Category: Music

Erected from the ghettos of Baltimore, Abdu Ali raps, sings, and chats over unorthodox and future sounds, creating music that is visceral, spiritual, and very real. From his energetic visceral performances, spiritualizing audiences as a cosmic, punk, and soulful tempest on stage to his work to transcend musical boundaries has put in him in genre categories along lines of afro-futurism to noise rap to “post-apocalyptic” sounding.

Championing Baltimore Club music in the fabric in most of his beats, through his work as a curator of Kahlon (an epic bimonthly music event), writings, and outspokenness via social media/interviews Ali, has been elected as a radical underground Baltimore music and cultural figure. Unapologetically black and queer, Abdu Ali is bold, raw, and most importantly life-affirming.

Abdu Ali has done several tours all over the US and released 4 music projects. He has shared the same stage with various artists like Big Freedia to MC Lyte to XXYXX, has toured with Lower Dens in Fall 2015, and his work has been covered by Complex, AfroPunk, Saint Heron, Noisey, Impose Magazine, Stereogum, The Fader, and many more.

http://abduali.com

https://soundcloud.com/abduali

Ratboy Jr. is a band from New Paltz, NY, a college town located in the beautiful Hudson Valley. Singer and guitarist Timmy and multi-tasker extraordinaire Matty (he plays drums and keyboards at the same time!) are a rocking duo for all ages, a band for the whole fam. They have a knack for blurring the lines and pushing the boundaries between music for kids and music for adults, so that it becomes EVERYONE’S music.

www.ratboyjr.com

The globe-trotting songwriter Adir L.C. delivers a dramatic and lavishly detailed indie-folk answer to the timeless question “should I stay or should I go?” with a resounding “both.” The songs describe a young person’s search for identity and purpose as something essentially solitary and global in scope.

Adir L.C. launched his musical journey in the same Glen Rock, NJ basements that nurtured Titus Andronicus and Real Estate. There he got his taste of the indie foment of the early 2000’s before heading off to the college jam town of New Paltz, NY in 2007. There, he became a pivotal player and promoter in the fledgling indie scene there.

It was also in New Paltz where Adir met former Wood Brothers drummer Jed Kosiner, his partner in the psych-folk outfit Fairweather Friends, a duo that could just as easily assemble as a ragtag, ad hoc collective and deliver ecstatic performances of Adir’s sturdy and deceptively savvy folk epics. Fairweather Friends released the well-received These Years on the Boat on Salvation and hit the road, from which Adir has never quite fully landed.

For all its complicated, multi-city birth story, Oceanside Cities is anything but a casual freak-folk travelogue; it is indie-orchestral, dynamic in its arcs, epic in its song forms and its flourish-filled arrangements, as Adir fully realizes the balance of confessional folk intimacy and broad pop ambition that his writing has always hinted at.
(by John Burdick)

www.adirlc.com

https://soundcloud.com/adirlc

The Pauses’ (who prefer that their possessive noun-ing be spelled Pauseses) overall sound is one anchored in complexion and combination, a world where guitars are BFFs with synthesizers, horns, bells, and ukuleles. Tierney Tough’s bright, fresh voice glides just as easily atop the breathy sparkle and agile math of “Go North” as it does the indie-pop sway and post-hardcore torque of “Beyond Bianca.” From the serious, atmospheric mood of “The Migration” and “Pull the Pin” to the lithe, glitchy charm of “Hands Up”. The Pauses got mad range, often in the same song. Rooted in the dynamics and ethos of ’90s indie rock, their sound is a balancing act between rock and electronics, airiness and heft, suppleness and angularity. And their debut album, “A Cautionary Tale” (produced by J. Robbins of Jawbox and Burning Airlines) shows that you can explore without losing your core.

Since the album’s release, The Pauses have released a split 12″, contributed a track to a Jason Noble Benefit Compilation, played multiple festival showcases, invented Interact-O-Vision (a live interactive media show component), had songs featured in Harmonix’s Rock Band and multiple films (see: McSweeney’s “The Love Competition” https://vimeo.com/130648160), and have literally shared the stage (with members filling in as backup musicians) with War on Women, The Posies, Matt Pond PA, Davey Von Bohlen, Jonah Matranga, and John Vanderslice.

