This week the Baltimore City Paper publishes its annual Big Music Issue, and my story in it, Knights of the Round Robin, is about the 5th annual All Rap Round Robin that will be taking place on August 19th at Floristree. I attended the show the last two years and am really excited about the additions to this year's lineup, could be their best yet. For the story I spoke to Height, OOH, Jones, Mickey Free, The Plural MC, King Rhythm and members of Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group, Disturbed Individuals and AK Slaughter (and the concert will also feature PT Burnem, Rapdragons and Secret Weapon Dave).

(photo by Frank Hamilton)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper, Brown F.I.S.H., Height, Kane, magazines/newspapers, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Soul Cannon

I wrote a post on the City Paper's Noise blog about the exciting lineup that was just announced for the 5th Annual All Rap Round Robin happening in Baltimore in August.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Brown F.I.S.H., flyer, Height, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Soul Cannon

On my other blog, Narrowcast, I posted a list of The Top 25 Concerts I Saw In 2010, and it included 3 very different Baltimore hip hop shows that I reviewed for the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog in the top 10:

* Bossman, Mullyman, Skarr Akbar, 100 Grandman, TestMe & Smash @ the Black Hole Rock Club, March 17
* Soul Cannon, Mania Music Group & The Get Em Mamis @ the Windup Space, July 3
* Rap Round Robin with Mickey Free, PT Burnem, Rapdragons, Height With Friends & AK Slaughter @ Floristree, August 7

I'm way late on finishing my list of favorite Baltimore hip hop albums & mixtapes of 2010, but hopefully I'll get that up in another week or two.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Black Hole Rock Club, Bossman, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, lists, Mania Music Group, Mickey Free, Mullyman, Noise, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Skarr Akbar, Soul Cannon

Some recent live reviews I've written for the Baltimore City Paper's Noise blog: the Rap Round Robin with Mickey Free/Rapdragons/Height With Friends/AK Slaughter/PT Burnem/etc. @ Floristree, J Roddy Walston & The Business/Tommy Tucker & The Supernaturals @ The Ottobar and Casual Curious/Andrew Weathers Ensemble/Us And Only Us @ the Hexagon and Tears For Fears @ Rams Head Live.

(PT Burnem photo by Al Shipley)

Labels: AK Slaughter, Baltimore City Paper, Height, Mickey Free, Noise, Ottobar, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, Height, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Bed Of Seeds release show
@ The Hexagon
Friday, May 28

Height With Friends
A special mega-set featuring Mickey Free, Emily Slaughter, Gavin Riley, PT Burnem, Travis Allen, Brendan Richmond, Liz Aeby, Pam Kurowski and Rob Dowler of Nuclear Power Pants
http://www.myspace.com/height

Lord Grunge (of Grand Buffet)
http://www.myspace.com/thegrungeman

Weekends
http://www.myspace.com/weekendstheband

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, Height, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem

Height With Friends - Swiss Chard, Vol. 1 (SpliceToday.com)

Height With Friends have been on a good run since last year, releasing Baltimore Highlands, the companion remix album, and they have another album in the can for release later this year. In between, they got together with SpliceToday.com to release a free download release, the first in a series called Swiss Chard (incidentally, I tried Swiss chard for the first time last year and it can be really good, my wife cooks it up with garlic and rice). A few years ago, Height used to do a series of EPs called Utility Fog between albums, so I guess that's kind of what this series is going to be like, too. All of Height's albums are short, usually a half hour or less, and as a stopgap EP-type release this is even short, 5 songs in under 9 minutes. So it's not really substantial in and of itself or a good intro to Height, but if you already like his stuff there's some good tracks here to throw in a playlist with his other records. It also features a lot of his kind of abstract, chant-y material, so it's not as overtly hip hop as some of his other releases (although the last track is a Schoolly D cover/homage). Like the other With Friends releases, this features contributions from Mickey Free, AK Slaughter and P.T. Burnem, among others. Height With Friends are performing at the Windup Space this Saturday, and setting off on a national tour in a couple weeks, and Bmore Musically Informed recently posted a preview of a few tracks from their upcoming album, Bed Of Seeds, which will be out on May 1st.

