Category > InterviewsPreviews
Say whatever you will about unofficial St. Patrick's Day, but it's got nothing on the real thing in this town. Over the next two days, Champaign-Urbana will treat you to an astounding variety of Irish music. If you're like me, you have a very difficult time making decisions. Why don't you just say screw it and try to do it all?*
| Local band Vannatica bring a heavy-edge to their power punk tunes. Or maybe they bring a pop-tinge to their metal tunes. Whatever the case, they provide plenty of virtuoso guitar and catchy, but not quite sing-a-long choruses on their new Behind Closed Eyes EP. In advance of Saturday's Cowboy Monkey show, vocalist/guitarist Travis Leonard gave us a few minutes of his time.
For the next three days, Mike n' Molly's will be hosting Champaign-Urbana's newest music festival—Exit 182. A welcome addition, the fest will feature 12 bands from C-U, Chicago, Memphis, Eau Claire and Peoria. Exit 182 came about when Joe Smyth and Isaac Burgess at Mike n' Molly's realized that several of the bands they had booked for this weekend were on their way down to SXSW. And not only that, but the quality of the other bands booked lent itself …
Over the past three or four years, many bands who owe a big gratitude to a capella music have blown up — Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, Dirty Projectors. Seems like that makes now a good time to re-acquaint yourself with the genre. Lucky for you, we are blessed to have quite a few a capella groups right here in C-U, including Girls Next Door, an all-female ensemble that has been around since 1971. The group is known for their willingness …
With a well-regarded new album (This Way Up) and a rousing live show, The Duke of Uke and His Novelty Orchestra have been getting a lot of positive attention lately in Champaign-Urbana. However, if all you knew about the band was from the recent press they have been gathering, you might mistakenly think they are a new addition to the scene. In truth, they've been around for nearly five years, slowly building their repertoire and their reputation. Frontman Dave King …
Usopp the Liar is just a few months old, but the players should be familiar to anyone who's been paying attention to local music over the last ten years. Guitarist Wilson Hensleigh, bassist John Paul Livergood and drummer Ben Ucherek's previous and current bands include Monster Honkey, Clio, Crane, Badger, Solips, Twenty Feet Over, Beauty Shop and Tractor Kings. With such a divergent background and short incubation period, it's a little premature to make any big pronouncements about this lineup. …
Featuring Marc Turner on bass, Jesse Greenlee on drums and Kelly McMorris on keyboards, Heyokas is a relatively new addition to the C-U music scene. With driving, clap-along melodies, the band plays music for drinking, dancing and apparently even whittling. We knew primary songwriter McMorris would be an ideal candidate for our five questions when we first heard the song "Champaign."
Champaign-Urbana is blessed with so many excellent local musicians that we often take the best for granted. Trumpeter Jeff Helgesen is a prime example. Adept at performing a myriad of styles, Helgesen spent four years as a featured soloist with the Ray Charles Orchestra and has been performing superb jazz locally for over 25 years. In addition to his Jeff Helgesen Jazz Quintet, he is a member of Jazz Sandwich, Jazz Mayhem, Wk.End Band and many, many more.
Retribution Gospel Choir's new album 2 is the sound of the band breaking free. Their self-titled debut felt like an interesting diversion, allowing singer/songwriter Alan Sparhawk to let go after years of restraint in Low. But it was hard to separate that minimally produced album from his original band's shadow, especially when two of the songs had already appeared on the Low album Drums and Guns. 2 is an entirely different animal. From the soaring chords in the opener "Hide …
Let's be honest: this isn't a gigantic music scene. It's kind of a big deal when one band releases an album, and releases from two bands are sometimes enough to tide us over for a calendar year, or, at worst, a season. So, this weekend is truly an embarrassment of riches for Champaign-Urbana, as Elsinore unveils their new EP, The Chemicals, and World's First Flying Machine debuts their, uh, debut album, The House You're Living In, both on Saturday night. …
Most Recent Music Comments
I was all set to pounce on this, but it’s the truth. There used to be bands in town I was afraid of, like I’d have a heart attack during their set. There are still some great bands, but they’re pretty and dainty and low in cholesterol. …
I will be at Danu this evening. And seeing as tomorrow - St. Pat’s - is my birthday, I will be celebrating with tons of green and fun!
Big Blue will actually be on 6-9, despite what is posted elsewhere. Then, hightail it over to Bentley’s!
Ahh - good point - I will plug them in the appropriate sections.
