Prince Rama!

I don't think I was even aware of Prince Rama as late as November. I found out about them when I was looking up the Schubas calendar. It really fascinates me how late these bands hit my radar because it means I could have missed them entirely. Even once I'm aware of them I could drop the ball by being late to the show. But I was not going to let this one go like that after missing so many gigs already. A migraine took the want out of seeing Lightfoils at Whistler. I was already recovering but I did not wish to risk its return, so I did not go. Then I missed the 8MM/I:scintilla show the following Wednesday at Ultra Lounge. I was just late to that. Then I missed Sabrina Chap on Thursday. And I've missed Angel Olsen at least three times.

   I was hungry to see something and Prince Rama barely appeared on my dim and saddened radar. This one gig has to make up for it.. Right now as I tear through Trust Now,  it enshrines and corrupts the memory of the actual show. Most of what played was from World. The songs on Trust are longer like 6 minutes many of them and they still hold attention. I got in front, right near the drummer, Nimai Larson I believe.  A medium tight crowd formed behind me, attentive and not casual. It felt like people that have seen them before. Well...that belief is instinct and baked into my experience of seeing a band. I usually think that anyway. But I've been to shows where the audience seems thin or indifferent even to the headliners, but not this time. They seemed to know who they came to see. I kinda didn't. I knew I would like what I came to see....that's it.
  Unguarded, open joy Nimai seemed to have in performing. Her drums felt immediate..... joyous and with conviction. I understand she trained in African and Indian styles. Nimai stands because she likes to dance. I got this one show to extract many impressions from the memory. Across from her is sister Taraka Larson on keyboard, main vocal and occasionally guitar. I'd like to say that her clothes betrayed a fondness for 80's aerobics, as does the second track of World. The look is completely delivered with her beautiful...80's hair....hmm, that could be just be how she naturally has it. There was a bass player between them.  Visually is the two sisters. They came in support of Top Ten Hits Of The End Of The World, most of the live material I saw. Wow, I made it this long without calling them.....psychedelic. There is no way around it. But you also have the club worthiness of Telepathe to push you through the fog. The drums that....are like say, Changelings or This Ascension, goth club friendly right there.  When I hear that word "psychedelic" part of what defines that for me is a willingness to drift away from you into a mist, almost allowing attention spans to wander and check calls on cell phones. Dance floor weirdness from Blades to We Will Fall In Love Again.  I haven't liked them like that front to back since Warpaint. Right now I'm cramming in both CD's. They are bricks falling on top of me. Each song eventually will leave it's individual imprint. Trust suspends you in the fog of chant until the middle then the electronic gears kick. But I can't be asked to pick a favorite either. Live they did not stay distant and mysterious. Taraka Larson had the audience carry her front to back. Both would carry on enthusiastically sharing the space with their audience. The last song they did right there on the floor. Perhaps I will have more to say about Prince Rama as the dense layers reveal. At this moment I am too in the middle of appreciating it's initial impact.
Zig

Magic Key

So I saw Magic Key last Saturday at Burlington. All of the new work can only be caught live.  That is so fleeting to me. So I go see it. Its culture worth recognizing. But that only happens if enough people are impacted and perpetuate. The second I became a fan of Queen Adreena/ Katie Jane Garside it was out of one show in Whitby England. I craved hearing stories from friends that have seen her live multiple times. It seemed to me a colossal wrong not to know her in the States. I became intensely interested in her music, her story etc. She is among other things a road that connects from her cousin PJ....and we call her Siouxsie, but Katie Jane just calls her abuela. Fucking hell I was going somewhere with this then it ran off....So I'm glad to have the long view of Magic Key. Its just my impulse to document this concert by concert. I especially feel it when you know only a fraction of it is archived or otherwise recorded. Some shows like that from the iconic Katie Jane Garside, are just going to be that one iconic show that you saw because of a series of accidents. Out of that show a tremendous amount of influence.

