TURNING PINK FLOYD into reggae?

Easy Star Records co-founder Michael Goldwasser was skeptical at first. One of his partners at the label, Lem Oppenhimer, had the idea while walking down the street listening to "Dark Side of the Moon."

But then Goldwasser, Easy Star All-Stars' musical director and producer, worked out some arrangements and realized a reggae Floyd could work.

So, in 2003 "Dub Side of the Moon" was born, marrying the sound of Jamaica with Pink Floyd's landmark album.

"We really didn't realize the enormity of what we were doing," Goldwasser said. "I was aware of the album, but I wasn't as into it as everyone else."

And the album has been a huge success for Easy Star Records, with sales at more than 125,000 copies. Prior to "Dub Side," the small, independent label had never sold more than 5,000 copies of anything.

Continue Reading "Welcome to Dub-Rock: Easy Star All-Stars" »

GIVEN THAT CHIPTUNERS work a narrow digital span — the roughly decade-long window when video games sounded like video games, not symphonies — the gamut of styles is surprisingly broad. YMCK comes on like some "Clockwork Orange" behavioral experiment, only with cuteness substituting for horror. Tree Wave blends drowsy indie-folk vocals with psychedelic swoops and club thump.

Laromlab — the eight-bit alias of Bowling Green, Ky.-based Brandon Harrod, whose Consoles Afire tour comes to Baltimore on Thursday — arrives at the dance floor by way of the craptastic synth-pop of '80s soundtracks.

The next time your Atari VCS and Commodore VIC-20 explode out of the basement closet, leap pastel-blazered into their Testarossa and blaze off into the night to bust coke dealers, Laromlab's brand-new self-titled "Mushpot" album is what'll be cranking on the Nakamichi.

Continue Reading "Party Like It's 6705: Laromlab" »

GOOD FORTUNE OR BAD, they say you make your own luck. Well, yes and no. Brad Nowell made his, ODing on smack before he could see Sublime, the Long Beach-based, Caribbean-crazed pop-punk outfit he fronted, become one of the biggest modern-rock successes of the late '90s and a cult fave among subsequent crops of stoner kids. But he also made the luck of a band from Rhode Island. Although there are many Sublime tribute bands, Badfish — not to be confused with the dubby SoCal outfit of the same name — is the biggest, having turned pro with the songs of a group never seen live by most of its fans. Bassist Joel Hanks tells us what keeps Badfish hooked.

» EXPRESS: You guys keepin' it real? Pot? Heroin? Dalmatians?
» HANKS: In a lot of ways, we're not living the Sublime life. People every night are, like, "Awww, come get stoned with me. C'mon," and we're, like, "Dude, I'm 28. I used to do that when I was 18. Twenty-eight — I'm married, I'm goin' back to the hotel room, I'm exhausted." In a way, it's almost a letdown for our fans to say that.

Continue Reading "Q&A: Badfish's Joel Hanks" »

ARE YOU ONE OF THE 300 TO 400 PEOPLE who have to stand all the way from the District to Baltimore on MARC's 5:20 p.m. Penn Line train? If so, take heart: relief is coming in February.

The Sun is reporting that the Maryland Board of Public Works approved a plan this morning to add three new weekday trains to boost service on the Penn Line, which connects D.C.'s Union Station with Baltimore's Penn Station via Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The new trains will be scheduled to leave D.C. at 5:10 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. A third will depart from Baltimore at 10:30 p.m., allowing another way for D.C.-area residents to go to Baltimore after work and make it back in time to catch Metrorail's final trains for the evening.

Each new MARC train will have more than 500 seats. The expanded evening service is expected to start sometime around Feb. 12.

» "MARC to Add Three New Trips on Penn Line" [Sun]

MICHAEL IAN BLACK is a beloved member of cult sketch shows "The State" and "Stella," the saronged gay wedding participant in the flick "Wet Hot American Summer" and that guy on VH1's "I Love the '80s" who isn't Mo Rocca.

Black performs at Baltimore's Ottobar on Sunday, Dec. 16, in support of "I Am a Wonderful Man," his debut stand-up disc. He took a break from playing a gay demon to talk with Express about film, literature and chicken butts.

