1998 was a pretty good year for me. I was 9 years old; I mastered long division; and I discovered rap. Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A” played in my boom box every day for months, and I rapped along with all I had in me. When Eminem blew up the charts with “My Name Is” three years later I battled it out with the boys on the playground and I out-rapped them every time. It is a secret dream of mine to be a professional rapper, but unless it’s karaoke night you won’t see me on stage any time soon. Instead I’m going to live vicariously through Amanda Blank.
You might not look at her and think now there’s a rapper but you’d be dead wrong. Not only does she flow expertly, Blank creates songs that make you move fast and hard, and she brings it live. I was fortunate to catch her in June performing to a full room of excited young hipsters eagerly tearing up the dance floor as she ambushed us with an onslaught of musical shock waves. Read more…
Chicago is a mecca for emerging artists, especially if you are a solo artist looking to perfect that live back-up band. For John Farrell, it was easy to find close friends to support him during his live show. His backup band came from a previous collaboration that dispersed from the lack of time each member could commit. Instead, John decided to write and record a new round of songs, brought in a killer manager to handle all that paperwork, and gave his former band the chance to play live together once again.
Enjoy this week’s edition of Band of the Week.
How did the John Farrell band come about and how did the collaboration with the musicians in the back-up band come about? I basically asked these guys (Dave, Kyle, Greg,) to help me play my songs live because we all didn’t have enough time to keep our former band ( Voodoo Youth) together. I figured at least this way we could keep playing together. The problem was that between song writing, practicing, booking shows, and everything else that encompasses being in a serious band, we couldn’t get off the ground. With Dave and I being in school, and Kyle and Greg having full-time jobs among other personal commitments made the idea of a band seem unrealistic. So I figured if I wrote the songs myself, recorded the songs myself (Kyle of course playing the drums), and brought Andrew Coate into the mix for booking and other managerial duties, then maybe this could work. I later added Rico Vigil ( You, Me, and Everyone We know) who is a long time friend, because he happened to be in town for the winter and brings so much energy and experience to a live performance. I have known all of these guys for years, and truly appreciate there willingness to partake in my insanity. In a nutshell, band is basically me and my closest musician friends getting together and playing my songs together.
For those of you looking to break into the music business, the best advice I can give you is to intern, intern, intern. Yes, you are working for free. Yes, they may take advantage of you, force you to work long hours, and not even buy you coffee, BUT every once in awhile you find an internship with perks. My last internship was at a PR company – the perk… a Starbucks machine. All the free hot chocolate I could ever drink in a day. My latest internship, one of my all-time favorite venues in the city of Chicago, Schubas. The perk? Lots of live music!
One of the bands that is playing the aforementioned venue this week is Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (SSLYBY). This band came highly recommended at last year’s CMJ Music Marathon, but unfortunately I was not lucky enough to catch a performance. I won’t make that same mistake this time around. Now with three studio albums under their belt, SSLYBY has captured my ears and made a new fan.
Although their Myspace gives you the ultimate discography of SSLYBY throughout the years, they are also nice enough to allow fans to stream all their albums for free online. On their latest 2008 release, Pershing, “Glue Girls” and “Modern Mystery,” have become two of my personal favorite tracks. Read more…
Late in the evening last week I ventured out into Humbolt Park to the practice space of the The Wanton Looks. They were all sitting around drinking PBR, except for Inga, who was a bit sick and was keeping her party face up with her bottle of throat spray. We sat and bullshitted for a little more than an hour, and I got to hear them practice some of their songs. It was quite clear why Greg Kot listed them as one of Chicago’s best indie bands of 2009. Our conversation drifted from getting kicked out of clubs, disgusting bathrooms, playing music and sex, drugs and rock & roll. Below is a PG version of it. Check it out and then check them out live at Lincoln Hall January 28 @ 9 PM.
Not too long ago I had never even heard of Scranton, PA, and now it is the home of two of my favorite things, The Office and The Menzingers. Tucked away in the northeastern part of the Keystone State, Scranton seems to be producing more than just coal these days, as yet another great thing has emerged from the hub of Lackawanna County, Tigers Jaw.
I guess I’m a little behind the Tigers Jaw bandwagon, as the internet hype-machine has been building the young five-piece up since since their ’08 self-titled full length and last year’s Spirit Desire 7,” Tigers Jaw has been drawing high praise amongst the DIY punk scene for their ’90s alt-rock meets early emo sound. Labeled as “a poppier Archers Of Loaf or a more punk version of Pavement… except with keyboards and a blatant disregard for apostrophes” (yeah, it’s Tigers, not Tiger’s), I can’t help but also hear some definite Pinkerton-era Weezer influences as well as some glimpses of Saves the Day.
The past decade has really changed the once-rugged road to celebrity. Thanks to reality television, American Idol, and the Internet, anyone can blow up overnight. YouTube has played a particularly significant role in creating overnight celebrities, lowering the bar for what qualifies as quality entertainment. Just search David After Dentist or Panda Sneeze and you’ll begin to wonder why your latest home video isn’t getting 3,000 hits a week. Once in a while, though, you get the talented hard-working musicians make good type of story, and that’s just what happened with Chicago locals The Fold.
