Daytrotter has a live session with The M’s up on their site that you can download for free. I had never given these guys a listen before and while I’m not completely sold on all their material, the song “Future Women” is a great one. You can download it for free here along with two other tracks from the sessions.
The Veils played their very first performance in Chicago on Sunday night at the Empty Bottle. Hailing from England by way of New Zealand, The Veils are built around front man Finn Andrews – matter of fact the remaining lineup of The Veils has been entirely revamped since their debut album Runaway Found was released in 2004. Their sound and Finn’s voice are reminiscent of the late Jeff Buckley, and perhaps also of Thom Yorke and Radiohead.
I have yet to find their latest album Nux Vomica [2006] and thus, was fairly unfamiliar with the material played at the show but I enjoyed the performance all the same. They did play ‘The Wild Son’ from Runaway Found towards the end of the show and an eloquent cover of the Bruce Springsteen song ‘State Trooper’.
Finn has a distinct and protean voice, able to morph it’s characteristics relative to the style of the song. Unfortunately, the Empty Bottle is the not the most tender of venues and the coloring of Finn’s vocals were difficult to find compared to what appears on record. I would put this down as a fault of the Empty Bottle and not Finn himself though, for he did get the crowd to quiet down for one number and his singing powers really showed.
Went to Ribfest on Saturday to check out the Deadstring Brothers. My parents came into town so I brought them along, unfortunately they decided to sneak off to a quiet bar with my cousins rather than check out the performance. My dad asked me prior to show what kind of music they play and I responded with something to the effect of “old school rock ‘n roll with a slight country twinge circa early 70’s Stones.” To which he said, “I think we’re gonna go to a bar down the street.” I think – aside from not falling under the category of a Stones fan – the performances were too loud for his taste.
The show was another solid outing the for the Brothers, playing a similar setlist to the one from Schuba’s back at the end of April. They once again pulled out Dylan’s “From a Buick 6″ and kicked off the show with The Band’s “Get Up Jake”. They played a number of songs from their two albums including “27 hours”, “Blindfolded”, “I’m Not a Stealer”, and a rollicking version of “Sacred Heart” to close the show. If you have any interest in seeing the Deadstring Brothers this summer they’re playing here in Chicago Friday 6/22 at The Beat Kitchen with Jason Isbell from the Drive By Truckers. I would probably be there myself if it wasn’t Bisenius’ damn wedding in LA.
After the show I met up the rest of fam at Cy’s just off the street fest. Believe it or not my parents were out until 1am, which was fairly astonishing to me seeing as they usually go to bed around 10pm.
You can tell my mom was working the camera for this photo.
I went on a field trip with the Urban Initiatives kids to the L.E.A.R.N. charter school in Lawndale, where they played soccer with the kids from that UI program. We all had a blast. The highlight of the day had to be when Andre pointed at my arm and asked: ‘Is that all the muscle you got?’
Moshanay in goal.
Clockwise from the bottom: Kortese, D’Ellis, Jaylen, Andre, Terrance and Isaiah.
Jasmina
The National came to Chicago on Thursday night to perform before a sold out audience at The Metro. I’ve seen The National before and I have to admit that this performance was ‘underwhelming’. Most of the material of the night came from their new album Boxer which I haven’t completely bought into and doubt I’ll ever view it with the same reverence as I do Alligator, their previous release.
The setlist went something like this (although I know I’m missing a song or two):
Encore:
I dig The National for among other reasons their ability to successfully vary the structure of their material. They have soft songs, melodic songs and even a few “yellers” all on an album (another band I would put in this category would be Modest Mouse). Unfortunately Boxer didn’t quite live up to this standard and contains mostly soft songs – pretty ones mind you – I love “Fake Empire”, “Start a War”, “Green Gloves” and “Apartment Story” – but similar in tempo and structure.
Had this performance been at the Old Town School or Lakeshore Theater I would’ve been all about it, but The Metro lacks a certain intimacy. A venue like the Old Town School affords the audience an ability to hear all the nuances of the material, but alas The Metro noticeably lacks this feature. Oh well, it’ll never be my favorite venue in Chicago.
Spoon is streaming a new song from their upcoming album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga every day until all of the songs are up and playable individually. I’ve given a listen to the first 2 songs and I gotta say I’m excited for the official release July 10th. Click here to check out the site.
One great part about working from home is it affords me the opportunity to listen to all kinds new music. I used to listen to most of my music while driving, but since moving to Chicago I rarely use my car (matter of fact I’ve driven less than a thousand miles in the last 9 months… I know this because the sticker from the oil change place says so). I discovered Loney, Dear on a sampler CD I received with my purchase of the Elliott Smith disc New Moon. Most sampler discs are discarded without a listen but since I’ve been working on my computer from home for hours on end I find time to listen to just about everything I come across, and the Loney, Dear song ‘I am John’ blew me away.
I picked up the Loney, Dear album Loney, Noir [2005] from Subpop shortly thereafter and loved it from start-to-finish. Loney, Dear hails from Jonkoping, Sweden and if I had to draw a comparison it would perhaps be Belle & Sebastian or The Magnetic Fields – a combination of pop, indie and folk influences constructed around the stunning voice of Emil Svanängen.
Emil Svanängen and Loney, Dear came to the Lakeshore Theater on Friday night, where local Chicago band Magical, Beautiful opened. Magical, Beautiful’s performance had it’s moments… one such moment being the number where Tyson Thurston performed while a young woman tap danced the percussion part in a sailor’s outfit (not to mention on a platform with the title ‘Miss Rene’ on it). If nothing else it was entertaining.
The Loney, Dear performance was fantastic. They opened with a few new numbers that have yet to be released – one of which Emil introduced by stating the ‘price of ticket was worth it for just this one song’ and I must say I agreed wholeheartedly. After the few new numbers they played much of the material from Loney, Noir and I was pleasantly surprised how great they sounded live. The album contains a number of overdubs, harmonies and falsetto vocals that would seem difficult to produce live on stage but they pulled it off without a hitch.
Magical, Beautiful
Loney, Dear
Loney, Dear