Height With Friends - "Right Road" (mp3)
This is the first and longest track on the record, also my favorite, apparently it only didn't make the cut on a previous record because of length concerns.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Height, Mickey Free, mixtape/album review, mp3, P.T. Burnem, Splice Today

Height With Friends - Baltimore Highlands Remix Album (AuralStates.com)

Height is kind of at the center of the weird, exciting indie hip hop scene going on in Baltimore these days that was responsible for the Baltimore All-Rap Round Robin last summer, which was the best show I saw in 2009, and his group project Height With Friends also released the excellent album Baltimore Highlands last year. So it's not surprising that the collaborative spirit of that show and that album led to a remix album of every track from the original, with Height's vocals laid over all new beats, which was made available for streaming and downloading by AuralStates.com. Most of the people that did remixes for this also worked on the original Baltimore Highlands, including Jones, PT Burnem and King Rhythm, so it's really not too far off from the overall sound and vibe of the original, even if some individual songs get pretty dramatic facelifts. One of the things I praised the original album for in my City Paper review was that "his verses sound custom made for each track, with unique cadences that dart in and out of the beat," so it's kinda weird to hear that exact quality removed, and sometimes the new beats just plain don't fit as well, and sacrifice that comfortable, handmade quality of the songs. But it's still a really dope experiment and I hope this scene continues to bubble and get people working together in creative new ways. Height and a lot of his friends are playing Bmore Musically Informed's big show at the Ottobar This Sunday.

"Cold And Shaken (AK Remix)" (mp3)
This was the track I posed from the original album last year, and it makes sense to post the remix now both because of that, and because it's one of my favorite tracks on either record. AK from AK Slaughterr throws a pretty hard beat under the vocal, but then in the second half of the track he really chops up the vocals and takes it in a whole other direction.

Labels: AK Slaughter, Height, Mickey Free, mixtape/album review, mp3, P.T. Burnem

Labels: AK Slaughter, flyer, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Mickey Free, Ottobar, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons

Over on my other blog, Narrowcast, I recently posted a list of the 20 best shows I saw in 2009, and the Baltimore hip hop artists on the list included Height, Mickey Free, AK Slaughter, Rapdragons, P.T. Burnem, Kane and Midas and Ron G. of Mania Music Group, Minlus McCracken, Jade Fox, Wordsmith, Soul Cannon, Si-Notes, Shy Lady Heroin, the Get Em Mamis and E Major.

Labels: AK Slaughter, E Major, G.E.M./Tha Plague, Height, Jade Fox, Kane, lists, Mania Music Group, Midas, Minlus McCracken, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Ron G., Soul Cannon, Wordsmith

P.T. Burnem - Paper Cranes

P.T. Burnem is another one of the newer acts out of the Baltimore indie hip hop scene that I've got into this year from contributing to the Height With Friends album and performing at the Baltimore All-Rap Round Robin. And it's funny, the impression I got from his performance at that show was that he was almost on some futuristic sci-fi rap tip, maybe because he was wearing weird goggles and kinda giving off this serious vibe compared to some of the other acts there. But really his stuff is pretty approachable and easy to understand, really talking about some normal real life shit, and he has a deep voice and concise delivery that I think make him sound a little more like a traditional hip hop head than most white indie rappers tend to come off as. Height makes some guest appearances and there's some kind of far-out rock instrumentation on here like there was on his album, but the whole thing hangs together as an album really well despite being kind of all over the place. P.T. Burnem is playing at the Charm City Art Space this Tuesday.

P.T. Burnem - "Baltimore 09" (mp3)
This song kind of doubles as one of the more accessible traditional hip hop songs on the album, and a scathing indictment of the Baltimore hip hop scene.

Labels: Height, mixtape/album review, mp3, P.T. Burnem

Labels: flyer, P.T. Burnem

note: doors for this show are at 10:30, not 9:00 as listed

Labels: flyer, Mickey Free, P.T. Burnem, Rapdragons, Zodiac