By Matt Harper

Recently, I wrote about Dan Deacon's decision to add a 14-piece ensemble to his performance. Dan invited me and fellow producer CJ Smith down to Baltimore to watch this grand experiment in music come to life ... and we were pleased to accept the offer. We watched Dan and his gang of percussionists, keyboardists and xylophonists practice for about three hours, and then we sat down and talked to him for a bit about exactly why he's moving away from purely electronic composition into a realm more closely approximate to orchestral composition.

What was clear to us after talking to Dan was that the addition of live instrumentation was the direction he had always seen for himself. But as he put it, when you're just starting off, it's hard to convince 14 people to come and practice for 10 hours a day to play to a crowd of no one. But things are different now. His last album, Spiderman of the Rings, was a critical success, and Dan's frenetic shows have earned him a steady following of loyal fans. So it seemed like the time was finally right to step up his live performance by bringing along his makeshift ensemble. Read more...

By Matt Harper

Tomorrow is a big day for Baltimore "electronic" musician Dan Deacon. Please take note: I'm putting "electronic" in quotes because after tomorrow — when Dan takes the stage of the Brooklyn Masonic Temple with a full 14-piece ensemble — he can no longer be called an electronic musician ... which is the point of the whole thing, I suppose.

My co-worker and I got the opportunity to drive to Baltimore this week to check out Dan and his 14-piece entourage practice for the very first time for their upcoming show. So after two speeding tickets and a belly full of Waffle House, we made it to the practice space where Deacon would realize his vision of translating his pulsing, addictively danceable beats into live instrumentation.

(More from the Dan Deacon rehearsal, after the jump!) Read more...