Ok there are days when Frederick punches above its weight, you scratch under the surface and eureka! there be radical art+music, enough to feel goddamn lucky to be living here. But let’s face it, there are other days where we all wonder… how and why the fuck are we here? We feel that tug that whispers to us: it’s just not cool enough…get out while you can.
That dilemma is ever with us, and we learn to live with it. This weekend presents these parallel sentiments all in a weekend as Olivia Solomon (formerly of Skeleton Twins, formerly of Austin & Olivia, recently adopting the Ghost Baby moniker as a solo artist and now changing that to Dizzy Spells) bids Frederick farewell as she returns to Santa Fe to pursue musical ambitions. She’s playing alongside local oddball rockband Sunniva and College Park’s psychedelic ¿Bruce Takes Nap? at Area 31 (31 E. Patrick St – hidden in an alley caddy-corner from Café Nola) on Friday Oct 19 (we think Dizzy Spells set starts around 9pm). We did an interview with Olivia and we’ll be getting to some of her thoughts about the new moniker and reasons for leaving for the creative shores of Santa Fe — getting to that very soon…but first, there’s more quality shows happening and it is here we must navigate the weekend with logistical precision.
More shows Friday night, Guidos Speakeasy (543 N Market St, Frederick, MD 21701) is becoming quite the place for shows these days and that lovely dive bar on the ‘ass side of North Frederick’ is the site for Subversive presents: Nowns + Evil Swords + Slow Groan show.
Nowns we talked about on Subversive before, he’s Andrew Sorensen, an Iowa transplant now based in Frederick. His music we’ve described as: this heady mix of electronic washes with a delicious array of sonic textures…afro-futuristic guitar work…pedals and pre-programmed banks of beats and bass lines… echo delay drenched vocals a là Animal Collective…
Slow Groan is really weird – and weird of course is code for twisted brilliance, a transgender lady playing noise pop with kitchen sink musical experiments thrown into the mix – like traditional Tuvan music – whoa!
Excited about all the bands but some of the Subversive crew are super stoked for Evil Swords from Philly (I think -and if not, somewhere from PA).
Set times for the show is just a rough guideline and not set in stone: 9pm (maybe 9:15 start) Nowns / 10pm Evil Swords / 10:45 Slow Groan
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Fast forward to Saturday October 20th and we’ll start with a really neat event starting at 6pm at 11:11 Cafe:
SPACES | the secret works of Mr. Husband + Costume Party (w/ DJ Blak Lotus)
The open secret is Mr Husband is Kenny Thompkins (shhhh!) of the band New God, a band that righteously worships in the temple of Brian Wilson. He’s also one of the founders of Yellow K Records. IF you’re not in the know, Mr. Husband is the new-ish project that Kenny fronts -but not really. Instead, it is the bizarre character he’s developed that’s the real frontman and…ah…well it’s hard to describe and it takes a while to explain the context of who and what this character is, but try this from a piece written about it in the Frederick News Post:
“He’s a tongue-in-cheek mix of rock star clichés, domesticated Everyman, and hippy mystic…” Kenny Thompkins on the character of Mr Husband
It’s here that you can tell something different is happening: an art show of secretly produced visual art created by (not Kenny) but Mr. Husband himself. I texted Kenny for clarification and he wrote back this:
“The art (is) made from the perspective of Mr. Husband, as that is my name and I am that person. Who is this Kenny Thompkins you speak of?
I will not be performing music but I will be showing two of my circuit bent instruments that I made and people will be welcome to play with them/make noise before the DJ starts.”
Yo! Circuit bent instruments? I’m so there. If you don’t know what they are, here’s an example
And lest I forget, Mr. Husband is dropping a new album called Ocean Pines next week on Oct 26th! This art show is going to be bonkers and I just can’t wait to go. But wait, what kind of artwork to expect? Who knows…and that’s all part of the fun that’s sure to be in store.
