rebellion of cigarette-fueled teenage joyrides (“Laura Flynn”), and the fleeting rush of a July romance (“House Cat”). In reality, vocalist Ali Clendaniel (also of Annex Theater) and violinist/composer Ruby Fulton were inspired by the cult classic Twin Peaks, as well as art rock, repetition, opera, and outer space. Whatever the influence, the experimental Peabody grads produce dreamy loops that reach into the crevices of your highs and lows, ranging in rhythm and tempo through stirring synth, dramatic vocals, and captivating compositional beats. Offbeat yet beautiful, these five tracks will weave their way into your summer playlists, but catch them this Saturday at EMP Collective alongside an all-female lineup, including spellbinding soul singer Joy Postell, art-folk-rock songwriter Hystermajesty, and up-and-coming DJ Amythsx.

DO

April 24: Federal Hill Spring Block Party

Cross Street Market, 1065 S. Cross St. 12-7 p.m. $5.

When temperatures begin to break 70 on a regular basis, it’s time to start making the weekends last as long as you possibly can. This Sunday, put off your to-do list, push away the Monday-morning-scaries, and take advantage of spring. For a full afternoon of activities, head to Federal Hill, where a neighborhood block party will be popping off, full of Maryland eats, beer in the street, and live music from Baltimore favorites like the Great American Canyon Band and Caleb Stine & The Brakemen. Grab snacks, sips, and sunshine and prepare for months of summer fun.

Source

Music Reviews: April 2016

Jess Mayhugh — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 08:30:00 +0000

Matmos
Ultimate Care II (Thrill Jockey Records)

You know the routine: throw in your clothes, add detergent, pick the cycle, crank the knob. Soon the water fills the basin and the low, heavy, seaside swish-swash builds as your clothes begin to wash. It’s so familiar you almost don’t hear it, but now the local experimental electronic duo Matmos—famed for using mixed mediums, unusual instruments, and synthesized soundscapes—has taken this part of your everyday life and turned it into an entire album—their ninth. This isn’t the first time that Martin “M.C.” Schmidt and Drew Daniel have pushed traditional instruments aside for more unusual sources, like balloons, insects, cigarettes, playing cards, whoopee cushions, and oatmeal. Now, their very own washing machine becomes the star of the show, and right before your ears, this ordinary object comes to artistic life. As the water falls, you drift into a magnitude of imaginary underworlds, swinging between tumbling tribal safaris, fiery abysses, and the twinkling cosmos. Across 38 minutes, the sounds evolve into an avant-garde symphony—and a mesmerizing feat. You’ll never look at laundry the same way again.

See our interview with musicians M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel of Matmos.

Great American Canyon Band
Only You Remain (Six Degrees Records)

With spring finally upon us, there’s no better time than now to throw a duffle in the trunk and take to the open road. It doesn’t matter where you’re going, but, as this young indie-folk group teaches us through its debut album, what matters is the journey. The band began in 2011 with husband and wife Paul and Kris Masson, who cut across the country in search of a new home. As they drove from coast to coast in their old ’82 Mercedes named Dolly (as in Parton), quietly discovering the American landscape and reflecting on the horizon, they distilled their adventures into music. Rich in reverb, full of hearty harmonies and dreamy melodies, you feel like you’re right alongside them, barreling down some desert highway, standing under a moonlit sky, or admiring the sun at dawn. Now settled in Baltimore, the couple has brought on two more bandmates who play guitar and drums to round out their earthy, Americana sound. It’s made for dreamers, be they on city streets or country roads.

Horse Lords
Interventions (Northern Spy Records)

Since 2012, Horse Lords has been a band to watch in Baltimore. The local experimental quartet makes intricate, instrumental grooves that ramble off into sprawling, ambitious jams. Like some wild, wayward thing, each song uses singular sounds that build and morph and combust into something uniquely minimalist yet complex. They defy genre, though we called their last album, Hidden Cities, a “No Wave/Fela [Kuti] mash-up.” Much of this third album stays true to that funky, foraging approach, like the first track, “Truthers.” But then the band also takes some surprise turns. At times, it reaches rich, guttural depths with songs like “Bending to the Lash” and “Time Slip;” at others it tweaks out into strange terrains during intermittent interludes called “Interventions.” Somehow throughout, the band manages to maintain its trademark momentum while simultaneously smashing any potential for categorization on its head. So we stand by our words: Horse Lords is a Baltmore band to watch. We’re excited to see what they come up with next.