New Height - The Woods

Height n' friends invented something unprecedented, opium-scented and dark-tinted:


Height - The Woods

From Jones - "The song was made in parts, kind of like a chain letter. PT Burnem started the track with the main loop/melodic sample and the beat box sample. King Rhythm added the samples and programming on the hook part. Mickey Free did a lot of the filter/mixing to bring all the elements together, also adding additional low-end percussion, and I added live percussion. And of course Height, in addition to writing and performing the vocals, was always present in shaping the sound."

Stay tuned for more details on the upcoming Baltimore Highlands LP, check Height's podcast series, and be sure to catch Jones with Grand Buffet tomorrow night at Ottobar. Previously on BT from the Independence Day Friendstival:

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The Baltimore Round Robin Is Nigh

You heard about it a few months back, and this weekend the Bmore Round Robin is all up in our NYC kitchen. Here's the rub:

Friday's Eyes Night includes Beach House, Jana Hunter, Wzt Hearts, Nautical Almanac, Lexie Mountain Boys, and more, and puts the focus on "a mixture of folk, noise, theatrics, improvisation-- music that is spiritual, dreamy etc."

Saturday's Feet Night brings music that you dance, thrash, or otherwise move around to and includes the Death Set, Double Dagger, Videohippos, Future Islands, Adventure and Deacon himself.

10/​17 New York,​ NY Le Poiss​on Rouge​ - EYES NIGHT
10/​18 New York,​ NY Le Poiss​on Rouge​ - FEET NIGHT

BUY NYC TICKETS NOW (only 15 bucks for both nights, top that)

Download a rad Round Robin Comp CD for free here.

Fresh samples:
Adventure - Wild Wild Ride
Smart Growth - Extreme Ballin'
The Death Set -Moving Forward
Double Dagger - We Are The Ones
Future Islands - Old Friend
Height - Mother Earth (Theme from Showbeast)
Jana Hunter - Paint A Babe
Beach House - Gila
Dan Deacon - Wham City
Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez - Mostly A Friend

And a message from Transportation Dept Mgr/folkstress Jana Hunter:

"For those of you interested in attending the Round Robin performances, there is this definite opportunity to get in sans paid ticket. We need oil to power our school bus. Bring us oil, get in free. Here are the details.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) is the stuff that restaurants have used in their fryers. Most restaurants discard this stuff in barrels or incredibly disgusting dumpsters somewhere near their trash dumpsters. If you ask them about it, most of them are more than happy to give this to you, given that they normally have to pay a company to haul it away for them.

We ask that you bring at least 10 gallons (this is not hard to find; decent-sized restaurants throw out avg 50 gallons/week) in order to secure a guest spot, but write me regardless if you are interested in this super deal. Write me, I will write you back, we will get it figured out."

posters via Post Typography

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Butter Team Weekend Beats Vol. 25

When Girl Talk fans who downloaded Feed the Animals for free make unauthorized mashup videos of Girl Talk mashups, what happens? Is that like when Diet Sundrop tried to sue Sundrop for taste infringement?


Girl Talk - Don't Stop (Mashing)

Is the Trey Told 'Em team playing on Sunday like a hip hop version of Garfield minus Garfield, where Girl Talk = Garfield? Because that just sounds like a ripoff of The Nietzsche Family Circus.

Did the term "mashups" come from that Beatsie Boys sample where the guy said he was going to stick his Gillis in the starch?


Mantan Moreland - Mashed Potatoes Comedy Routine (maybe FF to around 2:10)

Either way, this weekend is that kind of party with an implosion of 70+ artists creating anything but familiar laptop derivates. Not even counting the inaugural incarnation of indie Voltron glob Who is the Tunafish Man? (Dan Deacon + Spank Rock + Girl Talk), expect to see some unexpected collabs and spontaneous freaking in the aisles. Word is there will even be a couple Bmore elementary school janitors on site Sunday night for when things get sick, they got that special sawdust.

