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...

It is one of the great injustices in the music world that shitty bar bands who cover top 40 songs are usually some of the best paid bands out there. We don’t mean to say that getting up and playing Margaritaville and Rehab is ultra-lucrative and you can quit your day job doing it, but on...

It was a slow weekend around the Chophouse. We spent most of it drinking boxed wine and watching hard-boiled movies from the 70′s like Midnight Express and Dog Day Afternoon. Hell, it was a slow weekend around Baltimore. Except for Sunday night, there wasn’t much doing. So we...

We were really looking kind of hard for something to say about tonight’s show. Off With Their Heads is coming to the Golden West. We don’t have too much to say about them because we’re not very familiar with them. They’re a punk band on Epitaph so it’s like...

We kind of have mixed feelings about Godspeed You Black Emperor here at the Baltimore Chop. They’re a band that’s always had a lot of vision and integrity and has been unique every step of the way, defying comparison to other bands in an age where you are the sum of your...

First there was just the urban landscape. Here’s an old train station and here’s a little patch of grass and here’s a statue and a few old brownstones around. Then somebody got the idea to fill the landscape up with art. They called it “Artscape.” It was a pretty...

Terrible Feelings is a band. They’re from Sweden. This is what we imagine they look like when they play live. They sound like a cross between The Vicious and Siouxsie and the Banshees. They sound like this: There are more songs on their Soundcloud page. They’re playing with...

You know the Shamrock Inn. At least you should know the Shamrock Inn. It’s a Baltimore landmark of sorts. If you’re a true blue Baltimoron your dad probably knows the Shamrock Inn. You’ve likely driven past the Shamrock Inn a couple hundred times and said ‘Damn it, I...

It used to be hard to discover new music. Back when underground music was, um, underground- hell, back when you could use the term ‘underground music’ without sounding like someone’s dad it took a lot to discover music that wasn’t on the radio. It usually involved...

A couple of years ago we wrote our first post about going to a roller derby bout. We were pretty happy with how it turned out, and it was probably the most popular post of 2010. Problem is, we kind of said everything we know about roller derby right there. It can be kind of tough to write...

Maybe the closest to Zen thought that a lot of us ever get on a regular basis is to ponder the question “Is Punk dead, or is Punk not dead?” It’s a real tree falling in the forest kind of thing. Punks have been asking that question in one form or another for thirty years now,...

Sometimes writing blog posts about bands is easy. Sometimes you know the band well and they’ve been doing some interesting things and there’s a natural angle to take and the post writes itself. Sometimes it’s pretty hard. Occasionally there’s nothing to say about a band...

If you were to walk up to us and say “Hey Chop, who’s your favorite band?” We would say Kind of Like Spitting. If you were to say “No, I mean like, really your favorite, favorite of all time?” We”d look you square in the eye and say without any hesitation...

We’re pretty much convinced that this whole crummy decade is just the 90′s all over again. At least musically. There are slackers everywhere. WHFS is back on the air. Beavis and Butthead are on Mtv, and just this week we dropped by the Sound Garden and found so much Toad the Wet...

We don’t really like folk punk. The last time we went to a folk punk show it was maybe the worst show we’ve ever been to and we ended up demanding our money back after 90 minutes of horseshit and a headliner that didn’t show up. That’s what you get with most folk punk-...

If you ask Friend Collector, they’ll tell you that they are the best band in Baltimore right now. They’ll say it with a straight face. They truly believe it. They make a good argument too, inasmuch as they’re the kind of band that’s not afraid to call your band a bunch...

When you get older, you get a little wiser. At this very minute there are thousands of kids in their early 20′s texting and tweeting and Facebooking all over the city of Baltimore saying “Dude, what’s going on this weekend? Anything? House party this and dance party that and...

One of the disadvantages of leaving the country for months at a time is that you miss out on what’s going on here at home. Since we left in November, one of the major things that went on here in Charm City was Roomrunner’s instant ascent to the upper echelon of Baltimore bands....

This isn’t a music blog. It’s a personal blog. The point of this blog has never been anything more than to say “Hey, here’s what we’re doing tonight.” Kind of like Facebook, only not insipid and insidious. So here’s what we’re doing tonight:...

