Female rappers have always received a lot of flak. Despite the effort of many artists to reform the hip hop scene, misogyny and aspersion still remain commonplace. Perhaps that's one of the reasons Chicago rapper Melisa Young is such a breath of fresh air. Instead of grumbling about beefs, she'd rather have everyone going wild on the dance floor. Known as Kid Sister, she blew up on the radar almost overnight after the release of her single "Pro Nails". Also featured in the single is Chicago's own Kanye West, whom you may have heard of. Since then, she's been busy popping up on magazine covers, getting interviewed, and working on Dream Date, her debut album.
Getting your fingernails done, telephones, and beepers--these are just some of the finer things in life that Kid Sister focuses her rhymes on. They help define Kid Sister as a carefree party starter rather than just another female rapper people compare to Missy Elliot. Fans love her upbeat personality, hip fashion sense, and catchy beats. To an extent, Kid Sister is a throwback to old school hip hop acts that focused on having fun as opposed to east coast-west coast rivalries. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince immediately come to mind.
At his show at Pritzker in September, violin-playing-loverboyAndrew Bird told us that he had just finished recording a new album. Today he announced new dates for a US tour early next year, presumably in support of this new album, Noble Beast (out in January). One question though--how could he not play in hometown Chicago? And where the heck is Murray? (okay that was two questions...)
I have to admit something. I've lived in Chicago for nearly three years now, and I still haven't listened to any local music. I usually arrive late to concerts when I know a local band is warming up. I would even go so far as to say that I have avoided the local scene here. That all changes now.
I've been listening to Golden Birthday's "Infinite Leagues" pretty steadily ever since Andrew handed it to me at our Meet-Up last week at Billy Goat Tavern. I knew absolutely nothing about the band when he handed it to me, and now (due to their major lack of web presence) still feel as if I know very little. But, the music. The music is simple, yet highly engaging. There is an honesty involved that many musicians try to stray away from that Golden Birthday gleefully embraces. Blending together drum loops and guitar hooks that aren't much more advanced than a high schooler with a 4-track, the music somehow finds a way to work. Synthesizers help. As do Ryan Sullivan's lyrics.
Glenn Kotche is the drummer for a little Chicago rock band you might have heard of called Wilco. What you may not know, is that Wilco is just one of Kotche's many projects.
Kotche joined Wilco in 2001, right before the band went rogue (sound-wise and label-wise) with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Its no surprise that Wilco took an innovative turn at that time, when you consider Kotche's background and other projects. He was in the experimental rock trio Loose Fur with Jeff Tweedy and Jim O'Rourke when Tweedy asked him to join Wilco. Currently, he makes up half of the jazz experimental duo On Fillmore with Darin Gray. He also recently collaborated with fellow local Andrew Bird for one of Bird's upcoming albums. And on top of all this, right now he is busy recording a new album with Wilco.
As if that wasn't enough to keep your plate full, Kotche has a burgeoning solo career of his own. In 2006 he released his third solo album, Moblie (Nonesuch Records). His creative exploration of rhythm and the space between is nothing you would expect and incredibly intriguing. It's also diverse, from the ambient title track "Mobile Parts 1 & 2" to the intense jam beats on "Projections of (what) Might."
Tonight he appears with indie classical group eighth blackbird at Harris Theater (205 E. Randolph Dr.), where they will perform works from Mobile, and Kotche himself will perform a solo set. What can you expect? Lots of unorthodox percussion instruments and a departure from rhythm you're used to hearing.
Two-thirds of Hey Champ originated from Rockford, therefore dooming the trio to a lifetime of Cheap Trick comparisons. Perhaps that's a small price to pay when considering their newfound success. Hey Champ was recently signed to Lupe Fiasco's 1st and 15th label, instantly catapulting them to "up-and-comer" status. They've also been touring with Lupe and blogging about the difficulty and excitement of it all.
So what's the big deal about these guys, anyways? For one, their music is a refreshingly catchy mélange of indie pop, rock, and dreamy synth sounds. Hey Champ manages to capture the "I just want to boogie" synthesizer sound and fuses it with a sleek guitar and drums that get your head bobbing. The end result will get just about anyone dancing in no time, including your grandma. Additionally, Hey Champ continues to work on their DJ skills. It's a safe bet to assume that their experience with banging dance anthems contributes to their musical versatility. Expect for these guys to remain cutting edge for a while.
Tom Schraeder is 24 years old, but sings with the sorrow of a man twice his age. Upon first listening to his new EP, Lying Through Dinner, I found it a nice little Americana album, but it wasn't until a few more listens that I was really gripped by the heart in his songwriting. There is some real emotion in this album. There is heartache, a couple of foot-stomping singalong moments, and some passages that can make you feel the lost hope of someone drinking alone in an empty bar at closing time. Tom has a talent for evoking the feeling you've been there before, even if you haven't. He is such an excellent songwriter, that while you feel the hurt and yearning in his songs, he is still a joy to listen to. And somehow, with all the pain experienced in his lyrics and acclaim he's received, he still manages to keep a cool head.
Tom Schraeder & His Ego are back in Chicago for one show this Saturday at Schubas before heading out on tour. It's a record release show and everyone will receive a free copy of Lying Through Dinner with the purchase of advance tickets. Watch the promo video after the jump to get a little preview of the first song on the album, "Needle Will Bite."
Frigates, recently out of Humboldt Park, like the words "compact" and "staccato" to describe their style of bass/drums/clean guitar punch; those are about as good as any adjectives in my bag. Evidently, they've been in the studio recently. There's only one track on the MySpace site with a little studio polish, the catchy "Damage and Liability", which has an undeniably likable Talking Heads thing going on. (Eno, Bowie and David Fripp all get shoutouts in their Influences section, but no Heads. Hrmph.) The other two tracks sound an awful lot like rehearsal takes - boxy acoustics and no audible vocals to speak of - but they're good rehearsal takes, and suggest some serious live show promise. There's plenty of energy here, and it's hard to go wrong with catchy guitars and smashing drums. Frigates plays Ronny's, Thursday 11/13 at 9pm with Story of the Sea and Mako Sica; Edie Sedgwick (Dischord) headlines. Frigates will also appear live in the WHPK studios on Pure Hype, Friday at 9pm.
Imagine the biggest house party you've even been to, and the best DJ you've ever heard is playing every single one of your favorite songs and guilty pleasures. Now multiply that by a gazillion. That might come close to matching the excitement at Congress Theater on Saturday night.
Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) is not a DJ, he's an artist, a master at mixing together snippets of songs that already exist, and that you've already heard into a new, completely different animal. His latest album, Feed The Animals, is a mashup of samples running into and over each other from Nirvana to Roy Orbison (?!?!) along with over 300 others.
It was a party from the moment you walked in. There was a DJ set up in the lobby blasting you in the face with music and stage smoke right as you entered. It was a bit of a shock at first, coming in from 30-degree temperatures outside, but it quickly wore off once you got into the theater. I noticed once inside, that all the seats on the floor level had been removed making for maximum dance-floor. A couple of minutes after Gillis took the stage and introduced himself, the confetti popped and ridiculousness ensued. A mass of party-goers rushed on to the stage, and there were guys running across the stage shooting toilet paper streamers into the audience. Gillis mixes his shows live in the midst of fans dancing almost on top of him, this time playing a lot of familiar clips from Feed the Animals, with a lot of new, impromptu mashup material as well.
