Show review: Grimes, Born Gold at Empty Bottle, 3/14

By Andrew Hertzberg

There’s been no shortage of Canadian artists making dark electronic pop music. Where Diamond Rings goes for glam and Austra translates heartbreak into addicting melodies, Grimes (née Claire Boucher) makes music simultaneously ethereal and comfortable. The 23-year old Vancouver native is indie’s current ‘it’-girl. So much buzz can often have its backlash, and I was skeptical going into the show, (although I am quite a fan of this year’s Visions). Any doubts I had, though, were quickly scared away. Right off the bat, she asked if there was any way to make everything louder. She had a genuine excitement to be playing the sold out show and it came through in her ability to handle a sampler, a synth, two mics (with effects and loops) and dance the whole time she was up there.

In a recent Pitchfork interview, Boucher cited Aphex Twin, Outkast and Mariah Carey as some of her biggest influences, not to mention her grasp of K-Pop, IDM, and any other sub-genre under the electronic sun. With such a vast array of inspirations, you’d think the music would be a garbled mess of maximalism. And while you can hear the multiple ideas going through Claire’s head at once, she somehow doesn’t let the product sound chaotic. What’s most impressive about her, and the live show certainly affirmed, was her ability to stay in control of the situation. Openers Born Gold joined her on stage as her backing band, but not unlike Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, Boucher’s multitasking was front and center of the show. Whether it was on the industrial sounding girl-group romp of "Oblivion" or the Eastern-tinged R&B of "Genesis," Claire was confident, commanding and somehow having too much fun while doing all of the above. The set closed all too soon with the trancey (and aptly named) "Nightmusic," the room filled with sweat but wanting more.

A few Chicago music news bites

• Archie Powell & the Exports are celebrating March Madness in their own way with "March Cover Madness," releasing a cover song each week through this month. The first is their take on Barbara Lewis's "Baby I'm Yours." Listen to it while watching the Exports up to their usual hijinks in this video.

• Chicago Mixtape did an interview with Bailiff and has the audio up here.

• The latest in the infinite wisdom (or whatever you want to call it) from Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan: "I was part of a generation that changed the world -- and it was taken over by poseurs." Read the interview here.

• Ready for music festival season yet? Some initial details were released for a handful of summer street fests: Do-Division will take place June 1-3, Green Music Fest from June 23-24 (with headliners Dinosaur Jr. and the Raveonettes), West Fest from July 7-8, Wicker Park Fest from July 28-29. 

• It's not often you read negative thoughts on Andrew Bird, but Jim DeRogatis didn't hold back in his review of the singer-songwriter-whistler's new album Break It Yourself. You can form your own opinion about a piece of the album by playing "Eyeoneye" below.

Eyeoneye by Andrew Bird

Go to There: March 13 - 19

By Andrew Hertzberg

Tuesday, March 13th Tim Kinsella at Quimbys  (7 PM, AA, FREE)
Take a break from blasting your ears and hear Tim Kinsella (Joan of Arc, Make Believe, Cap’n Jazz) read a bit from his book The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self Defense. Also reading is Adam Levin, who recently released a collection of ten stories in Hot Pink.

Wednesday, March 14th ???? 
My choice for this week was gonna be Grimes at the Empty Bottle, but that one is long sold out. Instead, use this night to discover (re-discover?) your Chicago roots. We shine a big light on rock clubs here at WCR, but let’s not forget about the blues and jazz joints like Rosa’s Lounge, Kingston Mines, Fitzgerald's, Andy’s, and the Green Mill amongst others that make this city’s music scene diverse and vibrant.

Thursday, March 15th Matthew Santos at Schubas (9 PM, 21+, $12)
You may not know it, but you’ve heard Matthew Santos. He collaborated with Lupe Fiasco on numerous tracks, including the ubiquitous ‘Superstar.’ His personal style is much different from Lupe’s (acoustic soul-folk as opposed to hip-hop), but his voice still shines front and center. His second album, Quickly Disappearing, was released in January.

Little Boy Jr. - 'Tell Me, Lazy Lover'

By Frank Krolicki

Chicago five-piece Little Boy Jr. put their recent win as The Deli Chicago's "Artist of the Month" to good use. As a result of scoring the most votes in that poll the band was able to record a couple new tracks at Catfish Studios, and now have them ready to share with the world as free downloads on their Bandcamp page. The two tracks--"Tell Me" and "Lazy Lover"--clock in at a total running time of under four minutes and carry on the '60s garage pop vibe established on their debut Local Thieves, but this time there's a bit more polish to smooth over some of the rough edges. Although very DIY in production, Local Thieves was the sound of a band with a lot of promise, and these new tracks make it clear these guys are well worth paying attention to. I admire LBJ's very obvious reverence of retro pop and look forward to hearing more. Listen to/download the new tracks for yourself below and catch the band live on Wednesday, April 25th at Red Line Tap.

