Radio Free Chicago

RFC Interview: Magnet

Formerly of the band Libido, Norwegian singer/songwriter Even Johansen has returned with The Tourniquet, his second full-length album as “Magnet.” Upon release of his 2001 solo release, Quiet & Still, critics labeled Johansen as "Thom Yorke trapped in a David Lynch movie." While still retaining his trademark melancholic croon, this latest effort finds Johansen a bit more optimistic and pop-friendly. RFC recently caught up with Johansen to discuss his new direction and what lies ahead for the talented Norse troubadour.

Radio Free Chicago: First off…I just wanted to say thanks for the interview. I’ve been a fan of your work ever since Quiet & Still, that record completely blew me away…Speaking of which, after recording under your own name, what made you decide to continue on as “Magnet” versus just “Even Johansen.”

Even Johansen: Thanx for the kind words! ... After Quiet and Still was released under my name proper, I realized that it wasn’t my name proper musically, so there was a deal struck between me and myself to never release anything under that name again.

RFC: How has your writing and performing changed since your days with Libido and Chocolate Overdose?

EJ: Now that I’m my own man so to speak, and not in a band, it’s much more of a lonesome effort to both write and perform, and since I’m turning slowly into a recluse, that’s just the way I like it the best.

RFC: Your music has been described more than once over the years as “melancholic,” yet this new record is lyrically quite optimistic at times, was there anything in particular that inspired the positive vibes?

EJ: I wanted to write something a little more direct and positive to reflect the good vibes in my life, nothing more particular than to try and be honest in my writing,

RFC: Your hometown, Bergen, Norway, has been called a “hit-factory” town…what is it about the city or area that you think makes it conducive to producing great music?

EJ: There’s a great vibe in Bergen for making music at the moment, could be because it rains so fucking much that there’s nothing else to do….

RFC: You also recently lived for a few years in Scotland…how was that experience and why did you decide to return to Norway?

EJ: Living in Scotland makes you realize how un-articulate you are. They have an inspiring command over the English language that makes me want to try harder with words. I’ve always wanted to live on a farm, and Bergen being the only place we could afford one……

RFC: What can fans expect from your North American tour? (full-band? solo acoustic performances? Back-up hype dancers?)

EJ: I’m going to play and sing the songs like I’ve never done before, without any kind of distracting backing dancers…….

RFC: After your current tour, what do you have planned for Magnet in the future?

EJ: I’m due to start recording my next album four days after I get home, so that’s where my head is going to be at for the summer. My little head can only plan that far ahead at a stretch, so what comes after that I do not know yet. pheeeeew.

SPEED ROUND

If you could curate your own musical festival or tour, what would the line-up be?

I would be supporting The Beach Boys. That’s it!

What is your favorite Norwegian delicacy?

We eat lam ribs at Christmas. Unbeatable!!

Best thing about touring The States?

Without a shadow of doubt, the audiences.

If you weren’t a musician, what would your occupation be?

I’d be a harbour pilot.

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Unfortunately, Even won't be making it to Chicago on his current tour of The States. However, you can catch him this week at SXSW...Thursday night at 18th Floor Capital Place and Friday afternoon at Cedar St. Courtyard. If you're not making the trip to Austin this year, you can check out his appearance on KCRW today at 1PM on "Morning Becomes Eclectic."

Intonation Announces Headliners and Pre-Sale

Let the confusion begin... The Intonation Music Festival has announced its headliners for it's two day festival in Union Park, the event is scheduled to take place one month before The Pitchfork Music Festival in the same park. Like the Great Schism, that separated the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Vatican, these two groups once a collective creator of an Indie Rock mecca last summer, have split like the Red Sea and are promoting there own respective festivals.

Last year, the Intonation Music Festival was curated by Pitchfork Media, this year Vice Magazines have taken the reigns with fellow promoters KEXP bringing along some of the top acts represented by Vice Recordings, hence the headliners for Intonation being THE STREETS for Day 1 and BLOC PARTY for Day 2. You can expect to see some of the other Vice Recording artists to make an appearance as well, ie. DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, THE STILLS, and CHROMEO, with many more acts to be announced.

Lineup Update As of 3/14/06:
Day 1:
The Streets
The Stills
Lady Sovereign
Boredoms
Jose Gonzalez
Chromeo

Day 2:
Bloc Party
Jon Brion
Panthers

The Intonation Music Festival will take place in Union Park:
June 24-25, 2006.
Tickets will be $20 for One-Day Pass or $35 for a Two-Day Pass.

WZRD off the air...again!

As much as I've railed against WLUW for its incessant fundraising and top-heavy budget, on the other end of the spectrum we have WZRD. While they operate on a shoestring budget, don't conduct any pledge drives (Northeastern still covers their basic expenses) and have no full-time staff members, it would seem that maybe they should look into doing just a little fundraising (how about a Wizard bake sale?) and/or hire some sort of manager/director/consultant, as the station seems to have trouble just staying on the air.

