Radio Free Chicago

RFC Interview: Califone

As much as we hate to admit it, we can no longer call Califone all our own in Chicago. A couple of years back, after living here all of his life, Califone ring leader Tim Rutili packed his bags and moved to Los Angeles. While he still finds time to come back to Chicago to record and play with his old mates, these days Tim is a full-fledged California man who enjoys hanging out by the ocean and munching on a tasty fish burrito. Rather than doing yet another who/what/when/where and how interview, we thought we'd do a joint feature with our SoCal brothers at Radio Free Silver Lake and have Tim weigh the pros and cons of life in L.A. vs. Chicago.

DJ Spooky @ Reckless Records 12/9/06

 

DJ Spooky, aka Paul D. Miller, played for free to a happy crowd at a Reckless in-store on Saturday afternoon. His set was only about thirty minutes in length, highlighting tracks from his most recent release, In Fine Style: 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records, while putting an iPod vs. laptop sort of spin on the whole thing.

Submit Your Top ____ of 2006

Not surprisingly, the "Best of 2006" lists are already starting to trickle in, and as a music Blog, Radio Free Chicago is bound by law to comply and start compiling our own lists for the year. As always, we want everyone's input on this, so please start sending those lists our way.

In the past, we've just posted everyone's lists one by one, but this year I'd like to try compiling all the results to achieve a couple of definitive "Top ______ of 2006" charts. To make it simple, let's just keep it to two categories:

• Best Albums of 2006
• Best Shows of 2006

Send us your Top 5 of each to: RadioFreeChicago@gmail.com and stay tuned for our gratituous end of year charts at the end of the month.

Les Georges Leningrad @ The Empty Bottle 12/7/6

It must be exciting living like Bobo Boutin, Poney P, and Mingo L’Indien. In the daytime, they pass through cities incognito as seemingly level headed Canucks only to emerge as their true indie pop maniac superstar selves late at night. It is as these impulsive creatures which the audience witnesses taking drum sets, keyboards, guitars, and their very microphones hostage while our souls hang in the balance. This is the daring unpredictable world of Les Georges Leningrad, Quebec’s energetic trio who threatens to take a solitary song and spit it into many songs veering into limitless directions all at once.

Live Review: My Brightest Diamond @ Logan Square Auditorium 12/2/06

Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond, flew in amidst a heavy fog that was the collective anticipation for DeVotchKa. By the end of her set I needed to remind myself just who I had come to see.

The Hidden Cameras Halted at US Border

The Hidden Cameras' show at the Subterranean tonight has been cancelled, the reason as reported on their website: "Due to problems at the American border, the Minneapolis, Chicago, and Cleveland shows have been cancelled. The band is sorry to disappoint all the fans in those three cities." It must have been all the blindfolds in their suitcases, hopefully they will be back to the SubT soon!

RFC Podcast: Under the Influence, Episode 2

Probably the most recognizable example of musical "borrowing" that occurred in this past year came from the debut of The Raconteurs, the indie supergroup featuring Jack White, Brendan Benson and two Greenhornes. Their lead single, "Steady As She Goes," was a well-deserved hit on the charts, but its resemblance to a certain Joe Jackson hit from 1979 raised quite a few eyebrows amongst critics and fans alike. On this edition of Under the Influence, we've mashed the two together to give you an idea of just how much these story-lovin' rockers owe their success to the pop stylings of Mr. Jackson. Also on the full podcast, find out who links Beck to Dylan on the folk rock family tree.

Download: Joe Jackson vs. The Raconteurs - "Is She Really Going Out Steady With Him? 

Download: Under The Influence, Episode 2 (full Podcast) 

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Live Review: John Lennox @ The Note 11/25//06

 

The moment I heard John Lennox's first single, “You Got to Move”, I instantly connected with its 70’s style, understated bluesy swagger. Without hearing another track I knew I needed to see it live.  A few days later I found myself at the Note for the band’s opening slot. 

Download: The Friday 8-Track

Introducing a new RFC weekly feature: The Friday 8-Track, which will ordinarily consist of a mix of 8 recommended MP3 tracks for your download enjoyment.

The inaugural edition is a special one, curated by December Bandwidth act Unicycle Loves You, it consists of 8 tracks (compiled in 2 easy to consume files). Each track was chosen specifically by Unicycle Love You band members Jim, Derek, & Adam, with a little blurb about why they selected the tracks they did. The assignment: Party Mix Favs!

It goes without saying: MP3's for preview purposes, support your musicians. See a live show and buy their stuff.

Small Sins. The Little Ones, and The Big Sleep @ Schubas 11/16/06

I truly hope no one out there thinks I’m above going to see a band just because they are Canadian. If so, you overestimated me. I decided after feeling their MySpace songs to be overall lackluster to check out Small Sins anyways because they come from Toronto and I thought it might be another case of Birdmonster where you don’t really have any connection to the music when you listen passively but seeing them live is another story.

More Reckless In-Stores

As the number of new records on store shelves dwindles to down to nothing here at the end of the year, it seems that Reckless is stepping up their in-store performance game to still keep you music freaks coming back for more every week. Today at 5p, the Wicker Park location will be hosting Canadian dark-wave sensations Les Georges Leningrad, who'll be warming up for their gig later at The Empty Bottle. Then, on Saturday, Wicker Park scores another coup by snagging DJ Spooky for an intimate laptop performance starting at 5:30pm. In addition to wowing you with his mad Powerbook skillz and music theory intellect, Spooky will be bringing a sweet new 2-disc music set that will look great under anyone's Christmas tree, In Fine Style: DJ Spooky Presents 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records.

Bandwidth Preview: PORNADO!

Ready to take the BANDWIDTH stage by storm on Friday (12/08), Chicago's own PORNADO!, a newly annointed 3-piece who revel in the British new wave goodness that the The Faint bathe in. Reaching back far enough to sound comfortably familiar, but stamping their own signature touch and lustful moans on the style, PORNADO! create very delectable and danceable music. They are determined to get someone some action Friday night. We posed a few questions to Trout Blood of PORNADO! via email this past weekend.

Bandwidth Preview: Inspector Owl

They are fun, dancey, energetic, and the perfect headliner for December's BANDWIDTH. Flying in from the bustling metropolis of DeKalb, IL, Inspector Owl is a fanciful five-piece guaranteed to induce non-stop body shaking with their enthusiastic live performances and their delicate brand of electro-indie-pop akin to Polyphonic Spree, The Faint, and Modest Mouse. Inspector Owl's 2005 EP release Patterns of Nerve-Cell Action is an exciting taste of the great things to come and from what we gather we can expect that new album very soon. We took the opportunity to bounce some questions off of singer-guitarist Corey Wills (who also moonlights in Kid You'll Move Mountains).

Get On the List: El Vez (12/9), Wax on Radio (12/9)

There is an uncontrollable flow of great shows this week and we are keeping our promise of offering you a chance to rock out for FREE! We have already given away two guest list spots this week and we are not done yet! For those of you who want to sustain the buzz you feel after Friday's BANDWIDTH, we have your remedy in the form of two spectacular shows on Saturday, December 9th.

New Releases Tuesday - 12/5

Well, that should about do it...the major labels are sneaking in a big release or two each week up until Christmas (Gwen - today, Ghostface - 12/12, Nas - 12/19), but for all intents and purposes, "New Releases Tuesday" will be going into hibernation until next year. I did find a To Rococo Rot rarities collection and a soundtrack by Underworld that are both slated to be available domestically today, and Sonic Youth releases a B-sides collection next week, but otherwise you won't be finding anything remotely underground/indie until January. Until then, happy shopping...