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Over the past six months we have introduced you to many of Chicago and Columbia’s finest rock bands. After scouring the campus one more time, we found a whole other genre at Columbia featuring Chicago’s finest performers. The hip-hop scene in Chicago has always been huge, and for a young producer who moved to the city from St. Louis, it opened a new door to endless opportunities. In our latest installment of artist of the week, meet Orie.
You’ve been producing for about 8 years now, how did you first get into producing? What did your first songs sound like?
I actually started with rapping back in middle school. My mom used to always tell me that I should get into producing, cause that’s where the real money was at. I ignored her for a couple years, and after seeing my friends producing some of the tracks I originally wrote in my middle school rap/r&b group “Rising Image,” I became fascinated and started from there. My songs were always very lyrically driven, often called “conscious” rap, but from the perspective and vocabulary of a 13-year old.
Was the transition from the St. Louis music scene to the Chicago scene difficult? What are the major differences between artists you’ve met here and artists you worked with in St. Louis?
Very different. I love my city, but I’ve gained access to so much new music being in Chicago. I’ve never been exposed to House music before I came to Columbia for school. If you’re not making a dance/club record back home, it’s hard to get any attention from the radio. Chicago is similar in a lot of ways, but there are so many other outlets and ways to get exposure, such as clubs, events, and major Chicago blogs.
On the eve of Cursive’s 1-year anniversary for their latest release, Mama, I’m Swollen, Cursive swung through Chicago to play one of my favorite venues in the city, the Metro. Playing two sold-out shows with Alkaline Trio and the Dear and Departed, this is the first time we have seen Cursive in the windy city in over 6 months, and the first time we have seen them not in the headlining position of a tour. Before the show on Sunday I had a chance to catch up with bassist Matt Maginn, a man who majored in environmental science but was quickly whisked away into the life of a touring musician.
FYW: Two years ago I caught your performance at Subterranean where you guys previewed your newest album to the crowd before it was even entirely recorded. Is this something you try to do with every release?
MM: Anytime we can we try and do that- we did it with Mama quite a bit. We did it with Ugly Organ, but with Happy Hollow not as much. Ideally yes, but with every record we don’t have to. Mama was the most thorough we’ve ever [road-tested the album]. We were playing songs live that we’d never even recorded. That’s good and bad, because then there’s a few fans out there that heard it, or have a YouTube clip of it and they’re like “you guys are jerks, why didn’t you put that song on the record?”
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If it isn’t easy to tell by the majority of the content on this site, we are indie music fans. BUT, I am proud to say that none of the writers on this site limit themselves to one genre, even when it comes to stepping outside of our comfort zones to check out a show. Sometimes you surprise yourself and discover music you would never listen to twice online. This was the case with Los Angeles’s own People Under The Stairs when they headlined Chicago’s Subterranean rock club last week, entertaining a sold out crowd of music fans that love underground hip-hop.
© Sebastian Mlynarski
Every once in awhile a band lands a gig in a major motion picture and is quickly forgotten after the movie-goer leaves the theater. In 2008 the major motion picture adaption of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is centered around the film’s two main stars, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, searching for the band “Where’s Fluffy?” who just happens to be Brooklyn’s own Bishop Allen.
Bishop Allen began back in 2003 with Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, friends who met while attending Harvard University. Their name came from Bishop Allen Drive, the street where Rice and Rudder lived in Cambridge, MA while attending college. Rice and Rudder make up the core of Bishop Allen, but over the past seven years Rice and Rudder have been joined by various musicians to complete the Bishop Allen live lineup. Now, with three studio albums and 12 EPs under their belt, Bishop Allen’s live set could be endless. 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…
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…
© Rankin
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…
