I am a wizard, writer and dj.
One part of Radio Dysentary.
I consume music.
This is my shit. Sometimes it's mean. Often it's trite.
WLUW tuesdays 2-4AM WZRD intermittently the # sign on a playlist connotes a new release !s stand for extreme levels of awesomenity a * is a request
Saturday, March 31, 2007
There was a good article in the last issue of Lumpen, where Chicagoan-abroad Party Steve wrote about scene dynamics in the last five or six cities he's been through: Portland was too political for a lot of genre crossbreeding, New Orleans was too punk rock and not enough avant garde, and New York and Austin were both a bit choked on their own hype. Chicago's dilemma has been clear to me for a while, as it's been two years in the making. The weirdos are all becoming club kids.
The way he describes this, is that it's a defense mechanism, a natural reaction to what's been happening in the underground. Back in 2005, maybe a dozen spots shut down. With a smaller pool of spaces, musicians and party people alike have had to acquiesce to going to licensed bars and nightclubs to play their music and get their dance on.
And you thought that pop punk was for pansies. Apparently, Tony Lovato... frontman for one-hit wonders Mest, and back-in-the-day drummer for the Blue Island white power band Confederate Storm, was arrested for the murder of this guy. Thing is, he didn't kill him like a popper, he stabbed the dude, which is pretty hard (meaning both difficult and -core). Obviously, this sucks the most for the victim, Wayne Hughes, who gets kind of lost behind fans of punk music, who are laughing their asses off about the whole thing, and fans of Mest, who are handling this with obvious poise and class.
Apparently, Tony is out on a million-dollar bail. In my opinion, he's missing a great opportunity by not staying in prison, where he could become some sort of epic emo Tupac that blows everyone's mind. Perhaps Tony should seek the counsel of Bertrand Cantat, singer for the French dancepunk act Noir Desir who is still quite beloved, despite beating his girlfriend to death in 2003.
Update! Lovato was cleared of charges, won't become some sort of soulful jailhouse Tom Waits emo Tupac God, and will still have to live with the legacy of singing that crap-ass song "What's the Dillio?"
obelisk Things I missed to be there: Mala Sangre, Tras de Nada, Securicor, Sofakingdom, and Sic Semper Tyrannis at La Casa Maldita
Date: 3/25/07 Location: La Casa Maldita Bands: Bruise Violet, Sin Orden, Condenada, S.S.EX, and Sangre De Abajo Cost: $5 Things I missed to be there: ? and the Mysterians at the Empty Bottle; Weekend Nachos and some SxE bands at some joint on Belmont; LMNOP and Super Meego at the Country Club; Scalpels at Ronny's; Resonate2.0 with Schizowave, Environmental Encroachment, SPUNN and all sorts of rave shit Reason for going: I never got a ride to a punk show from my Dad before; today he made up for that missed high school experience
I wonder if there's a name for that part of a song, particularly a punk song, before it gets all fast and you don't know where it's gonna go. It's not an intro so much as a teaser. Back in the day, my favorite band for this was The Mascots. They would play these intricate teasers that bordered on jazz, before devolving into incomprehensible shrieking hardcore. Then they would trade instruments- the bassist and guitarist would switch, then the drummer and the singer- and do it all over.
Condenada is getting good at this. They always had some slow songs (they fall closer to punk than hardcore on that limited spectrum that separates one loud screamy band from another), but their teasers are sounding as much like complete movements as the thrashfests that follow. While some of their songs reminded me of Mary Tyler Morphine (another old favorite, melodic but loud, recently reunited but with no worthwhile web presence), some of their teasers reminded me of pogo, postpunk, and hard rock from the 70s, Deep Purple kinda shit, Mott the Hoople kinda shit. Plus they soundchecked with Inxs. I've said it a number of times on this blog before... Chicago's punks are getting good.
Tonight's show was all about the ladies. I'm not saying this because of the bands, sure the girls outnumbered the boys three to two, I'm saying it because of the crowd. Just before Condenada started the last set of the night, a friend of mine, a tiny girl with a big voice yelled into the back yard that the band was starting, and started a stampede. Girls were skipping the stairs and literally jumping down to the basement; from the front of the room, it looked as if the crowd was segregated by height, as girls, women, and womyn all crowded the pit, leaving the men and the boys pulling up the rear, and the groups only totally intermeshed when the music got really fast and they started slamming into each other.
Sin Orden played hard as always, but I missed a good portion of the set because Martha, the little girl with the big voice, was discussing an article in a paper I write for that she felt was racist. I didn't get there in time to see the two new bands, Sangre de Abajo and S.S.EX, but I did catch Bruise Violet, who came to town to join Condenada on a tour of the Midwest. Named after a Babes in Toyland song, they're another group on the political tip, but unlike most bands, I can actually understand what they are saying (at least in their recordings, live tonight their vocals were as fuzzy as their guitars). They were really good. Someone was bitching about them being too LA-style. I don't know if that's true, they sounded fairly Chicago, but not like anything that's being made here right now. I figure that to be a good thing.
