Wham City is an art and performance collective based in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland. Members of Wham City include musicians

Dan Deacon Daniel Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the pe ...

and Ed Schrader, visual artists

Jimmy Joe Roche Jimmy Joe Roche is an American visual artist and underground filmmaker, based in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a long-time collaborator with Baltimore-based musician Dan Deacon. Career Roche's works have been screened in venues and museums all ove ...

, Peter Ryan O'Connell, Mason Ross, Adam Endres, Dina Kelberman, April Camlin, Connor M. Kizer, Robby Rackleff, Cricket Arrison, Alan Resnick and

Ben O'Brien Ben O'Brien (born November 4, 1984) is an American comedian and filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. They are a member of the Wham City arts collective and founding member of Wham City Comedy. They have directed videos for Adult Swim and Merge Rec ...

Events

From 2005–2010, Wham City organized Whartscape, an annual experimental music and arts festival in

as an alternative to the city's

Artscape Artscape may refer to: * Artscape (festival) Artscape is an annual art festival held in the Mount Royal neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland in July. Since its first annual event in 1982, it has become the largest free arts festival in America. It ...

festival. The festivals included performances by

Matmos Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their per ...

Beach House Beach House is an American musical duo formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2004. The band consists of Victoria Legrand (vocals, keyboards) and Alex Scally (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals). Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 to ...

Double Dagger A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descenda ...

Ian MacKaye Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (; born April 16, 1962) is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label and the frontman of hardcore punk ...

Lil B Brandon Christopher McCartney (born August 17, 1989), professionally known as Lil B and as his alter ego The BasedGod, is an American rapper. Lil B has recorded both solo and with Bay Area group The Pack. His solo work spans several genres, ...

, and

. In its 2010 article about the festival, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' called Whartscape, "the premier DIY music event in the country". Wham City member Connor Kizer organizes a bi-monthly lecture series in

Baltimore, MD Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

in which local and visiting artists speak on a diverse range of topics. In 2009, The Wham City Lecture Series won "Best Non-Music Bar Act" in the Baltimore City Paper. Wham City members

and Alan Resnick organize an annual east coast skit comedy and stand up tour entitled, "The Wham City Comedy Tour". The tour was founded in 2010 by

and

. Under the banner "AB Video Solutions", Wham City created several short films for

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

, including the satirical infomercial ''

Live Forever as You Are Now with Alan Resnick ''Live Forever as You Are Now with Alan Resnick'' is a television special written, created and directed by Alan Resnick and Ben O'Brien for Adult Swim, as part of the Infomercials series. The special is presented as a parody of self-help infome ...

'', which aired on December 2013.

History

Wham City began as a popular underground show space in The

Copycat Building The Copycat Building is a former manufacturing warehouse at 1501 Guilford Ave, Baltimore, Maryland, today used as an artists' studio and living space. Built in 1897, it is home to the city's creative class and a landmark of the Station North Arts ...

in Baltimore, MD in the mid-2000s. Many of the group's principal members met while attending

State University of New York at Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was fo ...

in the early 2000s before moving to Baltimore City. The song "Wham City" on

's ''

Spiderman of the Rings ''Spiderman of the Rings'' is the first studio album by the American electronic musician Dan Deacon, released by Carpark Records Carpark Records is an independent record label based in Washington, D.C. History Carpark Records was establi ...

'' album was written, according to the musician and co-founder, as a "national anthem" for the collective. As of February 21, 2022 the group is on indefinite hiatus.

Events

History

References

Related links