Radio Free Chicago

RFC TV: Young Man Exclusive

Still not convinced a trek to Lincoln Hall is worth your time tonight? Check out an exclusive video of Colin Caulfield of Young Man performing solo just for Radio Free Chicago and get clued in as to why RFC is so smitten with Caulfield's debut release, Boy!

Langhorne Slim, Ha Ha Tonka, and Young Man Hit Lincoln Hall Tonight

Last fall, I got to pop my Lincoln Hall cherry with one of the fledgling venues first shows, Dawes and Langhorne Slim. It was not only my first experience at what would become my favorite venue but my first experience with seeing Langhorne Slim as well. To say I was thoroughly impressed with Sean Scolnick and his band of folk scamps is an understatement. Bringing a consistent amount of contagious energy to his set that's lacking on the album, Scolnick leads sing alongs, jumps into the audience, and sweet talks girls into getting on stage with him. Sounds like a party? Add the Southern tinged Midwest rock of Ha Ha Tonka and the dreamy pop of new RFC favorites Young Man and you've got yourself one solid bill. Tonight, the bands hit Lincoln Hall again and last night, roving reporter Amber Valentine got to catch the bill at Detroit's Magic Stick and snapped more than a few pics of the bands.

Langhorne Slim - Rebel Side Of Heaven

Welcome to Daytrotter: The Movie.

It's no secret that we here at Radio Free Chicago love Daytrotter. I for one have discovered more of my "favorite bands" through the music discovery site than via any other outlet. Pearly Gate Music? Young Man? The Daredevil Christopher Wright? I owe my love to all of them to Sean Moeller and his band of scamps. Even my adoration for Dawes is owed in a good portion to Daytrotter and their amazing Barn shows.

I first stumbled upon the website via Okkervil River, my favorite act since I first heard the brilliance of their Black Sheep Boy LP nearly five years back, when a link to their Daytrotter session was sent to me nearly three years ago. After anxiously downloading the band's session at DT HQ, the Horseshack, I spent the rest of my night pouring over Daytrotter's extensive archives and now, my ipod is filled with more Daytrotter sessions than it is actual albums.

It's great to see something you believe in succeed so brilliantly. Now, Daytrotter's putting on Barnstormers with everyone from Local Natives to the Walkmen, getting increasingly bigger names recording sessions, and... Making a movie? Yes! A documentary film about Moeller's baby has been filmed, featuring footage from that Barn on the 4th of July we've talked so much about, and loathe though I am to tout something I haven't seen yet, I know this is going to be great. So enjoy the trailer below and begin to feel the fervent anticipation.

RFC Reviews: Chris Shiflett & the Dead Peasants

I have to admit I was slightly worried when fellow RFC contributor John Brunner asked if I could review Chris Shiflett & the Dead Peasants’ self-titled debut album.

“It’s the guitarist for Foo Fighter’s solo project,” he said. “It’s kind of a country thing.”

Country music and I have never quite gotten along, and I thought I would be listening to something seriously twangy. My worst fears, however, were not realized (thank goodness). Chris Shiflett & the Dead Peasants is a rock album, with a touch of country influence.

The album has an overall lighter sound than Shiflett’s work with Foo Fighters and features some truly heartfelt songwriting. The yearning “An Atheist’s Prayer” is a standout among the album’s original tracks.

Nathaniel Rateliff, JBM, And The Post Mortems: All In One Night?!

Looking for something to do with your Wednesday, Chicago? Well, you've come to the right place for suggestions! This evening, the always wonderful Nathaniel Rateliff hits Schubas with the increasingly buzzy JBM but if folk isn't quite your thing and you're in search of something louder, you should head over to the Darkroom for the (appropriately) dark indie rock stylings of Iowa City's The Post Mortems.

Boasting a roster of influences that range from the macabre of Nine Inch Nails and Dresden Dolls to the decidedly less gothicly theatrical Neutral Milk Hotel and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Post Mortems specialize in a type of rock that walks the line between metal and indie. They maintain melodic sensibilities throughout their music but aren't afraid to get sufficiently raucous when need be.

The Post Mortems - Golden

Of course, if you can't decide, you could always do what we'd do: Hit the Darkroom for the tentative 8 o'clock show time and hop on over to Schuba's in time for a little JBM and Rateliffe. Who says a Wednesday means boring?

Editor's Note: Future RFC contributor John Taylor was nice enough to point out to me that The Post Mortems play tomorrow, not tonight, at the Darkroom. Good news! That means you can see JBM, Rateliff, and The Post Motems and not have to worry about missing a thing!

