Radio Free Chicago

Benefit at Metro this Saturday

(reposted from Metro's email list)

On July 14, 2005, Michael Dahlquist, John Glick and Doug Meis
(3 close friends, fellow musicians and co-workers at Shure Incorporated) were stopped at a stoplight in Skokie, IL when their Honda Civic was struck from behind by a woman traveling over 70 m.p.h. who was trying to commit suicide. All three men died in the tragic accident, but their combined spirit, compassion for others, love of music and overall zest for life live on.

The 3FRIENDS memorial and benefit show was organized to honor and pay musical tribute to Michael (Silkworm), John (the Returnables) and Doug (Exo, the Dials). The night will feature performances by some of the men’s former groups. In addition, there will be a raffle and silent auction. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the charities selected by family members on the men’s behalf. The four band bill for the night will be comprised of the former bands of John and Doug. Michael, and his former band, Silkworm, will be honored alongside John and Doug via performances of Silkworm songs along with original sets by Exo (CD release / last show ever), The Dials, The Returnables and The Negligents.

EXO + The Dials
The Returnables
The Negligents

Saturday, January 14, 2006
$11 / All Ages / Doors: 6pm / Show: 6:30pm

Metro
3730 North Clark St / Chicago

Indie Pop Fest Returns Tonight

Jeremiah Wallis of Paper Airpane Pilots and Matt Rucins, talent buyer at Schubas, have teamed up once again to present Tomorrow Never Knows, a four day music fest celebrating the best in indie pop. While still mostly local in focus, the festival also features some regional favorites this year such as Jason Molina and Magnolia Electronic Co. from Ohio and Minneapolis buzz band Tapes 'n' Tapes. Shows start at 9p, and tickets are $10 or $12 depending on the night. For the complete run-down, check out Schubas.com or the TNK 2006 homepage on MySpace.

New Releases Tuesday (1/10)

Sia - Colour the Small One (Astralwerks) Domestic release of the latest ablum from the Australian vocalist Sia, who is probably best known for her work with Zero 7. Features two bonus tracks and two remixes exclusive to the U.S. release.

We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor (Virgin)
Major label debut for Brooklyn pop punk trio. Currently on tour in support of their new album, they'll be rolling in to town next Monday for a headlining gig at Subterranean.

Reckless Ping Pong Returns

Reckless Records' monthly Ping Pong extravaganza returns tonight at Schubas with a celebration of the best releases of 2005 and a DVD release party for Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music, the locally produced indie film about about the artistic, religious and cultural phenomenon that is Christian rock music. But wait, that's not all...immediately following the screening of the film will be a live peformance from the Dethholz!, one of the featured bands in the movie.

The festivities start at 7:00 pm, and admission is absolutely free. However, you must be 21+ to attend. Wagering on the ping pong games is strictly prohibited, but Reckless will be awarding the night's tournament champion with a $50 store gift certificate.

Bobby Conn residency at Schuba's

Chicago's favorite glam-rocker, Bobby Conn, kicks off his January residency tonight at Schuba's as a part of the club's monthly "Practice Space" series. Joining Conn for his Monday night sessions is an impressive list of local talent, including Rob Lowe's Lichens project tonight, The Lonesome Organist next week, Magas on the 23rd and The Detholz! on the 30th. All shows start at 8pm and are 18+. Price at the door is a ridiculously cheap $6 bucks.

More Best of 2005

Brett Grossman - Reckless Records (vaguely ordered but sort-of not)

1. Clientele "strange geometry" merge
2. Canyon Country "there's a forest in the fire" attack 9
3. Sufjan Stevens "come on feel the illinoise" asthmatic kitty
4. Destroyer "notorious lightning and other works" merge
5. Great Lakes Swimmers "great lake swimmer" misra
6. Fiona Apple "extraordinary machine" epic
7. Andrew Bird "mysterious production of eggs" righteous babe
8. Remote viewer "let your heart draw the line" city centre
9. New Pornographers "twin cinema" matador
10. The Occasional Keepers "beauty of the empty vessel" ltm
11. Love as Laughter "laughter's fifth" subpop
12. Kallikak Family "May 23rd, 2007" tell-all
13. Various Artists "childish music" staubgold
14. Akron/ Family "Akron/ Family" young god
15. White Stripes "get behind me satan" v2
16. Colleen "golden morning breaks" leaf
17. Lucksmiths "warmer corners" matinee
18. Keren Ann "nolita" blue note
19. Edan "beauty & beat" lewis
20. A Sides "hello hello" prison jazz
21. Animal Collective "feels" fat cat
22. Nils Okland "bris" rune grammofon
23. Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright "yann tiersen and shannon wright" ici d'ailleurs
24. Liam Singer "the empty heart of the chameleon" tell-all
25. Peggy Honeywell "faint humms" galaxia7
26. Parker and Lily "lows lows" warm electronic
27. M.I.A. "arular" xl
28. Fruit Bats "spelled in bones" subpop
29. catsinsinks.com

