My photos of the Chicago band Twin Peaks’ performance on Saturday, July 19, in Union Park during the second day of the 2014 Pitchfork Music Festival. (My review of the set is on the Newcity website — it was one of my favorites from the fest.)
My photos of Slowdive’s great performance on Sunday, July 20, in Union Park during the third day of the 2014 Pitchfork Music Festival. (My review is on the Newcity website.)
My photos of Perfect Pussy’s performance on Sunday, July 20, in Union Park, during the third day of the 2014 Pitchfork Music Festival. (My review is on the Newcity website.)
It’s hard to believe I’d never seen Beck in concert until last night, when he headlined the first night of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. I’ve been a fan of his music, in all of its perplexingly diverse forms, for many years but somehow never managed to catch his live act. Last night was a great time to see him. I was thinking it might be a downbeat, morose show, matching the mood on his new album Morning Phase, but it was quite lively and energetic, with Beck and his bandmates bouncing around the stage right from the beginning. I wrote a short review of the show for Newcity. And here are some photos I took — from the crowd instead of my usual spot in the photo pit. To enter the photo pit, photographers were required to sign a form that gives Beck the right to use our photos for free. No thanks to that.
My photos of Neneh Cherry performing her second U.S. concert (and her first in this country since 1992) — on Friday (July 18), the first day of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. She was accompanied by RocketNumberNine. Her show was one of the highlights of the day for me. The Newcity website has more of my photos from the first day of Pitchfork, along with a few reviews by me plus more by Keidra Chaney and Kenneth Preski. More to come…
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is releasing his first solo album — or rather, an album called Sukierae under the moniker “Tweedy” — on Sept. 23, and he was scheduled to play a headlining concert on July 12 at Taste of Chicago. The city canceled that show after heavy rainstorms earlier in the day, but Tweedy did play a free concert last night (July 17) during a taping of the public radio show “Sound Opinions” at Lincoln Hall.
The evening began with an entertaining interview: “Sound Opinions” co-hosts Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis talking with Jeff Tweedy and his 18-year-old son, Spencer, who plays drums on the new record and on this tour with the Tweedy band. Jeff Tweedy said every Wilco album is created by committee, but this one was different, as he kept things simple in the studio, recording 20 songs with Spencer on drums. “There’s a DNA connection that I’ve never experienced with other musicians,” he said.
But Tweedy plans to convene Wilco soon to begin work on a new album by the whole band — or at least to start the process by “messing around” in the studio. “Six people finding a part on a song — that’s kind of the idea of Wilco,” he said. As far as when to expect that album, he said “probably” next year.
Like his father, Spencer has a great sense of humor, and it was fun to see the two of them joking around during the interview. When the subject of Jeff Tweedy’s acting in recent episodes of “Parks and Recreation” and “Portlandia” came out, Spencer said, “Don’t be surprised if you see him in a major motion picture next year.” Acting surprised, his father asked, “Do you know something I don’t?”
After the interview, Tweedy and his band — Spencer on drums, Darin Gray on bass, Jim Elkington on guitar and Liam Cunningham on keyboards — played a set of songs from the new album. The music wasn’t a radical departure from Tweedy’s songs with Wilco: mostly mellow and midtempo, often with a pensive quality. It will take more listens to become familiar with these songs; I expect that they’ll grow on me, as most of Tweedy’s past music has.
He closed the show with three more recognizable songs: “You Are Not Alone,” which he wrote for Mavis Staples; Doug Sahm’s “Give Back the Key to My Heart,” which Tweedy covered with Uncle Tupelo on the 1993 album Anodyne; and the Wilco-Woody Guthrie anthem “California Stars.”
Portions of last night’s interview and concert will show up on a future episode of “Sound Opinions.” Thanks to the show’s producers for letting me take a few photos.
Two of the Mekons — Jon Langford and Sally Timms — are preparing to tour Scotland in August, along with another member of Chicago’s alt-country scene, Robbie Fulks. And to help raise money for this trip, the three played together Sunday (July 13) at the Hideout. (Mark Guarino wrote a Sun-Times article about the whole Mekons-Fulks Scottish adventure.)
Most of the songs at Sunday’s show came from the Mekons’ vast discography, including a few deep cuts. It was cool to hear Fulks adding his acoustic guitar leads and solos to these songs, and he even sang lead vocals on the classic tune “Sometimes I Feel Like Fletcher Christian,” usually sung by Tom Greenhalgh. (That’s one of the songs you can hear in the appearance Langford, Timms and Fulks made on WBEZ.) And it was really lovely to hear Timms sing one of Fulks’ songs, “In Bristol Town One Bright Day.”
The trip to Scotland will include a recording session — so we can expect to hear some new music by the Mekons, or some version of the band anyway, someday soon.
Death returned Friday (June 12) to the Empty Bottle, sounding stronger and more confident than the group was back in 2009 at the same venue. This new version of Death — including two of the original members who made some fantastic protopunk recordings in Detroit in the mid-1970s — even played a couple of new songs, for an album that’s in the works. The incredible story of this band is chronicled in the documentary A Band Called Death.
The Flat Five are always one of my favorite local groups to see, and so I couldn’t resist the chance to hear their delightful harmonies twice in one week. I caught their free concert on July 8 at Leahy Park in Evanston, as well as their set July 11 at Square Roots Fest in Lincoln Square — where I took these photos.
Noura Mint Seymali, one of Mauritania’s musical stars, came to Chicago for two concerts over the past week: June 11 at the Square Roots Fest in Lincoln Square and June 14 at Millennium Park. I caught her set at Square Roots; her voice was beautiful to behold, and so was the sound of her instrument, the ardine, which is a sort of harp. (Read Aaron Cohen’s article about Noura Mint Seymali for the Chicago Tribune.)
The New York-based ensemble Alarm Will Sound plays acoustic arrangements and orchestral scores of music that was originally created by electronic artists such as Aphex Twin. And what a strange and impressive sound it made on July 3. The group made its Chicago debut as the final concert of Millennium Park’s Loops and Variations series. The highlights included the Chicago premiere of Steve Reich’s Radio Rewrite, which reworks themes from the music of Radiohead.
The program included:
Aphex Twin (arr. Freund), Cock ver 10
Aphex Twin (arr. MacDonald and Johnson), 4
Aphex Twin (arr. Orfe and Thompson), Mt. St. Michel
Aphex Twin (arr. Burhans), Blue Calx
Tyondai Braxton, Fly By Wire
Steve Reich, Radio Rewrite
John Orfe, Dowland Remix
Aphex Twin (arr. Orfe), Jynweythek Ylow
Boards of Canada (arr. Price), roygbiv
Aphex Twin (arr. Hause), Omgyjya Switch
Last year, Bob Mould celebrated the 25th anniversary of his debut solo album, Workbook. But when he played Monday night (June 23) at Millennium Park, the mostly acoustic rock of that album was nowhere to be heard. Mould launched his unrelentingly loud and energetic set of feedback-drenched power pop and punk with the first three songs from Copper Blue, the 1992 album he made with his band Sugar.
Then he said, “Let’s play some new stuff and some new real stuff.” And that’s precisely what he did, playing some tunes from his most recent records, including the excellent new album Beauty & Ruin. One of the tracks on that record, “I Don’t Know You Anymore,” is as catchy as anything Mould’s ever written, and it was a standout during Monday’s show.
Mould had two top-notch musicians backing him up: Jon Wurster of Superchunk on drums and Jason Narducy on bass. Narducy has played with several bands over the years (including a recent stint as Superchunk’s touring bassist), and he also opened Monday’s concert, singing and playing guitar with his pop-punk band Split Single — a good match with Mould’s music.
Just about the only relief in the onslaught by Mould’s trio came when he mellowed out for a few minutes during the wistful “Hardly Getting Over It,” a song he originally recorded with his first band, the legendary Hüsker Dü. By the end of his set, he’d played five Sugar songs, five Hüsker Dü songs and 12 from his solo records. Nothing from Workbook, though. He wasn’t in that mode on Monday night. This was Bob Mould in full-on, guitars-cranked-up mode.
