When we're not panicking about what to cook on Thanksgiving, here's what we're checking out online:
Download the latest mix from Chicago's own DJ LA Jesus - "Saves the Dance Floor, Vol. 4" (for free, folks).
Permanent Records turns three this weekend, and celebrates with a party at the Hideout. (And if you can't make it, you can still celebrate with their store sale next Friday, the 27th.)
A look at the Wikipedia Files for Lupe Fiasco by WBEZ.
Alarm magazine has a review of David Bazan's latest full band tour.
Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis both weigh in on the first night of the Pixies' weekend residence at the Aragon.
Become a Facebook fan of Laurie's Planet of Sound to get (nearly) daily favorites from their staff.
CYSTSFTS has loads of album reviews up this week, including the latest from an old favorite, Left Lane Cruiser.
CHIRP has the line on sweet DJ events tonight through Thanksgiving.
Bust Magazine interviews Kid Sister (who's new album, Ultraviolet, is now in stores).
Red Threat has the line on the latest electronica from Jori Hulkkonen.
Twilight author Stephanie Meyer talks about her favorite bands at the Twilight: New Moon premiere, which include Bloodshot Records artists Ha Ha Tonka [Video]. That squealing you hear in the distance is coming from the Bloodshot HQ, I suspect.
Evanston's Ezra Furman is going to make you a special album. No really, just for you.
WFMU's Beware of the Blog talks about the latest from the Free Music Archive, including a remix contest which ends Dec. 20th.
Victim of Time blog has the line on the latest from Uzi Rash, an album that came from the "typical bedroom nutcase recording-style" and which produced Hight and Phree.
As the decade comes near it's close, a lot of sites and publications are already starting their lists of the best, most important and most influential albums. Now's your chance to see what it was really like. All Tomorrow's Parties has been hosting music festivals around the world for ten years (Including one night of the Don't Look Back series at our own Pitchfork Music Festival in 2007), and tonight Pitchfork hosts the Chicago premiere of the film that documents it all. Shot by more than 200 amateur and professional filmmakers, the film features performances from Sonic Youth, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Belle and Sebastian, the Stooges, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Portishead.
Tickets are $9 and you can get them at Facets' website. 11:30pm. 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.
The DVD of the film comes out November 25 in the US (It's already sold out in the UK!).
When you visit the myspace page of Michele Ari the heading reads, "The Front Man is a Girl", and for some reason reading that sparked something in me. These days there are thousands of female vocals and many fine female singers right here in Chicago. However, is there a difference between a vocalist and frontman? I say yes, and Michele Ari is a bonafied frontman. Her and her band, based in Nashville, just released their second album mal a' propos and the first two tracks, "6am" and "Boxes" are currently streaming at Fearless Radio. There is a strength and a confidence in Michele's voice that fits perfectly the contemporary alt-pop backing. It's nothing complicated or groundbreaking, but there is always room for well-written pop. The frontman is the center piece, the attention getter, and the hook, and Michele is all of those things and more.
Michele is coming to Chicago on November 21st and will first be playing at the Fearless Radio's studio at 4:00pm and then be playing with one of my favorite new local bands The Streets of Fire at Cal's. The Streets on Fire also just released an album, their debut, and are proving that lo-fi funk is not dead in this town. I recommend you stop by Cal's on the 21st to check out both Michele Ari and The Streets on Fire.
The last time I saw a Kinsella brothers project it was Joan of Arc at the Beat Kitchen in the summer of 2008. The place was packed and the show was ended with a cover of Neil Young's "A Man Needs A Maid". It is always been hit or miss with the Cap'n Jazz derived bands, some more likable than others. Regardless, the guys have been a staple of Chicago's music scene for over 15 years. Owen, the solo project of Mike Kinsella is one of the better known bands and recently he released a fifth studio album entitled New Leaves on Polyvinyl Records. Owen plays an all ages show tonight at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery along with local minimalists Bikes will Take Us. Expect a communal acoustic vibe with lots of sad songs. The Andrew Rafacz Gallery is located at 835 W. Washington Blvd. The show is $10 at the door, $8 on the Empty Bottle's Website. The show starts at 8:00.
