Mission of Burma / 6pm (C) Mission of Burma have a difficult legacy to live up to. The anthemic bombast of early tunes like "Academy Fight Song" and "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" would eventually earn them the reputation of being American punk rock titans and godfathers of the '80s indie-rock movement. Nonetheless, Burma had their share of artier inclinations. While their 1982 album Vs. lacked some of the overt hookiness of Burma's earlier material, it revealed the group was expanding its sonic palette to cover more moody and experimental material. Still, when the band launched into high gear, they played with an unbridled fervor that at times suspensefully teetered on the edge of collapse. Considering that Vs. is the only full-length the band recorded during its initial run in the early ‘80s, its candidacy for Friday night is pretty much a no-brainer. Since Mission of Burma reunited in 2002, reports of their live performances describe them as being about as flatteningly loud and ferocious as one could hope for.
-Graham Sanford
Sebadoh / 7:15pm (C)
It's always interesting when the side project overshadows the original band, and regardless of how you feel about Dinosaur Jr, it's hard to argue that Lou Barlow's Sebadoh hasn't managed to eclipse his original band in both popularity and influence. Pitchfork has Barlow and original collaborator Eric Gaffney reunited to perform the band's landmark fourth album Bubble and Scrape, an effort which spawned a million lo-fi imitators since its release in 1993. Flannel shirts and high-waisted jeans optional.
-Nilay Patel
Public Enemy / 8:30pm (A)
It's easy to forget how hard Public Enemy used to be now that Flava Flav is some kind of cartoon pimp, but the pioneering hip hop group was responsible for bringing political consciousness to mainstream rap, and DJ Terminator X elevated scratching to an entirely new level. The 'fork has booked the boys for a straight-through performance of It 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, and while you already know "Don't Believe The Hype," chances are you'll be familiar with every other track as well — every hip hop artist since has been ripping them off.
-Nilay Patel
Saturday, July 19
Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar / 12:30pm (B)
A left-field choice for the festival that seems to be without precedent for Pitchfork or any other western news media source, the choice of Yugoslavian master of the flugelhorn Boban Markovic and his 20-year old co-band-leader son Marko are strong bets to win over a few stray Beirut fans who showed up early. With a lively, worldly, and multiple-award winning brass section, the band should have everyone fired up immediately, no matter what part of the set their audience shows up for. Get a sneak peak at the band's fist-pumpingly good anthems Thursday night at the Pritzker Pavilion with Extra Golden, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Fleet Foxes.
-Dan Morgridge
A Hawk and a Hacksaw / 1:25pm (B)
Dig this: Balkan is the new black. This year, Pitchfork gets into the current trend of gypsy- and klezmer-influenced bands, including Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar (a bit more authentic than the others on the bill) and A Hawk and a Hacksaw. Featuring violinist Heather Trost and former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes, the Albuquerque-based group will be especially interesting to watch, particularly just how they pull off such lush, emotional music with so few people (assuming they perform as a duo, per usual, of course).
-Kara Luger
Jay Reatard / 1:30pm (A)
If the name Jay Reatard rings any bells with you, chances are good that you've spent some amount of time perusing (or living) the Goner Records catalog. The Memphis-based label has prided themselves for years — decades! — on promoting and revering all blends and flavors of real honest-to-hell rock and roll, with none of the sickening rock-and-roll-never-forgets wedding dancefloor safety-valves, and Jay was one of their original poster-children. He has fronted the Reatards, the Final Solutions, the Lost Sounds, Angry Angles, Terror Visions, and others. Now, Jay returns to his own name, sounding like a person who lives in a perpetual state of rock readiness. His output ranges from anthemic sing-along blasters to detached post-punk (he's no more afraid of keyboards or tricky changes than he is a fist to the face) to tracks that resemble the hardier side of glam — Bowie/Ronson, Slade, that lot. Daniel DiMaggio of Home Blitz has recently followed a similar path of open-faced rock and roll devotion, and received near-immediate (and warranted) recognition for his work. Here's hoping Pitchfork will help Jay catch up for lost time — this man deserves the rock and roll life if anyone does.
-Chris Sienko
Caribou / 2pm (C)
It's completely cool to play a recorder again. Caribou and I firmly believe this. Anyone else? Changing his name from Manitoba after a lawsuit too unnecessary to actually go through with, Daniel Snaith has been releasing his airy psychedelic worlds as Caribou since 2004. 2007's Andorra moved him beyond the niche world and is earning respect among a more widespread indie fan base. He earned an opening spot for math-rockers/ass-kickers, Battles, last fall with a live show that engulfs you with lights, videos, and of course, music. He moves beyond the expected show experience to deliver a spectacular performance that leaves you with absolutely no idea where you've just been and an uncontrollable desire to go back immediately.
-Emily Kaiser
Icy Demons / 2:20pm (B)
The terms "eclectic" and "uncategorizable" get lobbed about pretty frequently these days, but Icy Demons earn the distinction moreso than any other local band. A restless entity, their five-plus member roster is made up of musicians who each play in at least two other bands. The band's current line-up is heavy on percussion and keyboards, with plenty of instrument switching occurring throughout (sometimes in the span of a single tune). With their new album Miami Ice, Icy Demons juggle genres and strip stylistic gears in a brilliantly brilliant and elegant manner. Live, however, they're a much hungrier and more agitated beast. Since their around-town appearances are pretty infrequent, here's your chance to catch one of Chicago's best off-the-radar acts.
-Graham Sanford
Dizzee Rascal / 4pm (C)
Mix meaty beats and a East Ender mouth full of marbles and you got yourself a certain Dizzee Rascal. Backing up his latest album, the Mercury Prize-nominated Maths + English, Mr. Rascal has been wooing audiences since his (Mercury Prize-winning, bitches) 2003 Boy in Da Corner brought grime into college radio stations the world over. Check his single "Sirens" for his trademark mash of synth bleeps and gut-punch vox.
-Kara Luger
Vampire Weekend / 5pm (A)
Bringing a preppy sound to your indie rock channel is much-hyped Vampire Weekend. Not the goth band that their misnomer of a name might lead you to believe, this group is actually part of the more parent-friendly end of the festival’s lineup. Their self-titled debut LP met with mad air play (including many a rotation in Chicago bar jukeboxes) and a rush on tickets at their spring show at the Metro. Don’t fear though, this isn’t any kind of easy-going bubblegum pop music. Vampire Weekend’s songs are filled with excessively smart lyrics (some might say too smart…a song about commas? For real?), afro-pop melodies and are topped off with a little bit of that unfamiliar thing called happiness. It’s pretty darn upbeat stuff, and you just might like it, or at the very least get up and boogie.
-Anne Holub
Elf Power / 5:20pm (B)
Pitchfork will play host to three relatives of the Elephant 6 collective, Apples in Stereo, A Hawk and a Hacksaw and certainly the most musically buoyant of the bunch at the moment, Elf Power. What may be the only reason to love Athens, GA, these veterans have worked with members of the impressive collective for years such as Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum and Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes. Their 2008 release, In A Cave, is no stranger to the characteristic lo-fi sound and spacey lyrics. It oozes with a classicism that makes you want to simultaneously dance and cry, much like being confronted with Jack Nicholson's 1989 (not Dark Knight) Joker bombing your restaurant/city street to a Prince soundtrack. Elf Power is for lovers and children, except not at all.
-Emily Kaiser
Extra Golden / 6:25pm (B) Extra Golden's origins trace back to Kenya, but their sound spans the globe. They have a unique history, having lost one of their original members to liver disease during the early stages of the band, a fact which actually spurred the remaining members to action to make sure their music was heard. Since then, they've released two fantastic releases on Thrill Jockey, and the band has developed a sound that incorporates many familiar textures and feels of rock and roll while retaining a distinctly international flavor. Their sophomore effort from 2007, Hera Ma Nono, made many top 10 lists for the year, and their live show consistently lives up to the promise of their recorded output, not to be missed.
-Daniel Melnick
The Hold Steady / 7pm (A)
With a powerhouse album released in 2006, Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady finally started to make their well-deserved named among the Pitchfork crowd. These crooners call Brooklyn home but rock with a force that is unmistakably southern, yet dominants anything the region could hope to put out. They're latest offering, Stay Positive, released only days ago on Vagrant, overflows with feeling as well as talent. "Sequestered in Memphis" slams with that classic piano jam we love the Hold Steady for, while darker tracks such as "Both Crosses" show a musical maturity in the new album. "Lord I'm Discouraged" transcends the sum of its parts and literally becomes the intense melancholy that is lead singer Craig Finn's acid-washed voice at it's best. There's also a few Northside/Southside references. Perhaps they've been spending more time in Chicago then they're letting on? At least we know they'll be here once, and you'll be sorrily mistaken if you're not there, too.
-Emily Kaiser
Jarvis Cocker / 8pm (C)
There are not many performers in the music industry who've spent as much time languishing in mediocrity as Jarvis Cocker before breaking big. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, he led different versions of Pulp through lineup changes, red tape and indifference. In 1992, with a new lineup and new perspective, Pulp finally began to show signs of their forthcoming greatness. Over the next ten years, they'd release four revered albums and achieve stardom before going on indefinite hiatus. In 2006, Jarvis released a self-titled album that was clearly a step in a new direction. Jarvis showcased a more sedate and domestic side than Pulp while still keeping the wit. Now he returns to the Midwest for the first time in 12 years hopefully to make up for lost time (and maybe even preview some cuts from the Jarvis followup supposedly in progress).
-James Ziegenfus
Animal Collective / 9pm (A)
Avery Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakon are four of the weirdest pseudo-stars of the indie world. Constantly threading disparate howls, yelps, and, well, animalistic energies that veer from serene to spasm, the boys of Animal Collective find new nooks and crannies or caves and pits that you want to follow them into. Their latest, — the mildly new Water Curses EP — features a brief but promising tour through where the band could have gone with last year's excellent Strawberry Jam, and where they're heading to now with it under their belt.
