Radio Free Chicago

New Releases Tuesday (5/31)

Local and Related

Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love (Drag City)
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love proves that still waters still run deep. Smog’s newest songs are like a cycle, with plenty of glints and highlights as it revolves. Smog will be touring all over Europe upon the May 31st release of the record, but before we let him go, he’ll be playing instore appearances at Amoeba Records in both LA and San Francisco as well as Waterloo Records in Austin. There will be some radio shows and maybe even paying gigs in this whirlwind promo tour...

www.dragcity.com

Other Notables

Bjork - Army of Me: Remixes and Covers (One Little Indian)
Her Space Holiday - Let's Get Quiet Vol. 1 (Mush)
Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic (Domino)
Maximo Park - Certain Trigger (Warp)
[Sounds like nothing I've ever heard on Warp!?! This is straight up rock...]
Melvins - Mangled Demos from 1983 (Ipecac)
Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth (Epic)
[New fookin' Oasis!]

LCD's James Murphy rockin' Metro

LCD's James Murphy rockin' Metro (Courtesy of the-big-ticket.blogspot.com)

Live Review: LCD Soundsystem w/M.I.A. At Metro 5/19/05

I think I've reached that point where I've just simply attended too many shows. This was certainly a dance-tastic bill, and both artists did a great job of getting the crowd movin', but I wasn't inspired to do much more than some subtle hipster head-nodding for most of the night. Like many of my record-store workin,' rock critic lovin' brethren, I guess I too have reached that point where I've become "too cool for school" to move my feet to even the most infectious collection of live grooves.

No wait... I don't want to be that guy. I'd still like to think that I can be inspired to dance, hoot and holler like a frenzied fan-boy if the performance is amazing enough. Well, actually I don't want to be that guy, either...but at the very least I should do more than nod my head to the beat with my arms crossed at a dance show. So, what was the issue at this show? Too much surliness from me, or lack of inspiration from the artists on stage?

M.I.A. w/ Diplo@Metro 5/19 (Courtesy

M.I.A. w/ Diplo@Metro 5/19 (Courtesy of the-big-ticket.blogspot.com)

RFC Night/MixTape Exchange

Don't forget to finish up those mix tapes, RFC night is tomorrow night!

RFC Night
Leadway Bar and Gallery
5233 N. Damen (near Foster)
Friday May 27, 9pm

RFC Interview: Stereo Total

Last Thursday, besides the much-hyped appearance of LCD Soundsystem and M.I.A. w/Diplo at Metro, there was another hot dance party going on across town. Berlin-based Stereo Total (pronounced "toe-TALL") was gracing the stage of the Abbey Pub for a headlining show with Les Georges Leningrad. If you've never experienced Stereo Total, you are seriously missing out. Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring mix up an infectious blend of electronic pop that fuses punk, electro, disco, new wave and hip-hop elements accompanied by vocals in a multitude of languages. Their music is classic, yet cutting edge...simple, yet brilliant. And most of all...fun as hell. RFC caught up lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Françoise Cactus after their show last week to learn more about this Euro-pop phenomenon known as Stereo Total... Radio Free Chicago: Your live shows are always a riot...what's the craziest live experience you've ever had?

Françoise Cactus: We played once in the Philharmonia in Novrozibirsk (Siberia) at 6 p.m. On the huge stage we looked like 2 flies on a cake. The audience was expecting some classical music or maybe some jazz, so they were first a little bit surprised, but at the end some of them climbed on their armchairs and started dancing the kasatchock.

RFC: The "Do The Bambi Tour" also includes Hawney Troof, Les Georges Leningrad and Gossip. How or why did you choose these bands to tour with?

FC: Hawney is already an old friend of us. He visited us in Berlin and is singing with me on the song "I am Hungry" on the new Stereo Total CD. Les Georges Leningrad were recommended by a Canadian friend from Montreal who gave me their first record some years ago. The Gossip we don't know personally yet, but I am a fan of their music and I hope we will [become] friends on this tour.

RFC: Do you have any other new favorite bands/artists that you'd like to work with? Any current music obsessions (new or old) that you've been listening to non-stop lately?

FC: I would love to tour with Petty Booka, 2 Japanese girls who play the ukulele and sing cute songs about the rain. I just bought me a ukulele, so I could join them for one song or two. On this tour we're listening to the new Françoise Hardy record, to Green Day, to François de Roubaix ...

RFC: How does touring in North America compare to touring in Germany, France or anywhere else in Europe? Of all the cities and countries you've toured, who has the most fun crowds? Who has the best dancers?

FC: Here you have to drive a lot, because your country is so big...but [it's] more relaxed, the people don't drive so fast [like on the Autobahn], the landscapes look fabulous, and we enjoy the good food. I'm getting green asparagus every day, and some crazy stuff like blue soft shell crabs, we don't have that in Europe. We've got nice fans in every country, the Californian people seem to be always in a good mood, maybe because of the sun. There are great dancers in Spain and Brazil.

RFC: Tell us more about the new album...