Side note: give 11:11 Cafe some love as Sherby Weinberg and crew have recontextualized the old Gravel & Grind place and are (still) serving the best damn coffee in Frederick, along with more food options. Our sources informs us that Sherby is designing a new winter menu to be introduced, perhaps next week. The inside scooop overheard: “Hopefully local bread from Stonehearts, making our own condiments in-house and our own pickles…hey don’t read that!” And there our intel briefing must end as our source/spy had to flee, unable to read the detailed handwritten notes on what the new menu will look like.
Don’t forget your costume – by that I’m assuming halloween costume because when the art show wraps up at 9pm at 11:11 Cafe, you can swing on over to the Eagles Club, that hotbed of radical -well whatever it is people do in there most days of the year- as they host…
the Almost Halloween Scare-tacular: with Double Motorcycles, DaMood, & Crooked Hills at 9 pm Eagles Club 216 E. Patrick St.
Frederick sometimes sucks, but weekends like this and one can make a compelling case for the opposite to be true.
Heads up for shows on the near horizon including:
Oct 27 Halloween show : Cheshi with Fun Boys – (our spies/sources tells us the Fun Boys will be dressed as skeletons and there will be a THIRD set by the combined forces of both bands – even under duress of torture my sources will not be revealed) @ Cafe Nola
Oct 31 Actual Halloween : Bleach Bandit (a new Frederick band!), Foxy Dads (NY) and Weak Days (VA) and the new look Middle Kid, stroke of genius for Zack Willis as he brought in Silent Old Mts very own Andrew Bromahal on bass and Pat Acuña (also w/ Mts filling in on drums temporarily for Austin Braswell) @ Area 31 —BTW Zack tells us there’s a sick promo poster on the way – we’ll delve more into this show next week on Subversive Online…
Nov 3: Subversive presents: Banned in DC 7pm @ New Spires Arts 115 E. Church St – Cynthia Connelly has been THE punk rock photographer in DC over the past several decades, at the epicenter when Minor Threat, along with a slew of other Dischord bands ruled the day. She was here in Frederick in 1987 when a then unknown Fugazi played their 6th show ever as a band at the Weinberg Theater and took jaw dropping pictures of the watershed moment (moshing at the venerable Weinberg? Fuck yeah it happened). She’ll be presenting her book that she co-authored, “Banned in DC,” now in it’s 30th anniversary along with a slideshow plus short films. Not to be missed.
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Ok we wrap up with an excerpt of our interview with Olivia Solomon (aka Dizzy Spells) as promised. We’ll publish a part 2 in Subversive Zine #8 due out in late fall.
SUBVERSIVE: you’re someone who grew up near Frederick, went away, returned again and was part of the music scene… yet there wasn’t enough for one reason or another to hold you here…and Santa Fe is arguably is a cooler place (everyone laughs). What brought you back here AND back to the present what is drawing you back out of Frederick?
OLIVIA: I’m one of those people who moves based on my emotions rather than logic. When I moved here, it was for a particular person…my whole reason for leaving now is…I lost my dad last year. That threw me for a loop and turned my life around. I lost grip on reality for awhile – there was a lot of anxiety and isolation and alienation –and lethargy… I fell through a deep depression and felt nobody was here for me at that time…I went to Santa Fe a couple of weeks ago and just fell back in love with the desert. I also found myself again for a brief moment. That was a life changer/game changer moment that I had. I haven’t felt like this in 4 years. I felt free spirited again, carefree..like everything is fine. I come back here and everything sucks again…
SUBVERSIVE: There’s something about the environment there?
OLIVIA: …it’s about the air -you look out at the sky and see this big bright moon – it’s illuminating everything, you see the stars and every single one of them, and that smell of juniper – it does something for the human spirit that makes you feel like everything is cleansing for you. It’s not like that for everybody. It’ll either embrace you or spit you out, but for me everything has kind of fallen into line…Santa Fe is welcoming me back – I got to take the opportunity (already found a job and an apartment with spectacularly reasonable rent) and there’s a bassist who’s joining my band over there.
