Underground Bee

Lollapalooza day three

2008-08-05T23:05:00.002-05:00

DAY THREE, Aug. 3: I didn’t plan things this way deliberately, but my schedule today at Lollapalooza is dominated by various kinds of electronic and hip-hop (or hip-hop-influenced music). First off, there’s Chicago R&B/hip-hop singer Kid Sister, who puts on an entertaining set around noon on the AT&T stage. She seems surprised to be featured in such a big venue. “Main stage – what the hell?” she says... as always, flashing a huge smile. Kid Sister has one of those infectiously joyful looks, and I can picture her becoming a big star. PICTURES OF KID SISTER.

Next, I catch a little bit of What Made Milwaukee Famous. Despite the name, they’re from Austin. (Are any recent bands actually from the places they mention in their band names?) Dumb name, if you ask me. The music sounds OK, but I impatiently move on... to see the Whigs.

Now, this band is old news as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen them twice this year already. But what the heck... why not see them again? They always hammer out their tunes with a lot of intensity, and the songs are smarter than you might think on first listen. This trio from Athens, Ga., is definitely worth watching. PICTURES OF THE WHIGS.

I haven’t heard the new record by Brazilian Girls yet (it just came out today), but their first two albums are a nice brand of electronic pop music: a little bit dance, a little cabaret, some tropicalia... Classy stuff and sexy, too. The sexy part’s especially obvious when you see lead singer Sabina Sciubba in concert. Not only is she a knockout, she’s also a fashion adventurer, always appearing in a new outfit unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. And she knows how to flirt and toy with her audience like few other singers these days. She’s been one of my favorite photographic subjects over the past three years, but somewhat elusive. She used to wear blindfolds or masks, almost always keeping her eyes hidden. The first couple of times I photographed her, all I had was a point-and-shoot camera, so my pictures were not quite as high-res as I wished. Here's a retrospective of previous Brazilian Girls shows I photographed (click on the images to go the galleries of more photos). At SXSW 2005, she was wearing a sort of workout get-up with asymmetrical puffy appendages. Later that year at Metro, she wore a flesh-colored body suit with black bars across her eyes, chest and crotch like a censored character from a porn film... and halfway through the show, she tore off the breast bar to reveal a knife in her chest. In 2006 at Metro, she covered her body with colored balloons.

This time around, she is in a puffy white outfit, showing lots of leg and twirling a parasol (for the first song). And, hey, no blindfold. She lets us see what her eyes look like! She even says good-bye to us photographers as we depart the photo pit at the end of the third song. Aw, how sweet.

Oh, yeah... the music? It’s a nice set of the Brazilian Girls’ sparkling pop, with lyrics in several languages... culminating in a classic track with a naughty chorus. Introducing it, Sciubba explains, “There is the international language of music, and then there is the international language of: ‘Pussy, pussy, pussy, marijuana!’” PICTURES OF BRAZILIAN GIRLS.

Black Kids became a buzz band last winter on the basis of nothing more than some myspace tracks. The buzz is still going, and the band puts on a pretty impressive show at Lolla. Yes, a couple of them are in fact black “kids,” though the others have fairly pasty complexions. Politically incorrect? Ironic? Whatever. The band’s music sounds at times like disco pop (a little too much), but there’s also some punk attitude and actual electric guitar. And lots of youthful gusto. PICTURES OF BLACK KIDS.

Next, I see just a little bit of the set by Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves. Another dumb name... Hmmm, this guy’s horn-heavy soul music sounds all right, but not so great that I’m going to miss the show by Saul Williams about to begin on the other side of Buckingham Fountain.

Williams’ musician come onto stage dressed like vampires and spacemen, and then Williams storms out with war paint around his eyes and feathers sticking up from his head. The music in the photo pit is so loud that I can feel the vibrations in my body. I move over a bit to avoid, well, whatever health problems massive vibrations might induce. Williams sounds as fierce as he looks, spitting out words in a manner that’s sort of like hip-hop but with an entirely different spirit and style to it. It’s rap-rock, I guess, but it also sounds different from most of the stuff I’ve heard with that label. At one point, Williams remarks: “We on this stage know race is a social construct. And we can see beyond it.” PICTURES OF SAUL WILLIAMS.

The next set feels like a Lollapalooza flashback. Gnarls Barkley was one of the big names at the fest in 2006, when “Crazy” was the hot song of the summer. The duo and their crack backing band are back again, sounding as good as ever. This time, Danger Mouse takes his rightful place at the front of the stage, next to singer Cee-Lo, instead of trying to hide in the back as he did last time. Another strange spectacle that reminds me of Radiohead the other night: As a grinning Cee-Lo sings lyrics about madness and suicide, the crowd waves and sings like it’s a beach party. PICTURES OF GNARLS BARKLEY.

Over on the other end of the park, The National play one of Lolla 2008’s best sets. This band has perfected a style of stripped-down, tense arrangements for its songwriting. There’s a simmering intensity, which finally explodes in the last song. PICTURES OF THE NATIONAL.

The headliners tonight are Nine Inch Nails and Kanye West. To be honest, neither is one of my personal favorites, but I’m curious about both. I watch the first half-hour of NIN, impressed by the band’s muscular attack. Trent Reznor has one of those punk-rock-bodybuilder statures as he leans into his microphone stand.

I head over to the south end of the park, fully expecting to be annoyed by the Kanye West show. I found his performance at Lollapalooza in 2006 irritating. Kanye’s rants about sound problems and whatever else was bothering him derailed all of that concert’s momentum. But lo and behold, as I approach the crowd surrounding Kanye’s stage this time, I sense that things are different this time. Hutchinson Field is not as full as it was for Radiohead or Rage Against the Machine, but tens of thousands of fans are waving their hands and singing along to Kanye’s hip-hop hits. There’s a feeling of good spirits and joy in the air. This time, Kanye shows a much more assured sense of how to be a showman, keeping the music rolling. The arrangements soar with orchestral flourishes, and the crowd seems to love it.

Yes, Kanye voices some of his typical complaints... moaning about how people say he’s cocky. Maybe if he talked less about being criticized, he wouldn’t be criticized so much. This guy’s narcissism just circles back in on itself again and again. But somehow, he manages to seem a little less cocky to me this time... or maybe I’m just more forgiving. In any case, I find myself enjoying his show a lot more than I’d expected. There’s something to be said for being surrounded by enthusiastic fans. PICTURES OF KANYE WEST.

Lollapalooza day two

2008-08-05T13:52:00.009-05:00

DAY TWO, Aug. 2: I start out the day by catching a little bit of Margot and the Nuclear So-and-So’s. The group’s songs still seem a little generic to me, though the big instrumental ensemble sounds good playing them. I head down the field for the British duo Ting Tings (guy on drums and vocals, girl on guitar, keyboard and vocals), who are doing a kind of dance rock. Seemed like part electronic, part guitar rock. I’m not sold yet on the songs, but the performance is fun. PHOTOS OF THE TING TINGS.