RFC Reviews: The Bird and the Bee's "Interpreting the Masters, Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates"

 News of a fresh The Bird and The Bee album was cause for some fevered anticipation on my part. I was looking forward to more singable, hand-clap-able, funny and sweet pop songs. They are the essence of tuneful, sophisticated pop, but their ironic point of view, along with their musicianship, gives them an edge in this Auto-tune pop era.

But. Unfortunately, instead of a new The Bird and The Bee album, we get an old Hall & Oates best-of. What? I know what you're thinking, are there even enough Hall & Oates songs to make up a “Greatest Hits”? The short answer is, no. Quite common is the phenomenon of mediocre talents covering great songs; but I can't think of why a good band would cover a weaker one. To speculate on their motives, I have to point to a nostalgic, but avowedly serious fondness that the two have for middling 80s acts. “Diamond Dave” from their first album celebrated the showmanship and glitz that David Lee Roth epitomized in their (and my) formative years. And who doesn't love Dave? That their own song about Roth is better than most of his own material shows where they went wrong this time.

The Bird and The Bee - Maneater

Pitchfork Music Festival 2010: An Article in Photos

This weekend, RFC's own Shani Kaesler, like most of Chicago's hippest kids-about-town, hit Union Park for the Pitchfork Music fest to catch everyone from Free Energy to Beach House. Braving the photo pit and the heat, Shani's returned from her excursion a little more tan, a lot more tired, and with nearly 30 photos for ya'll to peruse.

 

RFC Reviews: Miniature Tigers' "Fortress"

It’s rare that I go into a concert without having ever heard of the opening band and leave the venue with a new favorite act but last Spring, that was what happened with Phoenix-by-way-of-Brooklyn quartet Miniature Tigers. The band’s late 2008 debut, Tell It To The Volcano, became one of my most played records of 2009, bridging the gap between my penchant for lyrical melancholy and my unabashed love for sunny pop melodies, so long as said melodies maintain their indie sensibilities, of course. To say that expectations were high for the Tigers sophomore LP is an understatement. After seeing the guys hit the Midwest a grand total of six times over twelve months, I found myself hearing nearly every track off of this summer’s Fortress in varying states of polished, becoming quite familiar with songs like “Rock And Roll Mountain Troll” and the catchiest tunes of the Tigers career, “Japanese Woman Living In My Closet”.

Miniature Tigers seem to have used their stellar, poppy first CD as a trail and error jumping off point for their career, omitting their debut’s weaker moments (“Haunted Pyramid”) in favor of breezier ballads and dancier melodies this time around. The fact that Fortress finds me unable to stay still throughout it’s duration is one of it’s best qualities, partially due to the production values of Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo on first single “Gold Skull”, a track that’s poised to become the song of every blogger’s summer, after it found itself being stamped with the seal of Stereogum approval.

Miniature Tigers - Gold Skull

Fortress finds Miniature Tigers, for the first time, functioning as a cohesive unit. Tell It To The Volcano was primarily an effort of the confessional indie pop tunes lead Tiger Charles Brand wrote in his bedroom. Now, however, the band is filled with members that compliment every aspect of Brand’s songwriting, with Rick Schaier, Alex Gerber, and Algernon Quashie giving every track a more outgoing personality and a stronger backbone than Brand could probably have provided himself.

RFC Reviews Wavves "King Of The Beach".

Opinions on singer-songwriter Nathan Williams’s breakout album as Wavves, 2009’s Wavvves, pretty much ran one of two ways: either you heard a minor masterpiece of suburban ennui and slacker alienation, or you thought the whole thing kinda sounded like somebody barfing into a blender.

In retrospect, the truth probably lies somewhere in between. Wavvves managed to bottle a very specific brand of California skater-punk disenchantment better than almost anyone else since No Age burst onto the scene in 2007, but the lower-than-lo-fi production sometimes felt like a gimmick, or even a defense mechanism — a way for Williams to write the whole thing off as a lark and get back to smoking weed in front of the Xbox in case no one ever bothered to listen.

Of course, people definitely did listen, and, thankfully, Williams responded on his new album, King Of The Beach, by recruiting the recently-deceased Jay Reatard’s old backing band and turning Wavves into a full-blooded, full-time punk-pop band. The result is an album that ditches the trademark Wavves wall-of-squall to take a stab at communication through honest-to-god melody and songcraft, and, in doing so, surpasses its predecessor so easily that it feels like Wavves’ real debut. On King Of The Beach, Williams finally steps out of the bong haze of the basement and into the summer sun to try and negotiate with the world-at-large — even if, in classic Wavves fashion, it turns out that the sun peels your pasty skin and the beach is full of assholes anyway.

