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This page is a Monthly Archive of entries from February 2008 listed from newest to oldest.
There was a day when I avoided big "rawk" shows like the plague. Now I don’t mind them all too much, but big bands like these generally bring big egos which bring lots of headaches to my world on show days. That being said, I’ve learned that I cannot avoid them forever, and I seem to be working them more and more all the time. Over the last few years I’ve promoted some club-level shows with bands that have either gone on to be much more or already had a following larger than the show they were doing for us. This is called an "underplay". Jack Johnson, Fallout Boy and Maroon 5 are just a couple examples. Seether is another one of those bands that reached a much broader fan base than 1000 or so tickets a night.
Or rather, they dated people who had already reached it.
Yes Yes Y’all and Smile Politely are giving you the chance to be THE NEXT BIG THANG! In an effort to promote independent and undiscovered local hip-hop artists, we are hosting a contest for the entire month of March to find C-U’s best kept secret. We know that there are a lot of emcees out there who just haven’t had a chance to shine. Think you got the skillz to pay the billz? Time to step up to the mic! The contest will be judged by Yes Yes Y’all columnist Larry Gates (Curb Service, ex-Lorenzo Goetz) based on lyrical content, originality and overall flow. The winner will receive a full-length original song produced by The Jezebelly (Larry Gates, Josh Miethe) and a full feature profile on Yes Yes Y’all.
Imagine: You’re in a suburban field in east Memphis in the middle of a sweltering summer afternoon. You’ve walked past a stand selling Pronto Pups, and one hawking Red Man spit-and-chew tobacco; behind the curtain of one booth you can see the world’s smallest horse, and behind another you can see a spider with a human head. You realize that the Delta Fair and Music Festival is quite a misnomer: this is a suburban county fair. You’ve come here to see The Avett Brothers, a North Carolinian band you expect no one has actually heard and who, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, are a true independent, still releasing music on the small N.C. label Ramseur Records on which they started. And then it happens: the band, a three-piece dwarfed by a giant stage on which you’d expect to see the Charlie Daniels Band or Willie Nelson, starts to play, and suddenly you realize you’re surrounded by fans who know all the words; by people, young and old, hopping in time to the music, some dancing a jig and others with their fists pumped like they’re seeing the Sex Pistols.
This is the power and the glory of The Avett Brothers.
With their recently released sophomore album, Some Racing, Some Stopping, in their hot little hands, local indie-pop darlings Headlights take to the half-pipes and highways on the first leg of their North American tour. Guitarist and vocalist Tristan Wraight reports from the road.
February 16th. The Void Skate Shop. Lexington, KY.
It's impossible to leave for tour on time. No matter how well you plan, you are certain to forget at least two things that you really wanted to bring. No matter how emphatically your booking agent says, "Just pack up the van the night before and get up early…suck it up," there are still all the little things that you just can't account for. Like your van dying right as you are finally ready to leave. It happens, though, and generally promoters are pretty forgiving. So, we were all fairly proud of ourselves for getting on the road only an hour late. Pretty good. Pretty good.
The scene last night at the Tryon Festival Theatre at Krannert Center was nothing like the small, smoky underground clubs from which the art form of jazz came. In fact, it was interesting to place the formal theater atmosphere amongst the theme of the night: how to appreciate the roots of jazz and alarmingly, due to Hurricane Katrina and the molasses-like effort to fix New Orleans up, how to ensure it's preservation.
Alright kids, time to do some soul searching, and perhaps some well-needed crate digging.
French producer Onra is a mysterious individual, to say the least. In the greater league of vinyl jockeys and drum machine addicts – suffering through the leagues of paper cuts and musty basements – he came as a relative unknown, only having released albums as collaboration efforts alongside other relatively unknown French hip-hop producers (Quetzal, Fonky Family).
That is, until one of his releases landed stateside.
In the course of his first solo venture, Chinoiseries, Onra conjures the ghosts of the greats, as if he had been producing alongside them in their prime.
There is something to be said for growth and maturity.
Whereas Headlights' debut album Kill Them With Kindness sounded like a band still shedding atmospheric remnants of influence from the band member's former creative outlet, Absinthe Blind, their sophomore album from Polyvinyl Records, Some Racing, Some Stopping, finds Headlights coming into their own breezy pop sound.