Local trio and thrill Jockey recording artists Pit Er Pat aren't averse to playing home-town gigs, so chances are you might've caught them playing at the Hideout or elsewhere lately. In case you haven't, the word on the streets for a while has been that they've altered their sound recently -- specifically that frontwoman and vocalist Fay Davis-Jeffers has largely set her keyboard aside in favor of a guitar, and that the band's moved into territory that bears a "dub reggae influence." Judging from the band's new High Time CD, which releases on Thrill Jockey this week, there's more than a little truth to the rumor.
Yes, Pit Er Pat has largely abandoned their prior post-rock/fusion cocktail lounge sound; the one so richly crafted and fleshed-out via John McEntire's production of the band's last LP, 2006's Pyramids. What chiefly remains, however, are the band's frail, elusive melodies -- except now they're intertwined with some roots-rocker grooves that give drummer Butchy Fuego and bassist Rob Doran something meatier to tuck into. And the pair seems to enjoy themselves on tunes like "Evacuation Day" and "Copper Pennies" as they tie and untie various rhythmic knots and guide the tunes through unexpected and crafty transitions.
Now in the midst of a new European tour, Chicago's electro-tribal "irritainment" pioneers Mahjongg are releasing a new single via the K Records label. The a-side, "Free Grooverider," features a different sound from that of their recent album; with the group serving up some a dose of bouncy, Kraftwerkian synth-pop. The track's title, however, is intended as a topical protest and homage devoted to one of techno's leading innovators, DJ Grooverider.
Back some 8 years ago, DJ C (aka Jake Trussell) was runnin' t'ings on the experimental fringe of the Boston dance scene -- recording under the moniker Electro Organic Sound System and being a prime mover in Beantown's network of junglists, trip-hoppers, and leftfield turntablists via his affiliation with the Toneburst Collective.
More recently, C relocated to Chicago about 18 months ago. He frequently spins around town at clubs like Lava and Subterranean, hosts a radio show on WLUW -- all the while continuing to run his own Mashit label from his new home base. Now via the Mashit label site, Trussell's serving up the free downloadable "Mas Hits" collection; a selection of assorted remixes, mashup antics, and a few assorted web-only remixes that's he's leaked through various sites over the past year or so.
As a seasoned junglist, C has an expert sensibility for craftily chopped beats and depth-charge bass, making a good portion of the tracks far more serviceable for dancefloor purposes that the standard mashup fare. And while there's a fair amount of prankish whimsy and silliness throughout, Trussell manages to bring some top-notch bouncement on some of the selections; especially with the bhangra/jungle/Timbaland bump of "Ooh Wadda Doo Dadda" and the Bmore/dancehall jawn "Prerogatives Change." The download also features a few bonus tracks that includes a couple of full-on jungle rollers, as well as his remix for MIA's "U.R.A.Q.T."
To get a sample or to download the whole of "Mas Hits" for free, go to the Mashit website (or just go here).
Make no mistake, the Chicago quartet Chandeliers are enamored with keyboards and tricky beats in a big way; but thankfully they don't have much truck with the sort of electro or that chincey, flat blog-house fare that's so glutted the indie market these past two years or so. Comprised of various members of local outfits like Icy Demons, Bronze, and Bablicon, they're one of many local projects that's spiraled out of the South Loop-based Shape Shoppe network. After numerous appearances about town and putting out a 3-song EP, Chandeliers have made their full-fledged recording debut with the recent stateside arrival of their debut LP, The Thrush.
With the opening track "Mr. Electric," Chandeliers lay their aces on the table, giving the listener a strong sense of what's in store. The music glides on a spacey shimmer inspired by vintage Italo-disco, with slight electro and synth-pop nuances billowing to the fore every now and again. The more crafty and complex underpinnings of the band's em-oh, however, reveal a deeper debt to early 70s jazz-fusion and astro-funk (a la Headhunters-era Herbie Hancock). Beneath all the sheen and shimmer, Chandeliers delight in the interplay of contrasts and balances -- the interplay of playing warm tones off versus cold, luster over grit, hefty riding shotgun with lite, and often floating crafty rhythmic shifts and sleights-of-hand against stark drones and subtle modulations.
At the time of his death in 1992, the 40-year-old cellist, composer and experimental dance-music auteur Arthur Russell left behind an enigmatic musical legacy -- one that included a few (largely overlooked) albums of songs and compositions, a string of quirky disco tracks, and a backlog of some 1000 tapes of unreleased and unfinished recordings. Having connected the dots between American minimalist composition and disco's dancefloor permutations, Russell created music that rode on chromatic shifts and dislocated rhythms -- a music that seemed at the same time both insular and expansive in mood, that existed like a lover's whisper that fills your head, like the melodies of a man singing softly to himself as he drifts across an ocean of sound on a boat of his own making.
It would take much of the rest of the music world a decade or more to catch up. Thanks to the recent efforts of the Audika label, more of Russell's work has become available in the past five years. Still, so long after the fact, Russell's music continues to amaze and baffle listeners; influencing a new generation of songwriters, while leaving fans and critics alike wrestling with descriptives.
And now comes Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the new documentary by filmmaker Matt Wolf that arrives in Chicago this weekend for a limited run. The film offers an overview of Russell's life and work, featuring rarely-seen archival footage and interviews with various friends, family, and collaborators who knew and worked with Russell throughout the years. Also among the interviewees are Jens Lekman, composer Philip Glass, as well as author and sound artist David Toop.
It seems that the guys in The Sea and Cake have made a big turnaround in productivity. After sporadic recording and the four-year lull in activity that preceded the release of 2007's Everybody, the band has hit a newfound stride and already has a new album on the way. On returning from a tour of Australia this past spring, they immediately set to recording new material, reportedly polishing off an album's-worth of tracks in a scant three months.
The band has announced that the resulting album, Car Alarm, will be released on Thrill Jockey on October 21. The Sea and Cake will also be embarking on a national tour in early November; a circuit that'll feature two shows (an early and a late set) at the Empty Bottle on November 15. The list of tour dates can be found via a recent blog post on the band's Myspace page.
I don't know what pills ex-Chicagoan Liz Phair is on, but maybe she should change the dosage. This is a video she made about deciding to stop working with power-pop producers The Matrix. [via]
Sure, you could sit out all in the Millennium Park glory that is the Pritzker Pavillion on Wednesday, September 3rd along with every other indie music lover in the midwest and wait for Andrew Bird to take the stage for a free show, or, you could put your money where your mouth is, and do some good for the children at the same time. Rock For Kids, the same awesome non-profit organization that helps at-risk youth in Chicago through a variety of music-oriented programs is auctioning off not one but two chances to meet Mr. Bird and sit your butts in some cushy premium seating at his upcoming event downtown. Bid here or here, but do it soon — the auction ends on Monday, September 1.
We here at Gapers Block Transmission aim to cover the local music scene and emerging Chicago artists as much as our resources permit. What follows is the transcript for a proposed review of the new CD Eve, Adam & the Apple by Chicago-based artist Slow Gun Shogun. The editors fanned the CD out to a potential contributor (PC) and an unaffiliated party (UP) in a focus-group styled experiment. What follows is a transcript of the results. Believe it or not, the transcript that follows was heavily edited and abridged in order to remove the more pedantic, digressive, and profanity-strewn passages. Needless to say, we will not be hiring either party for any future assignments.
