Radio Free Chicago

The Perfect Date: Jens Lekman & Geoffrey O'Connor

I read somewhere on the vast internet that someone stole one of my wedding ideas. They had Jens Lekman play at their wedding. If you haven't heard the Swedish crooner you will have to take my word for it, Jens Lekman is the ultimate romanitc performer any soon to be married couple could hire. The Swedish heartthrobe exraordinaire will woo every man's girlfriend, and maybe a few men on Monday night at Lincoln Hall.

 

Even with his romantic, old-school, and at many times self-deprecating lyrics, Lekman captivates his audience as if he were performing a private show for each fan. The man known for his EP's, with nearly 13 out and only two full length albums, has another one out. An Argument With Myself has been put out by Secretly Canadian, the label behind Yeasayer and Magnolia Electric Co. to name a few.On tour with Lekman is Geoffrey O'Connor, former member of Crayon Fields. With hints of trance and lounge music, this Melbourne, Australian native brings a classic old dreamy, vintage 70's feel. You can find his new album, Vanity Is Forever over at his bandcamp. Grab a Three Floyds, and maybe one for you date too, and catch Jens Lekman and Geoffrey O'Connor at Lincoln Hall Monday, October 3rd. 18 show, sold out and show starts at 9PM.

 

 

 

Wild Beasts invade Lincoln Hall Saturday

Nevermind that the blogosphere's up-and-coming buzzed Twin Sister are opening, but Linlcon Hall will be housing four British lads Saturday evening for some fine indie rock. Wild Beasts' Hayden Thorpe holds a falsetto that teeters along the edges of dream pop and indie rock. Think Bloc Party mixed with Penguin Prison, stripped of electronic or synthesized beats and supported by a much more lush, natural sound. Their latest album, Smother, was released last May as the follow-up to their Mercury Prize-nominated album, Two Dancers.

Twin Sister opens up, having just released In Heaven September 26th. The female-fronted indie pop band also shares Domino Records. Their music takes that teetering and dips closer to dream pop melodies as on "Stop", without lulling you into a haze. If you're up for a warmingly chill Saturday evening in the city, come early, enjoy the tater tots, and ease into Wild Beasts and Twin Sister at Lincoln Hall, October 1st. 18+ and $15, starting at 10:00PM.

 

The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You: Fool's Gold at Brilliant Corners This Weekend

 

So summer is over and we're all going through the fall-is-too-short-winter-don't-come blues. But put down that Pumpkin Spice Mocha-Latte no foam and winter sweater, we've got the remedy for you. LA based band, Fool's Gold is just what you need to shake your way into a happy fall. What started out as the side-project for Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov is now a tight knit band of five. After their self-titled debut in 2009, Fool's Gold diligently toured numerous cities and played festivals such as Glastonbury and Austin CIty Limits before releasing their sophomore LP, Leave No Trace. Fool's Gold plays fast, plays with precision, and plays with heart.

 

Fool's Gold takes pop music and adds African beats and rhythms to create hip shaking, feet stomping jovial music. With Luke Top (singer/bassist) singing almost every song in Hebrew this band gives a dash of much needed diversity to pop music today. Top sings more in english on the Leave No Trace LP, and is guaranteed to get your feet moving within the first four measures of, "Wild Window". Fool's Gold is music that brings people together. If you've heard them, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've never heard Fool's Gold before, what better way to enjoy them, than with a crowd of strangers dancing along side you at Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements. Find a good dance partner and maybe just get a date out of it! The three day festival runs September 16-18th in Chicago's Eckhart Park. Catch Fool's Gold at 6PM at the Criss/Cross Tent. Purchase tickets here. We all know that fall is upon us, it's inevitable but let us have one more dance party outside in the park before we bury ourselves in layers. 