I’ve been a Dr. Dog fan since seeing them open for M. Ward a few years back at Schubas, and I’ve seen them several times since. I’m still letting their new album sink in, but I always find a lot to admire in the subtleties of their compositions (even if the recordings aren’t always that subtle). They’ve got a classic sense of harmony and melody that brings the late 1960s Beatles and Beach Boys to mind, with some early ‘70s Faces hints, too. They’re a rambunctious bunch on stage, with lots of cartwheeling moves. When I saw them at SXSW in March, they seemed a bit under the weather or something, though they still played fine. Their Lolla set is better, really bringing out the both the energy and the smarts behind their songs. PHOTOS OF DR. DOG.

I read a rave review of Foals not long ago in the New York Times, so I suppose they’re one of the latest bands from the UK to get some buzz. I head over to the Lolla stage where they’re playing. I’m pretty impressed by what I hear. Not that I’m hearing anything I haven’t heard before. This is yet another group taking inspiration out of the herky-jerky post-punk of groups like XTC and Gang of Four. They have a good pop sensibility, too, and I even hear a little bit of early U2 in their tunes. I like it enough to stick around for nearly the entire set, an experience which is something of a luxury in the hectic pace of Lolla. PHOTOS OF FOALS.

After traversing the length of Grant Park six times on Friday, I somehow manage to schedule my Saturday so that I only go the distance once. After Foals, all of the bands I really want to hear are playing on the two stages at Butler Field on the north end of the park, so that’s where I spent most of the afternoon and evening. The first of these is Devotchka. I haven’t seen this group for a long time, not since they were an opening act at the Abbey Pub. They’ve grown in popularity quite a bit since then, and they also seemed more sophisticated and more fun than I recall. I love their colorful sonic palette, with accordion, violin and sousaphone combining in multicultural music. I feel a strong similarity to the music of Calexico. PHOTOS OF DEVOTCHKA.

Some of the recent bands playing instrumental rock music sound like they’re playing songs that still need lyrics. That thought never crosses my mind, however, as I listen to the Lolla set by Texas group Explosions in the Sky. The compositions have that cinematic quality, and the band lives up to its name with some thrashing guitar solos. PHOTOS OF EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY.

Okkervil River is next, and as always, lead singer Will Sheff gives an impassioned performance of his highly literate songs. The lineup of the band is a little different than the last time I saw Okkervil, but they still sound strong. It looks like Sheff is pouring out every once of his soul. PHOTOS OF OKKERVIL RIVER.

Broken Social Scene makes some good records and also puts on lively shows, with a sort of jamboree feeling, thanks to the big number of people onstage. I feel my enthusiasm lagging a bit during their Lolla set, however. Maybe I’m just getting tired. The music isn’t bad at all, but I feel like lying down for a while... Although he’s Canadian, ostensible BSS leader Kevin Drew offers the crowd some advice on how to vote in November. He’s for Obama, of course. (Are there any indie-rock musicians backing McCain?) “You’re not just voting for your country,” Drew says. “You’re voting for everybody.”
PHOTOS OF BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE.

And now, finally, some real soul music. The Dap-Kings take the stage, and after warming up with some intro music, here comes Sharon Jones – former prison guard, longtime soul singer, human dynamo. She’s really something else. The band is super tight, with a powerful horn section, and Jones’ voice sounds just as strong as those trumpets and saxes. She talks about how much shorter she is than Tina Turner but vows, “I’m going to shake it like Tina Turner.” And she does. She gets the crowd into a dancing mood, too. A definite Lolla highlight. PHOTOS OF SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS.

Next, I face the choice between two headliners: Wilco or Rage Against the Machine. I’ve seen Wilco so many times that I should probably try out something different, but I was never a Rage fan, so I go with the safe choice. As the Wilco concert gets under way, I start hearing via text messages about the madhouse at the other end of the park. From a reporter’s standpoint, I regret missing all the action down there, but as a concertgoer looking to enjoy myself, I’m relieved that I missed out on the moshing. I also stick around at the Wilco show after hearing the rampant rumors that Barack Obama might make an appearance. He turns out to be a no-show, of course. (To read more about what went on during the Rage Against the Machine show, check out the Chicago Sun-Times blog.)

The members of Wilco are all decked out in colorful Nudie suits in the tradition of country-music stars, with some pyschedelic patterns. Jeff Tweedy jokes that the band spent months sewing in preparation for its Lolla gig. Wilco plays one new song, with Tweedy saying, “This one’s what we call a WIP – a work in progress.” The song sounds similar to the music on Wilco’s 2007 album “Sky Blue Sky,” with a mellow opening that builds to a more raucous guitar-solo climax.
The show feels a little low-key at first, but it picks up steam at the end. Three horn players, known as the Total Pros, join Wilco for several songs late in the set, adding some R&B oomph. Wilco reinvents a few of its old tracks, injecting more of a soul feeling into songs from “Summerteeth” and “Being There.” The epic “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” sounds less techno and more organic than the studio version, as the band stomps through those loud electric chords with a cathartic sense of abandon. PHOTOS OF WILCO.

At the end of the night, thousands of people stream out of Grant Park Saturday night onto the streets of downtown Chicago. Several times, the rock fans walking down the middle of Michigan Avenue break out into spontaneous applause, whooping and clapping. Nothing in particular seems to provoke these outbursts. It seems like these concertgoers just have to express their enthusiasm one more time after a long day of music. Or maybe what they’re saying: “Hey, it’s almost like we own these streets!”

Lollapalooza day one

2008-08-04T19:38:00.004-05:00

With 120 bands, this year’s Lollapalooza had plenty to choose from. Some of my favorite bands played, as well as some bands that I either hate or feel completely indifferent about. A lot of bands I barely even know, which in some cases seemed to be just as well. Walking around the park in between sets, I heard a lot of music coming from the various stages and most of these passing impressions could be summed up: Well, that sounds sort of generic. Not fair, I know. Spend more time listening to a band up-close and you might learn to love it. But first impressions do count.

Enough griping. While I didn’t necessarily discover that many new artists, I witnessed some terrific performances by old favorites. And I avoided getting my arms and/or photographic equipment smashed to pieces by staying away from the Rage Against the Machine mosh pit.

DAY ONE, Aug. 1: I catch a couple of songs by Swedish singer Sofia Talvik. Quiet folkie stuff. It doesn’t grab me right away, but I’m not writing her off. I’m just in a hurry... heading north for the Black Lips. PHOTOS OF SOFIA TALVIK.

The last time I saw the Black Lips, one of the guys in the band threw up in the middle of a guitar solo. There was no vomiting this time. The group ripped through some very fine-sounding garage rock. The B. Lips know the power of a good “Whoa-oh!” chorus. Their guitars sound best when they seem to be slightly out of tune. Makes it more garage-y. The only flaw comes when the band indulges in some drawn-out psychedelic noise. A little bit of that goes a long way, especially in the context of what should be three-minute Nuggets. PHOTOS OF THE BLACK LIPS.