  Magic Key is something I've seen deliberately multiple times and I think it represents well what is cool about Chicago music. That does not mean that Chicago necessarily knows her back as much. Well....I take that back. She has been written about in the Tribune I think. And I've seen her with very appreciative crowds...mostly at Empty Bottle but also in many other small to medium Chicago venues. It still feels as if I can only speak of her among a very few. Or I gotta get out more....right, that too. I don't listen to much outside of NPR right?  So I don't even know if they play her on radio.  It used to be just the powerful voice of Aleks, her intense Farsifa keyboard playing, in a knife fight with the drummer Deric Criss, short-fused psychedelia. Now under the name Magic Key. Aleks has a commanding stage presence. Her recorded music, tense, dark and in a rush but vivid enough to paint a picture you become more and more in wonder about. And her outfits were always the best...colorful. Always makes me wonder what she will wear next. Anyway now I dare not describe the electronic instruments that she plays. It's not just her banging a keyboard. The layers of atmosphere have multiplied. The pace slowed but the fog remains tense. But at least now there's a trail to hike. Still, hmmm, remember in Buffy, you don't go pissing off Willow by killing off her girlfriend and then go hiding in Twin Peaks. So it's tension feels dense with storytelling weight. Its amazing to see Magic Key manipulate the tension with layers upon layers and then minimally, slowing down with just her voice and limited instruments, with generous parking space between those instruments. We lost Fielded, but we still have Magic Key. There is music to anticipate from Magic Key. I don't know when, where or anything.Until then we only have May A Lightning Bolt Caress You. And we have a long journey from that point. Its something I cannot help but document.

Zig

Agent Ribbons

This could have easily been just a fabulous dream in which I see the vaudeville-punk Agent Ribbons play Empty Bottle and with them was architecture, Rebecca Scott's other shoegaze project besides Panda Riot. You know how dreams just throw things together, have really cool people do cameo appearances that happen to know one of the bands. You have this vivid awesome dream in anticipation of the actual show. Only I didn't dream this. And the local shoegaze architecture did play the same stage as Agent Ribbons. Oh and cameo appearance. Natalie Grace was there and she knows the band. I thought she left for NYC. I'm glad she's still in Chicago and playing Coles 30, November.
  I don't think the two bands were even aware of each other until that night. Its not to say that they are incompatible. They just sound real different from each other. But in my head they were old furniture. In my ipod they are neighbors. I don't recall how I came to know Agent Ribbons. How ever that happened, it compelled me to see them the first time at Beat Kitchen. Damn nearly missed the whole thing and could not afford anything from their colorful merch table. So I have made it a point to be on time for them the last few times. And they were very nice after the show. So I am at the stage where I go see what I've become familiar with over time like Chelsea, lets go join the circus, La Noche  from On Time Travel And Romance. I think they sang Wood Lead Rubber. from Chateau Crone. Lyrics are easily remembered without being catchy and annoying. They are direct, plain and witty, and clear in how she explains things. So its easy to identify with.  This new release is an EP on vinyl called Let Them Talk. Its real tireless work touring like they do, often broke. The time they spend on the road makes the time spent performing seem instantaneous. They had I think ten more gigs after Chicago I think. Oh and they knew Natalie Grace! They are so enthusiastic when they play. Natalie Gordon as always takes her shoes off to better bounce around the stage. I get a feeling of sincerity with each song. What the fuck do I mean with that? Hmm, .......let me think.....open veins, and a sweet witty directness. You want to sway back and forth with a drink in your hand to La Noche. I have a soft spot for that song 'cause it reminds me of old Mexican music. And it takes a very special troubadour like Ms Nat to make you sway to I Was Born To Sing Sad Songs without the baggage of really feeling sad. I really like how that song is put together.  After the show talking to Natalie and Lauren was nice. I ran into Natalie Grace and found out she was friends with the band. Its nice to see the world small like that. If you're into that sharp wit of Rasputina, Dresden Dolls....just to name a few, then Agent Ribbons deserves to live off the music.

Zig

Man Is Man

Man Is Man is another one I saw when my iMac was out. They played Hideout with Bone And Bell. I was far too late to see Heather Smith and B&B. I think she was finished by 9:45. I caught most of Christa's Man Is Man. The new release is called The Birds Will Eat Us but I did not see it on any merch table. So I could not get it. Her stuff is scary dark. Rural-children-of-the-corn scary....not urban. Urban implies developed, tamed. Rural is on the outer fringe of that. Rural implies a type of isolation, with different noises at night. I heard it said that night by someone in the audience or by Christa herself, women should write more scary shit.  And people should write more about them. Well I do try....writing about them. Without the CD I have to go with what I recall. The crowd was a good size. I know it's Hideout, it's small but it's subcultural capital is bigger. She played with her usual autoharp. She had a full band but I think it was the last night with the cello player. That's tragic 'cause I really liked him in the band.

