Radio Free Chicago

Calling all DIY artists and publishers!

Join Radio Free Chicago this Friday afternoon at Ephemera, a festival celebrating Zines and D.I.Y culture. There will be tables from numerous zine writers and DIY artists, as well as workshops, presentations and readings throughout the day.

Presenters include keynote speaker Tyler Kahdeman, who will be talking about the role of Zines in social justice; Xexoxial Editions, an Intermedia presentation with reading, sound, movies and animation; the Guild of Acquired Technology will be presenting a Circuit Bending Workshop; and David Powers will discuss D.I.Y. Computer Music Production. After the workshops, local independent publishers will read selections from their work. Readers include Aaron Cynic (Diatribe Media) Matt Fagan (Meniscus) Abby Glongower, Christoph Meyer (28 Pages Lovingly Bound with Twine), Kate Sandler (Brainiac) and Emerson Dameron (Wherwithall).

Stop by the RFC table and we'll hook you up with some sweet music swag. (while supplies last!) The Ephemera Festival takes place this Friday, September 23, from 12pm to 9pm in the DePaul University Student Center – 2250 N. Sheffield, Room 120. Call 773-317-3733 or email: ephemera_festival(at)yahoo.com for more information.

Free Shows in Hyde Park!

WHPK-FM, aka "The Pride of the South Side," is presenting a FREE night of local music Thursday night at the University of Chicago. The show will take place at the Ex Libris coffeeshop (basement of Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th St.), starting at 10:30pm. WHPK's J. Niimi has the scorecard for this event:

Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra
Garage rock with neo-Patti Smith vocals. The group headlined the popular Wicker Park Festival this summer. Miss Alex White became well known with her earlier band, the Hot Machines, and has just released her first solo album on In The Red Records.

M.O.T.O.
Long-running Chicago pop/punk band with excellent songwriting and great lyrics. M.O.T.O. comes to Ex Libris fresh off their West Coast tour, following a recent release on Criminal IQ. Find out more at motorock.com

Twin Wrecks the Memory
South Side natives making stoner rock on speed; think Sonic Youth in Beverly instead of Greenwich Village. The band self-released their record Royal Drug Lodge. Check out www.twinwrecksthememory.com

Visit WHPK's website for more info: http://whpk.uchicago.edu/
or call: 773-702-8289

UPDATE: WHPK was also going to present Japanese psychedelic experimentalists Acid Mother's Temple for free tonight in Hutch Courtyard but the band has run into some visa issues and has had to cancel some North American dates, including their performance Thursday at The Empty Bottle as a part of The Wire's Adventures in Modern Music Fest. Taking their place on the bill at The Bottle on Thursday will be Jandek.

Live Pics: Röyksopp w/Annie@Metro 9/19/05

New in the RFC Live Photo Archive today are pics from Monday night's Röyksopp/Annie show at Metro. I haven't had time to write up a proper review yet, but RFC Chief Image Coordinator Nicole has a quick blurb about the show on her Blog. In a nutshell, Röyksopp rocked as expected and (also not surprisingly) live Annie didn't quite live up to the hype of recorded Annie. I also completely agree with Nicole about Röyksopp's touring vocalist...I couldn't decide if her cheesy, over-emoting fit the euro-pop style of the music or was just annoying. I'm bordering on the side of annoying. Like I said, I hope to have a full review of the show soon, however it's a really busy week at RFC central. BRMC last night, hopefully Beck tonight, Rock For Kids benefit Thursday and Ephemera (more on this later) on Friday. Stay tuned...

Technorati: Röyksopp

New Releases Tuesday (9/20)

Lichens - The Psychic Nature of Being (Kranky) First solo release from 90 Day Men bassist and TV on the Radio collaborator Robert Lowe. According to the bio from Kranky, The Psychic Nature of Being was recorded as a one-time improvisation without overdubbing, and the three tracks on the release "reveal and extend mesmeric Lichens live performances." Mr. Kranky also gushes, "Lowe mutates and extends his singing as he adds acoustic and electric guitars and percussion in layers that accent the vocal drones." You can check out Lowe at the opening night festivities of The Wire's Adventures in Modern Music this Wednesday at The Bottle. He'll be performing as part of a newly formed experimental trio with Hisham Bharoocha of Black Dice and Tyondai Braxton of Battles.

