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| From the source at Ehse Records: http://blog.ehserecords.com/?p=230 |
Showing posts with label Ehse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ehse. Show all posts
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
Ehse is proud to announce the release of Ami Dang’s new album, "Hukam" (Ehse 017) February 20, 2010
Ehse to Drop New LP by Ami Dang: the Baltimore Underground Id of a Bollywood Diva
Consider Ami Dang running for class president of this year’s crop of “New Weird World”. Creating melodies out of a mixed bazaar of sitar and hallucinogenic dance pop coupled with the right balance of underground menace and chill sweetness, Ami Dang has crafted an album that brings the world’s lesser traveled streets alive with Eastern nuance and a Western wink.
“Crafted from an intersecting background of classical sitar and composition, experimental electronics and visual performance, combined with a deep love for ’90s dance beats and a fuzzy memory of megaphones blaring Indian pop songs into the streets of New Delhi.”
- Arthur Magazine
- Arthur Magazine
Dang hails from Baltimore by way of New Delhi and Punjab. Her music combines the sound of these geographies -- part Dan Deacon, part K Swift, part Ravi Shankar, part M.I.A., part Lata Mangeshkar. Her explorations lead to catchy Baltimore Club inspired pop tracks with an experimental sensibility coupled with electronic arrangements of Sikh hymns and musical raga.
“Her voice ranges from subtle and sublime to massive and nearly overwhelming in power... I’m convinced that given the right amping, Dang could obliterate buildings with them.”
Aural States
Aural States
Thoroughly 21st century in every way, Ami Dang’s “Hukam” is contemporary global experimental pop at its twisted best. With sweet sitar melodies, Bollywood-diva style vocals, and both minimal and maximal electronic production, her music—pop, experimental, ambient, and house—is ripe for 2011 and beyond.
“Unabashedly into pop... instantly charismatic and catchy... dancing across the stage in a bright turquoise and pink dress, surrounded by bright rhythmic electro-pop... laying trained classical sitar over layers of drone and textured electronic feedback. This is a rare and promising combination, and absolutely one we should all be watching.”
- Impose Magazine
- Impose Magazine
Ehse is proud to announce the release of Ami Dang’s new album, "Hukam" (Ehse 017) February 20, 2010.
- City Paper
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Ami Dang LP Coming in December
Ami Dang mentioned in Washington City Paper; Dang's new LP will be released by Ehse Records in December. Here's a link to an Arthur radio transmisson with Ami.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
New Reviews: Lizz King, Salamander Wool, Katt Hernandez
New Reviews:
"A mature and fully realised work that becomes better with every listen." -- Terrascope on Lizz King's All Songs Go to Heaven
"This is an album that will delight and surprise every time it is heard." -- Terrascope on Salamander Wool's Lunarsophic Sonambulist
"Unlovely is never boring, predictable, or safe; it accepts and exploits the possibilities and potentialities of the violin is a way that’s nothing short of astonishing." -- Splice Today on Katt Hernandez's Unlovely
All three LPs are available from Ehse Records.
"A mature and fully realised work that becomes better with every listen." -- Terrascope on Lizz King's All Songs Go to Heaven
"This is an album that will delight and surprise every time it is heard." -- Terrascope on Salamander Wool's Lunarsophic Sonambulist
"Unlovely is never boring, predictable, or safe; it accepts and exploits the possibilities and potentialities of the violin is a way that’s nothing short of astonishing." -- Splice Today on Katt Hernandez's Unlovely
All three LPs are available from Ehse Records.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Terrascope Reviews Salamander Wool
Terrascope on the new Salamander Wool LP:
About four minutes in, things start to click more into place and you realise that what you might just be listening to is a rough demo of a lost Incredible String Band album or that hurriedly shelved third Syd Barrett album before they packed him off to who knows where.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
J.Gräf + Salamander Wool duosolo tour
J.Gräf + Salamander Wool duosolo tour
AUGUST 7 - 20, 2010
7 Baltimore - Bentalou House ,348 S Bentalou, with Yoinsh and Caleb Johnston (Bankmaestro)
9 NYC - Zebulon with Skeletons + Seve (shinkoyo) v-j-ing
10 Somerville, MA - PA's Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave
11 Easthampton, MA - Flywheel (in the old town hall) 43 Main St. Easthampton, MA With Outerspace and Drainolith (members of Emeralds and Aids Wolf)
12 Belfast, Maine - barn in Belfast, Maine
13 Montreal – JAMM at E Cagibi, 5490 Boulevard Saint Laurent, 9 pm with the you me colour band and royal palms
14 Ottowa – JAMM in Blake’s basement
15 Toronto – JAMM @ Somewhere There227 Sterling Rd. Unit #112, the entrance is off Rattan St., with The Deep, Michelangelo Iaffaldano/D.Alex/Steven Sladkowski
18 Chicago – MOPERY
Monday, July 5, 2010
Ehse on Ice, Part Deux
Ehse On Ice, Part Deux
Come get your ice on.
