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This summer, I was invited to the set of Matt Porterfield’s new film, I Used To Be Darker, to take some photos for the Baltimore Sun, and ended up shooting some stills as well. It was a great experience, a tightly knit film crew who were good at staying on task and getting the job done, but were also experimenting, creating shots on the spot, coming up with ideas, abandoning them if they didn’t work, and moving on. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

In the past few months I have become involved with (In) Parenthesis, a Baltimore-based photography collective. Our goal is to broaden knowledge about current issues in the field of contemporary photography, and our first curated show, Fields of Vision, is on display now at CaseWerks Gallery (1501 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore).

The Baltimore City Paper (who I work for often) wrote a story up about the show, which you can read here.

Photo L-R: Marian Glebes, Dean Alexander, J.M. Giordano, Jill Fannon, Sean Schiedt, Josh Sisk. By me & Rob Brulinski.

Dan had me shoot a few photos last month, to go out along with the announcement of the new Dan Deacon Ensemble, the planned new record, and his signing to Domino Records. Above are a few of my favorites from the session.

Along with Dan, the other members of the Ensemble are:

- Denny Bowen (Double Dagger, Roomrunner)
- Chester Gwazda (Nuclear Power Pants)
- Jordan Kasey (Zomes)
- David Jacober (Dope Body)

Click here to see more photos from this session.

 
 

I am in North Dakota, visiting family. Today, my Dad and I drove around some backroads, looking at old run down buildings, cemeteries, and trying to spot some wildlife. This is the first winter I can recall where there isn’t a blanket of snow on the ground, which makes it harder to spot wildlife. We did find a cemetary from the 1800s, though, which was interesting.

See the rest of the photos here. I’ll be posting more over the next few days…

November 2011 Shows I shot:

- Avey Tare @ U St Music Hall
- Marketa Irglova @ 9:30 Club
- Thee Oh Sees & Total Control @ Sonar
- CMA Songwriters Series @ LoC
- Meshell Ndegeocello @ Birchmere
- Dean & Britta @ National Gallery of Art
- Screaming Females & Roomrunner @ Golden West
- Thou @ Sonar
- Natural Child & Tremors @ Golden West
- Shelby Lynn @ Birchmere
- Chris Young @ Fillmore
- Premonition 13 @ Sonar
- Purling Hiss @ Sonar

You can find photos from all of these shows here, in my my November 2011 Shows set.

Last week, I went to an (I think) all-local Unregistered Nurse show at Golden West, featuring : The Art Department, Other Colors, Dave Fell, and Quiet Hooves. I had only ever seen The Art Department before, and this was their first show in awhile – perhaps after some sort of hiatus (great journalism, I know). Of the other bands, I though that Quiet Hooves were particularly interesting.

I am at my parents for the holidays, so stay tuned for many updates with photos from the last few months (and perhaps beyond…)

• See the rest of the photos from this show (including handsome Dan O in repose) in my December 2011 Shows set.

Saturday was something I thought I would never see… the reunion of Baltimore band Daybreak. They were a late 90s/early 2000s power violence band who put out records on Reptilian Records and Robodog Records (now Robotic Empire). I never saw them, but their records made their way to Baton Rouge by way of Page 99′s distro table and the Robodog’s Geocities-era website. Me and my friends appreciated the music, extreme but approachable and with musicianship, and even more, we appreciated the humorous piss-takes at “the scene” and the feeling of a crew of punks that we got from their record art and inserts… I thought it was cool that there was enough people who liked this music there to even HAVE a crew!

Anyway, somehow, someway, 10+ years later and I am friends with alot of the people involved with the making of these records, and they are all great and I am thankful they decided to do this reunion show so me and others had the chance to finally see this band! It was a fun night, and for a good cause – to help pay for a friend of the band’s cancer-related medical bills.

• See all the Daybreak reunion photos here!

This was a lot of fun to shoot, 4 stages, 10,000 or so dance music fans, tons of lights and costumes and dancers and booze and everything else! In the full set, you will find photos of: Skream & Benga, Moby, Diplo, Tittsworth, Scott Henry, Armand Van Helden, Zedd, and lots and lots of fans.

• See the rest of the Massive photos on my flickr!
• Read the Washington Post review.

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I shot the CMA Songwriter’s Series at the Library of Congress. It was an intimate show where some top country songwriters – the guys who write the songs for the stars – got a chance to shine, tell stories about their songs, and have the chance to perform them along side stars like Clint Black and Patty Loveless.

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Great show the other day at Sonar, courtesy of Unregistered Nurse. Australia’s Total Control (featuring at least one member of Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and California’s Thee Oh Sees.