Also out today...

American Analog Set - Set Free (Arts & Crafts)
Boduf Songs - s/t (Kranky)
Broadcast - Tender Buttons (Warp)
Echo & The Bunnymen - Siberia [new material, not a reissue!] (Cooking Vinyl)
Le Tigre - This Island Remixes (Chicks on Speed)
Mr. Oizo - Mustache(Half a Scissor) (Mute)
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift (Barsuk)

Rock for Kids Mixtape Auction

Mark your calendars for this Thursday, Sept. 22...Rock For Kids is hosting their 3rd annual Music Mixer, a fundraising auction where you can bid on mixtapes donated by local musicians, venue owners, disc jockeys, concert promoters, music journalists and record label owners. In addition to an exclusive 3-CD set donated by Radio Free Chicago, you can also bid on mixes from Thax Douglas, Bruce Finkelman (Empty Bottle), Greg Kot (Trib), Bob Mehr (Reader), Sean McDonough (Metro), Joe Shanahan (Metro), Miss Mia (Chic-A-Go-Go), Cynthia Plaster Caster and many, many, many more. (there's even a mix from Death Cab's Ben Gibbard!??!)

All proceeds will benefit Youth Jam, Rock For Kids' music education program. The auction takes place from 6-10pm at SmartBar, 3730 N. Clark. $5 suggested donation at the door. Click HERE for the complete info and list of participants

Did I mention that Radio Free Chicago submitted a 3-CD mixtape set??? (1 mix made by Nicole, 2 by yours truly) We'd love to see everyone out and have lots of people bid on our set so that it raises some serious dough for the cause....(or at the very least more than 5 bucks!!)

Sufjan live pics

Pictures of Sufjan Stevens' Friday night (9/16) performance at Metro are available for your viewing pleasure in the RFC Live Photo Archive. Check out Nicole's review of the show here.

Editor's note:

I was at Saturday's show and thought the entire presentation was genius. Stevens performed his songs with his signature understated, yet sincere delivery while his backing band of "Illinoisemakers" kept things loose and energetic. Many of Stevens' songs are rather quiet and slow (some people might even call them "depressing") but he did a great job of pacing the show to keep the audience engaged. An extended set of solo Sufjan slow jams could lull even the most enthusiastic crowd to sleep, but the balance of the morose with the upbeat was executed perfectly on the setlist and the hilarious mock cheers in-between songs kept the energy level up all night long. Kudos to Sufjan for striving to make his live act a truly memorable experience, rather than just another shoe-gazing indie rock show.

Technorati: Sufjan Stevens

"Pass the aquavit!" Röyksopp's Torbjørn

"Pass the aquavit!" Röyksopp's Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge

Scandinavian Invasion This Weekend

Of course, this weekend marks the start of both the World Music Festival and the Celtic Music Fest, but there also seems to be a bit of an unintentional Scandinavian music fest this weekend.

As profiled in the Reader a while back, this Saturday is the Empty Bottle's foreign exchange night with their adopted sister club, Blå, from Oslo, Norway. In addition to curating music for the night, (Norway's JR Ewing and jazz duo Håkon Kornstad/Håvard Wiik), the staff of Blå will actually be taking over operations at the club for the night, working the door and serving up the drinks. In addition to Bottle staples like Old Style and PBR, the Blå staff will also be serving up some specialties from their homeland, including Scandinavian hard liquor favorite aquavit (mmm...booze made from potatoes!). Not only is the Bottle giving you a genuine Oslo experience without the expensive airfare, they're not even charging admission for this event! A free show on a Saturday?? I'll toast a glass of aquavit to that...

As if that wasn't enough Scandinavian culture for one weekend, the next night The Empty Bottle is featuring a night of abstract Finnish folk and psychedelic music. Headlining the night will be Lau Nau, "a side project of sorts" from vocalist Laura Naukkarinen (of the band Kiila) whose recent debut solo album is being distributed domestically by the local label, Locust Music.