Performances by:
Snacks
Beastmaster
Weyes Bluhd
Plus DJ “Hot Dog” (Elijah)
And refreshments by Taco Style
| Start Time: | Friday, July 9, 2010 at 9:30pm |
| End Time: | Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 12:30am |
| Location: | Mount Pleasant Ice Arena |
| Street: | 6101 Hillen Road |
| City/Town: | Baltimore, MD |
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ehse Records Releases Now Available from Thrill Jockey
Thrill Jockey is now distributing releases from Ehse Records including slabs of vinyl from Salamander Wool, Harrius, Ian Nagoski, Sejayno, Lizz King, Snacks, Needle Gun.
Do yourself a favor and go pick up the Fresh Ehse Platters.
Do yourself a favor and go pick up the Fresh Ehse Platters.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Ehse Records is Proud to Announce the Exclusive ReRelease of a Rare Katt Hernandez LP
Katt Hernandez
"Seriously Boss" - Byron Coley and Thurston Moore in Arthur
Ehse Records is Proud to Announce the Exclusive ReRelease of a Rare Katt Hernandez LP
"It's a solo record I did a bit back in boston. My landlord had 1950s Cole ribbon mics from the BBC sound studio (incidentaly of a series number which apparently indicates their probable use on Doctor Who). I made this very sort of purist recording there with him."
Ehse will be rereleasing the very rare Boston solo violin recording of Katt Hernandez. The release will be available in June, with Katt touring in Europe from her new homebase in Stockholm.
INFO
Katt Hernandez is about to move to Stockholm, Sweden. She went there to play at Hagenfesten with pianist Eve Risser in summer of 2008, met her current partner, and so will go to join him there. She has done a bit of work in the Electronic Music Studio there already, and played with Joel Grip. Currently Katt is in Boston, where she has most recently played at X-Fest, in Zack Fuller's "Into the Shiny Battle" at Mobius and performed and recorded with Joe Morris, Luther Gray, Matt Samolis, Steve Norton, Mitch Ahern, Andrew Neuman and Junko Simons.
Katt lived in Philadelphia for three years, after living in the Boston area for nine years, playing the violin, running spaces, and producing shows. She immediately became involved in performances with Bowerbird, Soundfield, Ars Nova, and Nicole Bindler's Dance Ensemble upon her arrival. During her time there she played regularly with the Balkan Dance band West Philadelphia Orchestra, toured the U.S. with Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver, sat on the Board of World Music presenting organization Crossroads Music, and worked with musicians from Gregg Weeks' "Language of Stone" Label. She created a quasi-composed piece for shadow-puppet and screen print artist Erik Ruin which toured throughout the East Coast. She worked regularly with Psychotic Quartet and permutations thereof- Dan Blacksberg, Evan Lipson and Michael Evans. And she regularly went to Baltimore to collaborate as well. She has worked a great deal with John Berndt, the Second Nature ensemble, the duo Isabel with Audrey Chen, and collaborated most recently with Andy Hayleck and Catherine Pancake.
Focused primarily on freely improvised music, Katt draws a firey array of electronic-like sounds and keening melodies from her unaltered, accoustic violin. She also works extensively with microtonality, drawn from a study of a mixture of sources, including traditional folk and sacred musics of the Middle East, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, various odd-ball whisps of old Americana, and the Maneri/Sims 72 note system. Playing with as wide and unexpected a variety of other performers as possible is tantamount to her sonic and spiritual pursuits. She has also played music of the late Ottman empire and Whirling Dervish ceremonies with the Eurasia Ensemble. She spent some time playing old-time, vaudeville, and early jazz tunes with Matt Samolis(a.k.a. Shoe) whilst channelling the spirit of Amelia Earhart in the duo Lindy's Radio. And she also has played the mysterious incarnation of a disturbing cartoon character in the frightening music and performance art duo Dr. Selenium and Madame Margo.Before leaving for Philadelphia she participated in the Voltaic Vaudeville festival, wherein she played Solo, with butoh dancer Jennifer Hicks, and as part of the Beat Circus Vaudeville Orchestra. In fact, she plays somewhere for somebody at least weekly, come hell or high water.
