"Favorite local band no one knows about yet, but should?"
"This is hard, because everyone in Baltimore knows everybody else. There are a ton of great bands here, but if we’re going for under-the-radar, we’re going to go with the Art Department. They are awesome. They played with us the last time we released this record…haha." -Wye Oak Interview (Quarter Life Party)
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Jon Ehrens
Mike Meno
Jason Howe
Influences
Baltimore --------------------------->
Raymond Scott,
REM,
The Ramones,
Meat Puppets,
Flying Nun Records,
Ariel Pink,
Guided By Voices,
The Byrds,
Cleaners From Venus---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When Ernest Hemingway wrote his famous six-word micro-fiction—“For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”—it’s likely he didn’t anticipate that his bar-bet brevity would transfer so perfectly to music. The Art Department, a three-man band from Baltimore, is the postcard literature of house-party punk. Each song is insistently short with a clear message: It’s not necessary to blather on to tell a good story. The group’s high-speed fingerpicking and polyrhythmic drumbeats establish a steady momentum, while the almost-harmonized vocals of drummer Mike Meno and guitarist Jon Ehrens float above the smoke-long songs. Dusted with tambourine and condensed, flash-fiction nerditry, The Art Department’s sets kick into gear suddenly and end just as fast. The boys grab your attention with the first note, slide you into the chorus, and, before you realize it’s happening, drop you off at the music’s inevitable, eccentric conclusion." -Emily Wagner (DC CityPaper)
Sounds Like
"The only prerequisite to loving this experimental band is a love of low fidelity coupled with a curriculum of party, punk, pop, and intellect. In a metaphorical blender, combine a dash of concept, mix steady, repeat and repeat and repeat until your spaz separates from Jon Ehrens finger-picking guitar. Dabble layers of tambourine and preheat your BPM to Mike Meno's revved flash-flood drum beats. Blend high between two and three minutes as Jason Howe's bass rhythms whip smooth the low end. Take a taste, study, and listen to Baltimore's slap stick Americana band The Art Department." - Andy Shankman (Gutter Magazine)
"The three musicians huddled together closely towards the drum kit, the guitarist and bassist almost turning their backs to the audience while playing nimble, interlocking patterns. Meanwhile, the drummer would play slight variations on the same tightly wound, insistent oompah beat for almost every song, while singing in unison with the guitarist, in a very high and a very deep voice, respectively, and never quite harmonizing. Every song seemed to end in under two minutes, with another beginning almost instantly afterward, and the cycle seemed to repeat a couple dozen times during the band's set. The most accessible tune out of the bunch featured an impenetrable chorus about actor Dennis Quaid. Musically, the closest reference point we can think of is the mutant bluegrass of the Meat Puppets' earliest records. But even that comparison doesn't quite do justice to the fact that the Art Department were one of the most inscrutable and idiosyncratic bands we've seen in a while."-Al Shipley (The City Paper)
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Raymond Scott,
REM,
The Ramones,
Meat Puppets,
Flying Nun Records,
Ariel Pink,
Guided By Voices,
The Byrds,
Cleaners From Venus---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When Ernest Hemingway wrote his famous six-word micro-fiction—“For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”—it’s likely he didn’t anticipate that his bar-bet brevity would transfer so perfectly to music. The Art Department, a three-man band from Baltimore, is the postcard literature of house-party punk. Each song is insistently short with a clear message: It’s not necessary to blather on to tell a good story. The group’s high-speed fingerpicking and polyrhythmic drumbeats establish a steady momentum, while the almost-harmonized vocals of drummer Mike Meno and guitarist Jon Ehrens float above the smoke-long songs. Dusted with tambourine and condensed, flash-fiction nerditry, The Art Department’s sets kick into gear suddenly and end just as fast. The boys grab your attention with the first note, slide you into the chorus, and, before you realize it’s happening, drop you off at the music’s inevitable, eccentric conclusion." -Emily Wagner (DC CityPaper)
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