SUBVERSIVE: to complement the new band name?
OLIVIA: it’s same-ish songs, but everything is going to take a different turn. I’m taking Ghost Baby, which started out being slow haunting melodies – I’m still keeping those but I’m adding ambience to it now. It’ll almost be a shoegaze kind of sound instead of the reverb/vocals (of Ghost Baby’s current sound). Instead it’ll be reverb vocals- it’ll be sweeping reverb over heavy shoegaze sounds. I’m working on finding a drummer, so-
SUBVERSIVE: You got a vision for this
OLIVIA: I do…so Dizzy Spells isn’t just a name I picked out because I liked the way it sounded, it’s actually because I get dizzy spells with my anxiety a lot. And I get dizzy all the time. I thought it was fitting. Especially with the sounds too. I wanted it to be as close to representing who I am and how I am as possible. Ghost Baby was kind of an inside joke. But then I realized that it didn’t fit me for a number of reasons. Dizzy Spells sounds a lot easier to remember.
I want to add more texture. My songs are pretty stripped down to begin with. I want them to be bigger, fuller. I want more impact. Adding lot more instrumental sounds to it. Adding bass and drums, something big, a big sound that fills up a room and makes you get lost in that kind of sound.
That’s where I’ve been the last couple of weeks, getting lost in some of my favorite bands that I had not listened to for awhile. Like the band This Will Destroy You – that’s one of my favorite bands. My friend Ryan’s band, Holy Fawn. And Sigur Ros, those have been all major influences recently which led me want to get looper and distortion pedals – I want to be bigger and impact others like these bands impacted me.
SUBVERSIVE: Is there a twitter version of positives and negatives of the Frederick music scene?
OLIVIA: I’ve noticed over the past 4 years there’s a lot of ‘favorite bands’ here in Frederick that get a lot of attention all the time. I also see there’s a lot of solo singer songwriters, some of which I’ve never even heard of that I got the pleasure of playing with. It’s really sad to me that they’re not getting any attention.
SUBVERSIVE: Can you name some?
OLIVIA: Corey Thuro – he’s an interesting singer songwriter – he has a lot of interesting ideas. It’s hard to peg his sound. That’s a good thing, you don’t want to peg someone’s sound. I don’t even like when people peg my sound. I think he has a very interesting approach to the way he writes music and he uses a lot of interesting instruments – like the triangles along with guitar – it’s very original. Then there’s Lucas Laws. He reminds me of Townes Van Zandt. He has a very soft soul. It comes through with his music, and he comes off as a ball of nervousness when he plays, but he plays with such honesty…I don’t get that with some of the bigger bands around here because they’ve been hyped up so much.
Cheshi will forever be one of my favorite bands in Frederick. It’s understandable and warranted that they get all that attention from the media. After I played that Area 31 show with Ashli, just her and me together, we went to that Mr. Husband show at Nola… Mr. Husband, he’s incredible, he needs to get out there as much as possible. His band is amazing. It makes me miss Heavy Lights a lot. Especially every person in the band. I appreciate Ryan so much and I respect him as a musician and as a human being. Also Derek and Brian – Brian used to make me soy cappuccinos all the time – he’s off in Chicago with his lady. Derek is off in Philly with his lady. Everyone is kinda going separate ways, different directions.
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Frederick is a very dear place to me, I’ll always return, but probably not that often though because I’m broke. Super broke.
Leaving here is not an easy feat at all. I have to do this…at 28, I would’ve thought I’d have some sort of stability in life. Also, being a musician, I don’t think a lot of musicians have stability, I feel that why they play music – is to find that stability. That’s what I’m trying to do…this place is too fast paced for my slow progression and healing.
Olivia Solomon as Dizzy Spells will be playing her farewell show on Friday October 19 at Area 31 along with Sunniva and ¿Bruce Takes Nap? around 9pm.