So, we guess we gotta go see Those Darlins tomorrow. We haven’t really got much choice in the matter. The show’s not gonna watch itself, as they say. It was a lot easier to stay home the last time they played at the Golden West. It wasn’t even that long ago- March 31 to be...

Today is an important day in the city of Baltimore. Double Dagger will play its penultimate Baltimore show tonight at the Charm City Art Space. If you don’t know or care who Double Dagger is, or if you don’t think tonight is important, then you can go look at some fucking cats or...

You probably know by now that this blog is a big fan of local band Poly/Western. We’ve posted about them before and go to see them every chance we get. Luckily, we get another chance tomorrow night at the Sidebar. We’ve always said that they were a great band who were bound to get...

One of the best things about living in Baltimore, and perhaps the major reason we love it so dearly, is the ability to go from something very highbrow and sophisticated to something decidedly lowbrow with absolutely no transition in between. That’s exactly how our night looks to be...

So we’re going to see Strike Anywhere at the Ottobar tonight. Sounds pretty normal, except that we’re not actually going to see Strike Anywhere. Oh we’ll stand there and watch them. We’ll probably even sing along a little. What we mean to say is that even though...

You gotta go see Shellac tonight. Among the many reasons why you gotta go see Shellac tonight is because you’ve probably never seen them before, and the smart money says you’ll probably never see them again. After all, even though they’ve been around forever, they’re...

We were sad to hear the news a few weeks ago that the Hexagon Space was closing. We’re sad to hear about any venue closing up, even if we don’t go there very often. Fletcher’s, The Supreme Imperial, even Hal Daddy’s; we may have gone there pretty seldom, but any venue...

…And now for something completely different. The Chop is on our way to the Red Emma’s Queer Music Explosion! at the 2640 Space tonight. That might surprise some regular readers of this blog, who are more used to us talking about pretty straightforward punk and post-punk bands....

If you ask any punk in town, ‘What’s going on at the Ottobar tonight?’ they’d tell you ‘Reagan Youth, Duh.’ That’s not the right answer though. Well, It’s technically the right answer, but it’s not the best show going on in that particular...

So, basically, every place that has ever had music is having music tonight. There’s no shortage of choices, and there’s too much to talk about in detail, so we’ll just give you our picks and let you decide what kind of show you want to go see. Still not sure where we’ll...

Well, lucky Chop. We’ve got another night with too damn many interesting things going on. We already told you yesterday about the Found Footage Festival at the Creative Alliance tonight, and we can scarcely find room to mention that Madison Smartt Bell is also reading from his new novel...

The general idea here at the Baltimore Chop is that we blog about the things we do when we go out at night. We pick a thing to do, and then basically tell why it’s worth doing. Some nights we have to go looking for something to do. Some night’s we’re lucky enough to have two...

It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going to grow out of hardcore. It happens to all of us sooner or later. Even the legit, bona-fide True Til Death types among us will eventually stick with the records they grew up with, and turn out to shows less and less often. There’s...

Back in January we had some pretty nice things to say about local trio Poly/Western. Now that it’s almost April, we’re gonna go ahead and double down on those statements. At that time, we’d been vaguely aware of this band, but hadn’t had the chance to see them live yet....

There’s no Sunday Night Football tonight. There’s no Sunday baseball game of the week either. Hell, there’s not even any new episodes of Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, the Walking Dead, or any of the other premium TV fare the networks have started to crowd up Sunday Nights...

It’s SPRING, Baltimore. You may be thinking that it’s not Spring, that it is in fact monsoon season, but we assure you that Spring has most positively sprung. Do you know what that means? Eh? Eh? Do you? It means that you need t-shirts. But not just any t-shirts will do. You...

We’ve talked before on this blog about the Baltimore phenomenon we’ve taken to calling Awesome Saturday. The movers and shakers and event planners in this town who plan things in advance all seem to zero in on the last Saturday of the month to book the really cool stuff, and at...

