New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
The latest live session over at Coach House Sounds features the talented Kid Static. With the release of this session CHS makes its first installment to a new series of session presented in collaboration with CHIRP Radio.
Also Coach House Sounds is turning two and celebrating with a show at The Whistler with Zelionople and the Jeff Kowalkowski Trio on October 5th.
Finally the debut album of your favorite flower punk rockers Rabble Rabble, and its on wax! These local heroes give it to you straight with the perfect blend of catchy guitar jangle and pulsing drum grooves enticing the body into primal hypnotic rhythms. The fans have termed "Bangover" for how one feels the morning after a Rabble Rabble show. Self recorded in the group’s jam space with the sweat and intensity of their enthralling live performances. This LP includes two tracks recorded by Brian Zieske at the Gallery of Carpet Studio. Limited to 275 vinyl 12" LP’s with screen printed covers, b&w copied insert and download card. Out on Chicago’s Commune Records this is a must have, it will turn you on. Also available for free stream and name your own price download via Rabble Rabble’s website. rabblerabbleband.com.
In other Rabble Rabble news the band will be heading down to Louisville Kentucky the first weekend of October to play Cropped Out Fest 2010. More than a hand full of other Chicago bands such as CAVE, GA’AN and CACAW, just to name a few will join them for the three day long fest. Featuring other national acts like Magic Markers, Moon Duo and Pissed Jeans. Cropped out is a locally and independently developed music festival set to take place in Louisville, KY on the first weekend of October 2010. The fest is designed to highlight the creative efforts of Louisville natives, friends, family, and fellow thinkers from Nashville to Chicago to Brooklyn and beyond.
So Check out Rabble Rabble’s new full length album and head south Oct 1st- 3rd for Cropped Out. No better way to show some love for your favorite Chicago Bands than to hit the road with then for a weekend.
Hey we’ve got a really edgy band from NJ here called Brick+Mortar – in this song they sound a little bit like one of the crazier tunes of (super-awesome, now defunct) Soul Coughing, with more urgent vocals. The rest of their repertoire is slightly more "straight" synth based kinda lyrical post punk with an unpredictable twist.If you live nearby, you can check them out at the Starland Ballroom in Sayre
Tomorrow previous Artist of the Month Winners Blackstone Heist will be playing at 111 Minna, 8pm.
Friday at the Rickshaw Here Come The Saviours will be opening up for City Light and out-of-towners Sick of Sarah, 8:30pm.
If you’re inclined more towards a dance-party this weekend, head over to Milk Saturday night where oOoOO will be hosting a music video dance party, 9pm.
–Ada Lann
Featuring members of Cordero, Sparklehorse and Pere Ubu, And The Wiremen‘s take on sleepy, warm, indie rock with jazz inflections manages to mesh 1920s Berlin, the East Village of 1960, Southern blues, Latin Carnival rhythms and the eclectic vibe of modern day Brooklyn, making for some fresh, interesting music for audiophiles with grown-up taste. Front man Lynn Wright’s vocals are as across the board as his influences, sometimes invoking the likes of Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and post-Zeppelin Robert Plant. ATW’s signature track, "Sleep," with its bittersweet romantic nature and melancholy horns, conjures up images of rain-drenched, black-and-white breakup scenes, perfect for those who love some "hurts-so-good" musical heartache. The band will play a show at Zebulon on 09.22 with Kris Gruen.
For those who haven’t taken advantage of Funeral Party‘s September residency at the Bootleg Theater, there is one more chance to catch the Whittier band live next Tuesday, September 28th, before it leaves for a U.S. tour with Two Door Cinema Club and Generationals. The band will then head to the U.K. for an opening slot on the 30 Seconds to Mars tour in November and December.
The five-piece has had a busy year taking its dance rock sounds across the U.S. while touring with Julian Casablancas and Austin’s …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. In the U.K., Funeral Party has toured with Surfer Blood and has been receiving critical acclaim, including airplay on BBC’s Radio 1. Singles "Just Because" and "NYC Moves to the Sound of LA" mix the high-energy of the Blood Brothers with the danceable rhythms of The Killers. With vibrant guitars and dynamic vocals, the songs are the type that fans love to sing along with at the top of their lungs. With just a 3-song EP under its belt, the band is gearing up to release a full-length on RCA Records.
–Karla Hernandez
Last week, I went out to Sauvie Island — a week too late. It was my yearly outing to pick blackberries for winemaking and the rain molded seven-eighths of the crop. Rather than the five-gallon bucket worth, I ended up with about four cups.
Today, instead of doing the dishes that would accompany winemaking supplies, I am cleaning after making pasta and a blackberry cobbler. The slightly overcast weather is making me want to put on Neil Young, but instead I chose the new Harlowe and the Great North Woods album. It was a good substitution. It makes me want to drink whisk(e)y, sit around a fire and dish with friends rather than do these dishes, but I don’t have any whisk(e)y, so I put some brandy in my coffee, and that should help with these haunting boy/girl harmonizing vocals that are coming from the speakers.