MAGAS TOP 10 of 2005

NEW:

QUINTRON & MISS PUSSYCAT: Swamp Tech/Electric Swamp (Tigerbeat6)
KAP BAMBINO: Neutral EP (Wwilko)
GENDERS: There's Something In the Treats (Tigerbeat6)
BLACK DICE: Broken Ear Record (DFA/Astralwerks)
ADULT.: Gimmie Trouble (Ersatz Audio)
GD LUXXE: Make (Tigerbeat6)
ELECTRONICAT: Voodoo Man (Disko B)
CANDEE HANK: Brandy Cramps (Wwilko)
SOUNDS OF THE INDIAN SNAKE CHARMER (Hanson)
EASY ACTION: Friends of Rock And Roll (Reptilian)

OLD:

VA: NO NEW YORK (Lilith)
CELTIC FROST: Morbid Tales (Earmark)
CELTIC FROST: To Mega Therion (Earmark)
ENNIO MORRICONE: Crime & Dissonance (Ipecac)
GEORGE BRIGMAN: Jungle Rot (Bona Fide)
GEORGE BRIGMAN: I Can Hear the Ants Dancin' (Bona Fide)
STOOGES: Funhouse (Rhino)
STOOGES: Stooges (Rhino)
ENNIO MORRICONE: Crime & Dissonance (Ipecac)
VA: Big Gundown: Reggae Inspired by Spaghetti Westerns (Earmark)

Pat Van Hulle - Grow Fins Booking

(top 10 records of the year, in alphabetical order)

1. Akron/Family “S/T”- After I saw them play with Angels of Light and after quite a few drinks, I went up to one of the guitarists and slurred, “I envision you guys playing in a grassy field.” There is something about their music that makes me want to see them perform in a grassy plain. Listen to “Sorrow Boy” or “Before and Again” and let me know what you think.

2. Angels of Light “Sing Other People”- Michael Gira continues releasing his excellent post Swans albums as Angels of Light. This time he has the Akron/Family as his backing band, who add some excellent banjo and slide guitar to the mix.

3. Animal Collective “Feels”- Even though it came out in late fall, Feels is likely the album that I’ve listened to the most this year. Part of this has to do with the fact that it was leaked way early (don’t worry Fat Cat Records, I am getting a legal copy for x-mas) and the other part has to do with that fact that I was not floored by that many other records this year. Feels should be enough to floor anyone though. “Did You See The Words”, “Grass“, “Purple Bottle”, “Banshee Beat”, and “Turn Into Something” are all songs of the year.

4. Jesu- Justin Broadrick is back with a new project and, go figure, it is filled with punishing, droney, crunchy guitars, and long songs. Even though they are often repetitive, there is something so compelling about the songs.

5. Oneida “Wedding”- Adding a bunch of strings to their sometimes psychedelic, sometimes classic rock, always organ driven sound, Oneida again come out with a great album. If you read anything about this album, it likely said something about the band building the largest music box on the east coast. Well, don’t go listening for it on the album. It was just a lie they created for the press. Why? They thought it would be fun.

6. Nine Inch Nails “With Teeth”- It took Trent Reznor 5+ years to get the follow up to “The Fragile” together. He really built up a bunch of anticipation that I figured he could never live up to. I was even more scared when I found out he was now clean and sober. Would he still be able to write good songs with the time gap and without all of his heroin and alcohol? Well, he can. Sure, there are some silly points (see the oft-repeated titular line of the title track) but overall, With Teeth is a solid album with about five standout tracks. He even found something new to be pissed off about…dubya. NIN put on one of the best shows I saw all year.

7. The Residents “Animal Lover”- Newer Residents releases are always a bit sappy and nowhere near as good as their 70’s output, but Animal Lover’s second half is what gets it on this list. It is very dark and really unlike anything they have done before. For example, the last track is very droney, Middle Eastern influenced, and hypnotic; which are all things I’ve never really run across in their huge discography. It almost seems as if touring with Black Dice, Growing, SunnO))), and Gang Gang Dance on a touring festival of Australia really rubbed off on them. Pretty amazing for a band who is celebrating their 30th year together.

8. Sleater-Kinney “The Woods” - I think this is one of the best rock records of the year. I really don’t want to talk about the gender issue and how these women rock harder than lots of male rock bands, but seriously, the beginning of the opening cut of the album sounds like it has far more testosterone than the complete dude-rock of Comets on Fire.