EP review: Dastardly - 'Bury Me in the Country'

By Andrew Hertzberg

"Freight Train": It’s always a good sign when a record begins with the hocking (and ejecting) of a loogie. Frontman Gabe Liebowitz strums a little ditty while the rest of the band sets up, lamenting his black-cloud misery. When he’s finally at his worst, the full band comes together at the chorus, a surprisingly hopeful one for Dastardly, complete with an undeniably catchy harmony.

"Fever": A mischievous bass starts off this one. This track showcases Dastardly’s harmonizing abilities. For all of Gabe’s rasps and sobs, his voice works quite well with accordionist Sarah Morgan. Never thought a Chicago band could fit so much yodeling into one track either.

"Brief Thoughts on Death": Gabe runs through a Walt Whitmanesque list of possible ways to die and is back to singing alone on this song. The music borders on the chaotic except for the soul-saving mandolin in the second chorus. Well, almost. A scream, then: nothingness. The song eventually entropies into disarray, the instruments all seemingly played randomly, as if to suggest the confusion and mystery of the afterlife, or at least a musical purgatory.

Video: White Mystery - 'People Power' (live)

By Frank Krolicki

White Mystery are one of the Chicago bands set to head to Texas to play SXSW in a few days, and leading up to all of the excitement comes a new live video of the duo from Five Penn Films. The locally-based music video production company caught Miss Alex and Francis Scott Key White's January 15th performance at Schubas during the Tomorrow Never Knows fest, and captured the very rocking set closer "People Power" for all to see. If you've got five-and-a-half minutes to devote to loud, pure, unrestrained rock and roll, check out the clip below, and if you happen to be SXSW-bound, click here to scope out your many opportunities to take in some WM sounds while there.

White Mystery - People Power (Live) from Five Penn Films on Vimeo.

Show review: Korallreven, Young Magic at Schubas, 3/6

By Andrew Hertzberg

(photo credit: Shannon Aliza)

Sweden, you mysterious little country, you. The entire country has roughly the same population as Chicago’s metro area and roughly 17 times as much land. What do the musicians do with all that space? The obvious answer wouldn’t be to make blissed out Balearic pop tunes to listen to on a beach in the Pacific Islands, but artists like the Tough Alliance, jj and Air France have proven otherwise. Newest in the game is Korallreven (“coral reef” in Swedish), a fitting name given Marcus Joons’ place of inspiration was an extended trip Samoa a few years back. The other half of the duo is the Radio Dept.’s keymaestro Daniel Tjäder, and his brother Niklas helps on tour on drums and guitar.

The band has only been playing shows since December and their debut LP, An Album by Korallreven, was released last November. But they’ve been dropping mixtapes and singles for a while now and they seem to have reached American shores quicker than many of their aforementioned Swedish counterparts (some of whom, lamentably, won’t make it here at all). Opening up the set was "Sa Sa Samoa," a sample-filled, choral-fueled trance, that focused more on pre-recorded bits than the actual performance. I was feeling a little worried that the set might not live up to my unreasonably high hopes for an amazing show, and the small crowd didn’t help (the show was originally slated for Lincoln Hall, but moved to the smaller sister venue).

Go to There: March 6 - 12

By Andrew Hertzberg

Pillars and Tongues

Tuesday, March 6th Korallreven at Schubas (8PM, 18+, $14)
I’m a sucker for anything Swedish and beachy sounding. That's a drastic over-simplification of what the duo does, but with the status of Tough Alliance and Studio on the rocks, I’m looking forward to catching one of Korallreven’s lone US dates. Hoping to make the summer sound that much closer.

Wednesday, March 7th Pillars and Tongues at the Burlington (9 PM, 21+, $5)
There'll be some chanting, there'll be some ambient sounds, there'll definitely be repetition, and there'll probably be some parts where you're not quite sure what to make of it. That's Pillars and Tongues. Read a bit about what more to expect from Reagan's review last Fall.

Thursday, March 8th Bad Bad Meow at the Mutiny (9 PM, 21+, FREE)
For a band called Bad Bad Meow, for some reason I want to howl whenever I listen to them. At the Mutiny, it's only fueled by the mega-steins. Expect a rowdy evening, this'un. Read my review of 'Big Phat Pussycat' and listen to the album streaming for a preview.