Katt has collaborated with a magnificently variated sea of musicians, dancers, and others including- but certainly not limited to- Joe Maneri,David Maxwell, Nicole Bindler, John Voigt, Allisa Cardone, Gordon Beeferman, Jonathan Vincent, Walter Wright, Joe Burgio, Eric Rosenthal, Jeff Arnal, Jaimie McGlaughlin,Dave Gross and Hans Rickheit. She has twice been invited to perfrom on the Autumn Uprising, High Zero, Mobius ArtRages, and Improvised and Otherwise festivals, and has also appeared at the Montreaux-Detroit, Brandeis New Music, Boston CyberArts, Michiania, Phenome, IAJE, IASJ, and Ear Whacks festivals. She has been a guest artist at MIT, Harvard, University of Indiana and the New England Conservatory, performed in a vast slew of localized venues and life-making places throughout the east coast metropolii.
In addition, Katt booked well over a hundred shows, festivals, and concerts during her time in Boston. She was a crazed avatar for the Zeitgeist Gallery, where she worked on everything from publicity and shows to mischeif and whimsey. She also lived in the short-lived Andrew Square art space next to an elevator shaft, and performed multiple times at the Pan 9 space. She continues to seek out underground spaces for those things too strange and magnificant for commercial clubs and foundation concert halls.
Katt grew up in Ann Arbor, MI, where she met all kinds of the most remarkable humans you might imagine, and played her violin throughout the Detroit metro-area on a regular basis starting at the age of 14. Her first free improvisation show was at teh age of 15, where she was delighted to find herself sharing the stage with Eugene Chadbourne, Frank Pahl and LaDonna Smith. She attended Community High School as a kid- a public school based on the utopic visions of the late sixties. She also spent two weeks every summer at the National Music Camp, wearing silly uniforms and learning about symphonic and chamber music. After attending classes as a teenager at the University of Michigan's Music School, she went there and studied composition, violin, electronic music, jazz, and improvisation, graduating in the end with the very first BFA in "Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation" awarded by the school. Her teachers were George Balch Wilson, Ed Sarath, Even Chambers, Donald Walden, Elaine Sargous, Karin Swanson, Mike Grace, and Andrew Jennings. She played with a great many musicians and others there, including Only a Mother, Doctor Arwulf-Arwulf,the Creative Arts Orchestra, and the Blue Sun Quintet.
Katt lived in Philadelphia for three years, after living in the Boston area for nine years, playing the violin, running spaces, and producing shows. She immediately became involved in performances with Bowerbird, Soundfield, Ars Nova, and Nicole Bindler's Dance Ensemble upon her arrival. During her time there she played regularly with the Balkan Dance band West Philadelphia Orchestra, toured the U.S. with Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver, sat on the Board of World Music presenting organization Crossroads Music, and worked with musicians from Gregg Weeks' "Language of Stone" Label. She created a quasi-composed piece for shadow-puppet and screen print artist Erik Ruin which toured throughout the East Coast. She worked regularly with Psychotic Quartet and permutations thereof- Dan Blacksberg, Evan Lipson and Michael Evans. And she regularly went to Baltimore to collaborate as well. She has worked a great deal with John Berndt, the Second Nature ensemble, the duo Isabel with Audrey Chen, and collaborated most recently with Andy Hayleck and Catherine Pancake.
Focused primarily on freely improvised music, Katt draws a firey array of electronic-like sounds and keening melodies from her unaltered, accoustic violin. She also works extensively with microtonality, drawn from a study of a mixture of sources, including traditional folk and sacred musics of the Middle East, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, various odd-ball whisps of old Americana, and the Maneri/Sims 72 note system. Playing with as wide and unexpected a variety of other performers as possible is tantamount to her sonic and spiritual pursuits. She has also played music of the late Ottman empire and Whirling Dervish ceremonies with the Eurasia Ensemble. She spent some time playing old-time, vaudeville, and early jazz tunes with Matt Samolis(a.k.a. Shoe) whilst channelling the spirit of Amelia Earhart in the duo Lindy's Radio. And she also has played the mysterious incarnation of a disturbing cartoon character in the frightening music and performance art duo Dr. Selenium and Madame Margo.Before leaving for Philadelphia she participated in the Voltaic Vaudeville festival, wherein she played Solo, with butoh dancer Jennifer Hicks, and as part of the Beat Circus Vaudeville Orchestra. In fact, she plays somewhere for somebody at least weekly, come hell or high water.