I like the music of Rogue Wave, but I haven’t been paying especially close attention to the band lately. They still remind me of the Shins, though their melodies aren’t quite as inventive. They put on a pretty good set today, a little more lively than the Rogue Wave show I saw a few years back at Schubas. PHOTOS OF ROGUE WAVE.

I wasn’t sure whether to buy into the hype surrounding Yeasayer, having heard both rave and mediocre reviews of their shows through word of mouth. Their album is pretty interesting, and the music sounds even stronger in today’s live set, with twitchy dancing, shimmering layers of sound, and quirky beats. Still, I wonder if I should have missed the Go! Team set for this. PHOTOS OF YEASAYER.

Another choice I have trouble making: The Kills or Duffy? If I were simply deciding based on what I personally want to hear, the Kills would win hands-down, but I did see (and photograph) an excellent show by them recently at Metro. And I’m curious about Duffy, so I make the long trek north again. Her show turns out to be a disappointment for me. She’s got some good pipes, which she shows with a couple of a cappella bits. And her band isn’t bad, but somehow these pseudo-soul songs are falling flat for me. It doesn’t help that I’m picturing Sharon Jones (who will take the same stage tomorrow) kicking Duffy’s ass into the photo pit. OK, I’m just being mean now. Duffy has some potential, but I didn’t hear her achieving it just yet. And I say this as someone who admits to being an Amy Winehouse fan. PHOTOS OF DUFFY.

I love Eastern European and Gypsy music, with their unusual keys and rhythms, so it seems natural that I would enjoy the Gypsy punk-rock of Gogol Bordello. I’ve sort of neglected this band until now. The studio recordings I’ve heard were maybe a little too relentless in their intensity for me to sit back and take it in. What I needed to experience was a live performance. I’m lucky to catch one this afternoon. This is hands-down the most energetic concert of the whole festival. Singer-guitarist Eugene Hütz rampages across the stage like a crazy man. I’m still not sure what I think of the songs but I have a hell of a time watching Hütz and his band partying onstage. PHOTOS OF GOGOL BORDELLO.

Back north past Buckingham Fountain... I’m really putting in some miles today. Cat Power is up next. She plays a set pretty similar to the last two Cat Power concerts I’ve seen (at Pitchfork 2007 and later at the Vic). She mostly sings cover tunes, including a lot of the tracks on her newest album, Jukebox. With that crack band playing behind her, Cat (aka Chan Marshall) seems to feel more freedom to roam the stage as a lead singer. And man, does she put herself into her vocals. Just look at some of the expressions in my photos. She looks like she’s growling or screaming, but she’s actually singing with lots of nuance and flair. She embellishes melodies and plays around with the timing and tempo of the songs she is covering, improvising like a talented jazz vocalist. Today’s set includes a cover of Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” (a popular song to cover during the era of Bush and the Iraq war), transforming into a bluesy ballad that sounded all her own. Only flaw in the set: Some sound problems. Marshall has allowed herself to get flustered by that sort of thing in the past, but she gamely makes do, despite the occasional annoyance of loud feedback. PHOTOS OF CAT POWER.

Are the Raconteurs becoming Jack White’s regular band? As much as I like them, I hope not. They don’t pack quite as much oomph as the White Stripes. Still, they’re a hell of a live act. I like the first Raconteurs album quite a bit. Yeah, it was derivative stuff, nicking lots of touches from classic rock, but I don’t mind derivative music if it’s fun and catchy and reasonably smart. The second Raconteurs album has its moments, but it hasn’t grabbed me in the same way. Songs from both records sounded great, however, as the Raconteurs played them at Lolla. The riffs and bluesy guitar licks came at us non-stop. PHOTOS OF THE RACONTEURS.

The Brazilian band CSS has been getting a lot of buzz, especially for their live act. I don’t know the music at all, but I make it over to their stage and catch a couple of songs. I like what I hear – and what I see. These ladies know how to get your attention with their costumes. And they know how to get a crowd moving. PHOTOS OF CSS.

A few minutes before Radiohead begins its headlining set, I found out that I’m not getting access to the photo pit. The band’s publicists are restricting access, and I do not make the list. All I can is: Ugh. I’d feared something like this would happen, but it sure would have been nice to find out earlier. I make my way through the crowded field (talk about “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box”) and get close enough to take some telephoto shots through the crowd... and to enjoy a top-notch show by one of my all-time favorite bands.

One thing that made this show special was the history behind it. This was in Hutchinson Field, on the south end of Grant Park, the same field where the band played a magnificent show in 2001. That concert was the first time in years that the city of Chicago had allowed a rock concert in Grant Park other than free events like Taste of Chicago shows and the Blues Festival, and it laid the groundwork for Lollapalooza a few years later. Now, Radiohead was back on the same field, with a sold-out crowd of 75,000.

Although Radiohead has a huge following, the group sometimes seems like an unlikely candidate for mass appeal, with all of its tricky time signatures, peculiar sonic mixtures and dark lyrics. It’s a strange spectacle to see this music performed live in front of a big crowd of enthusiastic fans.

Girls in bikinis dance as Yorke sings about the next world war. People whistle and clap whenever Yorke holds a long, high falsetto note. A collective “Ahhh!” goes up each time fans recognize the opening chords of a song. The audience seems to enjoyed Radiohead’s slower and moodier songs as much as the rockers, softly swaying along to the band’s introspective music.

The set spans virtually Radiohead’s entire career, and the songs from last year’s In Rainbows fit right in alongside classics from OK Computer and The Bends. The big sound system brings out a startling clarity in the individual parts played by each member of Radiohead. This is not a band that improvises much, but it somehow manages to make its songs sound fresh and alive, as if everyone in Radiohead is finding a new way of playing these tunes right there on the spot.

Near the end of the show, when the crowd falls quiet between a couple of songs, Yorke jokingly checks to make sure the audience was still there. “I’ve got a bit of jet lag,” he says. “This could entirely be a dream.” It did indeed seem a bit like a dream... PHOTOS OF RADIOHEAD.

A (slight) Lolla update

2008-08-04T12:21:00.002-05:00

My first big batch of Lollapalooza photos is coming later today. In the meantime, my review of Day 3 is on the Southtown-Star web site as well as the Pioneer Press Entertaining Ideas blog. My Day 2 review is here.

A sample of a few photos from all three days is up at flickr.

Stay tuned...

Quick Lollapalooza report

2008-08-03T10:46:00.005-05:00

I'll have tons of Lolla 2008 photos later... probably on Monday. In the meantime, my review of Lollapalooza Day 1 is up at the Southtown Star web site and the Pioneer Press Entertaining Ideas blog.

My Day 2 review is up at Pioneer Press.

And my first batch of a few photos is on flickr here.

Much, much more to come...

What I played on Radio M

2008-07-28T20:37:00.009-05:00

I had a fun time on Friday night as the guest on Radio M, a show that Tony Sarabia hosts on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. After picking out some of my favorite indie-rock by artists in foreign countries, I brought a backpack full of CDs to the WBEZ studios on Navy Pier. It was a very informal setting, with Tony asking me what I wanted to play as we went along. Tony picked out a number of songs, and I ended up playing 11 tracks. You can stream the show at http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_RM.aspx for the time being.

