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

Full schedule after the jump

Sonic Circuits @ Artomatic
55 M St. SE, Washington DC
Cabaret Stage, 2nd Floor

Performer Time
Robert Blake Highway 4pm
Kingdom of Sharks 430pm
Sean Peoples 5pm
Layne Garrett 530pm
Dave Vosh+Logan Mitchell Sr. 6pm
Nine Strings 630pm
Fast Forty 7pm
RDK 730pm
Soft Pieces 8pm
BLK w/ BEAR+VJ Poppins 830pm
Pilesar 9pm
The Angus Brainpan 930pm
Tone Ghosting 10pm
Twenty-first Century Chamber Ensemble 1030pm
Second Land 11pm
Kuschty Rye Ergot 1130pm
Slug Bait 12am
Aerosolized Mucus 12:30am

But yeah, I had to pinch myself just to be certain that I was awake and that the event wasn't really taking place in Baltimore.

The festival will be taking place September 25-27, 2009.

List after the jump.

2009 FESTIVAL ARTISTS:
Faust
Jandek
Andrew W.K.+Chris Grier+Ulrich Krieger
Health
Elliot Sharp
Annea Lockwood & Tom Buckner
Marvin Aryes
BLK w/BEAR
Nine Strings + Pilesar
21st Century Ensemble
This Bag is not a Toy
Even Parker & Ned Rothenberg
David Daniell
Bicameral Mind
Janel & Anthony
Pekka Airaksinen
TL741
Luigi Archetti
qfwfqduo
ayyoko confidential
ige*timer
Jeff Carey
Tim Hecker
Gunter Hampel
Fckn Bstrds
Soft Pieces
Olivia Block+Tomas Korber
Pilesar
Ergo
Never Work
Kotra
Kohoutek
Alexei Borisov & Anton Nikilla
Blue Sausage Infant
Dead Violets
Dr. Bibber
Second Land
Sean Peoples

This past January, D.C. Foodies penned a tribute to the watering hole:

I fondly remember its parking lot as one of the best ground level locations to watch the July 4th fireworks over the Mall. It is this great view I fear which sealed the bar's fate. After years of harassment from the Arlington County government and other local groups, the owners, the Stewart family, have finally had the land sold out from under them to real estate developers. This location will soon be home to 141 brand new luxury condos. To be fair, the closure may have been inevitable as the building is falling apart and has been doing so since the bar opened as Bardo Rodeo back in the early Nineties: but that's the real charm of the place! Dr Dremo's is one of the best examples of an endangered species in the DC area, the dive bar, and as such it will be greatly missed.

My own memories of the place were in its Bardo Rodeo incarnation. It was my introduction to boutique beers (I think one had chocolate which I never touched). And my introduction to watching horrible films on a giant screen.

One night, Bardo put up Showgirls. We happened to walk in just as the film started up. The room was full of Arlington dudes. We laughed our asses off. Got drunk. And laughed some more.

The room got weird during the film's gratuitous rape scene. We left. I'm sure I had better times there. But that's the one that sticks out. An offensive rape scene in career-zapping film about strippers plus microbrews? Nah. They don't quite go together.

One thing you can say about the joint: It was way better than most of Arlington's bar scene. The only places that were better still stand: Galaxy Hut and IOTA.