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This page is a Monthly Archive of entries from January 2008 listed from newest to oldest.
Ah, the pretentious joys of kooky academes. Though tonight may end in a foot of snow on the ground and the requisite feelings of trapped hopelessness, there are those among us who can think of no more an appropriate cathartic expression of this climate-induced angst than to witness a group of Chicago music professors produce bizarre and alien noise experiments by torturing instruments of their own invention. Tonight, Krannert Art Museum hosts a performance by the new electro-acoustic, improvisational trio Auris, comprised of Julia Miller on guitar, Christopher Preissing on flute, and Eric Leonardson on an invented instrument amusingly dubbed “the springboard,” with all three utilizing electronics.
Anyone who was moved by the militant, forward-thinking sounds of Public Enemy in the 80s and 90s may be surprised to hear that long-time PE affiliate Prince Akeem resides a mere 15 miles north of our fair twin cities, where he focuses on his passions: family and music.
Prince Akeem (Akeem F. Muhammad), a Chicago native, was educated in the city’s south side Nation of Islam schools. Akeem’s commitment was so in-depth that by the time he had reached his early twenties, NOI leader Louis Farrakhan had appointed him Minister of Youth. In 1988 the Nation of Islam purchased the Stoney Island Mosque in Chicago for just over 2 million dollars and on February 26, 1989, Farrakhan organized a Savior's Day event (celebrating the birth date of Wallace Fard Muhammad), inaugurating the grounds and naming the center Mosque Maryam in honor of black womanhood.
Reds as Depeche Mode, "Waiting for the Night"
Our videographers capture the best of each performer's set. After the jump: Mad Mardigan as Cream, Roberta Sparrow as Descendents, JigGsaw as Rancid, Darling Disarm as Portishead, and elsinore as Beck.
The third and final night of this year’s Great Cover-Up has come and gone, so let’s get straight to work.
Reds (above) took the stage in a swell of smoke and colors, playing Depeche Mode’s European version of electro-synth pop. The crowd didn’t really seem to know who the band was covering, and the dreaded standing half-circle formed in front of the stage. Although it might have taken some warming up to get the crowd going, the music was definitely club worthy.
Thirty-five years ago, something big started.
With the critical, overflowing mass of disenfranchised people packing themselves into already overcrowded neighborhoods, something had to give. The outcry was deafening, but no one listened. It was too dangerous of a call for help to heed. Individuals were too deep in the measures of suffering that was created for them.
That is, until we learned to speak through the synthesized drum, 16-bar verse, and party-rocking with a message. In an unseen explosion of samba-infused, fat laced, four-finger ringed, record scratching, shell-toed fury, hip-hop broke out as a answer to America’s question of what occurred in the South Bronx and Queensbridge.
Thirty-five years later, the big thing that got started only made itself bigger. But, is big always good?
After a long year of what seemed to be uninspired performances, poor album sales and a very public rocky romance, Mike Ingram and his band proved to be victorious at Sunday night’s Great Cover-Up performance at The Highdive.
It had been well known that Mike Ingram did not fare well when it came to playing other people's music, as proven by previous Cover-Up performances: he instigated a riot which resulted in the deaths of 15 people, including a 96-year-old woman, at a packed Highdive in 2006 by performing songs from the band Live. The infamous performance later became known as “The Day The Cover Band Died.” A similar incident the following year forced the band to end earlier than expected, due to several protestors arrested for destructive behavior while watching the Mike Ingram Band perform as Bush.
Monster Honkey as Deftones, "Change"
Our videographers capture the best of each performer's set. After the jump: New Ruins as Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Chemicals as The Velvet Underground, Terminus Victor as Elliott Smith, Tractor Kings as Uncle Tupelo, The Beauty Shop as The Temptations, and Shipwreck as The Cars.
[Ed. note: Special thanks to our writers, photographer, and videographers who are going above and beyond while "covering the Cover-Up" this year, turning over their articles, (analog!) photography and video very quickly in the wee hours of the morning in order to deliver the quickest and most thorough coverage of the event for our readers.]
The Great Cover-Up: traditionally a bonus week for local wig shops. This year was the first that I honestly didn't know who was doing who – it was all in the first note.
