- Aqualaygualry in arcade fire - black wave/bad vibrations Today i watching overlay from here. this is wondeful film. Who are watching this?
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Chicago band “I Fight Dragons” proves that having a gimmick isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s easy to be initially skeptical considering the band uses the old school Nintendo video game system’s low-fi MIDI sounds to provide some of its music and they use old NES accessories like the Power Pad and the Power Glove during live shows, but this is anything but nerd-core with lame comic-book lyrics.
A listen to their new EP “Cool is Just a Number” reveals that IFD has a power-pop sensibility that recalls Weezer before they started sucking, and a bit of the electronic sounds of Postal Service mixed in. If you don’t believe me, check out this great video for their song “Money.” It’s got cool references to Super Mario Brothers, Pac-Man and Pole Position and the chorus has stuck in my head for the past three days.
I’d totally recommend checking out “Cool is Just a Number,” which is available for free on their website (when you sign-up for their newsletter). They’re also performing at the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue, in Chicago on May 22nd at 7 p.m.
so i am kind of over big outdoor festivals, guys. yeah, i went to the first couple of lollapaloozas when it was still a traveling festival and caught some amazing live acts (like the beastie boys and jane’s addiction the first time around), but apparently now i’m old or something. i prefer to see bands in small dark bars where i can hear them clearly and oh, WATCH them play their instruments, as opposed to being hot and so far back in a mass of other sweaty people that i can’t even see the bands’ facial expressions, let alone hear the music for shit.
that being said, i am all about the pitchfork festival held here in chicago every summer - it’s easy to manage, easy to see who you want without having to print out a damn map and hike a mile to get there (cough*lollapalooza*cough), and, as much as i like to scoff at pitchfork for being pretentious, at least the people who attend their festival every year tend to be true music fans and thus less annoying than the crowd who shuffles in to see the dave matthews band at bonnaroo or something. come on, you know exactly what i mean.
anyway, i’m a little late to the party, but here’s the line-up for the 2009 pitchfork festival. let me just inform you that the last 4 bands on saturday evening are 4 of my very favourites. the pains of being pure at heart, yeasayer, beirut and the national? in order? on a beautiful chicago summer evening? um, YES PLEASE! so you know where i’ll be july 18th of this year. i might even have to break down and go sunday too, since the flaming lips are doing an all-request set, including random covers. how awesome is that?
The 2009 Lollapalooza Festival’s lineup, though partially leaked weeks ago, was announced earlier this week. Every year this causes a lot of predictable complaining and hand wringing on the Internet about how so-and-so headliners are old and how bloated and corporate Perry Ferrell’s festival is. Some of these complaints are valid - but it’s hard to argue that there won’t be some great acts at the festival,scheduled for August 7-9 at Chicago’s Grant Park.
The 100-plus acts will be led by headliners Depeche Mode, Tool, The Killers, Jane’s Addiction, Beastie Boys, and Kings of Leon. Solid, but not as good for my money as Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kayne West and Nine Inch Nails and Wilco in ‘08.
And yes, the heydey for most of those bands is the 90’s, but most of them do make sense for headliners. Let’s face it, the disappearance of music on MTV, the decline of rock radio and the fragmentation ofthe music market because of the internet means today’s big rock acts don’t have the mainstream success as their 80’s and 90’s predecessors. The big mystery here is Kings of Leon, because the “second tier” of Lollapalooza includes artists like Lou Reed, Ben Harper, Ben Folds, Snoop Dogg, TV on the Radio, Neko Case, Andrew Bird and Rise Against.
The rest of the lineup is filled with mostly current (or last year’s) indie rock darlings: Vampire Weekend, the Decemberists, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Coheed and Cambria, Fleet Foxes, Silversun Pickups, Kaiser Chiefs, Bon Iver, Crystal Castles, Santigold, etc.
As someone who bought a three day pass last year, I’d say go if you have the $200 bucks lying around and you have plenty of endurance. Three days under the hot Chicago summer sun, even with good tunes around,can be a feat for the best of us.
For a British synth pop band that’s been around for nearly three decades, it’s interesting that suddenly people Just Can’t Get Enough (Sorry, couldn’t help myself) of Depeche Mode.