The Bamboozle is a 2-day music festival that has been rocking New Jersey since 2005, and branched out to California in 2006. In 2010, they're venturing out to a new location, and because Chicago is really lacking in the music festival department, they've just announced that they've decided to set up shop here. Looking at the Jersey and California line-ups from the past few years, it seems to be about 80% Warped Tour fare with a handful of artists in other genres mixed in. A few artists who performed in 2009: The Get Up Kids, New Found Glory, GWAR, Cage the Elephant, Ace Enders, Schwayze, Kid Cudi, Deftones, and The Vandals. If that sounds like your type of thing, mark your calendar for May 15th, when they'll be taking over the First Midwest Amphitheater.
Slightly disturbing and funky as hell, Charlie Deets has returned with the video for the first single from his forthcoming album, The Power of Suggestion. "Skinny Girls With C's" is video filled not with skinny girls, but really the exact opposite. The album will be released via Paribus Records on February 14th.
I was just wondering the other day: What ever happened to OK Go? Turns out they've just been hiding out in a studio somewhere, recording their new album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, out Dec. 1. Here's the psychedelidonkeykong video by Tim Nackashi for their first single, "WTF?"
Pretty damn cool, no? Wondering HTF OKGO WTFed? Here's Damien and Tim to explain:
Just as Kid Sister is releasing her ode to the electro-glossy, fashionable side of hip-hop, another passionate individual has dropped an album in the same genre but one that moves in a completely different direction. Radius' latest opus, ETC... is his fifth, and although it is only seven tracks in length it still packed with complex and inventive downtempo beats. For all the attention that Madlib, 9th Wonder, and other receive the talent and intelligence of Radius is often overlooked. Considered a mini-album, Gritty Goat has printed up only 50 copies of this Chicago gem, and each is hand made. Pick up a copy, along with your copy of Ultraviolet (Kid Sister) and balance out your hip hop diet.
Radius will be spinning tonight as part of Respect the DJ at Lava. Respect The DJ runs every Tuesday at Lava and is a free event.
Speaking of Ms. Melisa, her long-awaited album Ultraviolet drops tomorrow (finally!). She'll also be hitting up the House of Blues next Wednesday night (November 25th). The show is all ages and $16 - 18. She's made a habit of performing in Chicago the night before Thanksgiving, a time when this writer is never in the city. If you won't be off visiting the 'rents that weekend, pick up your tickets here and let me know how it goes.
The Dirty Projectors are an interesting sonic experience, that's for sure, and you may or may not be able to get into their latest album, Bitte Orca, depending on your palate. I for one find it endlessly pleasing ear candy. "Stillness is the Move" is probably the most viable single on the record and was incredibly popular this year--Amber Coffman's vocals are swirling and entrancing--but the rest of the album is filled with heavier exploration and experimentation. A lot of the tracks play around with offbeat rhythms, and it's that unexpectedness that makes it so intriguing. Sometimes your ear thinks it wants one thing, but it can be a delight when it gets something completely different.
Like our own Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Dirty Projectors took a tumble in their van over the summer, but luckily they all walked away from the accident unscathed and are still on the road, tonight making a stop at Bottom Lounge. Tonight's show with Tune-Yards is sold out, but be sure to pick up a copy of Bitte Orca if you aren't familiar.
Tomorrow night, turn your brain's positioning system in the direction of Enemy (1550 N. Milwaukee Avenue) for four fearsome and poisonous examples of instruments-as-DDT.
