Sybris/Coins

Sybris played a Free Monday at Empty Bottle, I believe that was 13 Monday and then Coins played Hideout Friday 17 December. Angela sings in both. That Monday night was full of awesome bands. It was Secret Colours, it was Apteka, and then Sybris. Every one of these bands have headlined shows and have their own fan base. To have them all in one place is awesome and rare. It was one of them nights that felt like a weekend. Sybris played the 'Bottle to promote their new CD. I believe it is their third. I didn't even look at it. I was too broke. I had enough for that first CD. That was just $5. I had a passive awareness of them for years and then I finally went to see them at Schubas I think in early 2009. I was sold with "Burnout Babies", from their second CD Into The Trees. I was real impressed with Angela Mullenhour's raw uninhibited delivery. You could hear it. You could see it in her face. Here is what I mean by that. There are artists that are in such control of their performance that they can show off, or not at all and show composure as they do their thing. That's cool and awesome. Then there are those performers who lose themselves, sink into their world, tune out the audience, and surrender control to the moment of the song. At least for me that's Angela in some small way. She has that pre-articulated, sincere delivery that has even goths dancing. You know goths are normally suspicious of cheery. Yet here we were dancing under Angela, that Monday night. And so 'Trees became a part of the soundtrack for me in 2009, in the mental landscape. I know I saw Sybris at least one more time at an outdoor park festival. I know far less about Ellen Bunch. I know she was also in another band called Reds and Blues....I think. The first time I saw them both as Coins was at Whistler, a year or so. So, I'm already a fan of Sybris. Naturally I will be curious about what Angela does next. How different will it be from her previous work? How shall it relate? Coins is very different as it turns out. They are far more minimal, sweet and mysterious. Coins is bigger on the inside. The song that hooked me was "Cave Life" from their newly released Recital Pressures . Ellen plays keys and sings. Angela plays guitar, and sings. "Cave Life" has an imprint with a slight time delay. It sneaks up on you, so let it. Trust the wonder and follow.

Zig

Eliza Rickman!!

This was at Whistler on a Tuesday I believe. She did not have any CDs to sell. Not the ep which I already have, and no new CD. I was so broke and so that saved me some embarrassment. Eliza had new songs, and so that new CD is still to come. Eliza is a university trained pianist. Steampunk fantasy periods are evoked without effort with that toy piano of hers. In her ragtime trained hands, her nursery rhymes haunt. Eliza corners you with a clear angelic voice. So her lyrics land clean. Her words hit hard just as you are disarmed with how she uses the instruments that are her trademark, like that toy piano. So you feel "Black Rose". For goths, this is like a stripped down, early Switchblade Symphony. Oh, wait. I also said steampunk right? Uhmm, yeah. All that. In some of her videos she uses a kick drum. Sometimes Eliza has other musicians Cello's, violins, that kind of thing. Perhaps it's that ragtime training, or not but her songs have that authentic rust color that pickers even have a name for it. It's that period thing. Ms Eliza

I talked to her and she actually recognized me from before, yeay! That felt nice. So here she is trying the Accordion. Eliza is barely learning and so I find her performance with it brave and admirable.

Roma Di Luna Pictures from 11 December

Roma Di Luna. Saturday 11 December at Beat Kitchen. I'm almost done writing about this band here. This is Channy Moon Casselle of Roma Di Luna. Can you believe she's a mom! There is just a spookiness to her voice that just sells you the whole package. Childlike but not girly is how I would begin to describe her voice. I'm sold on everything. The songwriting and all. I think they are from Minnesota. Channy is married to Alexei who is also in the band. They started as a duo and now they have a full band they toured with that night. This band is for fans of Puerto Muerto. I bought two CDs.

Both CDs are indeed awesome for their own individual reasons. That first CD is so bleak in so many different ways. The latest one "Then The Morning Came" is far more light-hearted and hmm, urban sounding. Once they sold me the first time, whatever they do next is usually good with me. I'm having all kind of reactions to it to this day. Each new experience with a song imprints visually the way I saw it this Saturday 11 December 2010. I may not have necessarily have seen a certain song but my mind will have a new excuse to rebuild and tweak the memory. "Many Pretty Women" is one from the first CD. I actually caught it on camera. It's one of them songs that you have to pull the mic from the stand, or your not feeling it, surrendering to it. And this is quite the monster to surrender to. Some bands just cover Dolly Parton's "Jolene". So yeah Roma Di Luna have their own and Chenny indeed convulsed to it on stage. They were touring for "Then The Morning Came". It's the coolest without being sappy. I go on and on about bands for the female singer. Alexei Moon Casselle is Chenny's husband and he's awesome in "Mars", the second song on Morning. Yeah, I'm still feeling this band. Zig