Nirvana-esque opener “King Of The Beach” trumpets the sea-change in sound right off the bat. Drums thump-thump where they used to crackle, and the clean guitars even give off a certain strident sparkle that ignites the whole mix. Sure, no one’s going to mistake Wavves for the All-American Rejects, but it’s hard not to marvel at the leap forward in sonic detail, or kick yourself for not noticing some of the band’s more obvious touchstones beneath the old layers of scuzz (The Violent Femmes, duh!). Music fans who grew into the Pixies after feasting on Lookout! Records comps should find themselves struggling for breath during the opening run of three pitch-perfect grunge-pop nuggets: “Shit, man, the first one was Bleach and this is Nevermind!”

Wavves - "King Of The Beach"

Barn Lights, No City: A Daytrotter Narrative

You spend the better part of a day traveling alone. The car is a humid excuse for transportation, and you truly wish you’d sprung for the repair of its air conditioning system. The first people you come into contact with after five hours liken your appearance to some girl drink swilling, faux beach bum styled pop star. This was not your intention. You belittle yourself accordingly and attempt to move the conversation forward.  Your attempts succeed. The group of people with whom you’ve convened exit the establishment. You follow.

You re-situate yourself back into your vehicle and proceed down a series of labyrinthine back roads adorned only with painted wooden signs. These signs are quaint, olde timey, and deliberately so. They remind you of the kind of farm-quirk one might find hanging on the wall of a Cracker Barrel restaurant. The signs serve as motivational posters for the road weary. 

Hang in there! 
You’ve come so far!
Don’t give up!
Barnstormer is just a dirt road away! 

The car full of your comrades slows and enters a fenced-in pasture. The sky is the dismal grey of a country storm. What you see before you is a mixture of rolling, blowing hills and trees. As you park, you notice a white-haired man assisting Daytrotter fans in finding their place aboard the HayrackRide/ShuttleBus. You start to wonder just how deeply into this farmland you are going to go. You exit your vehicle. A damp, dark line has formed across your shirt where the seatbelt had been holding your chest. Again, you lament your choice of attire. You mill around your vehicle until one of your comrades suggests that you begin the relatively short walk to a barn lovingly referred to as Codfish Hollow. 

There are several people making this trek, all either too late for the hayrack shuttle or simply opting for exercise. You think for a split second that you can hear a banjo lilting along with the summer breeze. You decide to ignore it and follow the dusty path toward the barn. 

Jonny Corndawg-When a Ford Man Turns to Chevy (Daytrotter Session)

You turn a corner to see the monolithic barn stand proudly surrounded by a green sea of healthy cornstalks.You make note that it must be a good year for crops as the corn had most definitely surpassed knee-height weeks ago. There are bearded men, tight pants, pretty ladies, and precocious youths filing in and out of the wooden entryway. You pay your admission, and receive a pair of thick, black sunglasses with the word Daytrotter written on the side. Unfortunately, the sky is still a shade of grey that absolutely negates the use of sunglasses.  So you say your hellos to old friends and anxiously begin searching for alcohol.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright: The Alternative to Pitchfork

Sick of the heat? Morally opposed to the "Pitchfork Machine"? Just didn't get tickets for tonight's now-sold out Local Native's show at Lincoln Hall? No matter what your reason for not partaking in the last of the weekend's  festivities, we here at Radio Free Chicago have the perfect alternative mapped out for you to keep you from spending your Sunday night alone: RFC favorites The Daredevil Christopher Wright are hitting The Abbey Pub with Strand of Oaks tonight before heading back to their home state of Wisconsin.

Sure, they were just here last month but let's face it - They're energetic brand of raucous folk music, as accessible live as it is fun, warrants a repeat performance from the Eau Claire natives and while Local Natives are quite the awesome band of fellas, if you're catching them at Pitchfork, do you really need to try to weasel your way into their Lincoln Hall set as well?

The Daredevil Christopher Wright - A Near Death Experience At Sea

RFC Was Barn On the 4th Of July: A Daytrotter Adventure With The Walkmen.