The Pauses second full-length (also produced by J. Robbins) will be released soon.

http://www.thepauses.com

http://www.vimeo.com/thepauses

http://www.soundcloud.com/thepauses

Dusted is the ever-evolving, songwriting venture of Brian Borcherdt- one fourth and founding member of Holy Fuck. While Holy Fuck are known for their unhinged noisy celebration Dusted better suit the morning after, either as a moment of moody reflection or of joyful catharsis.

Total Dust was released on Polyvinyl and hometown Toronto label, Hand Drawn Dracula. The album features guitar and vocal recorded live off the floor while in the back ground, as if haunted from another room, layers of strings and eerie tones fill out the minimal soundscape. Live the sound has become more dynamic, earning opening tours with Perfume Genius, Place To Bury Strangers, and Great Lake Swimmers and festival slots at Osheaga, SXSW, and Pop Montreal. Dusted also appear in two of Jean Marc Vallee’s films, cast on screen in Wild, adapting Grateful Dead’s Ripple, and heard on the soundtrack of his latest film Demolition. After touring Holy Fuck’s latest album Borcherdt relocated to a cottage in The Catskills. Like the hungover morning-after it is time again for reflection and catharsis. With an album in the works and one freshly completed Dusted is back.

“Raw-nerved emotion… wrapping its cutting sentiments in a grotty guitar fuzz that sounds like it was scraped off the heads on Lou Barlow’s old four-track.” Pitchfork

“Like the best kind of Neil Young but with a dreamier voice” Line of Best Fit

‘Now a trio… Dusted sounded more muscular and offered up a tantalizing taste of their yet-to-be-announced second record.’ – Noisey/ Vice

https://totallydusted.bandcamp.com

https://soundcloud.com/polyvinyl-records/dusted-property-lines

If there’s one constant with Oshwa, it’s that Alicia Walter has never been content to stay in one place. The art-pop project started in 2010 as a solo endeavor when Walter, then a student of classical piano, decided to indulge her pop music-loving side and in her words, “hang out with a loop pedal in a North Side Chicago basement.” Later, it became a four-piece indie rock band, leading to a 2013 debut album Chamomile Crush, which combined Walter’s adventurously off-kilter vocal delivery with math-rock inflected arrangements. Now after Oshwa’s excellent second album 2016’s I We You Me, a more focused and accessible album that featured contributions from her band members, Walter has reinvented Oshwa as a solo project and moved to New York City.

“Chicago’s an amazing place, obviously, but I knew that I wanted to make some changes in myself. Moving to New York was kind of the impetus to make all those things happen by just putting myself in a new spot,” Walter explains over the phone. “Sometimes I like to make things really hard on myself in order to kind of figure out what’s most important to me. A particularly crazy way to do that is when you’re like, ‘I’m just going to get on a plane to New York with two suitcases and no major source of income when I get there.'”

Moving allowed Walter a chance to figure out how Oshwa would evolve as a solo effort. “For a while, the band was the medium. I was stoked to work with the same people and they were my close friends and it was a really good process. But while working on I We You Me, I wanted to start taking a little bit more control and was interested in kind of getting away from a full band sound,” Walter said. Citing David Byrne’s depictions of Talking Heads concerts in his book How Music Works, the move also allowed her to focus on her other interests in choreography and performance: “I just realized that what I was trying to convey musically could be amplified by a physical performance by really bringing in choreography and a much more animated persona.”

www.oshwasounds.net

Formed by Benjamin Schurr in Philadelphia in 2007 and relocated in DC in 2013, Br’er is an ever evolving project.
Schurr moved to DC by chance while touring with the project Eskimeaux. The band’s van hit a deer en route their DC gig, and was subsequently towed to the legendary (now defunct) house space, Paperhaus. There, Schurr met artist Johnny Fantastic, who convinced him to move to DC to work on music together. This meeting served as the beginning of a new chapter for Br’er, which had existed for several years in Philly outputting numerous releases, but slogging through several lineup changes between marathon tours.