9. Sufjan Stevens “Illinois”- This is probably the most hyped album of the year, so obviously I did not want to like it. Well, I did. Who doesn’t want to hear some beautiful orchestral pop at times?

10. Ween “Shinola”- Deaner and Geaner show that even an outtakes album of Ween material is far stronger than most albums by many other bands. From the Thin Lizzy inspired “Gabrielle” to the Prince-isms of “Monique the Freak” this rarities collection is nearly just as good as any Ween album.

The Return of Resplendent

Last March we profiled local artist Michael Lenzi who had recently decided to put an end to his career as "Resplendent." However, RFC is happy to report that Resplendent is back from the dead with a brand new ep titled The Vicarious Choir. It's a mostly instrumental collection of new 8 songs available only through Lenzi himself. Price is $7 postage paid. To order, drop a line to resplendent(at)comcast.net.

For more information on Resplendent and his back catalog, check out www.resplendentmusic.com.

Live Review: Wolf Parade @ Viaduct 12/31/05

Bad, bad , bad. Shows can be bad for many reasons: The band sounds awful. The band is late. The band is boring. The band isn’t the band you thought it was and when you shout out an erroneous song request they flip you off, call you an asshole and make everyone in the crowd turn around and laugh at you. Actually, that last bit would make a bad show good.

Bad shows are annoying. No one wants to give her money to a group that doesn’t give a shit about performing. They leave you feeling ripped-off and angry. But bad shows are even more painful when:
A) You know that the band in question is capable of putting on a show that can drive you over the cliff of acceptable (sober) public activity with its ecstatic zest
B) The lackluster performance is no fault of the band
C) It’s New Year’s Eve, and you’ve convinced your friends to start 2006 at this particular show because this band was your “it” band of 2005 and you know this is going to be a stellar way to end/start the year.

Wolf Parade could have used some vulgarity on New Year’s. They could have used a riot. They needed something to shake the Viaduct to its knees. Or at least to attention. I’ll have to say that this was one of the worst, if not the worst, crowd I have ever kept company with at a show anywhere in this city. Yes, I understand that this was a New Year’s show, and I was probably the anomaly, being more interested in watching the band than doing the acceptable New Year’s Eve get-shit-faced-find-someone-to-get-into-my-pants routine, but people were already wasted before opener Jason Forrest hit the stage at ten o’clock. Possibly including Mr. Forrest himself. Those who weren’t dry humping were sitting blank-faced on the fringes of the theatre, as lively as me being forced to listen to my mother talk about her new job selling office equipment. Yes, it was NYE with Pitchfork, and people were too busy forgetting their horrible year or too busy trying to impress people to be able to live in the moment and view this as just another show where they could relax and rock out to some good tunes.

After a psychotic laptop show by Jason Forrest and a nondescript set by Blood on the Wall, there was a half-assed New Year’s countdown that, according to most people’s watches, happened a few minutes too late. At “midnight” we pretended to sing “Auld Lang Syne” while a pathetic balloon drop served to be more annoying than festive. By the time Wolf Parade hit the stage I was ready to leave. But hey, it was New Year’s, and I still clung to the hope that my Canadian darlings could salvage the night.

I just couldn’t get into it. They started snappily enough with “Fancy Claps,” but there was scarcely room to move, let alone dance. And I think I was the only person willing to actually participate in the song title’s said clapping during the chorus. From my perspective at least, perhaps five percent of the crowd was even paying attention to the band. And that five percent was beyond putting their hands together.

It looked like Wolf Parade was at least trying. They only had so much room on the cramped stage, but Dan Boeckner was doing his rock star thing with his angry, jerky gestures and his greasy hair and pasty, tattooed biceps. And Spencer Krug was his adorable, key-slap-happy self, bouncing behind his keyboard and singing the hell out of melodies. They stuck with the most upbeat tracks from last year’s album and e.p., including “Shine A Light,” “You Are a Runner and I am my Father’s Son,” and “Disco Sheets.” Then, about forty minutes into their set, the show came to a halt. Whether through technical issues or incompetence, the sound seemed off all night, with overpowering microphones and an altogether off-centered sound, and now Krug’s keyboard decided that it was going to malfunction. The band worked for about ten minutes to fix the problem, which involved a lot of shrugging and running of fingers through hair. Electronics man Hadji Bakara mused, “Well, this just goes to show that Pitchfork doesn’t always get it right.” They finally got things back together and trooped through “This Heart’s on Fire,” after which the keyboard’s meltdown repeated. Krug seemed to have lost hope and said the show might be over, at which point one of the more sophisticated members of the crowd jeered, “Pussies!”