The Act We Act (Sugar) / A Good Idea (Sugar) / Changes (Sugar) / Star Machine / The Descent / Little Glass Pill / I Don’t Know You Anymore / Kid With Crooked Face / Nemeses Are Laughing / The War / Hardly Getting Over It (Hüsker Dü) / Helpless (Sugar) / Keep Believing / Egoverride / Hey Mr. Grey / If I Can’t Change Your Mind (Sugar) / Come Around (Sugar) / Tomorrow Morning / Something I Learned Today (Hüsker Dü) / Chartered Trips (Hüsker Dü) / Fix It
ENCORE: Flip Your Wig (Hüsker Dü) / Makes No Sense At All (Hüsker Dü)
Nick Cave was wearing a remarkable shirt. Dozens of hands pawed and pulled at its shiny gold fabric, twisting and tugging at its folds, but always it snapped back into place — slightly misshapen from the adoring caresses of Cave’s fans, but never torn. It was Friday night, June 20, inside the Milwaukee Theatre. It was the first time Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds had ever played a headlining gig in Milwaukee.
As he entered, he strutted across the stage with a confident swagger. And then, he came down to the very edge of the crowd, standing down a step or two from the stage. It looked like he was floating in a sea of hands. It was a ritual he repeated throughout the concert, presenting himself to his fans as if saying: Touch me. Go ahead. Do it. You know you want to. (I noticed one moment when he gestured for the fans to withdraw their fingers, just a few inches back.)
Throughout all of this seduction, Cave delivered his sardonic, sinister and sublime lyrics in his baritone — beckoning, boasting, pleading, wooing, warning, threatening, musing, narrating, shapeshifting — as the Bad Seeds kept on playing tense, spooky chords on the stage behind him.
For some reason, Cave isn’t making a Chicago stop on this tour. On Thursday night, I decided to buy a ticket for the show in Milwaukee. The opening set by Warpaint was fairly entertaining, though it paled in comparison with the fantastic performance that followed. After sitting in the mezzanine for a couple of songs, I followed other fans to the front of the auditorium, where people were standing in the aisles close to the stage. I did not have my camera with me, but I snapped a few blurry, grainy pictures with my cellphone. The collage of those images at the top of this blog post is the best I could manage under the circumstances.
Like last year’s concert at the Chicago Theatre, this one featured several songs from Cave’s most recent album, Push the Sky Away (my favorite record of 2013). And of course, the Bad Seeds played several of the old tunes that are staples of their concerts, like “Red Right Hand” and “Tupelo.” So in many ways, this 2014 concert was similar to that 2013 show — and yet, it all felt more intense.
Push the Sky Away is a brooding record with few moments of outright catharsis. The band seems to be holding itself back throughout the haunting, riveting set of songs. That restraint is part of makes the record so compelling. But in concert, the songs take on a new life.
One of those songs, “Jubilee Street,” became more thrilling and dramatic when Cave & the Bad Seeds played it last year. And this time, the drama doubled yet again. It was only the second song of the night, but when Cave reached the climatic words — “I’m transforming, I’m vibrating, I’m glowing, I’m flying, look at me now!” — he repeated them over and over as the Bad Seeds riffed harder and harder, stretching out the song by several minutes as Cave worked the crowd, bending down to let those outstretched fingers touch him.
Later, at the end of the main set, Cave descended from the stage and sang one song out in the midst of the audience. For this intimate moment, he chose the hushed, ghostly title track of Push the Sky Away.
When Cave returned for the encore, he played four songs, and it almost seemed like he might keep going longer. At an earlier point during the concert, after an especially wild guitar solo by the multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, Cave introduced Ellis, the most prominent musician in the Bad Seeds. But Cave never introduced the rest of the band members. It didn’t feel like a slight, however. Gesturing at the musicians assembled behind him, Cave simply said, “The Bad Seeds.” What more did he need to say, really?
SET LIST
We No Who U R / Jubilee Street / Tupelo / Red Right Hand / Mermaids / The Weeping Song / From Her to Eternity / West Country Girl / Into My Arms / People Ain’t No Good / Higgs Boson Blues / The Mercy Seat / Stagger Lee / Push the Sky Away
ENCORE: We Real Cool / The Lyre of Orpheus / Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry / The Ship Song
The Loops and Variations concert series at Millennium Park usually features a contemporary classical act as well as another artist playing electronic music. Last week, on June 19, there was just one set, but it was varied enough to fit the concept. One of Chicago’s best new-music ensembles, eighth blackbird, had the whole show to itself — but with a guest musician sitting in on several pieces, composer-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman. The evening started with his beautiful composition “Barbeich,” which blended the lyricism of Argentine accordionist Raúl Barboza with the subtly shifting patterns of Steve Reich’s minimalism.
Ward-Bergeman left the stage for a while as eighth blackbird played Bryce Dessner’s “Murder Ballades” suites followed by a set of works by Richard Parry, Claudio Monteverdi, Carlo Gesualdo and Bon Iver. Then he was back to play — and sing — the final three songs, as the eighth blackbird sextet turned itself into a New Orleans party band, performing “Mardi Gras,” “St. James Infirmary” and “Mississippi.”
It’s no revelation to me that Richard Thompson is one of the best living guitarists, if not the best. And yet, it felt like a revelation on Saturday night as Thompson played a solo that went on and on, bending and shaping itself to higher and higher peaks, during the song “Can’t Win” at the Space nightclub in Evanston — a song he repeated during his free concert Monday night at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, with a similarly epic solo.
When Thompson recorded the studio version of “Can’t Win” for his 1988 album Amnesia, it was five minutes long, with barely a minute of soloing that fades out at the end. But the live version on the 1993 collection Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson stretched on for more than nine minutes, and now that’s become more typical of the way he plays it in concert. At about the seven-minute mark on Saturday night, I thought I might be watching the best guitar playing I’d ever seen. It was simply remarkable that Thompson could build and sustain so much drama as he sculpted that endless string of notes.
As impressive as Thompson’s virtuosity is, there’s very little showy about his demeanor as he delivers these incredible performances. And while there’s a lot to said for musicians who take a more minimalist approach, reducing a song to its essential elements instead of ornamenting it with endless variations, it’s thrilling to watch the notes pour out of Thompson’s fingers.
Thompson played both nights with the same rhythm section that accompanied him on his 2013 album Electric — bassist Taras Prodaniuk and drummer Michael Jerome, both of whom are almost comically exuberant. The set lists were pretty similar, except for the fact that Thompson started off his Millennium Park show with an acoustic set, playing six songs he hadn’t performed on Saturday. “I always wanted to be my own opening act,” he joked.
Saturday’s concert included an impromptu, figured-out-on-the-fly cover of the country classic “The Wild Side of Life,” prompted by some stage banter about its singer, Hank Thompson. And the trio also started to play the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” apparently as a lark, but only the first few bars. On both nights, the encores included a rollicking song I didn’t recognize, which turned out to be a cover of the 1950s song “Daddy Rollin’ Stone,” originally written by Otis Blackwell, popularized by Derek Martin and covered by the Who as the B-side to “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere.” And on Saturday, the group also played the Bob Dylan and the Band classic, “This Wheel’s on Fire.”
As exciting as it was to experience Richard Thompson’s electric guitars on both nights, it was a special treat to hear those acoustic songs in the early set on Monday. Thompson can make his acoustic guitar sound like two or three, soloing or riffing on top of chords and bass lines, and at moments, his complex fingering brought out exotic melodies that evoked Middle Eastern music.
Thompson showed his comedic charm with an extended explanation of his song about a trip on a cruise ship, “Johnny’s Far Away,” from the 2007 album Sweet Warrior. And then he closed his acoustic mini-show with one of his most popular songs, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” On the end of every verse, Thompson stretched out the word “ride,” closing his eyes and turning the word into an almost prayerful drone. And then his fingers flitted across the strings like lightning.