Next on the Agenda: Sunday jam at the Orphanage (finally?)
Date: 3/23/07 Location: Cal's Bands: Sharkula, The Strange Attractor, Daily Void, and Red Denizen Cost: 5 bones Things I missed to be there: Lord of the Yum Yum at Lincoln Restaurant; Joe Raglani, Silvum, Glass Bath, and Eavil at Nihilist; Waterbabies and Loto Ball Show at Reversible Eye; I-Attack and Macabre at the Double Door; Alex White and the Dials at Hideout; Ellen Alien at Smartbar; Bitch & the Exciting Conclusion at Old Town School of Folk Music; San Agustin and the Riggs/Sternhagen/McCormack Trio at Enemy; Bjork night at Berin Things I went to also but aren't worth writing about: Brilliante Records showcase/art show at The Country Club, lam-ass white kid warehouse dance party at 1648 Kinzie Reason for going: Cheap, never seen Sharkula play an actual show.
It's always great when weirdos join forces. The weirdos in question tonight are Ken the Soul Rebel and Sharkula (also known as Thigamahjiggee, Cumberjack, Mr Diffy, and Dirty Gilligan). Ken is an old skinhead/rockabilly cat who hosts a couple of radio shows on WLUW and WNUR. Fans of Chic-A Go-Go may recognize him as someone who has appeared on almost every episode, picking up quarters, pogoing, and doing steel-toed Russian kicks on the dance floor. None of that is really weird, just general background info. The weird part comes out when he starts talking, or even more when he starts writing. He's just incredibly verbose, perhaps the only person alive who can't make a show flyer in under 100 words. He nails his subjects, in his own spazzy way, and I'm going to let him explain the bands, starting with Sharkula.
SHARKULA (The most surreal and punkish DIY rapper around Chicago joins forces with us. The only rapper to dare rap onstage before Disrobe, The Coughs, and Pelican that lived to tell!!! As seen on Chic-A-Go-Go and on the streets selling his tapes and CDs!!! A brother who does his own thing avoiding bandwagons and police wagons!!! Also known as Thigamijig and Denzel Washington. Buy a CD from him so he can get CTA fare.)
Sharkula has been around since before I can even remember being aware of what was around me. I started to see him around Belmont a decade ago, selling tapes by the CTA. I would later learn that it was one of many spots he would frequent daily, until he had a good third of the city under his jurisdiction. It took me maybe six years to buy a cassette, which was almost surely the last new cassette I ever bought. The tape was hilarious, just him walking down Milwaukee Avenue rapping into a tape recorder. At one point, he stops to try and holler at this girl. It's one of the hardest and most rewarding tapes I have to listen all the way through.
A couple years ago, Miles Tillman an up-and-coming glitch IDM producer picked up one of Thig's tapes and decided to remix it. He ended up going through Thig's back catalog (a collection of home recordings only rivaled in this city by Wesley Willis and Mark Soltroff) and put out a best of. It got a fair amount of press and all of a sudden, this dude who'd been trying to push tapes on the street for fifteen years was a bit of a celebrity. I remember an event at the Jerkstore where he was dancin' and acting a fool and had this huge posse of hot chicks and white kids standing all around rooting for him. That year he put out one of the best-titled cds in the history of hiphpop: Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Whopper with Cheese. Still, he only plays a scant few shows a year so I was excited to hear him play with The Strange Attractor backing him up.
THE STRANGE ATTRACTOR (We're last but we will make sure that we will contribute to the magickal symbolism of 23 in our high energy mix of punk/soul/glam/jazz/metal/Latin/surf/Middle Eastern/etc. sounds with revolutionary theory and humor. We are also the live backing for this cat...)
On Tape, Thig mixes a lot of stream of conscious rhymes with pop culture references. When I say stream-of-conscious, I don't mean the well edited free association that often gets branded with the term. I mean that he's been freestyling into a tape recorder for an hour straight and some weird shit comes out. Tonight though, I think he was a bit too trashed for his own good. He pumped his fist and shook like a seasoned rock star but the lyrics were garbled and confused, so that often, all you could make out was a growled "SHARKULA!" The band was good, but it wasn't dancy, it was the kind of shit you hear when people who know how to play their instruments have someone come up and freestyle, where they play it safe so that it works but doesn't really do anything.
RED DENIZEN (The Plastic M.O.T.O. Band / 2/3 of The Plastic Bullets and Lawrence from M.O.T.O. go second)
Red Denizen was fun, in my opinion better than the sum of their parts (or at least the bands that they derive from). I could say the same thing about the Daily Void. They were both fun, singalong punk bands that weren't in any way soft. Comparisons could be drawn to The Misfits and Iggy. All either one needed was a little more dynamism from their singers, but let's let Ken say it, because he does it with more enthusiasm.