Last February, the station went silent for a couple of weeks because their FCC license expired and no one remembered to renew it. Now 88.3 is off the air again because their operating board is broke and they don't have a back-up. Word on the street is that they're looking for someone to drive it to Michigan (?!?) to get it fixed. Well, that shouldn't take too long...I'm sure they'll be back on the air in no time. (sarcasm strongly hinted) I guess they couldn't afford to hire a local engineer to fix it?

Meanwhile, they have at least kept the Webstream running at www.wzrdchicago.com. They're not broadcasting live, but they are running some very interesting archival programming that explores the depths of the station's 32-year-old music library

Live Review: dios (malos) @ Double Door 2/20/06

I’m sorry, but unless you’re Sigur Ros, or perhaps Mogwai or Interpol, unless your loftiness is thematic and merited and earned, you have to fucking smile. If you’re the opening indie bar band at the Double Door whose musical talent and ingenuity is still in the rudimentary stage, you don’t have the right to act lethargic and appear apathetic. If all you have under your belt are lackluster releases that do little on their own to grab my attention, when I see you live (especially on a Monday night) you have to play your sweet little hearts out, you have to jump around and yelp and sweat like there’s no sweatin’ tomorrow, otherwise I’ll write a bad review and publish it on the Internet where millions of trillions of music fans can recall it with the touch of a greasy finger, the same greasy finger that in two minutes will go to Ticketweb and not purchase passes for the next dios (malos) show.

I’m not the most thorough of note-takers, but never before have I used a single word so often to encapsulate my exact thoughts on a performance. Blah. Over and over again. Blah blah blah. The only interesting focal point of the night was vocalist Jose Morales, and this is because he did volatile onstage theatrics such as putting up the hood of his parka and using his bottle of beer for a guitar slide. Drummer Jackie Monzon looked so indolent that I wouldn’t have been surprised to see him yawn, and he ended the show without one hair out of place. Bassist JP Caballero perhaps had to concentrate too much on playing to be able to enjoy himself, and he looked around like a listless supermodel when he wasn’t watching his fingers.

From the start, with “Feels Good Being Somebody,” dios (malos) sounded slightly under pitched and under tempo. I’m not sure if this shortcoming was a product of inability or of apathy; perhaps it was both. Overall the musicianship was not fantastic. The sound often felt labored, especially during guitar solos and drum fills that recalled high school talent shows in which a group of kids got together and practiced one song to death and performed it with no magic. There were other technical distractions. Morales had to slap his mic and fiddle with his pedals to get them to work properly. On closer “Later Skater” he once again fell to his knees to manipulate pedals, which is fine except that it disrupted his vocals, and he was behind his keyboard so that all we saw was the top oh his parka hood bobbing around. This isn’t the most dramatic position in which to end a show, unless you’re setting your guitar on fire, which dios (malos) definitely was not doing.

Even if you’re not the most talented musicians on the planet, a show can be salvaged by showmanship that exudes heart and invokes vitality. If you hit wrong chords and miss pitches I’ll still love you if you make me laugh; if I’m dancing by the end of your set, rest assured I will revisit you the next time you come around. But dios (malos) fell flat in many regards. They don’t create the liveliest of tunes; however, even when the opportunity readily presented itself, such as during the sprawling epic “Epk,” the band sounded, well, blah. There was no belting grandiosity. No sparks. I just wanted to shout “Stand up and scream! Bang your fucking head! You’re jamming!” I’m not sure they would have heard. I’m not sure dios (malos) hears much of anything while performing, and this makes for one horribly frustrating show.

New Releases Tuesday (3/7)

Goldfrapp Supernature (Mute) Trip-hop siren turned sex-pop kitten Alison Goldfrapp returns with her third full-length album. Originally released in the UK last August, the NME called Supernature the "Best Pop Album of 2005." We're not experts on pop albums here at RFC, but we do agree that this is a fine record. For you downloading types, check out the tracks "Ooh La La," "Ride a White Horse" and "Fly Me Away." Stereolab Fab Four Suture (Too Pure) With the tragic death of longtime keyboardist/vocalist Mary Hansen in 2002, the divorce of founding members Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane earlier that year and the release of a career-spanning CD/DVD box-set, Oscillions from the Anti-Son, in 2005, one might guess that prolific lounge-popsters Stereolab would soon be packing up the synthesizers and drum machines at their space-age bachelor pad. However, despite recent turmoil, 9 full-length albums and a bazillion other comps, singles, b-sides and eps, the band amazingly still seems to have plenty more blips, bleeps and Moog flourishes left in them. A brand-new full-length is slated for 2007 and Fab Four Suture is a new CD collection of singles compiling a series of 7” vinyl tracks released last fall with a brand new triumvirate of 7’s released this week. And if that wasn’t enough, the band is hitting the road again for another full US tour this month, landing them at The Vic this Saturday Herb Alpert - Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped (Shout Facotry) The coolest title in your grandpa's record collection gets a modern upgrade courtesy of Thievery Corporation, Mocean Worker, John King (Dust Brothers), Anthony Marinelli and more. More often than not, "revisited" projects like these tend to do little more than taint the reputation of the original work, but this one actually turned out pretty damn good. The first three remixes are near perfect, (Marinelli's take on "Green Peppers" is especially recommended) and overall this release is an essential pick-up for lounge and downtempo electronica fans.

