B-more hardcore

Dactyl

Dactyl is made up of a couple of Ricks—Rick Major and Ricky Ito—and Noel Conrad and Eric Smith. These hometown boys are frequently compared to AmRep bands from the '90s, which is essentially noise rock. Don't worry, it's a lot more fun than it sounds. They've added to this noise rock rep by playing shows with such bands as Unsane, Lubricated Goat, The Heroine Sheiks, Vaz and Todd. They've managed to evolve past noise rock on a few levels though, infusing their sound with more standard hardcore threads.

The members of Dactyl are all actively involved in Baltimore's music world. Ito plays bass in Hollywood (which has a garage, Halo of Flies flavor), and Conrad sings in Triac and plays bass/sings in Ratsize. Major and Smith spend their non-Dactyl time raising kids, which is considerably punk rock of them in our opinion. Dactyl's favorite spot to play in town is the Talking Head, so you can frequently catch them there.

Lineup: Rick Major, guitar; Ricky Ito, drums; Noel Conrad, bass and vocals; Eric Smith, guitar and vocals

Web site: http://www.dactyldactyl.com/