-Dan Morgridge
Sunday, July 20
Mahjongg / 12:30pm (B)
With the arrival of their freshman album Kontpab this past February, Mahjongg moved beyond the punk-funk trappings of their prior output and steered their sound percussion-heavy West African territory. While a fair number of artists of opted for the Remain In Light move in the past year or so; but Mahjongg throw themselves into the groove with unmatched abandon. To top it all off, they wrap all this polyrhythmic ping-ponging around plenty of synth-punk bubble and throb in what makes for a brilliant tug-of-was between hot and cold. In its best moments, Mahjonng's music often verges on a deliriously unhinged energy that vaguely recalls the Butthole Surfers in their brain-scrambling heyday.
-Graham Sanford
Times New Viking / 1pm (C)
Best known by some as the band that brought Tom Lax and his Siltbreeze label out of retirement, this ramshackle, crappier-than-thou-fi band from Columbus, Ohio share a sonic affiliation, if not a similar sound, with projects like Sic Alps and Home Blitz. All three bands play within standard rock forms, yet somehow manage to avoid any major comparisons with their musical influences (coincidentally, all three have seen their earliest recordings explode into Ebay fetish objects). While mention has been made of the Vikings' association with Mike Rep, thereby connecting them, six degrees style, to those other fidelity skanks Guided By Voices, TNV are comfier amidst comparisons to another, earlier Mike Rep collaboration, St. Louis' favorite sons the Screamin' Mee Mees, whose "Live From the Basement" 7-inch still shines as a beacon to all who would walk the path of willful scuzziness and intelligent abandon. Times New Viking's Dig Yourself LP will hopefully fill the same role for the next generation of high-octane trash-strutters.
-Chris Sienko
High Places / 1:25pm (B)
Oh the joys of indie pop. Formed in 2008, this boy/girl duo consisting of Rob Barber and Mary Pearson combine playfulness with tribal rhythms to pleasantly weird effect. High Places are Brooklyn-based artists who released their debut self-titled EP on Chicago's own Thrill Jockey in 2008. How they got noticed began with a Chicago connection. A familial relation with Pitchfork Media (Pearson's sister used to work there) led to a review of their self-titled debut EP by critic Mike Powell, sealing them as confirmed members of the indie universe. They blend Hawaiian music with Chinese pop and hardcore, which, strange as it sounds, is danceable, in a jumping around type of oddball fashion.
-Marla Seidell
Boris / 2pm (C)
A few years ago one of my friends saw Boris in Atlanta and wrote the next day, "It was like standing in front of a jet engine. My brain is complete jelly today." That was actually a rousing endorsement. Over the last sixteen years, the trio that emerged from Japan's hardcore scene has stayed out of genre niches by regularly altering their sound. They've played all sorts of metal and even released experimental albums, as well as notable collaborations with Merzbow and Sunn O))). Even though their latest, Smile, is more in line with drone metal, expect an eclectic set from Boris. Turning brains into jelly is just the beginning of what they have to offer. (Plus, they have tremendous equipment for the gearheads to gawk at.)
-James Ziegenfus
HEALTH / 2:20pm (B)
I will never forget the night, standing right in front of a small stage in a café in Dekalb, IL, my ears were brutally assaulted at the hands of the Los Angeles noise band HEALTH. You see my first experience with HEALTH was listening to a few tracks through the tiny speakers of my work computer at a low volume. I wasn't sure what to think and basically wrote them off and moved on. This was is until they opened for Crystal Castles one night in May. I moved close to the stage when I saw some one taping a keyboard to floor. There were electronics and pedals and cables everywhere. Anticipating the sound that all of this might make I moved a little closer to the left speaker, and suddenly the room exploded. This young band plays with so much energy it only amplifies their raw sonic output. The word of the night among the shocked concert goers was "primal". HEALTH released their self-titled debut album last September (Lovepump United), and in May they also put out a fantastic remix album (Lovepump United).
-Jason Behrends
The Apples in Stereo / 3pm (A)
You may not know it, but you probably know Apples in Stereo. Does their "Signal in the Sky" from the Let's Go! EP sounds familiar? That's because it appeared in the Powerpuff Girls movie, you stoner. Does guitarist/singer Robert Schneider look familiar? That's because he introduced the infamous shred-off between The Decemberists and Stephen Colbert. Check out their so-sunshiney, sugary-sweet indie pop as the Denver-based Apples make their Pitchfork debut.
-Kara Luger
King Khan & The Shrines / 3:15pm (B) King Khan arrived in The States late last month for his first American tour already carrying with a reputation of putting on wild and dangerous performances. He has been noted for combining the erotic and the soulful, and the results are often chaotic. Forming in Germany in 1999, at the age of 22 Kahn started to gain a reputation for his understanding of soul music and his ability to perform. The band, a super bad 10 piece soul inferno which includes Chicago-born Ron Streeter, has been touring Europe with Kahn for the last eight years. Recently signed to Vice Records, the band released a greatest hits collection just last month, and will be tearing up stages across America through August 3rd.
-Jason Behrends
Les Savy Fav / 4pm (C)
Anyone who's seen Les Savy Fav probably doesn't need added incentive to see them again. The energetic Tim Harrington is one of the best frontmen of this era and the band he leads sounds far more dynamic on stage than on any record. Whether it's rolling out slip'n'slides, crawling underneath floorboards, cutting hair or kissing audience members, Harrington manages to be both entertaining and borderline insane at all times. While he provides the visuals, the band nullifies the awkwardly varying production levels on its albums by delivering a chunky post-punk rock sound that they can only seem to pull off live. Even non-fans should make a point to experience the inevitable spectacle.
-James Ziegenfus
The Dodos / 5pm (A)
Meric Long (vocals/guitar) and Logan Kroeber (drums) are two musicians from San Francisco who have been playing together since 2006. The remarkable thing is that it is just two men walking on stage to an acoustic guitar and a worn drum set, and they create the most electric, energetic, sound I have heard in years. With rhythmic strums, graceful vocal tones, and inventive drum play, The Dodos released their second album (first as The Dodos, formerly Dodo Bird) on March 18th via Frenchkiss Records.
-Jason Behrends
Occidental Brothers Dance Band International / 5:20pm (B) OBDBI is one of the hidden gems of the Chicago music scene, representing an international conglomeration of first rate musicians playing some of the most joyous, danceable music around. Formed by local guitarist Nathaniel Broddock, the band also features Ghana natives Kofi Cromwell and Daniel "Rambo" Asamoah, and local jazz scene stalwarts Greg Ward and Josh Ramos. The band started out as a cover project, playing classic Ghanian highlife and Congolese rumba, but as time has gone on they've developed their own unique compositional voice and style. The result is an infectious mix of African grooves and blistering improvised passages that lives up to the band name's promise to get everybody dancing.
-Daniel Melnick
Ghostface Killah & Raekwon / 6:25pm (B)
At the dawn of the Wu-Tang dynasty, when each of the initial participants started ripping out their own solo records, Ghostface (then Ghostface Killah) and Raekwon (the Chef) established themselves as having the albums that you had to check out first…after you, y'know, checked out Method Man, Old Dirty Bastard, and the GZA. Lacking attention-getting novelties like dope, insanity, or being the head when the group "forms like Voltron," Ghost and Rae had to depend instead of tight, inventive, fluid raps and unique flows (Ghostface's urgent, high-voiced machine gun vs. Raekwon's deeper, duskier noir narratives), as well as solid word-of-mouth from hip-hop fanatics, who know skills when they hear 'em. Looking back now, time's been kinder to the catalogs of these two than just about anyone in the original stable, save perhaps for the GZA. Expect nothing less than sweat, intensity, hand-raising and skills…from the artists, that is. What the crowd will do during this is anybody's guess.
-Chris Sienko
Spiritualized / 7pm (A)
UK psychedelic/experimental Spiritualized counts over twenty-six years of music history under its belt. Members have come and gone as often as the many looks of Madonna, yet front man Jason Pierce remains the steady driving force. Hailing from Rugby, England, the vocalist/guitarist formed the band back in 1990 out the ashes of Spacemen 3, ensuing controversy over the band's breakup. In 1999 Pierce completely stripped the band, hiring brand new members. It's this type of risk taking and unwillingness to compromise that typifies the music of Spiritualized, which has continued to evolve over the years. The band's trademark spacey minimalism is present in Songs in A & E, the band's sixth album, yet the heavy layers of gospel and blues exhibit a new depth of emotion. It took Pierce two years to finish the album, during which time he was hospitalized for double pneumonia. It's not called Songs in A & E for nothing, as A &E is a reference to the UK terminology for ER (accident and emergency), where Pierce spent considerable time on the verge of death. So yeah, if you want to hear what back-to-life music sounds like, go see this band.
-Marla Seidell
Dinosaur Jr. / 8pm (C)
J Mascis is a rock god! I have contended for many many years that he is the greatest guitar player of all time. You may or may not agree, but the fact remains that no other musician take a pop melody and insert a roaring yet majestic guitar solo quite like J. Forming in 1984, Dinosaur Jr. release three studio album before the departure of bass player (and Sebadoh frontman) Lou Barlow. J continued on as Dinosaur Jr. releasing four more albums between 1991 and 1997. In 2005, the original line-up finally reunited and they haven't looked back since. Last year, the band released their first studio album in over ten years, Beyond, and the sound is just as fresh and raw as it was back in '84. It is well documented that the live performance of Dinosaur Jr. are some of the most sonically impressive and loudest shows around. Just to witness the stacks of amps and microphones the J plays in front of is worth the price of admission.
-Jason Behrends
Cut Copy / 8:25pm (B)
While last year's laughingly bad sound problems caused many to flee the Balance Stage early, the final, late, aggro set from the Klaxons put a nail gun to the coffin and let it rip. So it would be unfair to say that Cut Copy have bid shoes to fill — rather, they could do nearly anything they wanted to and top last year's Sunday finale with ease. Yet, the men of Melbourne have proven to be a dance-floor inducing live show even for kids standing around at a rock concert, and thusly do they deserve the honor of finishing off the night for those who want to head home when the dancing stops. With great hipster limb movement power comes great responsibility, so expect the band to push only the best of their classic material while they milk the cohesion and energy of their astounding In Ghost Colors.