SET LIST: JUNE 14, 2014, SPACE
Stuck on the Treadmill / Sally B / Salford Sunday / For Shame of Doing Wrong / My Enemy / Can’t Win / Saving the Good Stuff for You / The Wild Side of Life / Al Bowlly’s in Heaven / Fork in the Road / Good Things Happen to Bad People / Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? / I’ll Never Give It Up / Wall of Death / If Love Whispers Your Name
ENCORE: Dry My Tears And Move On / Eight Miles High excerpt / Tear Stained Letter
SECOND ENCORE: Wounding Myself / This Wheel’s in Fire / Daddy Rollin’ Stone
SET LIST: JUNE 16, 2014, PRITZKER PAVILION
ACOUSTIC SET: I Misunderstood / Walking on a Wire / Valerie / Genesis Hall / Johnny’s Far Away / 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
ELECTRIC SET: Stuck on the Treadmill / Sally B / Salford Sunday / For Shame of Doing Wrong / My Enemy / Can’t Win / Al Bowlly’s in Heaven / Fork in the Road / Good Things Happen to Bad People / Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? / I’ll Never Give It Up / Wall of Death / If Love Whispers Your Name
The Cincinnati rock band Wussy is fairly obscure in the grand scheme of the music business, but people who know this group tend to love it. Wussy finally began getting some overdue attention in 2012 when one of rock’s best-known critics, Robert Christgau, wrote an essay calling Wussy “the best band in America.” The group got similar praise last month in the Los Angeles Review of Books from Charles Taylor, who observed: “If Wussy announce themselves at all, it’s not as stars or oracles but simply as five people who have hit on the perfect form in which to say whatever they have to say.”
The last time Wussy released an album, 2011’s Strawberry, barely anyone seemed to notice. Maybe that’s because Wussy’s records come out on Shake It, a tiny label run by a record store in Cincinnati. Now, the group has released yet another outstanding record,Attica!, but this one actually managed to get reviews in Pitchfork and Spin.
The group made a welcome return to Chicago on Friday night, playing at the Red Line Tap in Edgewater — a somewhat obscure venue. (Other than opening for the Afghan Whigs, the last time Wussy played in Chicago was at the Bucktown Arts Fest in 2012.) But while Wussy surely deserves to be playing in bigger rooms with bigger audiences, it’s a treat for those of us in the know to watch this wonderful outfit of Ohio musicians performing in a little bar like this.
Attica! is one of the year’s best albums, and it ranks alongside Wussy’s strongest previous records. Fittingly, the band started its set on Friday night with the first three songs on Attica! and proceeded to play a bunch of songs from the new record, as well as older favorites like “Pulverized,” “Muscle Cars,” “Maglite” and “Yellow Cotton Dress.”
A long pause came right after Wussy played the first song, “Teenage Wasteland,” when the part on singer Lisa Walker’s guitar that holds on the strap broke. The band’s other singer-songwriter-guitarist, Chuck Cleaver, tried to fix it, but they eventually gave up and she switched to a different guitar. This sort of lull can kill a concert’s momentum, but with Wussy, it felt more like a charming interlude. Walker was in a talkative mood, and after a while, Cleaver cracked that Wussy should attempt something novel: playing two or three songs in a row.
Walker said someone had compared Wussy to a jazz band, explaining that the group never plays a song the same way twice, and she wasn’t sure whether to take that as a compliment. There is indeed something loose about the way Wussy plays its songs. It doesn’t go too far off-script from the studio versions, but the live versions still have some of the excitement of musicians discovering the joy of playing a great song they’ve just learned. And when it comes down to it, Wussy’s great because it has striking lyrics and damn good melodies. What more do you really need?
Elvis Costello played solo for close to 2 1/2 hours tonight at the Copernicus Center, an old movie palace in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. He opened with one of my favorites, “Jack of All Parades,” from his great 1986 album King of America, and later returned to that record for another outstanding selection, “Suit of Lights.” He played most of the hits that you’d expect as well as a lot of obscurities.
Costello talked about his musician father and grandfather, and sang tunes inspired by his family history. He seemed to be in a nostalgic mood. He also reminisced about playing in 2012 at Riot Fest in Chicago’s Humboldt Park: “There were people down in front taking bets on who we were.” That was a nonstop rock set, to match the festival’s punk vibe. But tonight, Costello was mostly in troubadour mode. Gazing out at the theater’s nocturnal decor, he said, “Tonight, I’m just going to sing songs about the sun and the moon and stars, seeing how I’m here in this particular place.”
At one point, he went over to sit down in a chair. “We’ve come to the part of the show where I’d like to introduce my special guest — and it’s me!”
Costello interjected bits of other songs into his own, putting the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” in the middle of “New Amsterdam.” And at the end of his first encore, Costello stepped to the lip of the stage and sang a chorus of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” without the aid of a microphone.
Costello also had a new song, “The Last Year of My Youth,” and he played it twice — an acoustic version midway through the concert followed by a more rocking electric rendition during his first encore. But when it came time for the final song of the night, he went to an old standby, the Nick Lowe song Costello made famous, “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.”
SET LIST
Jack of All Parades / King Horse / Either Side of the Same Town / Sneaky Feelings / Watch Your Step / Veronica / Last Boat Leaving / Ascension Day / medley: New Amsterdam + You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover) / Come the Meantimes / The End of the Rainbow (Richard Thompson cover) / 45 / The Last Year of My Youth / Walkin’ My Baby Back Home (by Roy Turk and Fred E. Ahlert) / Ghost Train / Man Out of Time / Watching the Detectives / Everyday I Write the Book
FIRST ENCORE: Shipbuilding / For More Tears / Radio Radio / Allison / Earthbound / Stranger in the House / A Slow Drag With Josephine / Suit of Lights / Jimmie Standing in the Rain + ending with a chorus of Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney)
SECOND ENCORE: Less Than Zero / The Last Year of My Youth / Couldn’t Call It Unexpected No. 4 / For the Stars / (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
Syrian singer Omar Souleyman cast a strange spell as he performed Monday night on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage in Millennium Park. He did not make any especially flamboyant gestures as he strolled the stage — and yet, he has a commanding presence. A contingent of Syrian or Arab-American fans was going a bit nuts in the seats near the stage. And plenty of people who don’t know a word of Arabic or Kurdish, like me, were getting into the music, too. As usual, the Millennium Park security guards were on a buzzkill mission, insisting on getting people out of the aisles when they tried to dance. A lot of people managed to dance anyway, mostly by standing in front of their seats. The mood was festive.
The only musician accompanying Souleyman was his amazing collaborator, Rizan Sa’id, who sounded like a whole band of electronic musicians as he played synth solos and dance rhythms on two Korg keyboards. Sa’id is not a demonstrative entertainer, but the sounds he coaxes out of those instruments are very impressive. At the end of the show, the nonchalant maestro didn’t even take a bow. He just walked off the stage, barely looking at the crowd that was roaring with approval.
Millennium Park’s series of free summer concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, always one of the highlights of the year in Chicago, is in full swing now. Monday’s headliner was Omar Souleyman (click here to see my photos of Souleyman), but the show also featured a top-notch opening act, Chicago bassist Joshua Abrams and the talented ensemble of players he calls the Natural Information Society. Abrams’ second record with a version of this group, Represencing, was one of my top 10 albums for 2012 — and the current lineup sounded fabulous in the Pritzker stage on Monday, jamming to hypnotic grooves with psychedelic and exotic flair.
Abrams played the guimbri, a North African instrument, throughout the show, accompanied by the versatile guitarist Emmett Kelly (leader of the great Cairo Gang); drummers Frank Rosaly and Mikel Avery; Lisa Alvarado on harmonium and gong; and Ben Boye on autoharp and keyboards. It was glorious.
Mikel Avery
Frank RosalyJoshua AbramsFrank RosalyFrank RosalyEmmett KellyBen Boye
Mikel AveryMikel Avery, Ben Boye and Liza AlvaradoJoshua AbramsEmmett Kelly and Joshua AbramsBen Boye
The Denton, Texas, rock band Centro-matic just released its first record in three years, Take Pride by Your Long Odds, as well as a reissue of its first album, Redo the Stacks, from 1997. A dependable band for the past 17 years, Centro-matic made a welcome return to Chicago on Saturday night for a show at the Beat Kitchen, playing a slew of new songs as well as the classics fans expect. And the encore included a cover of the Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl.”
