BMore/Electro Message Board

A little over a month ago my friend Patrick created a Baltimore Electronic Music message board/forum to try to network and link up dj's/producers/promoters/music fans/crazy bastards through out the Baltimore region. I think it's a great idea, and so far it's been delightfully fun to get to know other cat's around the city who share similar interests.

Thus, I invite all reader's of this blog to join us: B-More/Electro Message Board JOIN TODAY!

You'll be able to find links to mixes by your favorite artists. Engage in casual conversation with other weird bastards who live near you. Promote parties that you are throwing. Link up with other dj's and producers for collaborations. Talk politics. Sell copies of your remixes. Whatever you want, as long as you can loosely tie it to Baltimore and Music, or hell even if you can't! But regardless, check it out. Sign up today!

Terps Update: Let The Roller Coaster Ride Begin

I resisted the urge to plaster my blog with all kinds of negative criticism of the Maryland Terps 63-58 depressing defeat at the hands of the decidedly below average Miami Hurricanes. And boy am I glad that I did.

After shooting just 22% in a listless defeat to Miami, Maryland comes out three days later and hands #14 Clemson their first defeat of the year, shooting just short of 63% while pulling out the big "W" 92-87. The game was on ESPNU, so most of America didn't get the opportunity to view this win. I had my gamecast fired up, and was listening along with Johnny Holiday's play-by-play almost the entire game. A simple review of the Box Score and you'll get a pretty good impression of how the Terps rebounded from an utterly devestating loss.

Ekene Ibekwe pulled out a huge game scoring 20 points with 10 boards, 2 assists, and missing only 1 free throw. I remember games last year, where Ekene would consistently brick 7 out of 8 from the charity stripe. It's nice to see his measured improvement. I'll be the first to say: I laughed for hours when I read that he was going to declare for the NBA draft last year. He was getting out-rebounded by smaller players, couldn't get to the charity stripe enough, didn't convert when he did, had limited low-post moves, repeatedly got out-hustled, and had no consistent shot to lean on when he was getting shut down. Certainly not characteristics of an NBA draft pick. And while, I still doubt he's NBA material, his improvement has been noticeable.

D.J Strawberry also had a nice line scoring 14 points, with 4 boards and 6 assists. Hayes hit a huge three, and Jones, Gist, and Vasquez all contributed with double digit point totals and a myriad of key dishes and boards. And thus, the roller coaster ride begins. Which Maryland team will show up on any given night? It's difficult to tell, but let's hope that the Miami game was just a deviation from the norm!

The new ESPN/USA Today poll has the Terps jumping up from #25 to #22, despite a 1-1 week. Virginia Tech has landed at #25 with convincing victories over Duke and North Carolina back to back. I wouldn't place too much stock into the polls however, as Duke still sits at #17 despite losing back to back games last week against lackluster competition. It increasingly appears that as many as 6 teams could be in the hunt for the ACC Regular Season crown as the season narrows to an end. I wonder if this will have any NCAA tourney bound ramifications come March?


Up next: 1/16/07 @ Virginia 8 p.m.



Virginia owns two big wins this year. A 93-90 victory over Arizona to open their new building, and a 108-87 drubbing of a vastly over-rated Gonzaga team. They've got two lights-out guards in Sean Singletary and J.R Reynolds. Expect D.J. Strawberry to consistently check off with Singletary. A key match-up will be whomever the Terps send to get a hand in the face of J.R. Reynolds. Virginia's leading big man is Jason Cain, who averages 6.0 boards in only 19 minutes of play, but has been restricted in numerous contests by foul trouble.

Maryland keys to the game:
1. Maryland's ability to defend the 3.
2. Maryland needs to cut down turnovers (20 TO's in a win over Clemson).
3. Defend the paint (Ibekwe, Gist, Osby and Bowers need to do a consistent job of boxing out Virginia's bigs and forcing them out to the perimeter).

I predicted that Maryland would win the Miami game going away. Obviously, I've eaten my fair share of crow. Thus, I'm going to stick to post game commentary and analysis and leave the predictions to Jerry Porter, TO and all the sports writers at ESPN.

Artist Spotlight: Spank Rock

Hip-hop has been grinding its gears for the past twenty five years. When Run DMC dropped in 1983 they had a totally fresh sound. Hip rhyme patterns and word play over simple drum beats produced on 808's. Since then there's been some great lyricists, some great battle rappers, some soulful composers, and some excellent businessmen, but the end product sounds the same, just more polished. Enter Spank Rock.

