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In the meantime we have live music to distract us, and Soundboard has several notably distracting suggestions.
Mon 7/9: Black Breath and Burning Love at the Empty Bottle
Kevin Warwick is hella stoked on Seattle's Black Breath, whom he praises for their "tuffness, heaviness, tightness, speediness, double-kickness, flaming lickness, and hatefulness," and if you like d-beat hardcore and have anything even approaching common sense you should feel the same way. Directly under them on the bill is Canadian outfit Burning Love, whose recent Rotten Thing to Say Warwick says is "full of hooks and flashy rock 'n' roll guitar solos and shines with sweaty glitz and a haze of sleaze."
Tue 7/10: Fiona Apple at Chicago Theatre
Fiona Apple's first album in seven years, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, boasts blunt lyrics, raw vocal performances, and sound design that Peter Margasak calls "astonishing, with shifting details and wild dynamic range." It's pretty much the best thing she's ever done. Rumor has it she's already at work on a follow-up album, tentatively titled I Love Miles Raymer So Much Because He's My Boyfriend and I Want to Have a Weird Make-Out Session With Him and Then Send Him Supercryptic Text Messages.
Wed 7/11: Mister Lies at Empty Bottle
Is it possible that dubstep's been around long enough for it to experience a back-to-basics roots-revivalist movement? Apparently so, since Leor Galil compares local producer Mister Lies's Hidden Neighbors EP to "an early Hyperdub compilation"—that is, "something from just a couple of years ago." He opens for B Side cover boys Supreme Cuts at a release show for their Whispers in the Dark LP.
Wed. 7/11: Lumber Night IV at the Hideout
If you prefer your bass on the acoustic side, head over to the Hideout for its annual celebration of the "big, boxy, and unabashedly pre-Edisonian" (according to Bill Meyer) double bass. The sounds on display are diverse: "Harrison Bankhead provides classical delicacy and shades of rootsy blues; Kent Kessler, pure-sound abstraction; Nate McBride, rock energy and pinpoint precision; and Joshua Abrams, a connection to the trance element that underlies genres as diverse as Moroccan ceremonial music and hip-hop."