THE DAILY VOID (Most of The Functional Blackouts and The Worst formed a SUPERGROUP of misanthropes and sociopaths. See them now before hey become the new California Rasins. Chris told me they sound similar to G.G. Allin and the Scumfucs. An inspired case of Devolution after taking a holiday in Butthole Surfers territory from their last FOB album.)
[Let's see one of the many cool Sharkula videos you can find on YouTube. i chose this one because it was shot in 16mm, and I like it like that]
Once again I dig into the old WZRD cassette vault. Many of these recordings represent the experimental tape trading scene of the 1980s. The rest represents self-released tapes, demos, and the material of a number of local punk and underground bands who never recorded on any other medium.
1. End Result - "Unreleased Stuff" - Side A Devil Dog Love Canal She Devils B-Bro Cinderella's Prescription
(old Chicago experimental punk, read a little about them here)
2. Zendik Farm Band - "The Loser" - Side A Anthem Acid
(appparently the hippie-punk kids who bug you at outdoor shows with their "Stop bitching, Start A Revolution" stickers hada pretty decent noise outfit going for a while.)
3. Tribe - "Drift" - Side B Hipster Saint Drift Baloramas
4. Quaker Youth - "Quaker Youth Ensemble" Love Junky
5. La Loca - "You Should Only Give Head to Guys You Really Like & Dragon Man" Why I Only Choose Black Men For My Lovers
(awesome sex poetry from California, with fun effects tweaking)
6. Eh3 - "Eh?85" - Side B Human Evolution/ You Are Terrific! Rasta Duckwalk Rasta Quickstep Quanta High Velocity Sea Hunt Reprise
(early 80s electronic tape trader shit. maybe my favorite stuff of the show)
7. Insect Deli - Unlabeled cassette
(actualy it was kinda labeled... the name Insect Deli was scratched into the side, but that's it. This is probably a No Sides Records release)
8. "What Is Truth? Vol. 3" Proof of Utah - ??? Scott Marshall - ??? Illusion of Safety - ??? Legendary Pink Dots - ??? Sebastian Gandera - ???
9. A/Noyz - "Tale of theBroken Mirror" Death March Hail Mary
10. "Home-Made Music Volume 2" - Side A Psyclones - Ashtrays Dead Heat - Passage to Moscow Der Akteur - Excerpt from Crystal F/I - Fetish Masakai - Beyond the Edge Architects Office - Bunjiji Pertabation Deficit Des Annees Anterieures - LaDerniere Saison Gai Saber - The Killer Song Viscera - IDBM The Starkman - Loopy Loo Polar Praxis - Promenade (Part IV) Neo Zelanda - No Digas Nada Bunny & Breaker - Either Way...? Nun - Orgonica
[Let's watch an old End Result performance while we're at it!]
Date: 3/22/07 Location: Spot 6 Bands: Rick Garret, DJ Madelin, and DJ Lord Tyger Cost: Free Things i missed to be there: Flosstradamus and Matt Roan at Subterranean Reason for going: I was in a meeting til late, so Subterranean was five dollars instead of free, I wasn't sure if I missed Flosstradamus, and I was offered a ride.
God bless a show where one DJ will play James Brown and the Coasters and another will play Wagner.
Next up on the books: Thursday...watching the Office, than heading out to the open mic at Quennect 4 or the show at Gojangles, maybe Sin Radio at Cananas
Date: 3/19/07 Location: Wise Fools Pub Band: The Sixth Sun Cost: $5 Things I missed to be there: Chances Dances at Subterranean; Brenmar Someday and Rotten Milk at Myopic Books; LMNOP and Charlie Deets at Empty Bottle; Steve Albini talking about the music industry at the Claudia Cassidy Theatre Reason for going: Blood:Water
It's hard to write about bands that you're friends with, because whether you like them or not, you feel like you need to quantify what you say. There's probably no band I'm closer to than The Sixth Sun. I went to high school with four of the six band members, and stayed in contact with all of them since. The first time I dropped acid was with their guitarist, the first time I ate shrooms was with their electronics manipulator, and the first time I smoked pot was with their VJ. I've stayed with their drummer twice in New Orleans and had sex in his parents bed.
I've seen the band form and change over the years, into something coherent, which is kinda weird, because they're coherent and not at all bad, but still not my cup of tea in any way.
Most bands just get together and start to play shows, but The Sixth Sun have been on a slooow, slow burn. The band started out maybe five years ago. Brian and Charles were both jamming with this annoying kid Scott, who was kind of a stuck up guitar ace. Brian was trying to do something that sounded like Nine Inch Nails and Charles was trying to do something that sounded like Tool. Scott was trying to do something that sounded like Scott and eventually became too much for either one of them. I'm not sure if they ditched him before or after they hooked up, but once he was gone, they were ready to start putting their own songs together. Originally they were an electroindustrial group with heavy acidhead influences: Indian music, house music, Alex Grey paintings, Aldous Huxley, Bill Hicks, and Hunter S. Thompson.
They were calling themselves the Avatars, and creating a real dubby, electro sound, but they really wanted a girl on vocals to anchor down the songs. They went through a string of them before finding Tiffany, a bubbly little thing with a big voice, a nice look, and her own songs.