I remember when I first heard The Walkmen. It was on that car commercial, years back. Where a bunch of post-college kids drive through adulthood to opening notes of “We’ve Been Had”. It was just a car commercial but something about the dreamy notes and dramatic vocals buried themselves my head until it became something of an obsession for me, a mission to find out just who that band was and to find out if every song they produced could yield such a magical affect. A quick googling provided the answer and within a few days, I had procured Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone, an album that came to orchestrate my post-high school years with it’s bitter realism juxtaposed against a dreamy, overexposed background.

 

There’s a reason that so many bands these days sound heavily influenced by Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone and the Walkmen’s subsequent efforts. It’s because they’re damn good.

 

I’d heard rumors before the 4^th that the “secret headliner” for Barn on the 4^th of July was going to be The Walkmen. The moment I confirmed it with Mr. Daytrotter himself, Sean Moeller, the excitement I already felt in anticipation for the Barnstormer reached a fever pitch, an anxious need to get to Iowa and get there as soon as I could, all the while listening only to Bows + Arrows, You + Me, and, of course, Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone.

The Walkmen - We've Been Had

The Walkmen -  The Rat

Video courtesy of the fine folks at Rock Of The Arts. 

Pitchfork Preview: Wolf Parade and Broken Social Scene.

Returning with their third album, Expo 86, Wolf Parade have continued on their streak of strong experimental music bridging emotional duress of Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug's words with the constantly imaginative explosions of sound from the ever present rest of the band. This summer Broken Social Scene showcase their newest phase as the ever changing Canadian collective released their fourth full length, Forgiveness Rock Record.

Broken Social Scene - Ungrateful Little Father

Wolf Parade - Ghost Pressure

Wolf Parade who seems to be forever busying themselves with some form of musical project continues with their experimentations with these “danceable” melodies”. It has become impossible to count on two hands the number of side projects, bands and alternate musical ventures current and former members of Broken Social Scene have gone on and pursued while on hiatus (most notable Feist, Stars and Metric). Broken Social Scene's newest album seemingly addresses growing pains while retaining a hopeless romantic perspective and attempting to create world peace with their music. Both bands successfully create a dominating presence as poster children for Canadian indie rock. Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning and their constantly changing line up have a long standing ability to invent a continuous stream of amazingness unfazed of the band's renown transfiguration.

Wolf Parade has had an ability in their style to perpetually build on their arsenal of sound with multi-layered self-observational vignettes crafted where there is a distinct difference from song to song. “Ungrateful Little Father” begins with an almost yogic sense of euphoria before erupting into a song of resentment, seemingly a man with a newly acquired role in the fraternity of fatherhood resentfully realization the horrible job his father performed in the role. The words ceasing halfway thru into this array of sounds and ethereal play as though the man is proceeding in a more pacifist style absolving his hard feelings for his past. “Ghost Pressure” commences with a blaring entrance with a hum along melody as Krug, gently appeals his disposition seemingly hesitant to move forward in a romance as the spirit of a past love haunts his psyche. Both hardworking bands seem to continue to produce strong music exhibiting creative growth while tackling alternate ventures as well.

Broken Social Scene (c) hits the stage Friday @ 7:20, while Wolf Parade (a) play Saturday @ 6:15. 

RFC Was Barn On the 4th Of July: A Daytrotter Adventure With Dawes.

2009 saw some stellar releases from artists that I’d loved from anywhere from two years of my life to over ten but when it came time to order my top albums of the year, a band of newcomers took the top spot with a stellar debut that was evocative of something much grander than the member’s youth should be able to produce. Naturally, I’m talking about the darlings of Daytrotter, Dawes and their LP North Hills.

Everything about Dawes is not what it seems. Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith write songs that quote philosophers while preaching life lessons that make them seem nothing if not wise far beyond their almost painfully young years. They play like seasoned veterans with Wylie Gelber and Alex Casnoff providing more to the music than you would ever guess from hearing the record. 

To say that seeing Dawes live makes their album seem fairly bland is quite possibly the biggest compliment that could be given to the quartet. North Hills has quickly risen to the ranks of one of my most played albums of the past five years, not just my favorite record of 2009, but despite its magnanimity, Dawes brings forth an energy live that I’ve yet to see any band duplicate. Yes, I’ve seen Dawes before and I’ll see Dawes again but despite that fact, the moment it was announced that they boys would be playing Barn on the 4^th of July, it was cemented that I was going. Seeing one of my favorite musical discoveries of my adult life play in a barn is something not be missed and Dawes, per usual, did not disappoint. It was truly Dawes’s crowd in Makoqueta, with everyone from 14 year old boys to 20-something hipsters to 60 year old men singing along to Taylor’s every word and taking them all to heart whilst doing so. When Taylor curses the western skyline, everyone in Maquoketa does too and when Griffin talks about how far he’s come, everyone in Maquoketa echoes his sentiments with bellowing devotion.

