- Aaron L. in Replicator US tour Blog - Day 22 - “9 lbs of Awexome in a 10 lb sack.” Man….I just found this. Don’t mean to get all spammy but Songbird on Linux (Ubuntu in my...
- Sizslegumeslurgek in Replicator US tour blog - entry zero. hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats....
- SoableAdjuraunrerb in Replicator US tour blog - entry zero. joslziqbxgskocyqwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch
Has it already been fifteen years? Frankly, I didn’t take too much notice then, nor do I now (just not my thing, eh?), but It’s a Shame About Ray has been out for almost as long as it takes a person to go from birth to driving age. And they’re celebrating at the Abbey Pub, but what’s really happening is…
The Ladies & Gentlemen, a highly reputable local outfit, opens for the Lemonheads. You’ve seen their name a million times before, and said to yourself, “These guys are always at the Double Door/Reggie’s/Martyrs, maybe someday I’ll check ‘em out.” Say ‘yes’ to a Brit-ish, power pop, new wave fix. The songs are catchy as hell, and tailored to the ADD demographic, but if that’s not your thing… there’s a bar in the other room where you can state into your beer in peace.
TLAG is building up steam, and if you’re already in for the Lemonheads, get there in time for the opening act (which also includes Canasta). Maybe not headlining at the Sears Center any time soon, but get a look at these guys as their base continues to grow (which is, amusingly, directly proportional to the rate at which the band’s hairline recedes. 80’s kids on instruments in the 21st Century…).
Here’s the full lineup (finally!) for the 2008 Lollapalooza, held in Chicago August 1-3. I have starred the bands I am excited about seeing, since I know you all care.
Radiohead*
Rage Against the Machine
Nine Inch Nails*
Kanye West
Wilco*
The Raconteurs
Louis XIV
Love and Rockets*
Gnarls Barkley
Bloc Party
The Black Keys*
Broken Social Scene
Lupe Fiasco
Flogging Molly
Mark Ronson
Cat Power
The National*
G. Love & Special Sauce
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Explosions in the Sky
Brand New
Gogol Bordello
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
Dierks Bentley
Okkervil River*
Amadou & Mariam*
Blues Traveler Read more »
They blew the opener, and lived to tell about it. The second of two opening acts didn’t strum his guitar once during his set, and still won over some hearts. It was a night where all’s forgiven in advance, and the obsequious audience had everything to do with it (picture it: the guys all look like Alan Ginsberg (throughout various portions of his career, of course), and the girls were either bookish aerobics leaders, Sharon Tates or modern Emily Dickinsons).
Marla Hansen, violinist of Lekman’s band, opened. She instinctively told the crowd that they were great, but her set had to compete heavily with the white noise of conversation. PIty the opening bands that play the Logan Square Auditorium, because it takes at least two opening acts for hipsters to trade stories about the latest shows they’ve seen, and their favorite band’s side projects.
Theoretically, I have a problem with bands (read: musical acts comprised of at least one person) whose live show consists entirely of hitting ‘play’ on a laptop and singing into a microphone. I guess I’d better get over that old-fashioned hang-up… Honeydrips (aka Mikael Carlsson) has some lovely songs, though it would be nice to engage the audience with something in a live show that a download can’t offer.
By the time the audience was done impressing itself with indie insider-trading, Lekman took the stage with a smaller sortie than in his November appearance, and relied to a heavier degree on the laptop, which wreaked havoc on the set opener ‘I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You.’ But for that blunder, they expiated with a lively ‘Opposite of Hallelujah’, infused by the Chairmen of the Board’s ‘Give Me Just a Little More Time’. Digital gimmickry validated, the band, after an anecdote from Jens about the ’silly’ song he wrote when he was 17, went into the second of their two biggest crowd-pleasers, ‘Black Cab’. This sounds, on paper, like too much too early, but Jens has a lengthy, solid cannon with someone’s favorite song always waiting to be played next. Most of us knew intimately every number in the setlist, so there was no protest to new song ‘New Directions’ about getting lost in Gothenburg. But as hungry for new material as is his audience, the real rejoicing was reserved for oldies but goodies like ‘Maple Leaves’ and ‘You Are The Light’. Nonetheless, it was the material from Kortedala, particularly ‘Nina’ and ‘Shirin’ that made so clear why it is one of the top albums of last year (my personal favorite).
Jens’ act thrived on the intimacy that was not possible at his other big Chicago appearance in Pitchfork, and the verbose audience was particularly attentive when the band left Lekman alone to play ‘Shirin’ and ‘Friday Night at the Drive In Bingo’ before the faux close of the set. If the band was a little desultory (which is not the pejorative it usually is), Jens’ quieter moments confirmed his gifts as a confident songwriter and performer, much more at home with 1,000 people than with one.
Hey, everyone, what’s shakin’? I know it’s been a while since i rapped at ya, but damn, my schedule’s been hell of nuts lately, i tells you what. Anyway, i’m interrupting my dumb-ass radio silence to let any fine Chicagoans reading this know of some hot rock action coming their way this Friday, March 28th, at the venerable Beat Kitchen.
One of my favorite bands going today, the creepy, jarring, skronktastic, and all-out awsome pAper chAse, will be taking the stage for an all-ages extravaganza starting at 8:30 after the doors ope
n at 8. Oh, and who’s that opening the show? A delightful Chicago outfit called Reds and Blue and everyone’s favorite feedback-drenched Brew City troublemakers IfIHadAHiFi! Hurrah!
