Goth Traveler

Man Is Man

2012-02-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

I went to see Man Is Man at Hideout on a Thursday. The week before Christa's new band played to an noisy Whistler. I love Whistler, but more than a few times it devolves into a hipster cafeteria without the food. I can hear people chatting over the performer. For that night it was just her with autoharp and the cello player. At the Hideout with a crowd more attentive, less chatty there was a full band. It was clear that the mid-porous crowd was there for her. I arrived somewhere in the second or third song. This was supposed to be a record release thing but I do not recall anything at the merch table. Those Birds Will Eat Us is the debut CD. But I could not get it and so my impressions will be sparked by the live show...my memory of it, and the youtube videos she posts up. There are only so many people that can make sad, dark places sound as cool as Man Is Man. Very few have that cathartic payoff sustained. Man Is Man walks as your tour guide through the darker rooms of the mind, the interior castle you refuse to enter. And it's not about glamming up the sadness, to make it worse but the survival of it. Perhaps this is a sentiment that I carry over from her Puerto Muerto days, there is an affinity to the primitive, to what's on the frontier. Music for the lonely campfire, the log cabin. So perhaps it's no wonder that Christa would write about animals. Nick Cave weeps but not for very long and neither does Christa. I think that's because she closes that back door to the feeling of vulnerability. And that's the enduring strength.

Zig

Walking Bicycles

2012-01-30T14:27:00.000-08:00

A lot of baggage I bestowed on this band that perhaps have nothing to do with the music itself yet still influential on the imprint. There is an influence that has more to do with how I arrange furniture in the head. Pre-Recession was when I was re-discovering the local scene and Empty Bottle. Going to England for the familiar but expensive Whitby Gothic Weekend was now impossible. Fresh from discovering Queen Adreena abroad. I was craving for what I can discover locally....what a novelty. Fresh from the wonder of walking past a threshold I see Walking Bicycles. I saw them three times and every performance was at Empty Bottle. Seeing them was not easy. Each time felt like I stole a much treasured moment from The Man. Or there was something off about when these great performances presented themselves, like on a Free Monday, or a Saturday. How often are Mondays awesome! There was always an obstacle to overcome that made seeing Walking Bicycles so prohibitive and irresistible an accomplishment, almost missed and so iconic to me. The second time was the hardest. The third was for the CD release of GO? in December 2008. They have been around I think since 2004 and here I am barely aware of them in 2007. So even if their music have nothing to do with the then incoming bursting of the great bubble, it felt like they saw it coming. Welcome To The Future was the great announcement. Exactly the dark and bouncy post-punk I needed after knowing Katie Jane Garside abroad. Jocelyn the lead singer was so damn cool off-stage as well. We both know Scary Lady Sarah. That was funny to me. Sarah already knew of them well before my own discovery. Sarah 9.5 out of 10 will know of the music before I do. I would run into Jocelyn at the Bottle on some occasions, and always so cool. I was always afraid she would not remember me. You don't want to just drop from the celling and expect to be recognized....well you do. It's just awkward when it does not work. Now they are recording their 4th album and they got a facebook page. So the band still lives, and I'm very happy about that. Welcome back y'all, to me you never really left. This last picture is one outside the Bottle with the bass player.

Fielded

2012-01-03T01:01:00.000-08:00

Lindsey Powell as Fielded played Chicago ...... on some infernally cold Saturday to a packed and warm Crown Tap Bar on the north side. Lindsey is tiny and so it was best to be in front. I arrived well ahead of her set. There was even enough time for her to go to the bathroom. A lot of what I get from this band for the moment I can only get live.....and preserved on youtube I only recently discovered. In one of the videos she waves around a light-saber in the garage, and sings while cradling a dog in her arms. A veil of snow settles on them both. Cute, right?
Anyway, Terrorgeist is the vinyl release that I still have not bought yet. So all my impressions have a built in distance. But each performance leaves it's own stamp. Some are memorable for the novelty of where, like the one at some DIY venue in the dangerous south-side....Well yeah, near 26th st. It counts. It was cool, you can smoke everywhere and can just chill on both roofs.....anyway I'm veering off. I think she's going to move to L. A., bummer.
Ms Lindsey is in all kinds of projects that are great and each with a separate depth of mystery. I find her fascinating the more I research her. She is in Ga'an, Festival as well as Fielded, and is well traveled with them all. These are all very different animals from each other and Fielded is but one side to Lindsey Powell. This is perhaps the fifth time I see her in some capacity. I see her now so I can remember her shows in other iconic moments like at this old factory-turned venue on the south-side. Her primary instrument is her voice that she loops together into a chorus, and tweeks to sound deeper. Sometimes Lindsey uses two mics. Not this time. It's not just about what your voice is doing at the present moment but what else you can make it do at the same time. There is a lot that she demands of herself in this capacity.

The voice is another flexible instrument. Her music if ambient....when ambient, is also tense and suspenseful, and apparent when you see her sweat, outstretched hand and closed eyes. This is not something that is delivered casually. So how can this be of interest to goth culture? Well, she's weird and dark, and you can dance to her music. Do you remember how it felt to hear Zola Jesus the first time? Minimally electronic and organic. Her dark choral chants are trance inducing, and she takes her time in doing them. This is music that is not intended for the short attention-span. Yeah, she has her pagan chanting down. I think this is an easy sell to a goth crowd. It's the kind of weirdness we like to dance to. For those that like Zola Jesus, go see Fielded. At the very least you will find better parking I remember once reading about Fielded. They described her music as gospel. I can see that in this passionate delivery. She takes her time in assembling her songs, for this crowd that's OK. They seemed attentive. Her songs that I recall most easily "White Death" and "Another Time". But there is a lot that she plays that I'm familiar with but cannot name. . Lindsey adjusts and tweaks her instruments as she finds that moment when she can just close her eyes and be taken by her performance. Finally, this post is done.

Early January

2012-01-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

Magic Key when they performed outdoors near Logan Square.
These are of Rebecca Scott the lead singer of Panda Riot.

This Thursday 5th January I'm aiming to see Magic Key play Hideout with Panda Riot. They seem to be at different ends of this faerie world I put them, individual relationships with it. They play a lot. I've seen them both at Empty Bottle and Whistler. They evolve faster than their CD output suggests. Recording costs money. So it's important to see them live. The organic machinery that can keep them going is still going to be the people that see them. P R is mid-tempo dream pop expresses sentiments one can only be felt in relaxed moments. You're gonna stop to take a breath to say you're happy just to exist. So their relaxed but do not just drift. They are the kind of shoegaze we dance to at Latebar. They play a lot locally. They just signed to a new small local label XD Records. Magic Key is dark, and serious as a heart attack dramatic. Keyboard driven dark and colorful and just as worthy of a goth-themed dance floor. They seem to have this heavy serious authority normally expected in classical music. Perhaps it may sound like I'm too much hyping this up, but it's rare to have something that normally just plays in your head suddenly share a real stage.

Cross Record

2011-12-29T02:09:00.000-08:00

I caught a part of the Cross Record show, and afterwards I got the CD which is actually two separate EP's, Magnetic Current, and Ring Bell. So the following will be about hearing this later. I'm really digging this band. They mostly remind me of another local act Bone And Bell, and Festival, a band fronted by Ms Fielded herself Lindsey Powell. Ms Emily Cross even plays the uke, which superimposes a beach, a shell to hear the ocean through. You see through the vague nostalgic glass with in a volcano. The names of the songs are also quite precious. You can go into deep thought with this music, but with the suspense of what is beyond the fog. Dense with tension, mystery and innocent sweetness like a Kate Jane Garside satellite project. Call me a snob but for me it would be the lesser of us that don't appreciate this band cross record. I seriously need to lay off black cat. It's like the Fielded side project Festival. Love that song. These powerful and influential first impressions don't often carry the burden of analysis. Now I'm devouring holy well. The music of this band is like a vineyard. It will yield well over time, that's not saying that I'm not into it now. I'm really digging this now. Ms Emily's voice is clear, and so listening to lyrics will reveal more bends in the maze. I mention only Emily but there on more musicians in the band as the pictures show. There is more I can say about this band but I just need to post this how. Oh and They will play The Hungry Brain again this 9th January, Yay!!

The Sentinels

2011-12-18T02:10:00.000-08:00

As late as 8pm Saturday 17 December I did not know that in a matter of hours I would be at Pancho's in the audience seeing this local band The Sentinels. I had given up on the remote possibility of any such highlight. Nothing was on my radar, as I meandered around the internet. I may have ran into the name of the band before, but only now did the convergence of many separate moments ignite the urgency to go see them. Somehow I look up Pancho's and with hours I'm standing on one side watching their gig, some brain cells hold a constant vigil on the thought of how easily I could have missed it still at home or worse possibly becoming aware of the show after it's done. So I'm so happy to have not missed this. The Sentinels are fronted by Liz Elle. Music Of The Pleistoscene, is the CD. Generally speaking they got the heaviness and intensity of say between Shirley Manson pre-Garbage and Melissa Auf Dumar. Say I change my mind 'cause describing them is still a moving picture. Naming the two bands and including The Sentinels in the same thought says they got the indy rock coolness to merit a listen. They saved me from the fog of boredom. Liz voice is light womanly. It's not deep like Ana Calvi. On stage Ms Liz does not go ape-shit crazy like Jilly from We Are Hex. She was coolly dressed like it was open mic poetry at Weeds on a Monday night. It was the hat. It was the shirt. And so you look at her like she has something to say, not just sing. I'm still in the struggle as to how to describe them but I can say that I like Meadow Of Darkness. The acoustic guitar is flowery like All About Eve. The songs are not sedate but their charm is less obvious than in the other artists mentioned. Give them the time and the picture sharpens. Saracen Smile is a long but scenic journey, not slow, but one that I will take my time discovering. It's like two songs. See how the music soaks long term. I struggle with how I would best introduce them, live or on CD in the car. I don't recall which songs I saw live. The foggy memory of discovery does not recall which songs I heard live. I see them live with several different lenses, one just enjoys the visual, the moment. The other documents and packs as much into the moment to enjoy later. Sometimes I'm too busy documenting to analyze what I'm documenting. First time and listening to the music later are separate moments that reinforce each other. To name them is still because I heard them later on my own time. I will return to them with more time spent listening. For now I'm in that stage of early discovery of something cool. And this enthusiasm leads me to post up pictures.

Moritat

2011-11-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

I arrived too late to really see them last Sunday 6 November. But I saw them at Quenchers not too long before. Moritat is one of those bands I see in the context of a longer narrative, and from there in the context of a wider Chicago scene. One episode in a longer evolution, in a chain mail of other stories. Changes you see from the observance of more than two performances. It's a compulsion of mine, that helps to better document in the footnotes what went on in Chicago, around Chicago, and what went on with me. In observing them, and writing about them I document a fleeting delicate music scene and my self exploration as by-product.

Venus plays guitar! Her comfort is in the keyboard. She used to be the exclusive voice, and now it's pretty much everyone. Their trip hop sound is relaxed and casual but alert like a boxer. Betrays no stress but is not boring. The two tangible CDs that are available from them are One Minute Fade, their latest. But they first appeared on my radar with Yellow House which they had for free. The title song and Noise are the songs that best display this relaxation that still build tension and interest in this tension. They are writing and performing new music. And did I say they are making Venus play guitar. When Venus hits the keys it's with no cathartic display. I've seen keyboardists that seem to still be working things out, hammering the keys or reading the stress on their faces. It's not like that with Venus. Yet songs like have that sneaky urgency of a faster assembly line. I've described other stuff as trip hop like Panda Riot but Moritat seem miles away from airy faerie shoegaze. What registers as trip hop does so cleanly away. Moritat feel more like creatures of this world, familiar. Another cool by-product is the bands you meet through .....the bands you met. A casual suggestion from Venus had me stay to see The Eternals! I always see Julie Meckler at Moritat shows. If Venus is on stage, Julie is on the floor. They support each other. Julie is all kinds of awesome. She performed and I was well and on time for that.

Still Corners

2011-11-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

The pictures could have been better.

Sarah invited me to go see them at Schubas. This was something I almost missed, almost. And for that it's something I cherish more. Still Corners have breathy female vocals clear like something meant to be followed. Having said that I'll figure out what Endless Summer says later 'cause it's too much fun hearing. The voice is just one more amazing instrument. I'll enjoy discovering what the songs says to me later. Can't be bothered to analyze it. It's not just the product of the singer. The keyboard drone if I may describe it so highlights a tragic imprint. My attention is drawn but braces for a sadness foretold. Often it feels like her voice is the only thing that holds your attention, but lets get back to the live moment. Sarah invited and off I went. I arrived to hear a good three four songs. That's long enough to catch a good live impression to superimpose over hearing it at home. The visual I get is what my mind will always visit this moment like a holodeck from Star Trek. This Thursday I almost did not share with William and Sarah. It was a very porous crowd, on the light side of medium to be generous. I can't remember which song I heard first live. Tessa don't move much. That makes it easy to take pictures so it's no complaint. However you are inclined to present your work live is how I wanna see it. This concert brightened the dull midweek low like only surprise left turns can. Too damn poor to deserve to enjoy and yet there I am grateful to have the moment to feel right there and document to analyze later. As of late it is a rare gasp of therapy. What you incidentally and deliberately listen to form a kind of soundtrack that better colors your own personal narrative. Endless Summer held in it's translucent glow the fragility of nice moments that come in the middle of a sadness felt. You can really dance some demons away to this one. Catharsis with a cool empowering finish. Creatures Of An Hour is the CD Still Corners were touring for, and I can listen to it multiple times. All the songs have like that, cool and noir feeling. Lets you tolerate a deep hard interior look. But perhaps I weigh this with too much unworthy baggage. This works if you're giddy too. I'm not saying you need to be sad to like this. Its not so slow that it will put you to sleep. Goths in a shoegaze night can certainly find the rhythm to dance to this. You're hardcore if you drive to this. It relaxes a drive you already intend to make. Revisiting the night, Schubas can look so big sometimes but one can tell the crowd was not incidental, if sedate and relaxed. This was not the loud driven shoegaze of Ringo Deathstar. Still Corners don't seem to be in a rush. They are coasting the natural downward slope. Having said that, you won't feel bored with their pace. Small or big they were there for you without question. It felt like that for Still Corners. William and Sarah were the only definite goths among them. And then there was me. Each song I hear I replay the highlights of that night. I nod and smile to Sarah and William again, glow in the conversation we have later.

Architecture

2011-11-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

I like shoegaze music. It came to my attention by way of goth music and culture. In terms of my own experience, in the order that things just came to me. There is a lot of music I like the came to me by way of that filter. Scary Lady Sarah brought to my attention the live performances of a number of bands under that net. So my own narrative and experience with shoegaze will have her influence. During a common goth night if it's Cocteau Twins that first put you on a dance floor. If that is how you found your rhythm. Well, it is not so much about dancing but what are your parameters of appreciation, what gets and keeps your attention and what does not. Certain bands can just open a door that never closes. For me that left me open for local acts like Star, Panda Riot, and so inevitably architecture. Alright, so the first two on the same night. Star at first I noticed would gig a lot locally, opening for bands not really tethered to shoegaze, and then nothing. Panda Riot on the other hand continue to perform and evolve and now are signed to a local label. I can't even count how many times I've seen them at Empty Bottle. Let's just say your a fan. Your blind spot would have to be really big to not know architecture. I know technically they are distinct but at this point y'all are conjoined twins to me. The one constant being Rebecca Scott. So blunt are my ears, so fuzzy my sight but happy I am to have seen both live. I think it was a Monday when I went to go see this band. It turns out I was on time to see them and Planets. I'm glad I saw them together, they were so different. Lets say Wax and Wane jolts you to the floor, architecture can keep you there with........ They evoke the same mysterious cloud but with a more clearly spoken text. It's in the perfect rhythm for a 30+ goth with a hard wired mid 90's pace. So there is a dance floor worthy of this music and the local promoters to further appreciate this. If you are already sold on Panda Riot then architecture at least an easy sell. For this performance they even had their drummer. I do wonder how the person that discovers them on their ipod first thinks about them, what is the first visual they get from hearing it? Are they as mysterious as they sound? Visually they are no more weird looking than the people that go see them at Empty Bottle on a Free Monday. Strictly casual comfort clothes and delivery that perhaps subtexts to the fan that they can do this as well. Or it could be just me over-reading what they are not projecting. It's not hard to imagine bands that sound like architecture, They easily evoke other iconic bands with that shoegaze tag, but how many can you see live and behind some liquor store for more cost to them than it was you even with the 5$ cover?

Planets...more

2011-10-30T06:34:00.001-07:00

Pictured here are Deborah on lead guitar, and Elizabeth Herrera on drums.
Deborah again and Miranda Fisher on Bass.

Planets

2011-10-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

It was a complete accident encountering Planets from Austin, TX. I was on facebook when I noticed Architecture was playing Crown Royal Tap on Milwaukee Avenue. In looking them up was when I did the same for Planets but for some reason I thought they played already like days ago or something like that. I go to the Planets facebook page, not wanting to like what I saw or heard. You look for what not to like because it makes it easy to miss. But Planets are too awesome. So I was sad because I believed that I missed them, but Architecture was still playing and so I dried my eyes, and off I went. Driving all the way from the south side of Chicago time is usually always running against me. I get there believing that if I catch anything at all it will be good. I glance past the door guy and I see the girls from Architecture with their gear everywhere, and that confirms it. Door guy says they are just about to start, yay!!! Oh and this is about Planets. I did not know they were going to play until I looked at the merch table. Yay, again!! But, damn, I instantly regretted getting that 5$ Pizza slice at Village Pizza the Sunday before, 'cause that meant I was too broke to buy the CD. But at least I was there, and I soaked it up. They sounded so raw and punk to me live. You know how Joy Division sounded a certain way live than on studio recordings and yet we appreciate as fans these differences. I like how they sounded on their live recordings as well as the studio versions. It's the same for me in this case with Planets. There is a slight difference in translation. I don't know if that is deliberate or just me, but I like both sides of the coin. We are in an age when even the strains of rock that sought to throw out conventional sounds themselves become a kind of convention, a style as well as an era. Punk has it's origins well documented, it's OG's if you will. But those legendary bands I think do not own that name, that tag, for if they do for ever backwards our gaze will be. Not all of us were there and of age during the mid to late 70's. I'm here now and so are Planets, and I'm glad I saw them. So at first it seemed that Deborah was the lead singer but I cannot say that now. At some point they all sing lead including the drummer Liz. They got two lead guitars and one bass. I know I can further explore what I heard by listening to what's on their facebook page, since I could not buy their CD ....yet. That would delay this post for too long. I saw them, I'm happy I did and will look for them when they come back.

