Post No Bills
Friday, May 25, 2012
Music Post No Bills Tonight: a rare Chicago performance of Georges Aperghis's Recitations
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.25.12 at 02:19 PM
I couldn't write at length about Greek composer Georges Aperghis in my preview of Saturday's concert by International Contemporary Ensemble at the MCA, where the program includes two of his compositions. To be honest, I'm playing catch-up where Aperghis is concerned—he wrote a lot of music—and I've still got a long way to go. But I would like to draw attention to the mind-boggling Recitations (1977-'78), an epic solo work for female voice that makes crazy demands on the performer. It's getting a rare local performance tonight at Corbett vs. Dempsey by ICE soprano Tony Arnold, and the concert is free.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Music Post No Bills Friday at the Bottle: the polystylistic grind of Starring
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.24.12 at 06:16 PM
Back when she lived in Chicago in the mid-aughts, violist and musicologist Amy Cimini immersed herself in the city's experimental and improvised-music scenes; among her many projects were the Civil War, with guitarist Adam Sonderberg and bassoonist Katherine Young, and the duo Architeuthis Walks on Land, also with Young (who continues to be one of her most steadfast collaborators—AWoL plays at Elastic on June 28). Since she moved to New York, however, most of the music she's made (or rather most of what I've heard) has been either sunny chamber pop with the Fancy (also with Young) or hard-hitting prog-rock with Starring. Starring performs Friday night at the Empty Bottle, opening for Cave and Bobby Conn—and for Conn, the show is a release party for Macaroni (Fire), his first album in five years.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
12 O'Clock Track Music Post No Bills 12 O'Clock Track: Curumin, "Selvage"
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.23.12 at 12:00 PM
Curumin (born Luciano Nakata Albuquerque) has made a name for himself with a hooky blend of Jorge Ben-style samba-soul and electronic music—between him and Domenico of +2 fame, I'm starting to think that Brazilians have some sort of special flair for using the MPC sampler as a real-time instrument. On his third album, Arrocha (due June 5 from Six Degrees), the singer, songwriter, drummer, and producer from Sao Paulo, Brazil, doesn't tinker too much with the formula that's worked for him so far. The songs collide floor-rattling beats, jacked-up samba, chilled-out reggae grooves, and breezy, quietly soulful singing. Curumin returns to Chicago to play on an excellent double bill at Double Door on June 14 with Céu. Today's 12 O'Clock Track is a song from Arrocha, and you can check it out after the jump.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Music Post No Bills Jennifer Herrema of RTX goes Black Bananas
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.17.12 at 12:32 PM
Royal Trux called it quits in 2001, giving way to new projects led by core members Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema. The former has produced twisted sounds under his own name and with Howling Hex, but the latter has been clinging to the last vestiges of the original band, calling her group RTX and refining a queasy strain of 80s-style hard rock. Recently she cut her final remaining ties to Royal Trux by renaming her long-running combo Black Bananas, but the recent Rad Times Xpress IV (Drag City) clearly sits on a continuum that stretches back to the first RTX album, 2004's Transmaniacon.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Music Post No Bills Xiu Xiu return, bloody and harrowing as ever
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.16.12 at 04:28 PM
I've enjoyed a lot of the music that Bay Area group Xiu Xiu has made over the years, though "enjoy" might not be the appropriate verb. Group leader Jamie Stewart has always seemed intent on making you uncomfortable—he uses dissonant arrangements and harsh textures, ugly and unexpurgated subject matter, and a vocal style that often suggests someone hysterical and distraught caterwauling from a skyscraper window ledge. I decided I needed a break from Xiu Xiu a couple of years ago, after watching the video for their song "Dear God, I Hate Myself," which features Stewart's bandmate Angela Seo forcing herself to puke all over the nonplussed singer while he nonchalantly munches on a chocolate bar. But the group's latest album, Always (Polyvinyl), has enough great music that I'm giving them another shot.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Music Post No Bills Old Town School drops the Folk & Roots fest for Square Roots
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.15.12 at 04:51 PM
Music Post No Bills Swedish trumpeter Emil Strandberg makes his Chicago debut
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.15.12 at 03:51 PM
On Thursday evening Swedish trumpeter Emil Strandberg makes his local debut at Elastic, improvising in various combinations with some of Chicago's finest: trumpeter Jaimie Branch, bass clarinetist Jeff Kimmel, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, drummer Frank Rosaly, and modular synthesizer player Brian Labycz. Over the past couple of years Strandberg has emerged as one of Scandinavia's most impressive horn players, but he's yet to make a record under his own leadership. Instead he's proved himself an excellent sideman, working in a wide array of contexts.
12 O'Clock Track Music Post No Bills 12 O'Clock Track: Yoko Ono, "Why"
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.15.12 at 12:00 PM
For most of my childhood Yoko Ono was kind of an abstraction—the evil force that somehow broke up the Beatles. Later, she was simply the wife of John Lennon—mainstream America in the 70s didn't hear much about her involvement in Fluxus. Come to think of it, we didn't hear much about Fluxus, period. I think I first encountered "Why," from her brilliant 1970 album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band—which famously included one piece featuring Ornette Coleman—when I was in high school in the early 80s. It unsettled me in much the same way "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force did the first time I heard it (which was around the same time). I was confused, irritated, and compelled. I didn't "get" either song, but they burned themselves into my brain instantly.
Time, of course, has been very good to both of them. Ono's manic, shrieking vocals on "Why"—a piercing, sirenlike wail derived from hetai, a technique used in Kabuki theater—presaged all sorts of extreme female singing that would emerge during the postpunk era. It's hard to think of a single female new-wave singer, from Lene Lovich to Kate Pierson to the vocalist in just about every early Rough Trade band, who didn't sound like she was swiping from Ono—albeit with relatively palatable and pop-friendly results.
Music Post No Bills Spotify playlist: The best of April's Post No Bills
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.15.12 at 08:55 AM
I should've let you all know about this last week, but my latest Spotify playlist is up—in keeping with my usual practice, it's entirely made up of tunes from the various albums cited in the "Today's playlist" sections of my Post No Bills blog entries. That means there are absolutely no thematic, temporal, or stylistic connections—just 33 tracks totaling around two hours, almost all of which I thoroughly enjoy. There's hard bop from Art Blakey, calypso from Lord Kitchener, postpunk from Bush Tetras, electronic noise from Marcus Schmickler, Angolan balladry from Bonga, and much more. I'm a fan of serendipitous discovery, and I still think one of the greatest things that iPods made possible was picking up a friend's well-stocked player, choosing shuffle, and getting surprised. I guess that's not really what's happening here, but on the first go-round at least we can certainly pretend.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Music Post No Bills Friday at SPACE: the new NRBQ doesn't miss a beat
Posted by Peter Margasak on 05.10.12 at 03:57 PM
Last summer NRBQ released the excellent Keep This Love Goin' (Clang!), its first album in seven years, but singer and keyboardist Terry Adams was the only remaining original member. Prior to the release he was touring with a band he called the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet, with drummer Conrad Choucroun, bassist Pete Donnelly, and local multi-instrumentalist Scott Ligon playing guitar (Ligon also turns up on the killer new album by Kelly Hogan). Last year Adams renamed this quartet NRBQ, and the four of them wear the NRBQ mantle beautifully on Keep This Love Goin'. They headline SPACE on Friday night.