The lineup at the Empty Bottle on Thursday, May 22, was a musical version of the Trans-Canada Highway: three Canadian artists, each from a different province — Chad VanGaalen of Calgary, Alberta; Cousins of Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Bry Webb of Guelph, Ontario.
Chad VanGaalen
The headliner was the delightfully odd Chad VanGaalen, who has been releasing somewhat lo-fi, psychedelic home recordings for the past decade. But he hasn’t toured much, remaining something of an enigmatic figure — in my imagination anyway. A recent press release from his label, Sub Pop, feeds that sense of mystique, noting:
He has never worked in a commercial recording studio. By his hands alone, one line, sound, shape or word leads organically to the next. Over the last ten to fifteen years, Chad has been producing living maps in songs, drawings, modified instruments, animations and performances–shifting forms pointing to another world, infinitely more liveable, maybe hidden just under the surface of our own ever-disintegrating reality.
InShrink Dust, Chad’s fifth full-length album under his own name, we have a new window into his world. The album is, in Chad’s view, a country record. It is also partially a score to Chad’s soon-to-be released, animated, sci-fi feature, Translated Log of Inhabitants (“It’s like Bob and Doug McKenzie in space,” says Chad).
Always a fan of esoteric instruments, Chad taught himself to play an aluminum pedal steel guitar. His experiments with this instrument unify the album, along with themes of death, transformation, fear, benign evil, and the eccentricity of love. A newfound affection for The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the sci-fi mysticism of the 1980s graphic novel The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, also drove the album.
There is indeed a certain amount of alt-country on the new record, but it sounds more like the Shins doing country than the typical sort of Americana that falls under the label.
As far as I know, VanGaalen had never played in Chicago before Thursday’s gig. Commenting to the audience about his drive into the city, he remarked, “The city goes on forever. … But now that we’re here, it’s a very nice place.” VanGaalen also told the audience about playing Frisbee earlier in the day with a Chicago man who seemed to him to be a meth addict. And he complained about his guitar, describing it as “a bad eBay purchase.”
That guitar sounded just fine, however, and so did VanGaalen’s big array of effects pedals, which he used to transform that single guitar into a psych-rock orchestra, with help from a two-piece rhythm section. And VanGaalen’s voice, often rising to a falsetto, artfully conveyed the many memorable melodies he has fashioned on Shrink Dust and previous records.
I was surprised to see how young the audience of VanGaalen fans was — it seemed like barely anyone in the nearly full room was over the age of 23. Where did these kids discover VanGaalen’s music? And why weren’t any of the somewhat older indie-rock fans I usually see at Empty Bottle shows like this in attendance?
Chad VanGaalen, singing during the opening set by Bry WebbChad VanGaalen, singing during the opening set by Bry Webb
Bry Webb
With two outstanding opening acts, Thursday’s show was impressive from beginning to end. The evening started out with a set by Bry Webb, lead singer of the Constantines. The songs on his new record, Free Will, are mellower than the Constantines’ rock, almost qualifying as folk, but they still has something of that Constantines edge to them. His set at the Bottle included a nice cover of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “Calvary Cross.”
Cousins
I wasn’t familiar at all with the middle band in the lineup, Cousins, but the guitar-and-drums duo quickly won me over with songs that rocked pretty hard with soaring melodies — including at least three about lead singer Aaron Mangle’s grandmother. The group’s new album, The Halls of Wickwire, is dedicated to her memory. How Canadian is that!
Blackout Fest was back this past weekend at the Empty Bottle, and once again, Chicago’s HoZac Records delivered a fun package of garage rock, punk and power pop. I missed the first night on May 15 (an art show and opening party), but I was there the following two nights.
The Boys
The headliners on May 16 were a pretty big deal: The Boys, a legendary British punk band from the 1970s, played a Chicago gig for the first time — and amazingly, it was only the fourth time the Boys had ever played in the U.S. As these older blokes ripped through their old tunes (including a bunch of memorable shout-along songs, such as “Brickfield Nights”), a bunch of young garage-rock lovers packed the dance floor in front of the stage, moshing and bopping up and down with reckless joy.
Friday’s lineup also included the Man (I showed up too late for their set), the fuzzy guitar riffs of 999999999 (apparently pronounced “all nines”) and First Base, a Toronto band with a slew of sweet and catchy songs. They even did a cover of the ABBA song “Mamma Mia.”
999999999First BaseFirst Base
The Dictators
The headliners on Saturday, May 17, were another band that started back in the mid-’70s punk explosion: The Dictators, from New York City. Maybe the Dictators are actually a kind of proto-punk, since they formed all the way back in 1974. And on Saturday, as the current lineup played old Dictators songs as well as covers of songs by bands like the Flamin’ Groovies, they jammed more than you’d expect from punks. The frontman, Handsome Dick Manitoba, insisted on telling stories to the audience in his gruff New York accent, which slowed down the pace of the gig a bit, but still proved pretty entertaining. He’s quite a character. For the most part, the crowd ate it up.
The rest of the lineup on Saturday was solid, with three bands playing the kind of straight-ahead, no-frills rock that HoZac is known for: Rainbow Gun Club, A Giant Dog and — my favorite of the bunch — Shocked Minds.
Although the venue doesn’t officially open until Wednesday, I got a look inside last night, May 16, when Thalia Hall invited some folks to a concert by two local bands, Bare Mutants and Disappears. My first impression: This is a real beauty of a room, with some lovely ornate architectural details and — at least for now — a few touches of decay that seem appropriate for a rock venue. (That peeling paint on the walls up in the balcony may eventually get spruced up, however.)
The sight lines are excellent, whether you’re standing on the main floor looking at the stage — which is fairly high, maybe 4 1/2 feet up from the floor — or if you’re watching from the balcony. The upstairs is cleverly designed, with short, stepped tiers that should make it possible for you to see over whoever is standing in front of you. The stage is pretty large — around the size of the stages at Metro and the Riviera, with lots of space behind the band. And the ceiling is quite high. The room looks like it could hold 1,000 people. There’s a cool bar area upstairs, in a separate room from the main balcony.
On Friday night, the sound of Bare Mutants and Disappears’ rock was pretty good wherever I was standing in the room, though the real test will come over time as musical acts with widely varying styles and dynamics play in the room. Real concerts will also test what sort of venue this turns out to be. What it’ll feel like when it’s filled with people for a sold-out show? How will crowds tend to move around in this space? And how will audience members behave — a factor that the venue owners only have so much influence on?
All of this is hard to predict at this point, but the signs are good that this is going to be an outstanding venue. The schedule so far includes a mix of the sorts of artists both the Empty Bottle and SPACE are knowing for booking: Panda Bear, a double bill of Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle, the Mavericks, Goat, Teb Benoit, Gillian Welch, Camera Obscura — and even an -odd-sounding show called “Green Porno” starring Isabella Rosselini.
I realize now that I failed to take any pictures yesterday of the building’s fabulous exterior, so here’s one from the Thalia Hall website:
And here are some photos I took at last night’s preview concert:
A view from Thalia Hall’s balcony before the concert.Bare MutantsBare MutantsA view of the Thalia Hall stage from behind the sound board, which is in the balcony.The back part of Thalia Hall’s auditorium.The balcony.Two levels of opera boxes are located on either side of the stage.A view from the balcony of Disappears performing at Thalia Hall.A view from the balcony of Disappears performing at Thalia Hall.DisappearsDisappearsDisappearsDisappearsDisappears
The Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr was in Chicago last week to play as the opening act for Cloud Nothings in a sold-out show at Lincoln Hall. But that wasn’t the band’s only performance in town — it also played a free set on Saturday afternoon (May 3) at Reckless Records’ store on Broadway in Lake View. As usual, singer Joe Casey had a casual air about him, looking more like a professor than a punk, but the band’s noise was bracing. Protomartyr’s recently released second album, Under Color of Official Right, is well worth hearing.