After posting a music video parody of Miley Cyrus’s “Party In the USA”, The Fold started getting a little more attention than usual. The parody, called “Every Band In the USA,” picks on today’s over-saturated pop-punk scene and its leading ladies and gents, including clothing company Glamour Kills and young rockers All Time Low. Read more…
As we venture further into January, it is time to welcome back our weekly edition of “Band of the Week.” 2009 introduced us to acts from all over the world with one thing in common – each of them now calls Chicago home. Brother and sister duo The Arrowsics’story may be similar to interviews we have conducted in the past, but lead singer and composer Trevor Geiger gives us a glimpse into his musical background and the beautiful coastal town they are named after, Arrowsic, Maine.
The Arrowsics is comprised of you and your sister, have you always played music together or is this a new project? Back when I started playing in bands everyone always said that Molly should sing for my group and I was always annoyed. My little sister….in my band? But about three years ago when my long-time band DPOM broke up, I realized that she has a great voice, and that any annoyance from years ago was gone. We’re really great friends and our voices are really similar, so it actually made a lot of sense.
We’ve done a bunch of stuff where she sings lead, but for this latest project she’s been really nice and done support vocals for me on my solo work. I love having a female voice for the high harmonies and even though Molly’s more used to singing lead, she does a great job.
What was the influence behind moving to Chicago from your hometown of Arrowsic, ME? I dropped out of college in 2003 to move to Atlanta with my old band. After a few years down there we had all decided to move to Portland, Oregon where we thought we’d fit in better. We packed up all of our gear and began the cross-country drive. But we only made it as far as Chicago. After spending a few days in the city we had decided to stay. A reunion with our old guitarist (studying at the University of Chicago) convinced us that this was a pretty cool town. Read more…
What do you get when you cross the controversial Black Lips with the outlandish King Khan & the BBQ Show? A musical stew that can only be described as a “postmodern gospel rock supergroup” as directly stated on The Almighty Defenders Wikipedia page. The supergroup now known as The Almighty Defenders was born back in early 2009, when the Black Lips escaped from India after causing an uproar at a public performance when band members Cole Alexander and Ian St. Pe kissed in front of a raucous crowd. Afterwards, in addition to kissing a band member, news reports stated Alexander exposed his “private parts” to the crowd, instantly forcing the band to flee India in fear of being arrested. The Black Lips laid low after that incident, finding refuge in Berlin at the home of Canadian musician King Khan.
Over the next week of reclusiveness, King Khan, his fellow bandmate Mark Sultan, and the Black Lips recorded an album that would later be released on Vice Records as their self-titled The Almighty Defenders. Read more…
One of my favorite things to do in the morning (besides drinking coffee) involves turning on my laptop and reading the latest music updates in the interwebs. From the latest music blogs, tweets, and videos, I love engrossing myself in the always-changing entertainment industry. One of my favorite sites to check out is called the Daily Swarm. The Daily Swarm is not an original blog, nor a site that entertains you with their favorite artists and why they like them ( like your favorite site, Familiarize Yourself), but it IS a summary of the best music blogs found on the Internet.
The latest article to catch my attention was from Pollstar, and the headline read Women to take over the entertainment world in 2010.Instantly intrigued by the title, and since the latest releases from Kesha or Gaga were hopefully left to die in 2009, I wanted to see which artists they expected to top the new decade.
The British are coming! The British are coming! With honorable mentions to Ellie Goulding, the song that has been stuck in my head for the past 48 hours belongs to the newest Welsh sensation, 24-year-old Marina Diamondis. Stage named ‘Marina & The Diamonds,’ Marina’s last name, Diamondis simply translates from Greek to “Diamonds.” Instead of taking her legal name, Diamondis insists that her stage name refers to her fans. As her myspace page states, “I am Marina. You are the Diamonds.” Read more…
The first time I heard about Jay Reatard I had no real interest in listening to him. The cover of “Blood Visions” reminded me of I Get Wet by Andrew W.K., which always struck me as rather disgusting. Stupidly, I assumed the music would be similar too. Since I couldn’t stand Andrew W.K.’s music, I figured I would be as equally interested in Jay Reatard’s music as I would be watching a cucumber rot, so I lumped him into the “don’t listen to pile,” and life went on…
Then I heardJay Reatard and realized my original assumption couldn’t have been more wrong. His music was far from sounding like Andrew W.K.’s, and I was appalled that I allowed myself to make such a generalization based on a slightly similar album cover. He was nothing what I expected him to sound like. As I braced myself for amateur rock music for bros that love beer pong and scoring with women too drunk to realize what was happening, I was instead blasted with raw, unapologetic punk music that sounded perfect for kicking the shit of one of the said frat boys.
His music is absolutely infectious and I can’t seem to get enough of it. Yet again, I’m going to be forced to be satisfied with what I have because on January 13 around 3:30 am, Jay Reatard was found dead in his Memphis home at the mere age of 29. He has released over 20 records since the age of 15 when he started in his first garage punk band The Reatards. However, he had only recently launched his solo career, which really began to take off in 2009 with the release of Watch Me Fall on Matador Records. Read more…