We’ve never been very big into the Queers. There was a point in time, early high school, when we should have been a huge Queers fan. It was all there on paper: they’ve got songs about drinking, girls, farts, pranks, the suburbs, hating school, etc, etc. When we were a 15 year old...

Man, were we glad when December was over, because honestly all that Christmas mumbo jumbo is kind of boring. The thing about it is that when people schedule things well in advance, they all tend to do the same thing… look at the calendar and say “Oh well let’s pencil in...

Why is it that sometimes the best bands are also the laziest? We don’t mean to call anyone lazy, especially since we pretty much take the cake for sloth in this town, but we can’t help but notice that sometimes those with the most talent do relatively little with it. Consider the...

Sometimes we’re too cool for things. Sometimes we like to pretend we’re too cool for things, when we’re really just too old and jaded for them. This is not one of those times. We’ve talked before about the right and wrong ways to continue a musical career after some...

We really should have more to say about this show. We’re short on time though, and a little short on patience today. There are four bands playing this show: Head Home, Crimes, Brick Mower, and Black Wine. They are all good bands. They’re punk. They’re a little grunge....

We’re going to go ahead and call it right now: 2011 will be the year of Lower Dens. Remember how Future Islands picked up 2010 by the throat and choke-slammed it? We think that’s exactly what Lower Dens is about to do to 2011. After spending last year releasing their well-received...

We kind of miss they heyday of pop-punk. When you go to high school out in the far suburbs, you tend to get sentimental about some pretty strange things; domestic economy cars covered in stickers, VCR’s playing cheeseball comedies, shopping malls, Denny’s, egg throwing… when...

We can’t lie to you Baltimore, we’re getting old. At least in scene terms, 30 is no spring chicken. This is why it’s been a good long time since the Chop has seen Ted Leo and the Pharmacists live. Seems like there was a time when we couldn’t help seeing Ted Leo play...

Well, here we are at the end of the year, the time for retrospectives and remembrances, and of course for top ten lists. Granted, this blog might not be the best choice for making a list of the ten best punk and indie shows of 2010, since we spent 6 months of the year abroad and don’t...

Well, we’ve got company this weekend. One thing to be said for the holidays is that they’re good for bringing people back to home and hearth and all that. People who used to live in Maryland come back to Maryland, and we’re glad to have them as ever. So it is entirely...

For all the complaining we’ve done recently about old bands dragging their carcasses around the country on tours trying to relive their glory days and pay their rent, you’d think we’d be staying as far away from Sonar tonight as possible. To the contrary though… the...

Okay, Baltimore. Today is the last day for you to go over and vote for us in the Mobbies. Go ahead. Click over and do it now. We’ll wait. Are you back? Okay. Cool. Thanks for that. Anyway, We’re still hoping to pull out a win in the Music/Nightlife category. We seem to have fallen...

Updated: Secret Mountains is a last minute cancellation on this bill. They are being replaced by Hermit Thrushes. You should listen to the Chop, Baltimore. You should listen to the Chop because we haven’t steered you wrong yet. You should listen to us because what we’re about to...

Well, we told you that charities, non-profits, and do-gooders of all types were about to come out of the woodwork raising funds as the holidays approach, and we were right. Fortunately, we’re in a giving and generous mood today, so we’re heading down to the new Current Space (421...

It’s getting to be that time of year again; the time of year when non-profits and worthy causes of all stripes double down on ‘awareness campaigns’ trying to pull your holiday heartstrings, and get their ledgers in order with some last minute donations before the end of the...

What? You think you’re done with Halloween? You went out raging last night and now you think you’re just going to stay at home and watch Simpsons’ Halloween special reruns and eat pumpkin flavored junk food? Well, Halloween’s not done with you, Baltimore. You’d...

With records like these, who the hell needs friends? This is our question to you, Baltimore. Our answer is “No Idea.” And speaking of No Idea, you could do a lot worse than trading in all your lousy, crummy friends for a shelf full of No Idea releases. The label that...

Well, if tonight’s show is anything, it’s proof that we’re out of touch. Almost cool. You might think we have our finger on the pulse of the scene, but we do not. We have it up our nose. We went ahead and bought a ticket for tonight’s Greg Dulli show in advance since we...

