My friend Shaun Flynn designed one of the best show posters I’ve ever seen, a lattice portrait of Asa Osborne of Zomes and Lungfish, for a recent show headlined by a Daniel-Higgs-fronted Skull Defekts.

Zomes opened along with along with Microkingdom and Shave, making it a bit of a Baltimore homecoming for Higgs who has been floating around the world lately. Shaun details his process of creating the poster on his Flickr account. This town never ceases to inspire me.

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Not to be all up in Thrill Jockey’s, er, jock, but they are just killing it with all their recent additions to their roster — Daniel Higgs-fronted Skull Defekts, Liturgy, and now Zomes. Asa Osbourne, fellow Lungfish bandmate of Daniel Higgs, is out with another batch of blissed-out tape beat and keyboard compositions.

I got to know Thrill Jockey as the label for mellow, contemplative art/jazz bands that wind up being played on NPR. Of late, though, they have been signing some really left-field acts such as Daniel Higgs, Future Islands, Barn Owl, and now Brooklyn-based ‘transcendental black metal’ band Liturgy. I think it’s a good fit because Liturgy doesn’t really belong on a straight-forward metal label.

I cannot truly do Daniel Higgs’ latest double LP, Say God, justice with words. All I can say is that you’ll either find it non-sensical in the context of conventional expectations of modern music and its usual themes, you may feel uncomfortable with its candid and spiritual content, or you might find it revelatory.

Daniel Higgs came to prominence as frontman for Baltimore hardcore band Reptile House and later Lungfish, the first non-DC band to sign to Dischord. Now primarily playing solo, improvised, experimental sets with a banjo and a jaw harp, Higgs has become a bit of a Baltimore icon and counterculture prophet, spouting mystical, Eastern-influenced philosophy and spirituality through his lyrics, spoken word, and amazing art work. He is also a renowned tattoo artist, as evidenced by his own extensive ink.

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