Bliss.city.east

2011-10-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday 20th October has me in the front of a bliss.city.east show at Latebar where Philly Peroxide DJ's for Shimmer, the main shoegaze night. I first became aware of b.c.e in 2009 on the early end of this long recession. That really feels long ago. Recession years feel like dog years. I thought that was the middle of the recession. We are still in it! They did not have a CD then and so my human memory of their individual performances had to take refuge from the weight of many other bands and their CDs that took up space in my ipod. So here we are late 2011, and I see them again just before the XD Records First Annual Showcase event at Reggies Music Joint 19 November. So Perry, b.c.e guitarist has been busy. The band went and found themselves a live drummer, but hell everyone but Perry and Kim are new to me. I remember when Ruben and Gail were in. New drummer still noteworthy because my memories are at best enshrined episodes, flashes of their more detailed narrative. I saw them on stage, that's it. I go see bands, they help best to document my own narrative in this world. It's good to have them actively in my radar, in the ipod. There's this one video they got, and their videos are awesome, and this one is because they show all these images of the depression, all of it to point out how low we have gone today. At least that's how it seems to me. This past Thursday night at Latebar finds me in front of this busy local shoegaze band with a bunch of Shoegaze Collective people. As they went on before me, I thought how difficult this night would have been to pull off in venues such as Hideout, and Empty Bottle. This is mere speculation but this night was possible because of a very dedicated few who carved out a themed night in a like-minded venue. However it happened, I am grateful. I just know it's an uphill struggle.

Anika

2011-10-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Anika was who Slowdance opened for. Anika would DJ later on somewhere else that Monday 10 October. I stayed to see how it would hit me. Ms Anika has this weird voice, real deep and kind of...well, off. There is no reason to like this girl's voice, and yet I left Empty Bottle a fan of Anika. She sounds like she's moaning. It's gonna sound like I'm taking the piss but I'm not. It's just that I see these critiques coming, or at least I think I do and I react from there. The very reasons others dislike her music are the very things I find endearing. Anika is from England and is half German. I'm not offering that as the reason why she's so damn stiff on stage, and her voice so deep and moany. Like a female Ian Curtis with a cold. Once I like a performer, I do so for every quirk they got. And for Anika, besides her voice, it was this sort of anti-stage presence, like she got on stage to ask who lost these keys. Near stoic and oblivious to the movement inducing bass guitar as if sinking into herself, not even breaking a sweat, or a smile. It was at least easier to take pictures like that. So Anika's voice does not take right away. Wait a little. These quirks take time. Look into her background. A more interesting image develops that you almost dismissed. Ms Anika was a UK Political Journalist, Science and Education Correspondent. This has the coolness of a local NPR reporter, let's say from Market Place fronting an awesome band. It gets better. In Cardiff, Wales while studying at university, she worked behind the scenes in the music industry as promoter, DJ, something Anika continues to do. Being a journalist means to me that you have this compulsion to document what you see, to provide this narrative for the world to follow. It means that you are a writer. On top of that she is a journalist for which there is no such shelter as escapism not even in her music. Now Anika worked as Political Journalist. That invites a special read into her lyrics. For this live show I remember the bass player. The guy had to sit down he was so good. I like it when they have the bass be in the front. The first language Anika actually learned was German before English. I can understand that. Spanish was my first language. It was the language of home and family. Your first language will affect how you learn and speak every other one you learn after that. Anyway, I sat on this post long enough.

Zig

Slowdance at Empty Bottle....again!

2011-10-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

I think it was this guilt for missing the Occupy Chicago marches in downtown that propelled me to not miss Slowdance open for Anika....hmm. Anika, that's another blog post. Friends of mine went to the marches that I could have met with and all but, I could not go. So I cannot speak to being there but the marches are noteworthy to me and seeing Slowdance will remind me that they occurred on the day of their Chicago appearance. Grand it could have been to go to both and witness both. I think this was the last leg of the Brooklyn band's second mini-tour. I caught both shows, yay!! I can't recall whether I downloaded their music before they came to Chicago or after. The song "Cake" I downloaded after their first Chicago appearance. The song is all in French. So every impression the song will make will be not from what it says but strictly from how it says. Momo's voice very casually rides the impatient bouncy guitars. There's really something iconically familiar about the song. It's gonna remind you of something you heard in a vague before. Like it would make weird sense if this song and band were old because then it would confirm that you did hear this song before.....you just don't know when. So for lack of better words "Cake" has this iconic impression on me. It plays in my head a lot. Its one of them songs that my mind indulges in doing so. It's so fascinating to see them on these early tours because these are the experiences that they will learn from when touring becomes part of their routine, and the tours become longer. The tours are not yet the new normal. It is quite a singular moment to catch them at this time away from their home. I guess it is a speculation what lessons they will take from these early tours. All I can do is applaud them for doing them, and be happy that this was how I encountered them, before reading about them on Venus Zine.

The Pack A. D. 6 October 2011

2011-10-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

Their last show at Empty Bottle was last year and I think it was a Free Monday, it was in support of the CD We Kill Computers. Their bluesy working class sounding aggression just felt like the right kind of engagement, reaction to these rough times. I looked them up yes, but I did not intend to see them the morning of. I find that fascinating. Not knowing what will be the soundtrack to your life, and then from around the corner there it is. The soundtrack is what contains without explicitly saying it, the memories of those moments. The music reflects back to you what happened, when. The Pack A.D. have their blues down. I'm not a blues person and it's even apparent to me. I like their use of it in all their songs. It never tires because of how fluid it's in their hands. It does not sound conventional to me. And that's a danger with a band that has strong identifiable roots that you can see spanning across all they produce, repetition. In their hands the blues are an outsider's tool they use to reinterpret rock, and dare I say blues as well. And they do it all over again with the new CD Unpersons. Still bluesy but never repetitive. I can listen to it forwards and backwards. Indeed some of the songs remind me of PJ Harvey and Queen Adreena's DJin. This is not me name dropping bands. And I'm not saying that PJ is a Delta Blues woman. She don't have to be. She does well enough being PJ. Where was I? Oh yeah blues....It's still an identifiable streak in her early work, right? Wait, where was I before that? Oh, The Pack, right. It would not occur to me to put those three artists together before, even as I love them all.

Eliza Rickman!!...Again!

2011-10-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

She has this really sweet and playful song that only gets played when she feels at ease with the audience. It kind of requires audience participation, it's called "Foot Soldiers". Eliza said, "this song is about Napoleon". Which drew giggles from her crowd. The song is on youtube...not the version she played Saturday 8 October. Audience members are given these little novelty noise makers that normally irritate but in the context of this song are brilliant. You randomly play them while the song goes on, and it totally works and you have a great time participating.

So I caught a part of her show at Whistler. I saw Eliza Rickman play her accordion as well as toy piano. Yes, I said accordion, and also I caught all of her performance at High Concept Labs just across the street from Hideout. The second time was with other musicians, a cello, violin, etc. And she played mostly from this grand piano. I don't recall that many songs from her currently available CD Gild The Lily, except for Black Rose, and I think Cold Shoulder. I like Whistler for its intimacy but often you can still hear the background noise of people talking as the musician is playing and that can be just rude especially when the artist is someone like Eliza who shows up with a toy piano and accordion. Songs like those mentioned work their catharsis when the room is filled with stillness and contemplation. Psychedelic bands like Dark Fog, Killer Moon can drown all that and impose their presence. High Concept Labs felt different. The space was bigger, had old wooden floors, couches, regular seats, nice washrooms, and an atmosphere that focused attention on the performer, very hush. It was not the place to have a casual conversation with a band in your background, your rudeness would really stick out. The place seemed well suited for a classical music performance. You don't talk over a cello, violin. Just the right space for Eliza, and there were a lot of people there to listen to her. Whistler has its merits but it can be too loud for a tiny place. As I ponder this further, it's been loud for many musicians. Aleks from Magic Key made a passing comment about this as well right to the audience but the murmur continued. It embarrassed me slightly to be in that crowd. Last year Eliza moved to L.A. I recall. This last Saturday she mentioned moving from there....she did not like living there and is happy to be away. The forth coming CD was recorded in Chicago and I can't wait for it. She has gigged Chicago a lot now that I think about it, more times than I have noted here. All the songs that she plays with violin, viola (I think) and cello will be in this new CD. I'm quite sure Eliza was happier at the HCL turnout. There was no way to predict with that slight indifference at Whistler. I hope Ms Eliza stays happy and productive. She gives a voice to silent kindred spirits.

Staring Problem

2011-10-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

So most of these are from the show at Ultra Lounge that I did catch. I have one from last Friday but that is after the Pancho show was done.

Officially, I'll have to say I missed the performance, but I did manage to chat them up a bit later. It's nice to have that, and also they released a new EP that one can download for free from their website. I hear it and it reflects well with the previous downloadable CD. Every song reflects well on the band. Every song relates to the whole. I hear Johnny Asshole seed and I want to hear Tegnology. You hear one song and you are instantly curious about what else they got. I'm glad I did not discover this in some goth themed compilation CD of bands, 'cause that would be just one song. You don't get the kind of fatigue you feel from listening to three songs at once. It's dark chocolate casual. Not deliberately but casually dark, post-punk.......the kind that print in mostly black shirts, but not seemingly interested in shaping an image. In the same company as other local acts like Walking Bicycles, at a glance they can sound like early Siouxsie....wait, wait!!! Don't roll them eyes like that. "Don't they all" you say. But if that is what gets you to listen and since they are an active band. Go see them. I'm wrong? You liked them anyway. If the name of the queen of goths......something waiting stuck in the period of....I'm always wondering what was ignored when we discovered some artist that first identifies a scene. I guess I feel that urgency for all bands I listen to and encounter. I can see Staring Problem do dark themed festivals like...Projekt, as well as a headlining gig at Empty Bottle. Really broadly speaking there are bands that just wear black because it's easier to wash clothes that way. And you can tell the singer washes that old Depeche Mode shirt in Woolite Dark.

Aleks/Eva...no...Magic Key

2011-09-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

So I saw Ms Aleks under the new band name Magic Key at Whistler this Thursday 29, September. Whistler is such a small venue, it's easy to fill the bastard to capacity. It looked that way as I was looking for parking. There was a line in front. Normally that is discouraging enough to have me go home, but I did not put on my dwindling supply of rose oil perfume for nothing. The intimacy of the place is worth the wait. I make it inside and on time, yay! Magic Key....Aleks continues to play all new songs I think including one that she wrote yesterday. I say Aleks because the rest of the band was not on stage with her. That can be a drummer.... formally known as The Drummer and perhaps one or two other musicians. For the moment we still only have the CD May A Lightning Bolt Caress You. It's just 5 tracks and so you know there is more. Rarely does she do anything from that CD. They still point in the direction of what she is doing now, you still see a distance. They can barely speak about what is to come. The new songs are as dark and urgent and more elaborate with multiple layers of sound that still carry you in a rushing current. Well, that's with a full band. On stage that last Thursday of September Ms Aleks went solo. After this performance I put her in the same company as Fielded and Telepathe. Huh? So what if I've seen them all at Empty Bottle? Fielded, in it's most ambient never bores, too tense. Aleks in this solo show has this and so the comparison. As many times as I've seen her, it's always been with a full band. The idea of a solo show at Whistler is not the same thing as Empty Bottle. I think Aleks felt a little outside that comfort zone as she seemed shy to me at first. I always go on about how cool it is that Whistler is small, but sometimes that means you can hear people talk when you don't want to, and that can bother the artist sometimes.

To this day my father listens to the classical music station, and so since my childhood I acquired this high you get from listening to classical piano. There is a rawness, a sincerity that contemporary rock and pop lacked during periods of my childhood and classical piano often was this border-less refuge. There's a point. Yes, it relates to Aleks.....before I forget. Classical piano had this singular authority in how it articulated emotion. Just with the music you felt with the weight of a narrative. The composer knowing how to weave different scenarios for conflict, and breathless climax. There is some of that in Magic Key. And where some bands seek to put you in a state of innocent wonder like some sweet shoegaze does. Magic Key seems to warn about the margins of that wonder-land, colorful but dangerous.

architecture

2011-09-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so these pictures are actually from when they played as Panda Riot in the summer of '09 I think. I did not take so many when they came back as architecture. I've seen this band perform in one way or another so many times I'm familiar with the clothes they wear. The shirt that Rebecca wears I see it on her all the time. It's not a bad thing. You see a band a few times, your going to notice some things. And I like having this familiarity with the music that I like.

Late....I know. Way after The Reader reviewed it. But I've been meaning to write about them since learning of them earlier in the year. They are Rebecca Scott and Melissa Harris. Yes class that Rebecca....from Panda Riot and Melissa briefly was in the band herself. So they are local and both musicians have a long term relationship with the Chicago music scene. I've been a fan of Panda Riot for a number of years. I've seen them gig a lot. They have a full CD and EP available, and have a good two CD's worth of material in the works. And so briefly was Melissa Harris as part of Panda Riot. As architecture they carry on this urban faerie take of dream pop with the CD when we were young. The CD has 6 songs, all brilliant. Brian Cook of PR mixed and mastered. The lyrics are clear, easy to follow, much like in Scott's other band, and so one can feel included in the mystery evoked. The other-worldly yellow brick road is paved most effectively with the girls' voices. They register just above haunting. If you are already a fan of Broadcast, Cranes..Arrghh!!!! Look them up....architecture can be for you. They sound perfect for dancing at Shimmer at Latebar, Scary Lady Sarah's monthly shoe-gaze night.

We Are Hex 2007-2011

2011-09-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

I needed an excuse to upload these, and the break up of the band is as good...or bad as it gets.

I got a facebook message saying that We Are Hex broke up and that made a lot of people sad including myself. One might roll the eyes and say "Zig there are real problems and then then there are pretend problems..... there's a recession and the unemployment rate is at over 9%. " And China may be wearing the next shoe to drop. Perhaps, but I just became aware of them this May. Somehow there is comfort to draw from the music you encounter during these dark times. Their existence more delicate still. They are of the same world and so are subject to it's whim. All three times that I saw WAH were within a span of four months, in quick succession. The sadness comes because when you like something you feel like you have liked it for ever. I've had the time now to further both CDs to find their place in the mind. The music I hear always carries with it the time-stamp of what was happening around it. The best have that long shelf-life, and I trust WAH to have it. Music is not created in a vacuum. It responds and reflects the world around it. So We Are Hex broke up and that is a sad, sad thing. That's a lot of gigs between them gigs. The last two times they did mostly new songs that were not recorded yet and apparently will remain so. I got pictures and video for all three times. And youtube has a lot of documented performances. They sounded abrasive and weird, but with a New Model Army-working-class appearance. Eerie and familiar. I love how Jilly danced. At first her movements seemed so chaotic at first, still are but now I know her movements. The energy of the music allows for no rest between sprints from gig to gig. This is not saying I know why they broke up. I do not. But they played a lot. They played everywhere, but with still a lot of nation to cover. The furthest west they went I think was SXSW.

Ami Saraiya at Hungry Brain...again!

2011-08-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Ami And The Outcome is playing Hungry Brain this Monday 22 August! I've been listening to Ami for perhaps 3 years or more. Her music plays all the time in my head, like furniture in the interior castle. I just have two CDs and an EP from her but I know her trail is far longer than I have documented. I've missed some of her shows recently and I feel bad for that. She played Whistler and I believe Schubas. I had to miss them. But her and the band gig heavily and I trusted on another performance that I could go to. And now here it is on my radar. It's always great when some of these shows are on weekdays. Monday is off-off Broadway as you are going to get. I believe the last time I saw Ami was at Hungry Brain. It was a Tuesday and she played after some stand-up comics did their thing. It was fascinating to see these people get up on stage and just talk, and make funny or just weird observations to their friends. They had the place to themselves and in the end Ami sang, not with her accordion but with a guitar. I just hope I can coordinate this show with what's going on in Empty Bottle.

Kaspar-Zig

Salem Bitch Trials

2011-08-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

I left a lot unsaid about seeing SBT. There is something so punk about them, like something forgotten from an other-world raw period. Slightly familiar but not conventional-sounding. Their existence seems in part to be fueled by strongly held beliefs that come out fierce in their Riot Grrl delivery. They have that energy that comes from a young but wizened bunch. Not juvenile. Dare I say they remind me of Daisy Chainsaw. So they got this confrontational style. The lead singer often throws herself into the crowd, shoving people lightly but sternly. It's not really bad, its actually quite fun to have this 90 pound chic acting like 150 breaking that fourth wall. One song that I recall hearing and it's on their 5 song EP Sexual Assault Causes Impotence is ....interesting. I mean who isn't against sexual assault, right? Yet even after that consensus, it still happens. I think that is the source of their righteous anger. After one gig at Reggies, the girls were actually assaulted by some asshole at their merch table. He was bounced out but....ok, that's not rape but here is this huge jerk that has no problem wanting to beat on girls a third his size. Let's say I don't trust further this bastard's boundaries or lack there of. So righteous anger seems part of the engine of the being of Salem Bitch Trials. In their aggression you can tell they still have fun and can handle the chaos they produce. You have to when you have songs like "Eat My Pussy". Look at me, I said "their" anger. It is not just theirs. It should be everyones. As they performed this, the lead singer drifts into what seems to be a lecture in the middle of the song ignoring the beat of the music. This is something she would do again in another song and it seems to work for me, because it's that raw punk passion combined with a sense of purpose that spills over. Not her dress. It held together well. She didn't want to spill out of that. That is significant because it shows that she is not oblivious in the moment of performance. I like the EP I got and look forward to seeing them again.