“We’re keeping it unreal,” one of the Skull Defekts declared during the Swedish rock band’s concert Tuesday night (April 30) at the Empty Bottle. Something was a little askew about everything these Swedes said onstage — and the music was askew and unreal, too. The last time I saw Skull Defekts (2011 at the Hideout), they had their fifth quasi-member along with them: Daniel Higgs, a Baltimore singer best known as the frontman of Lungfish. The combination of Higgs’ vocals and Skull Defekts’ music was powerful.
Higgs and Skull Defekts are still working together — a press release describes him as “the group’s spiritual ringleader,” and he sings on the group’s latest album, the compelling Dances in Dreams of the Known Unknown. But he wasn’t with the band for its most recent Chicago show. Not to worry, though — even without Higgs, this was a band of phenomenal force and creativity. At times, the jagged, clanging and weirdly interlocking guitar riffs reminded me of early Sonic Youth. And with two drummers, the band had an almost tribal rhythm going through much of its set. The band seems to like playing with bright white lights shining and casting shadows, and the effect only seemed to heighten the intensity that these Swedes brought to the Empty Bottle stage.
Waxahatchee — which is either a band or singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, depending on how you define these things — released an outstanding record last year called Cerulean Salt, with guitar chords and vocals that keep on reminding me of Liz Phair. The good, early Liz Phair records, that is. Waxahatchee played Saturday night (April 26) at the Empty Bottle, beginning and ending the show with quiet songs that were essentially solo Katie Crutchfield performances. In between, the full band kicked in, showing that Waxahatchee is more than mellow folk rock. Most impressive of all was the way Crutchfield’s melodies, stuck in my head from many listens to the records, rang out in concert.
Monday night at Constellation, Fred Frith shook and scraped and stroked and beat his guitar. He set a can on top of the strings and ran a red ribbon through them. And that isn’t half of what he did. He had a whole table of implements ready to coax noises out of his guitar. He made it rattle and rumble and ring out. Very little of what came out of the amplifier sounded anything like conventional musical structure, and yet it was undeniably musical. At one point, Frith succeeded in making his guitar sound extraordinarily like a dulcimer.
Near the culmination of Frith’s hourlong improvisation, he sang wordless melodies. And when the whole remarkable performance was over and he left the room and everyone applauded, he came back and gave a bow. The crowd clapped more, and Frith came back one more time. He told us he wouldn’t be playing an encore, because he had just tried to take all of us on a journey with his music.
“We finally get somewhere and what do we do? Get back on the bus and go somewhere else? Nah.”
Photos of Precious Blood on Feb. 25 at the Hideout, featuring Nora O’Connor, Danny Black and Kevin McDonough, a show that wrapped up O’Connor’s outstanding February residency at the Hideout.
A hundred-some people turned out at the Hideout on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 22, for a folk music concert organized by local music journalist Mark Guarino. Billed as “From Old Town to Greenwich Village: Songs of the American Folk Revival,” it featured Ed Holstein and Steve Dawson.
Holstein, a well-known figure in the Chicago folk music scene of the late 1960s and early ’70s, had never played at the Hideout before. “I always wanted to play by a whole bunch of dump trucks,” he remarked. Holstein played songs by Bob Dylan, John Prine, Mississippi John Hurt and others, interspersing the music with entertaining stories from Holstein’s own early experiences as a folk singer. He reminisced about his first gigs at the Earl of Old Town, which just happened to fall during the Democratic National Convention of 1968. “The opening act was the National Guard,” he cracked, noting that Vincent Price was in the audience, trying to impress a young woman with the fact that he had all of this singer’s recordings back at his hotel room (apparently thinking — or hoping that the woman would think — this was Bob Dylan or someone more famous than the young Holstein).
Dawson started off the show with a several of his own songs as a couple of folk covers, then returned to play with Holstein at the end of the concert. The crowd sang along with a few of the tunes. Although the Hideout has been hosting folk musicians for years, this was an unusual example of the venue attracting Chicago’s older folk music fans. It would be cool to see more shows like this.
The Flat Five, from left: Scott Ligon, Alex Hall, Casey McDonough, Kelly Hogan and Nora O’Connor
Nora O’Connor’s monthlong residency at the Hideout continued on Tuesday, Feb. 18, with a show by the band that Hideout owner Tim Tuten called the club’s very own supergroup. It’s no longer the “Best Cover Band That Plays One Gig a Year,” but that’s just because the Flat Five have slightly increased their performance schedule.
And “cover band” isn’t really an adequate description for this quintet of masterful musicians and singers, who assemble a few times a year to indulge in their love of finely crafted pop songs, with an emphasis on obscure gems with harmony vocals. Just peruse this week’s set list (scroll down below the photo gallery) to get an idea of the Flat Five’s electric and impeccable musical tastes.
The Flat Five are Nora O’Connor, Kelly Hogan, Scott Ligon, Casey McDonough and Alex Hall. (Ligon, McDonough and Hall also perform in the Western Elstons, who have a regular gig at Simon’s Tavern, and on Tuesday at the Hideout, they were joined for a while onstage by another member of that band, guitarist Joel Paterson.)
During Tuesday’s marvelous Flat Five show, O’Connor remarked, “This is my favorite band in the world to be in. I feel like I’m playing and watching at the same time.”
SET LIST
The Raven
The Party (Henry Mancini)
Treat Me Like a Lady (Lesley Gore)
Little Bell (The Dixie Cups)
Birds of a Feather (Joe South)
I Went to Sleep (The Beach Boys)
Mama Don’t Like My Man (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings)
Caroline (Randy Newman)
Life Line (Harry Nilsson)
Poli High (Harry Nilsson)
Without Rhyme or Reason (Fran Landesman and Bob Dorough)
All Kinds (Dan Wilson)
Florida (Chris Ligon)
Kites Are Fun (The Free Design)
The Winter Is Cold (Wendy & Bonnie)
Love Is Only Sleeping (The Monkees)
No True Love (The Dixie Cups) [set break]
Sermonette (Lambert, Hendricks & Ross)
Niki (The Third Wave)
Lil’ Darlin’ (Neal Hefti)
When I Stop Dreaming (The Louvin Brothers)
I Want Some More (Colin Blunstone)
Lazybones (Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael)
Don’t Forget to Cry (Everly Brothers)
Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
Sad, Sad Girl and Boy (The Impressions)
Love Lotsa Lovin (Lee Dorsey)
Friends (The Beach Boys)
Tomorrow Won’t Bring the Rain (Dion)
Almond Grove (Chris Ligon)
Plastic Man (The Kinks)
That’s Alright (Fleetwood Mac)
Poop Ghost (Chris Ligon)
Let Him Run Wild (The Beach Boys)
Sunday Will Never Be the Same (Spanky & Our Gang)
Don’tcha Hear Me Callin’ To Ya (The Fifth Dimension)
In addition to his recordings as Dolly Varden’s main singer-songwriter, Steve Dawson has released a couple of solo albums, and now he’s getting ready to record another. He played a free show Sunday night, Feb. 16, at Simon’s Tavern in Andersonville (a cozy drinking establishment that features live music on Sundays and Wednesdays, without ever doing much in the way of publicity).
Dawson was fronting a band he calls Funeral Bonsai Wedding — Frank Rosaly on drums, Jason Roebke on bass and Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone. I’m not that familiar with Roebke, but I know Rosaly and Adasiewicz as two of the most inventive and hardest-working players in town. With this stellar lineup, Dawson’s music took on a jazzy vibe, though it still sounded solidly within the realm of rock music. As the band stretched out some of the songs, Dawson took it as an opportunity to let loose on electric guitar solos. His wife and fellow Dolly Varden member, Diane Christiansen, also joined in on vocals for a few songs.
It all made for a very fine evening of music — except for the unwelcome vocals of one drunk guy yelling from the bar, who was eventually ejected from Simon’s, much to the relief of everyone nearby. Hey, when you play in a bar, these things are going to happen sometimes.
Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun’s songs sounded delicate and intimate Saturday night, Feb. 15, at Schubas. As she explained to the audience at the sold-out concert, it took her years to gain the confidence to build bigger arrangements for her songs, turning more of the music she’d written over to other musicians. For her current tour, she decided to bring the songs back to a more elemental level — playing with just one other musician, Swedish cellist-singer Linnea Olsson. When Brun introduced “This Voice,” she noted that she played much “bigger” versions of the song over the years. But this time, she said, “We’re going to bring it down to the smallest version ever.”