If they ever make it, it'll be because of her. Together, they'd been a good jam band, but no one really had a dynamic enough personality to command a stage. Her songs are basically relationship pop, but she brings a pretty solid set of references with her, nothing too out there but good shit nonetheless: Bjork, nine inch nails, PJ Harvey, and Portishead.
With their dark side (essence?) and her light side, they end up sounding like a Bonnaroo-ready Evanescence, with shades of Stabbing Westward and Morcheeba replacing Amy Lee's Tori Amos fixation.
So when I saw them on Monday, I made allowances for them that I wouldn't have for bands I'd known less about. They sounded demo tape ready, but not album ready, they were kinda boring but it was only their third time playing in front of a real audience. My favorite moment of the night came between songs, when Tiffany started to sing a song from the Little Mermaid (the one with the ,whoozits and whatsits galore). There was an amazing sense of honesty to that, Tiffany was a happy person, and she wasn't going to play up the scorned sexpot image when she didn't need it. It was pretty obvious that given the right break, the band could make it, but it was little moments like that when the band showed that, maybe with some more time in front of an audience, they might turn into something I can enjoy as well.
Next up on the agenda: Tuesday seems very promising with Noise shows at Red-i, the Mutiny, Nihilist, and Elastic
Nina Simone - Speak Low (Bent Remix) Gladys Knight & the Pips - I Heard It Through the Grapevine Essence - Fever
Charles Crawford - Fat and Funky Curtis Mayfield - Junkie Chase Chocolate Milk - Pretty Pimpin Willie
Soul Children - I'll Be The Other Woman Mandrill - I'll Never Smile The Clovers - Love Potion #9
The Cookies - Chains The Penguins - Hey Senorita The Pharohs - Teenagers Love Song
Fabulous Originals - It Ain't Fair But It's Fun James Brown - Just Won't Do Right The Five Stairsteps - Danger! She's a Stranger Otis Redding - Scratch My Back
Dr. King Cobra - Anedo Special Bobby Treetop - Wait Til I Get to Know You Chosen Few Band - What It Takes To Live
Eddie Bo - The Thang Julie Driscoll - Indian Rope Man The Fugees - The Score
Idris Muhammed - Loran's Dance
Ken Boothe - Is it Because I'm Black? Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign Johnny Nash - Love Ain't Nothin (But A Monkey On Your Back) Gene Chandler - Lovequake
Antibalas - I.C.E.
[Here's video of Antibalas playing last week at SXSW]
Date: 3/18/07 Location: The Whale Show: Lamprey St. Patti's Alternative Artists Parade with Environmental Encroachment and friends Cost: Free Things I missed to be there: Adhamh Roland at the Lowercase Collective; Jam at the Orphanage Reason for going: Better than all other options, known or unknown
The first time I went to The Whale was the Summer before I started started college. I was seventeen years old, in the midst of a three year relationship that I thought would last forever. I was full of self-esteem and open to anything. When someone called me up and told me to go to the Lamprey Pig Roast, it was probably the furthest South I'd ever been to for a party that wasn't at someone's parents house (at the not-very-South location of Halsted and Canalport). I don't remember much of the details of that evening except that it was one of those magical, inspiring nights that the summer was full of. I'd missed out on the swine but the fire pit was in full effect, as was the beer and Devil in the Woodpile. I got my dance on and my laugh on and my drink on and wouldn't see the place until four or five years later when it participated in the Version fest that dubbed Bridgeport the community of the future with The Whale listed on their maps as The house of the Future.
I ditched the Typewriter/ Mathematicians show at Texas when the prick at the door wouldn't let my friends in and biked over to the Lamprey Compound. There was still a fire pit going, but the majority of the yard was taken over by a maze of tubing. Model Rocket Scientist were playing and they blew us away (but the album the dude gave us was kinda meh). That whole night, I had the same feeling I did that first time. I was thrilled that they were still operating out of that dope spot, even if I was a bit saddened by the fact that I'd been missing a half decade or so of cool shit.
Outside of the annual pigroast, one of the things I'd been missing out on was the St. Patrick's day parade. I'm not sure when the parade usually falls. St. Patrick's happened on a Saturday and the Lamprey parade happened a day later. It was your standard weirdo parade with overlapping crew diagrams of kids from The Rat patrol, Lumpen, T.H.O.N.G., Terry Plumming, WZRD and the extended Environmental Encroachment family rolling down 18th Street with freakbikes, costumes, drums and horns.
Back at the Lampreys everyone did their own thing. Johnny Payphone was passing around a hat and tasering people for charity. Drunken vegetarians fought over hunks of steak as soon as they came off the grill. rotten Milk passed out on a couch. People paired off and snuck off to parts unknown. Impromptu jam sessions were happening all over until everyone came together in a big mess around the fire.