This isn’t the kind of music made for listening over a hi-fi. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying it, but I’d rather have these folks over and have them play in my living room, feed them pirogues and white blackberry brandy at 148 proof, get drunk and make friends. This is music for sharing hot meals on cool evenings. This is soup-making music. Maybe it’s just the instrumentation, but the music reminds me a little of 16 Horsepower, which brings me to my first criticism of this album; it’s too goddamn short, like that first 16 Horsepower EP. If you’re going to make music this good, this powerful, perhaps you should wait until you have a full length album worth of material before you release it.
It was like my trip to Sauvie Island — the berries that were available for picking were delicious, there just weren’t enough of them. Or it would be like if I brought that cobbler to a potluck — it’s just a tease. It wasn’t long enough for me to finish the dishes. I had to repeat it. I wonder if they are trying to redefine the concept of album. The name should be changed to …The Great North Woods EP. That criticism aside, this is a band I’ll look forward to hearing more of, maybe a full-length platter that will take me to the other side of dishes.
End note: I’m a little drunk now and I can’t locate my coffee, maybe I’ll just finish the cobbler and call it a night.
– Chappy
A name like, “JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys,” invokes images of a rough-and-tumble group of good’ol boys fronted by a buxom blonde, but that’s not exactly the most accurate description of the new side project of The Pretenders front woman, Chrissie Hynde, and Welch singer/songwriter, JP Jones. Considering that none of the advertisements or press were allowed to link the new band with anything related to The Pretenders—(just a little something I overheard one of the bookers mention)—there was a surprisingly impressive turnout at their first tour date stop, which was at Exit/In on Saturday night. Despite the regrettably modest and somewhat misleading advertising, word must have travelled through the grapevine that Chrissie Hynde was going to be performing, so Exit/In was still beleaguered with Pretenders generation dudes and dudettes, a considerable amount of gals whose motto was presumably, “Gurlz Rock,” and even a handful of swooning women who were there for JP.
Now I must be honest; I hate side projects, most of the time they suck, and I really just wanted to hear Chrissie Hynde. So sue me. But JP Jones was swarthy and clever, his Welch brogue appealed to my girlish nature, and the 5-piece band offered sweet, sweet, angsty New Wave-meets-pop/rock at its finest. And dare I say it—they reminded me A LOT of The Pretenders—(that’s my last reference to them—I swear)—but only in a good way. JP added a fair amount of romance and delicateness to the songwriting and feel of the music, while the band replaced synths with extra guitars to steer slightly away from New Wave, and more towards folk pop with a hint of blues. (Listen to “Fairground Luck” and you’ll see what I mean).
Hynde’s familiar punkish-yet-pretty delivery and melodic tendencies were wonderfully ubiquitous, although she seemed content with letting JP have the spotlight most of the time, frequently stepping back to simply play guitar or tambourine. She even made several cheeky remarks about having no desire to have any notice paid to her from some superfans, and consistently directed all attention to JP. This is probably because 1) Chrissie Hynde is a badass, aaannnddd a bitch, (which makes us love her more), and 2) because she and JP were involved in a rather torrid love affair, which is apparently how the band and their album came about.
Their failed romance is a major theme in their material, which may sound one-dimensional, cliché, (or just plain awkward since they’re touring together), but they offer a unique take on a familiar situation because both perspectives went into each song. Combine the wisdom of a woman who is, “past her prime,” with the youthfulness of a man who is just reaching his, and you’ve got some delectably witty, genuine, and insightful tunes. The key tracks were presumably “Perfect Lover,” and “Fidelity!,” which gave a proper explanation to the “f’d up” situation those two got themselves caught up in, but in a touchingly pretty way. The catchiest tunes were probably, “Your Fairground,” or “Fairground Luck,” while “Misty Valleys” and “Never Drink Again” were absolutely gorgeous. The chemistry of Hynde and Jones was quite intriguing, and as my co-editor, Jessica Pace put it, “they were like Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.” A “New Wave” version. From the perspective of being one of the youngest people there, I felt like I was witnessing something kind of historical and special, so that was good. Daaamn goood.–Erin Manning
Hollus is a band that you will be hearing a lot of over the next six months. They have recorded twelve new songs, and will be releasing them in the form of two EP’s. The first, Part One, will be released on November 2nd, and the second, Part Two, will be released in Feb. 2011.
Hollus will be performing at Empty Bottle on tonight (9/21) with Absinthe and the Dirty Floors and Desert Soap.
The Cool Kids have combined forces with Travis Barker to release a new single called "Jump Down". The track will appear on Barker’s new LP coming next month, but you can download it here for free. The download will also come with a free pair of 3D glasses that be used to watch the video for the track which will be release on Oct. 11th.