architecture

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.