Katt has collaborated with a magnificently variated sea of musicians, dancers, and others including- but certainly not limited to- Joe Maneri,David Maxwell, Nicole Bindler, John Voigt, Allisa Cardone, Gordon Beeferman, Jonathan Vincent, Walter Wright, Joe Burgio, Eric Rosenthal, Jeff Arnal, Jaimie McGlaughlin,Dave Gross and Hans Rickheit. She has twice been invited to perfrom on the Autumn Uprising, High Zero, Mobius ArtRages, and Improvised and Otherwise festivals, and has also appeared at the Montreaux-Detroit, Brandeis New Music, Boston CyberArts, Michiania, Phenome, IAJE, IASJ, and Ear Whacks festivals. She has been a guest artist at MIT, Harvard, University of Indiana and the New England Conservatory, performed in a vast slew of localized venues and life-making places throughout the east coast metropolii.
In addition, Katt booked well over a hundred shows, festivals, and concerts during her time in Boston. She was a crazed avatar for the Zeitgeist Gallery, where she worked on everything from publicity and shows to mischeif and whimsey. She also lived in the short-lived Andrew Square art space next to an elevator shaft, and performed multiple times at the Pan 9 space. She continues to seek out underground spaces for those things too strange and magnificant for commercial clubs and foundation concert halls.
Katt grew up in Ann Arbor, MI, where she met all kinds of the most remarkable humans you might imagine, and played her violin throughout the Detroit metro-area on a regular basis starting at the age of 14. Her first free improvisation show was at teh age of 15, where she was delighted to find herself sharing the stage with Eugene Chadbourne, Frank Pahl and LaDonna Smith. She attended Community High School as a kid- a public school based on the utopic visions of the late sixties. She also spent two weeks every summer at the National Music Camp, wearing silly uniforms and learning about symphonic and chamber music. After attending classes as a teenager at the University of Michigan's Music School, she went there and studied composition, violin, electronic music, jazz, and improvisation, graduating in the end with the very first BFA in "Jazz Studies and Contemporary Improvisation" awarded by the school. Her teachers were George Balch Wilson, Ed Sarath, Even Chambers, Donald Walden, Elaine Sargous, Karin Swanson, Mike Grace, and Andrew Jennings. She played with a great many musicians and others there, including Only a Mother, Doctor Arwulf-Arwulf,the Creative Arts Orchestra, and the Blue Sun Quintet.
QUOTES FROM REVIEWS AND SUCH
"Another Beantown expat is improvising violinist Katt Hernandez, whose debut solo LP Unlovely (no label) is seriously boss. A student of Joe Manieri, Katt plays in a style that flies through the valley separating new music and free jazz, like a hive of cunning bees. Great inventions." Byron Coley and Thurston Moore, Arthur No. 32 (Dec 2008)
". . . musicians everywhere are aware of her exceptional artistry, and even international writers and producers are telling us of their fortunate discovery. . .it may be overdue, but it is good to see that someone as good as Katt is finally being recognized." Stu Vandermark, Cadence Magazine, Dec. 2004, pg. 133
". . .The Long Awaited Etcetera puts Hernandez squarely on the radar. . . as one of the few violinists of consequence in improvised music" Stanley Zappa, Bannanafish, Issue Seventeen, pg. 88
"Hernandez is a young violinist who shows the potential to develop into a major voice in experimental violin improvisation and join the ranks of Mat Maneri, Mari Kimura, Malcolm Goldstein, and Takehisa Kosugi". Michael A. Parker, All About Jazz, http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r0502_135.htm
"It was Hernandez that stood out in this piece, bringing an ear clearly comfortable with classical and rock approaches, but despite this grounding, at times flirting with complete choas" Eric Allen Hatch, Signal-to-Noise Winter 2002/issue 24, page 55
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Ehse Radio Brings the Fresh Top Hits!
Ehse Records' owner Stewart Mostofsky was recently interviewed on Baltimore's best local radio program: The Signal.
