Radio Free Chicago

fun. @ Schubas 9/24/09

One of the buzziest bands of the summer was undoubtedly fun. Rising from the ashes of the Format, Antathallo and Steel Train, fun. is the happiest, freshest thing to happen in indie in quite a while and the minute I heard about them, I knew they were something special if only for the attention they were receiving from every facet of the blogosphere.

It's true that when I heard fun. (as you may remember from my summer review of their debut, Aim and Ignite), I wasn't crazy about them but in the months in between my first listen and now, bits of Aim and Ignite filtered into my subconscious and soon, fun. became my default good mood music because it's just impossible to feel down and out when listening to a song as infectiously upbeat as the tunes that pepper the vast majority of fun.'s debut.

fun. brought their first headlining tour to Schubas September 24th and within a week of tickets going on sale, the show sold out, no small feat for most national acts that hit the venue, let alone a band who only just released their debut.

fun. - All The Pretty Girls

Get on the List: She Wants Revenge @ The Vic

Today we've got your hook-up for free admission to see She Wants Revenge headline an all-ages show this Thursday at The Vic. Just drop us a line at radiofreechicago(at)gmail.com with "I Want Revenge" in the subject line for your chance to get on the list with a +1. Good luck!

Monday Mix: Mixtapology Vol.5

As I was feeling the brunt of my music burn-out earlier this year, I found myself taking refuge in the sounds of the avant-garde. For a while, my listening diet consisted of a steady diet of ambient and post-rock instrumentals from the likes of Stars of the Lid, Rachel's, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Brian Eno and Tim Hecker. Around this same time I met a like-minded soul whom I bonded with at a party over a mutual love of glitchy electronic music ala Boards of Canada, Plaid and Four Tet. After months of swapping countless album recommendations via flash drives, we finally joined forces creatively in the form of a DJ mix. The result is a decidedly mellow and avant affair ideal for a long reading session or as an ethereal soundtrack to unwind at the end of the day.

Mixtapology Vol.5 (with DJ Myrk) by DJ Phalaris

Miike Snow @ The Empty Bottle 9/25/09

Friday night's Miike Snow set, to be blunt, was short. While the concert attendee consciousness of me wants to criticize the length heavily, I couldn't help but be tempered by the fact that Miike Snow nails the performance harder than a carpenter turned snake oil salesman. Yes, it was six songs…clocking in at sixty minutes. Though reiterating the remix, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg transform the tracks at their fingertips into a musical experience more than an album showcase. They experiment without stumbling, having turned Silvia from its city glow ghostliness into a wistful spacey epic; a zero-gravity free floating electropop connected back to its base.

Flashback Friday: My Forgotten D.C. Favorite

Taking its name from a Primal Scream B-side, Washington, D.C.-based quintet, Velocity Girl provided a nice blend of power pop and light shoegaze. The band showed great promise in early 1990s signing with two hefty record labels, Slumberland and Sub Pop. Drawing from the familiar fuzzy footsteps of Lush and popular alt-chick icons, the Breeders, Velocity Girl took the East Coast indie scene by storm; peaking at the infamous, HFStival back at RFK in 1993. The bands self titled EP on Slumberland, featured two stellar tracks, the dream pop driven-dazzler, "Forgotten Favorite" sung by the sexy chanteuse Sarah Shannon and the crunchy bass-blower, "I Don't Care if You Go," a Throwing Muses-inspired treat lead by the band's original singer, Bridget Cross (aka bass player for D.C. band Unrest). On Sub Pop's Copacetic, the band scored a couple well-crafted over the top-pop numbers, including a clever, buzzy classic, "Audrey's Eyes" and a slick and sultry soother, "Crazy Town."

Forgotten Favorite

Don't Care If You Go

Audrey's Eyes

Crazy Town

 

 

Preview: Miike Snow @ Empty Bottle Tomorrow Night

While European dance music does not grip listeners here as it does in the land of techno parades, Miike Snow's meld with synth pop conjures Passion Pit's East Coast catchiness wicked with a house flow. Us Chicagoans can dance ourselves delirious to this mix tomorrow night at 7:30 or 10:30 p.m. at the Empty Bottle (the UK's Jack Peñate of XL Recordings supporting).

Their Downtown Records self-titled debut is cryptic on who Miike Snow is, featuring a silhouetted jackalope in an ice cube. Miike Snow is the Swedish production duo Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg and American songwriter Andrew Wyatt, who funnel one another's collective creative energies into crafting an album intelligent enough it could be split into pure electro instrumentals, or layered with Wyatt's vocals to compliment our conditioned musical taste buds. Christian and Pontus are otherwise known as Bloodshy & Avant, their alter-ego with credentials and credits among the top of pop, yet this is a different mythical beast compared to the majority of their previous production work. Andrew Wyatt's soothing ghostly crooning distinguishes Miike Snow for the indie audience from electropop counterparts. In Search Of, for instance, has the spectral singing fading in over a pulsating synched platform, as if Wyatt's fellow members were dialing him in and out as a sample or beat.

Get on the List: The Dear Hunter @ Beat Kitchen 9/25

Today we've got your hook-up for free admission to see The Dear Hunter headline an all-ages show this Friday at the Beat Kitchen. Just drop us a line at radiofreechicago(at)gmail.com with "Dear Hunter" in the subject line for your chance to get on the list with a +1. Good luck!