UP: Yeah, but I don't feeling like getting up to get it just yet. What have we got?
PC: Some new CD by an artist who calls himself Slow Gun Shogun.
UP: Can't say I'm familiar.
PC: Local guy, apparently. It's a seven-song EP called Eve, Adam and the Apple. Judging from this, he plays a lot of the instruments himself -- one-man band style -- with the help of one "Miss Palanti" on drums. Appears to be self-released, on a label called Devil's Bedpost.
As we told you about last week, Chicago indie hip-hop emcee Rhymefest issued a pretty bold statement when he was prepping listeners for the release of his new video. The video, which is for his new track "Stolen," stated officially circulating this past Tuesday, and here it is:
Civil war...genocide...refugees...blood diamonds. Yep, Rhymefest definitely isn't treading lightly with the narrative this time around.
Location can be everything, indeed. The best live recordings come from such circumstances, occasions where an artist finds herself at home with a warm, and responsive crowd, and the result is a friendly and intimate interaction between performer and audience. Live albums like Etta James Rocks The House and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and Roland Kirk's Kirk In Copenhagen leap to mind, but there are plenty of others in the history of recorded music that serve as evidence to this effect.
Better yet, there's nothing like returning to a welcoming fold of friends after a long journey. Such was the case when Mavis Staples played a homecoming show at the Hideout this past June. Alighting from an extensive tour, Staples and her band played a 14-song, career-spanning set to a sold-out house. Given the Hideout's modest digs, the crowd topped out at about 200 attendees, making for a cozy and up-close show. Reviews and reports of the performance were radiant across the board, and the Anti- label was on hand to document the whole thing.
And now from the Hideout and the artist's website comes word that the resulting disc, Mavis Staples Live: Hope at the Hideout, is scheduled for an official release date of November 4th. Check the Hideout's website for the full tracklisting, links to reviews, and photos.
Via the community aggregations over at Fake Shore Drive comes word of recent drops and flips from the local hip-hop scene. In recent days, the diligent and indefatigable FSD crew has passed along the following...
Rhymefest delivers a advance caveat to listeners before the release of the video for his new track "Stolen":
"First of all, dumb ass n******s that can't think past the club, the block, or fat booty b******s, DO NOT WATCH THIS! Your brain will explode. Second, self-righteous hip-hop nerds who expect to hear me go line for line in a metaphorical circus, DO NOT WATCH THIS! You will be sorely disappointed."
It gets deeper from there. Read the whole statement here. Also, catch the new leaked 'Fest tracks "In Between" and "Forces of Nature" over there.
Elsewhere, Lupe Fiasco leaks the rare track, "Gangsta (Up In Here)." Check it.
From the "Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza" Department of Misheard Lyrics comes a live clip of The Cool Kids kickin' it on the Rock The Bells tour. At first it seems everyone was reporting the new track as bearing the title "The Sound of Panties Hitting The Ground." It turns out the track is actually called "Pennies." That's p-e-n-n-i-e-s hitting the ground. But here's to wishful thinking, right.
In case you hadn't glanced over the magazine racks in the past month, Kid Sis Melisa's one of URB magazine's "Girls of Summer."
Yea Big & Kid Static's first music video, "The Life Here," hit the front page of YouTube, resulting in 250,000 views in two days. Along with those views came a whole lot of negative, often racially charged comments. The duo talk about it on Current.TV.
The guys in the L.A.-based noise-rock outfit HEALTH haven’t exactly made things easy for anybody, least of all themselves. First there’s their choice of a Google-that-again name, and the fact that their debut album of last year threw the trend jockeys for a loop with all of its abrasive jolts, asymmetrical arrangements, and spectral vocals. Throwing another curveball into the mix, the band managed to somewhat placate pop-minded listeners when they recently released the follow-up HEALTH//DISCO -- a bubble-wrap remix affair in which artists like Crystal Castles, Acid Girls, and Drop The Lime gave the band’s debut a club-oriented workover.
HEALTH will be playing this Friday night at the Hideout. Better yet -- in an act of astute matchmaking for the evening’s billing, they’ll be appearing alongside Chicago’s own electro Afro-funk experimentalists Mahjongg. Both groups will be performing early on the Sunday schedule for Pfork Fest; but if you’d rather experience both groups in the more cozy and conducive confines of a club, Friday’s show makes for an ideal opportunity. Alex & the Drummer are also slated to play. Doors open at 10 PM and tickets are $10.
For Saturday night’s post-Pfork soiree, the Hideout will be hosting a special edition of their Saturday night dance party event. To celebrate being named “Best Dance Party” by the Chicago Reader, the Hideout’s throwing a big eight deejay pile-up of a throwdown. Scheduled to spin for the evening (in order of appearance) are: DJ Treetop Lover, the East of Edens Soul Express DJs, Gutterbutter DJ Logan Bay, Bald Eagle and Mother Hubbard of the Life During Wartime DJs, and Smashing Time DJs Mary Nisi and Carrie Weston. It all gets underway starting at 9 PM and admission is free.
For further details, see the Hideout’s website, and our own feature run-down of this year’s Pitchfork lineup.
[video]: HEALTH - live (via Pitchfork TV) [video]: Mahjongg - "Teardrops"
The hometown three-piece Pit Er Pat will be poking their heads up to play a headlining set at the Hideout this Sunday evening. No doubt that they'll be treating everyone to some selection from their forthcoming album High Time, which is due out on Thrill Jockey in October. Word has it that the band has (once again) been exploring new territory with the music lately, gravitating to a more guitar-oriented, dub-inflected sound. Here's your chance to get a preview dose.
Another great reason to catch the show, however, would be the self-described "ghost punk" trio These Are Powers, who'll be playing a supporting set on the billi. For the second summer in a row, These Are Powers are taking a summer off from their usual Brooklyn haunts to hiatus in Chicago. After last year's summer stint, they took Brenmar Someday drummer Bill Salas into their ranks before heading back to home base. Judging from their new Taro Tarot EP, Salas was the ideal candidate the position. Bassist Pat Noecker and guitarist Anna Barie have crafted a bewilderingly intense and inexplicable sound -- filled with spark-spewing noizoid fret-firings and harrowing caterwaul -- that made their freshman album Terrific Seasons one of the most impressive (if not slightly amazing) underground debuts of 2007.
All of this'll be happening at the Hideout this Sunday evening. Pit Er Pat are headlining, with These Are Powers playing just beforehand. Waterbabies opens. Admission is $10 and the doors open at 9 PM. 1354 W. Wabansia.
Even though it's only been a matter of weeks since they dropped the hardcopy of their debut EP The Bake Sale, Chicago's indie-rap sensations The Cool Kids aren't taking a breather or kicking back on their laurels. The duo's just released a new downloadable summer jawn mixtape EP entitled That's Stupid. Six tracks deep, the mixtape shows that the Kids are keeping it moving. On cuts like "Oscar The Grouch" and "That'll Work," they're flexing in a slightly different mode from what we've been hearing from them over the past year or so. (And if I'm not mistaken, Chuck's flow is sounding a little bit more like that of Gift of Gab from Blackalicious.)