Br’er’s fourth LP, Brunch is for Assholes, was recorded in spring of 2016 at Schurr’s home studio at the Lighthouse in the Petworth neighborhood of DC. Petworth has a particular significance to the writing of the record, as it is known as one of the fastest gentrifying neighborhoods in the city. The lyrics were primarily written while Schurr was working as a mover, reflecting on the violence of gentrification’s short-selling of community in exchange for condos and fast casual cuisine. Given the current political turmoil in the District, Brunch is a timely discourse on the social history of the last eight years, given the uncomfortable context of present day politics.

brerbrerbrer.bandcamp.com

Dream pop vocalist Mimi Goese and composer/mutantrumpeter Ben Neill create an otherwordly blend of sensual lyricism and technology in their musical collaboration. Currently they are exploring the musical and poetic qualities of mathematics and science, working in collaboration with chaos mathematician Ralph Abraham and scientists from the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. The new songs combine the interplay of Goese’s captivating vocals and the electro-acoustic explorations of Neill’s self-designed mutantrumpet with sounds created from fractal equations and Hudson River environmental data. The reflective, sometimes surreal lyrics find poetry in numbers over glitchy beats, deep sub bass, and ambient textures.

Goese and Neill began working together in the mid 2000’s on Persephone, a music theater work presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival in 2010 and released as Songs for Persephone on Ramseur Records in 2011.

Goese is known as the lead singer/co-songwriter of Hugo Largo, the critically acclaimed minimalist punk/pop group who released two albums on Brian Eno’s Opal label in the ’80s. After touring with musician/producer Hector Zazou and co-writing/singing on Moby’s album Everything is Wrong, Goese’s solo album Soak was released by Luaka Bop, David Byrne’s label.

Neill is a composer, performer, producer, and inventor of the mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Ten CDs of his music have been released on labels including Universal/Verve, Astralwerks, Thirsty Ear, and Six Degrees. Neill has worked closely with many musical innovators including La Monte Young, John Cage, John Cale, Pauline Oliveros, Mikel Rouse, and DJ Spooky.

http://www.mimigoeseandbenneill.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s1YbWJLq14

3 piece original indie/grunge band from Saugerties, N.Y. A plethora of lush spacial effects at times give way to intense fuzzes out instrumentation, always paired with the right balance of in-your-face screaming and sing song vocals. The drums hammer down like thunder clap of doom in accompaniment to a driving bass that won’t quit. Hailed by Kingston After Dark (Kingston Times) as one of the best bands to see in Ulster County.

https://youtu.be/VV10FAPNBos

While dwelling in various parts of upstate New York, Upgrade has been constantly developing as an emcee over the past decade. Some career highlights include sharing stages with Mac Miller, Styles P, Chris Webby, Saigon and Big Sean. Through a chance encounter he also received a big supporter in the personage of Josh Eppard (of Coheed & Cambria / Weerd Science).

Ironically as his career began to flourish his struggle with panic attacks became more pronounced. In turn, finding the right medication and correct dosage added to the burden.

Recalling that time Upgrade says “2014 was the darkest period in my life up to this point. I could hardly leave my house, I couldn’t drive any more, and I would have to have my mom or a friend drive me to my shows. Most people didn’t realize how bad I was doing. I wrote Chemical Imbalance as I was going through all of that it and it is the most honest thing I have written. I wanted people to know exactly the bullshit I have to deal with to go through the day.”

An example of this period is “Further Down the Rabbit Hole” which features a guest appearance from Eppard (in his Weerd Science guise). The emcee recalls “I left my house for the first time in a month to record that track, I think you can tell in my take.”

Currently in a better place mentally and lyrically exorcised, Upgrade HipHop has filmed multiple videos for Chemical Imbalance: Another Dose and has released a bunch of projects like “Everybody is the Worst” , “Tired and my Back Hurts” and “Late Bloomer”.

upgradehiphop.bandcamp.com