Daydream to Dark Dark Dark in Brilliant Corners This Weekend

I bet you're sitting there in your chair, or standing if you're in one of those progressive-thinking workplaces...or a bouncy ball, thinking, "You know what? I would like a classy, relaxed evening of just pure good music. So much that I'd like to bring my friends to. The kind of evening that would leave everyone in awe of both my fine taste in music and the sheer fact we live in a great city." Well. That day is upon you, my friend! Saturday, September 17th brings Dark Dark Dark down from their homes in Minneapolis to ease you all into the colors and cornucopias of autumn. The group's album, Wild Go, came out in 2010 and swept up leaves of acclaim wherever the music managed to swing into due to its orchestral blend of Eastern European folk, chamber pop harmonies and the sweetness of singer Nona Marie's voice. It's as hauntingly beautiful as a long cherished, abandoned farmhouse with ivy overgrowing its porch steps once beridden by children's footsteps and laughter.

 

"Daydreaming" marked the official single from the debut, however you'd be cheating yourself to just stop there. Do check out "Robert", "Celebrate" and the sneakily sinister "Wild Go." You too can join the multitude of women and men who've been entranced at the Brilliant Corners of Popular Amusements, September 17th at Eckhart Park at Chicago Avenue and Noble Street. Dark Dark Dark begins sharp at 6:00 PM in the Criss/Cross Tent. Tickets are available here.

HARD Fest at the Congress Theater

Friday night the Congress Theater is going to bring the dance party. HARD Fest will take over and with the beats, the lights, the smoke will bring sweaty, writhing bodies. Digitalism, Jack Beats, Destructo and Alex Zelenka are guaranteed to not only keep you moving and grooving, but to blow your mind. This is the second year HARD Fest graces Chicago with it's electronic and spellbinding music. With a plethora of drum and bass, electro-pop and hard core dance music, the Congress Theater will be all wobbles friday night. If you were lucky enough to purchase a VIP 21+ ticket for $65, congratulations because they are sold out. There are still general admission tickets available for purchase for $20. General admission is 17+. Doors are at 8PM and the dance party starts immediately. 

 

  

This weekend get two chances for Atmosphere

 

With Lollapalooza taking over the city of Chicago for the annual 3 day music festival there are multiple times to see your favorite artists perform. Several artists playing the festival are also playing after-party shows and meet and greets. For hip-hop fans you are in luck. The Minneapolis hip-hop group and Rhymesayers artists, Atmosphere will be performing at The Metro along with making an appearance at Lollapalooza on Saturday.

It's been three years since Atmosphere put out their album, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. The highly anticipated album, The Family Sign was released earlier this year and the group has been on tour non-stop in support of it.

If you are lucky enough to have one of tickets to Friday's sold-out show you are in for a night of special guests. Along with Atmosphere, Evidence, Blueprint and DJ Babu and Prof will also be performing. Don't worry you festival attendees, the doors don't open until 10 PM. There is plenty of time to get to The Metro from Grant Park. Expect these hip-hop performers for kick it late into the night.

If you aren't one of the lucky ones to have a ticket to the sold-out show at The Metro, have no fear. Saturday at 4 PM Atmosphere will be at Lollapalooza. You can meet them at the F.Y.E. Autograph Tent. If you're a hip-hop fan these two events are not to missed, if you can help it. 

 

NYC Popshop staple Penguin Prison headlines Unofficial Pitchfork After Party

Justin Timberlake's tenor has been snoozing of late. Taken away by cinema, pop and dance music has been creeped on by electronic and Adele. One fellow, Chris Glover, has taken it upon himself to fill the gap from a more independent standpoint; remixes without hearing the originals and a string of releases through NYC/London's Neon Gold. Performing as Penguin Prison, Chris has become a standard at POPSHOP; a successful NYC electropop party that's been running for some time now. Most recently his song "Multi-Millionaire (Shook Remix)" was released for free via RCRD LBL.

