This is Height. We just posted a free EP of songs from our new album at Bmore Musically Informed. We’ve been waiting a long time to get these songs out. We hope you enjoy it.
Baltimore heads… Join us for our tour send-off at Windup Space this Saturday. The Snails, Dope Body and King Rhythm will all be in effect.
Our New Years Eve show was a good look. Thanks to the Taxlo squad for putting us on. The next thing is this tight show.
Ringing these bells for 2010.
Ok. This Tumblr blog is now back in action. Our old blog is gone, and this one is now synched up to the new and improved heightwithfriends.com. Yes.
YES.
We’re on tour with Ed Schrader. The tour is legit. I don’t have much time to write, but I wanted to call attention to these things…
The Jackson Whites remix, by my man Ms. Paintbrush, is up at www.whamcityrecords.com. It’s fire. The first two episodes of my revamped podcast are up at www.height.libsyn.com. Episode one is filled with lots of new bangers. Episode two is an interview with new Height With Friends member Gavin Riley.
The tour is going real cool. Come out and see it happen. Peace.
Height
Anne Everton and I get it cracking. (a giant black egg)
Utility Fog Four, my fourth in a series of a tour-exclusive releases, is for sale today. The other three were EP’s, but this one is a full-length album. Mickey Free, Jones, Grand Buffet, Shields, Gavin Riley, Emily Slaughter, Travis Allen, Tobacco, King Rhythm and Nuclear Power Pants all contributed to it. UF 1, 2 and 3 were made up of tracks that weren’t complete in time for a specific album. This one is mix of tracks created specifically for this release and old tracks being brought out of the vault. I hope people enjoy it. You can listen to parts of it at www.height.libsyn.com and you can buy it at www.myspace.com/height.
MAY TOUR WITH ED SCHRADER
Height With Friends is touring with Ed Schrader in May. Most of the dates are posted at www.myspace.com/height. Mickey Free, Emily Slaughter, Travis Allen and new member Gavin Riley are on board. Stay tuned for more info.
UTILITY FOG FOUR
Utility Fog Four will be out in about a month. Unlike other Utility Fogs, it will be a full-length. I’m real proud of it. Everyone from the tour will make a lyrical or musical appearance.
I’m premiering one track from it on my podcast. (www.height.libsn.com) The track is called One Enemy. Mickey Free did the beat, Emily Slaughter did the hook and Travis Allen played drums. The four of us have made a lot of music together in the last five months. This is the first sneak peak at our four-person style.
CODE OF LOVE
My man San Serac killed it with the hip-house remix of Code Of Love. You can download it at www.whamcityrecords.com
PODCAST REVAMP
I’m trying to revamp the podcast by May. Any suggestions? Hit me up at heightman@comcast.net Thanks.
My man Tobacco hit me off with a tight remix of Baltimore Highlands. Peep it at www.whamcityrecords.com and peep him at www.myspace.com/tobacco. I would have gotten the word out earlier, but your man has this flu of death. Respect.
The newest Baltimore Highlands remix is up at www.whamcityrecords.com. It’s Drew Swinbourne’s take on Woods Reprise. I hope you enjoy it.
I posted a new podcast which focuses on A Terrible Man, the new album by Baltimore Highlands co-producer PT Burnem. Peep it at www.height.libsyn.com. The sound was a little rough this week, but these tracks are fire.
Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival was awesome. It was much cooler than my experiences at other festivals of that nature. A review said our show was garbage and that people didn’t have fun… To me, the crowd seemed receptive, and they liked it enough to wyle out with us until 3:30 am, so fuck that. That’s all for now. Peace.
Yes.
The third Baltimore Highlands remix is finally up. It’s AK of AK Slaughter’s take on Cold And Shaken. Check it out at www.whamcityrecords.com
Yes.
it’s official.
Your man laughing, after accidentally dropping in-studio f-bombs.
During last week’s mini-tour with Nuclear Power Pants and Gavin Riley, Height With Friends did an in-studio performance and interview on a WFMU show called Beastin’ The Airwaves. It aired late last night, but you can check it out anytime after that at www.wfmu.org/playlists/KH. We premiered some insanely new songs that were created strictly by Mickey, Travis, Emily and myself. If you wonder what’s up with the pauses in certain songs, we were trying to cut out these cusses for the FCC.
Jeff The Taper was nice enough to record my release show. I posted some tracks from the show on last week’s podcast, and I put more up for this week. New episodes usually go up on Tuesday, but I went ahead and put one up last night. (www.height.libsyn.com) You can also grab a recording of the whole night from Beatbots.com.
The third Baltimore Highlands remix will go up on Tuesday at www.whamcityrecords.com. It’s by AK of AK Slaughter. My man did it big.
BALTIMORE HIGHLANDS IS OUT
The album is out! Cop it at www.whamcityrecords.com. This the first official Height With Friends release. This is also the first Height thing to come out on vinyl. A good look. I posted another track from the album at www.heightwithfriends.com.