The astute among you will quickly notice that the shape of the graphic below is not Puerto Rico, but is in fact Australia. It’s Australia because that’s where John Sharkey III fucked off to after Clockcleaner. Sharkey returns to the US tonight with his new project Puerto Rico...

Yeah. You read that headline right. It’s Belle and Sebastian. It’s in DC. It’s tonight. And as Joe the Biden might say; it’s a “Big Fucking Deal.” How big of a fucking deal are they? We bought our tickets months ago. We had to order them online from a...

When Tim Barry played with Drag the River at Fletcher’s on Memorial Day Weekend of 2008, it was easily the best show in the history of that venue, and one of the best Baltimore shows of the decade. This is no hyperbole. The crowd consisted entirely of a who’s-who of local record...

Well, it’s official. The Chop is definitely suffering from some sort of double reverse culture shock. Being cooped up in the sealed fuselages of germy planes for better than 24 hours has given us a terrible cold, right at the same time we actually need to be productive for the first time...

Well, it looks as though we’ve really lucked out this time. After coming home on Friday, we’ve had quite enough of bumming around the house and watching the rain. Look out Baltimore, the Chop is taking to the streets once again, and we couldn’t have come up with a better bill...

If you’ve been following this blog with any sort of regularity, you might already know that we’re definitely not a foodie, but you definitely know that the last thing we’ll recommend doing is watching primetime TV.  In a bizarre twist of fate tonight, that’s exactly...

There’s an interesting contrast before us today. We can go up to the second day of Honfest, which is (ahem) a a community celebration of homespun charm, independent creativity, and the blissfully absurd or something like that. We can celebrate those things while we drink a cool Heineken...

What’s important to you Baltimore? Is watching the World Cup really very important? Is it of grave urgency that you wear funny wigs and feather boas and drink in the street this weekend? How about stealing back the foursquare mayorship of some bar? Is that crucial? Tonight something...

You’re going to this show tonight Baltimore. Of course you are. It’s a no-brainer. It’s more than a no-brainer, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Seriously. Maybe the Chop’s not as cool as we used to be, but it seems like Surfer Blood came out of nowhere and...

We were just saying the other day how we never get around to going to DC anymore, and how when we do all we seem to do is go straight to the Black Cat and then come straight home. We even skipped out on yesterday’s trip to the DC Record Fair. But why would we want to go to DC anyway?...

So, the Baltimore Chop has already gone on record as giving brunch our seal of approval, but if there’s one thing we like more than fancy hotel brunch, it’s gotta be DIY punk rock brunch- which is exactly what we’re doing today. This is late-breaking developments, Baltimore!...

We’ve noticed something peculiar these last few months. Here at the Baltimore Chop, we keep track of local happenings and events pretty closely, and it seems to us that a pattern is beginning to emerge. Much as each week has a social ebb and flow to it, so do the months. And for the last...

You know you live in a fine town when you’re turning up your nose at the chance to see incredibly talented, nationally acclaimed bands from your city for no other reason than ‘meh.’ But that’s exactly what we’re up to. We skipped Sick Sick Birds and the other...

We were very, very looking forward to seeing Leatherface at the Ottobar tonight (scroll down), but late breaking word on the street is that their visas were denied by the US customs and border protections. Long story short, they’re not playing tonight and shit’s fucked up. (For the...

With the British parliamentary elections taking up headlines the past few days, you’ve probably heard a lot about the special relationship enjoyed between our two countries. Aside from sounding slightly suggestive and covering intelligence, economics, and military power, the special...

Hey Baltimore, you can keep your fancy festivals and super exclusive microshows. Give us a good old fashioned DIY show any night of the week. In fact, give us one every night of the week. We had such a great time at Floristree last night, we’re heading right back out to Ruintown...

We were actually pretty happy when Secret Mountains won last week’s poll. They’re the real deal live, and quickly becoming one of our favorite Baltimore Bands. We sure hated to miss Double Dagger and Future Islands though, and it’s been a long week we’ve been waiting...

The Business is coming to Baltimore tonight. We should be excited about that. We should be dusting off our Doc Martens and brushing up on the finer points of football hooliganism. We should realize how lucky we are to get a chance to see one of the greatest hardcore/punk bands of all time, and...