Chicago gets its taste of Penguin Prison and his own tenor, which even captured a slot opening for Jamiroquai, July 15th at the Mid for the Officially Unofficial Pitchfork After Party. Come out that night for an evening headlined by one of the more knowledgable, passionate guys in dance/pop I've interviewed (at Mezzic) with today. Other artists that night include Jessica 6 and Hey Champ.

For another sample of his live set, catch this video SXSW cooked up for this year's edition:

 

Kid Sid, Julian Bell, and Brynn Mawr play the Elbo Room June 24 - with snacks!

Remember RFC resident Clay Riedesel's review of Kid Sid's "Rule the World" EP? Clay had a lot of complimentary things to say about Brandon Sidney's latest Kid Sid release, but he also pointed out that the album "caters specifically to the DJ and clubbing crowd." This Friday night, Sidney will cater to different tastes at the Elbo Room with an acoustic retelling of "Rule the World."

It may seem a wee bit outside of the box to completely rework your EP's songs into acoustic versions for its own release show, but straying outside of expectations is exactly what Sidney is always striving to do with Kid Sid. He holds a distaste for being pigeonholed as a hip hop or R&B artist, and there's no doubt this show will further showcase his indie pop sensibilities. Fellow Chicago indie artists Julian Bell and Brynn Mawr will be joining the evening with their own sets.

Brynn Mawr - Travel Light

I've been continuously playing Brynn Mawr's tune "Travel Light" off their latest bandcamp release, and I think it will be thoroughly entertaining to see all of these artists and genres come together for a night at the Elbo Room.

As if enjoying a breezy summer soundtrack live and partaking in the Elbo Room's drinks aren't enticing enough, Popchips will be sponsoring this event - free snacks ftw!

 In the video below, Brandon discusses the making of a single from his 2010 release and describes the fruition of the Kid Sid project. To download his latest EP, "Rule the World" for the low, low price of FREE, go to Kid Sid's bandcamp page.

Kid Sid, Julian Bell, and Brynn Mawr will be playing the Elbo Room in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood Friday, June 24th at 9:00 pm. The event is 21+ and admission is $5.

 

 

 

Holdfast & Warm Ones take over the Beat Kitchen!

Holdfast, a band that RFC Thinks You Should Know... if nothing else but because they make us feel real damn good, are playing at the Beat Kitchen June 12 with fellow local power poppers Warm Ones. Tickets are $8 and are already on sale! To make the deal even sweeter, Reckless Records will be doing a ticket giveaway the week of the show. You can stream/buy their EP Like The Sun at their bandcamp page.

Warm Ones, a band I was previously unfamiliar with, appear to be a pretty interesting crew. Their debut album Sprezzatura (!) holds dynamic, emotive guitar pop as its center but inhabits a number of rock/pop tropes pretty well (the opener is a sweet proto-punk type rager)! Male+female vocals are utilized pretty irresistably on "Small Spies," and perhaps most importantly there is a song called "Get Shit Set." It doesn't have to be an awesome song, but it is. I'm listening to this album while I type this! And I'm way into it! You can stream the whole thing, via Soundcloud module, here on their official site. Pick a song! I dare you! It'll probably sound sweet!

Here's live footage of Warm Ones performing their song "Busy All Day," at the Empty Bottle last September:

 

Hold fast, warm ones: it should be a pretty rad show! (did you see...what i did...there?)

Daytrotter Prepares To Barnstrom Once More!

It's no secret that we here at RFC are huge fans of Daytrotter, the internet's best music discovery tool. Nary a week goes by that we don't link to something amazing they did and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only RFC-er that has a Daytrotter sticker proudly placed on the bumper of her car. If you trolled around RFC during the summer, you might remember the massive coverage we gave to Daytrotter's Barn on the 4th of July, a concert that saw Sean Moeller and the rest of the Horseshack's champions of music return to Codfish Hollow, one of DT's frequent Barnstorming stops, with acts like Dawes and the Walkmen in tow. Well, it's time to get excited again because it was recently announced that Daytrotter's 4th Barnstormer is mere weeks away! With acts like Sondre Lerche, Guards, The Romany Rye, Hellogoodbye, and the ultra-lovely Keegan Dewitt, this barnstormer promises to be bigger and barnstormier than ever and this time around the Daytrotter crew will be hitting some brand new barns, right outside of Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan! Check out the full schedule below, but first, listen to some Keegan Dewitt, won't you?

