MONDAY: Sweden is a gorgeous country that turns out some of the ugliest music. Marduk is one of the most hideous examples — and that's a huge compliment. The black-metal band's 11th album-length assault, "Wormwood," is filled with bleak and powerful ragers with happy-go-lucky titles such as "Chorus of Cracking Necks." It all may seem kinda silly, but just wait till the first double-bass-drum blast caves in your chest. Welcome to the dark side, True Believer.
Witness some of Marduk's sonic blasphemy after the jump.
» Sonar, 407 E. Saratoga St., Baltimore, Md.; with Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Merrimack, Tyrant's Hand, Mon., Nov. 23, 7 p.m., $18; 410-783-7888
Photo courtesy SureShotwork
"SWITCH" MIGHT BE the key word for Switchfoot on "Hello Hurricane," its seventh studio album — and first in three years, since departing Columbia for its own label, the Atlantic-distributed lowercase people records.
Its Jars of Clay-esque CCM alterna-rock sound is still prevalent, of course, but the album feels uneven in style and has a jumpiness that wouldn't be expected from a band with more than 10 years of history together.
The angsty, edgy rock number "Mess of Me" bears much of the same urgency as the group's 2003 single "Meant to Live", in that where-is-my-life-going sense. Jon Foreman channels his inner Foo Fighter as he bellows, "I made a mess of me! I wanna spend the rest of my life alive!"
It's a forceful tune, but the rest "Hurricane" doesn't maintain that intensity. Instead, most of the CD comes across as trying to ape the hit-making formula of several alterna-arena-rock bands.
Continue Reading "Them, Too: Switchfoot, 'Hello Hurricane'" »
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY: The Black Hollies are the zillionth group aping the psychedelic blue-eyed blues of mid-'60s Brit-rock bands such as The Kinks, The Yardbirds and The Who, but this New Jersey quartet carries its homage with upper-class sass. You've heard The Black Hollies' new CD, "Softly Towards the Light," a billion times — but the garage-rock formula is so great, listen to it a billion and one. (And their lives shows are supposed to be hotter than overdriven tube amp.)
After the jump: Check the video for "Paisley Pattern Ground" plus some live clips for proof of the band's style-filled substance. Plus, download a free MP3 of the howler "Gloomy Monday Morning."
» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Title Tracks, Bryan Scary, Tue., Nov. 10, 8:30 p.m., $10; 202-667-4490. (U St.-Cardozo)
» The Metro Gallery, 700 North Charles St., Baltimore, Md.; with Title Tracks, Bryan Scary, Baby Aspirin, Wed., Nov. 11, 8 p.m., $8; 410-244-0899.
Photo courtesy Big Hassle Media
Continue Reading "The Kids Are Alright: The Black Hollies" »
| Band: | Vader |
| Song: | "Never Say My Name" |
| Album: | "Necropolis" (Nuclear Blast) |
| Sounds Like: | This veteran Polish death-metal band returns with a crushing new album and an entirely new lineup save for guitarist-vocalist Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek. But he's always been the main man with the master plan, much of which seems to revolve around blasphemy and warfare (Wiwczarek is a World War II buff). And headbanging, always with the headbanging. Three more old Vader videos can be consumed after the jump. |
| D.C. Bound: | Nov. 4 at Sonar in Baltimore |
| Get More: | Web Site | MySpace | Wiki |
MONDAY: Bruce Springsteen is still working on his "Working on a Dream" tour, giving area Boss-heads plenty of opportunities this year to fill up their backstreets with his singular style of Americana. He's returning to Verizon Center tonight for the second show in 2009 (last time was in May), and he'll also appear up the road in Baltimore on Nov. 20 at 1st Mariner Arena. It's an I-95 tunnel of Springsteen love.
» RELATED: "Hard to Be a Saint: Bruce Springsteen's make-or-break moments" [Express, May 2009]
» RELATED: "Born to Write: Bruce Springsteen's Top 20 Character Studies" [Express, Jan. 2009]
» RELATED: "America's Troubadour: Bruce Springsteen, 'Working on a Dream'" [Express, May 2009]
» Verizon Center, 601 F St. NW; Mon., Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m., $32.50-$98; 202-397-7328. (Gallery Place)
Photo courtesy Columbia Records
IF YOU HAD guessed that Julian Marley was trying to say something with the title of his latest record, "Awake" (Ghetto Youths), you wouldn't be wrong.
"It's the awakening," the 34-year-old Marley said. "All of the songs on the album have some kind of awakening vibes. 'On the Floor' is a party kind of song where you've got to be awake. It's kind of a motivating album, positive vibrations. This album comes like a cup of coffee to me. The idea, the concept [was:] what name could centralize this whole album so you can get one message."
Continue Reading "Positive Vibrations: Julian Marley, 'Awake'" »
SUNDAY: It was many and many a year ago in a ... city by the ... harbor? Our Edgar Allan Poe allusion has completely broken down, and this is only the second sentence. That's ominous.
Richmond and Baltimore may battle forever for ownership of the Mid-Atlantic's creepiest son — Poe grew up in Richmond and lived in both cities before dying, decrepit, in Baltimore — but it seems that Baltimore will have the last laugh. This weekend it's hosting a funeral for Poe, who died in 1849. This year would have been his 200th birthday.
You can participate in an all-night vigil at Poe's grave on Thursday night or watch a funeral procession Sunday morning from his house on Amity Street to the Westminster Hall. A collection of luminaries, dead and alive, will speak — expect Walt Whitman and Alfred Hitchcock, among others. There will be several services to accommodate crowds, so everyone who wants to can pay respects to the inventor of the detective story.
» Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St., Baltimore; Thu., Oct. 8, midnight to 7 a.m. (vigil), Sun., Oct. 11, 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., vigil is free, funeral is $35 in advance or $40 at the door; Poebicentennial.com.
Photo courtesy BACVA
SUNDAY: On Sunday, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore becomes a warrior's heaven of sorts when it unveils "Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece."
The exhibit features more than 100 artworks and artifacts that tell the tale of heroism — its cost, its glory and, most of all, our inherent human need for heroes, whether they exist on Earth or in myth.
» Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.; opens Sun., Oct. 11, through Jan. 3, free; 410-547-9000.
THE RECORDING PROCESS behind Mute Math's "Armistice" was an arduous one, but there was one moment where everything clicked.
Singer and keyboardist Paul Meany was sitting out on the porch of the band's New Orleans home studio talking to two Jehovah's Witnesses while the rest of the group jammed inside.
"All of a sudden I'm listening to the guy talking, and stopped paying attention," Meany recalled. "I do remember hearing this sort of Nickelodeon-on-crack guitar coming through the windows, and the bass and the drums and the whole house was shaking. That was it for me. I'm looking at the girl and I said, 'Man, do you feel that?' And she goes, 'That is a jam.'"
He cut off the Witnesses and went inside to write lyrics to the song.
"I didn't get my soul saved that day, but we definitely made a fan and a great song," he added.
THE CLOAKED CALIFORNIANS in Sunn O))) are metalheads in spirit. The drummerless duo drops Stonehenge-heavy riffs on the recent "Monoliths & Dimensions," but Sunn O)))'s motto, "Maximum volume yields maximum results," is the key to its ethos: ambient guitar-bass crushers that feel like the last sound before everything goes black.
» Sonar, 407 E. Saratoga St., Baltimore, Md.; with Eagle Twin, Wed., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $15; 410-783-7888.
Photo courtesy Southern Lord
Addison Road