Remembering Levon Helm and MCA Adam Yauch

As anyone reading this almost definitely knows, Levon Helm and Adam Yauch recently died. I like The Band and The Beastie Boys, but I'm not one to fully assess either artist's lives or cultural impact or anything too big picture. Instead, I want to share a little about how they each affected me and my listening experiences and also learn what they meant to all of you.

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Atlantic Guitar Quartet Concert

This Friday May 11th the Atlantic Guitar Quartet will be hosting a concert event at the prestigious Engineer's Club at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore MD where they are the artists in residence. The concert promises to cross artistic genres as the quartet mixes live music with live visual art. AGQ is pleased to be sharing the stage with dancers Maia Draper-Reich and Gabriela Santos of Peabody Dance as well as Junichi Fukuda. Each of these performers will be presenting their settings of Olivier Bensa's Ecolsion from La Grand Terra with AGQ accompanying. The soundcloud file below is a recording of that piece by the quartet. 

Additionally, quartet member and visual artist Jonathan Zwi will be showcasing his newest paintings and light sculptures during the concert. Musically the concert will consist of works from Olivier Bensa, Arvo Pärt, Fred Frith, and Ronald Pearl, with two world premier performances of compositions written for the quartet from Christopher Gainey and David Smooke.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door with a discounted rate of $5 for students with ID. The concert begins at 8:00 and doors open at 7:30 with a cash bar available before and after the performance. As always the dress code at the Engineer's Club is business casual. Tickets can be purchased in advanced here and you can stay in touch with AGQ via their webpagefacebook, and twitter. We hope to see you there.

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Carrie Manolakos Stops My Ears In Their Footsteps

This performance of Carrie Manolakos performing Radiohead's infamous tune Creep came my way via Gawker and my ears were completely stunned. This beautiful performance showcases not only her obvious vocal talent, but her Broadway experience allows her to draw out the drama in the songs narrative. The performance was done at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village in promotion of her forthcoming debut album Echo. Gawker called this performance upsettingly good and I'm inclined to agree. You dig?

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Evolution Music Series: Sounds and Sweet Airs

Good morning Dig Nation and good morning Baltimore. Last week Steve hooked up the Brooklyn readers with several fantastic Gigs We Dig. This week it is my pleasure to hip the Baltimore crowd to a couple of off the beaten path concerts that promise to work your ears, your eyes, and your thinking caps. If that sounds like your kind of deal pay attention this week and come out to two performances from TWD's own Atlantic Guitar Quartet at both the Evolution Music Series as well as at Baltimore's Engineer's Club.

First up is Wednesday May 9th's Evolution Music Series Concert entitled Sounds and Sweet Airs at An Die Musik. Read on for a full description of the concert program or just trust my judegment and dive in – tickets can be purchased here.

The soundcloud file below is the first of a five movement Ronald Pearl piece to be fully premiered on that concert. This portion of the composition is titled Sometimes a Thousand Twangling Instruments. You dig?

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