We Are Hex/Killer Moon

2011-08-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Notice the Joy Division shirt on the drummer!
They played new music that Friday night. We Are Hex are playing what they will eventually record I think in California, tour there up and down and then eventually back in Chicago I don't know when.
I feel a tribal affinity with local bands, midwestern bands. We always seem to feel we don't get enough respect from the coasts. Like too much attention goes to them. And so too many want to go live there to chase the weirdness. We forsake the mouth for the source. We are that source. Our various scenes are a wonder to behold like an oasis you forgot was there.

So, my dear friends Killer Moon were invited to open for this show at Treasure Town this past Friday 12 August. They were invited by Rabble Rabble the headliner. The two other bands were Cool Memories and We Are Hex. When I found out I was glowing like Robert Deniro in Goodfellas. One of my own was about to get made. Killer Moon was going to share a stage with We Are Hex! And it was at a squat. The same building as Mortville. Treasure Town is on the second floor. Mortville is on the third. The third floor has the availability of the roof you can where you can just chill and smoke and have this view of the working class urban backside of Chicago. Add to that the novelty of using this former work space for art and music, making this lonely old building cool again. The problem is that it's the third floor, one has to consider the logistics of hauling heavy equipment up and then down again. Treasure Town is mercifully on the second. To see friends of mine (Killer Moon) open for bands that I am a fan of is pinch me fabulous. It's outward validation of something that you internally support. And we are still using this old building in a shady south-side neighborhood. It's really odd to have Empty Bottle-type of hipsters that far south. It takes quite a lot of gravity to get them to go south. The only thing open is this gas station across the viaduct. The Pink Line is right there but closed....I think. For Killer Moon it was a second chance at a good performance in front of a good crowd. The previous Whistler gig was a disaster. I watched helplessly from the merch table....we now had shirts. I could not understand. I've seen them drink far more and with greater potency without them losing it. Strictly listening to the id would have me go see The Prids at Darkroom for free that same night. The id is a dick! But KM I'm close to, enough to feel a need to be there for them. At the last minute Killer Moon was hooked up by Rabble Rabble to play this gig with them and We Are Hex. KM needed this and I wanted them to succeed, to show their mettle in front of bands that I'm a fan of. Amaris and Jilly in the same picture means a capture of many converging moments. My friends got to play in front of big bands!

Slowdance at Empty Bottle

2011-08-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

This is Quay-Quin Settel. That can be on a shirt, just her name can be the name of a band, or perhaps is how I say it in my head. Anyway so she is the lead singer of Slowdance. This was when they played Empty Bottle, last Monday 1st August. They were the headliners. And this was their first real tour. They are from Brooklyn. I sometimes can't believe my luck. I wasn't even rushing to see this, I was just killing me some stray Monday night time, and that included my initial half-assed research on them.
I'm still writing my impressions of the show down with more pictures later. When you know that this is their first time touring, you look at them differently. They are more you than that professional band they are becoming. Touring means real commitment, and the first tour is that one plunge into that commitment. I wanted the momentum of this experience to encourage them to come back again.
The modest audience that was there were indeed impressed. I didn't ask around, but that was the vibe of the room. I didn't spend too much precious seconds figuring out the crowd, I was just that zoned out on watching Slowdance....alright just Quay, but that is allowed. I mean she was singing.
They are just about to release their EP, but meanwhile there are two songs that are free to download. Once you hear them you will want to see them the next time they tour.

Bliss.city.east

2011-08-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

This was a band I would see live a lot around two, three years ago. And with some really good company. They shared a stage with Renee Louise Carafice, and fellow urban faeries Magnetars, Panda Riot, Rosen Association, but there was never a CD available until just recently. The first time I saw them I think was at Mutiny, the CD I listen to now enshrines the crazy visual of a pregnant Kim in this ultra-sound shirt of a baby giving the middle finger. That was crazy and commands attention at least long enough to listen and be impressed, and then finally to induce one into becoming this rabid fan. WIth some bands you are lucky if the process of discovery is unique, as is Kim's pregnancy. It's a special significance to see bliss.city.east perform with this automatic time stamp. Now they are parents and now this CD. How many times are you going to witness that? Your parents are rock stars kid. I want you to know.

Love Rockets has this medium pace, alert and active with beats and Kim's voice floating over and in no rush. Like Panda Riot they have this way of infusing the moment with euphoric wonder. It's source urban with familiar instruments, I mean guitar, bass, drums. I say urban because it's important to note the landscape the mind can take. There's other-worldly and spacey, and then there's urban wonder. And so whatever pace you are good with. You are reduced to a fucking tourist and b.c.e are the tour guides. I can drive to it, I can dance to it. Each song repeats the feeling without retreading any other song. I was re-sold with each one from love rockets, first to the last.

Slow Dance

2011-08-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

On a whim I checked out on-line what was going on at Empty Bottle and found out about Slow Dance on a Free Monday. They were the headliner. I downloaded their free songs and went to their show. I was too broke to buy anything or even get past the door so I'm glad the night was free. It turns out their EP is due out soon, so that means that they will be back....one hopes. So there will be another chance to get the shirt that I saw as well as the EP. This was I believe their first time performing in Chicago.

I go to the Bottle a lot, and even if I don't see familiar faces, I see familiar types. You don't dress up that much for Empty Bottle. It's way too casual. I did not see anyone I knew, but in retrospect I wonder if the same process as I got them there. Or was it the other bands. Slowdance headlined but that can often mean a much thinner crowd by the time it's your turn on stage. Unless they really came to see you. So the crowd was indeed modest and at first spread out. Eventually some would concentrate in front. Their website says to go see them outside of their element which probably makes this the first tour out of their native Brooklyn. A lot excellent music comes out of there. I've never been to Brooklyn, and so the more I hear that place in the context of the music that comes out of there, the more mythological it seems to me. It's quite the shoegaze mecca. There is indeed a feel of that with Slowdance. It's moodiness is gray but not dark. Not real foggy like shoegaze. There's an alertness that almost is giddy. In researching them I heard comparisons to Debbie Harry from Blondie, and Nena w/99 luftbaloons. And that's about right, and it saves me from over-using my shoegaze crayon. I had no idea the lead singer Quay was this lovely. I noticed her before walking around but I did not know she was in the band. Her form-fitting outfit was simple, like she couldn't be bothered to change after waking. Ms Q is much too hot. She just is and so what if I noticed. If you look up the band you will discover that Ms Quay-Quin Settel is referred to with another name on Facebook, Momo. Ms QQS is the most well traveled member of the entire band. I think she's from California originally and has lived in France during grammar school.

We Are Hex at Abbey Pub

2011-08-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ever since seeing We Are Hex earlier this year at Empty Bottle I've been devouring Hail The Goer. But one can say it's devouring me. And I'm still riding the effects of seeing them live that first time and now I got to see them again. Jilly is a crazy energetic performer on stage, and way cool of stage. The energy is spent after the show and so she's cool. The music is such that it's kind of required for you to go ape-shit. And Jilly does. She bounces around the stage, at Empty Bottle she went into the crowd. This time at the Abby there were not enough people. It's really not on them, the band. People are lazy with the music they listen to. So in a way, I'm elitist by default. So this second time I saw them coming and now I have all these songs that I now want to hear and see live. Scary Lady Sarah DJ'd that night and so it was nice to see her and William there. She always knows of bands ahead of time....always. A lot of music I listen to is filtered through her. SLS knows my taste well before I even enter the room. The show begins to a modest crowd. I believe this time they played from Gloom Bloom the CD before. Wait....I do believe Jilly said they are playing new music. I just love how Jilly moves, it fits right into the chaotic mess her band creates. She bounces, throws herself around and sticks her tongue out the side. All this just comes out instinctively. It's like Jilly learned to dance by feeling the music and reacting to it from the gut. It amazes me how often they gig.

You can't half-ass it, and they've been performing a lot. We Are Hex are workhorses. So whenever you see them live, know that the performance you saw is something they pulled out of themselves the day before and will do again the next day. The first time there was no sense of anticipation to urge me to go see them. I was just saving myself from a boring Monday night. So my expectations were modest at best. Rabble Rabble was the headliner and they always pack the place. I stayed for them. But my curiosity compelled me to see WAH. I believe they played a lot from Hail. It's impressive how separate the songs are from each other. By the time I reach "Cutter/Giver" I'm not thinking about how similar it sounds to like two three other songs. My attention is firmly and entirely on each song as they play and that's because that is how compelling each song is on it's own. Don't let the dirt in here" has this part that Jilly starts in mid-song from a languish to a shriek chasing you and the rest of the Ghost Adventures crew out of that abandoned hospital. "There's gotta be something more!!" is the battle cry that repeats until exhausted....it's probably the only time I think I know what Jilly says. They don't tread on the same paths. Garage rock becomes just one side this band has. They got that pre-harnessed primal energy of garage rock. But they got multiple speeds, they can slow down in mid-song. You catch your breath, and enjoy the wonder. The way you do when you see a string of abandoned homes and wonder at how they got that way. It's not airy/fairy stuff. The scary fascinates. And then you don't know what to call them. Garage rock becomes the most eye catching thing to call it, but not the only thing.

Ringo Death Star

2011-07-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

It felt like a long time since I've seen Ringo Death Star. Awesome name for a band. This was my first time. I think it was for a mid-week shoegaze fest that Scary Lady Sarah had at Darkroom. My friend Philly Peroxide or Scary Lady Sarah posted a song from them at The Shoegaze Collective. I believe the song was "Summertime". I loved the song but when you have withering funds, you don't even want to window shop, but there they are on my radar, and then there I was in front of them. They were promoting the CD Colour Trip. Well, at least that's what I came home with. Even as I researched them my first impression is still this live performance. I did not share in the anticipation that my friends had for them. It was just so apparent I had to trust in their word, in their natural enthusiasm. I said shoegaze right? They were loud and had the engine of punk. But not the anger. In retrospect RDS remind me of Asobi Seksu only with a breathy male vocalist. I gotta say this, the bass player Alex was lovely. She sang as well. So there I am in front of her, and I'm really digging the band. They bring that wonder that naturally comes with the gray fog of shoegaze only they don't just walk you through it, casually, aimlessly. There is an urgent force driving you through that fog. Live, you would not know this as shoegaze. Such bands usually don't inspire mosh-pits but Ringo Death Star did....alright with two, three people. They even let some of the audience play the guitar. Normally this looks like the show is devolving out of control, the band goofing off and all. But apparently they knew what they were doing, and were in full control of their performance.

Austra

2011-07-27T01:21:00.000-07:00

So on the weekend of Pitchfork I saw Austra for the first time at Empty Bottle. They are this dark-sounding electro band. Wait, Wait.....I said Empty Bottle. Their darkness is incidental and not deliberate so as to not scare off the indy crowd. They are but one Bauhaus shirt away from being a goth-electro band and that would almost put us all in Darkroom. They weren't taking their chances. The two back up singers were roughly dressed alike. The one closest to me appeared to have this unibrow but it's just her make up. My gaze kept steering towards her, because that struck me as so Frida Kahlo. I liked how she danced. She had real stage presence. There is something that feels original about Austra. Lyrics are thoughtful and thought provoking. You can just take out certain phrases as sound bites, but that's for later when you got the CD and lyrics to read. Perfect for goth-clubbing. I mean this is something Neo can really abuse. Very electronic sounding and yet I see all these conventional instruments. Still I'm no musician. The lead singer Katie Stelmanis I assume had this way of dancing. Her hands moved like a witch conjuring something scary from ......something more scary. She wore this gold thing. The crowd was huge for them but I don't recall anyone dancing. I'm still working through the songs. I'd rather post the pictures now rather than wait for the words to describe them to come out.

Salem Bitch Trials

2011-07-26T03:50:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday 21 July I saw Salem Bitch Trials, a local riot grrl inspired female-fronted punk band on a mission. They played the fourth floor in this place called Multikulti near the corner of Augusta and Milwaukee. I missed them this one time at Reggies, so it was a mission for me to see them this time. At Reggies I bought the music and shirt and that compelled me to go on time to this gig. SBT is awesome. I'll write more on them as I collect the words.

They are about the message, the mission as much about the music. It was not my intention to use alliteration...sorry. Right from the name Salem Bitch Trials you know the band exists because they see something wrong with the world and they intend to see this wrong corrected. OK, now I'm gone.

Staring Problem

2011-07-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

As I listened on the ipod and became familiar with their music, I felt the sting of missing them that one Wednesday night at Whistler. The void of that moment you fill with an idealized portrait, made more vivid for being absent for it. Well I didn't entirely miss Staring Problem. I bought the tape and downloaded their music, got two pictures of the band. Between then and this time at Ultra I was becoming this fan of Staring Problem. It wasn't just me seeking songs out on the ipod. The songs play randomly in my head as well. Tegnology got my attention first, but now it's more. And each song strikes differently it's own resonant imprint without sounding too familiar. That's the thing. It has to be familiar for it to resonate to begin with....most of the time. And they have their influences. But it does not feel like they are treading too closely to them. They have just the right sense of urgency in the bass. Urgency that is expressed fast or slow, balanced with a casual vocal delivery.

Its a wonder for me to see this live in a small place. Staring Problem is from Carbondale, Il. I'm always curious about where a band comes from because I see them as perhaps indicative of what can exist there. So this makes me curious about Carbondale. In researching the band I ran into a little something about Carbondale. That they have one of the oldest "basement scenes". Instantly I want to spend a week there just to know that for myself.

I noticed how Pictures Of Morrissey In Jake's Locker was a little faster live, as if they saved a little something for the live dynamic performance. I didn't notice anyone dancing that night at Ultra, but everyone seemed concentrated on them. This is the kind of post-punk( if I may call it that) does induce movement. Empty Bottle material. Goth-club material. This is something goths can dance to, something we can assume as our own. I notice how gender neutral Lauren's voice....feels to me, not sounds...feels. How do I explain that? It's not that ....girly sounding. Having said that. I do like "girly", but that is not what I find here. A feminine voice yes, and fronting a band that gets comparisons to Interpol on youtube. It's noteworthy the calls to tour Europe. I believe a female voice can indeed speak for a male point of view. Just listen to Anna Calvi sing "I'll Be Your Man". It totally works.

So I walk into Ultra Lounge knowing who I will see. The place is bigger than Whistler. It's divided into two rooms. It was my first time there. This place Ultra Lounge is within walking distance of other venues I've been in. Its on Milwaukee Ave close to Whistler and Coles. The Congress is also right there. Well, Ultra is the one closest to Congress. I actually liked the band before them but that's for another post. There was a good, attentive crowd. I noticed right away the Depeche Mode T-shirt on Lauren(?). I had this shirt years ago. It is no common high school relic. It represents an influential band during an impressionable time. So this DM shirt Lauren wears evokes some strong memories, what can I say. I wear band shirts all the time. I can't wear what I don't know or don't like...perhaps I'm just projecting.

Moritat

2011-07-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

Moritat headlined this show with Pezzettino. So it's not that often when three musicians that you like are in the same room. I say three because I include Julie Meckler. She did not perform but her appearance is noteworthy for me. My expressionist-film dream-sets can cast these three together easily, sure, but it's nice to see the stars arrange themselves into the constellations we observe. I've always liked how Venus plays the keyboard. It's different from what I normally look for. Aleks/Eva, Kristeen Young, Amanda Palmer, these are keyboardists that are individually dramatic, over-the-top, aggressive and urgent to express their point. All this has the common link of wanting to be observed. The keyboard sounds from Moritat are relaxed and in no rush to tell you anything. The other bands build towers, Moritat builds you a finished basement. The keyboard is deep, relaxed but not boring or slow and lethargic. So the music catches your attention without seeming to want it. That is how Moritat has hooked me with a lot of their songs. And yes Venus does indeed play guitar. If you follow the band you know that her comfort level is with the keyboard. She learns the guitar well. I'm just a fan what do you expect me to say. It's like PJ Harvey suddenly wanting to play guitar.

Moritat and Pezz!

2011-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

It's not all the time when music that plays in the mind all the time. Bands that only seem to share space in your head, in a dream you half remember suddenly scheduled to play a venue...in real life is awesome. This text can easy come off like a dream, only we are removing the characters from the Magical-Realist/Expressionist film sets of my mind and on the stage at Double Door. Pezzettino and Moritat in the same night. With Julie Meckler in the audience. I always see Julie at a Moritat show. She is friends with Venus the singer/keyboardist. When you know the musicians in the room you see the potential for cross-influencing. I'm a civilian. The most out of me is I'll buy merch when I can afford it. Which is enough for me. Margaret Stutt is originally from Milwaukee. She plays accordion. I've known of her since...at least 2008. I've been to many of her shows. Her lyrics are direct like dialogue to a play, they paint a picture with what is left unsaid like in Walk From Here from the CD Lion. She expresses her righteous anger and then pulls over and dumps the guy out. What is left unsaid, that she maybe driving a car. Pezzettino turns around what can be awkward situations into your most articulate moments. Her finesse is in counter-punching. A common arch is the point of view of one who is wronged somehow and so when live her flashes of anger, sadness, seem raw and unrehearsed. These flashes the blues it took to write her songs. The tax to her heart. When Pezz visits these powerful moments, she does not seem to shield herself with an articulated, polished front. Lyrics hit her and you see it, and you feel what ever she tells you to feel, because now you are included in the moment. She played a lot of new unrecorded material. I don't recall much from Lion. Some old songs were retouched. Pezzettino...Margaret also plays keyboard and for some shows I've seen her play a xylophone. Not for this night, but it's worthy to mention her capacity. I'll post on Moritat Next.