Between his quickly sold-out 2007 New Years Eve appearance at the Empty Bottle and the overwhelming crowds that swamped his third-stage appearance at the Pitchfork Festival last summer, it's fair to say that Pittsburgh-based mashup maestro Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) has a solid fanbase in this town. And in case you were too busy to catch the news as it spread across the web yesterday, he's now making his forthcoming album, Feed The Animals, available in advance by way of a pay-what-you-want download via his own website and label, Illegal Art.
As far the download is concerned, Gillis is giving his fans three options. For the interested, any price will get you high-quality mp3s of the album, five bucks will get you the same plus one additional continuous-track version of the entire album (which is how Gillis claims he'd prefer people listen to it), and ten dollars gets you the downloads plus a physical copy of Feed The Animals when it's officially released in September.
Since the Illegal Art site was inaccessible at the time of this writing, it appears that traffic might be heavier than the site can handle. Whatever the case, it looks like there's now a mirror link for the download here.
Girl Talk hits the road later this summer and will be making his appearance in Chicago at Lollapalooza on August 3. Feed The Animals will see hardcopy release on September 23.
I first learned the word chiaroscuro in a poem written by an architect. It has to do with a notable use of light and shadow, and I think it's a lovely way to describe the album built by Austin-born Black Angels, Directions to See a Ghost. Yes, they've got the guitar drone thing going on, but it's delivered in that appropriate ethereal way that comes along with the moniker of neo-psychedelic rock. Even their name, derived from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song" is appropriate, given their dreamy, far-away lyrical delivery, and the way their songs conjure up of some Warhol Factory-esque room with too many pillows and not enough ashtrays.
The Black Angels psychedelic voice is stronger and more developed than their cousin — the indie shoe-gaze band. They've played Lollapalooza ('07) and SXSW ('08) to critical acclaim, and they're just perched (absolutely perched) on the verge of something big here. You're not likely to catch them on the radio, as most of their tracks span well over four minutes, but you get the feeling from the album that this band is just not all that into radio play. This is the album you're going to break out at 2am and groove to on your futon. It's the one you're going to play while you drift off to sleep (and likely have some pretty amazing dreams with this as your soundtrack). The album itself, plays like a oil wheel light show, infused with sitar ragas and some really interesting percussion work. The Black Angels are delivering psychedelic rock that not only honors its roots, but provides listeners with a cleaner, more delicious sugar cube.
[mp3]: The Black Angels – "Doves" (from Directions to See a Ghost)
It's been nearly three years since Chicago indie-rockers Sybris put out their debut album. In the interim they've toured, played a lot around town, and taken their time crafting new material to their own satisfaction. Apparenly it was all time well spent, because in the past year, the group's managed to earn a reputation as a local Artist To Watch for 2008.
Sybris's sophomore album Into The Trees was just released on the Absolutely Kosher label. The video for the album's lead single, "Oh Man!", started circulating a few days ago and is now up on Youtube (or just see above). Currently, they're taking the new album on the road on a coast-to-coast tour. The bad will be winding returning to home turf in late June, just in time to play a set at the Belmont Arts Festival on June 28th.
Come hell or hot weather (whenever that might be), it looks like it's time to just call it -- break out the grill, take the winter coats to the dry cleaners, and just get on with business.
And here here we have a little something to help soundtrack the transition. Local mash-up misfits The Hood Internet keep busy when it comes to crafting and cranking out tracks and mixes, and this week they've added yet a new mixtape to the stack. Entitled "The Hood Internet vs. Chicago," it's a 24-track fat sack of downloadable "bastard pop," sporting an exclusively hometown theme. As in: Juice vs. Liz Phair, Cool Kids vs. Frankie Knuckles, Twista vs The Sea and Cake, R. Kelly vs. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, and a bunch of other such business (one of which manages to slip in a bit of the "Superbowl Shuffle").
So go and get it via download from The Hood Internet's website. Get a peep of the tracklisting on the other side of the jump.
It's been said that those artists who possess the highest degree of creative genius are often those who carry within them the greatest unresolved paradoxes. Kris Kristofferson might've had something similar in mind when he said of his friend and fellow artist Johnny Cash, "He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction."
Truth, of course, is the end concern of philosophical inquiry – getting at the brass tacks of life, human knowledge and experience, the nature of the world. As the latest in a series of titles from their Popular Culture and Philosophy line, Chicago-based scholarly imprint Open Court Publishing has just published Johnny Cash and Philosophy: The Burning Ring of Truth. In a collection of academically-inclined essays, eighteen deep thinkers and die-hard Cash fans offer a variety of perspectives on the metaphysical, social, and spiritual aspects of the Cash's music – the whys and what-fors of how Cash's lyrics connect with the singer's own life and speak to a large and varied audience on so many levels. The contributing authors examine the man's music from a range of perspectives. You get Cash on crime and the American penal system, Cash on sin and redemption and the many pitfalls of human nature, Cash on the value of honest labor and making what you can of what you've been given, Cash on the matter of love as examined in light of his relationship with June Carter, and a number of other topics.
The volume of essays was co-edited (along with David Werther) by former Chicago musician and current philosophy professor John Huss, who contributed the chapter "Johnny Cash and Justice." Before he vacated town to pursue his career in academia, Huss used to play around the Windy City as the frontman for the John Huss Moderate Combo back in the 1990s. Next weekend, the Moderate Combo will be reuniting to play a couple of shows in town to celebrate the book's publication and to pay tribute to the Man in Black.
Considering that they've only been active for just over three years, the Chicago-based trio Russian Circles has managed to rack up a high ratio of praise throughout the webzine community in a short period of time. It seems there's something unique about the group's music that resonates with those who've heard it. The band's 2006 debut album, Enter, met with enthused accolades across the board, and quickly the landed them a slot on the top of the bill at Drowned In Sound's End-of-Summer festival in London last August. With the pending arrival of their sophomore LP, Station, Russian Circles are set to kick off another tour, beginning with a record-release party and a headlining set at Subterranean this Saturday evening.
"Kickin' it like kickstands": Cool Kids emcees Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish
Those who've caught local hip-hop duo The Cool Kids at their shows around town in the past year will be quite familiar with a number of their signature tracks already; especially "Gold and a Pager," "Mikey Rocks," and "Black Mags." It appears that now -- many, many months after the announcement of it's pending release -- the Kids' debut EP The Bake Sale is finally slated to hit the streets. Running ten tracks deep, the EP will see an exclusive electronic release via iTunes on May 20, with the hardcopy version properly dropping on June 10.
From the looks of their schedule, The Cool Kids will be keeping busy for the summer. As of this writing, they're going out on the road, kicking off a tour that'll include the U.S., Europe, an appearance at Lollapalooza, and dates on this year's Rock The Bells roster.
As far as local, non-Lolla dates are concerned, The Cool Kids will be playing at the University of Chicago's outdoor Summer Breeze festival on May 17, as well as sharing the bill with All Natural for the Darfur Now benefit show at The Abbey on May 21.
In a promotional campaign for his new single "Hair Braider," Chicago R&B crooner R. Kelly is propositioning fans to send him pictures of themselves. Pictures of themselves sporting their braids, that is. Zig-zags, cornrows, dookies, whatever -- he wants you to show them off by uploading your snapshots his site.
