Dear Baltimore Music and Arts Underground, On September 3rd, 2012, America celebrated the Labor Day holiday. The weather in Baltimore was gloomy, muggy, and oppressive. In the afternoon there were tropical downpours, perhaps remnants of Hurricane Issac. I spent the day working on two written pieces, a review of Horse Lords’ new album and a radio ... Continue Reading

I have to hand it to Emile Berliner: the gramophone record is one resilient piece of technological kit. Over a century old and still in regular use amongst the music-loving masses, Berliner’s grooved analog disc has withstood decade after decade of continuous advances from competing audio storage formats, losing ground to the likes of reel-to-reel, ... Continue Reading

What is the state of race relations in the Obama-era United States? This is the question posed by Michael Chabon's novel Telegraph Avenue. Unfortunately, the book does not provide an answer. It instead offers a beautifully-drawn jumble of a portrait. Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe run the Brokeland record store in a literal and figurative bord ... Continue Reading

There is always something invigorating about musicians from the avant-garde playing around with conventional rock music forms. They bring to the proceeding a willful contrarianism and playfulness that can be rejuvenating. There is also a clinical demolition at work along with a questioning openness. Who put the “bomp” in the “bomp, bah bomp, bah bo ... Continue Reading

It was roughly two years ago that I was introduced to the pop-rock compositions of Baltimore-born singer-songwriter Andrew Spencer Goldman. Specifically, to the self-published 3 Songs EP by Fulton Lights, the collaborative successor to Goldman’s previous work as Maestro Echoplex. Featuring horns by Peter Hess of World/Inferno Friendship Society, pe ... Continue Reading