Music: Bleader, Chicago Reader

A soulful country cut from the woman who sang "Harper Valley P.T.A."

Miles Raymer — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:08:12 -0500

Soul Jazz would be one of my favorite reissue labels of all time even if they had stopped putting out records after their first New York Noise compilation of vintage NYC postpunk, which was not-so-secretly as influential on early-aughts underground club culture as any Williamsburg dance-punk band of the time. Recently they put out Acid: Mysterons Invade the Jackin' Zone, a fantastic two-disc survey of Chicago acid house and experimental house.…

Best shows to see: Chrome, Turbonegro, Rafi Malkiel Quintet

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:26:00 -0500

There are two punk-rock festivals happening in Chicago this weekend: HoZac's Blackout and WHPK's Summer Breeze. While the former encourages heavy drinking significantly more than the latter, they've both stacked up awesome, obscure lineups, and even share an act (Detroit's Tyvek).…

Rare Sun Ra sounds and images from Corbett vs. Dempsey

Peter Margasak — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Corbett vs. Dempsey, the record label, has just released one of the rarest and most historically murky recordings in the massive oeuvre of the great Sun Ra, issuing Continuation on CD for the first time. Last year I wrote about the formalization of the new imprint operated by the John Corbett and Jim Dempsey, the owners of their namesake art gallery, and even then, when I spoke with Corbett about this reissue, the actual date of the recording seemed in doubt.…

12 O'Clock Track: Noisy shoegaze on No Joy's "Slug Night"

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

On Mother's Day, I went to Lincoln Hall to catch Canadian noise-rock powerhouse Metz (who have recently built up the bro-iest fanbase ever, apparently) and TV Ghost, a dramatic postpunk act from Indiana. First up on the bill was No Joy, another band from Canada who had been added only the day before.…

Robbie Fulks revisits a scorned gem by Bob Dylan

Peter Margasak — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:04:00 -0500

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Robbie Fulks letting me know about the next installment of his ever-changing, always inventive and entertaining weekly Hideout residency on Mondays, which is now into its fourth year. I had already noted the show and planned to write something about it here, but I was still surprised to read his message, which read, in part, "just wanted to let you know your comment on Street-Legal, way back when I was preparing Slow Train Coming, stuck in my head . . .…

Lyric Opera's Oklahoma!: Where's that sound guy?

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:31:00 -0500

It ain’t at all a question of the singin'
That was lush
And all the words was up where you could see
But when the talkin' started
Some folks' words just turned to mush
Which wasn't how I thought it oughta be

I'm just a girl who likes to hear
When I'm attendin' a show
I want each word to be nice and clear
If it's a language I know

Lyric Opera said they fixed their sound
Bought speakers big as bulls to get it right
But at Oklahoma what I found
Was that those mikes was puttin' up a fight

Some words came sailin' right to me
Others, I couldn't make out
Wanted to say, could you shout?
What was that line all about?
I just cain't hear!

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Tyvek, Spray Paint, and Dikes of Holland play this year's Summer Breeze

Luca Cimarusti — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Every year the programmers at WHPK, University of Chicago's community radio station, organize the Summer Breeze fest and manage to pack it full of amazing, oddball rock and punk acts. This year's festival is no exception, and it's happening this Sat 5/18 at noon.…

Stream new collaborations starring The-Dream and French Montana

Miles Raymer — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:34:00 -0500

This year has already seen a number of long-awaited releases by high-profile artists, including Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience and Daft Punk's uncharacteristically human, warm Random Access Memories (which technically isn't out yet but is streaming on iTunes, not to mention illegally downloadable, which is about the same thing). But certain hip-hop and R&B fans are keeping their focus locked on two records they've been waiting for seemingly forever, which are finally about to drop.…

12 O'Clock Track: Roomrunner's burning new grunge tune, "Bait Car"

Leor Galil — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Anytime Baltimore's Roomrunner drops a track, Nirvana's name rears its head; it happens so frequently it might lead you to believe Kurt Cobain rose from the dead to front the sludge-punk outfit. You just might be convinced that's the case listening to the group's new "Bait Car," which is today's 12 O'Clock Track.…

This year's stacked Riot Fest lineup includes Public Enemy, Fall Out Boy, and Motorhead

Leor Galil — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:08:50 -0500

Local punk blowout Riot Fest has steadily grown since it began as a two-day affair at the Congress Theater back in 2005, but it kicked things up a notch last year when it moved into Humboldt Park and transformed into a multistage outdoor carnival, Ferris wheel included. The experiment clearly paid off, as all three days of this year's Riot Fest will take place in Humboldt Park beginning Fri 9/13—last year's festival kicked off at the Congress for one night before moving to the park.…

MC Tree shows his roots on Sunday School II

Leor Galil — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:34:15 -0500

In 1986 Sugar Ray Dinke released one of Chicago's first homegrown hip-hop songs: "Cabrini Green Rap." The tune's hard-hitting house-influenced beat is a nice riff on the sound Run-D.M.C. rode to popularity—the electronic drums, big crunchy guitar samples, and all—though it doesn't quite evoke the grim reality of the housing projects that provided the name and lyrical inspiration for the track.…

12 O'Clock Track: Violetness's chilly, fuzzy "The Mighty Moss"

Shannon Shreibak — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

This year's stubborn winter may finally have given up the ghost, but that doesn't mean icy, brooding tunes have to go with it. Today's 12 O'Clock Track is from Violetness, aka Chicago-based singer-songwriter Vanessa Upson: "The Mighty Moss" is an ethereal jam off her debut EP, Last Night in My Dreams, I Was Talking to You, and it sounds like a white shadow of one of Bjork's best nightmares.…

