The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

On the first Friday of every month a group of deejays who call themselves the Charm City Summit host a soul dance party in the basement bar at Baltimore’s Lithuanian Hall.  Cinematic sleazemaster John Waters is a frequent attendee, including the last two events.  This week Charm City Summit will be throwing a special event to support the charity Bike Free.  Founded by “The Preacher” Paul Lebelle, one of the host deejays, Bike Free will purchase bicycles and helmets for the children of soldiers deployed in our nation’s Middle East campaigns, with a goal of providing 1000 helmets and bikes as Christmas presents this year.  In addition to the regular line-up of deejays spinning soul platters, there will be three bands:  Lazlo Lee & the Motherless Children, Soul Scrolls, and Solar Temple Suicides.  Make the scene and support our troops and their families!

We all know the cliche of going to see a band that has been around for decades.  You pay to see them play the old songs you love.  After they play one you have to suffer through new numbers you hate while you go get another beer.  Maybe they never get around to the songs you want to hear.  Well, you won’t have to deal with that if you come out to the Black Cat tonight or the Ottobar tomorrow to catch punk legends The Buzzcocks.  They’ll be playing their first two albums in their entirety.  So their most ardent fans will hear every song they probably want to hear, and anybody who has listened to college rock (or alternative rock, or modern rock, or whatever it has been called at a given moment) for the last few decades can scream along with “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t've),” “Orgasm Addict,” and “What Do I Get?”

Otherwise unheard of in this part of the country, “underground” concert venues are part of the charm of Charm City.  To the joy of many and the frustration of others, both Rolling Stone and The City Paper have recognized Floristree as the best rock venue in Baltimore in recent years.  Now the Granfalloon is stepping forward as a contender.  Sorry we can’t tell you the specific location of this venue.  Its hosts would not appreciate that, since these kind of events exist at best within the gray areas of a few regulatory regimes.

The exclusionary speakeasy vibe combined with the visual and aural art on display and the fab crowd to make for a very cool event Saturday night, when Arboretum and The Expotentials played the Granfalloon.  More details follow after the jump.

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One of the main ways that artists and music fans can subvert the monopolistic radio industry is to go online for radio. Fortunately, Baltimore has a great internet radio site that is focusing on the promotion of independent music. Soul City Radio is focused on non-mainstream Hip Hop, Soul, Neo – Soul, R&B or Jazz. Station founder DeWayne Alston is trying to promote both independent artists and the idea of independent music; look in the near future for more information about the panel discussions that Alston will be hosting on his show “Soul Session”. The station is live at different times, but you can always check-out the week’s shows. The station player and schedule is after the jump: (more…)

Focusing mostly on new wave and songs that established the foundation of what we used to call alternative music, a new 80s cover band is about to hit the bars of Maryland.  The New Romance will play their first gig at Sonoma’s Bar in Columbia on Saturday.  They also have a couple of shows scheduled at The River Watch in Essex, including a New Year’s party.  Check out their demos on their site and you’ll agree they are a pretty rad addition to the Charm City scene.

On Tuesday, Girl In A Coma from San Antonio came through Baltimore with their touring partners Brooklyn’s Black Gold to play The Ottobar with three local bands.  The crowd was small but those who came out saw an amazing show.  Girl In A Coma are destined for big things.  I arrived too late for Caustic Casanova’s set and only caught parts of the sets by Mason Summers, Odd Girl Out, and Black Gold.  They all struck me as groups with legitimate rock chops who can put on a fun show but rely too much upon gimmicks to make that happen.  However, I was blown away by Girl In A Coma.  Find out why after the jump.  (more…)

Big In Japan have enjoyed a kind of residency at The Windup Space in Baltimore, playing every Sunday evening in August.  Instead of merely having another band open for them each week, they have invited their guests to collaborate with them on stage.  I cannot imagine how much extra practice this entails, and when one considers that these shows are free, the monetary rewards must be even more limited than they usually are for such bands.  These shows are rock for art’s sake, and I highly recommend that you check out the final show of this series on the 30th when they will be joined by Katrina of Celebration.  This past Sunday Big In Japan’s guests were The Expotentials.  Details of the best show I have seen in a very long time follow after the jump. (more…)

Morrissey, who has cancelled shows this week in England, turns 50 next week.  Tomorrow night, fans will gather to celebrate Mozzer’s half-century at the Ottobar in Baltimore.  The debut of the newly reconsituted Smiths tribute band Sorrow’s Native Sons will be the highlight of the evening.  Chris Quinn, formerly of Girlfriend in a Coma, and still of Treading Lemmings, will reprise his role as perhaps the best ersatz Moz in the world.  Expect to hear some of The Smiths weepiest odes, like “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want This Time,” which never made a Girlfriend in a Coma setlist, mix with livelier numbers like “Still Ill.”

Will we sing “Unhappy Birthday” to Morrissey?  Yeah, probably.

This will likely be my last post on this story.  As I anticipated, the Baltimore City Council has pretty much given up on this controversial piece of legislation.  Almost every page of the new revision of the bill, posted on the City Council’s website, looks like this.  Mme. President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has insisted throughout the process that the sole purpose of this legislation was to enable small bars and restaurants to host live performance as an added value to the experience they offer their patrons, while protecting the interests of community members.  That is exactly what this revision does, amending zoning laws to allow small bars and restaurants, who currently are not permitted to host any form of live entertainment, including allowing their patrons to dance, to apply to the zoning board for a conditional live entertainment license.  That’s it.  Ever since this bill’s introduction last summer, existing live music venues have felt that their city’s government was out to get them.  Now they have every right to feel vindicated.  Yep, I’m pretty much declaring victory on this one.

Oh, and The Baltimore Sun finally decided that this story is worthy of their attention.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake delivered great news at the beginning of tonight’s Community Work Session.  Apparently, existing venues will be grandfathered in, not subject to the provisions of the new bill, and newly licensed venues will not have to pay any fees.  I almost left the meeting right then, since that was all I’ve been wanting to hear since this process began, and I was not sure that I had parked legally.  The council has heard the complaints from club owners, musicians, and fans of the Baltimore music scene and taken them to heart.  Other news is that, due to the drastic changes to the bill, the final vote will not take place next week as planned.  Next Thursday’s meeting will be another hearing like the Community Work Sessions have been, but earlier and at City Hall.  Then a “final” draft of the bill will go before a Planning Commission hearing on May 14, with a final vote in June.  More after the jump.  (more…)