RELEASE PARTY
Baltimoreans… The Release Party is this Friday At Zodiac, with Nuclear Power Pants and Gavin Riley. I hope to see you there.
TIGHT REMIXES
A series of tight Baltimore Highlands remixes will begin later today on the Wham City Records site. Check in and see how it’s going down.
MINI-TOUR
Peep some Mid-Atlantic dates going down this week at www.myspace.com/height, all with Nuclear Power Pants And Gavin Riley. Jeah.
The time has almost come to release this album. Peep multiple sneak peaks this week… You can hear a preview of Standing Up Asleep on my podcast (www.height.libsyn.com), and two other MP3’s at www.auralstates.com. Thanks.
Baltimore Highlands will be released in two weeks.
I have a new podcast to help you see how it’s about to go down.
Al Lover, Shields, Mickey Free, PT Burnem, Nasty Millionaire, Jones, Emily Slaughter, Wye Oak and King Rhythm are the nine contributors to this project. This week’s podcast includes solo tracks or production work by all of them, so you see the type of cats that put this record together. Check it out at www.height.libsyn.com
Jackson Whites, from the upcoming Baltimore Highlands, is available, for free, right now, at www.heightwithfriends.com.
This is a tight video for The Woods, created by my pals Showbeast.
NOVEMBER MINI-TOUR RECAP (All photos by Andy Cook)
It started snowing right as we left. The ride down was cool, but I was high-strung inside. I guessed that all four of us felt some kind of nervousness.
We were heading to a house I played once in February 2007. The main thing I remembered about that show was jocks yelling at me, and me firing back with, “your mother plays dice with the midnight mice.” No one could feel me besides William of Future Islands.
We got to the house around nine. Mic and show-host Harris blazed a game of ping-pong. Andy and Emily blazed this wine. I spent a long time moving stuff around, trying to make the performance area presentable.
People started filing in around twelve. Some old friends were in the crowd. It was nice to see those cats years later and know their interest in our stuff was more than a phase.
The set was decent. We doubled up on PA systems, so the sound was hard to manage. Also, being the only act of the night, people seemed to expect a set longer than the one we prepared. Once we did our nine tracks and two just-in-case tracks, we tried to end the night with some accapella stuff that didn’t go over particularly well. I could still tell the chemistry was fire.
Post-show, we dipped with MC Homeless and Liz Aeby to a tight diner on the outskirts of town. On the ride, Emily realized she had just been to Greenville but didn’t know the town’s name. Upon arrival, she realized she had just eaten at this same diner.
The food was 100. I killed it with two sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. Halfway through the meal, the power went out. One second after it went out, a customer yelled, “My shit free.” Eating in darkness was cool. One of the waitresses drove her car up to the window and left the lights on. Andy snapped a couple sweet shots.
As we continued down 95, we got on the subject of animals. Emily called up her veterinarian father and put him on speakerphone. When Mickey asked why vultures can eat rotting flesh, he said “If you ate that shit, you’d be a dead ass.”
We had to make a weird stop in Santee, SC. Andy had to hand-deliver a letter to his roommate’s grandmother. We rolled into a private retirement village and he took care of business. It was fun to have a side mission.
We got to the house around nine. A band called Le Soup Dangerous showed up with spicy soup for everyone. Shortly after, they, along with Silly Little Miracles, set up and smashed it to pieces. Truly tight.
Playing house shows can sometimes be a sad scene for touring acts. It’s really just a half step above playing on the street. The Ashley Ave house in Charleston is the one house-show spot in the country that always surpasses my expectations. I felt a rush of good feelings as soon as we began playing. Mickey said it was one of his favorite shows of all time. It got me excited for what we could do once we add a fourth person.
We had to start driving home right after the set. As we were packing up, this guy said, “you ever heard this before… ffffrrrreeeesssshhhh.” (like the sample in every old rap album)
We stopped in Santee, SC again, this time on a wafflehouse mission. The waitress, an elderly white woman, had a nametag that said Mickie. When Mickey mentioned they share a name, she said “you’ll never guess what it’s short for, because it’s off the chain.” We guessed wrong, then she said, “It’s Meda. I told you it was off the chain.” The whole interaction was off the chain.
My tapes had been shitting the bed left and right. Rap’s Greatest Hits, New Kingdom, John Cougar Mellencamp. They were all getting warped.
I wanted to put Mickey on to Thin Lizzy, but the tape snapped. Emily grinded like a wild woman on taping it together. About an hour later, she patched it up. It was the most successful tape fixing I had ever seen. I could tell Mic was feeling Thin Lizzy on a real level. He’s got a certain headnod he does when it’s really going down.
Driving back into Baltimore, I was sad. The more I get a grip on things and learn to enjoy myself, the harder it is to say goodbye to anything, no matter how small. Part of me wished we were just starting a national mega-tour. On the other hand, I was glad not to be subjecting people to marathon drives or terrible shows. No one had to worry about taking time off work. In summation, it was tight.
For more pictures of this tour and other cool shit, go to www.alighttable.blogspot.com
A rap group from Baltimore, Maryland.
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