-Dan Morgridge
Spoon / 9pm (A)
With the release last summer of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon confused many a tongue-tied radio deejay and delighted most critics who raved about the latest efforts of this Austin, TX-based indie group. Classified as some sort of “gentleman punk” or a lo-fi indie romp, Spoon defied conventions once again with their latest work. At only 36 minutes, Ga Ga... is a whirlwind trip through lyrical mazes, production dubs and crafted percussion — but in a good way. As an album that has been labeled “a grower” and “one to be revisited” by the critics, I wonder how well it’ll go off live on Sunday night. I’m not entirely sure why this Texas-bred group seems to have so much trouble getting their energy level up when playing summer festivals, but after watching them play a steamy Lolla set and an equally hot and lazy Pitchfork performance over the past couple years, you got the feeling they just didn’t have their hearts in it — maybe a headliner slot is what they craved (and finally received). As it is, my fingers are crossed that Britt and the boys are out there somewhere, taking it easy, getting hydrated, and maybe getting a neck rub, because if the weather holds out with this hazy, hot and humid business, I’m not sure that they’re going to make it through the weekend. And hey, it's not the first time you'll hear it, but take a chance on a winner of an encore, boys, and give the fans a little something from the past and play “Chicago at Night” (after all, it will be Chicago…at night).
-Anne Holub
Pitchfork Festival Schedule 2008, Union Park, Chicago, IL
Friday, July 18 (in conjunction with All Tomorrow's Parties/Don't Look Back):
6:00 - Mission of Burma performing Vs. (C)
7:15 - Sebadoh performing Bubble and Scrape (C)
8:30 - Public Enemy performing It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (A)
Saturday, July 19:
12:30 - Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar (B)
1:00 - Titus Andronicus (C)
1:25 - A Hawk and a Hacksaw (B)
1:30 - Jay Reatard (A)
2:00 - Caribou (C)
2:20 - Icy Demons (B)
3:00 - Fleet Foxes (A)
3:15 - Fuck Buttons (B)
4:00 - Dizzee Rascal (C)
4:15 - The Ruby Suns (B)
5:00 - Vampire Weekend (A)
5:20 - Elf Power (B)
6:00 - !!! (C)
6:25 - Extra Golden (B)
7:00 - The Hold Steady (A)
7:30 - Atlas Sound (B)
8:00 - Jarvis Cocker (C)
8:25 - No Age (B)
9:00 - Animal Collective (A)
Sunday, July 20:
12:30 - Mahjongg (B)
1:00 - Times New Viking (C)
1:25 - High Places (B)
1:30 - Dirty Projectors (A)
2:00 - Boris (C)
2:20 - HEALTH (B)
3:00 - The Apples in Stereo (A)
3:15 - King Khan & the Shrines (B)
4:00 - Les Savy Fav (C)
5:00 - The Dodos (A)
5:20 - Occidental Brothers Dance Band International (B)
6:00 - M. Ward (C)
6:25 - Ghostface Killah & Raekwon (B)
7:00 - Spiritualized (A)
7:30 - Bon Iver (B)
8:00 - Dinosaur Jr. (C)
8:25 - Cut Copy (B)
9:00 - Spoon (A)
Hyde Park's First Coat was probably the most beloved of all the bands that came up during the University of Chicago's music renaissance early this decade, combining solid songwriting, experimental flourishes and the instantly-memorable voices of singers Conor Loughridge and Becky Stark to achieve pop-rock-folk perfection.
After starting out as the Shifty Men of Business and then Drexel, the band's lineup solidified for their first proper recording as First Coat in 2003 with Loughridge, Stark, guitarist Will Long, bass player Sean Mahan, and drummer Tom Gaulkin. (Fair warning: Long and Mahan, as well as eventual drummer Paul Brannon were all also in my band during this time, but let's face it, First Coat was infinitely better.) That record, Great Lakes Disorder, stands as the definitive document of this version of the band, with a folkier, rootsier sound that particularly comes to the forefront on Loughridge-penned tracks like Nobody Loves You and Lime, and a bluesier shift on Becky's contributions like Mermaid and Weatherman, which stands as one of the most popular songs in the band's repertoire.
Nestled within and between these relatively straightforward tracks, however, are hints at the more experimental direction First Coat would eventually take, and the record ends with the mild pop of "Money On You" devolving into the cinematic, ethereal opening of "Planets and Stars," which itself resolves into something else entirely — twice over.
With the departure of Stark for California and a new drummer in Paul Brannon, the newly all-male First Coat settled into Chicago's Semaphore Recording to produce 2006's Move Like Sparrows, released on Loud Devices. Fusing rock elements with Loughridge's newfound love of unconventional song structures and deeply personal lyrics, the album is just 8 tracks long, but manages to present itself as a complete whole, as somber tracks like "Drunk Online Shopping" merge seamlessly with the seemingly cheery Britpop of "Listen To Your Kids".
More disclosure: I shot a video for Artichoke, which is here:
After another year or so of shows, graduations and jobs and wanderlust took their toll, and the band dissolved.
There's much more to this story, of course — the band continuously played raucous live shows during its entire run, at venues from U of C basement parties to Martyrs'; and as with all the Hyde Park bands, the First Coat story is really the story of every band on the Mr. Hyde label, and of a moment of inspired creativity that captured an entire group of musicians. But that's all unimportant now — you missed it. What remains, however, are two records that are among the finest ever put out by anyone in Chicago.
(Oh, fine, one more disclosure: Will Long is in the Heaven Seventies with me, but we make dance music, not folk pop makeout songs. So there.)
-Nilay Patel
Breaking Circus, 1983-1988
Breaking Circus circa late 1987. (L-R: Todd Trainer, Steve Björklund, Flour, and fill-in guitarist Phil Harder.)
"Vital and vibrant." That's how Steve Björklund describes the Chicago punk rock scene of the early 1980s. "During that period, I saw the Ramones play twenty-five times," he tells me. "There was a different cool gig to go to 4 times a week, equally balanced between UK/Euro bands, touring US bands and local bands."
By the mid-'80s, however, that scene had begun to wane and unravel. Bands broke up and reconfigured, with a number of the community's key players and musicians started to work on new ideas and develop new sounds as a means of moving on and pushing the music forward into fresher terrain. The blast-furnace minimalism of local punk titans The Effigies still proved a formidable influence in the years that followed. But in taking stock of the expanded musical landscape, certain artists started to look beyond the limits of three-chord punk — particularly taking inspiration from the post-punk racket being made by the likes of UK outfits such as Gang of Four and The Three Johns.
Björklund, who started the band Breaking Circus with bassist Bruce Lange in 1983, was one such figure. Previously, he'd been the frontman for one of Chicago's premiere early-'80s punk outfits Strike Under; as well as having briefly passed through the ranks of the band Terminal Beach (which also featured future Naked Raygun and Pegboy guitarist Jon Haggerty). As he began working on new songs and material, he dubbed his new music project Breaking Circus, and — with he and Lange supported with the rhythmic backing of a Roland TR-606 drum machine — set about recording the band's first EP, The Very Long Fuse.
The resulting EP was released in 1985 on Gerard Cosloy's independent label, Homestead Records. As demonstrated on the college-radio favorite "(Knife In The) Marathon," Björklund was moving into slightly more melodic territory with some songs — branching out to write tunes that involved something akin to conventional rock-ish riffs and hooks. Still, other tracks evidenced the crafting of a sound that would soon be specifically associated with the Chicago underground scene &mdsah; a bulldozing and noisy "industrial" rock sound that was also being pioneered by Steve Albini and his band Big Black. (Björklund had, incidentally, known Albini very well at the time, and had even worked the soundboard for Big Black when the band toured the East Coast.)
By the time The Very Long Fuse was released, Bruce Lange had exited the picture, leaving Björklund as the group's only remaining non-mechanical member. When it came time to turn Breaking Circus into a viable, proper band, Björklund packed up and relocated to Minneapolis. There he eventually hooked up with drummer Todd Trainer and bassist Flour (aka Pete Conway), both of whom were then working as the rhythm section for the band Rifle Sport. With a full trio lineup in place, the Circus roared into peak creativity mode, touring and recording at every opportunity. They quickly recorded and released their debut full-length album Ice Machine in early 1987, and followed it up with the Smoker's Paradise EP by year's end. Both releases showed the band honing their sound -- tightening it up into a triple-time assault of serrated guitar gnaw and jackhammering rhythms. Lyrically, Björkland howled and muttered about the omnipresence of danger, trouble, psychic shocks and turbulence, at one point croaking something to the effect of feeling like "a piece of burned-black toast threaded on a rusty wire." All such bombast and bloodletting aside, the band also proved pleasingly adept at lateral stylistic moves — from the sinister swagger of Ice Machine's "Song Of The South" to the sardonic lounge-ish swing of "Shockhammer 13."
Despite having a couple of impressive new records and a fair amount of highly positive indie-press attention to their credit, Breaking Circus soon unraveled and ceased activity in 1988. Todd Trainer and Flour both continued to play in Rifle Sport — the latter eventually releasing solo albums on the Touch & Go label, while Trainer would later record under the moniker Brick Layer Cake and also man the drumkit in Shellac. Steve Björklund briefly played in a couple of other bands before eventually turning his attention to electronic music. He currently resides in Chicago.
Breaking Circus's discography was only printed once on its initial vinyl run on the Homestead label, and has yet to be reissued on CD.
-Graham Sanford
Tom Spacey, late '90s-2001
Tom Spacey was a five-piece spacerock act formed in the late '90s, with Cory Osborne on bass, Hammond organ, and vocals; Adam Thompson on guitars, vocals and piano; Daniel Cline on guitars; John Meseke on drums; and KC Saint John on synthesizer and theremin. They started out as The Gnomes, but it was immediately obvious to the group that the name needed to go. They wanted a name that evoked time and space. So why not...Tom Spacey? The name fit their sound well, and also brought to mind Pink Floyd, an obvious influence and touchstone for the band.
On their only recording, 1998's mars is eden, My Bloody Valentine came through loud and clear as an influence as well, with swirling guitars and built-up walls of sound forming aural landscapes for the listener to explore — this was definitely an album to listen to with headphones on. The first two songs, "silly things," "drone" and "the lost dutchman," flowed into each other on rafts of synth, theremin and guitar feedback. The interplay of echoes and ethereal vocals added to the sense of weightlessness and space the band strived for as well. It all combined for a very trippy experience, perfect for chilling out in a darkened room with the recreational drug or drink of your choice.
