“She can wail,” my gut responded, when Gunwife Gone took the stage at the Wind Up Space late last month. And goodness! Rachel Anne Warren can wail. It’s not a screeching, no holds barred, raw and dirty rock n’ roll type of howling. It’s a well-tailored, soulful and sexy powerhouse of a voice that’s rightly complemented by Lauren Aycock’s harmonies and piano, and the dark underpinnings of bass, guitar, and sax that are a staple of the band’s theatrical rock.

It’s hard not to center all attention on Warren, who performed with a blue bob and beaded mini-dress. She led a steady, resounding set, first kicking it off with “Jump Ship,” then showcasing some new songs that show the quintet’s potential for branching out of the more sinister sounds they do so well. A definite highlight of the show came as a result of technical difficulties, when Warren joined Aycock on her piano bench for an intimate rendering of “I’m Not There Yet.” After seeing Gunwife Gone up close and personal, the recording of their self-titled EP didn’t do them quite enough justice; I hope they’re better able to harness that rich live energy for a full-length, which sounds like it’s in the works.

All the while, images of silent movie stars played as backdrop — their dark-penciled eyes and painted-on lips created an otherworldly atmosphere and fit right in with the mannequin-esque image of GG. It certainly wasn’t your typical live rock show and all the better for that: though I wouldn’t call Gunwife Gone’s music entirely danceable, the crowd seemed to respond with head bobs and fixated stares rather than a beer-stained party pit. Opener Lithia Corsica was a pleasant addition to the evening. Together for a couple months now, the two female members played a folksy guitar and cello combo with some Jolie Holland vocals, situated behind some kind of yarn designs of the duo’s own making. All in all, my senses were pleased; it was a very nice night.

Expect less niceties real soon. Gunwife Gone celebrate All Saint’s Day with an appropriately named All Sinners Night at the Ottobar on Saturday, November 1. With their slightly eerie, anything goes dress-up theme, be prepared for a memorable night of vaudevillian splendor. Bring your own masquerading selves for a Good vs. Evil costume contest (with a cash prize!).

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It’s ten minutes before show time and the Verizon Center is jam-packed with fans screaming, “You guys rock!” and, “I love you Joe!” Silly preteen girls waiting for the Jonas Brothers, right? Nope. The energized audience was full of 25 to 30-somethings waiting — nearly two decades — for the New Kids on the Block to take the stage.

Flashback to the summer of 1990. The New Kids were performing at Merriweather Post Pavillion. My two friends and I, looking our very best (at least by 90’s standards… how did we ever get our hair that high?), were among the gaggles of screaming teenage girls who knew all the words to every song and sang along to the top of our lungs. We stood on chairs not wanting to miss one step of Donnie’s dance moves, or one note of Joey’s “Please don’t go girl.” Would Jordan take off his shirt? We could only hope.

Now fast forward 18 years to October 2, 2008. Some things have changed. There was beer and we were allowed to drink it. You could win backstage passes by texting messages to the New Kids. Our mothers hadn’t driven us there.

But some things never change. Girls, now women, were still screaming and singing along at the top of their lungs. Friends that went to concerts together in the 90’s reunited (that includes me and my BFF), holding signs and wearing vintage New Kids t-shirts. And the New Kids on the Block are as good as ever, and maybe better.

The concert started with a bang, literally. The pyrotechnics exploded as Donnie Walhberg, Danny Wood, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight and Joey McIntyre took the stage, opening with “Single,” a song off of their new album, “The Block”. From there they transitioned into classic New Kids songs, like “My Favorite Girl,” “The Right Stuff,” and “Please Don’t Go Girl.” Somehow Joe can still hit those high notes, and no one missed a step in the original dance moves that accompanied each song.

While the old songs got the loudest reactions, their new ones, which have more of a club music feel, rocked the stadium too. They performed their first new single “Summertime,” as well as “Click, Click, Click,” “Twisted” and “Grown Man.”

Midway through the concert, the New Kids left the stage and reemerged in the middle of the stadium on a rising and rotating platform. My awesome floor seats at centerstage row 22, suddenly became even better seats. With my up-close vantage point, I could clearly see their faces. My teen self swears that Joey totally pointed to me, though my adult self remained composed (and didn’t even stand on my chair to get closer). On this stage, they performed some of their new songs, which obviously were written with their audience in mind. The song “2 In the Morning” references Grey’s Anatomy and “Dirty Dancing” has the line, “Ooo she’s like Baby, I’m like Swayze.”