The Rosen Association

2011-06-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

Ah, how different the world was to me when I first saw them at Mutiny two years ago. So I saw this band again during Scary Lady Sarah's midweek shoegaze fest. Darkroom is no stranger to The Rosen Association. Any chance I get to see these guys in a small venue I take it. They are scheduled next to play The Whistler in July, another tight squeeze. You see a band under a certain tag like shoegaze and you perhaps filter out those that are repulsed by the description or even just the term. But you concentrate the fans that you have. And I saw a lot of people for Rosen. There is a certain bunch of goths that will go to industrial, goth, shoegaze, dark, indy stuff. They see the same big picture that I have, I believe. The thing about the name shoegaze is that it does not attract goths alone. It gets the people that don't normally go to a goth/industrial/deathrock event. And thats cool. Friends of mine from Panda Riot were there. I've been running into them a lot as of late. They've been busy too. Oh yeah, we are on Rosen Association. The big difference is that now I have the merch, the shirt, the download. The familiarity you get when you can take the music with you makes seeing them live a different experience. More pictures, less video. I tend to soak up the experience more than documenting them with video. I must have seen them at Darkroom three times. So what can I say on them? This band had support from the crowd. We goths love to dance, and we love to support our bands. So we danced as they played the songs we anticipated and a new song. "Emergency Broadcast", and "Drones" are great to dance to. Rosen is more on the electronic end of the shoegaze continuum. Well, maybe I'm just thinking that because Erin plays keyboard........wait, her name is Rachel? Since when? I've been calling her the wrong fucking name? How embarrassing!

GA'AN

2011-06-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from the Ga'an show at Empty Bottle. "No, that's Fielded, I mean she's wearing the same shorts". Well yes, and that's because it's all Lindsey. I'm not taking the piss. I just notice these things when I see a band with some frequency. I've seen Rebecca Scott from Panda Riot in three different outfits 6 different times. Angela from Sybris has this butchy flannel shirt that she looks amazing in. She's worn it with Coins and Sybris. So I was looking for these pictures of the Ga'an performance. I guess I will review the songs I downloaded later. Right now I want to document the performance, the dim memory of it will be refreshed with frequent listening of the downloaded songs. The biggest departure between Fielded/Ga'an is that in Ga'an there is another musician. Right away I can't see many other departures as with Coins/Sybris. This is more like Panda Riot/Architecture. I mean it's still the same lead singer with a vehicle that allows for the same intensity from this lead singer. And it's all awesome. In the immediate future I shall be more familiar with this project of Ms Lindsey. I bought the shirt and downloaded the songs but it's a live performance that crashed the walls and into the interior castle.

Staring Problem

2011-06-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

The Staring Problem post will be stuck way back in April, but I want to post the one other picture to bring more attention to that original post. And it's the only other picture I got of them. If bands and their music are the vehicles that help us explore the interior castle of the mind. This three-piece band is quite the muscle car. I know the bands that we consider iconic get that way over years. As I feel for every band that I post something of, I want Staring Problem to have that same kind of subcultural status. I want for them to be able to quite their jobs over this.

EULA

2011-06-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is who I saw while trying to go see Architecture, Rebecca Scott's other band besides Panda Riot. This was at Subterranean 22 April, a Friday I think. I was too late from them as Brian from Panda Riot told me as he was having a smoke outside. I almost didn't walk in but he mentioned in passing EULA. I said fuck it. So this is something I almost missed. Knowing that makes you appreciate what you find and what finds you. So, EULA is indeed the find that almost didn't happen. They are from New Haven, CT. Based on some blogs I read about them, there is a scene hidden and self-contained. EULA where here promoting their latest Maurice Narcisse. It's not the only thing out, but it was the only thing I could afford. I remember a lot of bands played that night, that I liked. But you can only take home so much. EULA is something I took home and was accidentally on time for. As they were setting up nothing about them suggested how awesome and crazy they would sound to me. They were so casual setting up and so sweet and cool to talk to afterwards. I talked to lead guitarist/singer Alyse Lamb and bass player Jeff Maleri, but that's later after they made me a fan. At the moment when they were setting up, I was still angry at myself for missing Architecture. The drummer from Panda Riot next to me knew who he was about to see and so I trusted this. Loyalty, or frequent observation of your local bands pays off in what they discover along their tours, and what they bring back. If I recall correctly, EULA came because of their relationship with members of Panda Riot. It's been taking me forever trying to describe the music. Where do I start aside from saying I'm a rabid if new fan. There is nothing formulaic about them, nothing that sounded too familiar, which is the case with most of what I dislike. When they telegraph what they say, or how they say before they say it and it sounds like a vague trend unaware of itself. EULA tripped no such wire in my head. This band with it's aggression in the bass, guitar and drums just imprinted a parking spot onto my memory. EULA are not relaxed, casual. They are ready and aggressive, and having fun with it. I'll post a hmm...review of Maurice Narcisse when my writing is not so blocked.

Zig.

Fielded

2011-06-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

The venue was as fascinating as the artist performing in it. And the girl behind Fielded has all kinds of projects going. On this Wednesday night, 1st June Lindsey is Fielded. The Monday night at Empty Bottle she was playing under Ga'an. This artist has more work than I can catch up with, that I'm often too broke to catch up with.
I'm trying all day to describe her work without using the word dark. Can't do it. Her work can be a deep look into a ....wait for it....dark restless waters. Her definition of ambient are clouds of fumes waiting for that inevitable spark.

You know if you like a band...if going to concerts is your currency....the cultural capital being music, some people like going to see movies, sports. I suppose in some way we seek on the outside what is reflected inside. What you go see can clock you somehow. I see my local culture manifest in music. Our common experiences captured in it's amber. It's not frivolous escapism for me and while we are at it. Escapism isn't frivolous either. We seek our troubadours to play the soundtrack of our lives. The better to help us write our own narratives. And so their existence is noteworthy. As are the places they lead us into.

So I heard of this place named Mortville. It's in Little Village. 2106 S Kedzie. Wednesday night I go there to see Fielded. It will be my third time under that name. Why this third time. The place always changes the context of the performance. Mortville seemed to be a factory once. The area around it still seems dangerous and thuggish, gang infested. This building does nothing to call attention to itself, its right near a viaduct. I think the pink line is right there. The only clues are the lights flashing from the windows at night during a show, and the faint music that you can hear from the viaduct. So they are not hiding. I park my car in a well lit street. It's emptiness erie, like I'm expecting more people walking outside. It's near 26th street. Places like Empty Bottle, Hideout have their own signature cult-status. And they are establishments. Mortville is different. There is something defiant if only passively about having a band as intense as Fielded in these lonely places that ran out of their previous usefulness. I guess it's no different than holding a rave, only the people to see Ms Lindsey are far too chill. Mortville's edge is that it feels like a squat, all ages. It's in a shady south-side area. Normally all ages venues invite the type of youth normally seen in malls, the lowest common smartness. But once inside, the people are no different than Empty Bottle. In fact I saw quite a few from there.

I follow like four people up this narrow winding stairs, poorly lit and clearly made for the waistlines of generations past. I pay the cover. People are free to smoke inside. I've seen people carry in their own beer. I've seen cats and dogs walk around. They were raising chickens in one well lit side room. You can chill on the roof, and there's a view of the El stop. You get a good view of the backside of Chicago, it's functional working-class side. One can plan where they can park for next time. You get this feeling that you are redefining the use for the building by holding all these shows. In the context of a performance space you turn the mundane wondrous, like a view from the roof. Fielded is finally on. By now I'm familiar with her religious delivery. I mean I like it enough to go to a rough area. If you like bands like Telepathe, Ryat, look up Fielded. When she is described as ambient, that does not mean boring, self-indulgent. Her ambient is a thin film of tension that threatens to break just around the corner. In one of her songs the electricity shorted everything out in mid-song, but it came back within seconds. So Lindsey works herself into this state where her eyes are open but they seem to look internally. Just the same, don't lock eyes with her. Her intense stare is that of old clergy driving the demons out. Sweat observable on her face. Fielded moves with the body-language of a street preacher, her hands gripping the mic or sticking straight out. She feels it, so you feel it. Her clothes are always casual....well she did wear heels for that show in Hideout. The intensity and dramatic rises and falls in performance are in the keyboards. She loops together parts with her voice. The repetitions have this engine to them. I cannot remember specifically which songs. And so I am a fan of Fielded/Ga'an/Ms Lindsey. I had to say hi before I leaving. She remembered my name. That always feels nice.

Zig

Anna Calvi at long last

2011-05-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Rather than write this one out slow, for now I want to post these pictures up to document her appearance here in Chicago. There was a massive attentive audience for her that Saturday night. I think that is as small as her crowd can get from now on. I think people there were left mesmerized by her. You don't get an audience that big for nothing. It wasn't packed but you really couldn't get to the front without being an asshole.
Not that I asked around, but that many people in I believe your first Chicago performance can graduate you to a bigger venue next time...right? Phantogram sold out Schubas and then they did Lincoln Hall.

I first heard about her on the Rocker Paris blog. After that her name just stayed in the background. The research of her name just came to me. My antenna was already tuned into listening. I noticed how young she is versus how old she sounds. She is only 27-28? Her guitar skills are like 48. The most interesting man in the world has a very interesting niece, and its all for her own reasons. AC's voice sounds so deep and womanly when singing. During interviews her voice retreats to girly mode. Her music sounds worldly and smooth. All these are little things but they get you to listen and the music starts to imprint on you. It's no wonder that she would share a stage with Nick Cave. There is this inexplicable maturity and coolness to her music. Like they were written by someone older. Some people just have it this maturity ahead of their years and it shows in the music, in whatever they choose to express themselves in. They don't need years of experience to come off in that way. You have to see her play guitar. All this and seeing her live was so remote a possibility. You don't actually want it. I mean there are so many things, bands that are from the U.K. that I want to see, that I may never see. One more does hurt in that way. Here and there some make their way here. Anna Calvi played Schubas Saturday 28 May and the turnout for her was big. I don't think it sold out but I gave up going to the front of the stage. People just stayed in their place and watched. We applauded long enough to get her to do an encore. I bought her debut CD and I'm into it. You hear a female voice, but her voice can completely speak credibly from a male point of view. So when she says "I'll be your man" it's as macho as Nick Cave.

We Are Hex

2011-05-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Rabble Rabble did this Free Monday at Empty Bottle 23 May. They are this local band with a growing audience. I've seen them before. These guys whip their crowd into a moshing frenzy. They are awesome live, and I'm not just saying that because the drummer is hot...she is, I'm sorry. So I stayed for them. Part of what got me to go was this band We Are Hex. They are from Indianapolis, I believe. I looked them up on line and liked what I saw, but that did not prepare me for seeing them on stage. I listened to a song of theirs half-assed. And each minute I gave to whatever song sunk me deeper...nice, next song.....What time are they playing? That's casual decision-making thats scary, because it could have gone the other way. Two weeks before I did not know We Are Hex. Now I feel like an idiot for not knowing ahead of time. My friend TJ knew them. My long-range radar only had Anna Calvi for Saturday 28 May on the horizon. I had no expectation for the Monday before. I was barely aware of it, and so no expectation for it. Nothing special urging me to get there on time yet I was driving like I needed to not be late. So I'm glad I made it on time because this band was crazy. The lead singer went mental on stage. We Are Hex are loud, dark and crazy. Loud, well they nearly blew my ear-drums out. Dark, each song has it's own monster in the closet. Sometimes these monsters come out and chase you and the Ghost Adventures crew out of that haunted house you wanted to kill time in. Did I say they were loud? But once I plugged my ears, I was good. I wanted to be right in front of the stage bouncing around like Jilly. So I bought two of their CDs Hail The Goer, Gloom Bloom and I have not stopped hearing them since. I'm gonna need some time to better describe the moment of seeing them and hearing them. For now I got some pictures to show about the small wonders I beheld.

...and before then Panda Riot

2011-05-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

So Panda Riot did another Free Monday Night at Empty Bottle. These guys are no strangers to the Bottle. Yet, it always seems like they have to introduce themselves as if no one knew them already. I see them there all the time and take pictures, it's to gut need to document, archive the regular performances of the local scene. I suppose I need to follow around this familiar soundtrack. It's not enough to carry it conveniently on CD or ipod. It's a comfort thing. When you're broke there's a relief to see there is nothing new you will be compelled to buy. And another part of me wants to support them. The crowd always seems either new or far too familiar to be bothered to move. It was hard to read these dry people. Not as many gathering near the stage, but in the back sitting down. Still I don't think they were being ignored. Parking was hard for a reason. Before playing Rebecca Scott puts blue warpaint on all the band members. They've been doing this ritual before every performance. They have two CD's She Dares All Things....where the fuck is that other one...any way there are two and they are playing new music. Their music ranges from trip-hop to shoegaze. I got both CD's and I'm still discovering new things to like about this "old" music. So here are some pictures from when it was still new.

...lately Moritat

2011-05-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

My favorite bands I see a lot. I try to see regularly. A real fan is an old fan. It's cool to see the changes from performance to performance. It's also cool to see what stays, what is worn multiple times, etc. And then there are the surprises the familiar can throw at you. Moritat, I saw last week after missing them for like three times. Venus has this way with the keyboard. My first time seeing the band had this song that reminded me of the theme song to The Peanuts, Charlie Brown and all. There was a reason why I liked the song apart from the cartoon. The coolness of that piano Venus captured it. This sentiment that I usually identify with jazz piano,..this bullfighters coolness that plays for itself first, does not feel the need for attention from you. This was the first light that attracted me to Moritat, the deep cool keyboard was just the beginning. They make music that is this moving, evolving target. This animal is often seen grazing trip-hop lands, but we have yet to map it's entire habitat. So I saw the band at Beat Kitchen and at some point here's Venus playing guitar, that was awesome. You know with PJ Harvey, it was impacting to see her one day switch to piano after identifying with the guitar for so long. It was the same thing with Moritat's Venus. I can only see her behind the keyboard before this. Or at least I was identifying her too exclusively to one instrument.

Oh and it was nice to see Julie Meckler out supporting Moritat. Bravo all.

Fielded

2011-05-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

Fielded at Hideout. I saw her once before at Empty Bottle, and she remembered me, yeay! Her myspace page lists her as acapella, ambient, gospel, minimalist. I can see all of that when she plays live. On bandcamp or Facebook the word "goth" is thrown into the description. I knew there was a reason to like this band. It's actually one person. She's an intense performer on stage and sweet and relaxed off. Ms Lindsey is not really tall and so it's hard to see her behind this wall of keyboards and electronic equipment she has. Babe for a minimalist you sure don't travel light. And yet I can see how minimalist fits into her description. Fielded does not lean too heavily on the electronics. She breathes this organic life into it. Her voice is a major instrument in her arsenal, her songs are so dramatic. For the moment it's in the delivery of what she says, the how that provokes in the listener. So it's kinda nice to see Lindsey get to the front of the stage. The intensity switches on and her eyes just burn through you. You can see the sweat off her forehead. Every word has delivery to it. Her hand often sticks straight out like a preacher with a Bible in the other hand. I'm glad we have her happily wallowing in the sin infested secular world. The performance seems like a ritual for herself, like she just sinks into a trance or a state, far from us, and right in front of us. The night would have been more perfect if I made it on time for Verma who I believe played that night but Fielded did not bore. I wish there were physical CDs to buy. I'm still ass backwards that way. Damn, I've been sitting on this damn post for too long.

Property Of Saints

2011-04-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Property Of Saints I saw last Wednesday. They were awesome. Natalie Grace Alford opened but I missed her set completely. So I was pissed about that. Still I have to balance that with seeing P O S. I have yet to find the right words to describe them. They were curious fun to watch and hear. They will play again I believe 12 May at Elbo Room and 31 May at Empty Bottle. They are Abby on guitar, Christie on bass and Carlos Zapata on drums. Ms Christie did her best to not look like Amelia Earhart, bouncing around with her bass and all. Someone I think told her about the resemblance and she announced this on stage. So now I gotta stop myself from saying Amelia instead of Christie. Take the aviation goggles and run with them, Ms Christie. That would be so steam-punk! While I ponder on how to describe them, here they are. Look them up.

Bands I saw

2011-04-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

Normally I wait so long to write my experience with each band, how they sounded live and how they sound on CD/ipod. It urges me to write about the bands because its my way of acknowledging their existence. A lot of the human experience is captured in music. It's the amber that captures our timely reaction to the contemporary, and local. What we were about then and what we can still be is captured in the music we listen to and identify with. All music starts local, it is about the world within your horizon. Sometimes it resonates across to others. Takes a life of its own while putting your local culture on the map. We identify with what we listen to. If you are a fan and not a musician it's about finding what resonates......anyway so these following bands I saw deserve a huge write up, a proper document of seeing them, and pondering on them later. With the speed in which I write, that is a fucking bottle neck that takes for ever and takes away some of the edge of writing with that urgency. Anyway here are some of the bands that I saw and deserve more attention than you know just me. The girl at the top with the guitar is Mckenzie Toma. She headlined Beat Kitchen Thursday 28th April and the show included Girls Of The New South. The audience was small, less than 20. I was fascinated with Ms Toma, just her and her guitar. Next is Lindsey who goes by her band name Fielded . Her contemporaries include Ryat Phantogram and Telepathe because of her own organic weaving of beats, keyboard and vocal effects. She just headlined a show at The Hideout Friday 29th April. The audience for Fielded was large and attentive. I will write more on these, and post more pictures.