Not to say their live shows weren't any good. But they were different. In person, the wall of sound was at the forefront, occasionally drowning out Osborne's sometimes flat vocals, while the synth, theremin and oscillator battled it out with the feedback loops. But the band suffered from a lack of exposure and a relatively infrequent performance schedule. Tom Spacey managed to perform at the Metro and Double Door a couple times (helped by the fact that Saint John worked at the former while in the band), but never as a headliner. The band finally broke up in 2001 (ironic, no? Space, 2001? Never mind.)
While researching this piece, I discovered that Saint John, Thompson and Meseke have continued on together as American Cosmonaut, with guitarist/vocalist Jesse Evans and Lee E. They play more straightforward guitar-driven rock, and released a three-song EP in 2003.
-Andrew Huff
A Special Mux
To hear a sample of tracks from each of our three missed bands this week, head on over to Muxtape and stream our very first Bands You Missed Mux.
About the Authors:
Nilay Patel is a guitarist / producer in The Heaven Seventies, as a well as a video designer and writer. He previously wrote about Millimeters Mercury in a Bands You Missed feature.
Graham Sanford is a writer, editor, and former radio DJ who lives and works in Chicago. He's never been in a riot or ever owned a skateboard, but has sometimes had occasion to feel like a piece of burnt-black toast threaded on a rusty wire.
Andrew Huff works deep into the night at his West Ridge two-flat, writing and editing and playing with the cats. He spends more time online than is healthy; follow along at me3dia.com. He is the Editor and Publisher of Gapersblock.com.
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Nilay Patel, Graham Sanford and Andrew Huff
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Situated in a converted warehouse loft space on the Near South Side, the Shape Shoppe serves as a cozy and highly-active hub for local fringe-defining musical activity. Owned and operated by bassist and producer Griffin Rodriguez, who first moved into the space back in 1999, the Shoppe operates as a recording studio, a rehearsal space and a revolving-door residence for various Chicago musicians. For a time, it also provided a venue for infrequent parties and musical events. The Shoppe's role as a performance venue, however, came to a sudden halt last Spring after overflow from one event attracted the ire of neighbors and the police. In the months that followed, Rodriguez undertook an extensive renovation of the studio portion of the space, upgrading it with the aim of turning it into a full-fledged recording facility.
In recent years, the Shape Shoppe's attracted its fair share of inter-city traffic, as well. The clangorous beasties in Philadelphia's Man Man recorded a good chunk of their recent Rabbits Habits LP there last year; and the likes of Akron/Family, Beirut, various members of Baltimore's Wham City collective and numerous others have also played and recorded there. As far as the local music scene is concerned, the Shoppe has become a point of convergence for a diffuse, citywide network of musicians that includes such bands such as Michael Colombia, Bird Names, Mass Shivers, Killer Whales, Chandeliers, The Diminisher, and Rodriguez's current outfit Icy Demons. With the renovation and upgrade recently completed, the studio has been ramping up its recording schedule, and this season sees the arrival of a trio of albums by some local artists who are closely allied to the Shoppe and its activities.
Bird Names want to know if you can draw Petey.
Bird Names are a Chicago quartet that we've talked about here before, and they've recently released their third longplayer, Open Relationship on the Portland-based Unsound label. This time around, the band recorded with the Shape Shoppe's Griffin Rodriguez manning the boards, which means that Open Relationship is the one of the band's tidier-sounding audio sojourns to date.
Granted, "tidy" proves a wildly relative term in this instance, because the music of Bird Names is an animal that isn't so easily domesticated. Why's that? Because Bird Names specialize in joyous, celebratory bang-on-a-bucket styled primitivism of the finest sort. This much is clear from the first few seconds of the album's opener "Referents," which evokes the feeling of a late-night campfire jamboree where everyone's huddled — flailing at their instruments of choice and howling to their hearts content — around the light of the flames, with a host of miscellaneous beasts and benevolent spirits hovering in the dark just beyond the trees all joining in to sing along in wordless polyphony.
By the time you get to the cryptic "Regretting Our Fathers" and the dizzy fairground romp of "Shadow Government," you might suspect that Bird Names are supplying the audio accompaniment to some obscure anthology of The World's Most Abject and Dysfunctional Stories for Children. But despite all their caterwauling and apparent looseness and rough-hewn edges, there's a wagonload of primordial pop savviness holding the songs together. Case in point, check out "Discontent Being Men," which strikes the ear like the sound of Hoagy Carmichael, Brian Wilson and Galaxie 500 all getting friendly at a luau in Hawaii after an extended layover in Little Rock.
Admittedly, the regressive, faux-naïf Wild Things act has always been a staple of the leftfield music set, especially lately. But Bird Names' music and energy is exceptionally direct and honest. The fact that they seem to come by this quality innately, without any fussy contrivances or self-conscious artiness, is what makes the arrival of Open Relationship so welcome. Depending on your own preferences, you might find this quality either unnerving or refreshingly delightful. Meaning that the fort they've built is open to all, but you might have to check some of that grown-up baggage before you can fit through the entrance.
Pablo-cruisin' on the third coast: Bronze
The Chicago ensemble Bronze is an ambitious project, so ambitious that its full lineup boasts 18 members — including a full horn section, a flank of backup vocalists, a cellist or two, and the Shape Shoppe's Griffin Rodriguez on bass. It's also a side-project for the most part, with Dylan Ryan (of Michael Columbia, Icy Demons and Herculaneum) and Scott McGaughey (currently of Chandeliers) acting as helmsmen. Given its unwieldy size, Bronze doesn't take the act on the road, and — when they can locate a venue where the stage can accommodate the full band — their around-town appearances are fairly infrequent. If you haven't had a chance to see them, then you can at least hear them, thanks to the release of their debut CD Calypso Shakedown, which also recently arrived by way of the Unsound label.
Bronze work in a semi-ironic, semi-serious retro-schtick mode, reviving a somewhat schmaltzy, formerly zeitgeist-defining sound from days gone by. The music that Bronze has taken to their collective bosom is what some have referred to as "West Coast cocaine music" — specifically that mellow, quasi-jazzy subdivision of the Yacht Rock canon that connects the dots between Chicago VII, the latter efforts of the Doobie Brothers and the blandest offerings from Jackson Browne's early-to-mid '80s output. Meaning that to the degree that Bronze "rock," they do so in an idiom that positively reeks of the sort of Burbank adult-contemporary sophistication that pervaded the post-Nixon years.
Calypso Shakedown has its generous share of impeccably-crafted moments. The kickoff "Jezebel" perfectly sets the tone for many of the album's highlight moments -- it's breezy, offhandedly plush, filled with fuzak-y minor-chord progressions via the electric keyboards, and coasts along on hornwork that soothes rather than swings. Schmoove, in a word. The band kicks it up into an amusing wonderbread boogie mode of "Chinatown" (as in: "What happens in Chinatown / stays in Chinatown"), before setting things back into a more downtempo cruise control with some ballad-like fare. Admittedly, the slower material may not be the band's strongest suit, but things take a turn with the short segue "Artist Of The Beautiful," a languid pastoral that drifts by on some weightless vocal harmonizing reminiscent of a Smile outtake, before kicking up into a more assertive mode with "Only In The Morning" and the bouncy audience-pleaser "On The Clock."
The Bronze guys claim Michael Mann as one their primary influences; but beyond the band's predilection for a certain type of headwear, it's hard to nail down how said influence figures into their music. Judging from how much the piano motif on the bridge of "Jezebel" sounds echoes the theme from "Hill Street Blues," I'm inclined to instead call the key source of inspiration in favor of TV composer Mike Post.
Devils in the deep freeze: Icy Demons
Speaking of Michael Mann, Icy Demons have titled their new album Miami Ice. It's their third LP since bassist Griffin "Blue Hawaii" Rodriquez and Man Man percussionist Chris "Pow Pow" Powell formed the band after their prior outfit Need New Body called it quits a few years back. Whereas the Demon's 2004 debut, Fight Back!, suggested that the band might be little more than a scrapbook side-project for Rodriguez and Powell's other efforts — leftover scraps from Bablicon's prog-y jaunts mixed with the Waitsian clatter of Man Man — they've since moved in their own direction, and have been behaving more and more like a focused, cohesive entity ever since. They've largely smoothed out all the creases and the fits of hububbery, aiming instead for a cooler, more even-handed style and fully-crafted songs.
On Miami Ice, Icy Demons are once again playing five members strong, additionally bolstered by a variety of friends and guest players like Jeff Parker and Josh Abrams. Like the band itself, the album's a shapeshifting affair, one that makes all sorts of moves across the stylistic checkerboard. There's still a restless, agitated quality to the Demons' music; but these days it’s more subdued, its antsier elements cushioned and sheathed under plenty of slick melodies and clever arrangements. As a whole, the album amounts to an astute balancing act — the playing off of bubbling tensions against polished surfaces — from the lurching psychedelia of "1850" to the gliding Brazilian rhythms of "Summer Samba" to the minimal, Kraftwerkian pulse of "Centurion."
As with the Bronze LP, Miami Ice exhibits Rodriguez & company's increased gravitation toward certain sonic affinities and nuances — particularly for lush, in-the-round arrangements held together with subtle, semi-jazzy rhythmic shifts, foregrounded keyboards (be it Fender Rhodes or, in the case of Icy Demons, Farfisa organ), and plenty of rich vocal harmonizing à la Sean O'Hagan and Stereolab's prior excursions into Brian Wilson's endless summerscapes. In the end, it's an intriguing mixture, a combination which — theoretically — shouldn't make for a viable equation. Yet somehow it falls together so seamlessly that everything ends up making its own sort of brilliant and beguiling sense in the end. And what that "somehow" comes down to is how local music is being shaped in the Shoppe these days.
Click here to listen to a Muxtape mix of tunes from the new albums by Bird Names, Bronze, and Icy Demons.
Upcoming Chicago Dates:
July 6 – ICY DEMONS @ Ronny's
July 10 – BIRD NAMES @ Mr. City (in West Town)
July 19 – ICY DEMONS @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Bird Names' Open Relationship and Bronze's Calypso Shakedown are both available on the Portland-based Unsound label. Icy Demons' Miami Ice will be released on the band's own recently-launched Obey Your Brain label on July 12. A fourth Shape Shoppe-related album, Chandeliers' The Thrush, was recently released in the U.K. on the Pickled Egg label, and will be available in the U.S. via Obey Your Brain some time in September.
