Concert Thu May 13 2010

It Ain't Summer Yet, but There is Definitely a Breeze

By Chris Sienko

One of those little hints that summer is right around the corner for music fanatics on the south side is WHPK's annual Summer Breeze festival, an afternoon of live music and (usually) lovely weather on the quads of the University of Chicago campus. The adventurous campus radio station (88.5 FM on your radio dial) has provided an afternoon of alternative programming to the school's larger, activities board-funded event (also, confusingly enough, called Summer Breeze) that combines sweet pop with jarring dissonance, when forces of nature like Neil Hamburger can follow local psych-pop bands while the students walk through the quads, getting their faces painted, getting a photo on the Big Chair, or jumping around in the inflatable moonwalk. Yes, it's a festival atmosphere from the moment your feet hit the lawn, and if you're 'lucky,' you might even see a LaRouche car with a P.A. system drive by and berate your decadent fun! (I can vouch personally for this last one.)

This year's event is Saturday, May 15, and it takes place from noon until 5. It's on the quads at the corner of S. University and 58th street, and is free and open to the general public.

So, who's on the bill? Read on....

This year's lineup, as usual, offers something for everyone.

The Electric Bunnies make their first Chicago appearance grounded on a tom-heavy psychedelic sound, not unlike Sic Alps, but maybe a bit more Byrds and less Barrett-era Floyd.

James Ferraro's name might not ring many bells on its own, but folks who know the psychedelic noise/drone unit Skaters will know who it is. And that's just the start. The fate of the Skaters may not be so clear, but Ferraro's been having a banner year or two, releasing his pungent, hallucinogenic music under all manner of aliases, such as K2, Lamborgini Crystal, Acid Eagle, and about two dozen others.

From Boston, indie-pop trio Pants Yell! evoke near-hysterical proclamations from their fans -- a friend of mine claimed repeatedly over the course of one year that he didn't want to listen to anything except this band ever again. Their shimmering, blanket-cozy guitar strum and unprepossessing vocals are indeed a nice tonic to life's abrasions, personal or aesthetic.

Falling into the abyss that is the Myspace band page for The Dreams is a little like setting up HQ in a room wallpapered with the last will and testament of an obsessive-compulsive collagist, but drag yourself through the thicket to the music player, and you'll hear a singular, art-damaged post-punk sound that will send shivers of recognition your back if your life was ever warped irrevocably by Y, Cut, A Trip To Marineville, or the promise that someday, somehow, more than two songs by Noh Mercy might someday be discovered in a vault. It really is that good, and that worthy.

Indiana's Eric & The Happy Thoughts deliver an open-faced (but not mawkish) punk sound that uses the form's open honesty, not its confrontation, as a starting point.

Finally, Tee Pee (also from Miami) stake ground on a VU-like pop/drone field, spinning hypnotic organ/bass patterns over churning drums and crunchy, home-recorded guitars.