Staring Problem

2011-04-03T09:46:00.001-07:00

I caught this band at Whistler......ok not really. I missed their entire set but I bought their cassette and downloaded the songs from their band camp site . I took two pictures of the whole band. Lauren was kind in gathering her bandmates Alix and Jake. The following subjective impressions of the 8 song self-titled debut I hesitate to call a review. I don't presume that kind of authority. I just got all kinds of praise for this band. Staring Problem are from Carbondale, Il.. Upon hearing them they sunk in effortlessly and casually. There was this parking spot right there in the id waiting. They are this casual post-punk muscle car. They just kind of cruise. There is this casual attitude carried along with the urgency. I liked the songs so much it really hurt not seeing them perform. I was sold on them before even entering Whistler. But I downloaded the songs after I met them.....alright, so I become familiar with their debut later in the car, ipod. I like the voice immediately as if part of my mind can speak with it. I know Whistler and so this picture cannot help but impose itself. I did not catch the live show, and so I'll assume the voice is Lauren's . I don't always follow what she says, that's actually hard to do. And to really listen to what is said turns on the analytical part of the brain. I want to enjoy this band first, blindly identify with them. The words will mean something in time. For now the voice is just another instrument, but one that represents you negotiating between the guitar and the bass. They have this casual bass-heavy, dark, post-punk delivery, but not the gloomy depressing baggage that gets people from liking post-punk, goth sounding bands. What I mean with that is, if it's not in you to dress in black, you can still like Staring Problem. And if black is still your thing then so is Staring Problem. They list as part of who they thank Christian Death, and Robert Smith, and that's awesome 'cause those names also resonate with me. And it got me to listen. Damn it! I so would love to have seen them at Whistler, just to see how that audience reacted. Christian Death, The Cure, these subcultural bands were often discovered on dance floors, between friends, and as time passes your chance to see them live become more and more remote and the live experience itself will be remote from you. I mean, you are not just gonna stroll into a small venue and to your left is Robert Smith manning his own merch table. The intimacy is gone. Parking is bad. Lets find our icons in the music we listen to in the small venues.

Spiritual Bat

2011-04-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

So I got a Facebook message saying that Spiritual Bats are going to release a new CD. Rosetta and Dario are just the sweetest people and an awesome goth rock band. These pictures are when they played Darkroom last year. I assume they will tour with this new CD. It's a little different when you are friends with the band. You feel a personal stake in their success, you identify with them somehow. I don't know exactly when they will tour. I assume it will be the summer. That message was the excuse I needed to post these pictures.

Ami Saraiya at Hungry Brain

2011-03-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

Originally I intended to go see her with Julie Meckler at Schubas, but I could not. I don't like missing combos like that. Julie fucking rocks. So I find out nearly on the day that Ami is playing Hungry Brain Tuesday 15 March. I know I go on about her a lot. Perhaps I repeat a lot of shit just to fluff up the mention of seeing Ami here and there. I do that with everyone. And these gigs are indeed different from one another as Schubas is distinct from Hungry Brain. Schubas can seem small and cramped for a mid-size venue depending on who....yes depending on who. I did not go to the Schubas event, but I know Ami, and Schubas. I can calculate something from there. Hungry Brain is an easy to miss cafe on Belmont and it's a Tuesday. It's only going to magically appear if you are actually looking for it. That night it was host to a stand-up comedy event. Ami was to sing in the end. Given all the, you know, real venues she's played(Empty Bottle, Hideout, Subt's, and Schubas), it's really cool that you can still see her in all the smaller places. I don't say real just to sound like an asshole. But Hungry Brain has indeed a smaller profile than say Empty Bottle, and for that reason the more singular, intimate performance. For one you see the massive shift in audience. One can reasonably expect a good crowd at Hideout. But what is preventing that same crowd from Hungry Brain? Yet, at the Brain all I saw were perhaps friends of the previously performing comics, barely populated. Well, her drummer from The Outcome was there. I think the fact that Ami Saraiya does this is way fucking cool, and worth the mention. And that makes Hungry Brain awesome! So Ami is there to promote the new EP Ami Saraiya & The Outcome. It has three songs, Hanging By A Thread, Purging Purging, and Cattle Prod Hands. They all got Ami's usual sweetness. She's been circulating them around for some time now. And I've been waiting for them to release the last one forever. The accordion on it makes you feel like you're in the movie Amelie. It's like in the midst of no reason for feeling good, comes wonder and that slight euphoria leads to feeling good in the middle of an other wise boring Tuesday night. Ami finished her set with an as yet unreleased "Automatic". She had the small audience participate with her. That Amelie feeling lasted me the whole drive back to the south side.

Zig

Wanton Looks

2011-03-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday 5 March, at Quenchers. How perfect would have been if I had made it for all the bands, right. I wanted to see Maybenauts, and The Handcuffs, as well as The Wanton Looks. The infamous Traci Trouble fronts this band. For a start lets say they are kind of like Joan Jett. Imagine The Fabulous Miss Wendy with an all girl wolf pack to back her, to sight a recent approximation. I say wolf pack because you see immediately all their individual identities as well as how good they fit together as a band. They all appeared to have fun. I bought their CD so long ago when they opened for The Dials at Double Door. So right now I have to lean on the memory of this performance to go on about them. And there's youtube as well. They are just straight ahead abrasive and cool, too impatient to be mysterious. Its fast, its punk....I think. Here and there Traci would say shit, and banter with the crowd. Quenchers is so small. Its a bar with a back stage. Having this close in this tiny space spoils you 'cause you get used to that kind of closeness to the moment. From this performance Traci seemed to be unpredictable, spontaneous. There's no fourth wall between Traci and her crowd. Indeed she would get off stage and play her guitar inside the crowd as far as the cord allowed. I nearly got whacked with it, when she would violently turn and swing around. The Wanton Looks finished their set with Electromagnetic Force. I seem to know many friends that know her. I mean she's infamous. I don't intend for it to sound so lewd. It's just to sight examples of how close one can be to these awesome local bands. You know them just a little, and you see the human fragility that we share with them. You identify with them beyond this rock star shell. I learn to enjoy the live performances because they are not rock stars. They are like me.

Zig

2011-03-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

So this is Sarah Pedinotti of Railbird. They performed at Reggies Music Joint, the side with the tables Last Saturday 12 March. I'm gonna take my time writing the whole review of them performing, they are hard to describe but are easy to like. Every show of theirs is different from the last. Well, I've only been to this one, but they play with the energy like it's the last show they will do. They just seem to be that kind of band. They play like they've been together for years. I was especially impressed with their drummer.....anyway. Railbird is awesome, and their CD No One is awesome. I've read somewhere that they kind of call themselves (in part) roots music of some kind. I'll go with it. It's a matter of figuring out which roots, because in this original creation there are derivatives of other styles that they fuse organically with beats and electronics.

Railbird at Reggies

2011-03-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

What is it about Brooklyn? A lot of really cool bands are from there. It's almost routine to hear that now. I did not expect the weirdness out of a name like Railbird. They were here at Reggies to promote the CD No One. Right off I'm gonna have this really hard time describing the sound of these guys. But I have seen more and more of their peers, if I may call them that, like Ryat (who has played Reggies), Phantogram,..they combine organically guitar, electronics, and percussion, beats. They're all kind of hard to describe. They are all different animals from each other but they combine instruments and styles that previously seemed like water and electricity.

Live, they were on! The accordion player was coked-out energetic, I don't know if he is in the recording, he was all over the tables with his accordion. And you can't play like that if the rest of the band does not have that natural craziness, and oneness with their instruments. They covered a Cab Calloway song. The one that he played in Blues Brothers. I also noticed the drummer of the band Jeremy Gustin is also the producer. I'm not an expert on drums but he seemed to me very skilled and sharp. They all got it. On the CD, besides Hushaby, I like Strange, it has this sweetness that reminds me of Ditty Bops, only Railbird is far more electronic and far more urban. It has this 50's thing, very slight but there, oh yeah I guess those are the roots I was looking for. The song has some personal resonance for me. I suspect this resonance can be more wide spread with this song, and I think it is indicative of how well received they can be. This hmm weirdness as intangible as it is can appeal to a wide audience without being pop music.

Zig

Esben And The Witch

2011-03-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

Thursday 11 March 2011. Empty Bottle. Before even the band starts, there are the clues that tell you at once how well this gig will imprint. I see Sarah and William, then Aimee, Ruben. Musicians, DJs and friends of that I (presume to) share a kind of short-hand with. These are goths that I see at death-rock and shoe-gaze themed nights, industrial nights, and vegan restaurant. We like the same music and the specific web of culture it attracts. Some thing at Empty Bottle got described as "haunting and eerie" and I had to go and investigate like the stoners at Ghost Adventures.....Travel Channel? No? Never mind. Seeing my fellow investigators inclined me to like further Esben And The Witch. What gets so many goths in one place? EATW has the dark trip-hop atmosphere with the random post-punk sprint and the casual, lazy psychedelic delivery of Rachel Davies. Hell I could go on. So I do the usual ritual of not over-loading on researching the band. I want the live experience to be the principal means of imprint. I see half a video of whatever band before and that kind of decides it. So they set up and I notice the one drum thing in the front. To me that means hmm, crazy tribal drumming. And yeah, that's what I got.

Esben And The Witch are from Brighton, UK. They were in Chicago to promote the CD Violet Cries. Eerie and Haunting are but a beginning. This is Warpaint tripping on acid in The Lake District of England. You are gonna have some cool trips and some scary trips in the land of Coleridge and Wordsworth. Rachel Davies sounds just like Warpaint, all chill and lazy. Only she trips on a different world, and can take her sweet time describing it. E&Th W are great at creating this dangerous, faerie land sound scape. Each song has it's own sonic atmosphere that is used for various means. In Argyria, you are held in wonder of it as you jog along the shore. Before Rachel says a word you are OK to follow her pace to a sprint. And after you spent this cardio exploring this world pretty and quaint, that's when they stop trying to startle the tourist. That's when they draw blood. This world, the sound of it is often chill, repetitive until familiar, that is one way they hook you, with shallow water then plunge! You can almost tune out exactly what Rachel says in Light Streams if instead you focus on that lazy delivery. The dread comes when Rachel's voice corners you alone. The coolness of Rachel's voice is that she can sweet talk you with sound, empower you with it and scare with the meaning later when you are reading the words. Or she can deliver the chill with her voice alone. Dancing to Chorea and Warpath in Procession at Late Bar is different from reading, or really listening.

The full empowerment of Marching Song you feel later when you read the lyrics. This is the song that sold me the whole album and set me up for the rest. It sold me the band, everything. But the moment has me right by the stage, when Marching Song was second. Hair covers her face. Rachel Davies beats this drum with ritual shamanic passion, and holds your short attention span hostage. I mean no one that was in there was looking up their messages on their cell phones. It was that brilliant. Rachel drifts to the back of the stage and beats the drum sticks together like she's imposing a rhythm on her heartbeat. It's three pulses Rachel hits the last the hardest. You feel empowered to see her perform. You feel empowered and familiar with the mystery invoked. So, I found myself stomping to the song as well. Most of the memory of the concert is locked into that song. Everything else is just fragments that a narrative pieces together later. Just to see this singular drum in front of the stage is dramatic, tribal. They don't put it out for nothing. And so Rachel hits those drums, the cymbals in just the right way that I will discover later when I'm hearing it. I think if you like bands like Telepathe, Bat For Lashes, School Of Seven Bells, and yes Warpaint, this band deserves a look. And do it before they do on The Vampire Diaries,or some damn show like that. I could not stay for their entire set. An urgent matter I had to take care of. But I felt not as if I missed out on the band. I was fortunate to have the chance to see them at all.

ZIg

2011-03-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

Ami Saraiya is performing this Thursday 10 March at Schubas. It's her CD release as Ami Saraiya And The Outcome. Get the CDs, all of them because these are songs that you want to hear again in your daily life. Ami's music has this way of weaving itself into your mental routine. Her music has always reminded me of 1920's, 40's. It's in the pace of her songs, the instruments in her band. There is something that screams "period-nostalgic" about this band. At the very least there is a style about this band that is consistent, and identifiable. And so you look forward to hear it, to see it. The ep that Ami is releasing will be available for $1 at the show. Julie Meckler is opening!

Bone And Bell

2011-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

I was expecting her in that blue makeup she has in her pictures.

Bone And Bell caught me with the chilling sweetness of "Flying, Falling, Crawling". That song is straight out of Twin Peaks. And the song is so minimal; voice and a ukulele, and your every day is veiled in some mystery, and sadness. It's on her free ep L*O*O*M. I looked her up after seeing her scheduled for Schubas. Then they featured her on NPR. The very song that hooked me is playing on the radio and they interview her, Heather Smith of B & B. I missed the Schubas show, but I saw her last Wednesday 2 March at Quenchers. After NPR I thought there would be more people. I felt a greater urgency to see her live, to see her first. Before I feel crowded out by so many trendy assholes, I want to see her first. Well, at least that's what the id urges with. And for once it worked well enough to arrive at Quenchers on time. Something I did not know until the show was that Ms Heather is also in a psychedelic rock band, Seek Dark, Seek Flesh. I was a fan of Bone And Bell well before walking into Quenchers. Still not knowing a lot about the band, but in wonder of what little I did, I jumped at the chance to see it live in such a small venue. And there was a lot I did not know until after that show, like how absolutely new the band is. Q's was I think the third or fourth show. Heather seemed to know everyone in the room, all but me. Once Bone And Bell started, the room filled some more. Under the B&B moniker Ms Heather plays the ukulele and keyboard. For some songs including "Flying, Falling, Crawling" there were two backing singers. And with these instruments a foggy mystery world is delicately woven. The uke' brings you back to your innocence, while Heather's haunting voice uses that to draw you into the mist, and deeper meaning. This is something other artists that I have featured here do effectively and deserve mention with B&B, like Eliza Rickman with her toy piano, and Uni And Her Ukulele. They know how to keep your attention with the humblest of instruments, and make them sound, cool. So Ms Heather played the sweet and otherworldly "Flying, Falling, Crawling" second to last. I've gone on about the song as if it's the only one, but it's not. It's a faerie world Bone & Bell sing about, and I think this is an artist that can tell a lot about the culture we inhabit. Ms Heather Smith is someone to watch.

Zig

Asobi Seksu, in Late February 2011

2011-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

After buying the shirt for BRAHMS I was too broke to buy Asobi Seksu's latest. The shirt was to keep BRAHMS in mind for when they come back. It was my first time seeing them. This was my third time seeing AS. All three times the world changed on me. I think I took a vacation day from work to see them the first time. My friends Killer Moon was still just Jesse and Amaris. I felt such great urgency to see Asobi Seksu, like it was the only time. The world was different around me when I first was made aware of Asobi Seksu. Citrus was the CD that first hooked me to the band, with "Thursday", "Strawberries". There are just so many songs. They have that sweet feminine voice driving these aggressive guitars and drums. Fearless, power-shoe gaze, that gives you this instant feeling of nostalgia with the songs even without actually taking you back. You're still driving forward, just in an old muscle car. My routines were different then at the point of discovery. We were all at the beginning of the Great Recession. Yeah, I'm gonna capitalize that. It was urgent for me to see AS live and fill the nostalgia cup. It's fascinating to feel like you have an old relationship with a new song. And now it's March 2011. The third time seeing AS is now behind me. Seeing them this time was a much more casual thing, and I actually do have that long term relationship with AS. I have a real history with the music now. The unsigned BRAHMS hooked me with their song "Repeat It", for which they have a video. They played that song second to last. They were awesome, dancey like Depeche Mode/Golden Filter. The audience was big but hard to read. They seemed kind of luke warm to them. They were not being ignored but I was probably one of three people dancing to them. Then Asobi Seksu played to that same casual familiar audience. It was nice to see old friends that you know like the band, like Scary Lady Sarah and William Faith. They create and promote the music that I have identified with for years. They played and appreciated shoe-gaze when the rest of the world sneered at it. Oh, yeah. AS played from their new CD as well as all those songs that have played in my head for the last few years. It's nice to have a few constants even as the local and indeed the entire economy crumbles under your step.

Kaspar-Zig

White Mystery, Fabulous Miss Wendy 14 Feb Monday

2011-02-21T02:46:00.000-08:00

So I managed to see both acts in one night; The Fabulous Miss Wendy and then White Mystery. They are two completely different animals that throw themselves into their performances and have this mastery with the guitar. Ms Wendy is from LA, I think, and White Mystery is local. Ms Wendy did an acoustic set with no backing band at Reggies. She's insanely skilled on the electric guitar and so I was curious as to how her songs translate. Some worked, but I was already a fan walking in. So even when they don't work. Miss Wendy could do no wrong. You remember her set as much for what she says in between songs. The "jailbait" song she says is true. The song about Miami she said was true. Wendy just attacked her acoustic guitar. It was hard to guess what the audience at Reggies thought. She clearly had fans, but that was apparent after her show. I don't believe she was the headliner of that night. Wendy was there as part of this Valentine's Day thing. She has this punk rock attitude, not angry but mostly happy, and in love with her prowess on the guitar. You can't blame her. With the experience of Miss Wendy still the toast of my short-term memory, I went to Empty Bottle to catch White Mystery, the local brother/sister garage rock duo. Alex White sings and plays electric guitar and Francis hits the drums. I've seen them before. They have this raw electric, bluesy energy that resonates with everyone. Once you've seen the hair throw itself, you're sold on this garage rock that puts you on a Harley. Ok, I've never been on one myself, but White Mystery has you riding this forward abrasive blues, and you're taken back to the set of "That 70's Show". Each new song, ignites with singular energy. Well, I got friends that tell me the songs sound the same. So White Mystery will not be for everyone. What sounds like the mastery of a convention, an ownership of a style to one, resonant and still original, to another may not take at all. There can indeed be deep fault line between those that are sold, and those that refuse.

All the venues have that moment when for that one night they have all local music and everyone seems to be there to support it. A scene, or a culture looks inward and discovers how good we have had it. That Free Monday Night at Empty Bottle felt that way. I made it just after Dark Fog finished. It would have been nice to see the Dark Fog set....some of it. They can really test your attention span. Their songs are long and psychedelic, slow burns. I've seen them play twice before. I walked into the 'Bottle and a friend told me "you just missed the best band", meaning Dark Fog. I'm not trashing them at all. They certainly have a devoted, and passionate fan base. But I went to see White Mystery. I went to jam and dance to them. I went to see Alex White play her guitar in the crowd. That was awesome. And you can only do that when you know the audience is yours. This crowd she indeed has earned over year of playing locally. I saw them play Whistler, Sub T's. That's just within the last two, three years. They have a history that goes longer than that. So, here are some pictures from both two events in one night.

The Fabulous Miss Wendy!