About the Author:
Graham Sanford is a writer, editor, former radio DJ, armchair musicologist and incessant doodler who live and works in Chicago. He contributes to a number of publications such as Creative Ennui, The Proletarian Gourmet, and Gronk. He is currently fielding publishers for an offer on his recently compiled anthology The World's Most Abject and Dysfunctional Stories for Children.
Currently, Chicago is home to three of the "hippest" bands in the country. In rock we have The Russian Circles, in hip-hop The Cool Kids, and in dance music we have Walter Meego. Justin Sconza (vox) and Colin Yarck (beats/synthesizers) grew up in Beverly and Park Ridge respectively, and first met while attending the University of Illinois back in 2003. Self-releasing their self-titled debut ep in 2005, they began to gaining national attention through the support of blogs and a growing number of fans.
However, it wasn't until 2007 that things really started to heat up. The band released its second EP, Romantic (Brilliante Records) and blew crowds away at the SXSW festival. In July 2007 they signed a big multi-album deal with Almost Gold Records, a label that has helped the careers of acts like Bjork, The Arcade Fire, and recently Peter, Bjorn & John. The band began working on its first full-length studio album, which was fittingly titled Voyager (released May 27th, Almost Gold Recordings), as it has launched these Chicagoans into a whole new orbit. In last two month, their music has been heard on ABC's Ugly Betty, and been the focal point the latest Heineken beer commercial. Their music is a combination of infectious pop dance beats, live guitar, synths, and unique vocals.
Recently, Colin Yarck of Walter Meego was kind enough to answer a few of my questions.
Gapers Block: Transmission: You are being billed as dance music from Chicago, but do you think the location of the band plays a role in their musical development or sound? Are there specific sounds or scenes in different cities? Does dance music in Chicago sound different then LA or Detroit?
Colin Yarck: I definitely think wherever we are located at any given time will have an effect on our music. I don't, however, think that wherever that may be will necessarily make us sound like other music from that region. And yea there are specific sounds in different cities. Wherever people are getting together to create will also create like patterns and movements. Although, the speed with which information can now be transferred really shortens the distance between disparate places and scenes.
GB: I read that you guys now live in LA. What prompted that move?
CY: Yea we're in sunny SoCal now. We're born and raised in Chicago. It was just time for a change. We were entertaining the idea of going to various other places and LA is the one we settled on.
GB: Speaking of moving, you seem to be transitioning away from pure dance music into more of a rock hybrid with your live guitar work. Is this a conscious effort on your part to move away from dance music?
CY: It's a conscious effort to pave the way for a future of making whatever we may feel like at the time and not be pigeonholed into one specific genre.
GB: Did you ever think your music would be the sound of a national ad campaign or played during a national broadcast television show? Are there limits to what you are willing to endorse?
CY: No. We didn't imagine anything like that but it seems pretty cool. And yes, there are limits to what we might endorse.
GB: The title "Voyager" represents the launch of your career. Keeping with that theme where would you like the shuttle to land?
CY: I don't think we feel like landing quite yet...
GB: What's next for Walter Meego?
CY: Recording, remixing, pool parties, tanning (not in a booth), recording, the occasional mint julep, and tour in the fall.
Walter Meego's first full-length album, Voyager, is currently out on Almost Gold Recordings.
Everybody knows air guitar, yet U.S. Air Guitar (usairguitar.com) is its own animal. A combination of rock and performance art, air guitar is a creative outlet—a chance to be a rock star for a few minutes. Anybody can do it, no equipment or lessons necessary, making it one of the few truly democratic art forms around. Tonight in Chicago, locals compete for the regional championship—the winner going on to compete in San Francisco Finals on August 8. The U.S. champion of that event gets the big prize of the deal—the chance to represent the U.S. and compete in Finland at the Air Guitar World Championships, the Olympics of Air Guitar.
Skeety Jones (2007 Chicago winner). (photo by Tien Mao)
Strange as it sounds, Air Guitar as a competitive "sport" was founded in Finland, not in the U.S., the birthplace of rock-n-roll. A group of Finnish students initiated the championship in 1996, with the ideal of promoting peace as a motto. They believed that if everyone played air guitar, nobody would hold a gun. The championship came stateside in 2002, with the help of New York branding representatives Cedric Devitt and Kriston Rucker, now the co-commissioners of U.S. Air Guitar. Having read about the Finland event in the Wall Street Journal, Rucker immediately told his buddy Devitt about the typically American event that appeared to be excluding Americans. "I was shocked that the U.S. was not represented," says Rucker. The two friends headed to Oulu, Finland to investigate then returned to set up the U.S. version in 2003.
In just five years, U.S. Air Guitar developed its own eclectic flavor. Past judges include author Malcolm Gladwell, Rachel Dratch of Saturday Night Live, and Jason Jones from the Daily Show. A motley crue of people are attracted to Air Guitar, from punk rockers to accountants and doctors. "I've seen old men, 16-year-old girls, architects from London," notes Bjorn Turoque (Dan Crane), a second place N.Y. winner who became MC and ambassador of U.S. Air Guitar, author of To Air is Human, and star of the film, Air Guitar Nation. "All walks of life are welcome."
Bjorn Turoque (MC and air ambassador, star of Air Guitar Nation and author of To Air Is Human). (photo by Tommi Kohonen)
The democratic element is perhaps the biggest appeal of Air Guitar. No specific background in necessary. "There is no type of person who wouldn't be a good at air guitar," says Rucker. How it works is simple. Contestants sign up for any number of regional championship by going to the website, picking a city and signing up. Many have never learned been in a band or learned how to play an instrument. They pick out a killer costume, prepare a song and get sixty seconds to rock out on stage. If they make it to the second round they get two minutes on stage.
Although it sounds simple enough, competition is fierce and preparation is essential. "Originally I didn't train at all," notes Turoque. "I got drunk and went on stage, ended up in second place." In subsequent years, however, Toroque learned the importance of training, spending several weeks before a championship working on his moves. The bigger Air Guitar gets, the higher the level of performance is required. Contestants often watch videos of past shows to prepare. "The more people do it, the more they train and work harder," says Rucker.
And Air Guitar is growing. Last year U.S. Air Guitar championships occurred in fifteen cities; this year they're up to twenty-three. There have been two American World Champions: C. Diddy (David Jung), in 2003, and Sonyk Rock the following year. According to Rucker, winning is about exuding a certain combination of charisma and air guitar style. "You gotta be able to rock a crowd on stage. You gotta have that je ne sais quoi weirdness that's kind of hard to define."
It's not easy to be good at Air Guitar, but there are perks for those who manage to win. Winners get to be a bit of a star for a while, travel around the world, go on talk shows, etc. In the words of Bjorn Toroque: "I would say in no uncertain terms Air Guitar has changed my life, for the better. I entered this competition, the very first in U.S., on a whim in 2003, since then I've logged countless air miles, met lots of air groupies. I've been around the world, all in the in pursuit of an enviable art form."
For Devitt and Rucker, Air Guitar is a sport that belongs up there with the other American greats—baseball, basketball and football. "We're trying to create America's fourth sport," notes Rucker. "Soccer is trying to but we don't think its' going to work out." As Rucker points out, Air Guitar is more American than soccer. "Almost everybody does it, whether they realize it or not. Arguably, this is the home of rock-n-roll."
William Ocean (current U.S. Champ) - (photo by Dan Eckstein)
Without a background in music or knowing how to play the guitar, Air Guitar provides unknowns the opportunity to perform at some of the country's biggest venues, like the Bowery Ballroom in New York, or the Roxy in LA. And for the audience, the show is immensely appealing. "I've had people come up afterward and say it was the best concert they've seen in fifteen years," says Toroque. "It's like great rock combined with a great piece of performance art, and then put into a sports environment, where it's competitive, so it's a bit of everything," says Rucker.
Open to all, Air Guitar is like American Idol yet without the necessity for extensive training and exceptional musical talent. "People expect air guitarists to be losers with mullets who live with their parents, and often that is the case. But often there are some spectacular performers out there," says Toroque. For the Chicago regional, eyes are on Nordic Thunder, the 2006 Chicago winner.
Rucker sees Air Guitar becoming more commonplace. "I think it's the kind of thing that bigger it gets the better it gets. With Air Guitar, you feed off the crowd, who legitimates you being up there. Every year its getting bigger so the more the merrier."
“cllct.com is great because it is founded on the same fundamental principle that the DIY scene is founded on: the desire to share.” – Patrick Ripoll (Chicago Musician and cllct.com member)
The acronym D.I.Y. has come to represent many different ideals, concepts, and people over the years. It may mean one thing to Home Depot and something completely different to the desktop publisher folding and stapling on his/her bedroom floor at one in the morning. However, there is one universal truth when it comes to D.I.Y., and it is the idea of sharing, of not only the product but of the process.
In an era of myspace, blogs, and hype machines, you would think it would easy for a young musician to gain an audience. Well it is not as easy as you think. Even the smallest self-released projects have representation to send out e-mails and cds, following-up, promote tours and events. Where can the bedroom musician go to be heard, to share ideas, and to find validation in what they are doing? Last fall, 19 year-old musician Luke Morris (a.k.a. Secret Owl Society) of Shreveport, Louisiana felt he had something he wanted share, he was offended that the musician industry made it so difficult to simply give your music away, and he thought there might be other out there who felt the same way.
"To have a home for all these amazing musicians, who view music not as commodity, but as art, is something that is an absolute joy to be a part of." – James Eric (Chicago Musician and cllct.com member)
Since it's inception a mere six months ago, The Collective has featured 198 different musicians and house 289 releases. All are available to be streamed or downloaded for free. The collective's core contains several Chicago musicians, and is well promoted at several local shows. As a young site, Luke is still modifying the presentation, but the idea of sharing and the passion for music will never change.
Recently, Luke was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
Gapers Block: Transmission: Where did the idea of the collective come from, and how long has it been in existence?
