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�� What drives my playlist selection Brian LaCour Columnists TRENDITIONS SALON �� Is there a reason picking an album to drive with should be so hard? A decision always has to be made quickly; it’s not like I can sit at a stop sign indefinitely to come to one. But finding the right music for a mood feels important. Or at least it should be important. Setting the tone for getting around isn’t something I can throw about lightly. There’s a clear difference between the mood set from AC/DC and the one set by Squarepusher. The former feels like I should be driving to something and the latter from something. It’s musical pre-gaming; it’s singing along and feeling just as much a part of the audience as in the live version, even if Brian Johnson couldn’t be less decipherable if he stuffed his mouth with marbles and cotton after a fifth of whiskey. The awkward jolt of Angus Young phrasing behind the beat as he works up to the tempo at the beginning of “Thunderstruck” on “AC/DC Live” does so much to express how great things can become. Even when things look bad, there’s a way they can become great. “My Red Hot Car” or “Tommib,” on the other hand, feel reflective. They’re the passengers in the car saying, “Let’s enjoy how the night winds down” or “Let’s call it a night.” These aren’t moods I can mix. I can’t bring myself to excitement $15 Men’s Cuts $25 Women’s Cuts $25 per month Tanning VALID THROUGH DECEMBER 2009 (410) 825-HAIR (410) 825-4247 47 West Chesapeake Ave. Towson, MD 21204 PARKING RIGHT BEHIND SALON �� when I’m tired and I don’t want to calm myself down when I’m ready to bounce off the walls. Trying to keep choice to single albums is, admittedly, a self-made challenge. I could make this whole issue simpler with a playlist. I found, to my dislike when I start driving, how little I actually like any playlist I figure out while I’m sitting comfortably in my chair from home. Phrased by me as such: “I find, no matter how much thought I put into creating a playlist for driving at home, I’m always annoyed with the pettiness of my selections when finally on the road.” There’s always a discrepancy between the mood we feel and the one we expect to feel when the moment is taken out of context. It’s trying to artificially simulate the rush of speeding down I-95, the contentment from the last moments at a bar, or the one-in-a-million feeling that even National Public Radio is more up tempo than what I want to hear. �� Camisado “We’re Waiting” Independent Have you ever wondered exactly how to describe metalcore?Camisado’s “We’re Waiting” has filled that particular niche. “We’re Waiting” follows with so much dedication every facet of the genre, one couldn’t be faulted for guessing a textbook definition was Camisado’s aim. “Paper Worse Than Bullets,” “My Taste Buds Taste Blood” and “Minus the T (It Will Never Happen Again)”: these are actual names of songs on this release. The band runs through the motions of everything that has to be present in a metalcore release: vocals with as much emotion to range from only a shout to whiny “singing,” guitars resolving everything with a breakdown, bass only ostensibly present on the album and non-stop double kick drumming. But the biggest question is: who told the vocalist to “sing?” Was there a feeling of obligation, since the microphone was already in his hand? With a nasal whine dominating as much song time as seems possible, it lends a more pathetic tone to the already hilarious lyrics. I’ll give some credit, however, to the drums in this. There’re some nice fills across the album, and the drummer’s sense of rhythm is impeccable. If you’ve heard metalcore before, you’ve heard everything already presented on this album. If you’ve never heard it before, there are certainly better places to start. --Brian LaCour Buy Paramore “Brand New Eyes” Fueled By Ramen When I found out Paramore would be releasing their third CD, “Brand New Eyes,” this month, I was thrilled. When I saw the video for the single “Ignorance” on mtvU, the thrill smoothed into a contemplative lull. “Ignorance” sounded just like any other song on “Riot,” Paramore’s second album: a pop-punky sound, with just a dash of emo contributed from bleeding-heart lyrics. For long-time Paramore fans, myself included, “Riot” was a shock compared to “All We Know Is Falling,” which was able to remain indie without that mainstream, selling out sound. I worried that the third try would not be the charm for one of my favorite bands. It’s my pleasure to state that “Brand New Eyes” sounds like the album that should have debuted after “All We Know Is Falling.” While most songs have a mixed sound of the first two CDs, some are plain oldschool, a sound I missed. Shorter verses with repeating choruses and more musical interludes ease the listener in songs that sound more like they belong on “Riot.” To be honest, Paramore could have held onto a lot more fans had they released this CD first. If you have yet to give up hope on the mainstream indie scene, check out “Brand New Eyes.” --Lauren Slavin Kickoff and Towerlight Images thetowerlight.com/photos go to to order ARTS The Towerlight October 5, 2009 17
The Towerlight October 5, 2009 18 ARTS Creating music through improv JESSICA LANGLEY Contributing Writer When imagining a concert, it’s hard not to envision performers with music stands and sheet music in front of them. But for senior jazz performance major Danny Gouker, that’s not what music is about. “There was silence before the piece, just like you were getting ready to start a piece, and then we had no idea what was about to happen,” Gouker said. “We were just trying to make it happen.” For the first time at Towson University, the jazz division of the music department is sponsoring the Creating Music concert series, a series of concerts composed of music created with improvisation in mind. “It’s either music that’s original compositions by a member of the ensemble that’s performing it or its improvised and usually it’s a mixture of both,” Gouker said. “I think it’s a really lame name, but we couldn’t think of anything better.” Last year, Gouker compiled the series for his junior and senior recitals. Zack Branch, also a senior, assisted Gouker in the project. “It’s kind of like a testament to the way the Baltimore music scene is,” This just in: Amazon. com can in fact do wrong. The book giant recently found itself at the center of a controversy with its massively popular and Oprah-approved Kindle e-book reader. In July, the company pulled Branch said. “The concert goes from current