The song is the advance single off of Kelly's forthcoming album, 12 Play: Fourth Quarter, which is slated to be released this summer. Since the contest is being hosted via a Song BMG/Jive's webpage, we're assuming that the promo campaign cleared the label's legal department before going live.
Fans and visitors to the site are invited to vote on the entrees' photos. The contest's judges, however, may have a tough row to how, as it appears (after Gapers Block hit refresh about 20-something times) that people are randomly uploading pictures of their bald, buzz-cutted, be-hatted, coiffed, and mostly non-braided selves to site -- perhaps having mistaken it for just another internet social network opportunity. So, as expected, the jury might be out on this one for a while.
Composed of seasoned veterans from Chicago's avant-rock heyday of the mid-late 90s, the band Singer has just this week released their debut album, Unhistories, on Drag City. And if there's one thing that should be established from the start, it's that Singer don't "do" linearity.
This should come as no surprise, given the band's collective cee-vee. Bassist Robert A.A. Lowe was previously a central member of math-rock/no-wave/prog-revisionists 90 Day Men, currently performs and records under the moniker Lichens, and has -- as a studio and touring sideman -- contributed keyboard work to TV On The Radio. Ben Vida was formerly part of the minimalist chamber ensemble Town and Country and has recently been producing work as Bird Show; while Todd Rittman and Adam Vida are erstwhile members of the defunct Chicago "rock deconstructionist" unit U.S. Maple.
Much of Unhistories unfolds by way of country-blues(ish) guitar riffs that sidewind and meander, sometimes get bogged down in briars, but are more often striking ahead in a hunting or explorative mode. With Singer, songs don't develop or progress so much as charge up to a threshold, pause, and double back to strike out on alternate courses. Theirs is a music that involves the tightening and release of torques and tension, always playfully teetering on the edge of clamor and collapse. But the guitars never roam too far from the campground, so it ends up being drummer Adam Vida who probes at the outermost perimeters, his kitwork often dancing around a rhythmic center of the song without engaging it directly. While the whole band routinely steps in with some woozy harmonizing, bassist Robert Lowe's vocals -- often straining into the upper registers in a faux-falsetto that suggests mimicry or mockery -- drape the tenuous melodies like lilies wilting under a blistering sun.
Since they first came together on the Osaka noise scene of the mid-1980s, The Boredoms have always been one of the music world's most unwieldy and inexplicable acts. Starting out as an outfit of frenetic, genre-mulching rawk'n'roll destructivists, they've since undergone a circuitous musical evolution over the past decade. Like a supernova constricting into a neutron star, the band refocused its musical energy to become purveyors of dense and droning space-rock in the late 1990s before finally arriving at their present trance-inducing, tribal incarnation as the most apeshit drum circle on earth.
Boredoms fans will have a chance to see the band play a special "in the round" performance at the Congress Theater next Wednesday evening. The show will be one of the few dates on their current U.S. tour where the group will be able to perform the way they want to -- interfacing in a circle in the center of the venue while the audience will be free to gather around on the periphery.
Word went out earlier this week that Shellac will be launching a brief series of mini-tours over the next few months. The itinerary has Albini & co playing a number of dates in South America, continental and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Macedonia.
As usual, the tour (reportedly) bears no correspondence to the band's schedule for recording and releasing new material. There's no word, at present, if stateside dates are to follow; but if you find yourself a stone's throw from Ljubljana or Zagreb in early May, tailor your travel plans accordingly.
Trailing the release of their new album Kontpab by just a few scant weeks, the Chicago electro-punk outfit Mahjongg recently started circulating a video for their tune "Teardrops":
Posted on YouTube just over a week ago, the video appeared with the foreboding caption: "Cycle of the Symphony of Destruction." The tagline might either be an ironic salute to Metallica, or it might have something to do with the clip's artistic indebtedness to Kenneth Anger's cult film Lucifer Rising. Or perhaps neither.
To see Mahjongg operating in a somewhat less shadowy manner, you can also check out their old appearance on Chic-A-Go-Go here.
For the handful that heard it, Food For Animals' first EP, Scavengers, was one of the boldest musical debuts of 2004. Throughout its blitzkrieg 22-minute stretch, emcee Vulture Voltaire kicked bellicose verses about the current political climate and contemporary hip-hop while deejay Ricky Rabbit served up a fragmented blizzard of samples and sonic schrapnel punctuated by punchy, thuzzed-out beats. It was noisy, boisterous, incredibly exciting -- a speaker-shredding monster. And given all that, it wasn't surprising to learn that the two guys responsible for it were veterans of the D.C. hardcore punk scene.
The duo took a brief hiatus in the intervening three years. Recently, they've relocated to Baltimore and taken in a third member when emcee HY came aboard. The release of their new debut full-length, Belly, finds Food For Animals broadening their musical palette, both musically and lyrically. Vulture V has largely sidelined his penchant for socio-political rants this time out, and HY brings some welcome humor and stylistic balance to the mix. The two emcees sling rhymes that don't so much ride the beat as tease it out of Rick Rab's digital onslaughts. And yeah, while there's the juked beats on "Virgogo" and some slo-mo skrewd vocals hooks on a couple of tracks, a majority of Belly's content falls in the most outbound orbit from contemporary hip-hop. Fair to say that it's an animal that eats backpackers for breakfast.
Food For Animals will be appearing at the AV-aerie next Saturday, February 23. They're currently touring with Bay Area freeform skronksters Mi Ami, who are also on the bill. Chicago's Pit er Pat headline for the evening, Scalpels open, and DJ Mayor Aspirin spins between sets. (Now how's that for a diverse billing?) 2000 W. Fulton. It all gets underway at 9pm and admission is $8. All ages show.
While it seems that poise, a modicum of polish, and a few thin ideas are all it takes to pull an act together in Williamsburg these days; it requires a unique degree of creative and collaborative chemistry to transcend the "just another band from Brooklyn" syndrome. Such is the case with the noise-punk trio These Are Powers. Guitarist Anna Barie and bassist Pat Noecker first came together to form These Are Powers back in 2006 -- Noecker having formerly been a member of Liars, and Anna was then working in the band Knife Skills. The rest of the equation fell firmly into place when the pair took on Brenmar Someday drummer Bill Salas while summering in Chicago this past year. Salas returned with the band to New York in time for them to complete work on their debut LP, Terrific Seasons.
Much of These Are Powers' musical energy takes its cue from classic NYC no-wave precedents, the sort of tribal noise that the likes of Mars, 8-Eyed Spy, and (a then appropriately named) Sonic Youth were churning out in the trash-strewn Lower East Side back in the mid-1980s. Onstage, Barie's a dynamo, a one-woman maelstrom of daemonic vocals and frenzied slide-guitar, as she and Noecker whip up a delirium over gnarled, interlocking rhythms. Their music could be considered "heady" stuff, but its jolt is mainly visceral -- often dizzying, sometimes harrowing, and urgently rhythmic to its core.
These Are Powers will be playing the AV-aerie next Wednesday evening, February 20th. Local naïf-savant popsters Bird Names will also be on the bill. Adam Griffin and Laromlab open. 2000 W. Fulton. Admission is $8 and the show starts at 9:30pm.