I don't really think of Environmental Encroachment as a band, so much as a thing that happens at parties and spectacles. As such, I'm glad when it does. I saw them for the first time, that summer that I first went to The Whale, and had one of those magical experiences. Since then, I've probably seen them play more than any other group in this city, and I don't think I've ever been disappointed.
[I'm still kicking myself for missing St. Ratrick's Day 2006]
Date: St. Patrick's Day Location: Unnamed apartment on 25th/Homan Bands: Intifada, Sin Orden, Eske, Tras De Nada, Disrobe, Usless Wooden Toys, and Loaded First Things I missed to be there: Hentai Lacerator, Sister Sister, Expendable Youth, Pygmy Death, and Abrade at the Expendable Youth House; The Binges and The Black Ladies at Permanent Records; Zeropoint, Labycz/Sprikut Duo, and OUR080R05 at Enemy; The Beer Nuts at Double Door Things I didn't have to miss but did anyway: Busker and Dai5ychain's hackerfest at the Little Flower Shop Things I ditched the punk show for after the first few bands: An Argo Tea party and a Bluegrass St. Patty's day party in Logan, two dance parties in the Congress Theatre building that got busted by the cops Cost: 6 bucks plus the price of a forty Reason for going: I woke up on the Southside, ordered Chinese food, had sex and left from there
This was a good show at a place that was smaller than The Beauty Shop was. In fact, there were only two small rooms you could see or hear the show from, as well as a kitchen that was only good for smoking pot and a bedroom where they were selling keg beer. There isn't really anything I can say about this show that I couldn't say about any other punk show, so I'll just post some pictures once I upload them.
Date: 3/16/07 Location: Cobra Lounge Bands: Squared Off, The Wanderers, and Murphy's Law Things I missed to be there: Radio Arte Benefit with Pkdores, Cubicky, Crather, and Condenada; Question, Black September, Demonslaught, and Securicor at La Casa Maldita; Aleks & the Drummer, A Tundra, and the Pussy Pirates at the Empty Bottle Cost: Free Reason I went: My girlfriend was already backstage, I had to make sure I got there before she was seduced by skinheads
"I'd like you to meet our new drummer, that's right we got a new drummer. I swear by the time I'm 70, each and every one of youse will have a chanca ta play in Murphy's Law." - Jimmy, Murphy's Law
It's not very often I make it out to a big time punk show, at a place where the doorman gets paid with a band that brings out all the old heads. It maybe happens once or twice a year (the last three were Naked Raygun, the Subhumans, and MDC). It's nice, though, after months and months of DIY shows, where the bands talk politics between every song, to just go to a bar and see some old meathead hardcore that reminds you of high school.
I have this tremendous luck, where whenever I go see Murphy's Law, I've got a friend who gets me backstage. The last time was five years ago at The House of Blues, with Secret Agent Bill and The Tossers, and Jimmy's chihuahua running around all over the place. This time I got there late, just as Squared Off was finishing their set and long after my friends the Wanderers had left the stage. My girlfriend intercepted me at the door and whisked me up to the green room. It wasn't furnished by Disney money but it was still pretty dope, just a sparsely decorated apartment on the third floor with a fridge full of beer and a radio that only got the classic rock station. We listened to Thin Lizzy and drank Bud Dry with the Wanderers and their friends, who are a fun mix of Chicago zinesters, fat dudes from Indiana, and these immaculate rockabillians.
As I've said before, the Cobra Lounge is kind of weird. We were told we had to vacate before Murphy's Law set up so we all went downstairs, and the DJ was playing Murphy's Law! They were playing "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" (which was actually the song that Murphy's closed with). It was weird enough that they were playing a song by the band that was about to play, but even weirder when they cut the song early and played another track from Back With a Bong. It took a few moments, until Jimmy made an impromptu "Chicago" remark, that we realized that this was actually the band playing, piped in from the other room.
The band is still making new music but they've been touring forever and came out ready to give the fans what they want, which was basically, the shit they knew. They played "Care Bear", "Secret Agent S.K.I.N.", "Panty Raid", and "Cavity Creeps". They didn't have Fishbone to provide horns for "The Ska Song" like they did in the old days but they did have their new drummer wailing on a Jaeger bottle solo. On "The Beer Song" they brought out Herb from the Beer Nuts. The song still had a kick to it but, maybe because I spend so much time in the aforementioned overly political part of the scene, it was a bit shocking to hear the line "What are you, a bunch a fuckin queers?" I wonder if the Descendents would still play "I'm Not A Loser" if they were to tour again. I can't remember if they did when I saw them ten years ago (which is so long ago it doesn't even count)
The definition of Murphy's law (the theory) is anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. With this is mind, it's amazing how well the show went. There was only one fight, which didn't end in hospitalization; they never ran out of beer and Jaggermeister to give to greedy punks in the crowd; and for a 20-plus years old punk band, they were tight. Real tight, which is why we couldn't tell the difference between them playing live and a track from the cd.
You should go to Murphy's Law's website. It has animated .gifs!
