Band

Patterson Hood doesn't hesitate to acknowledge that his band, Southern rock veterans Drive-By Truckers, almost called it quits last year. He doesn't elaborate on details but concedes that "personal [stuff]" was eroding the band from the inside. "I spent a lot of last year soul-searching whether it was time to pack it up and call it a day. I truly did," Hood said. "I spent two years with that in the back of my mind, a nagging thing. I didn't like where the band was at. " Hood laughs at the idea now. With the recent departures of bassist Shonna Tucker and guitarist John Neff, Hood says, Drive-By Truckers is rejuvenated.

The steel drum sounds that filled the room at Catonsville High School were so infectious that students playing the instruments couldn't help but dance. Music teacher Jim Wharton, the cavorting leader of the impromptu jam session, was steadily beating a cowbell when he stared out a nearby window and spotted a truck driver looking in while reversing the vehicle. "Come on," Wharton beckoned, motioning the driver to pull over and join the troupe. Even though his calls went unheeded, the 62-year-old child at heart resumed getting his groove on, savoring the Caribbean flavor he helped introduce to Baltimore County schools more than 20 years ago. After teaching music in the county for nearly 40 years, Wharton is retiring.

The soap opera saga of the rock star, the model and Donald Trump took another turn over the weekend.Model Rowanne Brewer -- who had been seen in previous weeks at the side of Trump -- was at Hammerjacks Saturday night with her longtime beau, Baltimore rocker Brian Jack, lead singer of the popular local band Child's Play.The couple had returned from a Christmas visit to her family's home in North Carolina. Because of that visit, Jack, whose real name is Brian Giacubeno, missed four of the band's performances last week, causing Child's Play to cancel three of the dates and leaving a scheduled New Year's Eve performance Hammerjacks in limbo.

Midway through the xx's set at April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival in Indio, Calif., the London-based trio threw a cover song into its set: Aaliyah's smoldering 1997 single "Hot Like Fire. " Solange, the R&B singer and friend of the xx, joined the band on stage to solidify one of the weekend's standout moments. Guitarist and vocalist Romy Madley Croft, 23, talks modestly about her acclaimed band, but doesn't hesitate to gush about the two R&B singers who helped make the highlight possible.

Midway through the xx's set at April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival in Indio, Calif., the London-based trio threw a cover song into its set: Aaliyah's smoldering 1997 single "Hot Like Fire. " Solange, the R&B singer and friend of the xx, joined the band on stage to solidify one of the weekend's standout moments. Guitarist and vocalist Romy Madley Croft, 23, talks modestly about her acclaimed band, but doesn't hesitate to gush about the two R&B singers who helped make the highlight possible.

University of Missouri administrators have apologized to the U.S. Naval Academy for what appears to have been a misunderstanding during band performances at the Texas Bowl game last week. The school's marching band has been taking heat on blogs and online news forums for continuing to play the MU fight song as the Naval Academy band began to play its "Blue and Gold" anthem. A Facebook page dedicated to the Texas Bowl also is laced with comments from people saying Missouri should "be ashamed."

Looking for St. Paddy's day plans? Gov. Martin O'Malley's Irish rock band, O'Malleys March, has already sold out the early show for Saturday night in Baltimore, and by Thursday they'd sold three-fourths of the 200-person floor space in the Creative Alliance for the late show, the venue said. Earlier in the day, his political action committee O'Say Can You See sent out an invitation to the St. Patrick's Day show, which costs $25 a head.  Proceeds benefit the Creative Alliance, which advertised the show as " some Celtic fury.

The Baltimore rock scene lost another band today. Ponytail, one of the city's most celebrated art-rock bands, announced its break up via a statement from Sir James Winnie of We Are Free Management, according to Stereogum . The band went on a hiatus last year, but came back to release Do Whatever you Want all the Time in April. But this time, it sounds like it's the end for good, based on pragmatic reasons: the members simply live all over the country, making it too difficult to tour.

America may be ahead of the pack when it comes to most pop music trends, but there are times when we lag behind the rest of the world. Take Jamiroquai, for example. In Britain, France, Australia and Japan, the British fivesome is a Top-20 phenomenon, with millions of fans smitten by Jay Kay's vocals and the band's retro-soul groove. Here, however, the band has barely dented the charts, with only a handful of aficionados hip to its charms.That's going to change, though, for Jamiroquai is planning a full-scale assault on the American music market this year.

DUDE, I SERVICE society by rocking, OK? That's how Jack Black's character, a failed rock 'n' roll performer masquerading as a schoolteacher, explains his philosophy of life in School of Rock, a movie that has a lot to say about music and growing up. Apparently, it's not a philosophy shared by Martin O'Malley, Baltimore's rockin' renaissance man. (Surprising, since even Mr. O'Malley's critics will concede he can talk with a certain degree of, uh, youthful...