But as Brun plucked the strings of her guitar and Olsson bowed her cello, those two instruments sounded at times like a miniature orchestra. Brun played songs from throughout her career, including covers of Amerie’s dance hit “1 Thing,” Henry Purcell’s 1688 aria “Dido’s Lament” (which Brun renders as “Laid in Earth”) and Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).”
Saturday’s concert also featured a delightful opening set by Olsson, who performed solo — using looping pedals to build her cello lines into rich arrangements. It’s a technique many other musicians are using in recent years, most notably Andrew Bird, but Olsson did it as skillfully as anyone I’ve ever seen. On one song, Olsson effectively turned her cello into a percussion instrument, tapping on it to create the rhythmic underpinning of a song from her new album, the aptly named Ah!
… I couldn’t resist getting a photo of Ane Brun’s distinctive footwear.
One of Chicago’s best singers, Nora O’Connor, is performing every Tuesday night in February at the Hideout. Despite being a regular at the Hideout and collaborating with many other musicians, including Andrew Bird and Robbie Fulks, she’s had only one solo album — the delightful Til the Dawn, released a decade ago by Bloodshot Records — and she doesn’t headline all that many gigs that are billed as Nora O’Connor shows.
O’Connor kicked off her month of shows on Feb. 4 with an intimate set, performed in front of one microphone in the Hideout’s front room. This show as originally billed as the return of Cantina, her old duo with Matt Weber, but he was unable to make it, so it ended up being more of a solo Nora set, with accompaniment from Casey McDonough and Gerald Dowd — plus Hideout sound man Ryan Hembrey, who jumped in on bass guitar for a few songs from Til the Dawn. They called themselves Mantina. And on Facebook, Dowd said they were “a soft-rock trio juggernaut.”
You have three more chances to see Nora O’Connor this month at the Hideout. On Feb. 11, she’ll lead a band in performing the entirety of the 1973 album Buckingham/Nicks. On Feb. 18, she’ll perform as part of the Flat Five. And on Feb. 25, she’ll play as part of Precious Blood, her new band with Danny Black and Kevin McDonough. Here’s Jay Ryan’s poster for the series:
Chris Mills smiles a lot when he sings, and it’s a big, beaming smile. His voice is big, too. As he was belting out the notes of his memorable songs on Friday, Jan. 24, at Schubas, it was obvious that he was having a great time.
Mills hasn’t lived in Chicago for several years now — what, it’s already been a decade? — but as the Tribune aptly put it in a headline over a recent interview: “Chris Mills is a Chicagoan no matter where he roams.” At least, that’s how I think of him, even if he’s living in New York. When he was still in Chicago, Mills seemed like he was part of the local alt-country scene, but his music was never really alt-country: more like singer-songwriter rock, folk and power pop. During his set on Friday, Mills joked a couple of times about the phrase that Reader critic Peter Margasak had used to describe some of his new songs: “genre-neutral.” Even if that sounds vaguely insulting, it does accurately point out how hard it is to put a genre label on Mills’ music.
Mills has a strong new album called Alexandria, his first record in five years, which he funded with a Kickstarter campaign. (I was a contributor.) The fact that he was able to raise $20,389 just goes to show that his fans haven’t forgotten him.
On this record, Mills worked with Norwegian producer Christer Knutsen, who also played guitar, piano and organ and sang backing vocals. Knutsen and drummer Pal Hausken came over from Norway to play on this current tour. Mills’ backup band, the Distant Stars, also includes a familiar face from the Chicago music scene: bassist Ryan Hembrey, who often runs the sound at the Hideout.
The Schubas music room wasn’t quite as full as it should have been — possibly because it was snowing that night, and the roads were treacherous — but the people who did turn out clearly knew Mills’ songs, the new ones as well as the older ones he has played over the years. Mills took some requests, challenging his new Scandinavian bandmates to figure out some songs they hadn’t rehearsed, such as “You Are My Favorite Song.” Highlights of the night included “The Silver Line” and “Living the Dream.”
Mills and the Distant Stars ended the night with a spirited cover of Big Star’s “Thank You Friends,” which was Mills’ way of thanking everyone who came to the show and all those who pitched in money to help him make Alexandria.
The opening act, Irish-American singer-songwriter Niall Connolly, was charming and funny as he introduced his folk songs, which were spare and lovely. Mills remarked later that Connolly is something of a leader in a scene of musicians in Brooklyn, and it was easy to believe that, based on his performance Friday.
Oh, and Chicagoans: You have another chance to see Chris Mills. He and his band will play a free show Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Saki record store in Logan Square, with an opening set by Jon Lindsay starting at 3 p.m.
Niall Connolly
Correction: An earlier version of this post included an incorrect name for the drummer in Chris Mills’ band.
Welsh singer-songrwiter Cate Le Bon got stuck in a terrible traffic jam on her way to play on Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Schubas nightclub in Chicago. Forty or so trucks and cars crashed in a pileup on I-94 in Michigan that afternoon, and three people died. Le Bon and her touring bandmates weren’t injured, but they were among the many people who sat in their cars without moving for several hours. As audience members showed up for the concert, the Schubas staff said Le Bon was late — but that she was on her way. The opening act, Kevin Morby, was traveling in the same vehicle, so he was late, too.
Morby was supposed to start playing at 9 p.m., but it wasn’t until sometime after 10:30 p.m. when all of the musicians finally showed up. The bands quickly set up and did a sound check. Morby (of Woods and The Babies) played just three songs, but they packed some punch. And then, just a few minutes later, Le Bon took the stage, apologizing for the delay. The audience members who’d stuck around for this belated gig greeted her warmly — and were rewarded with a stellar performance.
Le Bon’s 2013 album,Mug Museum, sounds lovely, but her music was even better live — and not just because of her beautiful vocals. The riffs and lines Le Bon played on her electric guitar were sharp, almost spiky, intertwining in intricate patterns with the rest of the band. In the hardest-rocking songs, the riffs bounced back and forth between Le Bon and guitarist-keyboardist H. Hawkline, adding a stereo effect to the psychedelic folk-rock — and reminding me a bit of the great late ’70s band Television. (I thought I might be the only one to make that comparison, but then I noticed what the Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak had written earlier: “The shapes of her angular guitar lines suggest Tom Verlaine at his most minimal…”)
In spite of the delays earlier in the evening, when it seemed uncertain whether this concert would even happened, it turned out to be an outstanding show.
These are my favorite musical performances of the past year, out of the 104 concerts I attended. (I’m counting each day of a festival as one “concert,” with a total of 323 or so sets. Maybe 20 of those are fragments of sets that I caught while dashing around taking photos at festivals.)
Jeff Tweedy and Tommy Stinson, during the June 21 Wilco concert
The Handsome Family, July 22 at the Pritzker Pavilion
The Rolling Stones, May 28 at United Center
Will Johnson, Nov. 11 house concert in Humboldt Park
Girl Group Chicago, Sept. 7 at Hideout Block Party
Low, March 7 at Saki
Charles Bradley, Aug. 3 at Lollapalooza
Scott Lucas & the Married Men, March 9 at the Hideout
Nick Lowe, Oct. 2 at Evanston SPACE
Twin Peaks, March 9 at the Hideout
Shoes and Green, May 4 at FitzGerald’s
Lee Ranaldo Band, May 27 at the Pritzker Pavilion
Jason Isbell, June 8 at North Center Ribfest
The Bats, June 9 at Schubas
Robbie Fulks, Sept. 5 at Lauries Planet of Sound
Mavis Staples, Sept. 6 at Hideout Block Party
Pere Ubu, Sept. 21 at the Empty Bottle
My Bloody Valentine, Nov. 3 at the Aragon
Bill Callahan, Oct. 14 at Alhambra Palace
Savages, July 20 at the Pitchfork Music Festival
Björk, July 19 at the Pitchfork Music Festival
Mavis Staples, Sept. 6 at the Hideout Block Party
Belle & Sebastian, July 20 at the Pitchfork Music Festival
Treasure Fleet, July 28 at Wicker Park Fest
Jack DeJohnette, Aug. 29 at the Pritzker Pavilion (Chicago Jazz Festival)
Billy Bragg, Sept. 27 at Evanston SPACE
Diarrhea Planet, Nov. 16 at the Beat Kitchen
The National, Aug. 3 at Lollapalooza
Laura Veirs, Sept. 25 at Schubas
“I heard that Beyonce put out a record today,” singer-songwriter Bonnie “Prince” Billy (aka Will Oldham) said during his concert Friday night, Dec. 13, at the Majestic Theatre in Madison, Wis. Noting that Beyonce had put her album out on iTunes (actually, the night before) without any advance publicity, Oldham said he’s done the same thing.