Laura Meyer pics

So Far these are just pictures of the post I have coming. Laura Meyer at Uncommon Ground Friday 3 December. The CD "Been Here Before" crystalizes moments you will feel are all your own. She played Uncommon Ground but she has the subcultural coolness of PJ Harvey at Metro next door. She deserves far more attention than she gets. That is said a lot, yes. But I saw it happen with Laura fucking Meyer. But I saw her. So I guess I came in already half-sold on her. I tuned out the indifference of that crowd, used it even. More personal becomes the moment when the performer remembers you for not ignoring her. And so you try to be gracious and not make an ass out of yourself, later. You can be remembered nicely or you can weird them out. I really wish Laura would give Chicago another go. We are cultured enough to appreciate ms Laura. "Been Here Before" is really something to listen to. It's cool, blusey, intelligence has a long shelf life. Laura is bold without being obvious. I bought two CDs from ms Laura. "Been Here Before" has been kicking my ass. The songs are deep and cool. The coolness comes in how she says things. The depth in what she says, and on and on. I haven't even started on the other CD yet. All this is just gonna build and build this time that I saw her. After this I went to Lucky Number Grill on Milwaukee Ave. Scary Lady Sarah had a Batcave/ Deathrock night. Unrelated, yes. The euphoria of seeing Laura Meyer carried over into it. So I can't entirely separate the events. They re-enforce each other in fact. I danced with wilder abandon. Well, not going crazy, just really enjoying that deathrock with the extra edge of Laura Meyer fresh in my memory.

Roma Di Luna

Saturday 11 December. Roma Di Luna played Beat Kitchen promoting the new CD "Then The Morning Came". But the CD that came to my attention first was their first one, "Find Your Way Home". I've been aware of them for less than two months but I feel like I've been inclined, prepared to like this far far end of country. This kind of music always evokes wilderness close by, the ominous mystery of it. The rural frontier of Roma Di Luna is bleak and sorrowful. Each little song stares into the face some ......fucked shit. A long time ago I saw Ethan Hawke in a Steppenwolf play in Chicago. He was in Buried Child, a Sam Shepard play. I think Channy and Alexei must have been there to. "No Child Of My Own" is like the soundtrack. The names of some of the songs stick out, and you can't miss Leonard Pelteir, and his quote. "Ghost Dance", I wondered if this one is a Wounded Knee reference. I mean there's a Leonard Peltier quote inside the sleeve. There's just too many things I can string together. The original Ghost Dance was this last gasp of defiance for the Indians that performed it. It was a ritual dance that all tribes did. And so they end this song with that same dead cold middle finger. And it's just Channy and a guitar, and no where to escape. You just have her fearless, delicate-sounding voice to walk you through whatever she stares at.

So, they had me with "Devil Walks" from the CD "Find Your Way Home". Channy sings "well the devil walks and the devil is real to me", and I get a chill. You combine that with that wilderness feel and suddenly driving through the Willow Springs forest preserve is scary again. "Devil Walks" has all kind of quirks that are noteworthy to me. Try to follow the song while reading the lyrics . Turns out Channy slurs a lot of her own words. Just go with it. A lot of things to chew on in this song once you read it. It turns out far darker than that first imprint can suggest. It's like the nightmares Nick Cave gets in a mid afternoon nap. Yes, it's bleak! It's dark. But it puts all of that in a very specific "...north country". I briefly wondered if that was a real reference, an actual place. It's quite unsafe what Channy describes. Whatever ray of hope the song does have is snuffed out before it concludes. In the world that first song describes, the devil hunts freely for fun. Children aren't safe, parents suffer the loss, and the pain begins bright and early. You do not want to be from here. I keep saying rural this, rural that. "Devil Walks can be about anywhere urban as well. Urban decay is a kind of frontier too. Right near the wilderness.

So why do I go after this kind of music? Why seek out every chance I can get to say "Bleak!" and "Dark", and "Nick Cave coolness"? I suppose it's like Virgil guiding Dante through hell. It's a little cathartic to be walked through all that. You feel like you've strolled where angels fear to tread. And while we are at it why do y'all go see SAW VI?

It's easy to identify with the dominant sentiments each song describes. "Plenty" hits with that same authority of Dolly Parton's iconic "Jolene". It explores the same overpowering doubt in one's significant other. Is she pretty enough and so forth.

So Channy has this voice that I will attempt to describe in the poor sad way that I know. It's smokey and child-like. The Cranes! Just like The Cranes they are cool in part because of Alison Shaw's quirky voice. It's too weird and child-like to call girly. The Cranes are solidly urban. Roma Di Luna are rural, lets just say. Both are weird and mysterious and that is evoked primarily with their female vocalists. Having gone on about Channy I like Alexei as well. I just don't really go on about the male voice even when I like it. It's the girls that get me writing.

