The Witzard

Run (Disconnected) by Adam Lempel Singer and multi-instrumentalist Adam Lempel recently moved back to New York , after living abroad in Amsterdam , while attending Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) for his Masters in Music Design . Lempel has now, returned to his "old stomping grounds" on The East Coast wherein he previously spent a solid decade in Baltimore 's DIY Indie Rock scene as part of WEEKENDS , Winks , and his own band, Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats . Since 2012, Adam Lempel has released an EP and an album with The Heartbeats , yet another album as "Adam Lempel & The Casiobeats," and a 2016 solo album entitled "STILL LIFE." I talk to Adam from time to time—we actually, met once at a (likely) 2011 Surfer Blood/WEEKENDS show at First Unitarian Church —and I know, he's been working on a proper follow-up to "STILL LIFE" for a couple years now. Said album, now titled Jinx , will likely be released at some po...

Adam Lempel is a song-writer, composer, and musician currently living in Queens, New York via Amsterdam and Baltimore . Lempel is one half of Baltimore Art-Rock/Noise band WEEKENDS . I can still vividly remember meeting Adam and his bandmate Brendan Sullivan at now-defunct South Philly venue First Unitarian Church sometime between the releases of WEEKENDS (2008) and Strange Cultures (2011.) WEEKENDS were then-signed to Friends Records and were opening for Surfer Blood on their Astro Coast US tour. Somehow, my buddy and I ended up missing WEEKENDS' opening set, but I still managed to sneak back into the venue's "greenroom" AKA church pews for a Monster -sized canned beer with Adam & Brendan before Surfer Blood 's headlining set. Since then, Adam Lempel moved to Amsterdam for a few years to pursue a Masters in Music Design at Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht . WEEKENDS have been on hiatus for a number of years now and Lempel released thre...

"I recorded myself actually, [ "Tape a Twenty" is] one of the few songs that I recorded everything and mixed everything myself on ["STILL LIFE"] . And it was done in Amsterdam. It's kind of a love song about making the imperfect work; like there's nothing perfect, but everything is imperfect/perfect. The video, I made at at the beginning of last year at my school HKU (Utrecht University of The Arts) , where I'm doing a Masters in Music Design . It was the first two weeks of school—we just had this time to work on a project and I kind of decided I wanted to run around the school with a video camera and make a music video. It was funny 'cause I was in a music program, where I could do anything I wanted for the first time of my life, and I spent my time working with video. I built these kind of weird temporary sculptures out of junk and strapped a smartphone on the top to create these weird junk people." "I imagined a guy, like worki...

" Adam Lempel started making solo records as a departure from his work in Baltimore Noise Rockers WEEKENDS . Focusing more on songwriting and heartfelt lyrics, his first record Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats stood out in the Baltimore DIY music scene because it was so unapologetically straight-forward. After getting into the Conservatorium van Amsterdam to study classical music composition, he moved to Amsterdam where he currently lives," reads a brief description attached to Baltimore by way of Amsterdam multi-instrumentalist Adam Lempel 's about me page. Lempel and his noisy partner-in-crime, Brendan Sullivan quietly put out three guitar feedback-drenched albums and and aptly-titled Acoustic Tape, Vol. 1 between 2008-2013; right on the cusp of Indie Rock 's frenzied WEEKENDS/Weekend/The Weeknd mass confusion felt echoed across the blogosphere. However, WEEKENDS have been on an indefinite hiatus since the majority of copies of their then-forthcoming th...

You Belong With Me EP by Adam Lempel and the Heartbeats My buddy Adam Lempel hit me up on Facebook last week, asking if I'd be down to write up a Witzard review on his new band, Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats' upcoming Reoccurring Dreams/Friends Records debut. The answer was obviously, "FUCK YEAH!" I met Adam and his fellow bandmate, Brendan Sullivan (WEEKENDS) backstage in the make-shift green room [church pews] @ a Surfer Blood show in South Philly (2011). Needless to say, following a few texts and emails, I had an advance copy of "Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats" safely nestled in my Inbox. After a few listens, I gotta admit, it's a pretty far departure from WEEKENDS' feedback-drenched brand of improvised Noise-Rock , but The Heartbeats managed to compile an almost INSTANTLY catchy Folk/Pop Rock record!.. mildly reminiscent of The Beatles , Beach Boys, Fiona Apple , Weezer, Simon & Garfunkel , Pixies. "It was recorded ...

Baltimore, Maryland is a metropolitan city chock-full of creative, artistically-inclined young people. On the Indie Rock side of things, WEEKENDS , Dog Leather, Dope Body , Beach House , and Dan Deacon are a few of it's BIGGER, attention-drawing bands. Townsman Brett Yale runs a cassette-pressing record label, Friends Records and a companion Baltimore -centric music blog, B-more Musically Informed . He really seems eager to help sign, promote, and assist local bands in getting their music heard on a much larger scale. Recently spotted a short write-up about "DJ Dog Dick" (Max Eisenberg) from Dog Leather 's new Jazz -inspired track. Pictureplane once said that Dog Leather "[weren't] trying to be rappers, they are just being themselves" ... with that said, "Lights Down Low" definitely has an underlying Hip-Hop feel to it. Richmond 's very own Lil Ugly Mane is featured rapping alongside DJ Dog Dick on the Shawn Kemp -produced t...

(1) Do you dig much Hip-Hop? If so, what were a few of your favourite new artists/albums of 2011? I really like that new-ish Young Jeezy [-feat. André 3000 & Jay-Z] track, "I Do" and lately that has kept me waiting for it to come on the radio again. I also like that new song by Cash Out called, "Cashin' Out." I wasn't too excited about any new Hip-Hop artists this past year, much less could I tell you about an entire album from 2011. For the record, Lil' Wayne is the rapper that I am most impressed by currently (he is insanely prolific) and I do have all of the Baltimore Hip-Hop stations saved as presets in my ride. 92Q is what's up. (2) How would you describe the overall sound of the new Dope Body record, Natural History? Cause "Lazy Slave" is pretty Hardcore, dude! It's a little difficult to try to describe an overall sound of Natural History because of it's wide range of moods and styles. Some songs are more Sunburst...

I would imagine that a band like Weekends are held very much so in the same public regard as say, Pavement or Nirvana back in their 90's heyday(s): The band's overall musical ability [or lack thereof] doesn't exactly seem to measure up with their ever-growing level of success and critical acclaim. With that said, Weekends is simply made up of 2 multi-instumental cats hailing from Baltimore, Maryland 's thriving "art scene" - Brendan Sullivan and Adam Lemple on rotating Guitar/Vox/Drum duties. Both gentlemen are active solo artists, graphic designers, writers, photo-journalists, members of alternative bands, etc. as well. Personally met Weekends @ First Unitarian Church, Philly gig with Surfer Blood last summer; They proceeded to offer me FREE beer and malt liquor when we officially met in the "green room" [church pews]. I can attest that they're truly some cool-ass, hard-working dudes! Since forming around 2008-09, Weekends have managed...