Then he wryly claimed credit for giving Beyonce the idea:
“I called her and said, ‘It’s getting to the end of the year. You should put out a record.’ She said, ‘Bonnie, what should I do?’ I said, ‘Just put it out on iTunes.’ She said, ‘That’s a good idea.'”
Before anyone takes this too seriously, we should mention that Oldham has a sideline as a somewhat strange stand-up comedian. While it’s doubtful Beyonce has copied anything from Bonnie “Prince” Billy, it’s true that he’s taken some unusual approaches to releasing music.
Oldham has always been prolific, with so many semiofficial releases under various guises that it takes some homework to keep track of what he’s doing. The homework is worth doing — Oldham is one of the most consistently interesting songwriters of recent years. He hasn’t had a proper album of original songs since 2011, but during that time, he has released EPs, singles and collaborative projects (including an album last year with Trembling Bells and another this year with Dawn McCarthy, the wonderful Everly Brothers tribute, What the Brothers Sang).
And now he has a new album called simply Bonnie “Prince” Billy — which he is selling at the merch tables during a short concert tour, and virtually nowhere else. I snagged a copy for myself and another for a friend on Friday night. I think the guy selling records said that only 23 copies are for sale at each show (though it looked like there more than that). He said the album will come out next year with wider distribution. It’s a spare solo recording, and the only label information listed on it is a P.O. Box in Louisville. During his set, Oldham called it “the yellow record,” adding that the color came out a little greenish.
I made the drive to Madison for this concert because Bonnie “Prince” Billy didn’t include Chicago on his brief 2013 itinerary — unless you count the set he’s playing at 7 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 19, during the Second City’s annual “Letters to Santa” benefit. His other stops on this tour include St. Louis, Iowa City and Minneapolis.
Bitchin Bajas
After a lovely opening set of instrumental music by the Chicago group Bitchin Bajas, the stage was set for Bonnie “Prince” Billy: just a table and one microphone. It became clear that this would be a solo performance, something I’ve never seen Oldham do. He sang and played his unamplified acoustic guitar into that one mic, performing a set of more than 20 songs, including many that he recorded in his early years under the Palace Music and Palace Brothers monikers.
He opened with a song I didn’t recognize, which eventually morphed in the Palace Music track “New Partner.” Was it a medley or an extended version of that song? I’m not certain. I jotted down some of the lyrics, which seemed like Oldham’s way of introducing himself to the audience:
“I’m here to sing you songs in this room I have …
“My job is to sing these songs of questionable purpose.”
Oldham often lifted one foot and twisted his posture as he sang, employing some of the same gestures I’ve seen him use when he’s in the full throes of a more rocking soon with a band. And as always, he bared his teeth and rolled his eyes at key moments of his songs. He was more talkative than usual in between songs.
After the first song, he asked, “Does anybody here have Black Panties?” After a woman in the crowd shouted that she did, Oldham said, “Oh, you’re wearing them? I meant the R. Kelly CD. … This next song exists only due to the inspiration of your neighbor to the south, Robert Kelly.” He then sang, “You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes)” — a song that doesn’t sound anything like Kelly’s music.
[UPDATE Dec. 18, 2013: I picked a bad time to drop a casual reference to R. Kelly. The controversy over rape and abuse allegations against the R&B singer has erupted again, driven by this Village Voice story. If you haven’t already, I urge you to read it. And I should add that I don’t understand Will Oldham’s fascination with Kelly.]
At another point, Oldham played “Horses,” a song originally recorded by Sally Timms and Jon Langford of the Mekons. That prompted Oldham to tell the story of how he’d encountered Langford one time in a bar, dragging Langford out to his car to play him Oldham’s recording of the song. Oldham said Langford’s reaction seemed to be: Who the hell is this guy? “One of the high moments of my life,” Oldham said Friday, recalling that moment. An even higher moment, he said, was the time in 2007 when Oldham filled in for Tom Greenhalgh during a few songs when the Mekons played two shows in one night, at the Hideout and the Mutiny. (That was a great night for me in the audience, too.) As he remembered that night, Oldham compared it to watching Casablanca and being asked to fill in for Humphrey Bogart on the screen. Then he changed his mind, adding:
“I’d rather be Peter Lorre, actually.”
Oldham also commented on his love of craft beer, noting: “You can’t download it.” He mentioned that during his introduction to his most famous song, “I See a Darkness.” Tired Hands Brewing Co. is making a beer named after that song. “I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of beer in my life during the last few years,” Oldham said. (Who can forget the time he interviewed a beer-brewing robot in a video for Dogfish Head Brewery?)
While he was in Madison, Oldham and his tour mates visited the Wisconsin State Capitol to get a look at Old Abe, Wisconsin’s Civil War eagle — “who flew into battle Lord of the Rings-style,” as Oldham put it. They heard a tour guide explaining how the original taxidermied Old Abe was destroyed a long time ago in a fire. “The Old Abe that’s in there is an impostor,” Oldham said. That led him into his 2011 song “Quail and Dumplings,” which he described as “my song about being disillusioned with America.” (As political protest songs go, it’s somewhat obscure.)
After an enthralling hour and a half of music and banter, Oldham closed the night with a cover of R. Kelly’s hit “The World’s Greatest,” transforming it into his own style of folk rock. The words seemed both goofy and anthemic coming out of Oldham’s mouth:
“I’m that star up in the sky
“I’m that mountain peak up high
“Hey, I made it
“I’m the world’s greatest.”
[UPDATE Dec. 18, 2013: See above.]
SET LIST
Unknown song? / New Partner (from Palace Music’s Viva Last Blues)
You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes) (from Lie Down In the Light)
Black Captain (from Wolfroy Goes to Town)
The Mountain Low (from Palace Music’s Viva Last Blues)
I Heard of a Source (from Bonnie “Prince” Billy)
Wolf Among Wolves (from Master and Everyone)
Rich Wife Full of Happiness (from Ease Down the Road)
The Risen Lord (from Guarapero/Lost Blues 2)
Omaha (Everly Brothers cover from What the Brothers Sang)
Death to Everyone (from I See Darkness)
Horses (Sally Timms and Jon Langford cover from a Palace Music single)
The Brute Choir (from Viva Last Blues)
Love Comes to Me (from The Letting Go)
Quail and Dumplings (from Wolfroy Goes to Town)
(I Was Drunk at the) Pulpit (from Palace Brothers’ There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You)
I See a Darkness (from I See Darkness)
ENCORE:
The Weaker Soldier (from Palace Music’s Arise Therefore)
Gulf Shore (from Palace Music’s Lost Blues and Other Songs)
We Are Unhappy (from Wolfroy Goes to Town)
May It Always Be (from Ease Down the Road)
The World’s Greatest (R. Kelly cover from Ask Forgiveness)
The Denton, Texas, band Midlake has pulled off a rare feat — losing its primary singer-songwriter (Tim Smith) and emerging with a strong new album (Antiphon). Playing Thursday night (Dec. 5) at Schubas, Midlake also proved that it can still play the music from its earlier albums just fine. Guitarist Eric Pulido has taken over as Midlake’s new lead singer, and his vocal style isn’t too far removed from Smith’s. His harmonies — and the singing by the rest of Midlake’s virtuosic players — were always part of what makes this artsy folk rock band’s sophisticated, haunting music so special.