Finally, rounding out the Viking music raid on Chicago is Röyksopp with Annie at Metro on Monday night. Originally from Bergin, Norway, Röyksopp are bonfide superstars in Europe, thanks largely to their 2001 global smash hit, "Poor Leno." Their recently released sophomore effort, The Understanding, has been slammed a bit by critics, but once you get past the fact that it's not Melody A.M., v2.0, it's actually a decent Euro-dance/electronic record. (I'm not sure why everyone's complaining about this one, it wasn't like Meoldy A.M. was completely immune to cheesy Euro-dance moments)

Despite being Euro-superstars who've sold millions of records worldwide, it seems that Röyksopp are being overshadowed on this tour by their opening act, hipster-adopted pop princess (and fellow Norse) Annie. With all the press seemingly focused on her appearance, you'd swear she was the headliner. Of course, Röyksopp paved the way musically and helped produce most of her record, but she's cute and her record's hot (thanks almost entirely, I swear, to Pitchfork), so naturally she gets all the attention. However, if their last show at Metro was any indication, you'll definitely want to stick around for the entire show to see Röyksopp. Amazingly, I almost thought they sounded better live than on record last time, which is not something I've experienced a lot at electronic shows.

Capitol Records night at AliveOne

Tonight at AliveOne, Capitol Records and The Onion are joining forces to present The Fall Music Preview 101, a listening party to hear the best new releases coming out of the round offices at Hollywood and Vine. The latest albums from The Dandy Warhols, Idlewild, Supergrass and the Magic Numbers will be previewed along with a screening of the now legendary Dandy Warhols/Brian Jonestown rockumentary Dig! following at the end of the night. But wait...there's more! There will be plenty of giveaways as well, including tickets to see Idlewild at Metro on September 22, tickets to see Doves at the Riviera on September 27, a copy of Dig! on DVD, and assorted swag from The Dandy Warhols and The Onion. Plus, as an added bonus, AliveOne will be dipping into their prize closet to give away tickets to next Wednesday's Beck show at The Riv. Sure, this kind of spoils the all-Capitol artists symmetry, but hey, no complaints...this show's been sold out for a while.

Party starts at 9pm, AliveOne is located at 2683 N. Halsted.

CMJ 25 Coverage

The 25th annual CMJ Music Marathon kicks off in New York today, and as usual, Seattle's KEXP and L.A.'s KCRW are providing the best coverage.

Nic Harcourt will be bringing his Morning Becomes Eclectic program to NYC for KCRW's 8th annual appearance at the festival. Harcourt will host a live interview and performance with young Brit newcomer Tom Vek on Thursday and Pitchfork buzz band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on Friday.

KEXP hosts John Richards and Cheryl Waters have actually been in New York since Monday and will continue their CMJ coverage through the end of the week. Upcoming guests include Blackalicious on Thursday and DeVotchKa and Rogue Wave on Friday. In addition to KEXP's high quality live MP3 streams, you can also check out complete broadcasts from the week via their audio archive or individual band performances via their live performance Podcasts.

Technorati: CMJ

ALSO...

WOXY.com will be joining in the CMJ festivities with a "Late Night Last Night Hangover Breakfast" live broadcast Saturday night from midnight-3a.

Kanye/Dubya Remix

I generally don't use Wonkette as a source to find hot new Mp3's, but yesterday on the site I found this genius Kanye West "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" remix by The Legendary K.O.

Check out the timely soundsystem banger set to Kanye's "Gold Digger" single here. You can also pick up a matching ironic faux-vintage t-shirt with the "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" slogan here. Hey, who said politics wasn't any fun??

Yo, FEMA raps!

Of course, we here at RFC strive to be fair and balanced in our reporting, so we'd be remised not to present this hot rap joint from the Fed's point of view. Click here to bump the "FEMA for Kidz Rap" as featured on the FEMA.gov website. In case you don't have any speakers close, here's a sampling of some of the rhymes that FEMA MC Scott J. Wolfson is spittin':

People helping people is what we do
And FEMA is there to help see you through
When disaster strikes, we are at our best
But we're ready all the time, 'cause disasters don't rest.

Word.