 

Keegan Dewitt - Nothing Shows

 

Daytrotter Presents... Barnstormer 4

April 26th - Free Range Film Festival Barn
909 County Road 4, Wrenshall, MN

April 27th - Hoosier Grove Barn
700 W. Irving Park Rd., Streamwood, IL

April 28th - Lakeview Farms Barn
12075 Island Lake Rd., Dexter, MI

April 29th - Kalyx Center
442 E. 1300 North Rd., Monticello, IL

April 30th - Codfish Hollow Barn
3437 288th Ave, Maquoketa, IA

Get your tickets for the 'stormer at Daytrotter.com and don't forget to check out sessions by each of Barnstormer 4's incomprable artists: Sondre Lerche, Keegan Dewitt (who was so lovely, the Horseshack had him back for an encore), Hellogoodbye, and The Romany Rye!

RFC Thinks You Should Know... The Island of Misfit Toys!

The Island of Misfit Toys are an indie rock writer's dream: young as fuck, scrappy as fuck, ambitious as fuck, midwest as fuck, with plenty of genetic touchstones to throw around for when you're feeling lazy. TIoMT is the brainchild of 19 year old brainchild Anthony Sanders. If you actively miss the heyday of Chicago's indie rock dominance (or were born in the 90's and pretend to), and/or just like well crafted songs chances are you'll find a lot to love here.

Like most prodigies, Sanders has been watching closely: he uses all the tricks in the book but they feel so intuitive and well-executed that it's still ultra exhilarating to watch. "Beginnings of a Beard," a song off their upcoming debut Bear Hair, starts off as a pretty straight indie rock homage to an Oaklandazulasylum era Why? song- distorted heavy backbeat, hallucinatory musings, not-really-sung but not-really-spoken vocals. Then at a certain point (SPOILER ALERT), the lingering organ dies out, and the guitars come to life. Sanders goes into young rock star mode, tumbling through an ecstatic monologue as the songs threatens to explode into some insane post-rock climax. Opting to hover tantalizingly instead, the song doesn't explode. Sanders cuts the cord, and puts the cards back in his deck.

Sanders' writing and delivery often sounds like that of a kid who used to be in emo punk bands who graduated to twee punk just as his horns began to sprout. The existence of Los Campesinos! makes this transition much easier: Sanders gets to keep all the naked emoting, sardonicism, and bleak romantics, but fused with more complicated songcraft and much lusher instrumentation. Maybe that's the natural order of things! It feels good!

TIoMT has all the elements and reach of a complete package. It's self-effacing, but it's not afraid to triumph. The songs focus on the little details, but while trying to change your life. If TIoMT kept it's current form, it would still be a excellent listen. But Sanders is so young and so clearly hungry, that it's as much what is already on the table as it what's being hinted at that makes this project so excting.

The Island of Misfit Toys - Hermit Crab

The Island of Misfit Toys will be playing with Water House and Yukon Blonde on April 10th at The Beat Kitchen.

The Builders and The Butchers bring folk rock to Schubas Tavern

Portland, OR band The Builders and the Butchers will be joined by Florida natives, Damion Suomi & The Minor Prophets and Toronto, Ontartio, Canada's Elliott BROOD on Tuesday April 5 at Schubas Tavern. Having been on tour non-stop for the past three years, The Builders and The Butchers bring you their latest Album, Dead Reckoning released last month on Badman Recording Co. The transformation from five years ago when synchronistically these five men came together as bands all around them were breaking up, is mesmerizing. Starting out performing in the streets of Portland in front of several music venues they called themselves "The Funeral Band". Now a complete mature band they bring a variety of musical instruments (melodica, mandolin, and banjo) along with drums, guitar and trumpet to create a west coast folk rock sound. The Builders and the Butchers will transform your sense of typical folk rock. 

