Beach House’s new album Bloom explodes with color and vibrancy, the group exploring the new territory charted on their breakout album Teen Dream with confidence and verve. Chris Coady, their simpatico producer, once again captures the band’s essence and builds greater and even more wonderful worlds of sound for them to explore. For even the casu ... Continue Reading

In many ways, Nootropics is something special. But, before we get to that, some history. Jana Hunter was already an acclaimed solo musician when she arrived in Baltimore in 2005. She soon formed Lower Dens with other members of the Baltimore music and arts underground. She’s remained at the forefront of the group while other members have come a ... Continue Reading

Dancing and I, we have something of a troubled history. Sure, I like my upbeat pop and rock just fine, but I like it from a safe distance, preferably with a good view of the stage and well away from the frantic gyrations and flailing limbs of the diehard club-going set. My reason, I suppose, is one of purpose. I think of music primarily as an en ... Continue Reading

Popular music, like fashion, is cyclical. Trends change and shift with the seasons, hipness ebbs and flows with the give-or-take regularity of the tides, and once-prominent styles disappear for years only to reemerge with the sudden, swarming omnipresence of the seven-year cicadas. Or something like that. I dunno; it’s not an exact science, and ... Continue Reading

Jazz Mind is the debut album by Ed Schrader’s Music Beat. Ed Schrader’s songwriting, long the buzz of the Baltimore music and arts underground, will finally be exposed to a much larger audience. Ed relocated to Baltimore from upstate New York in the spring of 2006 to join his friends in the Wham City arts collective. He began playing the songs h ... Continue Reading