2011-01-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

I forgot when I saw Ms Fab. It was late fall 2010, at Reggies. The Fabulous Miss Wendy is a crazy master guitarist. She has such effortless control of that instrument that she can, and does show off her prowess on it, she performs with it. The guitar is as much prop as it is instrument. So her music cannot help but be fully guitar driven. Her music is fun, catchy, but not syrupy sweet pop. It's fun in the punk, metal, garage rock type of way. Metal guitarists have their precision skills and Wendy has that, owns that. The sound and fun side of Punk is there, as well as the messiness of Garage. Punk is messy too right? Her very straight forward lyrics are a welcome breath of air, different than what I normally look for. A different animal she is indeed. By the way with all these styles of rock; garage, punk, metal, there is an inherent anger to them that Miss Wendy is fabulous to leave out. She's having fun! She's not angry with a chip on her shoulder. She likes boys without apology. A person like that really sticks out because it's hard to effectively filter out the anger in all them styles while still having that dominant impact, and straight-forwardness. Well, she's not giddy in all her songs. Cowboy-ish and brash Wendy is playful like Pat Benatar. A playful alpha-female. In control of her guitar, I mean she was dragging herself all over the place on her back going off on that guitar. The leader of the band. I'm sure she introduced the band but I don't remember. It's not to be cruel or cute. Ms Wendy just busts through that fourth wall between performer and audience,(it is fourth right?) I mean really on her back in the isles under the tables with that straight forward American-working class rock. It's not cloudy and introspective like shoe-gaze. I did not get that folk-rock, indy-rock feel from her. That's baggage that does not weigh down Ms Wendy. And can you believe she has played for the troops in Iraq. Wow! Ms Wendy is so well traveled. Oh, yeah. She's hot. I mean red hair. And it's like she marinated in pinkish glitter. She has "Fabulous" tattooed on her upper back. I know because she just contorts like that and you get a good look. Ms Wendy is Fabulous for many reasons. There's a story behind it. To be vague, Ms Wendy got it by accident, but she kind of super-owns it by now. It's in her stage presence. You don't ignore The Fabulous Ms Wendy.

Natalie Grace...again!

2011-01-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

This one here is when Nat played Pancho's. It was my first time I saw her play guitar. She did not play guitar the first time I saw her with the full band at Reggies. Indeed she knows well how to play it. I did not see that coming. Her signature instrument was the keyboard...at least to me.
I have so many pictures of this girl, Natalie Grace Alford. These are from the very first performance I saw. Right after I asked if she had a CD, and she did! It was a demo CD. I don't think she just has them handy like that. So I feel grateful and fortunate. Also, I feel in a better position to write about her. Natalie's music has changed so much since these pictures.

Natalie Grace is playing Lincoln Hall this Wednesday 26th January! She is the opening act. This girl deserves all kinds of attention. She is opening for Nellie McKay. I'm less familiar with Ms Nellie. I saw a youtube video of her performing for Letterman. I was like wow! I'm excited for Natalie that she is opening for her. It's more exciting for me that Natalie is indeed performing and evolving each time. Lincoln Hall is huge. To open for Nellie McKay means exposure to all that like Ms Nellie. I think it's really a matter of exposure to the right set of fans for a performer to take off. Natalie can play for Letterman too.

Zig

Aleks/Eva

2011-01-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

This first picture is from another performance in Bridgeport. Most of the time I've seen her were at Empty Bottle. It's not the only place to go to see this band. It's so rare to see cool bands like this in the south side of Chicago.
I took fewer pictures because I was dancing to this. This is already getting played in some local goth nights. Thanks Procession! You guys play this band in just the ideal context for me.

Aleks Eva played a Free Monday at Empty Bottle. I was already a fan since the Aleks And The Drummer days. The five songs on the EP I could not get enough. The EP is absolutely awesome as it is only a peek at what is to come. It was just one keyboard, one crazy drummer, one female operatic voice. That's it. On stage that was it. But what else? So you gotta do more theater, be more other-worldly, because that format is common enough. There are Kristeen Young, Dresden Dolls, and locally Post-Honeymoon. I like them all for their individual reasons. Aleks often dressed up in clothes that suggested that other-worldliness, like a post-punk faerie in casual wear. So I realize I use the ''faerie" a lot and to bands that have nothing to do with each other. In relation to Panda Riot it's in their sense of childlike wonder, songs of innocence. Aleks Eva is about the shadows in that same world; the danger of that wonder, songs of experience. She must have learned her piano skills from that same faerie world. Listen to the music and you know that it demands, evokes the costume. Remember how dramatic classical music sounded as children. It was a roller coaster ride. Every song on the EP is a scene in a movie that we have yet to see, but are dying to see, trailers that kind of stand alone as well. So at first it was mostly the five songs and then some new material. Slowly, the new material became the main thing, and now don't ask about the EP. At first she was locked behind her keyboard most of the time, and it seems that she would rather just go to the front of the stage. And the music just so compels you to move. It's exactly the kind of music that goth clubs play enthusiastically.....or at least should. That sounded terribly arrogant of me. But perhaps it's the context I see this band in, that I can't help but see it so. The new material is awesome. The songs are more elaborate with more instruments. If you are already a fan, you will stay that way. From you the Aleks /Eva subcultural capital will build. This band is our local answer to The Vanishing.

Ami Saraiya at Hideout

2011-01-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

I've seen Ami And The Outcome play to some small crowds, but I think that's due to the nature of the places themselves, small and intimate taverns or cafes. These places don't necessarily fill out. I like that they can do small. 'Cause they can do big crowds like at The Hideout. Ami And The O have always commanded a good crowd at The Hideout. They played before Chaperone, and this band will do Subterranean I think this month with Julie Meckler. As venues go, Hideout is a small shrine of local subcultural scenes. It's out of the way but it's seen all kinds of action. You don't just wander in there. It's in the middle of an industrial zone on Wabansia. I still marvel at it's location. So Ami played The Hideout Friday 7 January. They have at least 3 new songs that they are playing regularly in their sets. "Cattle Prod-Hands" is one. They tap dance in another. If you are already a fan of Ami And The O then these songs are a further refinement of what you have come to like. It has that same post-ragtime period jazz swing, only without the piano. You got other instruments that give Ami that time-shift, like the accordion. In the old days they would stick you in the ethnic or world section of Tower Records...that's right. They use violin, cello, you know, weirdo instruments. To know this band is to be introduced to all the cultures that they draw inspiration from, like Bollywood. She will make you a fan of Bollywood. Well, at the very least you will become a fan of Ami And The Outcome, in part because of Bollywood. So this band is awesome to behold love as well as on CD. Live is where all the quirks come out. They got all kinds of shows coming up.

Zig

Panda Riot at Empty Bottle!

2011-01-07T06:15:00.001-08:00

It feels good to say new things about familiar bands. The new things that evolve you see in a longer context. Seeing the music breathe is important. Imagine yourself a century ago. The live performance is all there was. Any way, so here is Panda Riot at Empty Bottle. Too routine you say? Why so many times? It has its perks. It means seeing them open for School Of Seven Bells, Warpaint, Magnetars. I always crave wanting to know the long view of a band that I like. You do that by "too many" times. They have this casual cheeriness. They don't over sell anything.
They don't get into costume or anything. They are the grown up adopted children of urban faeries. The music of urban magical realism. So Panda Riot played a new song not on either CD they have out. I think they called it "Valiant Unicorns" or was it "Valium Unicorns". I can be wrong about the Valium but do imagine it, a unicorn in rehab over a valium addiction.

Hilarious, it's like modernity finally brings down our mythological creatures. But once again I probably got the name wrong and I'm just going on about the hope that I am not. So I listened to this new song. I liked it. And it gets me real curious as to how they will continue to evolve with the next CD. Confuse it for one of their older songs I could not. It seems to sustain the slightly faster cardio of the "Far And Away" EP. They are not in a rut of sounding the same with each song. Anyway, I noticed they got a drummer as well as the drum machine. That one extra singer they had for a while was not there. I could have asked Rebecca about it, but I did not. I did want to, but I thought perhaps to ask would be intrusive. As a fan of Panda Riot the details begin to stick out and so you wonder but you still enjoy the show. The audience was big casual attentive. The band introduces themselves. That's normal, right? But it always seems to me as if they have to re-introduce themselves in a venue that has them all the time. So I wonder if they felt the audience was new for them. Faces were mostly turned toward the stage listening and all. I did not get the feeling that Panda Riot was being ignored. Some people even danced. I think they got the most attention out of any band that night including the headliner. I noticed how the entire band put one blue war paint on their faces. Again, I didn't ask. I left it between the band. And I was ok with the mystery of it.

Zig

2011-01-05T03:51:00.000-08:00

Alright so I went overboard with the pictures. I post these of Panda Riot. They are playing Empty Bottle this Thursday 6th January. If you RSVP you get in for free. I post these in part because this is what I saw the day I came back from my cousin's wedding in New York. Panda Riot played The Whistler on a Sunday I believe. This is what is local and familiar to me. It was in a shoe gaze themed night when this band came to my attention. So that is how I tend to describe them. They do have that pillowy, cloudy guitar sound. But they don't take advantage of your short attention span and leave you hanging. You are guided along in their casual pace by Rebecca, seen hear in the record T-shirt. It's pleasant casual nature sneaks up on you and turns you into a tourist forever in awe of your casual day.
They are an awesome band to have in your ipod and all, but sweeter still will they sound after you see them with your own eyes.

Ami Saraiya

2011-01-05T03:20:00.000-08:00

She and The Outcome play The Hideout this Friday 7th January. I normally don't like posting ahead to remind myself to go, 'cause what if I don't go. I got this to remind that I did not. And I do tend to feel it whenever I miss a show. Ami's way cool. I was really sold when I saw her cover a Pretenders song on an accordion. "Don't Get Me Wrong" I think it's called. So Ami Saraiya and The Outcome at The Hideout Friday 7th January.

Sybris/Coins

2010-12-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

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!!

2010-12-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

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....!!!

2010-12-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

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

Oh yeah I saw Natalie Grace

2010-11-18T03:25:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 10 November. Natalie Grace Alford plays Pancho's Bar. I've never been there. The show originally is supposed to be at Ronny's. That place is such a dive, small and kinda gross. The place is underwhelming, and yet it has seen some really cool bands. And so they move all those shows to Pancho's Bar which is a block north. I don't know why but I don't blame them. And so I'm there at Pancho's on this Wednesday to see Natalie Grace. This girl belts out this deep and womanly howl. If she was your third grade school teacher Ms Nat instead of a singer, that voice would make you piss yourself from across the room when she catches you not paying attention. Everybody has a crush on her, and everybody fears "Iron" Ms Nat. Seriously, she has this booming, dominant voice. Natalie Grace can shout you down, and the next homeroom can hear it how badly you fucked up the homework. So in many ways I feel fortunate to have encountered her as this awesome singer rather than one in a pantheon of many traumatizing teachers.

Her voice is deep and booming, and her delivery is passionate and dominant. You have to hear how she emphasizes repeated lyrics. Natalie often rasps her voice like she's been screaming at you the whole time. Not that she does scream, but you get that energy from someone that hits you with her hips behind every punch. So I said she's passionate and dominant, but not in the indy rock star mode. I've really struggled as to how to describe her. She's not in the mold of PJ Harvey, Melissa Auf De Maur, Katie Jane Garside. She is indeed intense. There is a sincerity in her delivery. But she is different. Her full hearted belief in what she says resembles a soul music artist. Well let me explain that. She has this way of letting the innocent moment move you without filtering the full weight of sincerity. The artists that have this sort of thing into their identity and sort of wave it around are Soul Music artists. Some of Natalie Grace's early performances have her using hand claps, looping together a gospel like chorus. She played the keyboard in most of her performances. This was the first I've seen her with a guitar. And that changes things, but the constant thing is this blue-eyed soul. This term fits her perfectly in her stage presence, style of music. I have once described her music as being kind of doo wop, like her demo CD which I don't think Natalie just carries around her when she plays. That one day she had it, and I asked. And now I got a point of reference to compare the live shows to. The live versions of her songs are rapidly evolving away from the original demos. Still, if you like what Natalie plays live would you not want to hear how her music sounded when she first put it down?

Julie Meckler

2010-11-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

She did a Free Monday at Empty Bottle about a month ago. The EP Julie has available and is on her myspace page, has just three songs. And I like them all for the music and the message. Well, I can't help but read a message, especially with "Deportation Blues" and "Mexico". I can't help but read an affinity for Mexicans and undocumented immigrants in general. I don't always meet people that put that sympathy so out there, if they have it at all. It's always very impressive to see immigrants support each other's struggle because indeed we are the same. Anti-immigrant campaigns always have Mexicans as the poster children of what you don't want crossing the border. We have Minutemen in Illinois as if we were a border state. So back we are at the Empty Bottle with Julie. I don't want to overemphasize that message/affinity while forsaking the fact that Ms Julie rocks like a French PJ Harvey, feminine and dominant. What I emphasized earlier does not make her music sound bleeding-heart-whiney. I can't help but see what I do because I don't believe that music is escapist entertainment. The very act of escaping is a reaction to the world around you. You don't run and not leave tracks. You don't call something "blues" for nothing. The blues is the very edge of the blade that Julie forges and wields. "Deportation" has muscle even without the lyrics. People in the front were all over this. The crowd that Monday night would easily over-crowd the sweet little closet that is The Whistler. The rest of her awesome set still has yet to be committed to CD. I think that is what they will be doing this winter. So, I don't recall what I heard so much as recalling how I liked it. There's a folk element to her music as well. Her music can easily work acoustic. She left behind an acting career in France to play the blues in Chicago. That statement sits in my head a certain way. You gave up all that for us? Damn....thank you Ms Julie! She has played as far as I know five gigs here and I have been to at least three of them and she is amassing an audience. Parking around Empty Bottle was indeed difficult that Monday night.

Zig

Spiritual Bat

2010-11-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

These are from the first time at Nite Lite Cafe in Berwyn I think. This most Unchristian band playing an all-ages Christian venue. At least they had pizza and soda so I indulged in that while I stood gawking at Rosetta the dreadlocked goth rock lead singer of Spiritual Bat. The bottom text is about the second time earlier this year 2010. I will add pictures from both performances as I find them. And after the shows as well.

For these pictures with the white wedding dress, it was in the Christian venue. At first that felt weird but then the place began to sell itself. The couches were cozy. You can eat pizza and drink soda. These sneaky Christians. The crowd was light medium and young looking. It was at first strange to share this with a bunch of kids, but then again would it not be cool to see Cocteau Twins at eleven, Strange Boutique at thirteen. These bands I discovered afterward. I wonder how these kids will reference this night with Spiritual Bat.

This was so long ago, I can't remember exactly when but it was in the summer, or was it this past spring and it was at Darkroom when I saw Rosetta and Dario from Spiritual Bat all the way from Italy. It was the second time they visited Chicago. I specify their names because I was fortunate enough to get to know them. They are a sweet couple that play awesome goth rock. I met them before seeing them play, and perhaps that influences. You want to like them and therefore you do when you see them on stage. Off stage is indeed where they first secured my loyalty as a fan.

So they already had me by the time I saw them cover Joy Division's "She Lost Control" on youtube. It's not the only video of them performing. There seems to be a lot. Spiritual Bat is a touring work horse with the cardio that takes them across the world. On top of the fact that I like the music, I'm fascinated with the wisdom they have earned in miles on tour. I guess now is when it occurs to write about them because their dark rock is so autumn like. When I saw them this last time the weather was mild and pleasant. The second time seeing them is indeed the sweetest.

I had a whole year to take in the CD "Through The Shadows". Goths like to dance, it's not a frivolous thing for us. It's what gets us to to floor that is different. "...Shadows" does that in the Batcave tradition. So, if that is what you already like, then this is what keeps you in. The more movement inducing songs come late. I'm talking about "Newdance" and "Sogno Tribale". The crowd was small for them unfortunately that night at Darkroom. I do wonder how they were received elsewhere on this tour. Chicago let it slip, but I still noticed. It was this small turn out that saw Rosetta moving about the stage with her real natural dreadlocked hair.

Naturally but not deliberately dark sounding rock music. But this is not saying they are dated to an obscure 80's style. To say Batcave is to imply a certain timelessness, a phase shift away from timely shackles. That is what they evoke to me off the hip. I believe this is what will keep the name Batcave current and running. I don't know if this will sell away from the sub culture that it spawns from. But if you are in, this is what keeps you in.

I:Scintilla at Reggies...again.

2010-10-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

I never tire of seeing I:Scintilla. I can safely say about them is that their songs don't fall into ruts, when songs start to resemble one another, a certain predictability. I:Scintilla does not do that. They also don't just have one awesome song. When you like this band it's for many songs or at least so it is with me. I can hear that entire album "Optics". My impression of the new album is coming up but first I must marvel at that first CD. You got that crunchy but dance- worthy industrial beats and guitar, only with songs that don't sound all that alike. I can't say that about Blutengel. They can't seem to get out of this same rhyme scheme, it works for them for about three songs per album. Their beats are aggressive but it's that songwriting. I gotta say the same for L'ame Immortelle only not to that same extreme.
Is I:S strictly a subcultural industrial band? That question always brings up in my mind their appearance on JBTV. Look that up on youtube. The show is a regional pulse on all that is subcultural and some that emerges from that. This show introduced me to grunge. Fed into an already existing familiarity with industrial with bands like Front 242, Ministry, and then left turn with a Material Issue video and interview. And now I:Scintilla gets airplay and an interview with Jerry Bryant. This guy likes it all. Will they find a wider audience? I believe they carry the torch effectively within the gothic/industrial enough to sustain a loyal audience.

Hearing the CD feeds the need to see them live, because once again, it's not about one single song. It becomes about all of them. And so I'm happy to have them play here locally. They have done so a lot in support of their debut and now I'm happy to see them work from the new album. You see, some impressions only sink in after hearing them repeatedly. It's good fortune to say that about seeing bands as well. Live performances count for a lot of the dominant common identity, part of what they will be remembered for. If you live far, then you just have that one iconic time, after that it's the CD in the car or on your itunes. I've seen I:Scintilla a lot of different times. And so this post reflects that.

