Radio IST List: Graham Williams
Austinist's Will Mills Gets Dunked For Charity [Video]
Bibles and Rhymes: An Interview with Why?'s Yoni Wolf
Oh, Baltimore. You are so ready for an upswing it's not even funny. Each conversation about the city, by law, must be peppered with mentions of the crime stats or Wire references (a show about crime, natch) though the city's musical history does loom large; natives span the musical map and include Billie Holiday, DMX and Phillip Glass. More recently the Wham City scene has inspired a double-take at the city, and less dance-oriented (and trendy) groups like Wye Oak and the Lexie Mountain Boys are also breaking out.
All of which brings us to Wilderness, a Baltimore band signed to the fine Jagjaguwar label who dropped their self-titled debut about three years ago. Just last month they fished out their latest, (K)NO(W)HERE and are touring the States in support. Thoughtful indie-rock with lead singer James Johnson's vocals thundering out in front, it's a peculiar amalgamation that should appeal to fans of labelmates Parts & Labor and The Besnard Lakes.
Opening are San Serac from Massachusetts and Followed By Static from right here. Having toured with The Junior Boys, nudging up against peers like Chromeo and pointing to Midnight Star and Bryan Ferry as influences, this "electronic funk" is heavily '80s with a dollop of punk fusion and disco. If any of the above names tickle your fancy, you'll want to see Serac get down.
Followed By Static are a semi-gloomy group who trade in guitar reverb, quiet drum machine beats and wistful lyricism. We previously said the band "succeed at not-rock surprisingly well," and we're sticking to our story.
Wilderness: [website] [myspace]
San Serac: [website] [myspace]
Followed By Static: [myspace]
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The crew at Waterloo Records were rocking Wilderness last night. It was really catchy. I asked where they were from and the girl behind the counter said "Baltimore" and I was like what, really, Baltimore? The town with the crime and the Wire and the weird accents? So, yeah pretty much.