Check out the program and hear how host Aaron Henkin responds to the likes of Leprechaun Catering and Sejayno. The Ehse talk takes place towards the last ten minutes of the program.
Check out the program and hear how host Aaron Henkin responds to the likes of Leprechaun Catering and Sejayno. The Ehse talk takes place towards the last ten minutes of the program.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
April 30: Salamander Wool LP Release
Reminder from Ehse Records:
Salamander Wool LP Release
Friday, April 30th, 9pm
at Tarantula Hill, 2118 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
With performances by:
Salamander Wool
Needle Gun
Weyes Bluhd
Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nathan Bell
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Salamander Wool LP now available online via Ehserecords.com
Salamander Wool's first release on Ehse Records is now available online.
Side A:
Moon of Arq
Blaq n White Coursed
Vesica Pisces
Lantern Bearer
Flame Afloat Pulpit
Side B:
A Language Before
Mothern Poem
Opaqe
Alien Beloved
Daylight of Midnight
Track List
Side A:
Moon of Arq
Blaq n White Coursed
Vesica Pisces
Lantern Bearer
Flame Afloat Pulpit
Side B:
A Language Before
Mothern Poem
Opaqe
Alien Beloved
Daylight of Midnight
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Ehse Records to Release LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool
Ehse Records to Release LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool
Ehse Records will release a new LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool on May 18th, 2010. There will be a special local-release show in Baltimore on April 30th, 2010 at Tarantula Hill (2118 W. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21223) with guests Needle Gun, Weyes Bluhd, Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nathan Bell, and Ian Nagoski spinning 78s.
"Salamander Wool is the fiber mineral asbestos, which shows a particular resilience to fire. This force field spins its own protective web."
And so on this, the first Ehse LP by Salamander Wool -- the solo project of Baltimore artist and musician Carson Garhart -- resilience and force fields abide in plucked and chimed tre-melodies and fleeting glances of recorded sound.
Garhart resides in the Carollton Ridge neighborhood of Baltimore where, "while living in a constant nomadic flux sailing down concrete rivers across known and unknown provinces, he paints musical landscapes". Using electronics, stringed instruments (homemade and other), voice, and poetry, Carson creates songs and movements meant for metaphysical keys and ecstatic dances.
Having released a solo album in 2004 with the Shinkoyo collective, Garhart plays in the time-travel band Sejayno and occasionally paints birds on his wall. His music is at once a revolt against modernity and an embracing of possible futures, especially ones that restore an age of light and life.
See: ehserecords.com for more album info.
For contact and updates on tour dates, see diymummy.com.
###
Ehse Records will release a new LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool on May 18th, 2010. There will be a special local-release show in Baltimore on April 30th, 2010 at Tarantula Hill (2118 W. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21223) with guests Needle Gun, Weyes Bluhd, Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nathan Bell, and Ian Nagoski spinning 78s.
"Salamander Wool is the fiber mineral asbestos, which shows a particular resilience to fire. This force field spins its own protective web."
And so on this, the first Ehse LP by Salamander Wool -- the solo project of Baltimore artist and musician Carson Garhart -- resilience and force fields abide in plucked and chimed tre-melodies and fleeting glances of recorded sound.
Garhart resides in the Carollton Ridge neighborhood of Baltimore where, "while living in a constant nomadic flux sailing down concrete rivers across known and unknown provinces, he paints musical landscapes". Using electronics, stringed instruments (homemade and other), voice, and poetry, Carson creates songs and movements meant for metaphysical keys and ecstatic dances.
Having released a solo album in 2004 with the Shinkoyo collective, Garhart plays in the time-travel band Sejayno and occasionally paints birds on his wall. His music is at once a revolt against modernity and an embracing of possible futures, especially ones that restore an age of light and life.
See: ehserecords.com for more album info.
For contact and updates on tour dates, see diymummy.com.
###
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Salamander Wool “Lunarsophic Somnambulist” Record Release Party
Friday, April 30th, 9pm
at Tarantula Hill, 2118 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
at Tarantula Hill, 2118 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
With performances by:
Salamander Wool
Needle Gun
Weyes Bluhd
Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nate Bell
Salamander Wool
Needle Gun
Weyes Bluhd
Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nate Bell
+ Tom Boram and Dan Breen spinning records
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Baltimore Magazine reviews Lizz King: "Her earthy songs are, indeed, heavenly."
From the review:
Click here for the whole enchilada.
