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For those of you familiar with Mew from their recent release No More Stories… (Sony, 2009) and tour with NINs- check out their early beginnings, with my personal favorite: Frengers (Sony, 2003).
Danish quartet Mew tugs at the heartstrings and digs deep into the emotional pit of yearning for love with Frengers. Mew has crafted a beautifully fragile album, defined by vocalist Jonas Bjerre’s high falsetto crying out melancholy lyrics and held intact by triumphant instrumentation. The optimistic music contrasting with the somber lyrical themes evoke an ironic sense of loneliness and fulfillment in their songs.
photo courtesy of Beartrap PR
I’ll be honest I think this recent trend of pop punk/hardcore crossover music that has taken over in the past year or so is pretty terrible. I mean I loved New Found Glory as much as the next guy, but for every rare, good band within the genre like Fireworks or Set Your Goals, there are a thousand crappy bands whose creativity is highlighted by the fact their names are simply Saves The Day song titles. So, it is refreshing to get a band like The Wonder Years every now and then that breaks the mold a bit in a genre that is so water-downed by the lowest common denominators.
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?”
Portland-based band Portugal. The Man came through Chicago this weekend, rendering me speechless Friday night at their sold out Lincoln Hall show. In a stunning and seemingly effortless performance, the foursome delivered a taste of their 70’s soul, funk, and blues-inspired sound.
Photo: © Lauren Cohen
Monochromatically lit in alternating colors, Portugal. The Man warmed up the crowd with a long instrumental as smoke machines pumped enough fog that the stage took on a mystical quality from my vantage point in the balcony. When bassist Zachary Scott Carothers was spontaneously lit with red, blue and green polka dots and singer John Baldwin Gourley began crooning in unison with the enthusiastic audience I knew I was in for a spectacular night. Read more…
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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.
A little bit indie rock, a touch of folk, and based heavily on electro-pop, Hexes & Ohs bring us a handful of songs that would be right at home playing over the sound system at a bar in Wicker Park as the fake ID-toting clientele puts away PBR after PBR.
The band represents what music is all about at its core: sharing; when you hear a great band you share it with a friend, when you go to a show you share a special experience with the artists as well as the strangers around you. To that end, they recently released an album of collaborations called Share (remixes). The seven track album features remixes of their songs by four fellow Canadian bands and remixes by H&O of songs by three others.
The duo, made up of Heidi Donnelly and Edmund Lam, is making their mark this Winter in several countries. They have announced a feature on Canadian clothing chain Le Garage’s Spring 2010 campaign; their sophomore album Bedroom Madness [produced by Bryon Wong (Crystal Method)] was released this month in U.S. stores and on iTunes (it was released in Canada in 2008); and they headed out for a Spanish tour this month, from which they will return at the end of March.
Bottom line: synth beats and pop melodies coupled with the duality of both male and female vocals make Hexes & Ohs casually enjoyable.
I remember Dan Henig and his music from its earliest incarnations in high school, 42nd Parallel. We both hail from Ann Arbor, MI and it was a wonderful surprise to reconnect with him here in Chicago a couple of weeks ago when I found out he transferred colleges. He has always had a knack for writing catchy and addicting music, but his solo work has evolved and matured beyond being just a fun band to go see on the weekends. He’s become an artist to pay attention to, someone who isn’t just playing for his friend’s entertainment in the basement. He’s playing for himself, means it, and he is going places. Check out the interview and music below.
Enjoy.
Allison Correll
© 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…