Einsturzende Neubauten - Sensucht Peter Murphy - The Light Pours Out of Me The Pogues - London Girl
The Fall - Spolt Victorian Child The Virgin Prunes - Down the Memory Lane Black Flag - Slip it In/Gimme Gimme Gimme
Laibach - Panorama Psyclones - Gift of Noise!!! Cacophony - Angst in the Shadow of Conception Ominous Clam - Roomful of Stares
Tack Head - Now What Occupants - You Danced Into My Life Greaseballs - Last Wave
Book of Lies - Sleepily Coiled ! Zen Bovine - Going Down Tribe - Circles and Squares Sex Kittens - It's Been Like Hell Amorfati - Destruction of a Desiring Machine: For Blanche and Tennessee Williams
Occupants - Blue Onions of Justice Heavy Mental - One Dollar Bill Greaseballs - Igwanna Ominous Clam - Gonzo Boogie FTPLR - Anarchy A The Replacements - Here Comes A Regular
Metnong - Enough/ Rainbows Over the Vast Orbital Somewhere ! Tribe - Drift Sex Kittens - Still Night Preston Klik - Sapflo
[I love Einsterzende Neubauten! and I love Meret Becker! Win/Win! Exclamation Mark!]
Antibalas - Hilo Marie Boubarere - I'm Going Home Dorothy Ashby - Myself When I Was Young
Parliament - Chocolate Snow / A Day in the Life Dayton Sidewinders - Funky in Here All the People - Cramp Your Style
Lupe Fiasco feat. Jill Scott - Daydreamin' Salt - Hung Up American Gypsy - Inside Out
Rasputin's Stash - Mr. Cool Black Ivory - Surrender Spittin Image - JBs Latin
Bill Cosby - Funky North Philadelphia Jack Hammer - Wigglin' Fool Martha and the Vandellas - Heatwave
Bootsy Collins - Cool Jerk
Arvo set:
The Four Tops - Ask the lonely Quantic ft. Spanky Wilson - Don't Joke With a Hungry Man The Temptations - I've Got Sunshine Al Green - Take me to the River
Otis Redding - Satisfaction Irma Thomas - Time is on my side O'Jays - Backstabbers
Bobby Womack - Baby! You oughta Think it Over Bobby Womack - I like to see my baby (w. Hank Ballard) Hank Ballard and the midnighters - The Float
Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers - Funky Love The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
Ann Peebles - Mon Belle Amour Carla Thomas - I've Got No Time To Lose Solomon Burke - Hard Ain't It Hard Paris Sisters - I Love How You Love Me
The Delfonics - Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide From Love) Sharon Jones - My Man is a mean man Percy Sledge - If Lovin' You is Wrong (I dont wanna be right)
The Stylistics - You make me feel brand new Sly and The Family Stone - You Caught Me Smilin' The Intruders - Be Thankful For What You Got
[Every Monday night, from 2:00 - 4:00 AM (cst), Eric lab Rat and Arvo Fuckhead play the the best of funk and soul, its roots and derivatives. Two Slaps Radio airs on 88.7fm in Chicago and streams worldwide from wluw.org]
Location: Can TV Studios Show: Chic-A Go-Go's 500th Episode Taping with Casper Cost: Free Things I missed to be there: Sleep
Derik the Cameraman: For some of you, I may need to set this up. If you have been to any... African-American social events in the last thirty years, you've heard something by Casper. He's our Frank Sinatra.
There are only a few benefits to playing music in Chicago: occasionally you might get a blowjob, you get free half-pitchers at the Mutiny, and then there's Chic-A Go-Go. Chic-A Go-Go is a cable access dance party that's kind oflikeaSid & Marty CrofftSoul Train. The show is hosted by the tattood Miss Mia and the skinhead rat puppet Ratso. The tapings are open to the public, and attract a good mix of children,hipsters, weirdos, and college students dancing to music by the likes of The Shadows of Knight, Ol Dirty Bastard, Prince, Ciara, the Ramones, and Howlin Wolf. The show features at least one "live" band an episode. I've got the "live" in quotation marks because the bands never plug in so most of the time, the band is just miming and lip synching.
However fun that is (and it isone of the most fun things you can do in this city), it's one of the reasons I haven't written about it in Omophagy. Sure, I've had the opportunity to dance with Shonen Knife to one of their songs, but I wouldn't describe it as seeing them. Every once in a while though, there's an act with low enough technical requirements that they can do a real live set. Black Bear Combo was able to do their gypsy dance alongside the skating girls of the Windy City Rollers, K.A.R.A.O.K.E. was able to bring people up in front of a green screen to sing revolutionary spoofs of classicrock songs, and for part two of their five-part, 500th Episode Spectacular, Chic-A Go-Go brought out one of Chicago's first rappers, Casper.