New Releases Tuesday

Stellastarr* - Harmonies for the Haunted (RCA) Currently on tour to support this sophomore release, these Brooklyn rockers with the curious asterisk at the end of their name are playing Metro tonight with openers Magneta Lane and The Changes. Jay Belin from LooseRecord.com writes, "Expect the same, layered vocal harmonies and grandiose punch of the dueling guitars from the first record, but with a more cohesive pensive nature that takes listeners on an emotional rollercoaster. Get there early for hometown (and Loose!) favorites - The Changes. " Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Remixed (Vice) A track-by-track remix of the original album featuring re-workings by Four Tet, Ladytron, Mogwai, M83 and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The Dandy Warhols - Odditorium or Warlords of Mars (Capitol)
After dabbling in synth-pop and enlisting Nick Rhodes as producer for their last effort, the Dandy's return to their usual blend of rootsy stoner rock.

John Parish - Once Upon a Little Time (Thrill Jockey)
Best known for his work with PJ Harvey, Parish returns with his third solo release. Features contributions by members of Portishead and (Nick Cave's) The Bad Seeds.

Sam Champion - Slow Rewind (Razor & Tie)
Named after a veteran weatherman in New York, these roots rockers are another Jay "LooseRecord" Belin recommendation. The good people at WOXY.com really dig these guys as well.

Sigur Ros - Takk (Geffen)
No longer singing in "Hopelandic," Sigur Ros are back to singing in a real language, their native Icelandic. Great packaging for this release, though I'd have to say for most casual listeners; if you've heard one Sigur Ros album, you've heard them all.

lots more goodies released this week...

Apollo Sunshine - S/T (SpinArt)
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow (XL)
Brakes - Give Blood (Rough Trade)
The Ex - Singles.Period (Touch & Go)
Freakwater - Thinking of You (Thrill Jockey)
Iron and Wine/Calexico - In the Reins [ep] (Touch & Go)
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift (Barsuk)
The Rosebuds - Birds Make Good Neighbors (Merge)
Sonic Youth - Goo [Deluxe reissue] (Geffen)
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft (XL)

plus on DVD...

Director Label Series - Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer, Anton Corbijn and Stéphane Sednaoui (Universal)
The second set in this great series that compiles the work of the best music video directors in the industry. Available individually by director or as a complete boxed-set.

Da Ali G Show - The Complete Second Season (HBO)
Straight out the Staines ghetto, legendary MC Ali G is back with another season of wacky hijinks for all you geezas.

Modfather on MBE

Paul Weller, the legendary leader of The Jam and The Style Council will be performing a live session today on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Weller will be promoting his latest album, As Is Now (in stores 10/11), and his upcoming brief North American tour which brings him to the Vic next Tuesday (9/20). Amazingly, over 25 years after The Jam first hit the scene, Weller is still a viable artist and an outstanding live act. His last show at the Vic a couple of years ago absolutely blew me away. I think Jim DeRogatis of the Sun-Times even listed it as his top live show of the year at the time. If you've been debating about whether to get tickets to see Weller, trust me, go get them now...you won't be disappointed. And if you still need convincing, be sure to check out his set today on KCRW.

Paul Weller's MBE performance will be streamed live via video here on KCRW's website starting at 1:20p Chicago time. Don't worry if you miss the set, KCRW archives both audio and video streams of all of its live performances. Speaking of which, you can also check previews of many other upcoming Chicago shows in KCRW's archives, including Sufjan Stevens, New Pornographers, VHS or Beta and Michael Penn.

Concert Preview: Xiu Xiu tonight@Bottom Lounge

Quirky indie rockers Xiu Xiu take the stage at Bottom Lounge tonight with the equally eccentric Frog Eyes opening. RFC Chief Indie Rock Correspondent (and TMT contributor herself) Nicole Chavas recommends checking out Tiny Mix Tapes' recent "interesting and somewhat awkward" interview with Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart. As Nicole notes, "Apparently he used to be a preschool teacher. I'm going to guess he kept the semen and penis references out of the classroom back then."

Doors open tonight at 7pm for this all ages show. Admission is $12. The Bottom Lounge is located at 3206 N. Wilton, just around the corner from the Belmont red line stop.