Weird art, coming soon to a city near you.

Earlier this year, the 11-year-old uncurated arts event Artomatic cloned itself in Frederick, Maryland. Pretty much everything was the same: The name, the logo, the unused building, the treasured "values" of openness and temporary use of space.

It went well enough that the original Artomatic is planning to franchise further. According to founder George Koch, mini-matics are germinating in Baltimore, Vancouver B.C., and D.C.'s sister city of Sunderland, England. They'll all have licensing agreements to use Artomatic's concept and stuff, similar to how TED talks mushroomed into the now (often gratuitous) TEDx events.

Meanwhile, the original Artomatic is still looking for a spot to operate next year, which has been made difficult by the fact that our office market is  actually kind of good these days. Koch says that although he'd prefer to keep the event in the District, they could easily lock down a Crystal City location right now—apparently the Crystal City Business Improvement District has been hounding Artomatic to come back since hosting the event back in 2007 (and D.C.'s BIDs haven't courted much at all).

After that, might as well go to Baltimore...

Photo by flickr user isteve under a Creative Commons attribution license.

More Excuses to Drink Today: If you don't already have plans to slug margaritas in celebration of a Mexican holiday whose history most Americans probably don't understand, here's an alternative: Today is Raheem DeVaughn Day. The R&B singer, a community role model when he's not simulating sex on camera, is being honored by Mayor Vince Gray for his volunteer work in D.C. (It's also his birthday.) The mayor will hand DeVaughn a key to the city in a ceremony in front of the Wilson Building at 3 p.m.

Accolades: TBD and former Washington City Paper arts reporter Maura Judkis has been named a fellow of the NEA Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. City Paper (and sometimes TBD) contribitor Chris Klimek, who was a fellow in 2009, gives TBD the lowdown on what this means. Hint: It sometimes involves getting flagellated by Ann Powers.

A Friendly Visit From the Empire: Prince Charles was in D.C. yesterday, speaking at Georgetown University's Future of Food conference and scoping out the Common Good urban garden in LeDroit Park, and generally disappointing residents who would have preferred to see the Obamas.

Yesterday on Arts Desk: Alex Baca breaks down why, and how, the University of Maryland's student radio station WMUC should go indie; Jonathan L. Fischer hunts for Osama rap tracks and reviews new house music from local power trio Volta Bureau.

DEFINITION

A 10-track record from Baltimore's sludgy noise act Dope Body. Known for its intense, mucked-up punk rock, Dope Body cranks out some brutal jams on Nupping. It sounds like a call to arms, a reminder that ferocity works in every era, and that there are many, many ways to make screeching and scrawl sound as vital and imaginative as they did when The Monks accidentally stumbled upon feedback in the '60s.

On Nupping, Dope Body mixes nasty hooks and razor-sharp melodies into the greasy barrage alongside with tropes snatched from throughout pop music's history books. The power chords that open the album's epic final tune, "Force Field" suggest AC/DC, if that band's school-boy uniforms were rattier, and its members slightly crazed from malnourishment. There's a bit of Motown soul in the lazer- and cowbell-inflected "Mr. Black," and the drum work on the oft-kilter "Enemy Outta Me" could double as a hip-hop break.

Dope Body works these disparate, interesting pop elements into its sound without too much unintended stumble, and what results is a doozy. Though the band members clearly have some technical chops, on Nupping they're mostly going for urgency. Surely, it's for the best: Nupping packs a wallop, and Dope Body's sheer passion makes the record's punch that much stronger.

PICTURE

The album artwork for Nupping:

ORIGIN

Dope Body's debut cassette, Twenty Pound Brick (Watercolor, 2009); the Orphan-Dope Body split album, Self-Titled (Black Tent Press, 2010).

USAGE

"Nupping will definitely be in my top 10 of 2011 list," said the bookish-looking 40-something who seems to wear the same sweat-stained Jesus Lizard T-shirt every time he's in public.

OR

jillwave reblogged this from b0mbastic and added:

Nupping is the greatest thing I've heard alllllll year! I luv Dope Body.

SYNONYMS

awesome, bad-ass, dynamite, great googly-moogly, gnarly, sweet, the tits, vicious, wicked.

DERIVATIVES

It's perhaps too soon to tell, but once the kids listen to Nupping, it'll probably be too hard to count the number of groups ripping off Dope Body's style.

WHERE TO WITNESS IT

Dope Body performs with Hume, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, and Matt Northrup on May 6 at La Molienda, 3568 14 St. NW

ADDENDUM: Mayfield confirms that the guy with the black eye in the picture is Mitch "Blood" Green.

If you're interested in the degree, there's an open house at MICA on Dec. 3.