Thankfully the keyboard came back so the band could uplift us with “I’ll Believe in Anything,” which I think is unanimously every Wolf Parade fan’s favorite Wolf Parade song. Bouncing and even light moshing ensued. After the song the band left the stage, and either through confusion or lack of interest, the crowd gave a half-hearted cheer for an encore. Wolf Parade did come back, inviting Blood on the Wall onstage to help with the deliciously cliché “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”

And that was it. I pulled my jacket from underneath some drunk chick’s butt, deftly evaded the hugs of a euphorically smashed Jason Forrest, hitched a ride home and was in bed by two. I’m almost thankful Krug’s keyboard crashed because I didn’t think I could handle it much longer. Rather than being pissed-off, I felt bad for Wolf Parade. I feel bad that this was the first and last impression they made for some of these fans. I felt bad that things were out of their control, that a bad venue, a bad crowd, and bad equipment plagued a night that was probably too whorish to let them command a set anyway.

Yay, New Year’s.

Live Pics - The Juan McLean w/Spank Rock@Empty Bottle 12/31/05

Updated in the RFC Live Photo Archive are pics from Saturday night's New Year's Eve party at the Empty Bottle with Spank Rock and The Juan McLean. As expected, Spank Rock stole the show...

Check out the complete set of pictures here.

Your Best of 2005

Chris Costello - Notabbott.com

-Porcupine Tree, Deadwing
-Stereophonics, Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
-Beck, Guero
-Bloc Party, Silent Alarm
-New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
-Adrian Belew, Side One
-Mike Doughty, Haughty Melodic
-Bob Mould, Body of Song
-Kate Bush, Aerial
-White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan

Megan Timmons - WLUW radio

10. The P-Funk All Stars: How Late do U Have to BB4URAbsent?
9. Seu Jorge: Cru
8. Royksopp: The Understanding
7. Nikka Costa: Can'tneverdidnothin'
6. Blackalicious: The Craft
5. M.I.A.: Arular
4. Annie: Anniemal
3. Common: Be
2. The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike
1. Zuco 103: Whaa!

J. Niimi - Chicago Reader/WHPK Radio

Village Voice Pazz & Jop 2005 ballot (with points):

1. M.I.A. – Arular (XL) – 10
2. Run the Road (Vice/Atlantic) - 10
3. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (Vice) - 10
4. LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem (DFA) - 10
5. Electrelane – Axes (Beggars/Too Pure) - 20
6. Why? – Elephant Eyelash (Anticon) - 10
7. Danger Doom – The Mouse and the Mask (Epitaph/ADA) - 10
8. Pernice Brothers – Discover a Lovelier You (Ashmont) - 10
9. Colder – Heat (Output) - 5
10. The Chap – Ham (Lo) - 5

Nicole Chavas - RFC Chief Image Coordinator

1. Wolf Parade- Apologies to the Queen Mary
2. Animal Collective- Feels
3. Sufjan Stevens- Illinois
4. The National- Alligator
5. Andrew Bird- & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
6. The Decemberists- Picaresque
7. Sleater-Kinney- The Woods
8. The Hold Steady- Separation Sunday
9. LCD Soundsystem- LCD Soundsystem
10. Antony and the Johnsons- I Am a Bird Now
11. New Pornographers- Twin Cinema
12. Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney- Superwolf
13. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
14. Architecture in Helsinki- In Case We Die
15. Robot Ate Me- Carousel Waltz
16. Thunderbirds Are Now!- Justamustache
17. Caribou- Milk of Human Kindness
18. Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene
19. MIA- Arular
20. M83- Before the Dawn Heals Us
21. Stars- Set Yourself on Fire
22. Xiu Xiu- La Foret
23. Bloc Party- Silent Alarm
24. Royksopp- The Understanding
25. Spoon- Gimme Fiction

Caitlin - WCRX radio

(in no particular order)

1. The Decemberists - Picaresque
2. The Hold Steady - Seperation Sunday
3. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
4. Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise!
5. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
6. Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs
7. Antony & the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now
8. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
9. Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
10. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock n' Roll

Honorable mentions to:

Belle & Sebastian - Push Doorman to Open Old Wounds (best compilation)
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike! (best album to work out to)

Brad K. - RFC Managing Editor

Top 5 Albums

1. Gorillaz – Demon Days (Virgin)
2. Prefuse 73 – Surrounded by Silence (Warp)
3. BRMC – Howl (RCA)
4. Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase (Warp)
5. Various Artists – Run the Road (Vice)

Top 5 Shows

1. Mercury Rev (opening for Doves) at The Vic 5/13/05
2. Sufjan Stevens at Metro 9/17/05
3. Eels (with strings) at Park West 6/22/05
4. Lady Sovereign at Sonotheque 7/8/05
5. Dungen at Empty Bottle 10/8/05