Here's what I played.

LOS SHAKERS – "Break It All" from Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From the British Empire and Beyond. I started off with this as a historical example of how rock music has crossed boundaries for decades. This is on the wonderful Nuggets II box set from Rhino, the sequel to the American garage-band collection Nuggets. The second box is overseas bands, mostly ones from the U.K. and British commonwealths, but also a sampling from places like... Uruguay? That's where Los Shakers hailed from, but clearly, they'd heard the Beatles.

BAM BAM – "Hi-Q" from Bam Bam EP. A wonderful new record with punk energy, catchy melody and some delightfully daft a cappella vocals at the end by a group from Monterrey, Mexico. I heard this mp3 when I went to SXSW this year, but somehow I missed seeing the group. Last week, I discovered that their entire self-titled EP is available for free download at the Nene Records Web site. Get it. It's great stuff.

LONEY, DEAR – "Sinister in a State of Hope" from Loney, Noir. A favorite track out of many fine songs by singer-songwriter Emil Svanängen of Jonkoping, Sweden, who calls himself Loney, Dear for some reason. If you know the Loney, Noir record already, make sure to check out the Sub Pop reissue of his older record Sologne, which is excellent, too. Some of his songs are posted here.

BANG GANG – "Find What You Get (Live in Rejkyavik)" from Find What You Get EP. I don't have a handle yet on what this Icelandic band is all about. They put on a riveting if strange and dissapointingly brief set at SXSW 2007. Their records have a lot more female lead vocals and electronic pop than the live show I saw. The bio of frontman Bardi Johannsson on the myspace page is ridiculously over-the-top. The myspace stream of the new album sounds promising. But I still like this song better than everything else they've done, and this live version may be even better.

GETATCHEW MEKURYA & THE EX – "Musicawi Silt" from Mon Anbessa. Classic Ethiopian sax player teams up with classic Dutch punk-rock band... not a combination I would have expected, but it works. The album is out now from Chicago's Touch & Go. Mekurya & the Ex play Aug. 17 at Logan Square Auditorium and then do a free noontime show Aug. 18 at Millennium Park.

MALAJUBE – "Pâte Filo" from Trompe L'Oeil. Montreal has a vibrant rock scene, but few of the bands (at least the ones who are known here) sing in French. Malajube is a wonderful exception. I'm eagerly awaiting their next record.

ANNA JÄRVINEN – "Svensktalande Bättre Folk" from Thank You for the Music, a Licking Fingers compilation. A native of Helsinki who moved to Sweden, Järvinen used to be in the Granada. I don't know much about her, but I downloaded this compilation to get some of the other artists on it, including Frida Hyvönen, who has a wonderful new song here. The Järvinen track is a great little pop tune with a light, bouncy quality. And lyrics in Swedish. The rest of the compilation is pretty strong, too. You can download it here for $11.35.

EFTERKLANG – "Frida Found A Friend" from Parades. A stirring song with beautiful harmonies and brass by this post-rock band out of Copenhagen, Denmark, who recently played at the Empty Bottle.

MONARETA – "Matanza Funk" from Electronoche. Electronic/hip-hop music by a duo from Bogotá, Colombia, who have apparently relocated to Brooklyn. I like the humor of the spoken-word bits (the ones in English I understand) and the terrific beat. Their album is on emusic.

BORIS WITH MICHIO KURIHARA – "Rainbow" from Rainbow. Out of all the Boris songs, I picked this one because it was so quiet ... and thus, less likely to cause ear bleeding in all of the NPR listeners out there. Despite its chill quality, it has a searing guitar solo that comes in like a buzz saw. It sounds like you're right there next to the amp as they're playing.

SEABEAR –"I Sing, I Swim" from The Ghost That Carried Us Away. I just discovered this Icelandic group last week as I was hunting around for music to play on the show. I just did a google search for Icelandic mp3s, and this came up. The band has a free EP on its Web site, which is charmingly titled Seabearia, but you should get the album this delightful pop tune comes from, The Ghost That Carried Us Away. It's available on emusic, which also has a single of Seabear covering "Teenage Kicks."

Here are the songs Tony chose to play on the show:
CARSICK CARS – "He Sheng (Rock and Roll Heroes)" from Carsick Cars
LOS VIDRIOS QUEBRADOS – "La Primavera de Miss L.O.B." from Love Peace and Poetry: Chilean Psychedelic Music
MIDIVAL PUNDITZ – "Hold On" from Midival Times
BLK JKS – "Lakeside" 10" Single
LITTLE COW – "Mintha" from I'm In Love With Every Woman
YOAV – "Club Thing" from Charmed & Strange

Wicker Park Festival

2008-07-27T15:27:00.003-05:00

I've missed some excellent-sounding street fests in Chicago this summer. Many of these festivals feature pretty impressive musical lineups, and they're a cheap and fun alternative to more expensive events like Lollapalooza. I finally made it out to one yesterday, checking out several bands at the Wicker Park Festival. I showed up in time to hear the last few songs by the 1900s (but not in time to get any photos of 'em – sorry). They were really rocking at the end. Then came some indie pop by Bishop Allen, orchestral rock by Ra Ra Riot, post-rock or whatever you want to call it by Joan of Arc, and the intricate guitar riffs of Polvo.

See my photos from Wicker Park Fest.

Tune into Radio M Friday

2008-07-23T17:03:00.004-05:00

I will be the guest on "Radio M," a show hosted by Tony Sarabia on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio 91.5 FM, from 9-11 p.m. this Friday (July 25). I plan to play some of my favorite recent records by bands from various corners of the world... places like Iceland, Malta and Bogota.

More information about the show is at www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_RM.aspx

If you're outside Chicago, you can stream WBEZ at http://www.chicagopublicradio.org. And if you miss the live broadcast on Friday night, you'll have a couple of weeks to hear it online at: http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_RM.aspx

Thanks to Tony for the invitation!

Pitchfork Fest 2008

2008-07-22T07:16:00.008-05:00

A few of my Pitchfork Music Festival 2008 highlights:

King Khan and the Shrines played a lively, jumping set of soulful garage rock – think Nuggets tunes performed by James Brown. The big band includes a hard-swinging horn section, and there's even a cheerleader. Khan wore a glittering net over his hair and a shiny cape, living up to his "King" title. This guy has great charisma, and the music sounded top-notch.

The thing that struck me about the Dodos' album Visiter is a sort of quirky XTC pop sensibility. So I was a bit surprised when the band took the stage and sounded more rootsy and acoustic than I expected. Singer/guitarist Meric Long got so involved with his playing that he fell out of his chair at one point, continuing to play on his back. The two percussionists raised a ruckus, one of them pounding on an actual trash can. I liked the Dodos' live show better than the record. Maybe I need to listen to that more.

