Okay, okay, I’m from Baltimore. Enough shrugging and sighing. We don’t have much to hang onto, and what little we do have we cling to tightly. Those who come from Baltimore and make it big either hide it or embrace it. And then there’s these Wham City kids: notably Dan Deacon and the like. They’re not actually all from Baltimore (see Purchase, New York), but they’ve clinged to the kitschy, camp charm; where the mundane, trashy, and often scary should be elevated to the sublime. At least that’s the image Baltimore has etched into America’s collective consciousness. At one point in time, I went to a party somewhere in Chicago, and upon mentioning my hometown, someone blurted out: “OH, is it like a John Waters Movie?! That would be wonderful!” Why, given a response like that, you’d think all people do is “hang out on the abnew” (reference to Hampden, which is a delicate balance of DUBYAH TEE and hipsters) and go to shows put on by Wham City: which, according to one of my friends, was about as awkward as walking into a huge smelly fart cloud at the prom.

Well, actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, it’s a small town and the same 20 people go to the same shows and wax on and on about the same bands, and we have both kinds of crabs, and it’s an unapologetically dirty city, and everyone I know who lives here either at one point wanted to live in OR had lived in Portland, but then there’s a group like Soul Cannon, which, in terms of musicality and overall performance, may well take place as Baltimore’s best kept secret. It even makes me proud to see that there’s a band that doesn’t use Baltimore’s kitschy identity to promote itself: the music speaks for itself. See, it’s like once you start looking harder, there’s actually music outside of Wham City, and it can be amazing. Soul Cannon began performing in the summer of 2006, when two long time friends, Eze Jackson and Ryan Dorsey, decided it was high time to start a band that is at once pure jazz tinged indie rock and political hip hop. As it stands, Soul Cannon are comprised of bassist Dorsey, MC Jackson, keyboardist Jon Birkholz, drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell, and guitarist Matt Frazao. Jackson’s rhymes hit right to the heart of every Baltimore denizen’s contention with the city: “I still love my ghetto.” Even further, his rhymes are surrounded by a killer rhythm section that alternates between straightforward, backbeat-laden hip hop and Sonic Youth-esque noise and space drones. Their recent EP demonstrates only half of their ability as a group. Yeah, sure you can hear an ensemble that is so in synch with one another – they’re basically attached at the hip – but their live show really puts them head and shoulders above most of the acts riding on the coattails of the awkward Baltimore scene.

Trey Perkins

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 Past Constructive Criticism

Branden Green posted the following Constructive Criticism: Yeah man Soul Cannon is killin'. So soulful so musical. Be on the look out for this band. "Use the music for movement spread it over the whole globe..." Eze Jackson It's G Major Man