FC: This is a long album with 20 songs. It is moody: some songs are funny, some are rebellious or sad. The sound is really good. Our mixer Cem Oral did a great job. A lot of songs are related to cinema...to the movies "Christiane F.", "Week end" and "Cinemania".

RFC: By our count, this is your 7th album? How did you end up on the Kill Rock Stars label?

FC: Really? I thought it was our 6th. Let me think a little bit ... "Oh ah", "Monokini"' , "Juke Box Alarm", "My Melody", "Musique Automatique", "Do the Bambi". That's it! The other one, "Total Pop," is a sort of Best of. Our former label "Bobsled" closed its boutique, So we were looking for a new label. Kathleen from Le Tigre spoke about us to Slim from Kill Rock Stars, and he adopted us in his music family. Cool!

RFC: So, how does one actually "do the bambi?" Can you describe it verbally?

FC: It's a little dance you do with your eyes. You look up to your lover and move your eyelashes in a charming way...an innocent sexy touch!

RFC: Thanks for your time...anything else you'd like to add???

FC: I wanna kiss all our fans and invite them to come to our shows. Bisous bisous.

Technorati Links

New Releases Tuesday (5/25)

Gorillaz - Demon Days (Virgin) Graham who?? I'm sorry, but Damon is just on a roll...Think Tank was amazing and this Gorillaz project shows no signs of slowing down. Helping out the cartoon band this time around are Shaun Ryder, MF Doom, De La Soul, Roots Manuva, Neneh Cherry and even Dennis Hopper. Plus, manning the controls as producer is the red-hot mash-up master Danger Mouse. (love the cartoon symmetry!)

Have you heard the first two singles ("Feel Good Inc.," "Dirty Harry") yet??? This album practically goes to the top of my "best of 2005" based on the strength of those tracks alone. Hell, if he keeps this up, Damon might as well just to drop the rest of his Blur mates so he can spend more time with his new cartoon buddies.

Stephen Malkmus - Face the Truth (Matador)
Solo album #3 from the former Pavement leader. Check out the CD release party Wed. night at aliveOne, or see the man himself gracing the stage of Metro on June 11.

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (Sub Pop)
Album #7(!) from these veteran indie-rock grrls, but their first for Sub Pop.

Belle & Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (Matador)
All seven of the band's EPs released on Scotland's Jeepster label are collected here in an economical and convenient 2-disc package.

Head of Femur - Hysterical Stars (spinArt)
2nd album from the Chicago via Nebraska indie-rock supergroup. They will be performing this latest release in its entirety, complete with a 21 member rock group/orchestra, this Friday at Subterranean.

ALSO...

Son Volt - A Retrospective: 1995-2000 (Rhino)
Meat Beat Manifesto - At the Center (Thirsty Ear - Blue Series)
Maria Taylor - 11:11 (Saddle Creek)

Dublab presents Up Our Sleeve

As has been the case throughout the month of May, this Friday is yet another night where I'd like to be two places at once. Besides the return of RFC Night, the 27th is also the night when Up Our Sleeve invades the Open End Gallery. Here's more from the event's website:

What is 'UP OUR SLEEVE?'

Music memories, paper, paint, ink, ribbons, paste, plastic, photos, metal, vinyl, trains, tape, mannequin heads, and magic. Out of wartime and low cash woes came inspiration for united creativity. We distributed hundreds of blank 12" record sleeves to our artistic friends who passed them onto their pals and on and on. UP OUR SLEEVE reflects the dublab community. We are rooted in Los Angeles while branching worldwide.

dublab dj's are in love with vinyl and the deep culture that surrounds it. Sadly, album art has been shrinking: 12" > 5" > invisible MP3's. UP OUR SLEEVE is an opportunity to expand again. Our sleeves are big. A square foot of fun with a hole tossed in the middle. A blank 12" cover is an exciting medium. It's instantly recognizable and infinitely adjustable.

Most often album covers are made to match existing music. UP OUR SLEEVE flips this paradigm. The pieces are influenced by music genres and albums while existing free of specific attachment. This is open artistic expression. Who knows, someday songs might be sung for these covers. UP OUR SLEEVE: the dublab covers project is a fundraiser. Each artist donated their one of a kind creation. The sleeves will be auctioned off online to support dublab's positive music transmissions. Keep your eyes on upoursleeve.org for auction dates.

What is 'dublab?'

dublab.com is a radio collective devoted to the growth of positive music and culture. We are a grassroots center for creative expression. dublab spreads beautiful future roots music via the world's best djs. Over the past five years, millions of listeners have connected to our audio streams.

The event takes place from 7pm-2am this Friday, the 27th at Open End Gallery, 2000 W. Fulton. Price of admission is $10. Check out www.upyoursleeve.org for more info.

Herren pounding the skins last

Herren pounding the skins last week at the Bottle

Live Review: Prefuse 73@Empty Bottle 5/12/05

A popular misconception among concert goers is that electronic music isn't any good live. I'm certainly not one that agrees with this, but I can understand the perception to a certain extent. It is more entertaining to see a guitarist strut his stuff front and center on stage than it is to see someone's head buried behind a PowerMac all night. Plus, any sort of live instrumentation is going to be more conducive to a more spontaneous and energetic performance than pre-programmed beats in a computer. Then again, if the music is brilliant and the artist is highly skilled in his craft, it really shouldn't matter what sort of tools are being used. Good art should triumph no matter what the medium is, right?

