Future

When Secret Mountains released its long-awaited first album, "Rainer," in February, the band seemed poised to make a leap to higher prominince in the indie music world. The shoegazed-inspired Baltimore sextet had already garnered positive write-ups from online tastemakers Stereogum and Pitchfork. Even the New York Times joined in the praise with a concert review in 2011. The band achieved all of this without a full-length album to its name. But lately, things have been relatively quiet with the band, and last week, singer Kelly Laughlin announced to The Baltimore Sun why: She had left Secret Mountains right before "Rainer" was released.

As I have listened to the debate about the development of SW it has been pointed out that the plan must conform to the Howard County Planning Board input "passed but don't touch the trees. " I find this very touching! Because I have seen the HC Planning Board pass plans that have stripped sites of 80 to 90 percent of their trees at Robinson Nature Center, Riverdale development and Gateway. I hope the Planning Board has at last started to do its job as it relates to Columbia. Marsha McLaughlin said that DPZ has ended up the "Gate Keeper for Columbia" by default.

UPDATE (March 28): Meaghan McCracken, 1st Mariner Arena's public relations manager, confirmed today that Lil Wayne's "America's Most Wanted" tour will take stop at the arena on July 17. The presale for CITI Card members begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. --------------- Posted March 25: Lil Wayne will bring his "America's Most Wanted" tour to Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena...

At first glance, the Metro Gallery's Saturday night bill seems like an odd pairing: Dope Body - one of Baltimore's noisiest, most abrasive bands in years - and Mykki Blanco, a gender-bending, impressively nimble rapper from New York. But watch some live YouTube clips of each act, and the show makes more sense. Dope Body and Mykki Blanco command attention immediately, and both are capable of consistently winning over new audiences through sheer force and charisma. It doesn't matter that their albums would be categorized at opposite ends of the store.

All along, Jason Goger knew his goal was to work for an entrepreneurial company focused on reaching consumers thirsting for new technologies. He got that desire from his father, who started small businesses and crafted various products when Goger was growing up outside Charlottesville, Va. Goger took a job at Black & Decker Co. to learn how a big corporation worked, "just so I had that understanding," he said. After a few years, it came time to follow his passion. He interviewed with several companies, but only one seemed to be the right philosophical match: STX LLC, the Baltimore-based sports equipment maker that arrived on the market with an innovative (i.e.

A task force studying Baltimore's troubled speed camera program will urge the city to increase oversight, change the way camera sites are selected and create a website containing maps and other information of interest to the public, according to draft recommendations released Wednesday. A final report is expected to be presented in the next two weeks to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who formed the task force last summer. "It's going to help us make a better program," acting Transportation Director Frank Murphy said.

We've come too far in taking a positive step forward for the future of Columbia to be dragged down into the endless negativity of conspiracy, stagnation and paralysis. In the interest of creating a new vision for Symphony Woods greater than anything the Columbia Association could ever do on its own, the board has voted to create a non-profit 501(c)(3) trust. This trust would allow the receipt of county, state and private funds, while protecting Columbia lien-payers from liabilities undertaken in the pursuit of the Inner Arbor Plan.

The economy is improving and so is employment, but workers' optimism about a comfortable retirement has fallen to a new low, according to the annual Retirement Confidence Survey released Tuesday. Just over half of workers say they are either very confident about their retirement prospects or somewhat so. But 28 percent - a record high - have no confidence while an additional 21 percent express pessimism about their retirement future. The survey by the Employment Benefit Research Institute gauged the outlook on retirement among 1,254 U.S. workers and retirees interviewed in January.

A massive capital construction and improvement plan to repair or replace dozens of underutilized or dilapidated school buildings in Baltimore City has won the support of legislative leaders in Annapolis, opening the way for the largest overhaul of the school system's aging infrastructure in Baltimore history. If the proposal is adopted and implemented, it would go a long way toward resolving the problem Baltimore has long faced in raising the enormous sums needed to improve educational opportunities for its young people and to attract new families to the city.

Late last winter, Baltimore rapper Test (formerly known as TestMe) signed a deal with Future's FreeBandz Entertainment. Yesterday, he released his first project of original material as a FreeBandz member: "Green Light," which you can download for free here (contains explicit language). (Test released "Jackin 4 Beats" with DJ Big L late last year, but it was him rhyming over already-popular tracks.) Test appeared on the popular FreeBandz compilation mixtape, "F.B.G.: The Movie," from January.