It’s a big old Saturday night in Baltimore, and the Chop in on the scene-uh, like a sex machine-uh. Much as we regret it, we can’t make it down to the Roller Derby tonight, but instead we’re going to stay uptown and make appearances at two other events. First we’re...

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 141: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: body line 54 and div in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: </div> in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: ^ in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 217: parser error : Opening and ending tag mismatch: html line 2 and body in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: </body> in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: ^ in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 218: parser error : Extra content at the end of the document in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: </html> in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: ^ in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 13

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 17

Warning: Division by zero in /home/content/48/8451248/html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/shortcodes/polldaddy.php on line 144
Well, isn’t this something. It’s already Earth Day and we still haven’t figured out what we’re doing tonight. There are two shows on the Chop’s radar this evening, and unlike we sometimes do we can’t try being in two places at once tonight. It’s a...

Yukon might just be the best Baltimore band you’ve never heard of. In fact, if you haven’t heard of them, it’s likely because they’re as bad at playing shows as they are good at playing their instruments. Which is not to say that they are actually bad onstage, but...

It’s always been true of the Chop that we’re either late to the party or a very early adopter. In the case of the Thermals, it was the latter. Your Chop got the inside word on the Thermals back in 2002 because of our pre-existing love affair with Kind of Like Spitting. We were...

You ain’t reading blogs today. You’re hiding pretty eggs from your nieces and nephews and drinking Madras’ and eating more chocolate than is good for you. But once that’s all done, go to the Hexagon tonight. Tonight’s not just about some guy named Jebus. Tonight...

So what kind of music do you listen to? Oh, you know… I like everything. Except Country. So you like alt-country? Ummm? What? Yes. The correct answer to that question is a resounding yes. Not ‘what?’. Not no. Not a semantic discussion of what ‘alt-country’...

Yep. We did crap out yesterday. Watched cartoons and did laundry and built bookshelves. A typical Sunday, we suppose. And its a good thing too, cause now we’re all rested up and ready to have our ears exploded. That’s right kids… back to the Ottobar tonight for Darkest Hour...

Sad to say it Baltimore, but this is another post more about what we’re not doing than what we’re actually getting up to tonight, due to a lot of bad information out there on that interwebs. Sometimes it happens that way, but you know what? That’s the great thing about...

Well Baltimore, you finally came through for us on a Sunday. The Chop was content to spend Sundays at home, waxing philosophical and drinking wine on the balcony, but yeah, we’d rather go out. And we wouldn’t miss this one. Pedro the Lion is playing the Ottobar tonight. Okay,...

The Chop doesn’t particularly like March Madness. While we suppose it’s better than the whole crooked-corporate-BCS system, we just can’t bring ourselves to care much about college basketball. We do however like springtime. And friends. And beer in red plastic cups and front...

Rain, rain, Go away. The Chop’s coming out to rock today. That’s right Baltimore… our lazy weekend of Mad-Men watching, rum drinking, new drapery installing, brunch-munching domesticity is over. Its Monday night and we’re ready to rock again! And you know it’s...

It’s Friday Baltimore. Ease up a little. You’ve been busting ass and running yourself ragged all week… don’t think we haven’t noticed. So tonight it’s all about taking it easy. Slow and Low, that’s the word today. And we’re in luck again, cause...

What did you think Baltimore? That just because we’re an old man now we’re going to sit out on our stoop and whittle? Not so. Nope, we’re heading right back downtown tonight for a show we wouldn’t miss, and suggest you don’t either. Of course we’re talking...

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...

Now, we know we said the Chop would be heading down to Howard County to see Valentino Deng, but those were plans, and plans change, you know? While we still recommend What is the What, its the book we haven’t read which is catching our attention tonight, namely, Hos, Hookers, Call Girls,...

As of right now… this is the Baltimore Chop’s first ever world exclusive! since this news is so super-new, we’re pretty damn sure no one has blogged about it yet. (Of course, we make good use of the ‘schedule’ feature on WordPress. Do you really think we’re...