Kilborn Alley as MC5, "Kick Out the Jams"
Our videographers capture the best of each performer's set. After the jump: Brother Embassy as White Zombie, Krukid as Kanye West, Curb Service as The White Stripes, Mike Ingram Band as Journey, and Beat Kitchen as Run-DMC.
[Ed. note: Special thanks to our writers, photographer, and videographers who are going above and beyond while "covering the Cover-Up" this year, turning over their articles, (analog!) photography and video very quickly in the wee hours of the morning in order to deliver the quickest and most thorough coverage of the event for our readers.]
With the line blurred between irony and inspiration by questionable taste and multiple drinks to the bar, The 17th Annual Great Cover-Up kicked off at The Highdive with the disco ball in full force and the crowd buzzing with anticipation. All participants are trying their hand at being the Sphinx in Vegas for those who can’t go to Egypt for the real thing, all while hopefully avoiding the karaoke- or Guitar-Hero-esque possibilities of the night.
We’d love to tell you which bands you’ll see tonight at The Highdive, but we have no idea ourselves.
The 17th Annual Great Cover-Up, where notable local bands transform into “cover bands” for one night only, kicks off tonight at 9:30 p.m. with Kilborn Alley — a blues group on most days, but who will they be tonight? Megadeth? John Mayer? No one can say for sure, because the performing bands keep their choices a secret until the moment they take the stage.
It was announced today that five legendary "vintage" local bands will reunite at The Highdive over Memorial Day weekend:
Order new copies of your old scratched-up albums, make your holiday plans now — and youngins, prepare to take some notes.
[Ed. Note: It was formerly posted that Poster Children were also playing this show, but they have not yet formally confirmed the date. Apologies!]
Local darlings Headlights, anticipating the Feb. 19 release of their second LP, Some Racing, Some Stopping, have posted the new single "Cherry Tulips" on their MySpace page. The song is charming and fresh, featuring the group's impossibly hopeful trademark sound, an ethereal chorus ("I want the sea/I want the whole sea, for you and me") led by lead singer and keyboardist Erin Fein*, and I'll be damned if that slide guitar doesn't sound like a singing saw wailing during the outro (drummer Brett Sanderson reports that a saw does appear in the album's title track).
As if that isn't charming enough, the group also posted a promo spot for the upcoming album, shot during their recent music video shoot — I've never wanted to thank anyone for flipping me the bird before now.
*My favorite Fein.
The recent influx of hip-hop shows here in C-U is evidence that the scene is on the rise, as collaborations and cross-genre experiments have led to more opportunities for DJs and emcees alike. Tonight the Canopy Club will host the cream of the crop, including Krukid, Agent Mos, Cornbread, Text and out-of-towners Earthworms (St. Louis).
Johnny and the Moon is another offshoot of the ever-productive Wolf Parade crew. Where the music of Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown are sonic cousins to the Wolf Parade output, this time the lesser-known guitarist of the band, Dante DeCaro (former Hot Hot Heat guitarist), delivers an album right out from Folkway Records and Greenwich Village. Pre-Black Sheep Boy Okkervil River releases or Springsteen's Seeger Sessions are the closest contemporary pieces of music which come to mind for musical similarities.
While discussing hip-hop in Champaign-Urbana, you’d be hard pressed not to mention the name Matt Harshbarger, more commonly known as Harsh. Born and raised in C-U, Harsh has spent most of his life here (aside from a few short stints in Charleston, IL and Miami, FL). He has also spent the past two decades immersed in hip-hop culture and has contributed as a promoter, an emcee and a video producer.
New Year's Eve proved to be a little harsh on local MC/rapper Edwin “Krukid” Ruyonga, who indisputably won the title of "Most Inebriated." Our sources say that good ol’ Eddie, much like his “Barcrawl Anthem,” had only one purpose that night — to get “f*cked up."
Radiohead do not make B-sides, they make non-album tracks (listen to the stuff that didn't make Kid A, Amnesiac or OK Computer). In Rainbows (Disc 2), a 30 minute mini-album, includes various tracks recorded and culled from the In Rainbows sessions. Each of the songs here could have fit somewhere on the first disc's October release, but the album is still very much its own unified entity.
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