Here's the schedule, choose your own:

Adventure - Battle Cat
Air Waves - Circle of Gnomes
Arbouretum - Buffalo Ballet (John Cale cover)
Beach House - Gila
Celebration - Evergreen
Cex - Baltimore
DD/MM/YY - Imagine!
Dan Deacon - Wham City
Jones - Too Dope
The Death Set - Impossible (Dan Deacon Remix)
Double Dagger - The Psychic
Ear Pwr - Diamondz, Liquor, Leather
Food for Animals - Swampy Summer Jam
Future Islands - Nu Autobahn
Height - Bad Weather
Human Host - Bathtub Blast
Jana Hunter - Paint A Babe
Jones - Too Dope
Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez - Mostly A Friend
The Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave
Ninjasonik - Tight Pants (Mr. Andersonic Rmx)
Parts and Labor - Fractured Skies
Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric
Spank Rock - Rick Rubin (President Eutl Rmx)
Teengirl Fantasy - Portofino
Thank You - Empty Legs
Thrust Lab - Magnum Opus
Tokyo Police Club - Cheer it On (Trey Told 'Em Rmx)
Video Hippos - Kool Shades
Wheatie Mattiasich - Sugar Cane

Additional Whartscape 2K8 & 2K7 coverage
Previous Weekend Beats
Hipster Runoff on Girl Talk
Mic to Mic on mashers

+ bonus mashers:
M83 vs. Donnie Darko
Grizzly Bear vs. The Incredible Hulk
Ferris Bueller vs. Requiem for a Dream
M.O.P. vs. Sesame Street
Cut Copy vs. Rad
Danzig vs. Shakira

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Independence Day Friendstival Freeflow

This weekend the Pontiak brothers celebrated Amurica's bday with a down home BBQ/friendstival in the Blue Ridge farm countryside of Warrenton, VA, cramming a quaint field house (above) with performances from Field Athletics, Jones, Mickey Free, Height, Wye Oak, Arbouretum and a nasty closer from a shirtless, war-painted Pontiak (anyone have pics?).

Alex and Vic from Beach House and Bob from Small Sur were up in the cut for chillaxing purposes; freedom dogs, freedom pasta salad and freedom cupcakes were provided; and LED lights, sparklers and fireflies replaced fireworks and black foam snakes. No farm animals were injured, although I almost kicked a cat trying to get into my tent that I thought was a raccoon (the "meow" came just in time).

Earlier in the day Height, Bow (Mickey Free) and Jones stepped out in the corn to excercise the first.



Pick up Kale, the new Pontiak/Arbouretum split-LP featuring new material and covers of Velvet Underground cofounder John Cale via Thrill Jockey. Tracklist:

01 Arbouretum: "Time Doesn't Lie"
02 Arbouretum: "Buffalo Ballet" (John Cale cover)
03 Arbouretum: "Flood of Floods"
04 Pontiak: "Dome Under the Sky"
05 Pontiak: "The Endless Plain of Fortune" (John Cale cover)
06 Pontiak: "Green Pool"
07 Pontiak: "Mr. Wilson" (John Cale cover)


John Cale - All My Friends (LCD Soundsystem cover)

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Hip Hop From Scratch

Bmore's Dan Keech (aka Height) and Bob Jones have been making music together for close to ten years through various projects, and they recently found a new production playground to take it up a notch at SnowGhost, an independent studio on Whitefish, Montana. SnowGhost sessions allow artists to record as much as they can handle over a few days in the studio, play a show in town in front of a small-town crowd, and have their performances (and everything else) documented online through film and high-quality recordings.

Accompanied by newfound collaborator King Rhythm, Height and Jones took full advantage of the studio and instruments to capture some uncommonly sweet sounds for their tracks - chopping up samples in Reason and using the hip hop standard-issue Akai MPC while building samples and sounds from scratch with drums, bass, and guitar.

It's a strong new direction for the crew; you can hear (and buy) the session tracks from SnowGhost, and look for Height + Jones in Bmore a few times next month including Whartscape.


Height w/ Jones & King Rhythm - Laserbeams (sample only)

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How Big Is It Going Down?

As Mickey Free from the B says, it's going down real big. Couple updates - first, local beatsmith Shields is prepping his debut album/mixtape A Beyond Experience Vol. 1 for a spring drop date, he says it's "on some go walk in the park style." Fresh sample below with more details later.


Shields - Dip Trip



Jones, Height, The Plural MC, PT Burnem, and Bow n' Arrow are playing a Rap Round Robin show at the Current Gallery this Saturday - Jones says "all the acts will be set up at the beginning, each playing a song in turn until all have played four songs. One long mega-set, multiple PAs." This sounds filthy, don't miss it. If anyone can take some decent pics or video and share with us afterwards that would be tops. Directions here.