The New Kids were clearly energized by their screaming fans. The “kids,” all of whom are pushing forty, sang, danced, break danced (go Danny) and lapped the stage several times before ending the concert after a second encore of “Hanging Tough.” Donnie was nearly moved to tears as he thanked the fans for their loyalty and for being such an exciting part of the NKOTB reunion. Joe, Donnie and Jordan had some “face time,” in which they each performed solo on stage. Joe showed off what he learned on “Dancing with Stars” with one of the female backup dancers. And yes, Jordan took his shirt off. Teen self and adult self both swooned.

by Jenn Franz

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by Andy Rosen
To see Atmosphere before 2005 was, as frontman Slug tells it, an experience centered on a self-amused emcee who’d probably had too much to drink.

A lot has changed since then for the Minneapolis-based independent rap group. Atmosphere’s act now features a live band, and tour DJ Mr. Dibbs has now been replaced by ANT—the group’s longtime studio producer.

But Slug (Sean Daley) says those changes all flowed from a personal decision he made. After Atmosphere finished with the 2004 Vans Warped Tour, he decided to quit getting drunk (he estimates about 36 beers) before he went on stage, and committed himself to running a better live show.

“Somewhere between self-medicating on substances and people and vanity, I had what I guess some people might call a moment of clarity, and that moment of clarity was telling me that I wasn’t challenging myself enough,” Slug said in a recent interview, “and if I didn’t start challenging myself more often and harder or realer…that I might get fired from my job, and I love my job.” Read more »

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By Chris Yarrison

There was a lot of weirdness to find yourself in the middle of last Saturday around the Baltimore Theatre Project. It was the penultimate day of High Zero 2008, Festival of Experimental and Improvised Music, and I was attending a matinee featuring compositions by Jenny Graf Sheppard, “a major force in Baltimore.”

One was “A Performance of Experimental Archeology by the Stone Carving Oraclestra,” which the program promised would demonstrate “a spontaneous burgeoning of sound with human action onto geological matter.” This apparently meant that there were rocks involved, a bit of theatrics, and, of course, “sound.”

Five women in white, vaguely aboriginal costumes came onstage, groaning and pushing medium sized rocks around in a circle before settling around each other, facing the audience, and doing something like singing. Then it was time for a “reading.” An audience member sat before the “oraclestra” and they sang words at him: “Face gone.” One woman hit a rock with a smaller rock and handed him the latter.

Now it was time for experimental and improvised music, which is something more like making noise with perfectly good instruments and expensive sound equipment. I’ll be accused of not knowing what I’m talking about, but the cellist - M.V. Carbon (dressed in a delightful purple sailor outfit) – ran her instrument through several atmospheric effects while never laying a finger on the fretboard. Chris Corsano, apparently a well-respected percussionist, played drums that sounded like things moving or falling, at random and by accident.

I had the bemusing pleasure of asking guitarist Bill Nace what he was doing to his electric guitar to make the buzzing feedback we heard from him during the performance.

“It looked like you were taking apart your guitar with a screwdriver.”

“No, I wasn’t taking it apart.”

“You were using pieces of metal or something to play it?”

“Yeah, I use pieces of metal.”

“Like what?”

“Just pieces of metal…that I find: secret metal.”

Ah, well then. The readings – rock-hitting, words, unsuspecting audience member, then noise – repeated six times and then everyone left the stage.

Inside things were strange enough, but outside was where average Baltimoreans got to express themselves alongside the festival. Twice I was in the middle of this action: once at the end of the “Toys that Make Noise” march, which concluded with everyone watching a little dancing doll play pop songs; and then a bearded fellow with a horn propped himself up next to me, asked if I wanted to participate in his Latin Dance Party, and proceeded to read “Latin sex poems” (Catullus), in a bombastic accent, to several people on the sidewalk. I’ve had a week to reflect and still don’t know just what to think of this High Zero Festival experience, but I think for some reason I want to subject myself to it again next year.

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You may have heard his music on “One Tree Hill,” “Private Practice,” “Eli Stone” and “The Hills.” Now you get to hear Matthew Perryman Jones at a free show in Federal Hill.

The soulful singer-songwriter, who hails from Nashville, will headline the Federal Hill Street Beat Festival on Sunday.

Festivalgoers can hear music from Jones’ critically acclaimed new album, Swallow the Sea, which debuted in late August. His emotional range comes through on songs like “Save You,” which has pop appeal, but is rooted in sorrowful longing.