Yeeee! This sounds so fun! Any word on covers for any/all of these? Maybe SP could spring for punch cards and some discounts if we make it to all, eh?
...and given the lack of smiley emoticons i chose to employ, that reads far more sarcastically than i ever intended (my apologies). i actually find this to be a great article and an interesting discussion, seriously : )
Once it leaves the basement, it is then called what? hmmm…....could it be mainstream? accessible? appealing on a mass-level? POP??? Quickly it will become a fad, over-saturate the media, and piss people off. Then everyone can write articles based on how that shit sucks, too. chickens are…
In general, I think music is much more interesting now than in 1995. I definitely am very glad contemporary music has expanded beyond the four-piece rock lineup that dominated much of the 90’s. The point of the above isn’t so much about a sound or an instrument…
2010 is not 1995. I’m not sure why anyone would expect a music scene to remain stationary as the world of popular music moves around it. Also, today, making popular music with mainstream appeal and being innovative and cutting-edge are usually exact opposites.
Most Popular Music Articles (60 days)
- Album review: Elsinore's The Chemicals
- Jan. 30: Official C-U Record Release Day
- Champaign Pop City
- The Overture, Jan. 18 – 24
- Dubstep Massacre: Evolution of a Scene
- Album review: WFFM's The House You're Living In
- The Overture: Jan. 25 – 31
- Joe Pug: Apparently not reading enough Steinbeck
- A folk pop antidote to the drunken plague
- The Duke of Uke: Anything but a novelty act
Most Recent Comments
Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited. Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket. The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well. …
(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…
I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Nate, No offers to crash but I was wondering if you’d ever considered publishing the plans to your trailer. You might make a dollar or two especially after you go solar! Let me know if you do it. Sincerely, Don
Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but they’ll also be playing the Old Rock House in St. Louis on May 22
Interesting about who owns land in the path of the Olympian Drive extension. My comment was in response to ‘Tony C’s remarks about the I-74 expansion. Just who owns land in the 150 [BloomingtonRd]-I-74 corridor?? Because the corridor is zoned for future use as Commercial/Industrial, I am…
(happy face)
Wow, great article. I wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you have a nice trip.
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
As an adoptee, I can empathize—although I’m not an international adoptee, and I apologize if I’m assuming too much on the nature of your adoption. You can feel what you feel, but don’t be too hard on yourself. When I started a search for my birth family,…
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
You’re right! Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.
Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…
Sounds like it!
I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?
Nice, killer work pretty man…the channeled, one sided collaborated rhyming poem. An oft forgot genre. The ruckus was felt even here in my living room, which is normally a safe haven from ruckus.
wait, I was commenting on the wrong thing - sorry - he’s actually a gigantic sellout but who really knows what all this is about.
If the democrats didn’t have Kucinich, and the republicans didn’t have Ron Paul, where would both these parties really stand? These men actually mean what they say.
Joel, thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions and have them posted here. I really appreciate it! Yes, I was thrilled to see that Rep. Kucinich flipped today, so he will has committed to voting yes for health reform. I appreciated his comments which seem…
It appears to me that your reviewer did all that could be expected: she paid her money, saw the play and conveyed her impressions. The review (on the whole, laudatory) may have been rushed, in a generous attempt to publicize the production while it was still available…
Most Popular Articles (14 days)
- All’s well, no worries, next year will be great!
- Champaign Pop City
- Die another day
- The Plastic Generation
- Kaiyo a surprising delight for buffet
- “Nice flag, douchebag!“: one man’s quest to run as Lincoln
- A review of “A History of the American Film”
- Week Seven: The mug cake and the damage done
- Your official St. Patrick’s Day celebration guide
- New artist coop Shared Space opens today
Recent Searches
- cu folk roots (50 Results)
- cu folk roots festival (22 Results)
- Art Theater (195 Results)
- diner (41 Results)
- beer (328 Results)
- mike ingram (42 Results)
- velvet rut (9 Results)
- station theater (26 Results)
- music scene (299 Results)
- merry anns (2 Results)
- 1365 (2 Results)
- 2102 (1 Results)
- aviation (4 Results)
- manolo's (4 Results)
- eating delillo (1 Results)
- red herring (68 Results)
- YADIRA MONTOYA (1 Results)
- gillespie (110 Results)
- 1933 (1 Results)
- 2102 (1 Results)
Facebook
Twitter
Full Site
Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited. Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket. The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well. …