Height - Bad Weather


PT Burnem - Heart Beat


The Plural MC/Frenemies - Rap Tornado (Miami Nice)


Jones - Too Dope


Bow n' Arrow - Cybersex


The irony potential for Devlin & Darko wearing these shirts is layered and complex, so approach with caution. Is it for serious? And who just made guacamole? Answers to these questions and more can be found at the Fully Fitted blog where semi-local celeb contributors including Pase Rock, xxxchange, Mr. Devlin and Ronnie Darko argue which Mad Max movie was the tightest and occasionally share music, like this sneak leak from their upcoming Fully Fitted EP.


Mad Decent/Fully Fitted - 100 Million

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This Week: Baltimore Bands Invade Baltimore!

Bmore artists playing local shows over the next seven days include, but are not limited to: Dan Deacon, Videohippos, Ponytail, Monarch, Thrushes, Ecstatic Sunshine, Jones, Shields, Height, Double Dagger, Thank You, Tall Grass, Television Hill and The Heavycoats. Here's a super quick rundown:









































Dan Deacon - Snake Mistakes
Videohippos - Kool Shades
Height - Bad Weather















Shields - Boom
Jones - Too Dope


































Ecstatic Sunshine - Little Big Dipper
The Tall Grass - Ring and Ring
Ram Ones (Dan Deacon and Connor Kizer) - Portals




































Also at The Talking Head:
Saturday 11/17 - Thrushes and Bang! Bang!
Thrushes - Into The Woods
Win Guest Passes To This Show

At The Ottobar:
Tuesday 11/13 - VHS or Beta, Moving Units, The Heavycoats
The Heavycoats - Sea Song (link from Instrumental Analysis)

Wednesday 11/14 - Melt Banana, Hex Machine, Double Dagger, The Jons
Double Dagger - The Psychic

Monday 11/19 - Black Dice, Pissed Jeans, Ponytail and WZT Hearts
Ponytail - Lion Down

At Lo-Fi Social Club:
Monday 11/19 - Monarch, Oppenheimer
Monarch - Please Concrete

So which ones are you going to? All of them? And you ate a whole wheel of cheese?

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Baltimore is known for its all-inclusive bootstrap DIY indie spirit - and with the number of startup artists, labels and legit/underground venues climbing faster than the city's body count (200+ this year, watch your back Detroit), we had plenty of gems to choose from for the first part of this series.

And yes, everyone that lives here wears neon fanny packs and likes to dance in sweaty sardine cans.

1. Among Wolves - Sleep and Dream
2. OCDJ - Pls Stp Th Hstl
3. Small Sur - Big Sur
4. Thrushes - Aidan Quinn
5. Brian Adam Ant - Holy Hell
6. Shields - Boom
7. Santa Dads - You Don't Know
8. The Death Set - Impossible (Dan Deacon Remix)
9. Ecstatic Sunshine - Little Big Dipper
10. Beach House - Master of None
11. Cex - Baltimore
12. Ponytail - Lion Down
13. The Oranges Band - If These Stars Are Struck
14. Double Dagger - The Psychic
15. Basshound - Aerodynamic (Daft Punk jam cover, live)
16. Video Hippos - Kool Shades
17. Dan Deacon - Wham City
18. Jakuta and Carl - 31 And Luving It

Wha:
Among Wolves provides the perfect Grizzly Beach Boy/House harmonies to start and end your days...OCDJ makes sounds on laptop, guitar, kalimba, euphonium, bangs drums, shakes things, cites Master Blaster as a major influence...Small Sur is instantly familiar fire circle hymns...Thrushes are murky shoeglazed pop masters...Brian Adam Ant is psychedilifolk that doesn't sound like Neutral Milk Hotel...Shields drops stuttery butter for fans of Prefuse and Madlib...we'll get to some of his counterparts including Jones and Height next...Santa Dads are beatboxing ukelele costume kidz...The Death Set are brilliant noise...Ecstatic Sunshine are superbad instruminimalists...you already know and love the mazzed out Beach House...Cex changes skins regularly around experimental laptop hop...Pontytail will bite your face...The Oranges Band define their sound as "rock" so...Double Dagger will bite your leg...Basshound are a jam band that occasionally covers Daft Punk for the kids at CBGB...everybody thinks it's crazy...Video Hippos and Dan Deacon are well-known Wham City clan types and Jakuta and Carl are electronic clap clap clap clap.

Let us know who you dig.

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