Dawes - How Far We've Come (Live At Daytrotter)

Video via Codfish Hollow Barnstormer's Facebook.

Peppering the set with new material off what is almost certain to become one of the best albums of 2011, Taylor, Griffin, Alex, and Wylie tore through the 4^th of July with their usual virile passion for the songs they’ve penned, a type of fervor for their art that is so rarely exhibited by musicians after having played the same songs almost every night for well over a year. It didn’t matter to them, however, that the songs were familiar. If anything, it was bolstering and welcomed.

“Western Skyline” found new power with a chorus of people who knew each lyric, who all understand just how special Dawes is and who all know that one day soon, these California natives are going to hit it big, real big, and will be playing to the likes of sold out crowds at Lincoln Hall, so they treasure the time they get with Dawes because they all know, it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the world understands the sublimity of Dawes.

It was said by more than one person talking about their Barnstorming experience that the powerful “When My Time Comes”, one of North Hills strongest and most immediately accessible tracks, was the best song of the entire night – And that was said after The Walkmen blew everyone away. While Dawes did have my favorite set of the night, I must give The Walkmen the accolade of best song but even if no secret headliner existed and Dawes had closed out the night, I still would be saying I had the best weekend of my life. Great friends, great music, and great beer in a cornfield in Iowa. If life can get more special than that, I’ll gladly live in ignorance of whatever comes next because what Daytrotter has given us with the Barnstormer experience is more than enough to let me live the rest of my life out contented.

Dawes at Daytrotter

Photography by Spencer Wells.

Tomorrow? Part four! With The Walkmen!

The Consolation Prize: Saturday Pitchfork Picks

Despite getting aboard early for the ephemeral Pitchfork three-day passes, my plans derailed when my roommate ambushed me with Iron Maiden tix for Sunday the 18th. Let's see: do I maintain my hipster cred for $40 and a third day of heatstroke, or scream "Run To The Hills" with metal god Bruce Dickinson for free? I had a good friend coming in from Michigan who desperately needed a Sunday pass, so I made the easy call.

The point of all this is that, even though I agree with RFC writer Jen Larson that Sunday probably boasts the strongest line-up at this year's Richdork fest, I've got to make do and get my rocks off on Saturday. No Pavement, nor Sleigh Bells, nor Neon Indian, nor Surfer Blood, nor Major Lazer, nor Big Boi (Sir Lucious Left Foot blows my mind!) for me.

Still, hope lingers in Saturday's line-up. LCD Soundsystem probably remains the headline-grabbing Big Draw, and I certainly can't quibble with a James Murphy dance-party-as-meta-musical-discourse to close out my night in style. However, although I loved Sound of Silver, I haven't spent enough time with This Is Happening yet, so let's devote some space to a few other acts I'm counting on to salve the sting of my lost Pitchfork Sunday.

Wolf Parade – Hey there, supergroup. Why not make like The Eagles and play all of the members' solo stuff in concert? Imagine if a Wolf Parade show really meant a bodacious Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown/Handsome Furs gauntlet of greatness. Heck, since Joe Walsh gets to do "Life's Been Good" on the Eagles reunion tour, we'll even let Dante DeCaro throw in some Johnny and the Moon too. In the meantime, though, let's hope that older material from the now-classic Apologies To The Queen Mary doesn't get pushed to the margins by their middling new album, Expo 86.

Smith Westerns – Headline: local boys make good, bring Chicago glam-pop back into the blogosphere. Seems like Chi-town music that goes national too often falls toward the mathy/noodly end of the spectrum (Maps & Atlases, Russian Circles, Mahjongg, Kinsellas, et al) but Smith Westerns thankfully seem to remember that David Bowie had way more fun than Emerson, Lake and Palmer combined.

Free Energy – RFC writers Jen and Shani both recently highlighted this Philly five-piece as one of power-pop's leading lights, and I second that emotion like Smokey. However, Free Energy seem criminally under-billed as the opening act on Saturday, and I have a fifty-fifty track record of making the 1:00 bands in past years. Let's hope I can shake the hangover curse and make it in time for a set of summertime bangers from these guys.

(Side note: I've already referenced The Eagles, Smokey Robinson, David Bowie, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Iron Maiden in this article. I pledge that all references from here out will date to 1994 or later.)