I like to think of Lizz King as Baltimore's antidote to indie phenom Sufjan Stevens. Both songwriters conjure a shambling melodicism and neither shies away from the ukelele, banjo, and glockenspiel—with the occasional singing saw in the mix—but I'll take King's dusky voice and worldview over Stevens's precious musings any day.
Click here for the whole enchilada.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Aural States reviews Lizz King's 'All Songs Go To Heaven'
Aural States posted an intensive review of Lizz's new LP. And we think they liked it...
That's a great idea: go visit Ehse Online and pick yourself up a copy.
Absolutely stunning... I can’t bestow enough praise onto All Songs Go To Heaven, and I don’t think you could do yourself a better favor this month other than to seek it out at Ehse Records.
That's a great idea: go visit Ehse Online and pick yourself up a copy.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tour Notes: Montana Digs Lizz King
"With her gritty electro-dance tune 'Booty Queen', Baltimore's Lizz King launches a sneak attack worthy of Werner Herzog. It's a catchy, spooky little number featuring the refrain 'Oo la la, she's just a baby' over samples covering the history of the Big Bad Wolf in pop culture.... She is frank, intimate and saucy like a latter-day Marlene Dietrich." - Missoula Independent
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Lizz King: New LP/CD on Ehse Records
Lizz King: New LP/CD on Ehse Records
www.ehserecords.com
www.diymummy.com
artist: Lizz King
album: All Songs Go To Heaven
release: 2010 Ehse Records
release date: February 16th, 2010 -- a belated Valentine
Ehse Records is proud to be releasing the new LP and CD by Baltimore's favorite West Virginia transplant: Lizz King.
A crucial part of the Wham City collective, for the last few years King has been performing critically acclaimed concerts with the likes of everyone from Dan Deacon to Daniel Johnston. Her style mixes weird weird pop with big big soul, and the new album features some of the catchiest, quirkiest, and yet most sultry songwriting Baltimore has ever heard.
Lizz King will be touring the USA throughout Winter 2009 - 2010.
"The quality of music on this bill was outstanding, far and away one of the strongest I’ve seen in years. As I walked towards the Ottobar, a few minutes after Lizz King’s set time, I was hopeful that she had not come on. The place was dead silent. But as I walked through the door, I could see the reason. King was on stage and delivering a captivating performance that had the room so silent you could hear the floorboards creak. Nobody even tossed away beer bottles. This was going to be something special… Lizz King is a pixie and an angel. It’s a shame that in this day, in order to get noticed, you have to have a strong gimmick in addition to a gorgeous, timeless voice. For all the Winestones that get attention, a deserving gem like King is swept under the rug. Let’s remedy that, shall we? King’s music is some of the most barebones, heart-wide-open stuff I’ve heard… in a good and completely disarming way; she goes from banjo to ukulele to what I think was an electric tenor banjo, alternating playing some groovy, delicious computerized beats track as the musical foundation of some of her songs. Her voice is warm, like Billie Holiday and the best voices of old found on gramophone records or streaming through the vacuum-tube radios, and haunting like Fiona Apple and the other female vocal prodigies of the present. The whole picture is distinct, something I imagine sounds not unlike an electrified, breaking music box mating with the aforementioned gramophone jazz records and a healthy dose of desolate country and blues twang and instrumentation likely inspired by her time in West Virginia. She is a unique sound that is nothing short of refreshing."
- Aural States
Best of Baltimore 2007: Best Songwriter
"Wham City might be best known for giddy, hyperactive noisemakers such as Dan Deacon and the Santa Dads. But the collective's best-kept secret, Lizz King, defies her crew's prevailing aesthetic with bluesy vamps wherein she wraps her throaty voice around a single instrument, usually guitar or keyboard, and the occasional minimal drum-machine pattern. Sure, a little bit of that old Wham City absurdity lurks in song titles like 'Booty Queen' and the maniacal cackling that abruptly concludes 'Bigger Better Faster Stronger'. But the Lizz King whom we fell for is the gal who sings torch songs like 'Kissin Part' with banjo accompaniment."
- City Paper
"When the folks at Wham City, named 'Best Creative Hive' by the City Paper in 2006, were forced to stop holding shows last September, the bands who lived there-- Dan Deacon, members of Videohippos, Lizz King, Santa Dads, to name a few-- diffused only to regroup at other burgeoning fire hazards with crappy ventilation to continue to inspire the blood out of everyone around them."
