Reviewing the Reviews....

Baltimore Round Robin: The 'Baltimore meets Detroit' discussions... ~ Recaps: http://www.post-rockist.com/ http://fivethreedialtone.com/podcastbox/ http://jasper.webvomit.com/?p=1770 Indeed, outside of…for lack of a better title, "the bloggers," this writer included, some Marthas and Mr. Carjack., there weren't very many other regulars from the…again, for lack of a better title, "Detroit Scene." But, in a way, it did feel like a diplomatic conference, which is why we all felt a vitality in supporting, not only the gesture of this traveling scene visiting our own arena, but also to share with them our own insights into the Detroit, ahem,…scene. The night, the format, the performances were, simply put, exhilarating. But the blogs listed above can give you much more details. The big debate revolves around the understandable sentiment of: why isn't Detroit like Baltimore…essentially, though it is much more nuanced than that…but that's the initial gut question. I can't answer that – but Dan Deacon, the transfixing, charismatic synth-fuzz dance-storm pied piper for armies of now anti-hipsters in big glasses and awful sweaters and fluorescent socks, is one of the key ingredients – Detroit would first need a comparable luminary to organize the countless artists of the Motor City's burgeoning music community. Next is, yes, motivation…but motivation is something that was blasting, oozing and spilling all over the place like some sort of hyper volcano of enthusiasm inside the walls of Wham City, the factory/flop-house/artist-enclave that bore many of the performers on this Baltimore stage. All these googly-eyed head expanders bouncing around together in a veritable endless pillow-fight of idea-sharing… Bring these two incomparable factors together and you're bound to get something close to Baltimore. To just have one would do Detroit a lot of good (in terms of equaling it)…because as I've said countless times here, the conditions, the people, the ideas, the talent…it's all here… Ready to burst… But at the end of the day, for as close as we feel in the heated swirl of a great local line up at the Magic Stick, the Belmont, Smalls, Lager, wherever...we all go home afterward and return to our scattered suburban positions...and there are much more deeper socio-political histories that have led to that...and it's way too much to unpack here... The point is, in Baltimore...they were synched up with each other 24-7...eating breakfast together and studying early 90's Disney movies for their neo-pop-art inspirations...TOGETHER so who wants to move in with me? We'll start soemthing....