As I've said before, M. Ward is one of my favorite singers, songwriters and guitarists, so it's probably needless to say that his Pitchfork set was a personal highlight for me. He opened with a couple of acoustic songs before his band took the stage. Ward sang with a sly smile and looked completely at ease playing the guitar. The set included several of my favorite songs, among them "Lullaby & Exile," "Right in the Head," "Vincent O'Brien" and "Big Boat."

Spoon nailed the tight rhythms that made me like this band in the first place, sounding better than I've ever heard them live.

The last time I saw Times New Viking (an opening-act slot at Metro), it sounded just like noise. When they played Sunday at Pitchfork and I walked across Union Park late in their set, their voices rang out with unusual clarity and the songs sounded downright catchy.

It was a completely different kind of harmony, but Fleet Foxes sounded beautiful when they went a cappella.

In addition to King Khan, several performers showed off manic stage antics, including the members of !!!, Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav (who got into a garbage can where I was standing in the crowd), and of course, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. All of these guys whipped their fans into arm-waving frenzies.

Jarvis Cocker somehow managed to be gawky, geeky, suave and elegant all at the same time. How is that possible?

Titus Andronicus and Jay Reatard raised unholy rackets. They gave incredibly energetic performances that make me want to check out their records.

Vampire Weekend... I still don't get the hype.

Animal Collective... Nice trance vibe, though I wish it had taken off into higher realms.

Boris was loud and powerful, making a magnificent sort of noise. The only problem was the short length of the set, which ended after 30 minutes when the band apparently experienced some sort of technical problem. Drummer Atsuo explained, "Not much energy power" as the band departed. The crowd chanted "Boris! Boris!" to no avail.

See my last post for links to photos.

Pitchfork Fest Photos

2008-07-22T00:23:00.002-05:00

All of my photos from the Pitchfork Music Festival are up now. My review will appear in the fall issue of Signal to Noise magazine, but in the meantime, I will post a blog entry with some highlights and random thoughts soon.

Here are the photos:
GENERAL PHOTO INDEX

MISSION OF BURMA, SEBADOH and PUBLIC ENEMY

BOBAN & MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTER, TITUS ANDRONICUS, JAY REATARD, A HAWK AND A HACKSAW, CARIBOU, ICY DEMONS, FLEET FOXES and DIZZEE RASCAL

THE RUBY SUNS, ELF POWER, !!!, THE HOLD STEADY, JARVIS COCKER and ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

TIMES NEW VIKING, MAHJONGG, DIRTY PROJECTORS, APPLES IN STEREO and KING KHAN & THE SHRINES

BORIS

LES SAVY FAV and THE DODOS

M. WARD, SPIRITUALIZED, DINOSAUR JR. and SPOON

Or if you prefer FLICKR

Pitchfork Day One: Photos

2008-07-19T10:22:00.002-05:00

My photos from the first night of the Pitchfork Music Festival are up now, with shots of Mission of Burma, Sebadoh and Public Enemy. Commentary coming later... Click here to see the gallery of photos.

Chamber Strings at Bottom Lounge

2008-07-15T10:13:00.004-05:00

Friday night (July 11) was my first visit to the new Bottom Lounge. It was too bad when the old Bottom Lounge near Belmont closed (I saw a few bands there, including the Hold Steady, the Like Young and the Redwalls), so I was glad to hear that the venue was coming back – albeit in a completely different location. It's out on the near West Side, near the corner of Lake Street and Ogden Avenue. That's not far from Union Park, which hosts the Pitchfork Music Festival this coming weekend, and it seems like that area is gaining in hipness lately.

The new venue is ... well, new. It just seems too clean and antiseptic right now for a rock club, but maybe that's just because it hasn't had time to get a little dirty. Neatly arranging the posters for upcoming concerts on a bulletin board in the hallway rather than plastering them on the walls does seem a little too anal-retentive, though. The main music room is a nice big space with decent sound and sight lines. The lighting seemed pretty good at first (from my point of view as a photographer), but then it seemed to get dimmer as the night went on.

I saw a couple of shows by the Chamber Strings back before the band went on a sort of hiatus. They sounded as good as ever Friday night, with nice poppy tunes. I recognized some of the songs, though I can't say I know their repertoire inside and out. I'd like to hear them do more new songs. The band's capable of good things.

Photos of the Chamber Strings.

Sudanese music

2008-07-11T10:15:00.003-05:00

For those of us unfamiliar with the music of the Sudan, last night's Sudanese Music and Dance Festival 2008 at Chicago's Pritzker Pavilion was about as good of an introduction as you could ever hope to get. Several of the war-torn African nation's most famous singers performed two songs each, backed by a big but nimble band, the Nile Music Orchestra of Sudan. The conductor (and first singer of the evening) was Yousif Elmosley, who was introduced as "the Quincy Jones of Sudan." Other performers included Mohamed Adaroab, Omar Banaga Amir, Ali Alsigade, Dynamq, Omar Ihsas and the Albalabil Sisters. Only two of the three sisters performed; if I understood what was being said, the other did not make it because of visa problems. I wonder if that why some of the other singers originally billed as part of the festival were absent, too? No matter – it was a marvelous evening, despite intermittent downpours of rain.

Most of the music was Arabic in flavor, with Middle Eastern tonalities as well as some melodic flourishes that wouldn't sound out of place in a Bollywood film. Dynamq was the most Western-sounding of the singers, with more of a reggae/hip-hop feel. The musicians and organizers expressed the hope that their country might be made whole again, and that music can bring together people from every part of Sudan. In introductory remarks, the towering former basketball star Manute Bol said he wanted to send his homeland a message: "How good it is to be free." And at the end, producer Matwakil Mahmoud looked across the assembled performers and said: "Just look at us. We are the Sudan ... Musicians insisting we will live together."

See my photos from the Sudanese Music and Dance Festival 2008.

Wonder, Baobob and Hayden

2008-07-02T08:14:00.003-05:00

I saw Stevie Wonder from a great distance for about 25 minutes on Saturday (June 28), but, hey, at least I can say I've seen him. I hadn't even planned on attending his free show at the Taste of Chicago in Grant Park, but I was downtown to see a different concert (Orchestra Baobob at the Pritzker Pavilion), and I was there early, so I wondered over to see Wonder for a bit. Easier said than done. The park was as crowded as I've ever seen it, with cops blocking off most of the entrances. The police weren't allowing any more people to enter the main section of the park because it was already filled to capacity. So I found myself standing on a sidewalk way, way, way, way back in the park. Still, it was really fun to see so many people getting into the music, including kids as well as some gray-haired folks who obviously have been Stevie Wonder fans for a long time. This is the middle of what turned out to be a three-hour concert – amazingly long for a free summer-festival show. Most artists seem to do the short version of their regular concert when they're playing a gig like this. As Wonder ran through one hit after another, people shouted out words of encouragement, talking to Wonder like he was an old friend. People danced and shook their heads in wonder.