Luke Morris: The Collective website has only been around for a few months; November/December of 2007. The concept? That's been around for as long as I can remember. You can say that the counter-culture movement of the sixties made the idea popular, but they didn't quite invent it either. To answer that would be a philosophical question, something like: "Is a man taught generosity, or is he born with it?". Generosity and greed are two conflicting emotions that we all have, yet our lives are completely dominated by wealth and the acquisition of it. Somewhere along the line, the generous people must've lost some sort of battle with the greedy people. What I call 'the collective family' is the spirit of giving that lives on through all of us and unites us through a common bond, something given to us through the smiles of our grandfathers and the gifts of our uncles.
But, if you don't feel like being philosophical, the idea came around directly through the actions of the RIAA and the music industry. If they really don't want us sharing their music, then why should we? They can go to hell; we'd much rather be sharing music that wants to be shared.
"Luke really came out of left-field; one day, I had never heard of him, and before I knew it everyone I play music with was talking about him and the CLLCT...or the 001 Collective...or whatever it's called." – Redbear. (Chicago Musician and cllct.com member)
GB: What is the ultimate goal of the cllct? Is it unique to each musician involved?
LM: I'd have to say that it's definitely unique to each musician - some of them just want to get their music heard, some of them have less noble aspirations, and some of them are completely involved in the whole scene and contribute immensely (there are so many that I can thank, but a few major players are James Eric, Russ of Tinyfolk, Steven Morris of Existential Hero, and Patrick Ripoll, just to name a few).
The ultimate goal, my ultimate goal, is to usher in some sort of new golden age for the music industry. A new business model for the art that doesn't focus on the business, as just the word leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Everything is changing with the internet, and everyone knows it — even major artists are jumping on the free-music-bandwagon by the assload. CLLCT, by itself, won't really usher in anything — but a thousand websites doing the same thing as CLLCT will. And I'm glad to be a part of it.
"[cllct.com] is a lot more appealing than the traditional sort of top-down model that places such a big separation between people who are making music and people who are interested in it and writing about
it." – Tinyfolk (cllct.com member)
GB: Have you been surprised by the response?
LM: Part of me, definitely. When the website was only a babe, I had no idea that so many people would champion it like they have - after the support of so many wonderful people, though, I felt like the family could conquer the world if it wanted to. In a way, it already has...who doesn't like free stuff?
GB:The Roaring Nineties compilation is a great idea and long over due. Are there more projects like that in the works?
LM: I got involved in CLLCT because a friend of mine asked me to. The music is free because it doesn't cost us anything to make it. The current media market pushes the idea that art is a consumable like anything else; that the purchaser should feel privileged for being able to purchase it. To me, the privilege lies with the artist, who is privileged to have the time and resources to be doing something she loves.
That being said, I'm also selling my latest album at shows, because I did put a significant amount of money into it. I wouldn't have a problem with people downloading it, though.
A lot of people blame sites like myspace for helping to create a culture of musicians who care more about how many people they can get out to their shows than they do about making music — for creating the idea that everyone should think that they can "make it." I don't think the problem starts or ends with myspace — I think it goes much deeper — but a site like CLLCT is a remedy of sorts — an electronic safe space of sorts where you can maintain total control over how your art is presented, and where anyone with an internet connection can download a significant body of work, instead of just streaming four or five songs at a low-quality bit rate.
The family voted on it and that idea came out triumphant, so I can't take any credit. I'm definitely happy with the turn out — so many people sent in songs that I had to use two CDs.
This was my first time really selling a CD, even though it's only to pay for the upkeep of the site. I don't think I'm going to do it again; I'm debating with myself whether to just put the whole thing online right now and continue to have the option to buy it until it's sold out. A bi or tri-monthly compilation is definitely in the works, but there's no way any of them will be for sale, only up for free download.
GB: Have you thought about turning cllct in a record label?
LM: The 001 Collective (the forefather of cllct) actually started as a netlabel, but that didn't last any longer than a few weeks. CLLCT will never be a record label, however. Even if I wanted to, the logistics of trying to sell that many albums would give me a heart attack pretty damned fast. We're trying to move the industry forward, though, so I've been brainstorming on ways we can do that. Having an etsy-like site where bands can put up merch for sale is one option, figuring how to get the cllct music on movies and television shows is another. It's hard trying to find an option where the money aspect doesn't overshadow the art, and that's what we're trying to do.
"…an electronic safe space of sorts where you can maintain total control over how your art is presented, and where anyone with an internet connection can download a significant body of work, instead of just streaming four or five songs at a low-quality bit rate." – Porches (Chicago Musician and cllct.com member)
GB: How has the collective helped you as a musician?
LM: Oh, in so many ways! I'm only nineteen and it helps a lot knowing that there are other artists out there like me. Some of my favorite artists are on CLLCT, and the beauty of their songs is entrenched in the emotion of the songs and not in the mixing or mastering.
I didn't think I would be doing so many collaborations, either. The collective community has been really fun to work with, and I love them all.
For more on cllct.com and the listen to any of the 198 musicians visit their website.
Commercial music compilations have jumped the shark about eight times over at this point. Who on earth is clamoring for the 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Max Webster? When is someone looking for a classic TV theme song going to pick up this in lieu of googling it? And even when the label is doing something noble with the re-issue (like Hip-O's reissue of every single Motown 45), filesharer's guilt is even smaller when the potential buyer thinks the rewards are just going to the archivists instead of the artists.
Chicago South-siders, The
Numero Group, has a novel answer to this — make the archivists (only one of many titles applicable to this versatile crew) worthy of your dime. By finding artists, labels, and sub-genres that have been otherwise forgotten by time and telling the whole story in their meaty booklets, Numero manages to dig up a very rare find indeed — a steady customer base. The label's latest collection, Soul Messages From Dimona, dropped on May 6th, and Gapers Block: Transmission sat down with Ken Shipley and Rob Sevier to figure out how many Seversons it takes to find just the right song.
Soul Messages from Dimona
Gapers Block: So what are the current stats on Numero?
Ken Shipley: We’re committed to doing about six releases a year. We finished Soul Messages about a month ago. This Tragar project we have coming out has taken so long (we did the licensing around last September) that we had to fudge our numbering system a little. It’s really tough to make these records — it’s not like recording a band and getting one of their friends to put some shitty artwork together — Twinight took us almost two years to finish.
GB: It almost sounds like a movie in of itself sometimes — scouring record shops in foreign countries for the one pristine copy of a record.
KS: It’s some of that — but we’ve really only done three records outside the U.S. And for Israel, we had a sister community of Chicagoans there that allowed us to work from here on it. And when Rob came back from Belize, he had zero records — maybe a couple cassette tapes, but we found out that most of the masters were in New York all along.
Rob Sevier: One of the biggest obstacles for us is often format — there was a situation where we had to have an 8-track 1-inch tape machine and a DBX noise reduction converter. And no place in the world has all three of those things — DBX is an esoteric noise-reduction that was a competitor of Dolby, but Dolby won.
KS: Think like Betamax. The guy we were recording with was barely familiar with it, and we had to import a ProTools system in just to get it done. We get all these old cassettes and it’s a thin line - sometimes we put a lot of effort into converting these and they’re just total crap.
Becky Severson
GB: I’d heard some wild stories about hunting down artists — that you had called every Becky Severson in Minnesota just to find one track, for example.
RS: Actually I think I called all the Seversons, period. There was no Becky, but the 23 out of 24 Seversons in St. Cloud happened to be the father of Becky. Darnell Glover was another ridiculous one — we sent letters to him for years and years, and I’d wait and do news searches. One year he finally wrote back and I went to his place in the projects on the lower South Side. I go in and it’s a tiny, narrow duplex. The walls are completely bare… except for one thing: my first letter to him, in a frame. But he’d never responded to it! And I’d written many other letters to him since then, and he hadn’t responded to any of them for years. But that’s the advantage of writing a letter — at least it sticks around.
KS: People don’t understand that maybe twenty percent of this work is fun. Most of what we do is make a list of names and call people to narrow it down, or pack boxes of records in the back here. Sometimes I think people have this idea that we’re this kind of international team of that goes around with guns — there was an interview with the guy from select frequencies where he said one of the things he carries around with him is a gun. It sounds clever, but in reality… that’s not what we do. We’re ethnomusicologists from the armchair. It’s not that we don’t do any work in the field, — it’s just not even that easy to do work in the field.
RS: But there’s some things you have to do in the field.
Marion Black
GB: Certain items you have to physically hunt down?
RS: The best example of that is the Marion Black story. We went and visited him to see if he had any old pictures of himself, something to represent him from 1970-72. So we get there, and the only photo he has is of him in an armchair, drinking a beer, from the late '80s. And he was old when he made the recordings to begin with, so this picture just makes him look like someone’s grandpa. But he’s cool, and we talk with him and his wife for a while, taking notes. And eventually I have to use the bathroom, so I walk upstairs…and right on the wall on the staircase is his old promo glossy from when he was performing! So I brought it down, and said: "This is what we were looking for." And his wife said that they completely forgot about that — they just walked past it everyday and never even thought about it. Or other times we go to old addresses and people have left a filing cabinet that the new owner never opened…That’s why you have to at least show up. Those are the kind of things you can’t get anywhere else.
GB: How do you guys go about organizing a record where there’s not a label’s set output? Do you have a set list of songs you must have, or do you just add as you go?
KS: Well, for example the Kid Soul record was a pet project of mine, Gospel Funk was Rob’s… you just say I think I have enough tracks, let’s go out and see what we can do. With some of these micro-genres, there’s not a lot of records to choose from — more than you think, of course, but probably only 100, 200 tracks total. Even still, we’ve got enough to do a second version — of each of those, actually. There’s about 30 tracks that we wanted, and we tried to grab as many as we could. After the release, we can still have other tracks come in, and maybe do another after the fact — but for the most part we’ve exhausted the source material, and then they’re like the labels releases — you tell as much of the story as possible, and you close the book. there’s not going to be another Deep City, another Soul Messages, another Tragar. We just can’t.
GB: But some of these remnants are getting put up on the web store now — they’re still finding their way out to the public in one way or another.
KS: We’ve started this digital dig project, and it’s still a budding concept, it was originally supposed to be like from the cutting room floor, but now we’ve got all of the tracks available — someone can just go to the site and make their own "Best of Numero" — "Best of Eccentric Soul". We can’t be opposed to downloading, because it helps the music get out there — but if you download the music, you’re kinda missing out on a lot of what we do — to me the music is only half the story. We spent a lot of time on the booklets — there’s a reason we don’t just put a birthday card in there with the track listing inside. We want to go further in and tell a story — frame this, present it — and you really can’t do that digitally. You can make great mix tapes, but that’s about it.