- Pitchfork
"Sounds like: A haunting blend of rustic country and synthetic punk. King’s satirical lyrics linger against minimal keyboard beats and basic guitar chords.
Influences: King borrows electro-bops from her Wham City constituents, but her sultry scowl is reminiscent of R&B powerhouse Big Mama Thornton."
- Venus Zine
"In a stuffy, odd house called Lemon Hill in a crappy area of Baltimore, a girl with just her banjo sat cross-legged on the floor and sang us all to sleep with absolutely beautiful lullabies. Her voice was smooth and soulful, and I snapped her photograph with a yellow glow from the only streetlight shining outside the windows. Her name is Lizz King."
- The Walrus
www.ehserecords.com
www.diymummy.com
artist: Lizz King
album: All Songs Go To Heaven
release: 2010 Ehse Records
release date: February 16th, 2010 -- a belated Valentine
Ehse Records is proud to be releasing the new LP and CD by Baltimore's favorite West Virginia transplant: Lizz King.
A crucial part of the Wham City collective, for the last few years King has been performing critically acclaimed concerts with the likes of everyone from Dan Deacon to Daniel Johnston. Her style mixes weird weird pop with big big soul, and the new album features some of the catchiest, quirkiest, and yet most sultry songwriting Baltimore has ever heard.
Lizz King will be touring the USA throughout Winter 2009 - 2010.
"The quality of music on this bill was outstanding, far and away one of the strongest I’ve seen in years. As I walked towards the Ottobar, a few minutes after Lizz King’s set time, I was hopeful that she had not come on. The place was dead silent. But as I walked through the door, I could see the reason. King was on stage and delivering a captivating performance that had the room so silent you could hear the floorboards creak. Nobody even tossed away beer bottles. This was going to be something special… Lizz King is a pixie and an angel. It’s a shame that in this day, in order to get noticed, you have to have a strong gimmick in addition to a gorgeous, timeless voice. For all the Winestones that get attention, a deserving gem like King is swept under the rug. Let’s remedy that, shall we? King’s music is some of the most barebones, heart-wide-open stuff I’ve heard… in a good and completely disarming way; she goes from banjo to ukulele to what I think was an electric tenor banjo, alternating playing some groovy, delicious computerized beats track as the musical foundation of some of her songs. Her voice is warm, like Billie Holiday and the best voices of old found on gramophone records or streaming through the vacuum-tube radios, and haunting like Fiona Apple and the other female vocal prodigies of the present. The whole picture is distinct, something I imagine sounds not unlike an electrified, breaking music box mating with the aforementioned gramophone jazz records and a healthy dose of desolate country and blues twang and instrumentation likely inspired by her time in West Virginia. She is a unique sound that is nothing short of refreshing."
- Aural States
Best of Baltimore 2007: Best Songwriter
"Wham City might be best known for giddy, hyperactive noisemakers such as Dan Deacon and the Santa Dads. But the collective's best-kept secret, Lizz King, defies her crew's prevailing aesthetic with bluesy vamps wherein she wraps her throaty voice around a single instrument, usually guitar or keyboard, and the occasional minimal drum-machine pattern. Sure, a little bit of that old Wham City absurdity lurks in song titles like 'Booty Queen' and the maniacal cackling that abruptly concludes 'Bigger Better Faster Stronger'. But the Lizz King whom we fell for is the gal who sings torch songs like 'Kissin Part' with banjo accompaniment."
- City Paper
"When the folks at Wham City, named 'Best Creative Hive' by the City Paper in 2006, were forced to stop holding shows last September, the bands who lived there-- Dan Deacon, members of Videohippos, Lizz King, Santa Dads, to name a few-- diffused only to regroup at other burgeoning fire hazards with crappy ventilation to continue to inspire the blood out of everyone around them."
- Pitchfork
"Sounds like: A haunting blend of rustic country and synthetic punk. King’s satirical lyrics linger against minimal keyboard beats and basic guitar chords.
Influences: King borrows electro-bops from her Wham City constituents, but her sultry scowl is reminiscent of R&B powerhouse Big Mama Thornton."
- Venus Zine
"In a stuffy, odd house called Lemon Hill in a crappy area of Baltimore, a girl with just her banjo sat cross-legged on the floor and sang us all to sleep with absolutely beautiful lullabies. Her voice was smooth and soulful, and I snapped her photograph with a yellow glow from the only streetlight shining outside the windows. Her name is Lizz King."
- The Walrus
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