While the world has waited for the release of Chinese Democracy, metal has undergone a lot of changes. It's responded to the backlash against its hair-hopping halcyon days by absorbing influences and ideas from across the rock spectrum, splintering off into a number of enclaves that probe the perimeters of the genre's creedal heaviness.
Case in point, the Chicago instrumental trio Russian Circles. The band's 2006 album Enter received a lot of glowing praise via print and online venues that cover the heftier ends of the musical spectrum, and it sent critics scrambling for labels to sum up the the band's sound. If you were to string all the resulting desciptives together, then Russian Circles are reputedly a math-/prog-/post-rock metal trio with melodic, neo-Mahlerian shoegaze affinities. Or something like that.
Airiel had quite a major 2007 between a lot of touring, recording and releasing a new album (The Battle of Sealand), and losing a couple members near its end. On Friday they'll make their 2008 live debut with both a new drummer and bassist at Darkroom. It should be business as usual for Airiel, though, as they pummel ears with layers upon layers of heavy guitar sound and delight eyes with trippy visuals. The show with Apteka precedes the Chicago shoegaze/psychedelic rock band's sold out gig with A Place to Bury Strangers and Holy Fuck at Schubas next weekend. Later this year they'll tour the west coast with Film School and the UK with Ulrich Schnauss. DJs open the night at 9PM. The cover's $7. Bring ear plugs.
On first listen, the acoustic blues based songs off of A.A. Bondy's new record do not sound like they're coming out of the mouth of a twenty-something, indie-rock slacker kid or from the former leader of the rock band Verbena. In fact, his style of folk blues is most reminiscent of the gentle finger-picked blues of the Piedmont (but most will just throw him in with Dylan et al and hope for the best).
The song "Vice Rag" is just that: a long list of all the things one shouldn't be doing. It's sung in such a beaten down tone you wonder if Bondy himself has been down that road and lived to tell. Either way, and no matter how you slice it, A.A. Bondy will become one of the new voices in roots music over the next 5 years. Here's his song "Vice Rag" off of his 2007 release American Hearts, plus a video of an impromptu jam session with rising stars The Felice Brothers and The Pines.
A.A. Bondy is the second act on a nice little lineup featuring Kevin Devine and The Jealous Girlfriends at Beat Kitchen on Feb. 14. Buy tickets here.
The Chicago-based Drag City label recently announced an upcoming release by the recently-formed outfit Singer. The group involves an uncanny convergence of local underground talent, with a lineup featuring Robert Lowe, formerly of 90 Day Men and currently of Lichens renown, and Ben Vida of Town & Country/Bird Show affiliation. Rounding out the ensemble are Todd Rittmann and Adam Vida from U.S. Maple.
The album, entitled Unhistories, is slated to release on March 25. In the interim, Singer has lined up a couple of in-town gigs. They'll be playing this coming Monday night at the Hideout; and on Friday, February 22 at Subterranean. To get an idea what the crew's got going, here's an intriguing preview track (below), and there's an additional two songs currently up on the band's Myspace page.
The Chicago outfit Mahjongg recently went on tour, aiming to round up converts to Kontpab--which is both the title for their new album that's now being released on K Records and the name of a post-millennial cult that the band recently started. Actually, the stuff about the cult's just a bunch of presskit monkeyshines; but the album's for real, and Mahjongg will be returning to home base to play a record-release party at Subterranean this Thursday.
If you threw a party and invited Suicide and Konono No1 to play in your basement, what would it sound like? Kontpab probably best answers that question. In the time that's lapsed since their prior LP, Raydoncong2005, Mahjongg has undergone some slight personnel changes. Their sound has changed a little, as well. Save for bass, guitars are largely out and keyboards dominate -- specifically keyboards of the gritty, pulsing electro-punk variety.
Do you remember that the Mighty Mighty Bosstones had one guy who didn't really do anything? His name's Ben and he danced during their shows, sometimes joined in on choruses, and was officially titled "Bosstone" in their credits. There's a guy in Chicago's Ultra Sonic Edukators who seems awfully close to that description, except more annoying. He's probably an integral part of the band away from the stage, but his antics are reminiscent of a middle child seeking attention from anyone and everyone. Unfortunately, he's rather hard to miss live.
Otherwise, this band is pretty good. Even though they refer to Super Furry Animals and Blur as major influences, they often sound more like Oasis stealing a chapter from the Weezer book of hooks. (And, coincidentally, they'll be recording their first album with Weezer's Brian Bell.) They have an EP out now called Bad Blood and have played Schubas each Monday in January. Next week's openers are Maradona and the Loyal Divide. The show is 18+ (beware of a young crowd), starts at 8:00 PM, and the cover's $6.
Word has officially gone out that Flosstradamus are aiming to release a debut album sometime this Summer. Floss DJs J2K and Autobot are reportedly handling all of the production work, laying down beats and crafting tracks to put behind appearances by Chicago cohorts Kid Sister and The Cool Kids. Also guesting on the album will be Philly femme-cee Amanda Blank, who you might've heard via her past guest spots on tracks by Spank Rock and Plastic Little.
Meanwhile, Josh (aka J2K) from Flosstradamus is presently auctioning off some of his own DJ gear on eBay. Up for grabs among the lot of mixed goods are a number of items autographed by the Floss guys--including mix-CDs, a Vestax portable turntable, and Josh's recently retired iBook G4 (complete with audio programs like Serato, et al.).
And speaking of The Cool Kids--they're getting mad love from the crew over at IHEARTCOMIX! Check out the site's pics and vids from the Kids' recent appearance in L.A. here.
After years of representing Yoshimi and her OOIOO gals, Bettina and the band have finally lured over Japan's other crown jewel of freak-out electronic drum circle music - The Boredoms have signed to Thrill Jockey. They will be releasing the 9th volume of the Super Roots series and first-ever live disc: a concert from Christmas Eve 2004 with a full choir. The album will have forty pages of EYE artwork, musical scores & notation. The band is also planning a North American tour "In The Round" - including a date at Chicago's Congress Theatre on March 26th. No word yet on whether you'll need to bring a drumset up Milwaukee for the show...
We'd like to thank Chicago Public Radio for sponsoring Transmission. They've been advertising an upcoming event that's right up our alley: Tony Sarabia of "Radio M" will be hosting an evening with OFFICE, one of Chicago's up and coming bands, next Wednesday, Jan. 9, at 8pm in the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln. The band will be sharing anecdotes and stories, and playing songs from their latest album, A Night at the Ritz, and prior. Tickets are just $15 -- $10 if you're a CPR member.
What's in a name? Everything and nothing, maybe. But if you're in a band, at some point you have to collectively decide to call yourselves something. That in itself can be a creative hurdle that some aspiring music artists never successfully overcome. In the end, does it matter if you call yourselves the Caveat Emptors or the Not Dead Yets or the Dirty Merkins or We Came To Wreck Your Pity Party or whatever? Not sure, but how different would the legacy of Joy Division have been if they'd stuck with their first adopted moniker, the Stiff Kittens? So yeah, names can be tricky.
Take Coltrane Motion, for example. Coltrane Motion are not a jazz ensemble. The trio started out as a bedroom-recording DIY outfit in Ohio before they relocated to Chicago about four years ago. And while there's exactly eight seconds of squeaky soprano sax smear during the opening of their tune "Ex-Girlfriend In A Coma," the band bears no musical resemblance to their venerated namesake, but instead play what they call -- for lack of a better label -- electronic indie-pop. After numerous releases on their own Datawaslost label, the band released their latest album, Songs About Music, earlier this year.