Chord is a collective of drone practitioners with varying ensemble sizes from performance to performance. As the name implies, Chord attempts to find that BIG CHORD through sound -- the harmony of the spheres, as they say. Conversely, Locrian lives to cast the spheres into vengeful darkness with a heady combination of guitar/synth/vocals. Their latest release, the Rain of Ashes CD (Basses Frequencies) is a highpoint to date. Though I have not heard this on the digital/remastered format, I was happy to hear the original release (when it was a tape on Fan Death Records), and was happy to be thrown for a loop, with a newly-explored sense of tentative melody, incorporating seemingly non-Locrian elements like Post-punk synth sequencers and some non-shrieked vocals. And guess what? It sounds good backwards, too! (a palindrome recording, if you like) Ratatosk, a new-ish duo of Ben Billington (ex-Druids of Huge) and Jason Soliday (Magic Missile, Gunshop, Coeurl, ex-Animal Law, Mora, &c. as well as co-founder of the Enemy space) works a Krautrock-ish vein, with motorik (sometimes free jazz-ish) drums locking in against waves of electronic forcefields. Finally, the three-piece grindcore/showtunes/wha-huuuh? group known as Harpoon might sound like the strangest thing you've ever cowered in fear of, until you check the lineup and realize it was founded by, among others, the former bandleader of 7000 Dying Rats. Always a pleasure.
$5 at the door, posted says 8 p.m., so don't be late!
Percolator is an energetic post-punk four-piece from Chicago with a heavy dose of power pop. They've got a new double album coming out soon, an EP that you can buy for $3, and a show tomorrow at Ronny's.
Upon listening to the sample CDs they sent us along with a nice hand-written note, I immediately picked up on some Mike Watt/Minutemen sounds, the singing called to mind Violent Femmes, and the guitar, Weezer (though they switch around instruments, so the sounds vary a bit.) They also claim to be playing around with influences ranging from Busta Rhymes to Sonic Youth, but I'm not quite hearing it. The sound is a little too clean and consistent for that, but there's nothing wrong with that. The guitar is playful and experimental-- mimicking the lyrics, doing a good job at not being boring. The drums are clean yet hyperactive, the drummer is obviously not afraid of fills, and it works. The recordings are a little iffy-- maybe because they were self-recorded, but I have a feeling this is a pretty fun band to see live. Check them out tomorrow night (Friday, Nov. 13) at Ronny's: 2101 N. California. Bird Ate My Donut, Faggy Pussy, and The Armor Class play that show, too. The show starts at 9pm, ages 21 and up.
Lissie is a pop/indie/country band with a pretty blond front-woman, Lissie Maurus, who hails from Rock Island but now lives in Ojai, CA. Why You Runnin' is her new EP, fresh off the presses from Fat Possum Records.
Why You Runnin' is good, probably best when it's knee-slappin' indie-country, like in the single, "Little Lovin'," which kicks off the EP with delicate picking on an acoustic guitar and crescendos into greatness with the help of a tambourine and an electric guitar, among other things. Then there is the melancholy country cover, "Wedding Bells," with heavily layered vocals, reminiscent of those of My Morning Jacket, and "Oh, Mississippi," the hymn-like tune that I could have sworn was Mississippi's state anthem, but it's not-- it's just a homesick tune Lissie wrote in London. The EP ends with "Everywhere I Go," which is a little too sappy, and "Here Before," the poppy ballad in which her voice really shines; all twisty and soulful.
When talking musical influences with Helen Money, it's easy to forget her instrument of choice: cello. She references Bob Mould's Beaster, with its wall of sound and intense, thought-obliterating guitar work. She speaks of The Who and all the crazy rock bands she was exposed to in the '80s. "The stuff I like sounds like life or death," she reasons. And this coming from a woman with a picture of Jimi Hendrix taped to her cello case like he's a saint.
Transmission is the music section of Gapers Block. It aims to highlight Chicago music in its many varied forms, as well as cover touring acts performing in the city.
Editor: Anne Holub, ash@gapersblock.com
Transmission staff inbox: transmission@gapersblock.com
