A few months ago your Chop was drinking in a pub in England when we kinda sorta inadvertently but not really but whatever started an Internet teapot tempest talking shit on Twitter. We talk a lot of shit, sure. But we also want to be certain we give credit where credit is due and right now there’s a lot of credit due to Pianos Become the Teeth. Here’s a band that’s playing a hometown show at the end of a giant tour and doing it right. They’re bringing their tour mates with them. They’re billing it as a co-headline with Tiger’s Jaw. They’re in a right-size venue with reasonably priced tickets....
Hard Dads @ Golden West Tonight
posted by The Chop
How do you know it’s Summer? Is it just because the temperature is up and you can feel it? Is it because you can see with your own two eyes that there are festivals and jorts and baseball all over the place? Is it because you are tasting burgers off the grill and delicious steamed crabs and Boh? Can you really be sure? No, you can’t be sure it’s Summer until you hear the sound of the Summer- and for 2013 that sound is Hard Dads. What makes them the soundtrack to Summer? In a word, sleaze. Not that they’re a particularly dirty band, no filthy lyrics for shock value or anything like that, they just sound sleazy in the...
Everybody at the US Open Needs a Haircut
posted by The Chop
As you all know by now the Chop is a Baseball Man. And baseball kept us plenty busy this weekend, watching several games and playing catch with Dad at Oriole Park for Fathers’ Day. But after we returned home from what really was a special, memorable, and very well-run event at Camden Yards we had a spare hour or two to check out the last of the final-round play at yesterday’s US Open golf tournament. And Baltimore, we were quite dismayed at what we saw. We’re sure that many of you were pulling for Phil, but in our estimation the better man won. You see, golf is a gentleman’s sport, and one of its major tournaments has...
The Chop Has a Catch With Dad
posted by The Chop
This Sunday is Fathers’ Day. Our Dad has always been a little tough to shop for. He’s the sort that’s pretty well set in his ways and has everything he needs, and besides, he’s such a great dad that no mere gift can adequately express our love and gratitude. So we usually just end up treating him to lunch or doing the best we can with a hit-or-miss gift, just happy to spend some time together and say thanks. This year though, we’ve managed to go one better. For us, Fathers’ Day 2013 is going to be pretty special. A month ago the Orioles made the announcement that they’d be selling a special ticket...
The Chop Approves of Thetiebar.com
posted by The Chop
We’ve already discussed the basics of How to Wear a Tie Casually, but today we’re going to pick up where that post left off and put down a few words of praise for thetiebar.com. Founded by a pair of attorneys who became fed up with paying a fortune for ties, The Tie Bar set out to create a better tie shopping experience and succeeded in spades. The site features hundreds of pages of selection, and every tie on the site is priced at $15. And let’s be honest here: ties don’t have to cost a fortune. They’re not very labor intensive to create and they’re basically a one-size-fits-all product that is easy to...
Privacy Scmivacy: Ou...
posted by The Chop
Two weeks ago in this space we opined that the current crop of Washington scandals isn’t really so scandalous. And judging by the amount of coverage that they’re getting in the press this week, we were right. The AP, Benghazi, the IRS, these are all now officially old news....
Jim Palmer Baseball ...
posted by The Chop
If there’s one thing the Chop loves above all else, it’s the Old Ballgame. It’s almost scandalous just how much of our day is occupied by the Pastime. When we’re not watching the O’s, we’re checking in on the Nationals or on the lookout for a random Cubs or...
Guide to Baltimore i...
posted by The Chop
In last Wednesday’s post, we highlighted ten of the best Baltimore-related apps for the iPhone. There were a lot of must-have offerings from developers as diverse as the Ravens, Wham City, WYPR, and of course, yours truly. Today though we’re going to dig even deeper into the App...
The Beaux’ Str...
posted by The Chop
You’ll have to forgive the Chop if we’re a little impatient this evening, Baltimore. Pardon us if we’re a bit brusque with a busboy or a peck piqued at a parking attendant. For you see, tonight we’ve got a curtain time to make. This evening we’re heading downtown...
Krystal
posted by The Chop
Don’t look now Baltimore, but it’s that time of year again. That time when our web browsers and social media feeds, not to mention our actual streets are clogged to the gills with rich suburbanites pretending to be working class city folk by wrapping themselves in cheap plastic...
Guide to Baltimore i...
posted by The Chop
One of the most popular ad taglines in recent memory has been ‘Don’t leave home without it.’ It applied to the American Express card initially, but since the phrase first hit the airwaves it’s burrowed itself deep into the public consciousness and been applied to...
Best Small Grills fo...
posted by The Chop
Now that June is here Summer is in full swing in Baltimore. Long gone are the days of spending whole Sundays in the kitchen, boiling soups and sauces and baking and generally trying to make the kitchen as cozy as possible. Our kitchen is no longer cozy: it’s hotter than Satan’s...
The Chop Approves of...
posted by The Chop
We’ve got a case of the Mondays today. We don’t really feel like going anywhere and or doing anything the least bit trying or even writing this blog post. And the Mondays are especially bad this week, since this past weekend was probably one of the best we’ve ever spent, at...
Tomorrow: South Care...
posted by The Chop
The Chop made our first-ever trip to SoWeBo fest last weekend. As we’ve mentioned before, crossing MLK is to us like hopping over the Berlin Wall into an entirely different city. Being From East Baltimore and eventually settling in North Baltimore, we’ve hardly ever had any reason...
Oriole Park at Camde...
posted by The Chop
After more than twenty years of ballgames in downtown Baltimore it’s been pretty well established that when it comes to Oriole Park at Camden Yards there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Being stuck in the upper rows of the 380′s on a Student Night is about as bad as it...
Roomrunner Record Re...
posted by The Chop
We should probably use this space to give a very thoughtful and considered review of Roomrunner’s long anticipated Ideal Cities LP, which was released yesterday on Fan Death Records. At this point it would behoove us to give you a full background of the band and a proper context in which...
Lemuria, War on Wome...
posted by The Chop
Baltimore can be a strange place on a long holiday weekend. The normal pace of city life pauses. People quit showing up to work if they possibly can and head out to the beach or to family reunions or weddings or whatever it is people do when they’re not in Baltimore. And in recent years...
Tomorrow: Slap Shot ...
posted by The Chop
At one point the Chop had a formidable collection of VHS tapes. This was in an era before you could watch any movie you wanted at any time you wanted pretty much anywhere in the world. Once upon a time we were a young, broke-ass Chop, forced to scour the pawn shops and bargain bins for...
New Music in Baltimo...
posted by The Chop
You don’t have to listen to any Classic Rock radio station for very long before you realize that every single one of them is drawing from the same 200 song playlist every single day, and has been for the last 30 years. That’s because the Baby Boomer generation is all shitty...
The Scandal, My Frie...
posted by The Chop
So, your Chop might just be the only person in America who is of this opinion, but if you ask us there aren’t any serious scandals going on in Washington right now. Sure, there are “scandals” but they really amount to little more than business as usual. We fail to see how...
Tomorrow: Killer Ang...
posted by The Chop
Despite the title, this post is only halfway about the opening reception of Killer Angels: Faces of American Death Metal. It’s mainly a post about Future Islands, who we’re going to go see at Metro Gallery tomorrow. Naturally, it’s been a while since we’ve seen these...
Spring Shoes
posted by The Chop
There’s a scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep gives Anne Hathaway a very cool and refined dressing down for her ignorance of how fashion cycles work. It’s pretty much all the average person needs to know about High Fashion, and it’s a lesson that we’d all...