Earlier this month, the Mode was announced as a headliner for Lollapalooza ‘09, a move that delighted many of the fans of the trio’s moody and atmospheric electronica. It puzzled others considering the Chicago-based outdoor festival tends to get alt-rockers or hip-hop heavies like Kayne West to headline.
Today, David Gahan and crew released their 12th album “Symptoms of the Universe,” to generally favorable reviews with some critics calling it reminiscent of their old stuff yet managing to sound contemporary.
Now just this afternoon, the L.A. Times is reporting that the band will cause part of Hollywood to shut down on Thursday evening for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Depeche Mode is expected to perform at the infamous Hollywood Boulevard and Vine intersection at 8 p.m. - where apparently a new W hotel complex is being constructed.
As a long time fan, I’m excited for the band’s sudden resurgence. Here’s the top three songs I’d like to see them play live:
1. “Personal Jesus” - Yes, “Enjoy the Silence” is the biggest single off 1990’s Violater, but for my money “Personal Jesus” would be way more fun to experience live. It’s one of the band’s few songs that uses guitar and it’s arguably the Mode’s most dancable song. And I still get chills when I hear David Gahan’s demanding we “Reach out and touch faith.”
2. “Strangelove” - OK, OK, mostly because I’m amused with the idea to seeing thousands of people sing along to a song that’s blatently about a love for kinky sex.
3. “I Feel You” - Songs of Faith and Devotion is a wildly underrated album in Depeche Mode’s canon, and “I Feel You” is a mostly forgotten single that deserves better. It’s one of the band’s more “rock” type songs and they play more non-electronic instruments here than usual.
Lollapalooza ‘08, as of print time, is just four hours old, and you are not there because…
1) Ticket prices were too high due to insufficient corporate sponsorship
Sure gas prices are a bitch this summer, but tickets… whew! How can we be expected to pony up $200 for three days of music unless AT&T, Budweiser, and friends lend a bigger hand and put their names in more nooks and crannies? Write your Congressman and as him to vote for more endorsements to help make tickets more affordable. Outright selfish.
2) Everyone there is just like you.
The experience will remind you that everyone else will also blog out it for weeks to come, likes the same bands as you, and has at least three songs they’ve recorded on GarageBand sitting in their computer at home just waiting to be uploaded to myspace.
3) You’re too old for this.
You won’t admit it, but even during the first three years that you did go to Lollapalooza, you wished you were at home with a margarita that didn’t cost a week’s pay, air conditioning and predictability. You went so you didn’t have to avoid eye contact w/ friends who would come back the next day and say, “Oh, I saw [this band], and [that band], and [this other band] rocked…”. But don’t worry - they secretly wanted to stay home all along, just like you.
4) You’re too young for this.
This isn’t a Phish show, so don’t expect to walk into Grant Park and magically get high, or find some dude hocking pot brownies and rough crispies. That’s what you go to shows for anyway, so stay at home and don’t burn through the political capital you have w/ your parents… you’ll need it when they find your poorly hidden stash.
5) You don’t know any of the bands there.
Wait, that was Pitchfork… you mean…
5) It’s not indie enough.
You’ve seen Wilco before, so who cares? No one over 21 really likes the Raconteurs anyway. It’s just too mainstream.
So that’s why you’re at home wondering what you and your friends are going to do tonight. Maybe a Lollapalooza after-party! But that’s kind of lame seeing as how you didn’t go to the party in the first place. Fuck you.
Remember last week when I blatantly promoted Camera’s show at the Empty Bottle? No? Well, screw you because the show rocked and, and if you’d heeded certain advice you’d be agreeing w/ me right now before scrambling to mark their next show on your calendar (that is, August 23 at the Bottom Lounge on Lake St.). Meanwhile, you can download their worthy EP Fire & Science, wait until the LP comes out next year, or just read on and see what Joe, David & Ryan think about things. 5 things, to be exact:
1. when historians listen to your most recent CD 1000 years from now, what will they say?
“Bzz nrt blnkt blnkt” That’s robot for satisfactory.
2. if you could play a show with any band/musician living or dead, who would you pick and why?
Roxy Music so I wouldn’t have to pay for a ticket to see them, and um, they are awesome.