$10 in advance, $12 at the door, suckers. Be there by 8:30, because the HiFi’s playing first and will be slamming through select cuts from their upcoming long-player, Fame By Proxy, out September 16th of this year on the recently-relocated-to-Chicago Latest Flame Records, as well as some older favorites. And well, shit, the pAper chAse are just one of the best live bands going today, so you really have no reason to not go see them.
Aren’t you annoyed by how i keep referring to my band in the third person? Who the hell am i trying to fool, anyway?
Anyway, sorry that my first post in weeks is blatant shilling as opposed to the grumpy old man-ramblings that you often want to fellate me for. I’ll get back to that soon, i promise. It’s been a rough winter.
God, it’s been a week already? But my head was clear, and the post-gig notes are mostly legible::::::::::
A five-night hometown residency to play every song in the book… bold. I want to know who managed to pull duty at all five nights, and find out what are their motivations (and connections). But the fourth was good enough for me and my companions, so…
A good parent (neither good nor parent, I… just projecting here) knows not to give a screaming child everything it wants. But sycophantic audiences of 20 to 40-somethings - occasionally more obnoxious than some infants - don’t react well to being denied anything, so Wilco and Jeff Tweedy, rock ‘n roll daddy extraordinaire gave in to our demands on Tuesday night at the Riviera, including free coffee.
The free coffee was for the kids who waited for hours in negative-sixty-degree cold for the doors to open (that’s called ‘negative reinforcement’, right?). And despite issuing a decree against encores, that’s exactly what Tweedy gave the implacable nursery of hipsters when we refused to budge at the end of the 2nd set. But not quite overindulging us… good bartenders, they cut us off at just the right time.
Between pandering to one’s whims and fetishes and the patient satisfaction that the Kama Sutra advocates, Wilco danced with both partners on Tuesday night. The show was aired on WXRT, which usually calls for a safer setlist, but even when it veered towards the predictable it came sideways.
Hard to say exactly what constitutes a ‘deep cut’ for Wilco since every song is someone’s favorite. Opening with ‘Outtasite (Outa Mind)’ isn’t exactly a b-side (and it was granted that they would bookend the night with ‘Outta Mind (Outa Site)’) but we WANTED it! The live debut of Sky Blue Sky’s ‘Leave Me (Like You Found Me)’ was a tiny gem, and seemed more consistent with the band’s mission to play every song they ever recorded. Following-up with ‘Company in my Back’ delivered, unwittingly, the illegal words, “Holy shit,” to the sensitive residents Radioland. Fuckin’ rock’n roll, man.
But the setlist was incidental to the execution of it, even if they didn’t offer anything from Mermaid Ave. Wilco’s songs are deceptively simple, but representing every sound from the discs in a live setting (sans laptop, mostly) is a feat - these tunes are dense. Faithfulness to the arrangements everyone knows was a bigger hit than had they cheated and fallen back on improvised flights to camouflage any on-stage ineptitude. Even ‘California Stars’, which doesn’t have many depths to plumb, was ebullient and chicken-tight, particularly on the vocal harmonies and interplay between Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt and utility infielder Pat Sansone… Tweedy was smiling like he just scored touchdowns (but, wait - he doesn’t believe in touchdowns… never mind) and that from the most basic song in the band’s cannon. Fierce highs, pin-drop lows… Wilco doubles as the loudest and most dynamic band around (I acquiesce, of course, that the conquerors of the straight-up LOUD department are Matt’s picks, but that’s an entirely different kind of flying, all together).
We all gave each other a little ‘aw-shucks’ look when Tweedy beamed that Chicago-love has spoiled the rest of the tour. Nevertheless, the tour is still young and may be coming near you. Go, even if they don’t promise to give you every song they ever wrote.
2-26, 27: Washington DC
2-29: Charleston, SC
3-02: Nashville, TN
3-03: Mobile, AL
3-04, 05: New Orleans, LA
3-07: Houston, TX
3-08: Tulsa, OK
3-09: Des Moines, IA
Believe it or not, some of us writers here at SSC not only write about music, we write music as well. No joke! Guess what makes that really hard? No, it’s not lack of talent (I’m looking at you Ashlee Simpson) it’s lack of instruments.
[begin sob story] On an unfortunate night in Detroit, Michigan before the New Year, my band The Pullman Strike had our trailer completely lifted off the back of our van and driven away. They literally took everything. Trailer, merchandise, instruments - gone. It’s been a long and arduous road, but we are slowly trying to get back on our feet by buying everything we need again since none of it has been recovered by the amazing investigation I’m sure is being conducted by the outstanding Detroit Police Department (is the computer screen dripping with sarcasm yet?) .
Now back in Chicago we have had awesome help and are making the big push with help from our favorite watering hole. Galway Bay is throwing us an all-you-can-drink fundraiser this Saturday where all proceeds go back to the band and getting our equipment back. $10 will get you a cup for the back bar where members of The Pullman Strike will be your bartenders as long as the beer lasts as well as an acoustic performance sometime later in the evening.
So, to sum it up:
What: Pullman Strike Benefit & Drink-a-palooza
When: Saturday, February 16th @ 9:00pm
Where: Galway Bay Pub @ 500 Diversey
If you’re in the Chicago area and would like to help support, or just get drunk for cheap, please come on out and have a good ‘ol time with your favorite (maybe new favorite) Chicago Strikers.