On Saturday 23 October I saw I:Scintilla at Reggies, our local female fronted industrial band that is well on it's way to have a national touring presence. They have already done at least one national tour supporting their debut CD "Optics". I believe they have played California, New Jersey, Iowa. "Optics" is a solid CD to go touring on. I like nearly all the songs, industrial dance-floor classics the lot of them, and they sound awesome live. Upon hearing "Optics" I believed the band had much more in the tank. The well is deep indeed. This past Saturday at Reggies they played mostly from their new CD "Falling And Dying" and that shows to me that this is what the band will bank on. It shows that they trust their new material, as great as the old was. "Falling And Dying" is great. The debut CD has all these songs that are not formulaic. One song does not telegraph how they will write the other. Some bands find themselves in a rut where you can spot a mile away what they will say, or where the music is going. Things start to sound alike. Not so with I:Scintilla. The only thing that was telegraphed is their consistent ability to write resonant music for the industrial subculture. This is not saying that I:Scintilla panders to that subculture. They belong to it. The more I listen to "Falling", the more I like it. Even them slow songs are awesome. Normally I just skip the slow songs like they're infomercials, but Ms Brittney sold it like Hooverphonic. This contemplation has more to do with repeated listening of the new CD. The concert experience is separate.

So, they could have leaned heavily on "Optics", but they did not. Good for them. I think they played very few from that first CD. But they seemed to know when to place them, almost to renew the crowd with something familiar. 2007 is not that long ago, but it really feels that way. In that year I was barely in my awareness of the band. One of their most unusual gigs in October 2007 was at Brauerhouse in Hillside, Il., right near a cemetery. It was my only visit to the place. It burned down in 2008. When I:Scintilla played there I assumed it would be packed. I counted less than 10 people there. The venue was probably too far away for most. It felt like I was witnessing an exclusive performance. Anyway back to last Saturday. Britney and the band had amassed a good local crowd to perform for. I had no problem reaching the front. The casual porous fans hanging around the middle, or everywhere else but the front. It was not difficult to move around, which was nice. I don't like a packed, packed crowd.

Zig

Ami Saraiya

2010-10-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Alright so I saw Ami at Jerry's I believe. I arrived there thinking that I missed her whole set but in fact I was right on time. I was always impressed with Ami's backing band, precisely honed for her. The entire band (Ami included) once were called Radiant Darling. They put out the CD "Cryptomnesia" under that name. I always thought that was appropriate since one can tell how truly this was a collective thing. Then they dropped the name and it was just Ami Saraiya, but still with all the same wonderful backing band. Now we are back to naming the band. They are now known as Ami Saraiya and The Outcome. A reference to one of their songs. And it is right that the band be named. Ami tells an interesting story behind the songs "Familiar", and "By Jove". The songs answer one another in this immortal conversation between the gods, and so the name 'Jove".

There is music that you like because somehow you have been conditioned to like because of the times, and your surroundings. You liked it then but not now, you've outgrown it. Then there is music that you will like forever, no matter when or how it hits. It strikes as timeless personally. This is Ami and The Outcome. To me they evoke the 1920's,30's,40's . They wear the rust of blues. They don't wear costumes that evoke the times. The vivid period pictures are painted with sound alone. I don't know if this sound is deliberate, or even if this description is purely subjective....only in my head. They can easily headline a steam-punk event. Yet, I don't know if they are aware of such a vast potential fanbase. Projekt would love them, but that's speculating on a national level. If you live here, it's not enough that you buy the CD at Reckless Records. You have to see Ami play "Up, Down, and Charmed" right in front of you. On CD the music you never get tired of, a movie, story, play that somehow even as it stands still in time, is relevant for years. The official, static version of the breathing, live performance is what plays in the car, or ipod. And man, does the music breathe when they are live. I feel fortunate to call Ami local, and so I go see her live. It's a good time to see them because they play such small, intimate venues. The band is playing new songs. I recall at least three new songs. "Cattle-Prod Hands" I like a lot in part because I feel so well prepped by Ami's last two albums that I have something to anticipate from her. The new songs enhance the appreciation of the old songs while forging ahead. She...Ami and The Outcome are scheduled to play The Hungry Brain I think. Look up her myspace page. I still have to figure out where is this place and when she is playing. I have so many pictures of all the performances that I can pick and choose which ones to show.

Zig

Aleks and The Drummer

2010-10-08T04:45:00.000-07:00

So I saw Aleks and The Drummer last September on a Free Monday at Empty Bottle. I know this is already October and so the fuck what. Why am I regurgitating this now or at all. A live performance in general lasts for me far beyond the fraction of time it occupies, a long shelf-life for me. This band is pumping out new songs in each of their live sets. The 5 song ep is now only a fraction of the foundation, a scene in a much anticipated movie with characters and storylines yet to be revealed. More and more, what they choose to present live is the most dominant trait, and yet their most delicate 'cause it's not recorded. Part of the experience is seeing how differently Ms Aleks dresses up. On top of that you don't know what she will play for that night. For this night at the 'Bottle she indeed was a sight to behold. And now most of the duties of playing the instruments were all delegated to her band members, including keyboard, freeing her to be at the front of the stage. When Natalie Grace had a full backing band, that unshackled her to deliver her full performance on stage. And so we let someone take over keyboard, to let Aleks bring to us with costume and sound the wonder of her world and work. And it was all new music. Any way, so Aleks is now free to move about the stage. In red, black, orange and gold, she was a glam rock villainess from Buck Rogers. Just like her music, her outfit must imply a narrative beyond the snap shot of the performance. And so Aleks seemed to be out of a sci-fi subcultural legend. Her hands and wrists were bound in black tape like a boxer. The music was all new with more instruments; a cello, another keyboard I believe. It was an awesome performance. I captured maybe one song on camera, and then I turned into a fucking deer to wonder and marvel at the incoming light. I loved all of it. The new combinations of instruments and voice. All this for the moment we can only see live. It's all yet to be recorded. And Chicago is home to this! It was put together here, and influenced by being here. The whole time as I listen I want this down on CD. I'm already missing the fleeting performance. There was one other performance after this one. Aleks' opened for Shonen Knife at Schubas. I could not go to that.

Zig

Ryat at Reggies

2010-09-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

I saw and heard the organic, beat heavy, electronic sounds of Ryat last fall I believe when they played Reggies. They were promoting the CD "Street Noise orKestra". That title right there tells you what they sound like live. And it was just two of them, and they both had drums on the side. They had their way of making each show a finger-print different from the last. In part its how they use the live drums to site just one thing. That first Chicago visit had them on the cheaper side of Reggies, long tables for people to eat as they kinda pay attention to you. So the crowd was luke-warm to indifferent as I recall. Well, the long tables and booths kind of discourage dancing. They encourage passive observation. So that makes the crowd hard to read. There was one other person as into them as I was. I've been into them since. I am a fan. After that visit to Chicago they toured Europe I think. Well, I know Italy and Spain and...perhaps London. I wonder at how well they were received. I feel real lucky to have gone on a whim to see Ryat instead of what I originally planned. Ryat I discovered by accident. This second time 13 September after touring Europe and The States I saw them purposefully. There is something very original in terms of how they use beats, keyboard, and guitar; where and how they produce them. When I say organic, that means that all the elements seem to land where they may, not where expected. I don't mean that the music sounds like disorganized noise-jazz or something. Everything that we are familiar with are renewed here in how they are used. Like in a dream. Dreams twist and reinvent what is familiar to one's experience. Ryat does that with the guitar, keyboard and drums, .......the drums. They use their instruments in unconventional ways without really wanting to alienating an audience, and also without pandering to expectations. Remember how original and resonant Portishead sounded. How they sounded just came naturally, and internally, and yet it resonated worldwide. Most music that aims to make you dance I believe panders to expectations, and so can strike the music snob (yes me, I admit) as corny. That is not the case with Ryat in both CDs they now have out. I do speak more about the new CD "Avant Gold" as it sinks into my mental landscape and becomes permanent.

Ryat was fun to watch because they do all the percussion live, and that invites the unexpected. Ms Ryat herself beat her drum so savagely it broke apart. That was fun to watch. Oh, yeah Ms Ryat is also quite the attractive lass. The CD "Avant Gold" is awesome and hints at what they are capable live. From the first song "In Your Face" you want the space to dance. I knew from that song that I would stay broke, 'cause I had to buy the CD and shirt. And as you are feeling the effects of that first song, the rest come at you like a Wing Chun chain punch. They can make beats out of anything in front of them. The first time there were just two of them and both multi-tasked their instruments with live drums. Now they have a live drummer and he has to add more drums to his drums. Everyone beats on something and it makes for an awesome live organic show. They were here promoting the beat-driven electronic trip-hop leaning "Avant Gold" CD this time to a hard to read crowd that mostly stayed back at the booths. I was glad Reggies had them again but it was awkward to see such a dance-inducing band in a place that has tables to sit, and booths to hide in, and tacos that make you sit. If this was the Empty Bottle people would be dancing, or at least would have the space to. This post has been sitting and fermenting for ever it seems in search of more words to put into it. Sometimes it's just best to kill the beast of the process and post the bastard already

Zig

Tiny Concept

2010-09-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

I forgot exactly when I saw Tiny Concept or Ms Leticia. I missed most of her show but hell I caught a piece of it at Empty Bottle. Somehow this curious rock minimalist had and continues to hold my attention well after the show, and it's not just her endearing French accent. Her voice had a slight husk to it, almost boyish......almost. Solo artists fascinate me. Their ability to go it alone I find admirable. This time at the Bottle there was almost no crowd for Tiny Concept. Few people to bounce her voice from. I saw her set up and loop each part for her cover of Devo's Mongoloid. I have to say my first impression of the song is from her and not Devo. So that long term relationship with this song I do not have. Devo's Mongoloid is indeed a time capsule, youthful and energetic. The song is a product of its time and yet it stands the test of it. On its own it's timeless. Yet Hers is the first version I hear of the song. I had to look up the original later to see the kind of leap I took. Since there was very little audience it almost felt like I was watching a private jam session. I really like the Tiny Concept cover. She makes it a defiant candle in the dark, with it's own power to haunt. Something to accompany you in deep thought. The archaic early electronic madness of the original Leticia strips down, and reveals the lean muscle it's always had, never lost. The song is longer than the original and you don't even feel it, because she does not slow it down. That original impatient bounce she retains, and in the end makes this song her own. As minimal as Tiny Concept is, she is not slow, and that helps when it's just the one person. I had to buy her CD. You can say that her own songs are minimal, but as a lot of such artists, she does all the instruments herself. The guitar loops and drums. That's fascinating to watch when it's only one person. On CD especially her voice and French accent and even more endearing less than perfect use of English is clear. Tiny Concept grows on me for some reason that I can't fully understand or control.

Zig

Julie Meckler

2010-09-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

This feels like a while ago, but the impact of it I can still feel. Julie Meckler is originally an actress from France, hmm I mean she did acting in theater, she's still from France. 2008 finds her in New York. Normally I would expect her story to just stay there. It's New York City, no one leaves. Many midwestern bands have moved there. But no. Ms Julie picks up a guitar (Strindberg reference unavoidable) continues to travel west and settles in Chicago. That is so cool! Sometimes I believe that people think Chicago is not exotic enough, not interesting enough to move here. I'm happy to be proved wrong. Ms Julie shared the bill with Moritat. I was so glad to be there to see both bands perform at The Whistler. Part of what sticks out to me about Julie is what she sings about. Her myspace page has two songs, "Mexico" and "Deportation Blues" that speak directly to me. I'm Mexican and words like "deportation" hit a raw nerve with me. You almost want to believe there is an active affinity for Mexican immigrants, or at least immigrants in general. I felt it at least. And it feels more and more unusual in this new age of anti- immigrant sentiment. Assholes even want to fuck with the 14th Amendment. They want to stop the Dream Act that is up for a vote in Congress, the Senate I believe as I write this. You have to be a real asshole and know that you are an asshole to vote against that. I don't want to leave behind DADT in this rant. I have a massive respect for Lady Gaga for taking her stand. Damn it, where the fuck was I with this? Oh, yeah.....

Songs like the ones that Julie wrote I normally expect out of people like Lila Downs. It was really that good. Lila Downs tends to really own the different styles she plays in and Julie here has her blues down with these songs. The blues are not whiney but manly, or dominant. You can sound shrill and irritating if what you complain about comes out....wrong. Your method can kill the message,( if indeed you have a message). Julie puts on and flexes the muscle in every instrument. The three song CD holds down what you will want to hear live. She has more but it's those that I heard on her myspace page, and it was what I anticipated at the live show. Julie Meckler will play this Friday 24 September I believe with the absolutely awesome Man is Man at The Viaduct Theater in Chicago, and thank you Julie, you have no idea how your music positively inspires the tribe.

Zig

Agent Ribbons!!!

2010-09-11T03:14:00.000-07:00

Early in 2009 this band played Beat Kitchen and I barely caught the last song and I had nothing left to buy their CDs. Life is rough indeed! Alright so I'm seeing the last song and I can't really enjoy it 'cause....it's the last song, and I just got there. In every respect I could only blame myself for not saving enough and for not being on time. So I knew to watch out for this band again. The name Agent Ribbons needed not to be written down in a note. The sting of missing them was reminder enough. As it hurt less, I researched them more. There's a lot of youtube videos on them that here and there I watched. From youtube's distance I can tell these girls have a playful, sharp wit.

So I finally saw them at Subt's this past Tuesday 7 September. They were here to promote the release of the Chateau Crone. Their second release after On Time Travel And Romances. This band is a chameleon, colorful and elusive to describe. To be familiar with them is to come in direct contact to many styles and cultures that Agent Ribbons owns in the gut. Travel or the idea of it is implied in the guts of Agent Ribbons as evidence this vaudeville/rockabilly streak that surfaces then opens you to unexpected doors like to old Mexican folk songs, as in "Le Noche" on the Travel' CD. The accordion is a recognized passport to the southwest, Tex-Mex, they also go East with it as well like in "I'll Let You Be My Baby" on "Chateau". All this can strike as a gimmick if it were not for the wit and intelligence behind the songwriting. They know how to write some very endearing songs. They avoid all the trip wires that would strike one as common. They don't go for the easy rhyme. If you already discovered Amanda Palmer, refocus your attention. There is weight and resonance to be found for one who listens to all shades of dark. They have a way of disarming you with out tripping the sappy trip wire. Natalie plays guitar mostly, Lauren plays drums, and Naomi plays violin. There are more instruments played than I just mentioned. They are the kind of band that makes you feel good in your own eccentric skin without feeling like they are pandering to it. The band does what it does, is what it is out of impulse. Indeed it's as if I found myself all over again when beholding this band. I wish I could have told them that when I met them.

Zig

The Rosen Association

2010-09-03T01:50:00.000-07:00

Friday 20 August I saw The Rosen Association for about the third time. When I saw weeks ago that they were playing Darkroom I was so glad. The first time still is fresh in my mind. I know I've been using the shoegaze crayon a lot. Still, they wear it very well. I can really see Ms Erin this time. At the Mutiny you just could not see her or the rest of the band, the stage was so dark. I wondered if that was a deliberate display of mystery. That was a year ago. Their music was not yet available, but memorable. The week before that night I saw at Empty Bottle, School Of Seven Bells, WarPaint, and Panda Riot. Alright I was mostly on time for SVIIB but my point is that I place The Rosen Association firmly in their company, and yet as distinct as a fingerprint. The fans that go to see WarPaint and SVIIB I believe can be just as ravenous about Rosen Association. I feel it's just a matter of putting them in front of them. There is substance to listen, and substance to dance. I'm happy to see Panda Riot always playing Empty Bottle so many times after that one time Scary Lady Sarah introduced them to me. I believe firmly that Rosen Association deserve that same attention, that same chance to grow a local fan base that is not exclusive to the local goth culture. And as far as I can tell in all three times that I saw them, the audience was mostly goth, but as I said they deserve a wider subcultural audience just like Panda Riot. Well for this live performance at Darkroom that Friday I don't recall as many dancing, but they were not being ignored. They were indeed the headliner. The other bands were great as well but alas I only had enough to get the CD and shirt of Rosen'. The songs on the ep that has like 8 songs.

Erin's voice has a womanly depth, eerily older than she appears. In all the songs she sounds relaxed and innocently mysterious. Her voice does not go too high or too low. It does not take too much focus to tell what she is saying, at least in the context of the recorded work. Fragments of "Emergency Broadcast" and "Disco Lullaby of Titan" made me wish I had lyrics to read still. I don't tire of hearing these songs. Both are spacey but it's "Titan" that explicitly mentions riding the solar wind and Hyperion. They are what imprinted first live, and they are not slow. The real work of moving the songs is done by the guitars and drums, and they do so in a way that does not feel common, or pandering to....something. They don't squander your attention by taking you off to some tangent. The songs are not self indulgently long. For the goth that goes to Nocturna or Shimmer this will put you on the floor. You are going to need space for those that trained their movements to mid-tempo 90's goth. It's always in the back of my mind how delicate an existence it is to be in a band. That's why these live shows mean so much. The Rosens' where set to play Michigan, Kalamazoo I believe the very next day and had all their equipment stolen before the even left. I winced when I heard about that. I felt that hurt with them. They are our local answer to Brooklyn's School Of Seven Bells. It's my great hope that they survive this terrible blow.

Zig

Moritat

2010-08-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

I was really happy when I saw Moritat on The Whistler schedule with Julie Meckler. More on her later. Moritat stayed in my mind in large part because of the CD with the song Yellow House. That song just would not leave me alone. Or I could not leave it alone, and it was the one song that I could recall easily. A part of my mind knew to get the free Yellow House demo CD after that first time at Quenchers and hear it in the car on the way back. I missed them a bunch of times since and then I finally saw them again at Cole's on Milwaukee Ave, just north of Whistler. There is something to like now and something to love later. The piano part just reminded me of the theme to The Peanuts, and then you have Ms Venus' voice on top of that. It's like Schroeder and Lucy had themselves a jam session with everyone. I know that's not what it actually is or what actually inspired the song. It's just my own neurons trying to explain to the world what they beheld. It's like I walked in with the classic Charlie brown shirt on my forehead. Anyway, off I go to Whistler with my sister and her husband.