On his latest tour for his Prefuse 73 project, it seems that Scott Herren is trying to bridge this gap. As Prefuse 73, Herren slices, dices and chops up electronic beats and blips, creating a hyperkinetic sound that's equal parts Afrika Bambaataa and Aphex Twin. It's clearly the kind of music that has been afforded only by modern technology. In his wildest dreams, John Coltrane could never have imagined the ability to cut and paste drum breaks as frenetically as Herren has on his Prefuse 73 records.

So naturally, in going to see Prefuse 73 live, one would expect to see little more than a couple of laptops and maybe a synthesizer set-up on stage; with Herren being the lone man navigating it all. However, for this tour, Herren brought with him a complete supporting cast of live musicians consisting of a bass player (Chicago's Josh Abrams), a drummer, a DJ and an additional knob twiddler for the electronics. There was even an additional drum kit set up on stage that Herren used to add a twin skins attack on selected tracks.

You've got to commend the Herren for trying to bring genuine organic elements to his live show, when he could very easily have just brought himself and a a laptop. Unfortunately, I can't say that I really dug the live band set up all that much. Rather than subtly augmenting the pre-programmed electronic beats, the live accompaniment almost seemed to detract from the quality of the source material. It wasn't like the live band made everything sound bad, it was just that they really didn't add enough to warrant pushing the electronic aspects of the music (the shit that makes Prefuse 73 amazing) to the back of the mix.

I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that the band was still tied down to those electronic beats. With a pre-programmed rhythm track, a band has little room or no room for any improvisation or additional jamming on solos. So despite adding the "live" elements, the basic structure of the songs changed very little from the recordings and the musicians were left with little space to truly showcase their talents. The one possible exception to this was when Herren get behind the second drum kit and pounded out the beats himself on a few of the tracks. The twin drum attack sounded great and it seemed to really loosen up the band and energize the crowd. (not to mention Herren himself, who looked like a kid in a candy store behind the kit)

Another thing that seemed to be really lacking from this performance was vocals. While half (if not more) of the tracks on Prefuse 73 albums are usually instrumental jams, Herren also drops in some great vocal cuts on his albums with the help of various guests (Herren just produces, he always leaves the mic duties to others). In fact, his latest album, Surrounded by Silence, consists almost entirely of collaborations with rappers and vocalists. However, I think only a couple of vocal snippets were dropped during the entire night. Obviously, it's impossible to bring all of the vocal talent he's worked with on the road with him, but dropping in some samples here and there would have added some much needed variation to the show. Opening act Beans did come on stage for one track, but his lyrical contribution was a bit rambling and overall it was just a bit too little too late.

Oddly enough, the first time I saw Prefuse 73, it was just Herren manning the electronics and I thought that the performance could of used a little more energy or live augmentation. Now this time I'm complaining that he had too much live shit going on. However, on his last tour (back in the fall of 2003), it seemed like he had the formula just right. The show still centered mostly around Herren, but this time he was joined by Tortoise's John Herndon on drums. Herndon seemed to compliment the music of Prefuse 73 perfectly and overall it was a really memorable performance. For some reason, this most recent show just didn't quite click for me like it did at that one.

To be fair to Herren and his cohorts, this was still a good show. If I had never heard the music of Prefuse 73 before in my life and had blindly walked into this show, I probably would have been blown away. But, after extensively listening to his records for the past few years and seeing him perform live before, my expectations were set ridiculously high and unfortunately this show just didn't quite live up. I can't complain too much though, an average Prefuse 73 experience is still far better than seeing most other artists on their best night.

Collect all 8!

Collect all 8!

WHPK DJ writes the book on R.E.M.

Congrats to local rock critic and WHPK "Radio Zero" co-host J. Niimi for being the latest author to get his work published in the 331/3 book series. The series is a collection of short books about critically acclaimed albums from the past 40 years. Here's more from Continuum Books:

By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors—musicians, scholars, broadcasters, and writers—are huge fans of the albums they have chosen.

Here's more from the snarky purveyors of all things hip, Vice magazine:

These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool.… We love these.

For his contribution, Niimi tackled the fable of R.E.M.'s legendary debut record, Murmur, which forever changed the landscape of college radio and underground music. I'll leave the in-depth analysis of the record to Niimi, but trust me, this is a title worth reading more about...even if you still hate R.E.M. for unleashing that debacle called "Shiny Happy People."

This, and other new titles in the series are now available on-line here at Amazon.com or at such local outlets as Barbara's Books, Seminary Coop, Tower and Barnes & Noble. Other recent titles getting the 331/3 treatment include Led Zeppelin IV, Pet Sounds, Exile on Main St. and Jeff Buckley's Grace. You can check out more writing from Niimi in such fine publications as the Chicago Reader, the Village Voice and the Seattle Weekly...or check him out on the radio every Thursday from 10a-12p on WHPK-FM 88.5.