Now and then a band comes out of nowhere for what seems like the express purpose of blowing our collective minds. Of course, no band literally “comes out of nowhere”—this particular one came out of Columbia University’s dormitories—but with the right kind of hype that’s both fast-tracked and warranted, these diamonds in the rough (and let’s face it, it’s pretty rough out there) seem to materialize before our eyes. We, as musical scourers, live for bands like Vampire Weekend. Akin to finding a pristine vinyl collection priced-to-liquidate (remember that scene in Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity?), or that perfect piece of vintage clothing hidden amidst the wreckage of your favorite thrift outlet, these bands remind us why we bother to search in the first place. And somewhere along the way is the inherent true definition as to why we love music, and it’s not to listen, over and over, to the same Beatles record we’ll hold over the heads of all other records; it’s to find something that’ll finally challenge those lauded unbeatables.
Good thing for places like The Iron Post, a live music joint universally known as a dive by all those who keep it real: it simply doesn't matter what they look like. The focus has to be the music — because despite the budget PA, the rats living in the wall behind the speakers and the pair of dirty gym shoes that seem to stay planted next to the back cooler, no one provides a more genuine environment than a place like a "dive."
We have a couple here in Champaign-Urbana, and no one provides a more diverse array of live tunes than The Iron Post.
Seventy-six-year-old Mrs. Emma G. of Hoopeston, IL didn’t think much of her morning routine of preparing her two scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast and a glass of orange juice. It wasn’t until she was about to take out her toast that she took a closer look and noticed that there was an image of a man in her toast!
Mike 'n Molly's will be the place for you to see one of the better under-the-radar bands from the midwest tonight. The Silent Years, from Detroit, make a stop to perform alongside local punk stalwarts jigGsaw and Chicago's own Victorian Halls. Their sound would fit nicely in the framework of Indie Rock General, but the way that frontman Josh Epstein delivers his vocals sets him apart from your average emerging artist. He reminds us of Ted Leo before he was on tour too much.
Local indie pop sensations Headlights dropped their sophomore album today on Polyvinyl Records, entitled Some Racing, Some Stopping. The band was generous enough to give Smile Politely the exclusive rights to the video for the first single off the record, "Cherry Tulips". Watch for it soon elsewhere, but for now, it's here and here alone. Enjoy!
Common Loon’s first official release is a two song 7”, out now on Berkeley, CA based label Ideal Utopia. At a very stripped down level, the duo that make up the band, Matt Campbell and Robert Hirschfeld, are doing something that resembles what a band like Apples In Stereo did with “Strawberry Fire” off Her Wallpaper Reverie, and they create their LSD-inspired sounds pretty well; it seems that they have mastered the genre's sound upon the recording of their first two songs.
Wayne Hancock is sort of the ultimate No Depression cover story, and an exemplary member of the Bloodshot Records cast. More than his record label or membership in any perceived country-rock insurgency, it is Hancock's music that distinguishes him as a traditionalist, one who does not bore with slavish devotion to a perceived time of purity in his chosen genre. Instead, the guitarist and songwriter skips amongst the roots of country music and its many offshoots, incorporating honky-tonk, hillbilly, old-time, western swing, rockabilly, and even some Willie Nelson-style standard treatments into his repertoire. The variety of the material and the energy he brings to it prevent a Hancock performance from descending into pastiche or a museum piece. Country was, after all, once the province of drunks and scoundrels rather than empowered soccer moms. Look for both of these demographics to come together in mutual appreciation of Hancock's show at Rose Bowl Tavern this Sunday.
Rose Bowl is located at 106 N Race St. in Urbana. Cover is $15 at the door, and a very friendly employee tells us that the show starts at 8:00 p.m.
House parties once ruled the CU music scene. On any given weekend in the late 90's, there were at least 2-3 shows happening, usually in Urbana, before WUNA decided that rock music was a bad thing for their neighborhood. We can get into a discussion about WUNA another day, but evidently, this phoenix is ready to once again rise from the ashes.
Despite the pervading internet rumor and press that our music scene is on a downturn, we think it quite the opposite. Crowds are not fizzling (they’re up actually, according to venues and promoters), and there are plenty of outlets to turn to when your band wants to start up a career wrought with difficulty, bad endings to relationships and, ultimately, failure.
Roses are red,If what you seek
are Valentine's jollies,
come to a rock show
at Mike n' Molly's.