...And then I was off to the Pritzker Pavilion. I believe I had seen Orchestra Baobob three times at the old HotHouse, and it was great to see them again, this time on the pavilion's beautiful outdoor stage. Those intricate, interwoven guitar, drum, sax and vocal melodies sound like a aural tapestry on record. In concert, all those subtleties are still there, but the rhythms are more obvious – rhythms that make you want to dance. As I've seen happen with some other world-music shows at Millennium Park, the security guards struggled in vain to keep dancers from filling the space in front of the stage, trying to get them to leave room in the aisles for people to walk through. Near the end of the concert, the singers gestured for the audience to stand up and get moving, proclaiming, "Music is for dance!" At that point, the security guards gave up and the dance party really got under way.

See photos of Orchestra Baobob.

As if that weren't enough music for the night, I stopped at Schubas on the way home to see Hayden, a.k.a. Hayden Desser, who recently released the excellent album In Field & Town. I'm a latecomer to the music of Hayden, who's been recording for years, and now I definitely want to track down his earlier records. I wasn't sure what sort of crowd he would draw, since he doesn't seem to have a lot of hype, but the room was quite full with enthusiastic fans. Hayden has a sweet, mellow voice, and his folk-rock sounded great in live performance. I showed up in time to hear the last few songs by opening act Haley Bonar, who sounded stronger this time with a band than she did at a recent solo set.

See photos of Hayden.

Tom Waits in St. Louis

2008-06-27T22:38:00.003-05:00

Tom Waits is on tour, but he ain't coming to Chicago (at least for the time being) so it was time for me to take another Waits road trip, this time to the Fox Theatre in St. Louis. What a show it was last night (June 26) – maybe the best of the five Waits concerts I've seen, with the possible exception of the first Chicago Theatre show he did back on the Mule Variations tour. On his 2006 tour, Waits focused more on his bluesy side. For this new tour, dubbed "Glitter and Doom," the sound is more diverse, more subterranean, more colorful, with more horns and keyboards, classical guitar flourishes and klezmer-style wind solos.

Waits danced like a marionette last night, allowing some invisible strings to jerk his body to the rhythms of the band. This guy has always been a great actor (whether he's acting on the screen or through his music), and last night he seemed almost like a silent film star. Those were some Chaplin moves he was trying out.

One of the things that made the concert exceptional were the moments when Waits stretched out the end of tunes, lifting his voice into that hoarse but heartbreaking falsetto of his. Of course, not everyone appreciates the way Waits sings, but it is truly something to behold, and last night he brought together an outlandish sense of showmanship with a tangible feeling of human frailty. Yeah, that is one oddball character up there on that stage putting on a spectacle for us, but listen to that voice and see the way he strains to hit the notes – and then just does. I felt like Waits was letting his mask slip just a little bit – especially when he sat down at the piano and did one of my all-time favorites, "Johnsburg, Illinois." First, he ran through the whole song (it's a short one) as an instrumental, then he sang it, seeming to have a little landing his voice on the right pitches. It was an imperfect performance, but imperfect in just the right way, if that makes any sense.

The Fox is an amazingly beautiful venue, some madman's idea of Ali Baba's palace, with ornate quasi-Arabic decor – a perfect setting for a Waits concert. And the warbly gramophone recordings of Caruso that played over the speakers as the audience filled in set the mood. (Waits said something about having a dream about Caruso.) One flaw in the show was the acoustics. Those vocals needed to be just a bit louder in the mix. It wasn't bad enough to rate as a problem, but when Waits faced the usual barrage of audience shouts, it became a struggle to make out what he was saying. His banter last night included a humorous list of ridiculous laws that are supposedly on the books in Oklahoma, where he'd just played a concert. He added that it's against the law to open a soda bottle in St. Louis unless you're in the presence of an engineer. Or something like that.

Waits played an outstanding selection of songs last night. I never thought I'd hear him do his twisted version of the Disney classic "Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song)." Another out-of-left-field choice that I enjoyed was "On the Other Side of the World," a lovely ballad from his overlooked soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Night on Earth. And I finally got the chance to hear him do at least one song from Alice,, which is one of my favorite Waits records. (Does he have something against it? He rarely seems to do that material.) After playing three songs on piano in the middle of the show (standard practice for Waits), he moved over to some sort of harmonium and played the Alice song "Lost in the Harbour," the band joining him midway through the tune.

And there was lots from Rain Dogs, another favorite album, including a piano version of "Hang Down Your Head," which is normally a guitar song. Waits acted like a conductor (a slightly drunken conductor, perhaps) during "Cemetery Polka" and "Singapore," and the band responded nimbly to every one of his cues. For the final song of the night, Waits played the sentimental "Innocent When You Dream," and with his encouragement, the audience sang along to the last chorus, like a choir at some mad church.

SET LIST:
Lucinda
Way Down in the Hole
Falling Down
Black Market Baby
All the World Is Green
Heigh Ho (The Dwarfs Marching Song)
Get Behind the Mule
The Day After Tomorrow
Cemetery Polka
Hang Down Your Head (piano)
Lucky Day (piano)
Johnsburg, Illinois (piano)
Lost in the Harbour
Make It Rain
Lie to Me
On the Other Side of the World
Singapore
Dirt in the Ground
What’s He Building?
16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six
Rain Dogs
ENCORE
Goin’ Out West
Anywhere I Lay My Head
Innocent When You Dream (piano)

The Sadies' triumphant return

2008-06-22T21:03:00.004-05:00

I was sad to miss the Sadies when they were in Chicago recently for a couple of shows... and then relieved to see them added to the schedule at Schubas. Their last record, New Seasons, was my favorite of 2007, and I've been eager to see them do some of those new songs in concert ever since hearing it. I think that the show on Friday (June 20) was about the 12th or 13th time I've seen the Sadies, if you count the various shows where they've backed up other musicians. As is so often the case, the always-generous Sadies turned over the mike Friday night to some of the guest singers they've worked with over the years. I'd never seen them with Andre Williams, so it was a treat to catch them doing a few songs with this old-school soul singer. The appearances by Jon Langford and Sally Timms were no surprise, of course.

Despite all those guest singers, it was the Sadies' night, and they played a nice long set crammed with lots of terrific tunes that just got better as the night went on. Dallas Good's laconic vocals were great (and his song introductions were as droll as ever), and his brother Travis made caveman faces all night long as he sang and whipped out some of the most amazing fretwork you'll ever see or hear. The rhythm section was in fine form, too, with Sean Dean attacking the strings of his upright bass and Mike Belitsky pounding away with ferocity on the drums. For the last two songs of the encore, the Sadies played a rampaging version of the Love classic "A House is Not a Hotel" followed by "Leaving Here," an old Eddie Holland song previously covered by Motorhead.

The opening act, Joe Pug, was a pretty decent folk-rock singer. I liked his very Dylanesque solo acoustic songs, which had some good imagery in the lyrics.

See photos of the Sadies.