students to like guys that are in their 40s or 50s.” The first concert was a great success, Branch said. “There was a fair amount of people for the type of music we were doing,” he said. “It’s just totally improvised music, so it can get kind of hairy and unapproachable.” The first concert had four musicians, Gouker said, each of whom went to or are currently at Towson. “It was like a full spectrum of Towson and Towson alumni and professors,” Gouker said. Dave Ballou, assistant professor of music and the director of the jazz division at Towson, started an improvisation ensemble class, Gouker said. “It started informally,” Gouker said. “But now it’s an official class. It’s called improvisation ensemble, where it focuses on playing where just anything can happen. You just start and then it could be really weird or it could sound like something you’ve heard before.” Branch and Gouker started improvising music during sophomore year, he said, and although they don’t necessarily have rehearsals for some of these concert series, they’ve been playing with each other and the professors in classes so much that it’s equal to practicing for the concerts. Judging by the first concert turnout, the rest of the concerts should be well attended and interesting, Gouker said. All the people playing in the concert are good, or else Gouker wouldn’t have chosen them to play, he said. Branch said, “Did we talk about how good we are? We’re awesome. We’re probably the best.” Digital dictatorship Digital rights managment controls Kindle, PSP Go Tyler Waldman Associate Arts Editor “It’s It’s kind oof like a testament tto t the way the Baltimore music scene is. ZACK BRANCH Senior Kindle versions of “Animal Farm” and “1984.” They didn’t just pull them from the store. They pulled them from people who already bought them and refunded their money, claiming intellectual property issues. George Orwell probably would have gotten a laugh out of this. After user outcry and a lawsuit or two, the company saw the error of their ways and passed out gift certificates and restored copies of their books. Last week, according to the blog The Consumerist, the company has “clarified” (read: backpedaled blindingly fast on) their deletion policy. They will only delete books you bought if you let them, if you have credit card issues, if a court says so or for technical issues. Modern technique meets classical guitar Hungarianborn twins rock Concert Hall DUNCAN LLOVIO Contributing Writer The Baltimore Classical Guitar Society hosted The Katona Twins in the Harold J. Kaplan Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts on Saturday. The twins, Peter and Zoltán Katona, play classical pieces arranged for the classical guitar and often incorporate modern techniques found in rock music. “The concert was very inspiring in their arrangements and how they modernized certain pieces. They added a lot of excitement to the pieces,” sophomore jazz and commercial music major Dan Ryan said. Alan Dovell/The Towerlight Peter and Zoltán Katona, twin guitar players from Hungary, practice before their performance on Saturday night. While the twins are trained in classical guitar, they played several contemporary pieces. This is exactly why digital rights management (DRM) bugs me. You buy a book. Then it’s yours. Borders will not come knocking on my door to enforce a court order.Barnes & Noble will not snatch my magazine for having a typo on page 38. The Amazon incident and their response, however, is part of a trend in reducing DRM’s poisonous influence on technology and how media can be used and shared. Music, for example, is much easier to find clean and DRM-free through iTunes. Microsoft loosened its terms for the Xbox 360 to allow people with new consoles to transfer permissions with no problems. Techniques such as tapping, and using the guitar body as percussion, accented the pieces. During composer Derek Charke’s “Time’s Passing Breath,” a backing track of recorded bells and chimes was played to accompany the duo. Baltimore Classical Guitar Society is continuing its 2009-2010 season with a performance by Jason Vieaux on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The season will return to Towson next April, this time with a concert from Manuel Barrueco. The Katona Twins began playing at age 10 in their native Hungary and studied classical guitar in Budapest, Frankfurt and London. They have been performing professionally since 1990. They have won many awards, such as the Borletti- Buitoni Trust prize in 2004, and But every once in a while, somebody decides to take a step back. Hello, Sony. The PSP Go hit shelves last week. The so-called new and improved model lacks the Universal Media Disc drive earlier versions of the Playstation Portable had. TYLER TECH Granted, removing the disc drive and going for all-flash memory is an innovation and results in a sleeker, more durable device. However, the user is handcuffed to buying new from Sony’s monopolistic store. Reportedly, there were plans to let users convert their disc games into digital copies using store kiosks, but the company claims this couldn’t happen due won at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York in 1998. The duo played music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla, Charke, Domenico Scarlatti and Manuel de Falla. For an encore, they performed a medley that included Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Towson is just one of the many locations in which the Katona Twins have performed. They have played worldwide including Carnegie Hall, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Forbidden City in Beijing. Baltimore Classical Guitar Society is providing master classes throughout the month of October, lessons will be taught by guitarists Risa Carlson, Franco Platino and Ray Chester. to technical issues. Like I believe that for a second. The lesson is to be aware of DRM and the ways companies can and still do try to control what you do with what you should technically own. If they want you to download “authentication” software, that’s a red flag. If it’s a strange filename, definitely a red flag. If it’s Sony, don’t even pass go. Know your rights with what you own. Burn it, share it, just don’t sell it and you’ll be just fine. Oh, also, our good friends at The Baltimore Sun saw fit to nominate the companion blog to this column for the Mobbies, a way to recognize the best blogs in Maryland. Vote early and often for Tyler Tech and Your A Idiot. Voting at www.baltimoresun. com/mobbies ends Oct. 9.
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