More great rekkids out this week:

Devics - Push the Heart (Filter)
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballads of The Broken Seas (V2)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti)
Mogwai - Mr. Beast (Matador)
Mudhoney - Under a Billion Suns (Sub Pop)

More festival tickets to buy

Don't forget, tickets for the 2006 Intonat...err, I mean the Pitchfork Music Festival go on sale today. Returning to Union Park on July 29-30, the event will boast 36 of the world's finest indie acts for the low low price of $30. The full line-up is still TBA, but the 'Fork is tempting eager ticket buyers with these confirmed acts:

Spoon
Yo La Tengo
Mission of Burma
Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Mountain Goats
The National
Jens Lekman
Hot Machines
Tapes N' Tapes

Also, in the far less distant future, the Fork is presenting a kick ass party next Friday (3/17) at SXSW with a stellar line-up of mostly electronic artists booked by the fine people at Chicago's Windish Agency. The free daytime event at Emo's Annex will feature DJ sets by RJD2, Ladytron and Audion(aka Matthew Dear); plus live performances by Art Brut, Love Is All, Jose Gonzalez, Spank Rock, Hot Chip, Death Vessel, and the Juan Maclean. For you Austin faithfull out there, might want to pace yourself Thursday night so you're able to crawl out of your hotel before 4pm to check this out.

Is Everybody That Excited to See The Chili Peppers??

Did everybody get their Lollapalooza pre-sale invitation e-mails yesterday? 3-day pass tickets were on sale for $45, but if you decided to "sleep on it," you're already SOL. In fact, even if you were just a bit slow on checking your e-mail yesterday, you probably missed out. The 3,000 tickets alloted for the pre-sale sold out in just 34 minutes! Your next chance to buy tickets will be March 16th, when the official line-up will be announced. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been confirmed, and the rumors were pretty strong about a Pumpkins reunion...so who else will be on the bill from Lolla's glory days? What essential buzz bands from this year will cause the most hype? Who will win the "Arcade Fire Award" for best performance? Click on "comments" and start speculating away!

RFSL Band of Week: Thailand

Have you checked our new sister Blog in L.A. yet? Here is Joe's first "Band of the Week" pick on Radio Free Silver Lake:

After spending several months playing local venues like The Silver Lake Lounge and The Scene Bar, Thailand is taking a break to finish off their first album before summer-time rolls around.

If you haven’t heard them before, you really ought to head to their myspace page and download the four tracks the band has posted. They’re all really goddamn good and have made frequent appearances in mix cds I've made for friends since I first had the band recommended to me last year.

The songs are immediately likable indie pop, with lyrics that are both smart and catchy, and are at least a little reminiscent of that early Manchester sound.

While the band hides out to create more, the least you can do is to bone up on the music they’re gracefully providing you for free, yes?

Cover your ears!

In honor of Mogwai's return to Chicago tonight at the Logan Square Auditorium, RFC presents these hearing loss prevention resources:

H.E.A.R.: Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers
A non-profit hearing information source for musicians and music lovers.

Earlove: High Fidelity Hearing Protection
A Chicago-based company specializing in earplugs specifically designed to reduce overall sound level while preserving sound quality (i.e. no distortion or muffling of voices, environmental sounds, or music).

The Earplug Store
Go to a lot of shows?? Buy here in bulk!

Vater Percussion: A Guide to the Problem of Hearing Loss that Drummers Face
As a drummer and musician, your hearing is the most important instrument you can have. Unfortunately, proper precautions are often overlooked by drummers/musicians because they think wearing earplugs is "not cool".

BBC: Danger! High Volume
Steve Lamacq investigates the risks of listening to loud music in this BBC Radio One audio documentary.

Newsweek: "A Little Bit Louder Please"
More than 28 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss, a number that could reach 78 million by 2030. The latest science, new treatments—and how to protect yourself.

Rolling Stone: "Music Making Fans Deaf"
How the iPod generation may be losing its hearing without even knowing it.