Jones said his favorite song on the album is “Motherless Child,” a slavery-era spritual that was made famous by Ritchie Havens at Woodstock. The song has since been covered by everyone from Van Morrison to Tina Turner, but Jones said he gave it a new spin.

“It’s more aggressive. It has a little bit of a rougher edge to it. I threw some anger into it,” Jones said.

The info:
Matthew Perryman Jones
Federal Hill Street Beat Festival
Sunday, September 28 11 am-7 pm
S. Charles & Cross streets, free

Q&A with Matthew Perryman Jones
Have you ever played in Baltimore before?
I have just once, on a tour I did recently, I played at The 8×10. It was crazy. Right afterwards, I have never seen a street so freaked out with people. It was crazier than anything I have seen in New Orleans.

Has living in Nashville changed your sound?
If anything, it sort of encouraged me to keep doing what I do. When I first moved there, I was more of a folky singer-songwriter in Atlanta. I got back to my original roots musically. I come from the late-’80s. I like Echo & The Bunnymen, old U2, the Pixies, and all kinds of ‘80s mod rock. I like stuff that is big and ambitious, that has an emotional landscape.

What do you do besides make music?
I have a six-month old little girl. She keeps me busy and she’s a lot of fun. That definitely fills up my life. I’m a pretty laidback homebody kind of person. I kick around town, and do a lot of eating and going out in Nashville.

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BALTIMORE SHOWS/CONCERTS

Fletchers
9/26: Humanzee, Echoes of Us, The Speaks, Spark the Inferno, Count Me In
9/27: My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Girls Like Cigarettes, Test Pattern Radio, 23 Rainy Days, Liquid Lucky
9/29: “Noise in the Basement” with 98Rock’s Matt Davis featuring Hollywood Undead, The Perfects, Of Broken

The Ottobar
9/23: Street Dogs, Time Again, Flatfoot 56, Charm City Saints
9/24: The Atari’s, The Apathy Eulogy, Things That Fly, Of Broken
9/25: Peelander-Z, Tsushimamire, Bakubeni, Quaff
9/26: Liquor Bike, Pulaski, Landspeedrecord
9/27: Black Kids, The Virgins, Magic Wands
9/28: The Juan Maclean, Nadastrom, Thrust Lab, Tax-Lo DJs
9/29: Kylesa, ASG, Surroundings, Deathhammer, Condemn the Infected

Sonar
9/25: M.O.P., Joe Budden, Termanology, Big Shug, Ogun, DJ P-Funk
9/25: Circa Survive, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer, The Christmas Lights
9/26: Musiq Soulchild, Kia Calloway, DJ P-Funk
9/27: “Massive Rave” with George Karmokolais
9/27: “Battle of the Bands” with Your Majesty, Lysergik Cross, Oubliette, Unknown, many more
9/28: The Dodos, Au, Wye Oak
9/29: This Message, Plague of Shadows, From the Pawn, Barriers, Through the Fire, Sea of Static

Talking Head
9/22: Arrington de Dionyso, Evolutionary Jass Band, Nathan Bell Band
9/23: Soft Targets, Abby Mott, The Jennifers
9/24: The Mathematicians, Engine, Thust Lab
9/25: Rahim, Snowmen, Deleted Scenes
9/26: Throw Me the Statue, Cotton Jones Basket Ride, The Points
9/27: Dressy Bessy, Squaaks, Rock
9/28: Mock Orange, Miniature Tigers, Pillow Queens

Recher Theatre
9/25: The Doug Mattingly Band, A Nameless Desire, Second Self, Author Unknown
9/26: 3 Fifths, Old Man Brown, Vespertine Movement, The Herd of Main St.
9/27: [2pm] Justin Nozuka, Gabe Dixon Band
9/27: Lez Zeppelin, All Girls, All Zeppelin, The Cheaters
9/28: “2008’s Build a Band All-Stars”

Sidebar Tavern
9/22: Rare Candy, Pool of Frogs, Contra
9/23: Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Co., Mike Beresh, Evan Harris and the Driftwood Motion
9/24: The Frontier Brothers, Vacant, Strange Faces
9/25: Sawhorse, Cloud Minder, Age Sixteen
9/26: Thee Lexington Arrows, The Break Ups, The Alemeda, Circadian Rhythm
9/27: Corporate Agenda, Gloominious Doom, Type 53, The Side Affects, Zebracake
9/29: The Koffin Kats, The Doomsdayers, The Deadneks, Pessimist Parade