From start to finish, Songs About Music is a fun and enjoyable listen. The guys definitely aren't hook-averse, offering up tunes that are sometimes breezy and wistful and sport catchy choruses. At other times they dig into darker, droning domains that fit snuggly into orbit around planet Shoegaze. In terms of songwriting styles, the cover a lot of bases and thread it all together with a thick sound that's heavy on buzzing, textural keyboard and guitar washes, all laid atop funky, punchy rhythms that all but mandate hip-shaking. And while it may epitomize something akin to a new "indie-pop sensibility," the core of its charm and catchiness is about as new-school as The Seeds or Question Mark and the Mysterians.
You can catch Coltrane Motion at Schubas this Wednesday evening. Hearsay has it that they throw a lot of energy into their sets and put on a good show. Butterfly Assassins and Let's Get Out Of This Terrible Sandwich Shop open. 3159 N. Southport. Show starts at 9pm and admission is $5.
Those with holes left in their end of the year social calendars could do much worse this NYE than to catch local band done good Umphrey's McGee at Uptown's Aragon Ballroom. The 2007 installment of what is becoming a traditional Chicago year ender also serves as a celebration of the band's 10th anniversary.
Formed in 1997 in South Bend, Umphrey's McGee have become summer festival staples and, in the mind of some, inheritors of the Grateful Dead, Phish jam band mantle. While there are some parallels to be drawn — ever-changing setlists, a rabid fanbase apt to see multiple shows and dissect the nuances on forums such as umphreaks.com, and a firm foot in improvisational rock — Umphrey's has a lot that separates it from the pack of current and recent jam-rockers. First, the band seems to draw from a deeper musical pool, pulling from Zappa, King Crimson, and Yes as much as from the Dead or Phish. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the band has been known to cover everything from Toto to Radiohead to Snoop Dog.
Tickets to all three nights of Umphrey's Chicago stand are still available, with The Wailers opening Saturday 12/29 and Chicago's Tortoise providing support Sunday 12/30. Monday's NYE show will feature a video tribute for the band's 10th anniversary.
I'll confess to have had my flings with noodly hippy jam rock and precious art pop, but lately, I have been developing a new theory centered on the basic premise that heavy metal music may be why God saw fit to send man the electric guitar. Chicagoans will have a chance to put that theory to the test this Saturday as the generally mild-mannered Hideout presents Hideout Gets Heavy, featuring three up-and-comers in the increasingly interesting Chicago metal scene. Leading the bill is Indian, celebrating their second release on local label Seventh Rule. Also appearing is Rabid Rabbit, something of a local super group featuring former members of Frontier, Camaro Rouge and Galactic Inmate and Den of Vipers and their sludgy grind.
A late night DJ set by Bruce Lamont of Yakuza winds things up.
More information and tickets at the Hideout's website. Show starts at 9pm, Saturday 12/8.
As Miles Raymer recently detailed in the Reader, Kid Sister and crew recently produced a video for Sis's track "Pro-Nails." The video's now been released via Youtube, so check it out...
Made here in town (at the Nails R Us on Western Ave) for a modest $3K, the song and video features a cameo from Kanye West, who stopped by the shoot to join in on the some finger dancing.
Just when you thought the re-united New York Dolls were too much, when Of Montreal's commercial was making you cringe, when Fergie having a sex tape had you out on the ledge, peering down 38 stories: this happens. Slash, the guitarist so bad-ass he had to leave his friend's wedding mid-ceremony to jam out a bad-ass helicopter-friendly guitar solo, has now written a book to sum his life. Why he did this instead of a week-long guitar solo is beyond this author, but we can only assume the autobiography, Slash, is a mildly more comprehensive (if less headbang-tastic) format. What's more, he will be signing this book in the Oak Brook Borders on Tuesday, Nov. 27th, at 7:30 PM. Borders? For real, Slash? And just in case you thought you could at least get that Use Your Illusion poster signed for the trip, think again: Slash will only be signing copies of the book due to the "popularity of this event". Our only hope is that if enough people smuggle in lighters, we can raise them all at once and trigger a Pavlovian response to shred in the erstwhile king of rock. At least he's still more productive that Axl.
Chicago's hip-hop fans definitely have something to give thanks for this week, with two holiday bookend shows from insurgent rap superstar M.I.A. and Chicago's hometown heroes Cool Kids.
M.I.A. (real name Maya Arulpragasam) is the British-Sri Lankan artist whose melange approach to music blends everything from ragga to dancehall and back to hip-hop. M.I.A. became a critical darling in 2005 on the heels of the release of her debut album Arular and North American concerts at the sold out Bowery in New York and a stellar set at the 2006 Coachella festival.
Accompanying M.I.A. on this tour is DJ Low B (formerly Low Budget) who is one half (with Diplo) of the duo Hollertronix. This influential Philadelphia-based duo was at the forefront of the current trend towards eclectic DJing, mixing and mashing everything from indie to soul to old school rap in one frenetic mix. Low B himself is definitely a product of the age of rap. His personal sets draw heavily on classic rap platters and crate-digger soul numbers. There is also news from the Hollertronix camp that there is another M.I.A. mix tape in the works, a sort of Piracy Funds Terrorism part 2.
As if the headliner alone weren't enough to get you out of the house, M.I.A.'s opener is none other than Chicago's own up-and-comers Cool Kids. Touring in advance of their debut album and on the heels of a standout set at this past summer's Pitchfork Festival, Cool Kids seem on the cusp of well deserved wide recognition.
M.I.A with DJ Low B and Cool Kids play two shows this week, Wednesday 11/21 at the House of Blues and Friday 11/23 at The Vic.
Really Cool Contest! We've got a pair of tickets to give away to one lucky reader to the show tomorrow night (11/21) at the House of Blues. The first to email contests (at) gapersblock.com with the subject line "I'm Cool" gets the pair! UPDATE! We have a winner! Congrats to Eric!
If you thought the Get Up Kids were good and gone, you can put an end to your angst-ridden moping, and leave the dark corner for at least an evening to see a reincarnation, Percolator, play Ronny’s Bar this Wednesday. In preparation for having to spend all of Thursday with relatives, these Chicago locals will help you get one last whine out before the turkey and family values. Self-described as “pretty raucous” when it comes to live shows, they say they just want to “entertain and surprise people.” And with hooks that evoke Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and an enthusiasm heard genuinely through their tunes, it should promise to do at least that. They’ve just finished recording their first record, Man is Not a Bird, which is streaming on their website for your listening pleasure. In addition to Thanksgiving, they’ll also be around the southside Dec 6th for a show at Reggie’s Rock Club.
Chicago seems to be breeding an entire sub-genre of well executed high-concept, low-brow theatrical rockers. In the past year or so, on the advice of friends, I have been introduced to the oddball exuberance of The Bitter Tears, and the peculiar camp of Let's Get Out of this Terrible Sandwich Shop. I must admit, however, that I was blindsided by the sheer weirdness of b1g t1me.
