Elvis Lives @ the Golden West Tonight

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Hump day Baltimore. Whew! Bet you wish it would snow some more so you could get another day off, yeah?

Well put your feet up. Take it easy. Eat yourself a nice dinner, get the laundry done, and maybe even take a nap. You’ve got plenty of time on your hands, cause the action tonight isn’t kicking off until ridiculously late for a Wednesday. The Chop is even going to get up to a little pregame Choppery before tonight’s main event ourselves.

That main event, of course, is at the Golden West tonight, when Gary B, Title Tracks, and Pretty & Nice take the stage. The show kicks off at 11:00 (Not 10. Don’t be fooled.)

Gary B and Title Tracks channel Elvis at the Golden West tonight. 11pm.

And honestly, you can even show up late to an 11pm show, since (presumably) the first band up will be Pretty & Nice. Here’s what Buzzgrinder had to say about them last year:

Boston’s Pretty & Nice is one of those bands that you either love or hate. Quirky and catchy are two adjectives that come to mind. You’ll either want to hop around like an idiot or punch any/all of the members in the throat.

The Chop is firmly in the latter camp, thinking this band is too cute by half. We’re going to risk exposure to their set though, because we don’t want to chance missing out on Title Tracks, the new D.C. outfit featuring former Q and Not U frontman John Davis, along with some of the other usual DC suspects.

While Q and Not U was and is one of our favorite bands ever, The new Title Tracks record , which just dropped a little over a week ago, sounds more like Elvis Costello way back when he was still singing songs about the radio.

Not to be outdone, Baltimore is representing with it’s own Elvis Costello imposters (yes, that’s a pun!) Gary B and the Notions. We’re gonna be honest here Baltimore… the chance to see two bands this good channeling the ghost of Elvis is, at this point, even better than seeing Costello live. After all, the man is pushing 60. No crowded amphitheaters, no piano ballads, and no $100+ tickets. Just great songs and good beer on tap at the Golden West.

Don’t fall asleep early tonight.

Practicing as a Professional @ MICA Today

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Continuing on with last night’s theme, today is all about another friend who’s forsaken Baltimore for supposedly greener pastures. In this case, its our buddy Daniel Shea, who is lecturing at his alma mater MICA tonight on the subject of Practicing As a Professional, along with fellow alumni Rose Cromwell and Jennifer Grimyser at 4:30 today in the Brown Center’s Falvey Hall.

<i>Cheshire, Ohio</i> from the <i>Plume</i> series, by Daniel Shea

While we have to give Daniel a pass for moving back to Chi to teach and work, since he’s a Chicago native and only ever planned to be here for college, he’s certainly the type of working artist and good friend we can always use more of here in Baltimore.

The Chop knows for a fact that he’s been working his ass off non-stop since graduation, and today he’ll be good enough to share the knowledge he’s accrued with you; and if you listen closely, you might just figure out how to avoid the trap of being the kind of photographer who shoots corny weddings and maudlin photos of peoples’ fucking pets.

Instead, Daniel’s chosen to do things that are actually interesting, like being a founding member of the Dreamboats Collective, and working on his Plume series. He’s also built his own website at dsheaphoto.net, in addition to being on just about every social media website out there in the cloud.

So yeah, sneak out of work early today and learn how to stack up some paper for yourself.

If you can’t make it today, you can also see Daniel solo tomorrow in MICA’s Bunting Hall, room#110, where he’ll be disussing his Plume and Removing Mountains series’. Check it out.

Sayonara, Dubin-san

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Sigh. Today the Chop doffs our cap one last time to a Baltimorean we well admire; Brian Dubin. He’s off to Japan as of today. What’s he doing there? Who knows. We’ve been gone, you know, and each year that goes by we fall more and more into the trap of allowing internet interactions to substitute for actual interactions.

This photo was stolen from Dubin's eHarmony profile.

Dubin himself has been prone to reclusion over the years, spending long periods in which his only signal to the outside world is posting links to rare Nirvana bootlegs to Facebook. When he does come out though, man, does he ever. Dubin has been a part of some of the most crucial Baltimore bands of the last decade, including the Charm City Suicides, the New Flesh, and Fascist Fascist. It’s little remembered that he was even the original drummer for Double Dagger. He’s also been a regular contributor to the Mobtown Shank, filling you in on music you might not have known about otherwise. So his body of work and influence in these parts won’t be soon forgotten.

We also plan to do a bit of finger wagging at his (surprise!) bon voyage party tonight though, since we are firmly on record as being very much opposed to anyone moving away from Charm City for any reason. But we do wish you all the luck and success Dubin, even if we hope secretly that you’ll decide to come back soon.

Whatever you want to do Baltimore, you can do it right here. Whatever you want to be, you can be right here.
And if everyone who ever dumped us like a fugly, snaggle-toothed hook-up had stayed, Baltimore would now be the Mecca you wish it was.

Mark Andersen, Sab Grey @ Atomic Books Tonight

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But now I see and know what is going on tonight. We’re keeping it low-key and heading up to Atomic Books for a reading of one of our old favorites, Dance of Days by Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins. The Chop can clearly remember when the first edition was published by Soft Skull Press back in 2001, and our first introduction to the book was Andersen reading from it and making a very touching, personal speech about what DC punk has meant to him, and what it can mean to all of us. The tone was even more bittersweet, coming as it did during the last show at the Wilson Center.

Mark Andersen and Sab Grey read at Atomic Books tonight, 7pm.

Since then, Andersen has become the DC scene’s pre-eminent self-appointed historian, continuing to document the scene’s happenings and researching and cataloging the ‘salad days’, continuing to update the book with a Whitman-esque passion, in addition to his work writing for the Washington Post and Time Out New York, among others. He’s also a founding organizer of Positive Force DC and is the director of the We Are Family Group, which does settlement work in DC. Our hat is certainly off to anyone who can keep himself that busy, and effect so much positive change in his own community.

The new third edition of Dance of Days includes a new introduction and a whole new chapter, as well as other updates on DC bands such as Crispus Attucks, Scene Creamers, and the permanent hiatus of Fugazi.

Andersen will be reading from the book and signing copies alongside Baltimore’s own Sab Grey, frontman of the seminal skinhead band Iron Cross, and author of two novels, including Hated and Proud, from which he’ll be reading tonight.

Humiliated III @ Metro Gallery Tonight

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Wasting no time, the Chop picked up the phone and got himself a date for his first Friday night back in town. Maybe not what you’d call a hot date, but we’re keeping our mind well open, since the nature of our work precludes much interaction with the fairer sex while we’re abroad.

And while dating girls in college (no, not grad school, but actual college is one of those things that most men want to do as much as possible while they still can, we’ve found that it doesn’t usually work so well in real life. We fear we’re in for an evening of listening to inane pop-culture references, youthful know-it-all-ism, and statements like “I listen to anything that has a good beat…”

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of dateworthy events in town tonight. We’ll see where we end up.

CA residents' open house is tonight, 7pm

It might be over to the Creative Alliance for their Residents’ Open House. See the opening, have some cocktails, and watch Celebration play an acoustic set for free. Hard to go wrong there.

Then again, if she doesn’t fancy herself highbrow, we might get up to the Metro Gallery for Humiliated III, cause hey… why not make a potentially awkward date even more awkward by listening to stories about other awkward dates. Very meta. It could go really well for us, or really badly. Probably no in-between.

Humiliated III @ Metro Gallery, 8pm.

Of course, if it does go well, the laughs don’t end as Bar Bacon hits the Golden West tonight at 11:00. We might suggest it as an afterthought, or might drop her off early and slide in there solo. Either way, its a good night.