GB: It seems really hard these days to establish yourself as a tastemaker — you really have to have a little extra oomph" or vision to make it. There are so many outlets to find any number of niche records and genres, you need to set yourself apart somehow.
KS: It’s like a gallery — anyone can put a gallery in their house, put whatever they want on the walls, whether its line drawings or finger painting by a three-year-old, or electric bulbs, or whatever — but it’s the vision of the people running that gallery, of this label to be something that is quality. We look at this as if we’re the Folkways of the 21st Century — we’re picking up where they left off. This is the Harry Smith gathering recordings. It’s bigger than a blog. And there’s nothing wrong with that, as a hobby. But at a certain point its more interesting to have a one-of-a-kind acetate or someone’s master tapes, than some album there’s hundreds of copies of. Syl Johnson came and sang a record to me the other day — how many people can claim to that? He came and sang over an instrumental that had been released, but the vocal had never been released. He made something that publicly never existed before. And even though our core listeners are a mostly younger crowd, we’re drawing from history that is dying — these people are literally dying. We have to do this now — you may be around in sixty years, but these artists won’t, and you’ve gotta get this stuff down while you can.
GB: So if Numero were to continue for ten, twenty years down the line, how would you progress into the modern historical era? Your format right now focuses on a period where everything was just barely still there — how will you progress as history becomes better archived?
RS: Nothing is better archived — no matter what year. I’ve talked to people who were doing stuff in the '80s, and they’re still lacking all of their masters. So that part doesn’t change.
KS: We’re constantly getting into weird experiments — if you were to ask me if we would do a solo guitar record, I’d have said probably not — but here we have one, and it’s almost like the kind of music my mom would listen to. They’re pet records — we hear something we like, and it gets infectious — we have to spread it.
KS: I’m not really that worried about the future — I think there’s going to be so much more like bedroom music from the '90s — tons of people making 4-track recordings — that’s going to be something. A four-track in the 1960s was a heavy buy — in the '90s it was a couple hundred bucks. How many people worked a week at McDonald’s and bought one — it’s a different situation. We could find the next Michael Yonkers, people who are doing Lou Barlow-Sebadoh stuff … maybe the Beck of bedroom recordings. And people are going to flip out.
About the Author:
Dan Morgridge is waiting for a group to begin cataloging forgotten food, so that he can buy the first copy of Eccentric Meats: The Lost Vienna Beef Products.
Looptopia has spawned itself out of Chicago again, returning for a second time, hoping to outshine last year's inaugural event. A casualty of poor planning, non-existent promotion, and difficult weather, Looptopia was promised to be a 14-hour organized madness of celebration. Unfortunately it lost its air as venues closed early, Millennium Park was shut down, and the CTA was as reliable as it always is. The Chicago Loop Alliance created Looptopia in an effort to showcase what the Loop has become, with live music, street performances, and art using the city as its canvas. But the fizzling out of last year's event put ever the more pressure to pull up the Loop's reputation once organizers announced it would be returning. This year's reincarnation however has so far not shown promising signs of rejuvenation. The lineup of acts and music events compiles a strange mix of bands that don't precisely fit into the atmospheric goals of the evening, but do enough to keep people interested. Venues range from the downtown location of Reckless Records to Millennium Park to the Chicago Public Library, hosting a collection of quaintly underground Chicago local acts. Among the best of the bunch include some punk rock mainstays, some indie scarecrows, and one of the foundational electronic art collectives in the city. This week we're providing you with preparatory profile of some of the worthy Looptopia acts this year.
Bang! Bang! does this strange sort of thing: they play rock music. Like, actual rock music. It's loud, it's course, it's invigorating, and it's a load of fun. Called by NY Press "an explosive set of sex-charged rock and roll", the self-described gender dynamics are not as obvious as their appearance and bragging might seem, but this works out most certainly for the better. Only really noticed when the female/male vocals are interspersed with ease, the instrumentals are grinding guitars and etching bass lines as if from the original punks of Chicago. And with five studio releases under their belt, they are just about as professional and noteworthy as these originals. Their music certainly plays that way.
Their 2007 release, The Dirt That Makes You Drown knocks you over with the same force that attacks in their live set. It's a no holds barred melee of punk that's honest and damn good. What would result if the Hives grew a spine, they'll be performing in Daley Plaza from 5:00-5:30 PM. Looptopia takes pride in being weird, or so it seems from the lineup of artists. But hardcore kids can find solace amongst the ubiquitous avant garde-ism in Bang! Bang! They play in 4/4 time, they scream, they dance, and you won't see a MacBook anywhere near the set. Really, it's a beautiful thing to look forward to.
May or May Not plays out the thoughtful standard of indie rock. Playing around Chicago since 2003, they have toned the sound of sour fruit and the voice of last week's hangnail. They like Star Wars and Sesame Street and want to make you smile. They've got a solid three album catalog, their most recent release, 2007's A Kaleidoscope of Egos moving to reflect the clear new purchase of a synth machine. The new electronic sound scampers around the carpet of darkening beats, exploring a world that can only be accessed through a rickety door on squeaky hinges ominously swinging off a dilapidated house in rural Wisconsin. A delicately gruesome sound, they no less leave you with a nervous anticipation merely waiting for the next moment you will be most certainly satisfied. While the new album takes them to this place most decidedly not their original kit kat bar sound, the interspersing of the different tracks takes you through a wonderful swerving audile journey.
Attend this band for a break from the mob spectacle intended of the rest of Looptopia. Check them out from 7:20 – 7:50pm in Daley Plaza. A stand around show, May or May Not will give no riot, no trip, but 40 minutes to stop and smell the roses. In the "sensory playground" of our urban jungle, it'll be like one of those boulders that are really good to sit and think on.
On the other side of Looptopia, what is being dubbed "Club Macy's" is set up to host some of the better hip hop performances, visual arts and light show, and electronic improv. 0 + 1 = Everything suits up, (he wears a Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas-esque skull during performances) to fill Club Macy's with a space cadet electronic soundtrack created by him, a guitar, and a drum machine. While the actual performance will not be the usual effort he puts into a set, check it out if not anything than to dance to the inner workings of a proverbial swamp-thing. He'll be playing at Macy's on the 7th floor from 6-9 PM.
0 + 1 = Everything is a part of the Chicago "open-source" art collaboration, MF Chicago, that brings together like minded Chicago visual and audio artists. Also appearing at Looptopia, the show projects intense visual imagery around the room through a gross amount of electronic good. DVD players, projectors, video mixers, and a live gamer or two are manipulated for hours in a mesmerizing manner. Mixed over this are the improvisations of hip hop DJs, psychedelic electric sound, and "emotronic". Acts of MF Chicago will be playing in the Honore Room of the Palmer House Hilton.
Perhaps not the most literal translation of what the Loop is all about, if handled correctly Looptopia can be an incredibly successful rendezvous with new, local music and bands you wish you had been hearing for years. It becomes a showcase of the softer heart of Chicago, the cultural underbelly given the chance to emerge for one night. Check out the schedules online before you head out to make up for any airy planning on the CLA's part. Bundle up if need be, grab a wristband to take advantage of the after hours events, and you'll arrive well prepared for the ultimate of rewarding diversions.
And for a bit of quick direction on the other bands performing, you may want to check out:
Fiction involves stories and stories don't just happen. They accumulate from the many aspects of lived experience. With truth interwoven into falsehoods and artifice, stories ultimately deal with the things that tie us all to together — the difficulties of daily life and relationships, the frailty and imperfectability of human nature, the triumphs and tumults of childhood and growing up, etc. Stories often instruct and illuminate, but they just as often merely amuse or entertain. But, most times, stories are much simpler. They are just "a bunch of stuff that happened." So enough with the Lit lesson, already; let's get to the story...
The Fake Fictions: (from left to right) Ben Bilow: drums / Sarah Ammerman: bass, vocals / Nick Ammerman: guitar, vocals
The Fake Fictions' own story is this: Nick Ammerman and Sarah Johnson (now married) first met when both were involved with WCWM, the radio station at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Having played in bands both separately and together, the two didn't waste any time trying to get one together after arriving in Chicago in 2004. Through Craigslist, they found drummer Ben Bilow and the trio quickly got to work with playing around town; and, by year's end, had already released their debut album Fact Friction.
With the release of their Experimental Cheerleading EP the following year, the band started to gain attention and the beginnings of a fan base; and their sophomore album Raw Yang generated enough enthusiasm to land them a spot on the roster for the 2006 CMJ Music Conference in New York. Each of these records defined what was, at the time, the characteristic Fake Fictions style: hooks-based pop songs, banged out with punky exuberance on guitar, bass, drum, and a little bit of keyboards; with Nick and Sarah trading off on the vocals, spinning narratives and observations that were always charming, joyous, occasionally bitter-sweet, and often hilariously clever.
The band's new album, Krakatoa, is out on April 18 on local label Comptroller Records. Nick and Sarah still take turns on the lyrics and the songs are still energetic, fun, and witty. But the one thing that'll strike those familiar with the Fake Fictions' prior records right off is how much less minimal and jangly, how much more loud, rollicking, and raucous the band sounds. As anyone who's seen them perform around Chicago can attest, this cutting loose in a more raw, free-swinging garage-ish mode suits the band just fine.
On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, The Fake Fictions sat down to talk to Gapers Block: Transmission over a pre-practice meal at Handlebar in Wicker Park to discuss their recent activities, the new album, the use of literary devices in pop songs, and what it all has to do with some stuff that's happened to them.
GAPERS BLOCK: First off, the new albums rips a little harder than I was expecting.
NICK: Lately there's been something of a shift in the band. I think that comes from playing live, where we feel a lot more free to be obnoxious, and I have a lot of fun doing that. So yeah, a lot of the point of the new album was to go for a stripped-down version of our live sound.
GB: I'd wondered if that was because you'd missed playing noisier material as you had in some of your previous bands, or if that came from letting yourselves get more "live" in the studio.