RFC TV - Yea Big & Kid Static - "Grim"

Dear and the Headlights @ Reggies 9/16

If things had gone a slightly different route, Arizona's Dear and the Headlights might be the next big crossover indie act, bringing their alt-country sound to a small audience with a slow burn buzz that, eventually, would have them doing time on CBS's Sunday Morning ala Wilco. Instead, Dear and the Headlights signed to Equal Vision records, home of Chiodos and Circa Survive and became the darlings of Warped Tour; although their organic, earnest music has little in common with your average Warped Tour fare.  Touring in support of their latest album, Drunk Like Bible Times, Dear and the Headlights hit Reggie's Rock Club on Wednesday to bring their sincere, clever rock music tinged with country and folk to Chicago to great affect.

Playing to a fairly small yet devoted crowd, Dear and the Headlights opened with an energetic one-two punch of two of the most infectious tracks off their latest disc, "Talk About" and I"'m Not Crying, You're Not Crying, Are You?"

Dear and the Headlights - I'm Not Crying. You're Not Crying, Are You?

Flashback Friday: This is The The's Perfect Day

(by Ron Saemann)

Alternative dance-pop outfit, The The released its first proper album, Soul Mining, in 1983. The album topped Melody Maker's best of list at #3 for the year. Fronted by founding member and brainchild, Matt Johnson, the album managed to blend easy-breezy melodies with social and political undertones. "This is the Day" is the album's catchiest track that revolves around Johnson's warm, fuzzy vocals, a simple guitar lick, bouncy bass lines, hush harmonicas, a soulful accordion and some piano tinkling with some processed drum beats. The song even managed to get some airtime in a M&M commercial in 2007. However, other tracks like "Perfect" and "I've Been Waitin' For Tomorrow (All My Life) show a darker side filled with irony, hate and regret. On the latter, Johnson lashes out, "I've been deformed by emotional scars and the cancer of love has eaten out my hearts."

This Is The Day

Perfect

I've Been Waitin' For Tomorrow
 

Get on the List: Owen @ Beat Kitchen 9/18

UPDATE: last call for entries! Drop your name in by 5pm today for your chance to win.

Mike Kinsella's latest Owen release, New Leaves, drops next week and this Friday he'll be celebrating with a full live band performance and CD release party at Beat Kitchen. Excited about the new album but don't have the cash to buy tickets and a CD? Problem solved! Just drop us a message to radiofreechicago(at)gmail.com with "Owen Release Party" in the subject line by Thursday for your chance to get on the guest list with a +1. Good luck!

Owen - Good Friends, Bad Habits

RFC TV: Great Lake Swimmers - "Still"

And yes, The Great Lake Swimmers are "still" on tour...rolling into Chicago on 10/28 at Lincoln Hall.

Monday Mix: How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I heard you missed me, I'm back! Yes, after a self-imposed blogging exile the last few months I have returned to the trenches at RFC. What did I do with my time off? Well, long story short I spent a lot of time reading, freelancing, looking for gigs, sending out resumes and drinking copious amounts of coffee to keep me awake through it all. The time off from RFC was designed to free up some time to focus more on all those efforts this summer, with the added hope it would also recharge my creative batteries and help me recover from a mild case of music burn-out.

Thinking I'd probably drop completely off the new music radar for the rest of the year, much to my surprise by the end of the summer a whole slew of new tracks had permeated my soul inconspicuously while cranking away at my laptop and bouncing between various wi-fi hot spots across the city. It seems the cure for music burn-out doesn't necessarily require a drastic abstinence, one just needs to take a step back or two from it and let the appreciation grow back naturally. 

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by Radio Free Chicago

This Week's Concert Lowdown

For those of you who aren't too busy listening to your Beatles remasters to bother leaving the house, this week is shaping up to be the most solid week of concerts since August rolled out.

My personal favorite breakthrough act of the year, Bad Veins, hit Subterranean with label mates Division Day on the 15th. Bad Veins is a consistently solid live act and is definitely worth a shot if you haven't seen them live before, if only for the inclusion of a vintage reel to reel in their production elements. Better than the fact that Bad Veins is returning to Chicago is the fact that you can see them for free!  Don't forget to enter to get on the list for a free concert going experience from Radio Free Chicago.

The Walkmen Sell Their Soul (or Kia Trying Desperately to be the new Scion)

Sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun and marketing culture criticism there on the headline...What can I say, I'm always torn on these kinds of events. On one hand, it's like, "sweet, join the party and get free tickets!" On the other hand, sometimes these "free" events can be a total time drain and buzz kill and the whole experience hardly seems worth the money you're supposedly saving.

http://kiasoulcollective.com/chicago.html

Oh, and before the Walkmen fan hate mail starts flowing in, don't worry, I don't seriously believe you band has sold their soul here. Band involvement in these kind of things makes the rock purist in me cringe when it's a personal favorite that plays (like that one time I was distraught to discover BRMC doing a free show for a whiskey brand), but realistically it's hard to be critical at this point given how the music industry works (or should I say doesn't work?) anymore.