For those who really want to feel the love tonight, get close to your fellow man (and woman) at Mike n' Molly's tonight, where the upstairs room will be opened up for a rowdy show sure to tug at your heartstrings. Friday Night Villain, hailing from Charleston, will be showcasing their electronic aggro-rock, locals Gristle will get your heart pumping with their brand of rockabilly, and SP valentines The Beauty Shop will likely deliver a healthy dose of cynicism with their alt-country gems. But who knows, maybe the romance — or whiskey — will inspire lead singer/guitarist John Hoeffleur to rally a slow dance or two. Either way, this show won't let you down like your dude totally did, and cover is only $5.
Show starts at 10:00 p.m. sharp. Mike n' Molly's is located at 105 N. Market St. in downtown Champaign.
Late last year, following a Rhymesayers show at The Canopy Club, a group of friends staggered home in hopes of an after-party, only to find that none of them had any money — not even enough for a blunt. That night was known as the birth of The Broke Rappers Coalition. And though their financial woes have not ceased, the resourceful crew has decided to pool their resources and combine their efforts musically. Let's take a closer look at C-U's most talented eight-man clique.
Bufo Alvarius is Eric Gross, a C-Uite who has honed his skills across two very different records — 2006’s instrumental seven drops from the wax and 2003’s brash mix of cartoonish, sometimes vulgar hip-hop, Comedy and Tragedy — not to mention a stint in Chicago. Propaganda is a culmination of Gross’s talent so far, a musical collage of hip-hop, electronica, and rock ‘n’roll (varying from lush acoustic layers to more sonically challenging effect-heavy guitar contributions) for good measure, paired with an intense examination of nostalgia.
Not surprisingly, this project’s name comes from the infamous psychoactive Colorado River Toad (aka Bufo alvarius) that secretes hallucinogenic alkaloid bufotenine; this juxtaposition of the natural and the unnatural aptly represents the Bufo Alvarius code of existence. Propaganda finds Gross composing sound musical structures that are laced with a hallucinogenic tone, prompting a strange paradox between the record’s often peaceful sound and the purported concept of the album, which (according to its press release) has “nostalgic undertones which analyze and targets the downfall of America.”
Those who want to be generous in advance of Valentine's Day and also want to taste a smattering of some of the more radical local bands around, stop by The Canopy Club this evening for The Vagina Monologues Benefit.
A local all-girl a capella group is under investigation by authorities today as a video has been leaked to the media containing horrific scenes of abuse and violence. The group known as The Girls Next Door has been put on indefinite suspension for the video until further notice.
The 36-year-old group has a reputation for being positive role models for today’s youth and has donated millions of dollars to countless charities and organizations. The singing troupe is popular and well-known by many for their clean, “good girl” image.
Exclusive footage after the jump!
Music fans, like voters, tend to love a “uniter,” not a divider. For practically the entirety of his career, Californian Ben Chasny, under the nom de plume of Six Organs of Admittance, has brought together the disparate strains of his musical obsessions into a distinct and engrossing catalog of music. Drawing on the intricate acoustic finger-picking style of luminaries such as Bert Jansch and John Fahey, as well as jagged noise rock, drone, raga, free improv, and hairy psychedelia, Chasny has dabbled in everything from midnight folk ballads to ephemeral, oceans of feedback. His albums often straddle these genres as songs balance upon the remarkable intersections of seemingly distinct styles. His live performances are equally diverse. During a solo acoustic show, the droning rattle of a low-strung bass string might provide the only accompaniment to intricate, melodic workouts. Sometimes a raucous full-band excursion can ascend from free noise into magisterial, electric rock. He’s equally adept at both modes of performance. Eclectic music fans hungry for change might consider catching the show after casting their vote.
Six Organs of Admittance plays tonight at The Canopy Club, 708 S. Goodwin Ave. in Urbana, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8.
The popularity of instrumental music is growing every year, and it’s truly amazing how people respond to solely music playing with no words. It’s like having no words takes the music down to its bare bones and pure emotion, revealing the true transcendental nature of a composition. Everyone is listening to the same notes, but are they hearing the same thing? I don’t think so, but I could understand why some people would say yes. A certain spirit (or drug) moves through each person; they make up their own words, paint their own pictures and feel more than think.
There was plenty of wide-eyed optimism in almost every one of the audience members in the line that wrapped around the corner for the Jan. 31st STS9 show, super stars of the original Bonnaroo and a known live show experience. I heard people saying they had come from as far as Tennessee and Long Island, all packing into The Canopy Club.
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