Spank Rock is not for hip-hop purists. Spank Rock is for music fans who might be bored with the direction the genre has been stuck in for years now. No matter how meticulously we try to deconstruct genres into detached and disparate subcategories, music is nothing if not synergistic. All hip-hop categorization aside, its not everyday an album as fresh as Spank Rock's YOYOYOYOYO drops from the sky and into your cd player. Baltimore Club meets Electronica meets Miami Bass meets Contemporary Hip Hop.

Spank Rock has made a minor name for themselves by being dirtier than most: the first couplet of the album is "ass shaking competition champ/ooh that pussy gets damp." My guess is that the message doesn't fall upon virgin ears. Despite the vulgar language, you won't just be noddin' your head at songs end as is the case with most Nas tracks, you'll be dancing. Or wanting to, if you only knew how.

The rhymes aren't as tightly crafted as Hova or Em, but they're spit with such fervor and enthusiasm its hard to ignore and quite infectious. Spank Rock's vibe is clear; we're here to party, but we get down to a different beat. The vocals act more in combination with the beats, than at the forefront, and its sheer genius at it's very best. All in all, Spank Rock sell on their ability to be funny, seize the party, and get your ass up and movin'. And isn't that all that hip-hop should be about anyway?

As the custom goes, here are a couple mp3 links to check em out, especially since I just hyped it so much. I would definitely suggest you go out tomorrow and pick up YOYOYOYOYO. It won't leave your car stereo for a couple weeks.

Spank Rock MySpace Page

Spank Rock-Backyard Betty
Crunkadelic fo sho.

Spank Rock-Bump (Switch Remix)
This particular remix is pretty well done.

Spank Rock-Lindsay Lohan's Revenge
You'll laugh your ass off. Brings new relevance to rat population.

Artist Spotlight: Justice

Parisian duo Justice (Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay) are accruing daily comparisons to another French electronica pair known for infectious, innovative electro.rock.disco, in Daft Punk. Obviously influenced by the famed duo (My guess is even if you're not a fan of music you've heard Around The World), Justice leans heavily on brazen synth chunks and lines and staccato drum kit loops on the repetitive yet unforgettable title track from their debut EP, Waters of Nazareth.

Waters Of Nazareth is an EP released in 2005 and the re-release includes three additional remixes, two of which are the remixed titled song. This tune was spun out by numerous deejays and caught up the rest of Europe with their name, getting the best video at MTV Europe Music Awards this year. (The band was not present and the award was accepted by the video’s director So_Me whose speech was famously interrupted by Kanye West who proclaimed that he should have won the award.)

Justice have been signed to complete a mix for the FabricLive series in 2007, and their as-yet untitled debut artist album is due to be released on Ed Banger Records in April 2007. The album will be preceded by the "D.A.N.C.E." EP, which will feature the track "Phantom", which I've graciously included a track for your listen.

I've included some mp3 links below, so you can decide for yourself about the Daft Punk influence, but I think it's pretty obvious. Just right click, and save target as and you're well on your way to rocking out! Enjoy, and yeah, pick up the LP. And if you're still feeling that Christmas generosity. Send me some new vinyl.

Justice-Phantom

Justice Vs Simian-We Are Your Friends
Warning: This song will be stuck in your head for days.

Justice-Waters of Nazareth
There's a fine line between hypnotic and repetitive, and this song straddles it brilliantly.

Artist Spotlight: Fujiya and Miyagi

I must say, these (quite ironically three guys) have a cumbersome name. Daunting or not, their music is infectiously groovy, subdued, yet dance-worthy.

The hook on Fujiya & Miyagi's, Photocopier is invitingly curt. "We were just pretending to be Japanese," repeats singer David Best. Come to find out, they're actually a trio from Brighton, England who credit their daunting name to a turntable manufacturer and everyone's favorite karate instructor. Their wry sense of humor makes this mixture of new material and previously released tracks from vinyl-only singles (fans of which include Tiga and LCD Soundsystem) not just one of the year's most innovative and refreshing dance records but also the craftiest. Ankle Injuries yarns stumbling across an old porno mag on the way to school and morphs it into a dreamy revelation, while they even provide us Americans with a US only release of a catchy tune aptly named Reeboks in Heaven.

