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Lindsey Jordan leads her band Snail Mail in a performance at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Sept. 9, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Marylanders, Marylandians, whatever you label them, tend to be a boastful people.
Ellicott City native Lindsey Jordan, who’s made a global name for herself recording as Snail Mail, might be as proud as any you’ll meet.
On a recent rainy day, I nonetheless was really excited to see Failure play at Baltimore Soundstage. Between the rain-slowed traffic, fallen trees blocking the road, and my unfamiliarity with downtown Baltimore, I’m amazed I made it to the show on time. But nothing was going to stop me from making it to the show.
The last time I (or anyone else, for that matter) saw Failure was in 2019 for the tour to support their album In The Future Your Body Will Be The Furthest Thing From Your Mind. That tour was amazing, so my expectations were incredibly high for this go around.
Doug Martsch leads Built To Spill in a performance at 9:30 Club on May 12, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
The terms “vehicle” or “project” are used occasionally in discussions about bands with a focal instrumentalist or songwriter, and in many cases, these would seem like appropriate descriptions for some of today’s most adored groups with morphing identities.
But the question of how much exploration has been done or how much ground has been covered might be best reserved for the more veteran outfit still striving to outdo itself with each studio album.
In a recent anticipated stop at 9:30 Club, Built To Spill demonstrated that it is indeed actualizing the goal its founder — vocalist and electric guitarist Doug Martsch — set for it 30 years ago: to become an inventive, absorbing indie rock outfit with a rotating cast of members that could help perpetuate evolving substance and sound.
OURS performs at Jammin’ Java on March 3, 2022. (Photo by Marc Shea)
Jimmy Gnecco is a very soft spoken, down to earth person. As a musician and an artist, he is a powerful, uncompromising force. After Jimmy founded the band OURS, they played a total of five shows before the record label bidding war began.
But it was far from the dream that musicians hope for. It took years for Jimmy to get his first album to sound the way he wanted it to sound. And that wonderful sound was on full display in a recent performance by OURS at Jammin’ Java in Virginia.
OURS (Photo art courtesy Jammin’ Java)
OURS hit the road next month in support of their latest album released last year. The self-titled set came out on OURS’ own label Cage Recording Company, the third to be released independently after several major label offerings.
To launch the tour, OURS performs at Jammin’ Java on Thursday, March 3.
“You and I travel to the beat of a different drum,” the opening line of the Michael Nesmith-penned “Different Drum” goes. And so can be said for Evan Dando, the creative force behind The Lemonheads. From the punk leanings of The Lemonheads’ Hate Your Friends to the pop masterpieces on It’s a Shame About Ray and Car Button Cloth, Dando’s musical trajectory has never been beholden to anything other than Dando himself.
Garbage (Flyer courtesy Sacks & Co.)
Garbage will share their seventh studio album No Gods No Masters on June 11 via Stunvolume/Infectious Music.
The record’s debut single “The Men Who Rule the World” and its accompanying mixed media video — created by Chilean film director, animator, and painter Javi.MiAmor — are out now.
3 Doors Down (Photo courtesy Red Light Management)
3 Doors Down is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their multi-platinum debut album The Better Life with three opportunities to watch them live from your living room performing from Nashville.
The series kicks off on Friday, Feb. 5, in a livestream via Mandolin, and it will feature the band, for the first time, playing their debut album in its entirety plus 3 never before heard songs from their vault.
Foo Fighters (Photo by Danny Clinch)
Hot on the heels of “No Son of Mine,” Foo Fighters unleash another dose of Medicine at Midnight in the form of “Waiting on a War.” In stark contrast to the bludgeoning “final f*ck you to 2020” (UPROXX) of its predecessor, “Waiting on a War” is a sprawling melodic opus that gradually builds to a patented FF rave-up.
If “Waiting on a War” seems to have an especially emotional heft to its lyrics, well, that’s because it does. Today is Foo frontman Dave Grohl’s birthday!
Badflower (Photo by Jordan Wolfbaur)
Primal and passionate, Badflower frontman Josh Katz transforms as he steps up to the microphone. The unmitigated kind of catharsis fueled by emotion and unfiltered intensity offers an awakening to the mind and body as audiences wholly experience the band’s palpable energy.
See Josh and the rest of the band in a livestream via Veeps on Monday, Dec. 13, as they declare, #ChristmasIsCancelled