Last summer, I met some friends for drinks at Simon's in Andersonville on a Sunday. An interesting looking quartet was setting up in the corner. I asked what they did and the bartender summed it up; "They do '80's one-hit-wonder songs in the style of Tom Waits."
And that they do, more or less. What followed was two hours of pure fun, easily the most interesting accidental concert I've seen in years. The band manages an uncanny mimicry of Waits' style, wringing new meaning from songs that we've all heard a thousand times. Tom Petty's Don't Come Around Here No More takes on a decidedly threatening tone. Dio's Holy Diver is transformed from slapstick metal to a gospel-like call-and-response number. While the concept seems dubious on paper, there's definitely something else going on. By mixing a spot-on homage to Waits' innovative style with classic material that has subtly begged from day one for reinterpretation, b1g t1me manages to create something that easily stands on its own.
B1g t1me plays this Wednesday 11/21 at Quenchers Saloon, corner of Fullerton and Western.
For over two decades, J. P. Chill's Friday Night radio show on WHPK has been a cornerstone of the Chicago hip-hop scene, and the show's hosted its share of top-tier guest appearances over the years. I myself used to have a cassette that I'd recorded from his show one evening back in early 1994 -- a show that included an incredible 20-plus minute freestyle battle between Masta Ace and his posse, a pre-Resurrection Common Sense(or Common, as we know him now), and the guys in the Southside crew East of the Rock.
Apparently I wasn't the only one recording some of these shows. Courtesy of an mp3 that was recently posted over at Exclusive Trax, we get to hear Common battle a young Kanye West on an edition of Chill's show from 1996. Check it out and get treated.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that "In American lives, there are no second acts." I'm pretty sure that that theory doesn't hold water, and if you want to see direct evidence in the contrary, Mission of Burma will make a strong case at the Abbey Pub this Friday.
Mission of Burma formed in Boston in 1979, part of America's burgeoning post-punk/new wave movement. Unlike many punk groups, the members of M.O.B. (Roger Miller - guitar, Clint Conley - bass and Peter Prescott - drums) were well versed in their instruments and grounded in a sense of history that encompassed late '60's proto-punks such as the MC5 and The Stooges. Burma's songs were driving, angular rockers with intelligent, acerbic lyrics; audio pastiches of swirling guitar filtered through the soundboard by original audio engineer and tape loop artist Martin Swopes. In their first iteration, Burma's impact was limited to a single studio album Vs., one EP Signals, Calls and Marches and a couple of singles, all originally released on the Boston label Ace of Hearts. While their output was critically acclaimed, the band disbanded in 1983, in part due to Miller's worsening tinnitus.
1983 may have seen the end of the band's first act, but Michael Azzerad's 2001 punk rock paean This Band Could Be Your Life featured a chapter on the group, introducing them to a new audience. After some exploratory touring in 2002, with Bob Westen of Shellac manning the console and tape deck, Burma released two new studio albums, 2004's ONoffON and 2006's The Obliterati, effectively tripling their original output. Both albums ended up on year-end lists, and the band's live shows seem to maintain more vitality than a band off a 20 year hiatus has a right to possess. While it would be tempting to compare them to their early '80's heyday, it may be closer to the truth to say that their heyday is now.
Mission of Burma plays Chicago's Abbey Pub Friday, Nov. 16 at 9:00 PM with Weber Club, Helicopters, Comasoft and Fun Club opening.
The press kit for the North Carolina outfit The Annuals would have us believe that the band is of the "should appeal to fans of Arcade Fire" stripe. Such reductivism and coattail-riding is the bread and butter of music industry blurbsters and hype merchants. Granted, there's plenty on the band's latest EP, Frelen Mas, to give teeth to the comparison. But fortunately, the Annuals know to pare back on the storm and stress and end-of-the-worldness much of the time, allowing more space for the listener to cozy into. And they prove that they're (thankfully) capable of bringing a little much-needed humor and whimsicality to the table.
On Frelen Mas, instruments and leads get passed around quite playfully, and the Annuals actually sound like they know how to enjoy themselves and keep the caterwauling and histrionics within reasonable limits. While their version of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" doesn't really do the band or the songbook staple any great favors, there's still a fair amount of lush and capacious prettiness to be found throughout. Not to mention that they manage to pull together something that's damned near sexy with “Such a Mess.”
And, oh yeah, Sneak Attack Media is currently hosting a contest where fans and listeners are welcome to mashup an Annuals’ tune with some material by labelmates The Manchester Orchestra. Which, given the similarity between the two artists, ain’t exactly like mixing anchovies and ice cream. (Check the links below to hear the two bands covering each other's songs.)
The Annuals will be playing at Subterranean this coming Tuesday evening. Manchester Orchestra and The Nevers are also on the bill. 2011 W. North Ave. Doors open at 6;30pm, show starts at 7; and tickets are $10 in advance, $12 the night of.
Okay, Chicago Punk Rock 101 time. Anyone with a sense of this city's indie music history knows Naked Raygun. Formed in 1980, they were once this city's most formidable reps on the national punk scene, banging out their own brand of "blast furnace monomania" and influencing the sound of countless bands around the country. Strictly textbook, as they say. And by now, even the half-attentive know that the band has reunited "for good"--back in action for the past year or so, playing occasional in-town shows and doing a little touring from time to time.
This month Naked Raygun will be playing Riot Fest at the Congress Theater for the second year running, headlining on November 17. But next week sees the release of What Poor Gods We Make, a DVD overview of the band's history. An exclusive screening of the documentary will be held at Reggie's this Sunday evening, with copies of the two-disc set will be available for sale before the thing properly hits the streets on November 6. The band will reportedly be on hand for some hobnobbing, as well. An afterparty featuring a bunch of other noisy young things will follow. 2105 South State Street. 7pm. The screening is all ages, the afterparty is 18 and up. (312) 949-0125.
[video]: Naked Raygun - "Rat Patrol" (from What Poor Gods We Make) [video]: Naked Raygun - "Surf Combat"
For the past few months, the rumor's been that the southside rap duo The Cool Kids were aiming to release their debut EP, Bake Sale, at some point in the unspecified future. Now the word goes out that the EP has been picked up for release by the crafty Chicago-based label Chocolate Industries. The hardcopy product of the EP is slated to hit the streets sometime in January.
In the meantime, the “Black Mags” single is due to drop sometime next month–which means it’ll start circulated while The Cool Kids are on tour opening for M.I.A. The tour arrives in Chicago for a pair of shows on November 21 and 23, at the House of Blues and Vic Theater, respectively.
On the same day that Radiohead released their newest studio album In Rainbows online at the always alluring whatever-you-feel-like price, a local group called The Lickets did the same. Through their captivatingly mysterious label International Corporation, the Chicago experimental outfit released not only their new album Journey In Caldecott online at consumer-decided prices, but their entire 4-disc discography. Set your own price here.
So just who are The Lickets? Spacey, other-worldy, and unsettling, theirs is the music that Alice would play on her iPod if she had remembered to grab it before heading into Wonderland. Journey In Caldecott is more than the name for this album, its also the concept. This is a trek, an epic journey through forgotten lands, emerald forests, and unholy temples. Tracks like "Jero" and "Rabbit Moon" emit Old World instrumentals and sensibilities, while remaining in the world of the fantastic. The band is made up of Mitch Greer and Rachel Smith, who "deploy a min