NICK: There wasn't any discussion how to go about it or anything. I think it all started with the song "(I Cannot Get Any) Satisfaction," which starts out with a full minute of guitar solos — which is pretty ridiculous and stupid in a way, but we decided, "Well, let's just keep it." And that sort of became a principle: to just try different things and if we thought it worked, just let it go and do whatever we want.
SARAH: Finding a lot of freedom in just doing what was fun for us, what we believed worked. It was very much a project where we pretty much did everything ourselves. Like Ben did the cover…
NICK: We were doing everything ourselves. Right down to buying the tapes.
GB: Complete DIY mode, then?
NICK: Right. Which is an idea that's fallen out of favor a little bit, so it's not as common as it may have once been. But we did everything except the mastering.
SARAH: The guy who was mastering it asked us, "I'm hearing some tape-hiss here. Do you want me to clean that up?"
NICK: We're like, "No! No!"
SARAH: And he wanted to make sure. "Really? All I have to do is press a button to make it go away."
NICK: Not that we're analog purists or anything, but the matter with the tape hiss ties in with what a lot of the album's about. A lot of Krakatoa is about decay and things falling apart and being a little bit broken. It was about doing the best you can under a set of circumstances. And that theme sort of played out in what we were doing at the time — from the songwriting to the recording process. It's not like we were really trying to make a recording where everything sounded distorted or broken; but we were recording on tape and using $70 mics that we bought off Craigslist and some equipment that was duct-taped together. So, by nature, it's going to sound a little fucked-up. [Pauses] And that's okay. [Laughter]
GB: You and Sarah trade off on the songs, both with singing and with lyrics. How are the songwriting duties split up between each of you — or how much are they?
NICK: Sarah and I still each write our own lyrics. But other ideas for songs — or different parts of songs — are more of a band decision, a lot of times. It's a lot more collaborative now.
BEN: Each of us might have an idea for this song of that one, and we bring them to practice, toss them in to see what'll work best.
GB: On your website, you say the new album involves a bunch of 'rock songs about volcanoes.' But listening to the Krakatoa, I'm not hearing a lot of songs that actually have to do with volcanoes.
NICK: Well, it's not explicitly about volcanoes — it has more to do with a general apocalyptic theme. In the case of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa, it was the largest volcanic eruption in known history. When the volcano exploded people halfway around the world could hear it, and it shot so much ash up into the atmosphere that it changed the global climate. It also caused lots of deaths by drowning because it created gigantic tsunamis.
And we wanted to relate that to the bigger picture and how that connects to things of everyday life — to things that occur in people's lives on the smaller scale, things that are all mixed in with going to work everyday and dealing with people and various complications while trying to go about living their own lives.
SARAH: It was all sort of inspired by what happened to us, about when our practice space caught on fire.
GB: I remember when word went out about the fire that destroyed your studio last spring. How'd you end up dealing with that?
BEN: We fixed the things we could and bought some new stuff and kept going.
SARAH: We did, but at the time it was just so shocking. We all had this moment where we weren't talking about it but were wondering, "Does this mean we're not going to be a band anymore or play music anymore?" Which is ridiculous, because there's obviously nothing stopping you from playing music. It's just another obstacle you have to figure out how to get around. But at the time it seemed like it's the end of the world, y'know? Or a world, at least.
BEN: We didn't even know about it at the time until we showed up to practice, and the fire engines were still there. And we went up to the space and it was all white ash, everything melted and filled with water, with glass infused into all of the amps…
SARAH: From the fire hoses, because they had to blow through the windows.
GB: So you effectively lost all of your equipment?
NICK: We had to get a bunch of things repaired and cleaned.
SARAH: [Chuckles] And it wasn't inexpensive to get it all fixed.
GB: What sort of music were you making before Fake Fictions?
BEN: I played different instruments in different bands back in Madison. But each band I was in was a pop band of one sort or another.
NICK: My last band was more atonal and a little dissonant. Still a rock band, but less focused on the hooks. And then Sarah's band was really loud. Kind of like her songs in the band now, except much more loud and distorted. And the band we were in together in college…
SARAH: It wasn't like either of those.
NICK: Well, it was a college band, so it was fairly unfocused. There were three people in the band writing songs, and Sarah wrote all of the angry songs; which is funny because she doesn't write angry songs now…
SARAH: Because I'm not angry anymore! [Laughs]
NICK: She was writing all of the '90s alternative angry-girl songs. And I wrote all of the sassy, sarcastic songs. Which is what I still do.
SARAH: It was funny, because it was so obvious. It was the kind of band where you could tell that whoever was singing — that's who wrote that song. Then it'd be the next person's turn. Nick's songs were punky and sassy and mine were all angry. And the third songwriter wrote very political songs. He was very serious…
NICK:Very serious.
SARAH: That reminds me of when I was in this band with my best friend. At one point, we had this really serious talk in her kitchen one time about how famous we wanted to get — just to make sure we were on the same page. [Laughs] And I said I wanted to be in a band that was as famous as The Pixies; because while maybe some people haven't heard of them, they were pretty cool, pretty underground, but really, really good. And she got mad at me because she wanted us to be as big as Smashing Pumpkins — because everybody knew who they were at the time.
GB: She was mad at you for thinking too small.
SARAH: I know! And I had to tell her, "Oh, you don't want to do that. I mean, don't we want to keep the fun in the band?"
Krakatoa is out this week via Comptroller Records. The band is holding a record release party at the Empty Bottle this Friday evening, April 18, where they'll be playing a supporting set for The Death Set. Vote Regan open, hometown electronic psych-popsters Coltrane Motion follow, the Fake Fictions play third, and Death Set headlines. The show starts at 9:30pm and tickets are $8.
On Head of Femur's third full-length, Great Plains, (released late last month on Portland-based Greyday Productions) the Chicago-by-way-of-Omaha group starts things out quietly. Within the first few seconds, crickets chirp and horse-hoof percussion plods along — and you instantly know it's a road record. In fact, the entire album is written about time spent traveling through the US, as evident in Great Plains' songs about airports and covered wagons, but it's also a journey for the band itself.
Head of Femur (photo by Maggie Pedersen)
Already darlings of Chicago's vibrant pop scene — along with bands like The 1900s and OFFICE — Head of Femur was set to breakout as "The Next Big Thing" with the release of its 2005 LP Hysterical Stars. The band landed on the Brooklyn label spinART, home to Clem Snide and Frank Black; Hysterical Stars was well-received by critics online and off; and the band toured with marquee Chicago acts like Wilco and Andrew Bird, while landing a spot at the then Pitchfork-curated Intonation Festival. Yet, even with all the success, it just didn't seem to bring the group beyond "The Next Big Thing" to "Big Thing." Then, just as Head of Femur was preparing to record Great Plains, spinART folded and the band was left without a label.
"Of course we wish bigger things would have happened with [Hysterical Stars]," said HOF guitarist and songwriter Matt Focht, who, with fellow guitarist and co-writer Mike Elsener, makes up the core of a band that can swell to dozens of members. "But with [Great Plains], we feel like we've made our strongest record to date."
And he's right — Great Plains is certainly a contender for one of the best records released this year by a Chicago band, and should also find its way far beyond city limits. A lush pop-affair adorned with strings, brass and nods to '70s AOR, it's already landed the band on Chicago Sun-Times rock critic and Sound Opinions host Jim Derogatis' list of ten "new" Chicago bands to watch in 2008. And while it is kind of a weird list to be on since they are five-year veterans of the scene, Head of Femur is, in a way, a new band on Great Plains. While writing the record, Focht and Elsener decided to take a different approach to the songwriting — both musically and lyrically.
"We purposely wanted it to be more minimal — we wanted the orchestration in the right spots, instead of writing around the orchestration," Focht said. The result is a much more organic record, one that feels woodsy and warm. And on the album's stories about living and traveling in the West, as well as the exploration of ancestry that Focht said also served as inspiration, it's also the first time Head of Femur set out to write a record that's "thematic and conceptual."
After self-releasing an EP last year, Head of Femur found a home for Great Plains on Greyday, the label that also released the band's debut, Ringodom or Proctor. A handful of Midwestern tour dates to support the new album will follow next month, but first the band and its many supporting players will take its songs about traveling the Plains to the stage of Schubas on Friday night for a CD release party. Go Midwest, young men.
Head of Femur will celebrate the release of Great Plains on Friday, April 11, at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport. Kid Dakota and Darren Spitzer of The Changes also perform. 10pm. $10. 21+
Chicago's latest breakout band, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, is just as eclectic as it sounds. Formed in summer 2001 by Ellen O'Hayer and Elia Einhorn, the Choir released a four-track album, Do You Still Stick Out in the Crowd?. Matthew Kerstein and Sam Koentopp soon joined the band, and the foursome released the catchy single, "Jennie That Cries," in 2002. The song played on XRT and immediately caught the attention of Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot, who fell head over heels. Tours followed, including those with fellow indie pop darlings Of Montreal and Fiery Furnaces.
I Bet You Say That to All the Boys, the band's first album, was released in 2003. Five years later, the band compromises seven full-time members and a revolving door of musical talent. The Choir hooked up with local indie rock veterans Bloodshot Records in 2007, releasing a self-titled album on their label in October of the same year. Featuring 50 other artists, the music on this album is blithe chamber punk pop, wrapped around cheerless but bold topics like mental illness, sexual identity and drug abuse. Twenty-seven-year-old Einhorn is the band's front man, as well as the heart and soul of its paradoxical paradigm of pain and joy. Born in North Wales, Einhorn grew up in Chicago but spent his summers back home, where he gleaned the musical sensibilities of Manchester bands like the Happy Mondays and the Inspiral Carpets. He calls himself the Morrissey of the Choir, a reference to his favorite band, The Smiths.
This month, the Choir debuts new songs at Schubas, kicking off a month-long residency on Monday, April 7. The Choir performs on Monday evenings, along with a diverse array of local talent, from Scott Mason from OFFICE to Elizabeth Elmore of The Reputation. Proceeds from the residency go to charity, such as Urban Initiatives, a program that helps out kids from Cabrini Green, and the Valentino Achak Deng foundation, which aids the Sudanese in Sudan and the United States. Venus Zine, Reckless Records and Bloodshot are among the sponsors donating prizes for the event.
Gapers Block: Transmission recently caught up with Elia Einhorn over the phone, to talk about writing for sanity, kicking religion to the curb, and the Choir's new songs.<