 

 

Barcelona

 

The Builders and The Butchers with Damion Suomi & The Minor Prophets and Elliott BROOD, Tuesday April 5 at Schubas Tavern. Tickets are $10, show starts at 9 p.m.

 

Wanna Go On A Date? I Mean Cruise?

Jukebox the Ghost played The Pike Room/The Eagle Theatre/The Crofoot on Wednesday February 16th and knocked everybody's socks off. Jukebox the Ghost has a way of charming the pants off of everybody in the room, except for maybe the couple who was getting it on against me and my fellow Ghost-goers, they probably already had their pants off, good God.

The best song of the night (including the sets of Gold Motel, Now, Now, and You, Me, and Everyone We Know - don't get me wrong, they were all very good) was Half Crazy, but I'm biased because Tommy Siegel is just about the cutest guitarist I ever did lay mine eyes upon.

Jukebox the Ghost - Half Crazy

There are few bands that can make an album that is termed "over-produced" by some well respected indie music gurus, and then lay it down live just as perfectly and with just as much fullness as the album. Not to mention drummer Jesse Kristin has some mad percussion juggling skillz.

And if you aren't convinced yet of the awesomeness of these Ghosts, just take one longing look into the doe-eyed keyboardist Ben Thornewill, and you'll follow these boys across the Gulf of Mexico, which you can apparently do legally now by booking a room on the Rombello Cruise. They're setting sail on September 29th of this year alongside Slightly Stoopid, Michael Franti and Spearhead, G. Love & Special Sauce, and the big ticket name on the bill: to be announced. Does a Carribbean cruise with some of your favorite bands right now sound great in the wake of cold ass horrible weather across the midwest or what? I know where I'll be come September 29th, and it won't be Michigan!

I miss you EIC Amber, let's go on a date this Monday night.

Young Galaxy and Winter Gloves Bring Canada to the Empty Bottle

Montreal's Young Galaxy will be stopping by the Empty Bottle on March 25th as part of their small U.S. tour. Their recent album, Shapeshifting, was released in early February through Paper Bag Records. A complete transitional shift from Invisible Republic, the songs were given to Dan Lissvik across the vast Atlantic in Sweden to put the finishing polishes on. What came out of emails and Skype discussions is one of my personal favorites of the year, a refreshing wash of atmospheric indie dipped in electronic beats and synth (my review is over at Mezzic, as well as an interview with Stephen Ramsay). Listen to a sample, "We Have Everything" which depicts this electro-beat over Catherine McCandless' vocals.

Young Galaxy - We Have Everything

Sharing the stage will be label mates, Winter Gloves, and The Single Helix. Tickets are $10, show starts at 10 p.m.!

New Mountain Goats: "Damn These Vampires"

I recall seeing John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats perform a concert in Durham North Carolina over the summer and grasping what exactly makes the Mountain Goats so compelling as a band. While I’ve been a steadfast fan for years, they are an acquired taste. Whether it’s the crackling lo-fi and the clawhammer strumming of his early career to Mr. Darneille’s nasal yowling and inscrutability of his lyrics, the Mountain Goats seem committed to being vaguely off-putting while crafting hyper-literate pop songs played with a disturbing ferocity. They occupy odd territory in indie rock: scene stalwarts for years at this point with LITERALLY HUNDREDS of songs available, the music they make is more visceral and adolescent than your average navel-gazing singer-songwriter, but more intimate and cerebral than a punk band. This has left them a criminally underappreciated band. They don’t court their audience and instead seem to delight in being the indie rock equivalent of the drunk guy at the party talking a little too loudly and fervently about how much how awesome the Curtis “Showtime” Stevens Vs. Jesse Brinkley fight was, or his favorite ever death metal band he saw in high school.