3. what is the strangest band-related dream (one of) you have had?
I had a dream that I was asked to play guitar for the Verve and the guitar itself kept falling out of tune while I was on stage. How embarrassing!
4. what do your fans look like?
Attractive youngsters and our parents.
5. what bullshit do you run into at most every show that makes you think “man, this bullshit again?””
Door cost at a show: $10. We bring in: 100 people. We get paid: $60.
bonus question: does the band have a favorite drink of choice?
Joe likes Vitamin Water, David likes uncaffeinated tea, and Ryan drinks synthetic
I know it’s been a while; I’m very aware. Call it laziness, call it writer’s block, call it procrastination. I call it all of those. However, I’m back. Yay.
It was in my full intentions this past Thursday night to go to The Spot, see a friend of mine perform in a burlesque number, and get as many beers as possible for my open-bar-fee. Once I’d had…however many I’d had…and my friend performed, I was just killing time as a band started setting up. I wasn’t really expecting much, seeing as we were in a small upstairs bar with a small upstairs stage in the midst of a small upstairs drunk audience. However, the venue matters not in the case of genuine art, and I was reminded of such a fact as the band started playing. I, in my drunken yet excited state, listened to the first song for a while, then yanked out my planner, grabbed my notepad, and started jotting. I would soon find out that this band’s name was Blah Blah Blah and their music would be right up my alley.
Normally, especially while imbibing alcoholic beverages, I listen to unfamiliar music and nit-pick at it, finding any and every aspect about it I don’t find in my favor so that I won’t have to bother with it. Pessimistic? Yes. Not with Blah Blah Blah. Their carefree approach to their music turned on me and I couldn’t help but bob my head along with the sun-soaked guitar strings laying out a plethora of flitting sounds from the amplifier.
“It’s as if someone opened your soul and poured sunshine in it,” replied band manager JA Powell when I asked him how he would describe their sound. Read more »
Chicago! Camera plays tomorrow night, and don’t miss this band, I mean it. The songs on myspace all stand tall, but don’t exactly belie the ground that this trio can cover. Nevertheless, this high-octane amalgam of My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Stellastarr* and Jens Lekman (and a few others… I wonder if their long list of influences are necessarily artists that have saliently impacted them, or if some are on there for effect… nevertheless, their extensive appreciation for numerous styles shows in their own tunes) plays at the Empty Bottle tomorrow night at 9PM for a reasonable $7 cover - this is neither a show nor a band to be disregarded.
Seriously, listen to these tunes and tell me that you won’t think twice about attending the show. And for the record, I’m not on the band’s payroll and am not soliciting for them under contractual or even fraternal obligations… this band is plain good, and deserves all proper respect.
… I indulged in the pleasure of seeing last Friday night Phil Lesh & Friends, that is, the bassist for the Grateful Dead and his new band. So in my years, particularly those within and immediately following college, I amassed a hefty knowledge for the Dead’s catalogue, and found Phil & Friends the Dead offshoot most likely to deliver the deep-cuts.
Friday night was, for the hard-core at least, a pleasure to behold. Of course, I don’t get the feeling that there are many visitors to this site of that ilk, so I’ll spare you the tales of the mind-fuck it was to hear ‘Viola Lee Blues > Big Boss Man > Viola Lee > About Cell Block #9 > Viola Lee’, and that was just the end of the first set.
Nor will I delve into Levon Helm’s opening set, which made a case for The Band’s endurance as the quintessential ‘American Band’ (never mind that they were Canadians, not counting Helm), and also the Grammy he scored for last year’s Dirt Farmer. But I didn’t come here to tell you about that…
I love deodorant, okay? The hippie contempt for hygiene was one of many things that I could never understand that would eventually turn me off of the scene. Seriously, my buddy and I stood next to a dude (he resembled a tattooed bean-sprout) who reeked so bad that I had to bum one of his own cigarettes to keep the funk at bay. There’s that, and the issues of remaining solvent and functional had something to do with my change of lifestyle. Nevertheless, I continue to like the music.
But across town at Schuba’s was something much closer to the mid-60’s Frisco scene from which the Dead sprang, and the hopeless Heads endlessly romanticize. I’m talking about a Mexican-American-psychedelic pop outfit that operates under the name of Alla’.