Casper, who got the name because of his tendency to only wear white, has been DJing and rapping in the city since the 1970s, but his most lasting contribution to music has been the "Cha Cha Slide". The Cha Cha Slide is an update of the old electric slide, it's one of those catchy/annoying/earworm songs that tells you how to dance to it so that everyone is doing the same thing at the same time: turn left, turn right, hop, step, crisscross, Charlie Brown, et cetera. Needless to say, it's a big hit at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs and will probably remain so for years to come. While the song hit big in 2000, it was actually created four years earlier, for a Bally's aerobics instructor who wanted to a song that he could use as a work out (for reference, this is a few years before the Dance Dance Revolution workout and a few years after Sweating to the Oldies, about the time that Tae Bo was the big thing).
Derail one: There's an episode of Futurama where, looking to make a name for himself, the robot Bender horns in on a circle of dancing rollerbladers, trying to get them to "Do the Bender".
"This circle is about free expression, man, not your fascist moves!"
I kind of feel that way, when I'm in the middle of a crowd and one of those songs comes on, but it might just be acase of sour grapes because have really slow reflexes.
Derail two: In 1999, I was on a flight to Israel, watching the movie "She's All That" with my Dad and Sister. At one point in the climactic scene at the prom, the DJ yells, "Now everybody do that dance I taught you!" and everyone breaks into an enormous choreogrphed, synchronized dance. We lost our shit. Now everybody do that dance I taught you became a running joke of ours for years.
So here we are in 2007, a TV station full of children and people who don't look like they dance very often and a black dude in a bomber jacket and white tracksuit, telling them, "Lets hop three times!" and slowly this group of students, weirdos, hipsters, and kids comes together into something nearly reaching cohesion.
It was like something out of a movie, and it'll air next month.
Cookies & Dirt - Above the Bar Lupe Fiasco - Daydream
Rothkamm - Independent Bernoulli Trial
James Chance & the Blacks - Contort Yourself TK Webb - Which Witch Quincy Jones - Summer in the City Cypress Hill feat. The Fugees - Boom Biddy Bye Bye Zapp - More Bounce to the Ounce Glaxo Babies - This is your Life Delta 5 - Mind Your Own business
Location: Spot 6 Show: The Freeform Shuffle with Cookies & Dirt and DJS Mickey Massacre, Ken the Soul Rebel, and Eric lab Rat Cost: Free Things I missed to be there: The usual Wednesday night jive Reason for going: I booked the whole damn thing (and performed)
So like it says before, I booked this show so I can already tell you I liked everything. Ken the Soul Rebel surprised me, not just with his encyclopedic knowledge of glam, roots rockabilly, mod soul and punk, but his ability to make it all fit together live (many people have one of those qualities but not the other). Conversely, Mickey Massacre laid me out with a creeper case full of obsessively filed disks that put a hurt on me. The real stars of the show, however, were the hip hop act Cookies & Dirt.
Cookies & Dirt are the closest thing I've seen to a rap act that might break big (respectable big, yknow, like Rhymesayers, Anticon, or Mush level) since I saw Typical Cats back in the late 90s. That's partly my fault, of course, for failing to catch Kanye, Lupe, Rhymefest, and Psalm One before they hit. At home, I've got stacks of cds of Chicago hip hop groups THAT were good live but couldn't pull it together for an album. Most of these are disciples of the spoken word/open mic scene, and most of them suffer from the same problem: too much emphasis on the lyrics, and not enough on the beats, on making asses shake, or on asses in general. That's why great groups like Il.De.Script and Organic Mind Unit are barely a memory, and Twista is walkin around in diamond-studded boxer briefs.
I'm not gonna say that Cookies & Dirt isn't afflicted as well, but they're working on it. The music they're working on isn't super dancy but it does veer into experimental. I think that if the band wants to focus on Idris Goodwin's lyrics, they need to move even further in that direction, into Busdriver territory. Idris doesn't need the music to lead you to him, he's got a commanding, Chuck D kind of voice that will get to you no matter how obtuse the beats are. The band had a pretty good crowd come in to see them, too. The people who make predictions keep talking about how Chicago is about to break, and it's gonna be because of the unpretensious, weirdo hiphop that's been breaking lately. Flosstradamus is almost a foregone conclusion but nobody knows who else might be part of the movement. Heiruspecs could do it but they'll need to do something surprising. Vyle has a good chance, as do Serengeti and Brenmar. I'm not going to say that they've missed their chance but I'm pretty sure I can tell you that even though they deserve it, it won't be Verbal Kent, the J. Davis, Trio or Small Change. The world could use another live band hip hop group and, barring the possibility that I missed some hotness from the Chicago Drop cds, Cookies & Dirt are probly Chicago's greatest hope.