My mission was to finally buy the CD and support this local band that I like and identify with. Yet this whole time I was too shy to actually meet them. I could have at Cole's but my timid nature puts an awkward moat to cross, takes all the smart words from my vocabulary and reduces me to being this deer-in-the-headlights. I'll get the shirt later. Now the band actually saw my entry about them on my blog. All kinds of questions crash all around me.....did they like it? Did they dislike it....Really? Oh, my God. Just as I was ok being this little mouse about it. I think we arrive at Whistler on time 'cause Moritat was already playing. I don't remember the order of the songs but I do recall hearing Yellow House at some point. I believe I recall Pregnant Ladies as well. Hearing these songs live is awesome 'cause they renew themselves and makes you like the captured work even more. You just notice things in the live breathing performance that you will look for when you're hearing it in the car later.

Yellow House is really relaxed and kind of starry-eyed on CD, and that works. In this song they are closer to a happy Portishead, no delicate tension, but wonder. What I mean is that it draws one's attention without seeming to want it. In the Yellow House Venus is in no rush, but we are relaxed with the wonder of what she describes, or at least in how she describes. I'm not diving deep into the lyrics at this point. All that deeper reading will occur on its own, unless things really jump out. Well perhaps that Peanuts theme comparison didn't really explain them as well as my own neurons at the time of seeing the band. You don't think that live it will make a different imprint. You almost don't consider how loud and powerful and urgent it will sound live. There is muscle where you didn't know they had.

Ah yes, Pregnant Ladies. I like it 'cause of the unexpected turns it makes. Perhaps as I get more familiar with them the more comfortable I feel in going on about them. Pregnant Ladies starts off with the guitar front and center and the whole band chiming in with Venus. They chant their words like slogans at a rally. I'm struck by the wonder of how the lyrics are said. This is just as I'm identifying them in my mind as a keyboard driven band. In mid thought this band changes and as they do, so must my words to describe them. The song goes along in this sweet way and then left turn now. It does that a few times and that's on top of everyone singing in this one. I only highlighted two songs here 'cause this post will never be if I go on and on about the rest. I love this band and I'm glad they live here. They renew this civic Chicago pride.

Zig

Natalie Grace Alford

2010-08-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

So I saw Ms Natalie Grace this Monday 16 August at Reggies. She has a thing for wigs and so I go to see which one she wears, and she busts out a full band, and the new wig. And all these songs that are grand as they are, were given complexity that was suggested in the subtext of it's minimalism. I got her demo of some of her songs and they have her mostly with the keyboard. Now live and with the full band she is free to flap her arms and really drive her songs with her performance. My first time seeing her, it was just her taking on the tasks of many band members. Ms Natalie was not waiting for anyone to join. There are few performers I can think of that sound great with other musicians and as solo artists. Like Katie Jane Garside/Queen Adreena/Ruby Throat. And Katie Jane is a good loose comparison to Natalie Grace. Katie Jane can command your attention with just her voice and acoustic guitar. There is something very compelling about her. It's the same with Ms Nat. Careless and effortless is her stage presence. She can and has gone it alone and held attention that way. When you see her with a band, her songs finally can fully express their interior. Each instrument, each musician, removes a task that she would have to do, almost. With the band she is unchained. Free to pour it out. I can just tell how each performance will differ from the next. The songs talk back to her and then she talks back to you. Her voice is deep and womanly. You got to see how she bosses her band around. They play this messy kind of jazz that fit her songs nicely. The drummer plays a beat and she instructs him to play it faster. She clearly runs the band. Here and there she has to dig in the spurs to make the horse trot a little more elegantly. You got to send the message that you run the show even in mid performance. I can see her shows being real different every time. Ms Natalie is one to observe closely. Ms Nat is a bold performer. Her music has more to reveal, more breaths to take. If we as local Chicago natives are privileged enough to have this artist here, observe we should because it is a mirror to us. It's really fun to observe the different lives her songs have with each new performance. Everyone should absolutely stop observing Amy Winewhoo, I mean look at who we got here damn it!

Forget Cassettes

2010-08-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

It was a Free Monday at Empty Bottle when I saw Forget Cassettes, for the second time. That's when you know you like it. That first time, I bought the CD but I still remember almost not buying it. A misguided frugal inner voice nearly convinced me. I know just five dollars but I was broke. Anyway, I really liked the performance with that intensity that races ahead and then stops suddenly and then on again. Ms Beth just had that control. The audience would sometimes clap thinking they just abruptly finished the song and then off they go again in the same song. Forget Cassettes just turn the corner on you really fast like that on more than one occasion.

It was hard to figure out how many people on both occasions that I saw FG were feeling about them. A reserved but observant crowd with some people genuinely enjoying them. The songs are roller coasters of hard abrasive expression. It sounds like that even before you know what Beth Cameron says. She can go from this fragile lilt barely holding her heavy words to these vicious vocal shreds. It's always the sense of wonder that ok's the spending, hell it's what made me go to Empty Bottle in the first place. Anyway, I was really taken with the live performance, and I like what I've been hearing ever since. Indeed I feel fortunate for the chain of events that lead me to seeing Forget Cassettes. And what an interesting name. The cassette tape being this relic and icon for its time. Icons are hard to forget even when they are in disuse.

This band will have staying power that can survive the mediums it currently uses. They got this cool, angry intensity that is articulate when you read the lyrics. But you feel it first, when you hear it. I still marvel at how minimal they are (Beth Cameron on guitar and vocal and Jay Leo on drums live). The most resonant example I can think of for comparison is early PJ Harvey. Fondness follows the trail familiarity leaves with the CD "Salt". What does not catch on immediately does so later. "Quiero, Quieres" interested me because of the use of spanish. Something is happening when you speak in tongues . There is something curious about why she uses it. Beth ends it "Quiereme o me muero!"...love me or I die. A desperate end to a song that boldly asserts in the beginning that she's nobody's number 2. Phrases catch my attention like headlines. "Lonely Does It" has a lot of these and they hit the liver with a boxer's precision. You feel all this when you read the lyrics and then you go and see them again with the full knowledge of what you beheld live. This whole CD strikes me as coming from the mindset of a wounded animal, dangerous and venomous. So there is nothing sappy about this. The songs don't seem to wallow in sadness, instead it writhes and convulses in righteous anger.

Zig

Sabrina Chap

2010-07-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

23 July, Friday I saw Sabrina Chap. I liked what I heard on her Myspace page a lot and looked forward to seeing her and she did not disappoint. I would say this girl falls within the company of Ditty Bops, Amanda Palmer, Ami Saraiya. Playful to the last song Sabrina Chap has the same willful period edges that don't seem to drift past the '30's. Ami has her dark 40's swagger. Sabrina's giddy and playful in her Roaring 20's sound. Which sounds about right, I have heard her being described as a ragtime pianist. Another steampunk darling that dresses a lot of thoughtfulness in costume. Playful the songs may sound but serious they also are. I say steampunk because of how well Sabrina evokes these periods and bringing them forward seamlessly. Yet I feel I only know marginally the times and the periods she evokes. Post-rock 50's modernity is the great divide Steampunk does not cross am I right? Indeed, the 40's are kind of pushing it.

Steampunk in terms of fashion and music takes all of the costumes from the 40's and backwards at least 100 years, and through that lens then looks forward, right? Did I get that right? Imagine if a rip in time/space drops off Emily Dickenson in late 70's Manchester, or get her baked and take her to see The Pretenders. Hell yeah she's special. Sorry, back to Ms Sabrina.

I went to the Hideout expecting her and the Harry Connick Jr Orchestra that I heard briefly on her Myspace. It was her and the in-house piano, but I was sold. She bantered with the crowd, and talked in between songs. Failed Waitress/Failed Astronaut was one song that stuck and further convinced me to buy the CD. Sabrina had the crowd with her with this one, and channeled their participation in it. There's much for one like me to identify with in that one song. If ever you are working a job that feels like it's not what you went to school for, that you fell into and never left. You feel two things; a failure for not reaching the intended career even with all the education, and a failure at what you crash landed on,.....alright I'm loading the song too much.

When she sings live you notice all the little comic punch lines in her songs. This girl has the sharp wit that can take out a heckler and put him in his place. There was no remote need for that this night at Hideout. Everyone loved her. She's in a burlesque troop called Shlapentickle and she's performing with them Sunday 22 August at Lincoln Tap Room at 3010 N Lincoln, at 9pm. The cover is 5$.

The Pack A. D.

2010-06-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Another awesome band at a Free Monday at Empty Bottle. Originally I went to see Geri X at Martyrs but I was too late for that. I recalled that The Pack A.D. were playing as well so off I went to salvage the night, and wow! I feel fortunate for seeing them. Locally, they remind me of White Mystery, all bluesy and rough, and they are just one guitar/singer and one drummer. Non-locally they remind me of The Ettes. PJ Harvey even has some songs that are more bluesy like this, but hell this is about The Pack.

I caught most of the show, I think. Finding parking around Empty Bottle is getting harder even on a Monday night. That's how you can tell a lot of things before even arriving. It does not get that way if no one showed up. Early weeknight gigs filter out all but the fans. The band was certainly happy to see such a good crowd for a Monday night. I believed they remarked on how that does not happen in other places they've been. It was clear the audience was there to see them. Well it makes sense in a way. On your third CD tour, no cover. Your fans will come. There is something about being in a room full of the converted. They create the tide that can influence and enhance or even taint your experience. What they see coming, what they anticipate from around the corner hits you with no warning. Someone points to the sky, and I notice instead the Joy Division shirt that person is wearing. If what you are pointing to is meant to hit me, then it shall. And converted I became that night. Their live show was amazing. More so because the singer Becky was sick, and she soldiered on. That is one experience. As I'm writing this it's the CD's that are converting me a second time. It's bluesy music that is easily recognized by the casual ear, yet does not sound too familiar, nor too tired. I don't know that much about The Pack A. D. I think they've been here before to Hideout I think. They are from Canada, and they are promoting their third CD "We Kill Computers".

Golden Filter

2010-06-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

So I saw Golden Filter last Wednesday at Empty Bottle. I was anticipating this band since I saw them last time at the now defunct Sonotheque which is now called Beauty Bar I believe. So I post pictures of both performances; the iconic first and the second one long anticipated.

This band has this classic disco dance sound, with live drums to give it this organic rough edge to it. The same places you are taken to when you hear Eurythmics, Blondie....this band owns. To give another description, they are kind of like a streetwise Bel Canto. I drop these other names to tell what pantheon they belong in, at least for me. It's an extra hit when you see them live because of those drums.

So upon seeing this band I was taken to those crystalized iconic moments of disco. Well my memories are of seeing older relatives jam out to this in their cars, or in the basement with their 8 tracks, cassettes or records. There's the music that has this timelessness to it and there is also the disco that sounds quaint, and off. There is always the stuff that yellows quickly. Golden Filter to me has that staying power and yet there is nothing to suggest that they want to invoke the 70's or even disco period. They are a contemporary band that sounds a certain way and that's that. I was glad when this is what I take in with my own eyes. This is the contemporary music that I experience. This is my own iconic cult moment. And Sonotheque was small. Empty Bottle is bigger, but not by much. Catching this at a big place like Double Door, or Metro would feel distant. It would be distant. The singer was right in front of me, at least for the Sonotheque night. They did not even have the CD out yet. This was probably two years ago. I had to make due with the live recording I had of "Solid Gold".

They played in complete darkness that first time. No lights on them or anything, just the flashes of cameras. That seemed a little mysterious to me. The Sonotheque crowd was heavy with well dressed unpretentious people. Many were dancing to this band playing. You could not see the band so much so you might as well dance. Perhaps that was the point. It seemed like it was no different than the DJ playing. People just danced, and focused on that. You sink into your own world when you are in the dark. Everyone was sharing this space with their own party. The band was free to create the music, and we were free to party with it. That was perhaps two or three years ago. They came back to play Empty Bottle, the Wednesday of the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup.

It's so awesome that they won, but that is a footnote to me. The main thing was to see these guys play again. The Empty Bottle crowd indeed knew who they came to see. They did not act indifferent or lukewarm. There was one song in which the lead singer mentions "a few of my favorite things" and she threw into that list Chicago and the crowd reacted in kind. I had no problem going to the front of the stage, but there was a crowd of people behind me, many dancing. I did not want to lose my spot at the front. And now you can actually see the girl on stage. Alright, let me post this thing already and move on to the next post.

Zig

Aleks and The Drummer

2010-06-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

I missed this band when they opened for Dengue Fever, but I did catch this previous performance somewhere in Bridgeport on a Saturday. I recall at this venue there was art on display all over the place. There were some displays that did catch my eye and thoughts, but perhaps not long enough to survive me writing about them. So why do I go see them whenever I can? Why do I get angry at myself when I miss this band? There are only 5 songs on the ep. There are many songs still you can only catch live. So I go to see what is changing, and for what has remained the same. This is a fascinating artist to see if it's your first time, and one to keep seeing once you are a fan. She evolves before your eyes. By now I have songs that I'm familiar with and anticipate. This was the first time I saw a cello at one of their shows. I also like Ms Aleks' outfits for her performances. She is always way colorful, and can I add this, not tacky or way outlandish. There are some artists where you can kind of guess what they will wear for their own show. Sometimes they have some outfits that they always put on for a show, then there are those that just like black. What Ms Aleks wears one day does not signal what she shall wear her next show. She may not wear black but her music sure does. I'm not saying that her songs are deliberately goth. For me that is part of the beauty of it. It's just natural. I believe that this band has an effortless appeal to a goth crowd. Her signature church organ sound just has this natural sense of authority, fast or slow. "Eye To Eye" always plays in my head when I'm late for something. That drummer is on crack. The live drummer gives the live experience that sense of urgency, and dread even when the songs are slow.

Her voice, her operatic voice, is something to behold. I have mad respect for her voice. There was one show when it was apparent that she was sick, a sore throat I believe. And it was there when I saw the effort that goes into the performances of each song. In seeing this girl tough it out with a sore throat I had a new respect for her voice, and the music. You don't wanna stress your voice with singing and now you gotta hit them high notes. Nothing of the sort happened for this time. I was just going on about why I have that extra respect for the live experience.

Zig

Natalie Grace Alford

2010-06-05T02:30:00.000-07:00

After missing her shows the last 2 times. I finally reached one on time. It was at Bridgeport Art Center on 35th street, in the middle of an industrial park I think. There was a lot of art on display at that place. And it is huge, like it was a factory once. The building looks old and sturdy. I'm glad they found this use for it. The artwork on display was more interesting to witness because it was all juxtaposed against the working class-ness of the building. Still, I don't recall any of the art. For me it was a nice background for Natalie to perform in. She was outside as I was walking in. She recalled me from before. How nice. You can't miss her with her white wig. Perhaps it's me, but wigs have become a signature of hers. In Wicker Park her sense of fashion fits right in. On the working-class south side, she sticks out. Well, to be fair so did many people at Bridgeport in that night. No, I'm not taking the piss out of her, or any one. I'm happy to see them have such events as far south as 35th. It means the south side of Chicago is indeed cultured and weird. For me that's awesome. I almost don't have to take the highway. Anyway back to Natalie Grace.

The last time I saw her at Beat Kitchen she played alone, yet she took on the tasks of an entire band all on her own. This time there was a band mate playing the keyboard which freed her to focus on the singing. And it makes a difference. She expressed more in her voice and body language. The music she writes kind of obliges one to put both balls into it. And she still takes on the tasks of an entire band. I think any one that hears her music will have a vague cultural familiarity to it. She uses her voice as an instrument....as several instruments. Like a cappella. For me I hear some doo-wop, and motown. I do not know if it's deliberate from her. Is it a matter of what inspired her to sing? I did not ask. Ms Natalie so reminds me of those old doo wop bands of the 50's and 60's, and she pulls out the timelessness of those styles. It's in almost every song, but each song is different. They are siblings, not the same song with different clothes. Part of the theater is watching her build each song one vocal track at a time. I suppose she can have the relevant parts to each song pre-recorded and ready to go, but that would take away from the organic process of each voice chiming in one barbershop chic at a time. And these uhm, voices can go high or low. One vocal track is deep and bassy, and they go higher from there. The creative well that Ms Nat draws from is deep indeed. I feel fortunate enough to have her demo CD but she has enough material to record another. And like an Argentine boxer, after her gig is done, she steps out for a smoke. Nice!

Zig

ami Saraiya

2010-06-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

I've been catching a lot of her live shows this year. There is something you can only get from seeing the same band a bunch of times. Each performance leaves it's own imprint. Each venue also leaves a stamp. Indeed some venues are just small bars with tiny stages...if they have stages. I was on a barstool across from Ms Ami one time. It felt like I was intruding on the band's space. I almost had to lean back. I go to these small shows 'cause to me they are not small. I like the little differences you get from the CD's. Her whole band is awesome. I'm starting to have a much more deeper appreciation of them. It's just Ami's name on the whole thing but, the performances are a product of all her band mates. I notice how intricate they all sound, and how necessary they all are to Ami. She's played a lot of bars....I don't mean real venues like Empty Bottle and Hideout. I mean just bars, and I can think of entire sub-cultures that would support this. If you're a fan of steam punk, I think I can interest you in Ami. She has that same retro-forward thing. Only Ami does it without the costume. All kinds of related festivals can want this chick. Projekt Fest, Dracula's Ball, Dances Of Vice. I 'm in utter disbelief that her fan base does expand into these subcultures. It's just that something about the Midwest. Out of it comes out all kinds of music that it ignores. There's a new song that she plays that's not in any CD yet. It's called "Cattle Prod Hands". I feel very familiar to her music, yet I don't get tired from hearing it. This song is a further evolution of a sound that I've come to anticipate from her.