MV & EE at the Empty Bottle

2008-06-22T20:52:00.004-05:00

MV & EE are one of those bands that deserves a lot more attention. Their 2007 record Gettin' Gone had the sort of crunchy electric folk-rock that should win over fans of Crazy Horse and all the Crazy Horse imitators out there. It's ragged, honest music. But the two times I've seen MV & EE play concerts in Chicago, they were sparsely attended shows. After playing a duo show some months back at the Hideout, they came back to town Thursday (June 19) for a show with their backing band, the Golden Road, at the Empty Bottle. Man, that room was like a ghost town, but the music was good. It was an improvement over the Hideout show, with the additional musicians filling out the sound where it needed some filling. The band's live show is an unusual mix of that Crazy Horse-style rock I mentioned earlier with more experimental drone music. I liked the rock better than the droning, but it was a fine show overall – if only more people had been there to hear it. The first band of the night, Tacoma Narrows, sounded pretty generic; the second, Sonoi, played an intriguing sort of atmospheric folk-rock, reminding me of Califone.

See photos of MV & EE with the Golden Road.

These New Puritans and Eternals

2008-06-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

Sometimes you've got to live with a record for a little while to decide how good it is. Seeing a band live after hearing the record for a while is another way of telling whether the music has staying power. I like the recent record by These New Puritans, Beat Pyramid, but it didn't really hit me how much the songs had stamped themselves into my nerves until I saw the band doing them live last night (June 14) at Subterranean. It's not necessarily all that original – they're yet another band taking a lot of cues from the Fall and Mark E. Smith – but what the heck, I do enjoy it tremendously. This is my kind of dance music. The only disappointments were the fact that These New Puritans played in darkness (making my photographic efforts especially challenging) and that the set was so short. Oh, well, with music like this, a punk-rock sense of brevity may be a strong suit. Singer-guitarist Jack Barnett delivered his rants about numerology and paper with a perfect sense of crazed intensity, and the percussive electronic punk sounds behind him keep the pulse quick and frantic. We also got a nice opening set by The Eternals, doing their funky Afro indie-rock thing, whatever you want to call it, and a not-so-distinguished set by Project Ultra.

Photos of These New Puritans.
Photos of The Eternals.

Centro-matic and The M's

2008-06-09T16:55:00.003-05:00

You can always count on Centro-matic to put on a good show, and Saturday night (June 7) at Schubas was no exception. The Denton, Texas, band is putting out a new CD titled Dual Hawks – or rather, a double-CD with one disc by Centro-matic and one disc by the other band led by Centro main guy Will Johnson, South San Gabriel. Centro-matic is Johnson's more straightforward rock group, while South San Gabriel is his outlet for moodier, mellower and more experimental music. At times, it sounds like Centro-matic stretched out, with more emphasis on the spaces between the notes. I love the South San Gabriel recordings, but I've yet to see a live show by that configuration. That wasn't what we got Saturday anyway – it was all Centro, with a strong set of new and old tunes. Johnson did lots of his patented leg kicks and pumped his hands on his chest for the heart-beating encore.

See my photos of Centro-matic.

This was the first night of a two-night stand for the double bill of Centro-matic and The M's. Centro was the headliner on Saturday, and the M's got top billing Sunday. Luckily for me, as a fan of both groups, I felt like I got a full set out of The M's on Saturday. Even though they played first, they got to play a longer set than usual. The group's sound isn't quite as dense and thick as it was on earlier records, but the songs on the new album Real Close Ones have a similar way of burrowing into your brain after repeated listens.

See my photos of The M's.

Weinland, Speck Mountain, Cryptacize

2008-06-09T16:39:00.003-05:00

Friday night (June 6) I split my concert-going between two clubs. First, I was at the Beat Kitchen to see Weinland, a group from Portland, Ore., that released a really nice record earlier this year titled La Lamentor. I've been listening to it quite a bit over the past few months, and it's held up very well on all those repeat spins. Weinland isn't getting much attention, however, and the show had little to no hype here in Chicago. The room was not nearly as full (or as quiet) as it should have been for this show. When the first band of the night (Gentleman's Auction House) began, the seven musicians on the stage outnumbered the five people standing out on the floor. By the time Weinland took the stage, maybe 30 people were in attendance. The band played with toy tigers, plastic owls and a hatchet on the stage. I'm not sure why. Weinland is clearly guided by its singer-songwriter-guitarist John Adam Weinland Shearer, who sings in a high mournful voice, but it's also a strong band, with interesting and atmospheric arrangements for Shearer's folk-rock songs, which remind me of the bands Dolorean and Great Lake Swimmers. It's pretty mellow stuff, but Weinland did occasionally turn up the noise. Twas a nice show and I look forward to seeing Weinland again. Check out the band's web site: www.weinlandmusic.com and myspace page: www.myspace.com/johnweinland

See my photos of Weinland.

I would have stuck around the Beat Kitchen to see the headliners, Sleep Out (that Trib story on their songs inspired by Graceland Cemetery was intriguing), but I also wanted to see a couple of bands playing down the street at Schubas. I showed up just as Speck Mountain was starting. I don't know their music, but I enjoyed the soulfulness of what I heard. The headliners were Cryptacize, whom I'd seen not that long ago at the Hideout. Wacky deconstructed folk music, sort of like avant-garde campfire songs. Guaranteed to drive some listeners crazy, but I like it.

See my photos of Speck Mountain.
See my photos of Cryptacize.

Efterklang at Empty Bottle

2008-06-04T08:40:00.002-05:00

An incredible change has taken place in the musical world over the last decade, with most of us barely noticing what was happening. Music has become much more of an international and global phenomenon than it ever was before. In the realms of that stuff we call indie rock, for lack of a better term, it now seems like an almost humdrum occurrence when two bands from Denmark come to a place like the Empty Bottle in Chicago for a concert. Sure, there have always been musicians in every part of the world, and back in the 1970s European groups like Can and Kraftwerk received some attention in the English-speaking parts of the planet. But those were rare exceptions to the U.S. and U.K. dominance of pop and rock music. These days, bands from Sweden, Italy, Indonesia, you name it, are recording music that ends up on iPods all over the U.S. and it doesn't seem strange at all to see them touring here. What a fertile time for music...

Anyway, what prompts these thoughts was yet another show by foreign bands bringing their lovely music to the shores of Lake Michigan here in the middle of the Midwest. Efterklang, a group from Copenhagen, put out a cool record last year, Parades, with music that's both atmospheric and complex. They were in town Monday (June 2) for a show at the Empty Bottle, and the big ensemble (eight of them, if I remember right) sounded great, with some interesting vocal harmonies, which were occasionally echoed in the horn arrangements. It was a lively set, and the crowd was enthusiastic. (And hey, it was free, too – I love these free concerts on Mondays at the Bottle.)

I showed up just in time to catch the last couple of "songs" (sonic experiments might be a more apt description) by the first act of the night, Chicago's Nick Butcher. Interesting. And then another group from Denmark, Slaraffenland, played. I wasn't familiar with their music, but it had a bracing quality similar to Efterklang. It seemed like many people in the crowd were there to see Slaraffenland as much as they were there to see Efterklang.