  So I always go to those words to describe Man Is Man. Sometimes I use "rustic" instead of rural to put in front of "dark". I'm not trying to dance around the word "country".  I can't bring myself to call this country music. For some reason I feel a distinction. There are things Christa seems to stare in the face and describe passionately without a sense of pity. She could describe to you Dante's Inferno like a dispassionate fucking tour guide. Tragedy, drama, loneliness, these are things you find in her music but you're not weighed down by the sadness. There are artists that do sad very effectively. They sell it to you very well. Man Is Man somehow empowers even in the darkest corners of your interior castle to make you feel like you can change your lot. Shit is happening but you got a gun that they don't know about. Yeah...listening to MIM makes you feel like your packing. I wanna say more...but there was nothing on the bloody merch table!
Zig

Moritat

During the month of September I saw bands that I could not write about because my computer crashed, and had to get that sorted out. So some of these gigs that I write about are long ago but write about them I must. Please bear with. One of them bands was the local Moritat playing Lilly's on Lincoln Ave a short walk away from the Biograph Theater. They were playing songs from the new Clill Blanzin ....I gotta make sure I don't spell that wrong. I swear that "n" was not there when I bought the damn thing. I arrived too late to see Ami Saraiya And The Outcome.  Damn it! At some point the Lilly's audience seemed to grow a little impatient and were expecting to be wowed by Moritat, as if to say "I dare you to impress". That suggests to me that perhaps they were not familiar with them. The crowds from other venues they've played for don't act like they are entitled to a speedy transition from one band to another. Maybe it's a Lincoln Park thing where the audience thinks they are the rocks stars, and the band is just the help. This was the same attitude I saw Laura Meyer get at Uncommon Ground. But at least the crowd seemed big for a place of it's size and in the end I believe they were indeed impressed. Since it was my second time there I could not tell if this was a group of regulars or what. Lilly's is small but makes the most out of its confined space. Like in Subt's you can climb the stairs and see the band from the balcony. I guess it's like having two Whistlers stacked on top of each other. When the windows are open you can see whoever is playing as you are walking down the sidewalk. I didn't really ask anyone but the crowd seemed appreciative and impressed by Moritat by the end of the night.

  Since I think early 2009 I've known the band. I called the trip hop at the time as a knee jerk reaction from hearing Venus on keyboard on Yellow House, a song on their first CD. They kept my attention with the EP One Minute Fade and now I'm still going on about them over Clill. Trip hop, I said....now it's just one impression out of many. I don't know if this is from watching them live a lot. I like how they jam session in the middle of some of their songs like Noise, Cats, oh and Wheelin'. Theres like a middle segment where you just hear them jam. If you're already sold on all three of their releases this really works well because its like an extra kick of cardio. It's in these moments when you see the engine parts flex as they cruise around. The three moving parts are Venus on keyboard, Corey on drums and Konstantin on bass. Venus is the primary voice but they all sing.  I can really hear instruments individually. The cool thing about not having a lead guitar show boating around is that you can hear everything else so clearly. The bass stands out and everything. Nothing washes together into a fog. If you listen to as much shoegaze as I do, time away from the fog is good sometimes. So they got songs that sound great on CD and really blossom for you live.

architecture

After missing Panda Riot at Late Bar with Corey from Lightfoils on bass, there was no way I was gonna miss architecture share Empty Bottle with Agent Ribbons, two bands that are very different from each other. I was happy to see them, it was like my ipod was projecting on the Empty Bottle stage what it normally plays on random. First architecture and then Agent Ribbons.  Architecture played mostly new material that will be released early next year. These days the dream pop/shoegaze act consists of Rebecca Scott and Melissa Harris. On the last song they had Jose from Panda Riot play drums. I can't recall if I heard it before but it was brilliant. It had the usual alert faerie sweetness and clarity that is normal from architecture/Panda Riot and now a darkening maturity and a faster more aggressive pace, like when you're no longer a tourist. There is purpose in your step even as your fascinated by your surroundings. The drums they used saw the brunt of this new found aggression. They beat that shit down like an unruly kid at an orphanage. It was dramatic to see Rebecca and Jose ganging up on the same drum. So there is great work to anticipate from architecture early next year. This gig was probably their last until then. They got to get back to writing new material.

Spiritual Bat

The Spiritual Bat was also so long ago. Rosetta and Dario I can actually call friends from Italy. They were here on business. For a goth rock band, that means a tour. They were touring for the new CD Cruel Machine. They played Livewire Lounge on Milwaukee Ave, a 21 and up bar on a Saturday in September. To  miss this would have indeed hurt. When you miss something that you anticipated going to and the very event is on Facebook it eludes you all over again and it was the best show ever, meanwhile they go all the way back to Rome, and I have to get the CD from Metropolis or something like that.  Oh, wait but I didn't miss it, and I bought the CD from the band and a shirt that fits. The first shirt I got deliberately smaller so that it can be a muscle shirt....I know. It still fits me like a titty shirt. Anyway its so refreshing to go to a real goth rock gig, where people deliberately wear black. For me The Spiritual Bat do music that...ages with you. And more and more they are the reason I still like goth rock. That Saturday night I went saw people that I've known in the local goth culture for years. Some are old friends, that came from England for a family wedding. So I did not feel like I was surrounded by a bunch of kids in corpse-paint. We all still like this and it matures with us. It stays relevant and contemporary. And the musicians themselves are roughly our contemporaries.