Mix seventies krautrock with early nineties electronica, catchy, flowing, and witty lyrics with chunky, lazy basslines and scratchy guitars and you've got Fujiya and Miyagi. I'm going to post a couple mp3's for your enjoyment, but I really reccomend you pick up the cd, Transparent Things when you get a chance. You can thank me later.

Fujiya and Miyagi's Webpage

Fujiya and Miyagi-Collarbone

Fujiya and Miyagi-Ankle Injuries

Fujiya and Miyagi-Reeboks In Heaven

Fear The Turtle or Hell In A Shell?

Bear with me. Like I said before, I plan on using this blog for a variety of purposes and to address a variety of topics. Some you may find intriguing, some you may find totally useless, some you may find humorous, some totally humor free. My blog is your oyster.

That aside, it's time to talk some college roundball. You'll learn quickly that I'm a huge college basketball fan. Namely, Maryland Terps basketball fan.



We're now officially two months into the season and Maryland's racked up a quite respectable 14-2 start. They're ranked just on the outer fringes of the AP and Coaches Top 25 polls. They've achieved key victories over Illinois, Michigan State, St. John's, and a vastly under-rated Winthrop team. Yet, I still can't quite tell you how good this team is. 16 games. Just more than half a season and I still can't figure out if I'm rooting for a winner, or the same enigmatic, low energy, turnover prone product of the past two seasons.

Last night the Terps beat Siena 88-57. A drubbing. That tells me nothing. Well other than the fact that Gary intentionally made this cup-cake laden schedule to hand his team some sorely needed freebies in the victory department. And I will admit, while watching the Terps beat schools like UMKC 101-50 isn't the most exciting display of college athletics I've seen in a while, it's certainly effective.

Gary saw last year, that more or less in this ACC, 20 is the magic number. You get to 20 wins, you play .500 ball in conference, you're assured a spot dancing with the other hopefuls come March. Obviously, he thought this team needed a couple more freebies to get to 20. As it stands now I think they're gonna finish in the neighborhood of 23-8 or 24-7, and look at a #4 or #5 seed squarely in the eye. But then again, I'm the guy who just told you I don't know how good this team is. I do know that they'll win more games than last year, and I feel pretty confident that alone will be enough to get them into the tourney. With ACC play starting up soon, I do know that I'll know a whole lot more, real soon.

And that's good enough for me.

Next game: Miami @ Maryland 1/10/2006 9:00pm tip-off
From what I understand of Miami, they lost two exceptional players last year in Diaz and Hite, and haven't come remotely close to replacing them. They've got losses to Binghamton, Kent State and Northwestern. I'm liking our chances.

Allow me to re-introduce myself.

Each man just wants his own legacy. It's why carpenter's are always writing on walls. It's the same idea every man gets, to write his name and the date before he seals off a wall with Sheetrock. Sometimes they leave the day's newspaper. It's tradition to leave a bottle of beer or wine. Roofers will write on the decking before they cover it with tar paper and shingles. Framers will write on the sheathing before they cover it with clapboard or stucco. Their name and the date. Some little part of themselves for someone in the future to discover. Maybe a thought. We were here. We built this. A reminder.

Call it custom or superstition or feng shui.

It's a kind of sweet homespun immortality.

In art history, they teach how Pope Pius V asked El Greco to paint over some nude figures Michelangelo had painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. El Greco agreed, but only if he could paint over the entire ceiling. They teach that El Greco is only famous because of his astigmatism. That's why he distorted his human bodies, because he couldn't see right, he stretched everybody's arms and legs and got famous for the dramatic effect.

From famous artists to building contractors, we all want to leave our signature. Our lasting effect. Your life after death.

We all want to explain ourselves. Nobody wants to be forgotten.

Now I can't build a house. I'd get hung up on all the jargon. Seriously, its like speaking another language. Try talking to a contractor. Good luck.

And while the construction industry has passed me over. I've got this technology thing under wraps. I can write a blog. And snap, I will not be forgotten. I can't be. My words will be here forever. Here's to my legacy. My cyber remembrance. My digital footprints.

Among these lines of text and the many that intend to follow it you'll find me.

Now for those of you that don't function well in the abstract. Those of you that crave categorization and order. You mess-ophobics. What you'll read here will be a mix of social commentary, music, music, music, music, music, and sports. I know. I can hear the words as they trickle off your tongue, spraying bits of spit into the air in front of your ugly little face. Some unique legacy you're leaving for humanity, Eric. So be it. Go ahead and read it. I dare you.