Fiery Furnaces and Raconteurs at The Pageant, St. Louis, June 12

Note: Not for the first time, I was one of the only audience members caught obeying the club's strict "no cameras" policy, and so I can offer only these sketches I made of the bands as they performed — WG

William: The Fiery Furnaces are an astonishingly original one-man and one-woman band who create enough music to fill setlists from a dozen power-trios. Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Friedberger from Oak Park did time in the local Champaign-Urbana music scene as a member of Corndolly and Liquorette, before moving back to Chicago to start a band with his sister Eleanor.

The first installment in an anticipated series of articles on local music stores

William: In the Feb. 28 issue of Buzz magazine, readers' choice winners for Best of C-U in the “best place to buy music” category were, reportedly:

1. Exile on Main Street (winning by "like, one vote," gloats the student-run periodical)
2. Best Buy
3. iTunes

There are at least two things wrong with this list. Can you spot them?

Cristy: First, shouldn’t it be Exile on REO Speedwagon Way? Ha!

W: Ew. Cristy, no. Don't go there.

Authors' note: A fellow rock scholar who happens to buy music for the Urbana Free Library asked us to write an article for their blog, to suggest music the library should purchase and to help patrons take advantage of their excellent collection. After beginning the article, we were informed that it was inappropriate for the library website. Here it is. (Shhhhh!)

William: The Urbana Free Library (UFL) is a great resource for rock geeks. Especially us. Cristy's iron discipline with regard to financial matters means she buys two albums a year. I try my best to help compensate by buying more than I can afford, even buying records I already own because I feel sorry for them, just sitting there in the bin, neglected, under-appreciated.

Cristy(rolls eyes): No kidding. Do we honestly need three torn copies of ABC's Lexicon of Love?

W: But the library's surprising collection allows us to explore great music for free.

Cristy: Ah...the mid-1990s. Before Nickelback and Limp Bizkit clogged up radio with generic tattooed sludge, the rock that rose from Nirvana's Pacific-Northwestern ash was everywhere. Exquisite Sunny Day Real Estate. Mellow Toad the Wet Sprocket. And, of course, Radiohead B.C. (Before Critical-darlingness). St. Louis/Bloomington's Red Edmund hearkens back to that glorious time period.

A trio consisting of Cory Graddy (guitar, vocals, keyboards, songwritng), Tim Lyons (bass, vocals) and Chad Geiser (drums, vocals, trumpet), Red Edmund wear those mid-1990s influences on the their sleeves — their bold cover of Radiohead's "Planet Telex" (from The Bends) is part of their live show. In fact, their eponymous CD is rife with the Pablo Honey-era Radiohead sound.

Food, Sex, and Death... and Insects (2007)
directed by John Edginton

William: The Venus 3—Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Bill Rieflin (formerly with Ministry) and Scott McCaughey (leader of the Young Fresh Fellows)—have been playing together since 2005. In October 2006 they released Olé! Tarantula with Robyn Hitchcock and visited London to record more material at Hitchcock's house.

The subject of this documentary is the time they spent recording, then touring America. The camera follows the band from Hitchcock’s house in London to Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, and then to the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. Chris Ballew (Presidents of the United States of America), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Morris Windsor (Hitchcock’s lifelong collaborator, usually on drums and harmonies), Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Nick Lowe all put in appearances in this film, just dropping by to hang out or to lay down tracks in Robyn’s surprisingly normal-looking living room.

[The Highdive, Saturday, April 19]

Cristy: Power pop—the candy aisle of rock. You got your classic Hershey’s chocolate (Big Star); tangy Smarties (Weezer); and sparkly gold Werthers caramel (Matthew Sweet). If you're a power pop fan, Three Hour Tour and The Redwalls are pure sugary confections.

Illini Union Courtyard Café, 4/10/08

William: The venue's website said the show would start at 8 p.m. The DJ on WPGU said 7:30. The poster said 9:00. The guy at the Illini Union Box Office said "Caribou...That's a band, right?"

The opening act, Fuck Buttons, was for some reason not mentioned on the radio or in the university's official promotional material.

So we arrived late. And as a result missed the best part of Fuck Buttons' set, catching just the tail end. We heard only two songs we missed the names of, and so refer to them as"The Washing Machine Song" and "The Lawnmower Song." A few adventurous fans were nodding along to the very loud grinding beat, though most stood around the stage like witnesses at a car crash, staring petrified into the distortion. I sensed a Velvet Underground influence, or at least Metal Machine Music.

Krannert Center, 4/3/08

William: For over 35 years, Kronos Quartet has performed and commissioned unusual works, sometimes receiving criticism from the general direction of the stodgy, black-tie classical music establishment. With their striking fashions and eclectic repertoire — including Black Angels, a piece of music based on the Vietnam War, and their much-cited Hendrix cover/arrangement — their music is undeniably transgressive in the sense of crossing boundaries.

But is it progressive in the sense of yearning, leaning toward a fairer world? Tonight’s program suggested that the quartet was responding to the new resurgence of U.S. militarism by including music from Iraq, Iran, Serbia, Armenia and India. I thought this would be a bold refutation of the elitist hegemony of U.S. culture and highbrow, “classical” art music. After the concert, I’m less convinced.

The Canopy Club, Feb. 28th, 2008

William: Opening with a vigorously plodding country number, Jessica Lea Mayfield’s opening set soon accumulated rock mass, with bowed upright bass and jagged electric guitar. The result is a restrained southern violence, a thunderhead sweeping across the gentle delta.

The band wear suits and each countrified ballad is delivered like an important piece of hard-earned wisdom. Mayfield mentions she is from a musical family; the bassist is Jessica’s brother. The drummer uses brushes and looks like Andy Warhol. The guitarist sometimes descends from view to manipulate what sounds like a pedal steel.

Cristy: My mother saw Mayfield in Springfield last year, opening up for The Avett Brothers. Back then, she was a 17-year-old chitlin, sporting a mohawk and appearing solo. She has since changed her moniker (back to her given name, I assume) and gotten a band that only enhances her talent. A shy presence, Mayfield’s maple-rich voice betrays her elfin countenance. She sings like the meek girl in school who pines after boys from afar, then retreats to her bedroom to sing soulfully along with Dusty Springfield records.