   I was really happy for Rosy and Dario because they finally saw a good crowd for them. They were the headliners and people waited for them. The other times I've seen them in Chicago it was for smaller audiences as if only few knew they were there, and that embarrassed me. They once played for a Christian all ages venue and that felt weird. The pizza and soda were good but still....weird. I said goth rock eh? And that implies a way of sounding that The Bat has down. Can this appeal for one that is not already sold on those two words? Well I did not see many of my Empty Bottle friends that night. Does not matter. There are so many of us sold on the music already. Goth rock from the Bat means spooky atmospheric guitar, bass combo, Siouxsie-like voice of Rosy. On the dance floor the songs on Cruel Machine have a pace that is fast enough to attract youth but not too fast you lose all the aging goth rockers still trying to dance. Some of the tracks that are say 4-5 minutes long have segments that let you feel that goth rock engine. Chance  and Crucifixion have that bassy sprint in the middle. On stage it was Rosy wailing passionately away with the occasional mirror on her hand. Dario plays electric guitar. Pictures don't do Rosy's dreadlocked hair justice. It's the first thing I noticed when I met her, and I always tell her how fabulous they are.  She started out as the drummer of the band like over ten years ago. Live Rosetta free's herself from playing an instrument and so the small stage concentrates the performance to her voice and movements and hair. Thats the thing I don't expect on bigger venues where I expect distance. The capacity of the venue seemed to be less than Darkroom, but not by much...lets say just a little more than Whistler. As of this post they are home in Italy and this event I speak of is long behind them, one of many for them. Their operation is small enough for them to remember individuals that go to their shows. Its the coolest thing when after meeting the band, they tell you happy birthday on your Facebook page. What? I wasn't expecting it. Its those things that put you at ease when seeing them again and again. These are your friends that you want to see succeed when touring.
Zig

Fielded

This feels like so so long ago. My computer was slowing down already by the time I was seeing Fielded live this past September at Burlington. I don't even remember which songs I heard that specific night. I can say " I heard this song....that song." She was touring for Terrageist. The crowd was massive at the tiny Burlington. I was happy to have arrived early. A concentrated wall of eyes behind me. Yeah, I was in front. All the performances I've seen of this Chicago native at this point blend into one massive night spanning vastly different venues....and costume changes. So perhaps what I tell here may be what I saw before in them other times. Lindsey went casual for that grimy DIY venue on the shady end of Chicago's south side. I don't recall a costume for Hideout or Empty Bottle. She does very well in medium to small venues. Empty Bottle being the biggest to the smaller Burlington. It always feels like she has a loyal cult following in Chicago.
  You become familiar with the songs, her movements on stage. Lindsey sinks into her impassioned preacher character in full blind belief in every word she says. An outstretched hand free of any instrument is....you only see this passion in a Baptist church. She loops her amazing voice into an eerie chanting chorus.  Sometimes you see the process, the building of the song.  The voice is as much an instrument of sound....before even using words. Lindsey trance-casual, like an altar-girl  after they let girls reluctantly serve in Holy Cross in the old neighborhood lighting candles before the ritual. Horse got me like that. The tension between the ambient moments holds you until you are trotting along to an odd dance segment. Her voice is always clear and so it's easy to follow what she says...later when you buy the vinyl, there are lyrics to read. In the moment what is striking is how she says it.
  Live its massive. Sometimes she gets into costume as in this last time. But that translates well when you're driving to it, dancing to it. It feels deep and crazy like Katie Jane.  These aren't mindless, bassy dance tracks. It's heavy and thought provoking with dance-worthy impulses. At ease with the darkness. Red Queen I can dance to at Nocturna. I'm glad to know the performance end of her music. I imagine it's rare to play long numbers like Horse. Its a risk to play it. Perhaps one risks losing the crowd. But Fielded knows her audience and trusts us to follow anyway. I like that. I don't think she played it for Burlington but I do recall this live at some point.

   I don't know the instruments she uses. That embarrasses me into hesitating how to describe them besides saying electronic. She has a ....very organic soulful electronic sound. Her music often intensely surrounds us in Other-worldly chants, and it's no accident it gets called post-apocalyptic pop. It's music for a parallel universe. There's....regular ambient, and then there's Fielded's.
To write this I had to research, right? I marvel at the projects that have her stamp, Ga'an, Festival, and now Fielded. But I've been knowing all that and barely now am I beginning to see how funny she is as her character "Rhonda". So me as a fan as one can imagine, I am in greater awe of all this in Lindsey Powell.
Zig