Music Meridian

The Explanation and Sour Deluxe played The Double Door last night, April 28th (along with The Last Seconds and Unibrow, who I was too drunk to review.)

I've seen The Explanation once before at the Abbey Pub, and knew what to expect, but it had been a while so it was fresh. My first impression was Midnight Oil mixed with the Killers, which is a great combination. Both guitarists sang lead vocals, alternating songs, which is interesting but their voices are pretty similar (that's the Midnight Oil part - odd that they both sounded that way). They were straightforward rock with an '80's edge, combining fairly heavy guitar with nice bass groves and solid percussion. Another impression I had was The Go-Go's in relation to their hooks and structures. At one (actually two) points, the audience was told "Now's your chance to dance", and while no one seemed to take them up on it, there were many heads bobbing and hips shaking. Pretty fun band, if not for the lack of stage presence (can we turn some lights on people? Wanna say fuck some more?) Highlights for me were "Townboy", "Smoke and Perfume" and "Hiroshima."

Sour Deluxe started with a bang and ended with a blech. With 3/4 of their lineup in place, it was a solid show with a fill-in drummer who did a nice job. They've been compared to Garbage, and while I kind of see it, not really (I just listened to Garbage's first album again, just to be sure.) "White Noise" sounded great, as did "Here Comes Honey", but the highlight of the show was guitarist Greg Jones' lead vocal debut in a cover of Teenage Fanclub's "Starsign." He should take lead more often, and I think it would change the dynamics of the band for the better. Live staple "Sleeper Car" was just that, a sleeper, and dedicating "Manchester" to guitarist/lead vocalist Jamie Jacob's English boyfriend was cheesy, but the real problem was the energy on stage. The bassist Jim was solid musically, but a non-presence. I would have loved to see more energy. Also, why have a mic if you aren't gonna sing? Jacobs and Jones have been playing together for a long time, and it shows in their banter, but it doesn't engage the crowd. Unfortunately, "Cranky" and "Butterfly Collection" seemed to go downhill at the end of the show (not terrible, but not up to par). They seem a little rusty, and hopefully a new drummer with infuse some life back into this normally great band.

I've always been a big fan of Mastodon. They're a great metal band with a tremendous drummer. Check them out if you haven't already. If you haven't heard of them yet, you most likely will soon. Here's what I've seen happen in less than a month:

1. Announcned to be on Ozzfest Tour
2. Citied by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 10 bands to watch in 2005.
3. Signed to Warner Brothers Records! (Major label!)
4. and now here's the real kicker. I was in Target last night and in the TV/stereo section their new video was on repeat, at high volume. It wasn't some rocker employee taking over the tv sets either, the Target logo was on the video.

Middle America, we'd like you to meet Mastodon.

Lollapalooza announced their artist list today. The price is now $85 for the two days. There's some great bands playing...even if Billy Idol is involved. They said over 70 artists previously, now they're saying 60 artists...and they currently list under 40 artists....at any rate here comes the list:

Pixies
Widespread Panic
Weezer
The Killers
Dinosaur Jr.
Cake
Dashboard Confessional
The Arcade Fire
Billy Idol
Death Cab For Cutie
Digable Planets
Liz Phair
G. Love & Special Sauce
Blonde Redhead
The Black Keys
Kasabian
Kaiser Chiefs
The Bravery
The Walkmen
Louis XIV
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Z-Trip
Los Amigos Invisibles
M83
The Dandy Warhols
Tegan And Sara
VHS Or Beta
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Soulive
Ambulance LTD
Shout Out Louds
Blue Merle
The Warlocks
DeSol
World Leader Pretend
The Redwalls
The Changes

And many more...

What? No Inshi? Guess we missed the boat on this one...

Today, I urge you all to check out Sir Millard Mulch. He's quite an amazing musician/composer. A 3CD concept album is dropping this summer on Mimicry Records (Trey Spruance's label), and judging by the sample that loads on the website, it sounds like it going to be a doozy.

The site itself is also quite wonderful..check out the "old music" section for tons of mp3 goodies. I've been listening to the music I downloaded all weekend. Fantastic stuff.

Also check out the "writings" section. Especially "I got fired from the Ween tour" and "An open letter to Estradasphere".

Have fun.

On a semi-related note, I met Trey Spruance last night at the Asva/Captured! By Robots show. Seems to be quite the likeable fellow. Bought the new CD, review to follow(?)

Looking for a cool live show this weekend? Captured! By Robots is playing at the bottom lounge. It really is a band of robots that play songs (one 1 real human is in the band). While the songs are merely ok, the stage show is unbelievable and must be seen to be believed.

ASVA is opening, which includes Trey Spruance from Secret Chiefs 3 and members of Sunn0)). I heard a couple clips online that sounded quite promising.