So a 1/2 hour after P&F closes, I stumble into the CD release party of Alla’s debut Es Tiempo, an impressive disc seven-years in the coming. Trust me, go see the very next show, listen to their music… not later, but now. The hybrid of mind flower noise, pop melody and Mexican folk may, on paper, seen like too much to handle, just as to read their instrumentations appears overwhelming… not so. It is disciplined w/o being sanitized, and is full of astonishing feats that don’t beg for attention. The guest string section, appearance by the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, and the zillion other friends that provided musical muscle to the night’s set were recipe-perfect parts impact, body and balance.
The lyrics, I’m told, take on bold topics, but they are sung in Spanish and, without the benefit of a translation, uni-linguists such as myself are at a disadvantage. Still, listening to an opera in English is nary as powerful as that which is sung in foreign or even ancient tongue, and so too do Alla’s songs take on a mystical tone as sung in the members’ native language. It seems highly unlikely that the songs, were they sung in English, would have such a momentous affect. They are too pristine, veridical, captivating in a way that can only come from great vision and love for heritage without slavishness to the past.
But the unfortunate ethos of Now is to see a band because they’re about to be big. That may be the case with Alla’ (pronounced ‘Aie - ya’, means “over there”), but that’s not the reason to perk up. Go now because they’ll torque your mind and their show is a thing of beauty (which applies to their lead singer Lupe Martinez as well). Latin music tends not to be my thing, being exposed to it largely against my will from the open windows of passing cars, but this has nothing to do with that madrepore of commercial drek on La Ley. In the hands of the Ledezma Brothers, Martinez, and the many other members and guests, the Mexican folk traditions are particularly potent. Alla’ makes me want to know more about the source of their inspiration, and also the extent to which they take this extremely promising experiment.
And in an era where businesses and bands are trying everything they can to get the buyer’s attention w/ gimmicks, it’s refreshing to see a band doing so with pure music.
“Have you seen these guys before?”
“No, this is my first actually. You?”
“This will be my sixth.”
When someones goes to see a band multiple times over in different cities it usually means one of two things: the band is absolutely worth seeing that many times or that particular fan is insane and a complete moron (see any Phish fan ever). From what I gather from my first experience at an Avett Brothers concert, I believe the former takes the cake on this one.
This show was a lot of first for me actually. First Avett concert, first time at the Chicago House of Blues and first real show I’ve been to since my weekend at Lollapalooza (my schedule and bank account blow). Needless to say I was pretty excited to see one of my favorite bands and they did not disappoint. Scott Avett opened the show on the drums to do a much more energized version of “Die, Die, Die” and it was very evident the crowd was into it from the floor actually dipping beneath my feet from jumping.
Once all the technical difficulties of poor Bob Crawford’s bass rig was figured out the set went up and down in terms of the moods of the songs, but the energy remained high the whole time. Slow songs like “The Ballad of Love and Hate” had everyone involved and even the answers given to crowd interjections by Seth Avett showed that even in a big house they could make it a personal show.
Two new songs played off the upcoming album The Gleam II were highlights of the set. “Murdered in the City” was a coy little tune with lyrics like “I wonder which brother is better / Which one our parents loved the most / I sure did get in lots of trouble / They seemed to let the other go” which were paired with small looks from both brothers. The encore number of “My Heart’s Like a Kick Drum” was surprising for me since it was almost more of an old Ben Fold’s 5 tune than the normal Avett folk-punk style.
Little additions to the show like a cello player on a good number of the tunes and guest appearances by tour mates Jessica and David Mayfield made all the difference in filling out the sound, which was especially fun on the set closer “Got To Sleep” where the crowd was left to sing and clap to the “La la…” melody of the song until they came back to finish up the song and do an encore.
Hard to believe the set was two hours long but after the time had passed (and the most broken banjo/guitar strings ever were restrung… poor roadie…) all left smiling, including myself. I’m sure the Avetts will be back soon so I can start adding up the number of their concerts I have attended. Until then, I’ll leave you with a video of “Murdered in the City” (although Seth also sang on the version tonight) so you can get excited for the new album like I am.
