Baltimore Music

Alright Baltimore! This band is sick! Excellent work! Time Column's seven song album “Mana” on Bandcamp is really solid. They’re calling it instrumental post-rock, but it’s really way more interesting than that. I’m not a huge fan of post-rock, probably because of Explosions In The Sky, but these guys are giving the term a much better reputation. These songs hit way harder than you’d expect, and I love it. The intricate parts are really intricate, and the heavy parts are really heavy.

The first track, “Salvo”, starts out with some nice beach sounds and eventually gets really heavy and complex. The guitars are doing really interesting things rhythmically. I’m glad to see that “math rock” tag. This drumming is exactly what I think of when I hear somebody mention that genre.

The album artwork here is really beautiful too. It’s a really clean drawing that almost looks like it could’ve been from a video game art book, and the color on it is textured wonderfully.

The second track, “Lights At Rendlesham” is really solid as well. The guitar starts it out, but those math rock drums join in pretty quickly and make things really interesting. I do love those guitars too though, no hard feelings meant here.

You should definitely check out Time Columns if you like instrumental music involving drums, electric guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers, and sound effects! These guys are doing a great job! Quite honestly, I’m surprised to see something this impressive in this genre coming from Baltimore. Keep up the good work!

One time, I went to Chicago and watched some Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins impersonators. They played a western song at one point where a woman came out and basically sang opera while the other guys played normal western stuff. It was amazing, and I’ve totally found nothing like it since then except for Baltimore’s The Sterling Sisters.

Really well trained female vocalists can do such interesting things. “Raised You In The West” has been highlighted on this site before, and it’s really worth mentioning again. Those creepy female operatic sustains are incredible.

The Sterling Sisters’ whole six track self-titled EP is absolutely great. Even the sixteen second “A Prayer”. I would love to see this band. I feel like I might be genuinely scared by them. Not even just that girl. They do such creepy things on guitars and banjos too. This is one of the most atmospheric bands I’ve heard in a while, and they aren’t even tagged as “ambient”! Ha! “Americana”, “Country”, “Folk”, and “Neo-Folk” are exactly what I want this music to represent.

Some of these songs drive. Some of these songs creep. Some of these songs chant. All of these songs suck you and, scare you, and make you want to listen to them at least four more times. “Last Run” is probably my favorite. The guy basically yells for a while, then there is more male singing while the girl does the incredible creepy atmosphere thing. I absolutely love this band. 

This is very good! The Little Creatures’ “The Little Creatures EP” is full of awesome sounds including heavily processed vocals. They performed, programmed, recorded, and mixed everything on all four of these tracks themselves. It was released in October 2011, and written by Nenner and Potts.

“Kingdoms Crumble” is the first of the four tracks, and it’s really exciting. I could easily see myself riding my bike around town listening to this and thinking that I was the king of the world. I could also see myself thinking that I was a part of a society which was constantly breaking itself down. I haven’t really thought about these lyrics, but the music says a lot about itself. There’s a lot of variety here too. This song changes up quite a bit after about two and a half minutes. I love those electric saw sounds.

“Paradigm A Dozen.” What a great song name! This one starts with some really cool distorted spoken word and then chills out into a very midtempo trip out song. I’m sitting here listening to this, and I absolutely don’t want to do anything else. It makes me just want to listen. I really love the effects on these vocals.

Go check these songs out. They’re on The Little Creatures’ Bandcamp page at name your price. So go there and name your price! That includes free! But give them some money if you have it to give. Every artist needs some money to keep the works coming. 

Don’t lose your cool. That’s the most solid advice I’ve heard in quite a while. Stay calm. Keep dreaming. Whatever you do, don’t lose your cool. That’s the name of Diamond’s seven track album on Bandcamp, and it’s really good alt rock from Baltimore.

“Sunburn” is catchy, and this could totally be on the radio. He sings about the importance of time, another super solid bit of advice. All you need is time! This is exactly what I think of when I think of alternative rock, but the lyrics and song ideas are way more meaningful.

“Don’t’ Lose Your Cool” is a forty-one second track of harmonies and lyrics about keeping calm and remembering that nothing really needs to be taken that seriously. This is a great track. Individually, it’s probably my favorite part of the album even though it’s so short and sparse.

“Pleasantries” finishes up the album really well. It seems pretty emotional, and the music really swings. Then there’s a totally sick guitar solo right in the middle of the song. There aren’t enough guitar solos nowadays. After it, the tempo picks up and the song goes full force for a couple minutes until it blows out and completes the album with some nice clean chords.

I can’t tell how often diamond plays shows, but if you hear about one going on, go see them. If not, you can get their great album on Bandcamp for free. It comes with some really great album art of the coolest looking dog in Maryland.