Here's the writeup from the Reader. I'll see you there:

CAPTURED! BY ROBOTS Jason Vance, a veteran of Skankin' Pickle and the Blue Meanies and the only human in this band, has been touring for eight years now as the supposed slave of the robots he created--I'm starting to suspect there's no microchip implanted in his head after all, and that he just likes being verbally abused by uppity machines. The foul-mouthed robots are works of art--the drum machines, for example, play real drums, and the newest band members are a nattily dressed trio of decapitated trumpeters whose instruments are actually clusters of air horns, like the ones you see on the cabs of tractor-trailers. This time out Vance is pushing a two-CD set that combines a "fitness" record ("Rock Hard," "Thrashersize") and a concept album loosely based on Cecil B. De Mille's Ten Commandments. Riddle of Steel and Asva open. 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 3206 N. Wilton, 773-975-0505 or 800-594-8499, $10, 18+. --Monica Kendrick

I picked up two of the recent releaes on Mike Patton's Ipecac label. The first is the new album from The Locust "Safety Second, Body Last". It's quite an amazing record, if you like the sound The Locust delivers. If you're new to them, I would suggest a couple of their earlier EPs, as this twists the sound a bit. Instead of being frantic 98% of the time, they incorporate a lot of slow sections (almost stoner-rock in nature!). Plus there's really not a whole lot of music here....it's 10 minutes long split into two tracks (with movements...the slow return of prog-rock continues!) They do cram a lot of stuff into those 10 minutes, but if you want more bang for your buck, look elsewhere.

As for the other Ipecac release, it's the new Fantomas CD "Suspended Animation". After their last album of ambient audio wallpaper ("Delerium Cordia"), it's really nice and exciting to hear them back to their frantic, chaotic, cut-n-paste sound. It's really exciting and fun to listen to. Lots of amazing parts (Dave Lombardo really really shines on this...some unbelievable drum sections). There's also lots of fun samples of Warner Brothers cartoons that tie it all together.

The CD I got was the limited edition version...and the packaging is amazing. A 30 page, glossy calendar of April 2005. This is because all the songs are suppose to represent a different day in April. Really cool! Worth checking out.

a couple weeks ago i saw slint rock out at the metro. it's taken me this long to get around to writing about it. i'd apologise, but considering how their songs progress i'm sure you slint fans are patient enough to wait.
first of all, while all that sounds pretty sarcastic, the truth is the show rocked. not only did they play all of 'spiderland' but seeing them live made me realize they're basically the groundfloor for doom metal as well as post-rock and all that other stuff. also, i've not heard their first album, but i got the impression it rocks. the only real difference is that they slowed everything for 'spiderland'. and maybe they got better at transitions between difficult time signatures, but playing slower songs should help that. the other amazing thing about the performance was the way the drummer (i forget names too easily to know who he is) kept throwing fake beats, meaning he'd move as if to hit something then stop and not hit it. you'd anticipate a snare or crash or ride there, and it wouldn't be there. it really messed with your mind. oh, and of course david pajo was mindblowing. the guy went on to help found tortoise, so what do you expect?
in keeping with my review tradition, i should mention what i think my x would think about the show. i think she'd try to get into it, but in the end she'd say she was bored. she'd say something like i'm giving in to the hype and all the hipster cred this band generates and not listening to them on a truly objective level. people i talked to after the show seemed only to want to slag the band. some even compared them to mogwai, and complained about slint's sudden dynamic shifts while mogwai do it gradually. so you're saying some beer-swilling scottish tossers are better at slint than slint? what crap. slint is great, and the show was great too.





New site feature today. For those web surfers out there that want to link directly to our witty headlines...you're in luck!

If you click on the '#' sign next to any headline it'll take you to a linkable page (permalink) of the headline.

Have fun.

Also, please welcome our new contributor Jake Parrillo to the Music Meridian elite force. He boasts amazing credentials...or something.

New City Chicago wrote up an interesting piece entitled: 45 Who Rock Chicago. The usual suspects were there including Jeff Tweedy, Kanye West, Arny Granat & Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions, Buddy Guy, and Billy Corgan.

The list was fairly tame except that they ranked Sun-Times Music Critic Jim DeRogatis over the Tribune's Greg Kot.

24. Jim DeRogatis
Rock critic, Chicago Sun-Times

The rock critic has his share of critics--mostly disgruntled bands passing through town drunk on DeRo's disappointment--but he has his admirers too. His feud with Ryan Adams was one of the funniest local bouts of 2004. He hosts "Sound Opinions" with Tribster Greg Kot, which they're working on getting syndicated nationally, and the prolific author is now at work on "Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips," due in early 2006.

27. Greg Kot
Rock critic, Chicago Tribune

Wilco's Boswell, a reputation cemented in countless Trib articles and last year's book, "Learning How to Die." No mere cheerleader though, Kot's enviable resume includes a Pulitzer Prize nomination, countless Rolling Stone contributions and a co-hosting gig alongside DeRo on radio's "Sound Opinions."

My take is the DeRo's the better read in the paper and on the show. I hate to admit it, because he kinda looks like the comic book guy from the Simpson's, though...