Edward Henry Weiss, a retired marketing executive who put the name Wacky Noodle on a children's flotation device used in swimming pools, died of a stroke Monday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 74. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the son of Sidney Weiss, who owned a printing business, and the former Fannie Brand, a homemaker. As a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, he played the saxophone and clarinet in the school band. He befriended a classmate, a young composer and performer, Neil Sedaka, who wrote hits including "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. " "In the summer my husband and Neil would go to the Catskills early in the season," said his wife, Susan Pace Weiss.

John Rzeznik, lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, should know a thing or two about wedding songs. He wrote the inescapable hit "Iris" in 1998, which plenty of newly married couples have played for their first dance, including, most famously, singer Avril Lavigne in 2006. And yet, for his own upcoming wedding in July, Rzeznik has no clue what song he and his fiance, Melina Gallo, will dance to. "I'm just happy that I'm getting married. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm still a guy," Rzeznik said from his Los Angeles home recently.

AEGIS STAFF REPORT KC & The Sunshine Band will appear in concert at the APG Federal Credit Union Arena at Harford Community College on June 15 at 7:30 p.m. North Point, comprised of former Baltimore band members and fresh local musicians, will open for the band, playing classics from the '60s, '70s and '80s. Dance the night away on the Arena's state-of-the-art dance floor under what must arguably be the East Coast's largest disco ball. KC & the Sunshine Band burst onto the music scene more than 35 years ago, racking up some of the biggest dance hits including "Get Down Tonight," "That's The Way (I Like It)

Michael Mayer knows a thing or two about coming of age. The Maryland-born director won a Tony Award for his work guiding the 2006 Broadway hit "Spring Awakening," which chronicles teens getting a grip on their budding sexuality. In 2010, he directed "American Idiot," a punk rock musical based on the Green Day album of that name, which follows a group of cynical, spent youths as they seek excitement in a big city. Mayer didn't just direct the latter, but collaborated on the book with Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong.

Sol Kramer, who turned a Depression-era 15-cent balsa toy airplane business into a leading wholesale hobby empire, died of pneumonia April 24 at Hospice by the Sea in Pompano Beach, Fla. The former Pikesville resident was 96. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Lithuanian immigrants. His father, Morris, was a Saratoga Street tailor. His mother, Dora, was a homemaker. Mr. Kramer was a graduate of the old Robert E. Lee School and received his diploma from City College at age 14. "He and his brother, Lou, belonged to the Junior Birdmen of America, a model airplane club promoted by the Hearst newspapers," said his son, Dr. Karl Kramer of Coral Gables, Fla. "His brother was really the airplane builder.

Pinkies up! St. Stephen's Traditional Episcopal Church in Timonium is hosting its 12th annual British Garden Party and Fete on Saturday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, even though it costs St. Stephen's nearly  $4,000 each year to present this "bit of Jolly Olde England," as the church bills it. "It's really a gift to the community," the Rev. Guy Hawtin said. "It's not really a money-making venture - the goal is to break even. One year we cleared $50 profit.

The members of Dulaney High School's marching band tromped around the parking lot on a chilly afternoon three days before Christmas, their fingers dancing across phantom horns and drums. They played nothing but air because their instruments had already begun a trek across the Atlantic Ocean that will culminate on New Year's Day, when the band from Timonium will play before hundreds of thousands of revelers in the heart of London. Seventy-nine of the band's 108 members planned to follow their instruments across the pond Dec. 27 for the biggest performance of their lives.

Former President Bill Clinton often jokes that the most disorienting thing about transitioning out of the presidency is that a band no longer strikes up a tune every time he enters a room.    Rep. Donna F. Edwards had the opposite and no doubt equally disorienting experience last weekend when high school musicians began playing for her as she stepped off a plane at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. According to the office of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the Wyandotte Roosevelt High School Marching Band showed up at the airport Saturday to surprise the Prince George’s County Democrat and thank her for help she provided more than two years ago during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

“Hello Baltimore, it's been too long,” said Beach House singer Victoria Legrand from the Lyric Opera House stage on Friday night. It was an understatement: The city's most-known indie-rock duo hadn't played the area since September 2010, and even then, it was an opening slot for Vampire Weekend at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. This was a true homecoming years in the making, and Beach House performed an 85-minute set with a confidence earned from long tours, large festival gigs and late-night TV performances.

I have been engaged for a month and a half and already I feel so accomplished in terms of my wedding planning. Everyone I talk to tells me how on top of things I am, and it's so nice to hear because that is usually not me at all.  When it comes to cleaning or school work I have always been the biggest procrastinator. I wonder now why I haven't been so organized with all aspects of life, but, then, let's be real: Planning a wedding and my future with the love of my life is way more exciting than studying or vacuuming the house.