Gig poster of the week: Birds dropping bombs on the Wonder Years

Luca Cimarusti — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:32:43 -0500

ARTIST: James Heimer
SHOW: The Wonder Years and Mixtapes at Bottom Lounge on 5/11
MORE INFO: jamesheimer.com

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Why you won't see rap mixtapes on the charts

Miles Raymer — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:16:00 -0500

The rap mixtape is nearing the end of a decades-long journey from the margins of pop culture to mainstream credibility. Once an illicit-seeming format full of jacked beats and gun-flashing beefs, and distributed through liquor stores and Canal Street shops selling bootleg Chinese Louis Vuitton bags, mixtapes are now a multimillion-dollar business, and one of the most effective ways for a rap artist to launch a legitimate career.…

12 O'Clock Track: Jan Hammer Group's deeply funky "Don't You Know"

Tal Rosenberg — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

With all the hubbub surrounding Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, which leaked yesterday to alternately rapturous and nauseated reactions on Twitter, I was going to post Jan Hammer's "Don't You Know" because I thought that it replicates some of RAM's cheesier elements perfectly. But then I realized that the version of "Don't You Know" that I've been hearing this whole time—recommended to me by a friend—is an alternate, from his 1994 album Drive; they didn't even know that there was another rendition.…

Bodega Pop unearths Cambodian rock gems

Miles Raymer — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:03:46 -0500

Nowhere does New York City's phenomenal melting-pot aspect shine through more than in its plentiful, cat-filled bodegas, where the simple act of ducking in to buy a bottle of water can easily turn into a crash course in a far-off country's pop culture, snack food preferences, and/or religious practices. Astoria resident Gary Sullivan figured out a while ago that New York's bodegas offered a far different perspective on the actual listening habits of people around the globe than what the world music section at the record store had to offer—one that's generally funkier and funner, if more indebted to Western pop styles and therefore less "authentic."…

Ballast Point beers—including Yellowtail, Big Eye, and Sculpin—arrive in Chicago

Philip Montoro — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:35:00 -0500

Venerable San Diego brewery Ballast Point, founded in 1996, began distributing its beers in Chicago last week. It names many of its beers after ocean fish (black marlin, dorado, sculpin) and generally sticks to a nautical theme even when fish aren't involved (Victory at Sea coffee-vanilla imperial porter, Navigator doppelbock).…

Best shows to see: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, the Body, and Deep Sea Diver

Luca Cimarusti — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:52:47 -0500

The week's just beginning, and it's another busy one. The obvious highlight of a stacked list of great shows is Kurt Vile, who's playing Lincoln Hall on Tue 5/14 in support of his excellent new record Wakin on a Pretty Daze.…

12 O'Clock Track: Mudhoney's ripper about shitty white wine, "Chardonnay"

Kevin Warwick — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Mudhoney is just the best. There are a load of reasons as to why this is—the group's stubborn unwillingness to go the way of much of the first-wave grunge phenomenon and front man Mark Arm's embrace of the curmudgeon lifestyle being among my very favorites.…

Contemporary classical music on your radio all day today at WFMT

Peter Margasak — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:02:35 -0500

Chicago is lucky to still have a full-time classical-music radio station in WFMT, but for fans of composed music that's less than a hundred years old, there aren't so many opportunities to hear it outside of the concert hall or by purchasing recordings. There are occasions where something less musty gets on WFMT's airwaves, as on host Seth Bousted's weekly Relevant Tones program, but by and large the station doesn't offer much proof that "classical" music is a living tradition.…

Chicago reedist Dave Rempis launches Aerophonic Records

Peter Margasak — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

In this week's paper I wrote a preview for the Saturday performance by Wheelhouse at Constellation. The trio includes reedist Dave Rempis and, as I explained in my Soundboard item, the concert is in part a celebration of Boss of the Plains, the trio's excellent debut album.…

12 O'Clock Track: Brand-new introspective indie-pop from Robert Pollard

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Robert Pollard's made a name for himself with his nonstop musical output. Since 2008, he's released two solo records a year, and in 2012 he supplemented his annual pair with another three LPs he recorded with his on-again, off-again band Guided by Voices, which itself is more or less a vehicle for his ideas.…

The beauty of singer Dawn McCarthy in Faun Fables and with Bonnie "Prince" Billy

Peter Margasak — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:51:00 -0500

On Sunday afternoon Bay Area group Faun Fables rolls into town to play a house concert on the northwest side (the previously announced Saturday-night show at SPACE in Evanston is no longer happening). The band is the project of the remarkable singer Dawn McCarthy and her longtime partner Nils Frykdahl (who's probably known best for his lengthy membership in the weirdo art-punk band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum).…

Anatomy of Habit debut their new lineup tomorrow night

Luca Cimarusti — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:24:02 -0500

At the beginning of the year, Gossip Wolf reported that monstrous local five-piece Anatomy of Habit had retooled their lineup, and now, five months later, we get to see the refurbished band live, opening for French post-rockers Ulan Bator at Cobra Lounge on Friday night. Anatomy of Habit, a band known for intense, terrifying post-metal dirges and heady experimental rock, have bid farewell to guitarist Greg Ratajczak, metal percussionist Blake Edwards, and drummer Noah Leger (who had replaced original drummer Dylan Posa), and have added even more star power to the lineup.…

Best shows to see: Dumpster Babies, Wolf Eyes, Coppice

Luca Cimarusti — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:37:32 -0500

It's starting to be that time of the year when bands hit the road, and if you wanted to, you could see more than one great show a night. This weekend proves just that, with three days stacked with tons of awesome shows.…