At its best moments, Infinite Love soars like few albums. Without the weight of drums, bass, vocals, or even standard song structures in the traditional sense, Wong's guitar loops stack like a musical game of Jenga until they topple over, spilling out ear candy for  guitar nerds and more casual sonic adventurers alike. The high points reach for the same hopeful catharsis you might find on an Explosions in the Sky album, though they arrive with less dramatic swoops and more hyperactive histrionics. The most obvious musical parallels are Wong's previous projects, particularly Ecstatic Sunshine, but his style also hearkens back to the more playful work of Ian Williams before he left Don Caballero. Wong crafts a set of precise, mathy licks that warmly weave in and out of each other, and by adding no small amount of delay, makes his single instrument sound massive. When he reaches the fullest, richest set of polyrhythms he can piece together, the song peaks and he moves onto something new.

The trouble with this record is not a lack of brilliant climaxes, though; it's a lack of restraint. Infinite Love will be released physically as  a double LP, and the digital version contains two nearly identical records (a brother and sister side). Each begins and ends the same way, but they take different twists and turns in the middle—neither have any individual track titles. In theory, this allows the listener the option of choosing which version of the record they prefer. It's an interesting attempt at playing with the idea of an album, but with 80 minutes of pure guitar looping and delay pedal tricks (with only very occasional drum machines), it easily becomes tedious.

There are mountains of unique ideas on this record, and the best ones are really exceptional, but given that the self-imposed limitations on the album already create a certain amount of repetition, having tracks from the first disc actually repeat on the second disc seems remarkably unnecessary. Of course, an experimental, instrumental solo album is naturally going to come with a fair amount of concept-heavy self-indulgence. If you can make it past that, there are plenty of highlights. When Wong is nailing it, he does so epiphanically—it's like the otherworldly, intellectual feel of a Terry Riley composition that slowly rises up and takes you somewhere strange and exciting. Not too many folks reach those heights, and if getting there requires sitting through a few sections that feel a little too infinite, it just might be worth it.

Infinite Love is out today on Thrill Jockey.

Dustin Wong is set to release a very long, very intricate solo album, Infinite Love, on Oct. 5. The Ponytail guitarist—a band that has either broken up or is on some kind of Fugazi-style hiatus—is not one to mess around. Infinite Love contains two tracks each roughly 40 minutes long, each containing a dizzying flow of notes that are looped over and over. The effect is either ridiculously high-end twee prog or the best instrumental record we've heard since Papa M's Live From A Shark Cave (1999). Wong proves that two hours of guitar loops don't have to be dull exercises. They can be ecstatic and joyful, and, yes, jaw dropping. Go see Wong and his guitar pedals at the Velvet Lounge tonight.

Zappa’s comment came during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.  The hearing, which was called to discuss what the PMRC had dubbed “porn rock, ” and whether or not records should be labeled to indicate inappropriate content. And just like the Napster hearings years later, musicians took up arms to defend their positions, with Zappa leading the charge.

True to form, Zappa—who, by the way, will be immortalized in statue form this weekend in Baltimore—was both articulate and incendiary. He criticized the PMRC’s lack of transparency (the genesis of his “cult” comment). He also protested the organization’s proposal for labeling and the censorship that he feared would follow as draconian, saying: “It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC’s demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation.”

And I’m sure he made more than a few PMRC members feel pretty silly about the things they had said in front of the court:

Some of the albums that have been selected for abuse here are obscure. Some of them are already several years old. And I think that a lot of deep digging was done in order to come up with the song about "anal vapors" or whatever it was that they were talking about before.

Zappa, who interestingly was not included on the PMRC’s “filthy 15,” was principally concerned with the stigma that labeling records would place on artists. He felt that it would hurt their careers and limit their expression.  He also argued that the burden of responsibility for what children should be exposed to lies with the parents, not the artists. Instead of arbitrary labeling, Zappa advocated making the content of an album readily available so that the consumer could make an informed choice.

While some of the senators present actively engaged Zappa—most notably Senator Gore—others were not nearly as open-minded.  Senator Salde Gorton, a Republican from Washington, essentially told Zappa off, saying, “…I found your statement to be boorish, incredibly and insensitively insulting to the people that were here previously; that you could manage to give the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States a bad name, if I felt that you had the slightest understanding of it, which I do not.”

Within a year, the RIAA was printing content warnings and applying to them to records.  But Zappa did get one last laugh—he incorporated audio from the hearing into his 1985 track “Porn Wars,” which certainly earns its warning sticker.

I too am sorely disappointed. Yes, Papagika's voice has a lot of pain and emotion in it, but she does sound like an irritating peasant vendor on this track; and the lack of melody does little to help with her vocals. Talk about anti-climatic.

and this:

Apparently Ian Nagoski described it as tear- stained" but this didn't bring a tear to my eyes in the slightest. What a let- down...

and this:

Washington City Paper: How'd you get into comics?