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - How do I let a good man down? Irma thomas - I want a true, true love Ann Peebles - When the Candle Burns low
Ray Charles - In the Evening (when the sun goes down) Eldridge Holmes - Gone Gone gone (jet set) Delfonics - Smiling faces Ms Tyree Sugar Jones - If You feel It (instrumental)
Carla Thomas - Comfort Me Patti Young - head and shoulders (above the rest) Jackie Lee - Oh My Darling Rose Batiste - Hit And Run
The Flamingos - I Only have Eyes for you Piet Van Meren - Cool Echo Altyrone deno Brown - If You Love Me Helene Smith - You Got to Do your Share Jd & the evil's Dynamite band - Haaa-Sheesh
The Temptations - Papa was a rollin' stone The Eternals - Astra 3B
Jimmy Castor - Southern Fried Frijoles The Shangrilas - Sophisticated Boom Boom Ricardo Ray - Sookie Sookie
DJ Logic - Simmer Slow Syl Johnson - Thank You Baby The Towers - The Sneak ! The Fatback Band - (are you ready) Do the Bus Stop Betty Davis - Nasty Gal
Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Ain't No Sunshine Little Jr. Jesse & his Teardrops & the Tears - Funky Stuff The New Jersey Queens and Friends - Party and Don't Worry About It Chicago Gangsters - Gangster Boogie
York Wilburn & the Psychedellic Six - Psychedelic Hot Pants Spot & the Blotters - Soul Circle The Big Boys - Funk Off
[I don't know if we're the only funk show in the nation that plays The Big Boys but we shouldn't be. Not only were thy progenitors of the Austin underground that led to SXSW, but of the punk-funk hybrid that would come to be known, posthumously, as Mutant Disco.]
[Remember, that every Monday night, from 2:00 - 4:00 AM (cst), Eric lab Rat and Arvo Fuckhead play the the best of funk and soul, its roots and derivatives. Two Slaps Radio airs on 88.7fm in Chicago and streams worldwide from wluw.org]
Date: 3/5/07 Location: La Casa Maldita Bands: the tangled lines, disrobe, eske, tras de nada Cost: $5 Things I missed to be there: The Pogues at the Congress Theatre, Clinic at the Apple Store Reasons for going: Figured (incorrectly) that I could go to this show and sneak into the Congress, but the Congress security is getting craftier.
I don't know if I've used this analogy before, but there's this story my parents used to tell, about going to see shows at Second City, back when Chris Farley was still in the cast. That was where he came up with his Matt Foley character (the van down by the river guy). If you haven't seen the sketch in a while, it involves a lot of pratfalls, and the way my Pops told it, there's nothing scarier than sitting in the front row when that 300-pound motherfucker is barreling towards you at 90 miles an hour and you don't know if he's going to be able to stop himself. That's what watching Disrobe is like, except Josh isn't Chris Farley-big and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was going to hit them.
Disrobe hasn't played around in a while, especially not with their guitarist Rick, who's had some health problems this past year, but he was back today and the whole band was hyped. According to Josh, they've been practicing for the past three days in a row with the two-guitarist set up (Rick and the guy who stepped in when he fell ill), and it was good.
The whole show was guitar-ier than usual, to the point that the hardcore was sounding more like metal. Maybe the house brings it out. La Casa Maldita is one of the few joints in town where punk bands and metal bands regularly play together which is no surprise as La Casa is the home to ShamanRecords, which specializes in crust, grindcore, hardcore and metal.
It wasn't that Disrobe, Eske, or Tras De Nada sounded louder or faster or harder than any of the other times I've seen them, there was just a lot more shredding than I remember. All three bands have been around for a while and it's interesting to drop out of the scene for a few months and come back and be able to hear how much better they've gotten from just playing together for so long.
The last band of the night was The Tangled Lines from Drezden. They were adorable, and they were adorable without being soft. They played pretty straight thrash, but their singer Luise was this tiny little girl in a hoodie with a powerpuff girl on it and she just took to the stage like Miss Thing, like some kid on a sitcom singing into a comb in the mirror, except she was scrweaming her ass off, and doing it without looking angry. It looked as if she could have walked into a warzone and the entire war would split like the Red Sea to let her pass. Meanwhile the rest of the band wore matching blue shirts with yellow tire skids stampped on. Like I said, adorable. The world (the world of hardcore at least) needs more of that. Just like it needs more guitar.
Glaxo Babies - Kristine Keeler !!! The Mummys - Shocked Black Bear Combo - Medley The Residents - Satisfaction Daniel Johnston - Happy Time
The Gothic Archies - The World is a Very Scary Place # Bauhaus - Dark Entries Snakes Say Hiss! - Talk # Kleenex - U
Funkadelic - Lunchmeataphobia (Think! It ain't Illegal Yet) Elvis Hitler - Shotgun Shell * Naked Raygun - Slim Ceramic Hello - Climactic Nouveau !
Saturday Looks Good to Me - Last Year Do May Say Think - Bound To Be That Way Captain Howdy - Dino's Head !!! Malajube - Pate Filo Zimbo Chimps - Inca Vacation
Duchesne - Jumper Le Train De Roberval - Saguenay #! You Suck - The You Suck Anthem Glass Candy - Nite Nurses Einsterzende Neubauten - Pygmaoen
Whitey - AWalk in the Dark/Reprise # New Order - Beach Buggy The Psychic Paramount - Echoh Air/ The Eye Glass / Sex Operation # BPA - Dead Boy/Leroy Neimann