» EXPRESS: You mentioned you were on set. What are you filming right now?
» BLACK: I'm doing a few episodes of the TV show "Reaper." It's on the CW, which us why you've never heard of it. I play a gay demon. Whenever a gay demon role pops up, my name is always on the list.

Continue Reading "Happy Reaper: Michael Ian Black" »

WHEN IT COMES to down-time, Patterson Hood isn't all that clear on the concept.

He and his band, Drive-By Truckers, had been on the road steadily since the double-disc Skynyrd-centric "Southern Rock Opera" popped up on the national radar in 2001-2002. About Halloween '06, they decided to give it a rest.

Often, with bands that know their way around a plate of okra and a case of Jack, recreation involves firework-fishing, irresponsible motorsports and shooting at whatever's laying out in the front yard.

For the DBTs, taking a break meant writing more songs than would fit on their next three albums, going into the studio to back up rediscovered soul chanteuse Bettye LaVette and undertaking a semi-acoustic tour, dubbed "The Dirt Underneath," where they worked up the new tunes and highlighted material overlooked at harder gigs. Then they cut next year's album.

"Our plan was to take most of this year off," Hood said last week. "I'm not quite sure how we thought we were gonna support ourselves or pay the bills, in light of the fact that we don't get mailbox money.

Continue Reading "Life in the Fast Lane: Drive-By Truckers" »

YESTERDAY, REPORTS CAME OUT that Maryland transportation officials are adding weekend service on the MARC commuter train system's Penn Line sometime next year, making Baltimore more accessible from D.C. on Saturday and Sunday. The change is part of a plan to triple MARC's capacity by 2035.

It turns out that the same effort will bring MARC service to a new arena: Virginia.

As The Post's Philip Rucker reports, the plan would extend Penn Line service to L'Enfant Plaza in D.C. and Crystal City in Arlington County near the Pentagon. It's a move that would lighten some of the load on Metrorail's crowded Red Line service at Union Station, where MARC's three lines all end currently. But don't expect any of that to happen until at least 2020, Rucker reports.

As regular MARC riders know, the train system already runs outside the Maryland lines. Aside from its Union Station stop, it also serves three stations in West Virginia.

» "Md. Officials Plan to Expand MARC as Region Grows" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "MARC to Offer Weekend Service in '08" [Free Ride/Express]

GETTING TO BALTIMORE on the weekends can be difficult if you don't have a car. Sure, there's Amtrak, but for years, people have hoped that the Maryland Transportation Administration would run MARC commuter trains on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Sun reports this morning that Maryland transportation officials plan to expand MARC's capacity three-fold by 2035. In the short term, that means weekend trains on the Penn Line sometime in 2008. There are still details to work out, but overall, it's good news for local transit.

» "MARC Plans Triple Capacity by 2035" [Sun]

THE SAN DIEGO COMICCON might be the Mecca of nerdiness for comic fans everywhere, but for those of us who can't afford the cross-country flight, the pricey hotels and the other costs associated with everyday functioning, look no further than Baltimore.

This weekend, comics fans and professionals alike descend upon Charm City for the eighth Baltimore Comic-Con at the Baltimore Convention Center.

The guest list of professionals ranges from legendary "Spider-Man" artist John Romita Sr. to "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola to Mad Magazine luminary Sergio Aragones.

Aragones will also be the keynote speaker at the 2007 Harvey Awards, which will he held Saturday night at the Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards. Cartoonist Kyle Baker ("The Cowboy Wally Show") will host the awards, named after "Mad Magazine" founder Harvey Kurtzman, recognizes outstanding achievements in the comic field. The award is the only industry prize whose winner is nominated and selected by comic professionals.

Before the awards begin, though, you can walk the aisles of the Comic-
Con, where more than 150 artists, writers and creators will be signing, sketching and discussing sequential art.

You'll also find a vast market of graphic novels, toys, videos, manga, original art and, of course, comic books ranging from Thursday's latest releases to rare four-color gems from the Golden Age of comics. The convention is also offering an array of programming to enhance your comic knowledge.

Continue Reading "The Graphic Truth: Baltimore Comic-Con" »