Natalie Grace Alford

  I saw Natalie Grace Alford last Friday at Cole's. She was releasing Type Of Wound....Is she fucking awesome or what?  I think the official release will be at Empty Bottle 17 August. I bought the poster and download code but my mac is too delicate right now for me to download it. So here I'm going on from memory. Friday sees so much congestion on Milwaukee I park on California near Township. It does not really matter where I park that ass, I'm lucky to have the spot I found. My mom must have prayed the fucking rosary or something 'cause Jesus just gave up a spot not too far away. In her is a deep well of creativity. Each song I heard is its own cool creation that does not betray or telegraph the other. She puts beats together that are dance-floor worthy, without pandering or telegraphing. Original and just barely familiar enough. She is always energetic on stage. Natalie bounces all over the place, kicked over a speaker. Worry not....no speakers were actually harmed. Her voice is deep and powerful, and she's beautiful. She has a stage presence and seems to have an awareness of it. The audience was for her, and for the band before was big. I've seen her play with a full band and also by herself. This time she is alone with a keyboard.....or something that looks like one to me. She has a pedal board as well. Her music is just beyond what a keyboard does. When I say familiar....I mean there are styles of music that I detect that Natalie Grace just reverse engineers into something cool, new and alien. She has that full commitment of a gospel singer, I hear elements of that in her music, hip hop as well. These are just engine parts that she uses to make something new and real cool. They are not the only engine parts, just the fleeting bits of sand I can grasp with my fingers. I don't know if she had gospel training. People that have, often know how to apply it to whatever something else they choose. This has nothing to do....she knows Natalie Ribbons from Telenovela!

 So she played from Type of Wound as well as some covers. Afterwards, when I went to buy the poster and download code, she reminded me that I was there from one of her earliest performances at Beat Kitchen. I asked for the CD whatever music she played that night years ago and she had it. Shock Through Benediction!! Thats a song on that CD. I don't know if anyone else has that CD, its never been made available again as far as I know. It felt great for me to hear this reminder from her.
Zig

Walking Bicycles on a Free Monday at Empty Bottle

 Ideally I would have seen Walking Bicycles and then hauled ass to see Nina Diaz from Girl In A Coma do a solo show at Livewire. That was not to be. There was a friend I was to meet there at Livewire, the same one that I met at a FEA/Kristeen Young show at this venue on Lincoln Ave. We bonded after we noticed how we were the only two Mexicans to stay for Kristeen Young. This time I stayed at Empty Bottle and I chilled and talked to the Bicycles later. I stayed and saw the main acts that night. They are such awesome people. I feel at ease around them. I always feel I'm one awkward moment from fucking it all up and looking weird, and its not like that around them. The drummer  Deric originally came from Aleks And The Drummer and now he's with the Bicycles. I keep remembering the shows I missed with Aleks. There was one at the Museum Of Contemporary Art just north of downtown. I got there so late I missed A& the D all together. I was so damn pissed off. This last Monday Deric assured me that was their worst performance ever and that I did not miss a thing.  Jocelyn from the Bicycles talked to me about the show Shameless....I think, that's the name of it. It stars William H Macy and its about people from The Back Of The Yards, my old neighborhood. Its such a novelty for me to hear that they are even filming there or anywhere on Chicago's south side. People don't seem to go there until they absolutely have to....or live there.
  To Him That Wills The Way is the latest release but they are continuing to write new music, some of which they played that Monday at the Bottle. I'm really into their latest. The song that sparked this intense interest in them was Welcome To The Future. It's not in Wills The Way but every song in the newest LP recreates the feeling of discovering that first favorite track. In a way they are similar to another brilliant local act Staring Problem, bassy and energetic. Yet while the voice of Staring Problem is relaxed, almost casual. Jocelyn's is aggressive and powerful....with just a little smokey husk, and the same urgency as the drums and bass. The lyrics are bleak black, and in so many shades of it. I've only bothered to read them now. They are good enough to provide them on the sleeve of the vinyl LP. Impending Doom is not named like that for nothing. In it, innocence is ended at the end of a rope. War Paint welcomes the downpour and the thunder that comes with it. Badada knows setbacks, letdowns, victims and knows contacts and is haunted by them all. I remember seeing Man On Fire with Denzel Washington. They did this clever way of translating the spanish spoken in the movie. Subtitles jumped at you instead of just appearing at the bottom of the screen. Certain statements on Wills The Way jump at you like 3D headlines.  I can really go on believing I can analyze all this and in the end its fun to do it. The lyrics are deep, dark, resonant and dare I say timeless. And I don't feel old for liking this. This is music written by adults for adults.
Zig