Even as I go on about the CD "Find Your Way Home". It's not what they toured with this time that I saw them. "Then The Morning Came" is what they toured with and performed from and it's also awesome. They relaxed their cold black grip to show a cool, sweet side.

Laura Meyer....!!!

When I see these things ahead of time, and plan to see them, I still don't feel fully prepared for how much I will like them. The time of discovery is just a snap shot of something that I like but can afford to miss. The frugal voice tells you to deny yourself for some bullshit higher purpose. It's a different voice that urges me to see performers like Laura Meyer. The smallness of a great artist performing in a restaurant style venue. Uncommon Ground is a nice little restaurant with a stage. Well, a space that can be set aside for a stage is what they got. What UG did not have that Friday 3 December was an audience that gave a shit. People seemed to be just interested in their own affairs, like eating. If they paid attention to her, it was to get her to play some bullshit cover. I left that night a fan of Laura Meyer so I'm not going to blame her. Uncommon Ground seemed more a restaurant than music venue. It's not on them either. Hell, they at least had her performing. So I had to listen to her through a filter of voices that shared the same space but not the same experience. It did feel as if I was the only one that went to see her. Most of the video I took I had to delete because of all the people talking over her. That's OK too. There are a number of youtube videos with her as well. So I took pictures. OK, so good venue, good singer, bad, indifferent audience. I'm really amazed that it did not in the end influence my decision to buy her CDs. So that made me listen to Laura a little more and I bought the two CDs. I listened to "Been Here Before" on the way back and pow! I met Laura Meyer! I saw her play at Uncommon Ground! I drove home in complete disbelief. Some of these songs she played on stage, I recognized them, but I had to listen to them through what seemed to me an indifferent crowd.

She strikes me as a bluesy, Aimee Mann. An intelligent, thoughtful songwriter with a flexible blues impulse. And an excellent guitarist. That's Laura. I say blues but not like say The Pack A. D. It's not abrasive like them, and they seem to just have like two speeds. I can't see them slowing down like LM. Having said that I like The Pack A.D. They are about strength in the outer shell, which is awesome. I hear them and I feel the coolness of Patrick Swayze driving a truck in that movie he was in Black Dog? Yes? Well, Laura does cool introspective blues, most of the time, strengthening the inner self. You just picture yourself in that slow motion cool swagger that you see on TV when you hear these songs.

More from Moritat

28 November, Moritat at The Whistler. This band has grown on me. My head has them on random. Was it last year when I saw them at Quenchers? Yes. It was a dull, boring Sunday that they saved me from back then. The boredom made me wander there, it made me explore. As accidents go, that was one that keeps on giving, because I keep seeing this band deliberately. I don't think I was all that familiar with Whistler at that time. So getting to know this Moritat and this tiny closet of a venue have been almost simultaneous. You will never soak up all that you can about a band in one performance. At Q's, I only recall Venus on vocals and keyboard and then everyone else. It's also a matter of what I actively look for, which is the female voice. Other things will naturally assume a support role in my eyes. Back at Whistler I'm noticing everyone else now, the bass player, drummer. And they all sing, like with "Pregnant Ladies", one of my favorites from the new CD "One Minute Fade". In a bizarre twist they dedicated that song to pregnant women....my sister was due to give birth herself that very week. So, it's still mostly Venus who sings. And it's her keyboard that keeps hooking me in these subtle ways. And then it's what the music fondly reminds me of when it grabs me. Remember "Sesame Street" during one of those little cartoons that help you count with some kind of pinball rolling around with that crazy jazz piano going and then they yell "Seven!"? I know they don't purposely want to sound like what I describe. These weird ways of describing them come out of me and stick to them like a nickname you can't live down.

Moritat's music plays a lot in my head. They indeed held the audience as they played. Not as many people casually talking. It's nice to bullshit with the band afterwards but I always fall into this rut talking about the same two songs or how I think they are awesome. Here and there I don't always embarrass myself.

The Whistler is awesome. It's not just because it has no cover. It's a small, classy place. There is a patio in the back. When it's open, people go back there to smoke cigarettes and talk. You can take your drink in the back to give that illusion of drinking outside like they do in England. The drinks there are absolutely outstanding, expensive, but worth it for the professional effort the bartenders put in. Yet you can still drink really cheap. I've noticed how musicians casually come see other musicians at Whistler. This time with Moritat I saw Julie Meckler.....well Venus and Julie are already friends, they are always at each other's gigs. Still Whistler seems to have become a kind of casual haven for all kinds of musicians. I should have posted this ages ago.

Zig