• Check out all the photos here.

Shot Ms Lynn for the Washington Post at her show last week at The Birchmere. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she was touring with just her and a guitar, no glitz, no band.

• See more photos of Shelby Lynn in my November Shows photoset.

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Caught one of my favorite metal bands, Thou, the other day at the Talking Head Club. They played later than I thought, but always great and they ended with a cover of Black Sabbath’s Sabotage Into The Void, which was really, really awesome. Great to see some old friends too.

I got out of there as fast as possible and made my way to the Unregistered Nurse show at the Golden West, just in time to catch the last couple of songs by new baltimore band Tremors 2. Amazingly bad/good/bad/unsure name, but they were really good and lively to watch. I managed to get a few snaps. Then Natural Child played, who are a slowed down southern garage/punk band who are really catchy and fun, most of their songs have more than a hint of humor about them and the dudes in the band are really chill as well. Go check them out, they seem to always be on tour.

• See the rest of the photos here!

Last week I was in a photo show that was a part of DC Fotoweek 2011, BYT’s Young at Heart 2. It was a great time, including slideshows and Q&A with 6 amazing professional photographers (Joshua Cogan, Victoria F. Gaitán, Douglas Sonders, Scott Suchman, Nicole Wolf, and Marcus Yam) – you can see some examples of their work here.

The show also featured slideshows of various BYT photographers, including myself. CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of my work that was on display. And here is the original youtube of my slideshow I made to remember what was in the show, it’s of worse quality, but you get the music that was being DJed so you can “feel the vibe”!

   

I shot country western artist Chris Young at the Fillmore. Nice room, this was my first time there. Young was certainly a pleasant, fan-oriented artist, even if his music isn’t really my thing.

• Read the Washington Post review here.
• See more photos in my November Shows set.

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Unregistered Nurse brought Puerto Rican band Davila 666 to the Golden West on Halloween weekend… I am not sure if I had seen them before, but they were really fun live, full of energy, multi-person singing/yelling parts… they put on a good show!

• See more photos (mostly of people goofing off and smoking cigarettes) from Halloween weekend!

I caught two cool shows in the same building this Sunday, Premonition 13 (the new band of doom metal legend Scott “Wino” Weinreich), and Philadelphia’s Purling Hiss. Sadly, neither show was especially well attended, but it was great to see two really incredible musicians at work… Wino is, of course, a much-heralded guitar player, and his seminal bands St Vitus and the Obsessed (along with The Hidden Hand, and his solo albums) have won him countless fans in the metal underground… but Purling Hiss’ Mike Polizze, who I don’t know much about, is also an incredible guitar player. Dana Murphy from Unregistered Nurse Booking first turned me on to this band, check them out if they play near you… really excellent.

• See more photos of Wino here.
• See more photos of Purling Hiss here.

 

Tonight Baton Rouge doom metal band THOU is playing at Sonar/the Talking Head, along with Black Tusk and (members of Torche) Monstro. You should go, if you even have a passing interest in metal. I have been a fan for some time, above are some photos I have taken of them over the years…

Thou is one of the most interesting underground metal bands right now – their music is really dark yet not theatrically so, and they are very accomplished musicians that manage to make doom metal seem very fresh without adding disparate elements into it… they have consistently toured (at generally very affordable prices), made most (all?) of their music available for free on their web site, and strive to make sure all of their physical media is up to high standards of audio quality and visual fidelity. They have released albums both diy and on larger labels like Southern Lord. And tonight, they are in Baltimore! Come out!

My photo of Ice Age at the Golden West in Baltimore, in the November issue of SPIN (the Das Racist cover). On newsstands now. Pretty stoked to have a photo from a punk show at my friend’s restaurant in there… and to be featured in such a great magazine for music photography!

• Buy a print of this photo (without all the text) here.
• See more shots from this same Ice Age show on flickr.

The other week, I checked out Trans Am playing the entirety of their FUTUREWORLD record, along with local stalwarts Dope Body and the blissfully droney (and foggy) The Psychic Paramount. An all around great show, in the club room at Sonar, but to me the best part of the evening were The Psychic Paramount, who I had somehow never seen before… a great set, a wall of noise, feedback, fog, light, riffs… really good experience. Check them out.

• Check out the rest of the photos from this show!

 

Last month to celebrate the birthday of local booker extraordinaire Dana Murphy (of Unregistered Nurse Booking), Pissed Jeans played a crazy show at the Golden West… complete with bottles of champagne, drag queens handing out cupcakes and shots, and plenty of other craziness.

• Click here to see the rest of the mayhem!