The 8×10
9/22: Jerry Joseph, Cris and Kenny, Matt and Tim, Ms. Sara and JByrd
9/23: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
9/25: Assembly of Dust, Theresa Andersson
9/26: All Mighty Senators, We Read Minds, The Cheaters, Stillhouse, Pasadena, many more
9/27: Tall in the Saddle, Gypsy Dawg
9/28: 3 Fifths, Mad Sweet Pangs
9/29: Jerry Joseph, Cris and Kenny, Matt and Tim, Ms. Sara and JByrd

Rams Head Live!
9/23: Helloween, Gamma Ray
9/24: Built to Spill, Meat Puppets
9/26: Nightwish
9/27: “Casey Cares Foundation’s Rock & Roll Bash”
9/28: Angels and Airwaves, American Diary, The Friday Night Boys
Lyric Opera House
9/22: Renee Fleming
9/23: Alanis Morissette
9/25: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
9/27: “Unisun Gospel Concert” with Donald Lawrence

The Hexagon
9/25: Leprechaun Catering, Witch Hat, Weekends, more tba
9/27: Sahffi, Nelly’s Echo, Gayle Danley

Charm City Art Space
9/22: Trap Them, Fight Amp, Surroundings, Heaviness of the Load
9/26: Wild and Crazy Kids, Sedition Coalition, Mindset

Creative Alliance
9/22: “Stoop Stories” with Caleb Stine and the Brakemen
9/26: The Last Poets, 5th L, Olu Butterfly

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By Leah Scarpelli
Each member of local band Gunwife Gone has diverse, combustible talent. From theater to Dixieland to punk, the band member’s past lives run across genres, but they come together to create jazzed-up piano pop with a twist.

Rachel Anne Warren’s husky, evocative alto takes theatrical walks through what she calls her own “magical world.” Go with her and she’ll tell you intimate tales of terror and poignant philosophies learned from a dear and lost friend.

Coupled with Lauren Aycock’s higher-pitched, though darker vocal shade (she likes things dark), the duo, decked in glitz and glamour, creates explosive music.

Aycock’s piano drives the melody in most tracks, while Tiffany Defoe’s sax muses among the essentials, adding another voice to the music that at first surprises, then captivates. Dave Polimene on bass and Ryan Rodriguez on drums aren’t mere rhythm behind the feminine mystique — they add a groove and a rock sensibility.

As Warren says in the song, “The Story,” “If I told you the story it would drag on for days / You would still miss the point with no words to say”: you gotta see it to believe it. You have to experience it for yourself.

And you’ll get a chance to on September 26, when the band will perform at the Windup Space, a music and arts venue on North Avenue. Photos of live shows line the walls, concert-goers in their glory, sweat-covered and loving it. It’s where I sat down with the band to hear their side of the story.

The Info: The Windup Space
10 W. North Ave.,
Station North
410-244-8855

Want more? Read Leah Scarpelli’s Q&A with the band on our music blog.

-Photo by Brian Davis

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by Chris Yarrison
The High Zero Festival is a highly acclaimed annual expression of Baltimore’s celebrated tradition of weirdness. This year, the festival’s tenth anniversary, local and international experimental musicians and artists will collaborate in completely novel formations to produce music that is “extremely varied” and “entirely improvised,” in the words of founder, organizer and participant John Berndt.

There will be video and visual effects paired with music, interactive stage presentations, workshops, and sixty or so street concerts. It kicks off with a work by Philadelphia filmmaker Peter Rose, shot around Baltimore with a “process” he’s dubbed “transfalumination,” and accompanied by a live band. From Baltimore, exciting musicians include Susan Alcorn, pushing the traditionally Country and Western steel pedal guitar to its limits, and Alessandro Bosetti, who explores the musical aspects and philosophical implications of the world’s languages.

For some reason, Berndt explains, “Baltimore has just been a place that tolerates different types of extreme behavior. In the 1970s, Baltimore had an underground flavor that was very exciting and unusual. Then in the 80s and 90s that culture just got stronger and stronger.” The founding of the Red Room Collective in 1996 “moved everything ahead by an order of magnitude.”