During Thursday’s show, Midlake played several of the new Antiphon songs, but it didn’t shy away from the old material, even playing the early song “Kingfish Pies” (from the 2004 album Bamnan and Silvercork) — the weird little anthem that attracted my attention to Midlake in the first place. And of course, Midlake performed key tracks from 2010’s The Courage of Others and 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther, the album that stands as its masterpiece. Flute melodies, guitar arpeggios and vocal harmonies meshed into enchanting forest folk music and soaring, powerful rock.
The opening act was another artist from Denton, singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe, who was accompanied by Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith (who also produced her recent songs, “Satire” and “Defense”). Turning up the volume on her electric guitar, Jaffe pushed her usually mellow songs toward a more hard-edged sound as the set progressed.
There’s a tall guy named Pat with dark black hair and a dark black beard who shows up at a lot of garage rock shows at places like the Empty Bottle. So (in the interest of full disclosure) it’s not too surprising that I know this guy named Pat. Pat likes a good mosh pit. In fact, he champions the motto “No Weak Pits.”
Pat started a record label this year. He called it Tall Pat Records. Tall Pat’s first record is by a Chicago band called Dumpster Babies. The album is called Dumpster Babies, and the first song on it is “Dumpster Babies.” This is rough-edged, fun and slightly sloppy rock, bashed out the way good garage bands have always bashed.
On Friday, Nov. 22, Dumpster Babies and another three Chicago bands connected with Tall Pat — Flesh Panthers, the Man and the Bingers — took over the Empty Bottle for a night of music called (for reasons that remain mysterious to me) Cuddlestock 2013. Why not, I guess? And why not get the evening started with a Gin Blossoms cover by Flesh Panthers? OK, that’s an odd choice, but whatever. I was especially impressed with the Bingers, who showed off some subtlety in their songwriting and musicianship even as they leapt off the drum kit and writhed upon their backs.
Dumpster Babies caught a bit of a Mats vibe, and their song “Bloody Nose” sounded especially great — it has one of those indelible punk-rock stuttering rhythms in the chorus. The moshing wasn’t as intense as the wild action I witnessed a week earlier at the Diarrhea Planet show, but there was some spirited dancing, to be sure. (Photos here.) No weak pits were seen. Cheers to Tall Pat and all of the guys who start record labels for the love of it.
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In 2003, I saw a cool concert by Dave Davies of the Kinks at the Abbey Pub, but a year later, the news came that he’d suffered a stroke. I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to see him perform again. Eight years later, Davies returned to Chicago, playing Monday, Nov. 18, at City Winery and Tuesday, Nov. 19, at Evanston Space. I saw Tuesday’s show.
Davies has recovered from his stroke well enough to play the guitar again and record new music — including the recent album I Will Be Me. (The Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro recently interviewed Davies about his album and tour.)
Davies played a few of his solo songs on Tuesday, but he largely stuck with old Kinks classics. He performed his own songwriting contributions to the Kinks catalog (“Strangers,” “Death of a Clown” and “Living on a Thin Line”), but most of the songs were written by Dave’s brother, Ray. However, it feels like Dave has a stake in their ownership, too. The sibling similarity in their vocals is unmistakable, and Dave is the one who played the famous riffs on “You Really Got Me” and other hits.
Dave’s voice was a bit ragged at moments, and his guitar playing isn’t as fleet as it once was, but these were respectable renditions of the old songs, and it was touching to see this key player from one of the truly great rock bands taking the stage again and giddily proclaiming, “I’m having a great time!”
Dave and Ray have had a contentious relationship over the years. (In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Dave said of his brother: “But I have to thank him, because if he wasn’t so fucking horrible to me I wouldn’t have understood more about life. When he was a real cunt to me all those years ago I took up astrology so I could understand why people behave like that.”)
On Tuesday, Dave said, “I want to dedicate this song to my dear brother Ray,” before playing “Young and Innocent Days,” from the 1969 Kinks album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). It sounded heartfelt as Dave sang Ray’s words: “I see the lines across your face/Time has gone and nothing ever can replace/Those great, so great/Young and innocent days.”
So, what about it, guys? Will Ray and Dave ever play together again? I hope so.
SET LIST: I’m Not Like Everybody Else / I Need You / She’s Got Everything / Little Green Amp / Tired of Waiting for You / See My Friends / Strangers / Flowers in the Rain / Death of a Clown / The Healing Boy / Young and Innocent Days / Dead End Street / Living on a Thin Line / Where Have All the Good Times Gone / All Day and All of the Night / ENCORE: You Really Got Me
First off, it seems impossible to write about the band Diarrhea Planet without commenting on its name. These rockers from Nashville must’ve wanted people to say, “Ewwww,” when they decided to give themselves such a disgusting moniker. The music itself, however, isn’t as subversive as the name suggests. This is basically full-on hard rock music with no less than four guitarists going at it simultaneously. Maybe the “diarrhea” in the name alludes to the outpouring of riffs and solos. In any case, the group barely let up for a minute during its set on Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Beat Kitchen. And the fans, who had crowded into the small club, responded with nearly nonstop moshing.
Until last year, concert audiences hadn’t heard from Jeff Mangum in years. Neutral Milk Hotel’s singer-songwriter finally emerged out of what seemed like seclusion to play his old songs, which had been growing in popularity ever since he put them on record. During those concerts in 2012— I saw one in Chicago and one in Milwaukee — it felt like a solo acoustic set by Mangum was all we really needed. After all, his voice, lyrics and acoustic guitar strumming are really the heart of Neutral Milk Hotel’s best-known (and best) album, 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
But a Jeff Mangum solo concert wasn’t quite the same thing as a Neutral Milk Hotel concert. And now, continuing to move at his own strange pace, Mangum has decided to bring the band back together for an extended tour (including original members Jeremy Barnes, Scott Spillane and Julian Koster as well as a couple of auxiliary players). The first dates that were announced didn’t include a stop in Chicago, but I snagged a ticket for Neutral Milk Hotel’s Oct. 15 concert at the Canopy Club in Urbana. (Since then, the band has scheduled two concerts at the Riviera, on Feb. 6 and 7, both of which have sold out.)
The Urbana concert had moments similar to last year’s Mangum solo concerts, when it was essentially a solo performance in front of an enraptured crowd (including a sizable contingent of young folks who were toddlers the last time Neutral Milk Hotel performed). Mangum was all alone when he came out for the first song, “Two-Headed Boy” — with a long, shaggy beard and a green cap, giving him a look somewhat like Woody Allen disguised as the banana-republic dictator in Bananas, except for an incongruous brown sweater.
But then, as “Two-Headed Boy” segued into “The Fool,” another five musicians joined Mangum on the stage. When the horns and accordions and drums kicked in, the songs took on a much more rollicking air. At times, Mangum even danced. This was the full Neutral Milk Hotel experience — those intense, pleading, acoustic exclamations by Mangum, juxtaposed with Salvation Army band tunes, Eastern European funeral marches and a touch of psychedelic rock.
The songs sounded much as they did on the original records from the 1990s. This band clearly remembered well how to play those tunes. But more importantly, it was a spirited and stirring performance — even better than last year’s Mangum solo shows.
Another group from the Elephant 6 collective, Elf Power, opened the show with a set of buoyant psychedelic rock. And as in the past, Mangum forbade photography. As he got ready to play the first song and a few people held up their cellphones, Mangum wagged a finger and urged people to enjoy the music in the moment it was happening. (The security guards did their best to make sure no one took any pictures or video after that.)
And so, the only photographic evidence I have to show for the evening is the above cellphone picture of the marquee outside the Canopy Club. The last time I was at this venue, it was the Thunderbird movie theater, and I was a college student scrounging up loose change to see “Platoon.” It was startling to see that some of the decor from that era, including paintings of totem poles, still survive.
SET LIST: Two-Headed Boy / The Fool / Holland, 1945 / A Baby for Pree / Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone / Everything Is / The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One / The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three / In the Aeroplane Over the Sea / Oh Comely / Ferris Wheel on Fire / Naomi / Song Against Sex / Ruby Bulbs / Snow Song Pt. 1 / ENCORE: Ghost / [untitled] / Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two / Engine