Darneille’s drunken antics at the show in question further cemented their claim on this territory. The show was pure punk rock, if not in its aesthetic, than in its ethic. Darneille (backed by the self-proclaimed “best rhythm section in indie rock” Peter Hughes on bass and Jon Wurster on drums) dived into the audience, grabbing fans and screaming in their ears like a man on a joyous bender. For the diehards, it was heaven (being slapped by John Darneille is an honor akin to getting a jersey tossed to you after the game by your favorite football player);  still, to the uninitiated, and even those who maybe have only listened to them on their last few relatively restrained albums, it was a spectacle that might prove… disconcerting.

Still, possibly the most vital piece of information for comprehending and appreciating the MGs came earlier in the show when, during one of John Darnielle’s signature halting, blackly funny diatribes about getting drunk and unloading on a friend about your impending divorce over lunch, he said the following: “I woke up the other day, and I wrote a song. Because, that’s what I do. I’m a songwriter, I write songs.”

Much has been remarked upon by fans of the band in regards to the shift in the MG’s sound and aesthetic, the abandoning of the much ballyhooed boombox recordings for a slicker, more produced sound (first with producer/artist John Vanderslice, now on their new record All Eternals Deck with Morbid Angel producer Erik Rutan), but I see this as a natural evolution of the boombox: after getting the meager (in comparison to what they deserve) recognition for their years of service, people started to hand Darnielle bigger boomboxes. Were there no producers or studios interested in hosting Darnielle and his demented pop legacy, he’d return to a boombox. It’s the song, not the singer.

This is basically the essence of the Mountain Goats; their steadfast aesthetic, their prolific output, their resolve to simply not give a fuck. John Darnielle is merely a conduit for songs. The entire haphazard, carefree (careless?) aesthetic of the band, from their inception to now, has been all in service of not blocking the unending flow of music that has been inexplicably routed through Darneille. He’s unconcerned about being anything but a songwriter and imparting the diamonds, rough included, as quickly as possible to avoid losing it. It’s immediacy, the most primitive and powerful you’ll ever experience.  He didn’t have time or resources in the early days to belabor the songs, and it manifested in recording hundreds of songs in the most intimate, hissing analogue format possible.

His limitations as a singer/guitar player/producer/engineer/arranger all are inconsequential: The Mountain Goats write and play songs. No more, no less.

Still, given this ethic, the MGs have been thrust into an awkward position: after toiling for years in relative DIY obscurity, starting with the brilliant Tallahassee  they’ve  given resources, time, and patient and intelligent producers. Their recordings (from We Shall All Be Healed through The Life of the World to Come) have grown more ornate, the rawness and intensity traded for beauty and dynamics. We’ve seen John Darnielle’s debut as a classical-inspired  piano player, heard him whisper in our ears about feeling like a little boy lost in a mall on Get Lonely. This has pushed the band to more challenging places with some really wonderful results. Still, those of us with a fondness for the old days of tape hiss and out of tune guitars have perhaps missed the musical kidney punch Mr. D used to specialize in.

With the impending release of All Eternals Deck, we are treated to a new track “Damn These Vampires” which, I think, recaptures a bit of that magic while reconciling the ability to have more elaborate production.

The Mountain Goats - Damn These Vampires

Reminiscent of  his “Alpha” song cycle where the metaphors all concerned being young and wasted and falling out of love, “Vampires” feels like watching a spaghetti western at noon while drunk. Finally grasping dynamics, Darnielle’s guitar and Wurster’s drums are understated, letting Hughes’ melodic bass really carry. And even for the closet popstar like Darnielle (Robyn, watch out, the Mountain Goats are comin’ for you…), the chorus hook is almost too good, with that anthemic, scream at the top of your lungs quality:

Crawl till dawn

On my hands and knees

God damn these vampires

For what they’ve done to me…

All Eternals Deck comes out March 29th on Merge records. Get excited.