The Red Room is Batlimore’s space for fringe elements of the music scene, “a highly visible part of the research horizon,” that can influence, inspire, or disturb the rest of the city’s musicians. It’s attached to Normals bookshop in Waverley, though the store and the collective are independent. A bookstore employee explains the relationship with curiously hostile irony: “It’s our storage room.” But it is also where the High Zero Festival originated in 1998.

“At first it was very shoestring,” reminisces Berndt. Coupled with vague “cultural and civic intentions,” the musical experimentation and “risk-taking” reflected, and still does, “a culture that’s critical of existing norms, that actively seeks alternatives.”

Some memorable performances for Berndt include “Music for the Living Dead,” a street concert that was going as normally as could be expected, when zombies strode up the block and joined the audience, groaning throughout, making for “one of the strangest things people said they had ever seen.”

Better still, was “Free Music Freefall at 500 Feet” in 2002, where a group attempted to entertain listeners from the Port Discovery balloon on an exceptionally windy day. “It’s a disk that would lilt about thirty degrees, so everybody’s sliding…It seemed to me to be the perfect metaphor for a festival that joyously strives to put people off balance.”

The Info:
High Zero Festival
Wednesday, September 17-Sunday, September 21
Theatre Project
45 W. Preston St, Mount Vernon Read more »

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Well, we’re a little late posting this, because the Baltimore Music Conference started on Tuesday. But there are so many good showcases from tonight until Saturday that we decided to suck up our pride and post the schedule anyway. Here it is:

“Thursday - Sept 18th
Happy Hour - Courtyard Marriott
Hosted by Mek & JR Entertainment
6pm - 9pm

8×10
9:15 - 9:55 - The Dreamscapes Project
10:15 - 10:55 - Grilled Lincolns
11:15 - 11:45 - Pro & Reg
12:05 - 1:15 - The Superpowers

13th Floor
9 - 9:40pm - The Stugottz
10- 10:40pm - Natural Remedy
11 - 11:40am - Lucid

Bedrock
Upstairs - Planet of the Drums
AK 1200
Dara
Dieselboy
Messinian
Hosted by Steez Promo

Downstairs - Bananas
Donkeybits
Let Me Ride
Art Cuebik & Illy Emcee

Read more »

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This is a big month for music in Baltimore. We just had 20 bands perform at HampdenFest over the weekend. The High Zero Festival of improvised and experimental will kick off at the Baltimore Museum of Art tomorrow. And the Noise in the Basement creative conference, which brings together record store owners, musicians and label executives, will again be held in Baltimore this month. That means lots of showcase concerts and signings by local and national acts. Here’s a summary of some of the events, which start tomorrow. All of the signings will happen at The Sound Garden. Go to The Sound Garden’s website for a full listing.

Wednesday, September 17:
*Showcase at Fletchers:
One Block Radius
Nappy Roots
K’Naan
Noah & the Whale
The Bridges
Doors 8 PM
$10 tix at The Sound Garden, or free with a purchase of Nappy Roots, the Bridges, One Block Radius or Noah and the Whale CD.

*In-store signing at The Sound Garden: Missy Higgins live in-store performance, 3 pm

Thursday, September 18:

*Showcase at Fletchers
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
Black Kids
Annuals
Doors 8 PM
Some free tix available if you buy the Black Kids cd/lp or preorder the Tom Morello: The Nightwatchmen cd (comes out 9/30) or Annuals cd (comes out 10/7)

*In-store signings at The Sound Garden
Yearlong Disaster and Valient Thorr, 4 pm
Motorhead: 6 pm

*In-store listening party
Unearth, 7 pm, listen to album with the band, signing

*Motorhead/Volcom Tour at Rams Head Live, 7 pm
Motorhead, Valient Thorr, Year Long Disaster

Friday, September 19

*In-store performance at The Sound Garden, Alternate Routes, 6 pm

*Showcase at Sonar, 7 pm, $30
The Pretenders
The Hold Steady
All Mighty Senators
Trevor Menear

*Free show at Sonar: Pink Spiders, 8 pm doors

* K-Swift Tribute Event at Fletchers, 9 pm doors
$15 adv./$20 door

Saturday, September 20

*Showcase at Sonar, $20
Kindred The Family Soul
Eric Roberson
Janelle Monae
Ndelible
Noot D’Noot
DJ Tanz

Sunday, September 21

*Event at Pier Six:
Several Species—The Pink Floyd Experience, 8 pm

*Sunday Rock Docks at Creative Alliance
12 pm: Heavy Metal in Baghdad
2:30 pm: The Gits

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