Marc Nathan: I had comics as a little kid. I had older sisters so the comics were in the house, and then I bought them at newsstands. I started the store in 1984 just as the direct market was exploding, and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns was about to come out and revolutionize comics. I opened it after one year of college. Part of the reason for opening was small town pride, taking over my little niche for Baltimore county.

WCP: How many years have you put on BCC?

MN: This one coming up is the 11th.

WCP: How'd you start?

MN: Actually it's kind of similar to starting my store. I was going to other cons and setting up to sell comics, and getting to know pros. As I got to know fans, and when they asked "Where are you from" and I said "Baltimore" and then I got a disdainful "oh..." to feel Baltimore insulted when you're in Detroit or Pittsburgh...  So I just got my little bit of hometown pride, and knowing enough artists and writers and most every retailer, it seemed like an easy thing to do at a time.

It never occurred to me that "annual" meant "every year," though.

You have to think about it and work on it year round. As soon as this one's over, things will occur to me about how we can make it better and I'll have 'wouldn't it be great if we had done this?" thoughts.

WCP: Is this the biggest con in the tri-state area?

MN: Absolutely.

WCP: So how many people are you expecting?

MN: We'll have 15,000-20,000 which is a remarkable number for two days. Most three day shows would brag on those numbers, and I don't know when we'll move to three days. Maybe next year. The retailers, once they're in town, are the ones really pushing for a 3-day show. A preview night would just simply be for people who want to buy comics, but it's all being thought through now.

WCP: Why is it earlier this year?

MN: It's earlier because the NY Comic Con took our previous dates from last year, and regardless of their reasons, when you're trying to attract people and publishers from the West Coast like Image and Top Cow, if you expect them to choose between two shows with the same demographic and fanbase, they're going to choose New York City.  We had to be further enough away from that event to be attractive to everyone else, and we had to be before them. Taking them on isn't the game I wanted to play, and I didn't want to move the show to take someone else's date either.  And we're dealing with the same thing for 2011.

WCP: Is there anything special about this year?

MN: Todd McFarlane's a big deal, and we're bringing back for a second time the art auction and the costume contest which both had a large positive response last year. The one thing I'm aesthetically happy about – this is the first time ever that I got everything I wanted at the convention center. I got the halls, the panel rooms, everything I want, which is very rare.

WCP: Any cartoonists you are particularly proud of having come, this year or in earlier years?

MN: Having Todd is great. The truth is he's hardly ever on the East Coast, he never does shows, and it's quite the coup.  I'm curious about how many toys we're going to see on the signing line.

This year's Harvey Awards are going to be really good too. Scott Kurtz as MC and Mark Waid as keynote speaker – I'm really looking forward to the Harvey Awards on Saturday night. I really enjoy the Harvey's – it's probably my favorite part of the convention.

WCP: How fast do the tables sell out?

MN: Honestly, last year it sold out faster. There's two reasons – last year we had to put the programming on the show floor so that cut back on tables, so we have a little more room this year. There is a convention in Canada on our same weekend and there are a few retailers from there who just stayed there. This meant other people had an opportunity to get in and rent tables, but we are sold out. When we have the Diamond Summit, tables sell out faster because the dealers are planning to be there anyway. The dealers are undoubtedly packing to leave Chicago's con now, and when they leave Baltimore, they'll be going to Atlanta for DragonCon over Labor Day weekend. Our show's helped them plan their course for driving. I do know there are a lot of retailers that are taking staff and doing both shows – they don't want to give up their spot on the floor.

WCP: Can you talk about the kid-friendly aspects?

Kids under ten are free. We have a giant area, even bigger than it's ever been before, for the "Kids Love Comics area" [which is being set up and managed by Washington's John Gallagher]. We've let it expand and take over the whole back wall. They have the largest booth on the show floor. BOOM who's doing all the Pixar and Muppet books is also a big part of our show, and their booth is right by the door.

–

I'd like to note that I appreciate Marc taking the time to talk when he's got a brand-new baby at home. Check out the list of guests for the show, which includes our local cartoonists Steve Conley, John Gallagher, Shannon Gallant, Richard Thompson, John K. Snyder III, Pop Mhan, Carla Speed McNeil, and the Luna Brothers, and the list of panels, too. The convention is at the Baltimore Convention Center and open on Saturday, August 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, August 29 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are on sale now or available at the door.

And if you need more comics, the totally cool over-the-top geekfest of Geppi's Entertainment Museum is across the street, and you can see Ben Franklin's first political cartoon in America as well as Steve "Diamond Distributor" Geppi's amazing comic book collection. The Museum's staying open late on Saturday night so you can visit after the con.