See my photos of Efterklang and Slaraffenland.

Silver Mt. Zion

2008-06-02T11:16:00.005-05:00

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band's recent record, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, is one of the year's best. It's just four songs, all of them epic, all of them pulsing with the mesmerizing power of a pagan ritual. As a result of listening repeatedly to 13 Blues, I began to wonder, "Why the heck haven't I been listening to Silver Mt. Zion before now?" I'm a latecomer to the whole oeuvre of Godspeed You Black Emperor and related Montreal bands like Silver Mt. Zion, but I'm backtracking now to discover all of this great music belatedly.

Saturday (May 31) at Logan Square Auditorium, Silver Mt. Zion showed what orchestral rock can be. As much as I love bands that use strings to play pretty pop music, it's nice that someone else is using violins and cellos to play a different kind of music – more like a dramatic symphony than a light piece of chamber music. At a few moment, the violins were amplified to sound like guitars, but for the most part, they sounded not all that different from the strings you'd hear at Orchestra Hall, with a particularly deep sound thanks to the presence of a bowed double bass. Singer-guitarist Efrim Menuck is clearly the guiding genius of Silver Mt. Zion, but it did feel like an orchestra (if not exactly a tra-la-la band) with a big sound. The main set closed with the first track from 13 Blues, "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound," which opens with the string players singing the title line in a chant, then builds to epic heights, with Menuck passionately singing counterpoint lyrics on top of the chant. For its encore, Silver Mt. Zion played an as-yet-unreleased song titled "There Is a Light," which was one of the night's highlights.

As magnificent as the musical performance was, the concert was marred by some profoundly irritating drunks, morons and attention-hungry brats in the audience. (Of course, the vast majority of people in the room were a well-behaved bunch eager to see and hear the band.) There was loud yelling between songs – some of it heckling (sort of), some of it positive, all of it annoying. The contrast between the music and all this intoxicated idiocy was jarring, and it seemed to annoy and confuse Menuck and the other musicians. What a way to welcome some Canadians to Chicago. I was downright embarrassed. Fortunately, the members of Silver Mt. Zion didn't let it bother them enough to affect their performance.

The first band of the night was Dead Science. I was not impressed; I think the singer's voice just grated on me. Next up was an improvisational set by Josh Abrams, Jeff Parker and Avreeayal Ra. It was just one long song, with repetitive melodies on Parker's guitar and Abrams' instruments (a ghimbri and some sort of gourd harp) cycling around and around and gradually shifting. It was a marvelous piece of musical experimentation, and a great fit with the coming set by Silver Mt. Zion.

See my photos of Silver Mt. Zion and the opening acts.

Los Campesinos at the Empty Bottle

2008-05-28T06:14:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure that Los Campesinos truly deserves the exclamation point that it puts at the end of its name. How many bands would? Sure, I suppose that exclamation point is ironic, but in one way it does seem like a fitting punctuation mark for Los Campesinsos: The alternating male-female vocals sometimes sound like a shouting match. Not necessarily in a bad way. Listening to Los Campesinos on record it occurred to me that they often turn the old Pixies formula (soft verses, loud choruses) on its head, playing loud verses with big guitar chords and shrill cries with soft, tinkly choruses. At least, I think that's what they're doing, though it isn't always easy to tell what's a chorus and what's a verse. Los Campesinos (who, despite their Latino-sounding moniker, are from Cardiff, Wales) is punk one second, twee the next.

I do like their album, Hold on Now, Youngster..., but Los Campesinos strikes me as one of those small-doses bands – bands best enjoyed a few songs at a time. A whole record of this stuff can wear you down. The band's thin repertoire (one album, plus an EP, plus a Pavement cover) seemed about the perfect length for a live show, however. Playing Monday (May 26) at the Empty Bottle, Los Campesinos put on a fun and rousing show. There was a lot of wild dancing on the floor in front of the stage. The Welsh kids on the stage weren't quite as wild, but they did seem to be having fun, too. See my photos of Los Campesinos.

The opening act, Jeffrey Lewis, is truly an odd duck. I saw him doing a solo opening set at the recent Super Furry Animals show, and now he was back with a three-piece band, the Jitters playing behind him. I'd say he's considerably better with the band. The little bits of instrumental jamming offer some much-needed relief between Lewis' torrents of words. He's definitely a love him or hate him kind of guy. I'm starting to love his music after seeing two shows, though I know other people who are hating it. That nonstop spiel about seeing Will Oldham on a subway is an amazing piece of work, and Lewis' "movies" (narrative songs that he illustrates by flipping the pages of his hand-drawn picture books) are charming... charming in a very odd way. See my photos of Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters.

Laura Veirs and Liam Finn

2008-05-17T15:55:00.003-05:00

Laura Veirs, who's one of my favorites among today's female singer-songwriters, was in Chicago Thursday night (May 15) for two shows at Schubas. I've seen her play once with a band backing her up, but I think I prefer her solo shows, when she uses looping pedals to build layers of guitar and vocal harmony. She doesn't do it with as much finesse as the incomparable Andrew Bird, but there's a similar vibe in what she's doing. She even apologized at one point for not being able to whistle as well as Bird. Veirs sounded terrific, and a bonus was getting her tour-only CD Two Beers Veirs, a short collection of five covers. She said these are simply songs that she loves, mostly traditional folk or country tunes that have influenced her. She played a lovely rendition of one of them, Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train," during the show. The CD also includes Mississippi John Hurt's "Spike Drivers Blues," Irving and Webster's "Wildwood Flower," Clarence Ashley's "The Coo Coo Bird" and Mike Dumovich's "Wasps of Rain." Pick it up if you can. I asked Veirs when she'll have a new album and she just said she's working on it. Photos of Laura Veirs.

The opening act, Liam Finn, attracted a decent-sized crowd of his own (including some folks standing near me who had Down Under accents). Like Veirs, he also uses looping pedals, but to much more percussive effect. I've seen him play a few times now, but I still don't really know his songs. They all sounded pretty strong, and the energy he displayed as he pounded away on the drums was infectious. Photos of Liam Finn.

The Kills at Metro

2008-05-10T16:02:00.002-05:00

In case you're a technophone (or rather, a techo-music-phobe), here's a band that uses drum machines but never sounds synthetic. The Kills are all about raw, powerful, grungy blues rock with a bit of a dance beat. The White Stripes and PJ Harvey filtered through an electronic grid. Or something like that. Whatever it is, I like it, especially when I see the Kills in concert, as I did last night (May 9) at Metro. It's just two musicians, singer/sometimes-guitarist Alison Mosshart and guitarist/sometimes-singer Jamie Hince. They play off each other like they're both grabbing an electrical wire and jumping back from the shocks.

I was unfamiliar with the opening act, Telepathe, which was more on the electronic-pop end of the spectrum. I enjoyed their set, though few of the melodies leapt out at me.

See my photos of the Kills and Telepathe.