It’s a big day for the Windy (and snow-covered) City’s indie/Americana circuit. After generating significant buzz over the past year, Chicago’s fun folk rockers, Dastardly, are finally dropping their bomb-of-a-debut album and will kickoff the grand release tonight at Schubas.
And yes, we realize that was a shameless public service announcement for hungry folk enthusiasts. So let’s go ahead and talk about the new Dastardly release, shall we?
By Jason Shough \ comments
Last year, The Autumn Defense founders John Stirratt and Pat Sansone – also currently members of Wilco– made a trip over to New Zealand. Of course, contrary to recent Hollywood buzz, they didn’t go to lend their indie cred in support of filming the new hobbit movies there —we had the same question.
Instead, Stirratt and Sansone were helping Neil Finn et al. record the “Seven Worlds Collide” charity record, during which both musicians reconnected with “why they do this,” [music, that is] and how much they really enjoy it. A year later, the result of this musical epiphany will be released tomorrow on North Carolina’s Yep Roc Records, The Autumn Defense’s new album titled Once Around.
By Jason Shough \ comments
You could argue it takes about three spins before you’re fully drawn in to the musical fabric of a record. But Chicago’s Northpilot – as if advertising for some shiny new electric screwdriver – offers this service in about half that time! The band recently dropped a new EP titled The Bright Brigade that makes the time-honored art of listening to records about as easy as it is rewarding.
By Jason Shough \ 1 comment
“Take Five” is a new interview series that will focus on Chicago’s ever-growing music scene by giving you insight on the city’s best local acts via the best source possible: the acts themselves. We ask five questions, and they give five answers. Here is the latest installment featuring The Bears of Blue River.
Chicago’s folk heroes, The Bears of Blue River, are on tour and taking care of business. They’ve already moved their kind-hearted brand of eclectic folk through Nashville last week and plan to play the Starry Night Music Festival in Bowling Green, KY, tomorrow evening. On top of playing shows and writing music for a new album hitting shelves in January, The Bears spend the days parsing through correspondence and keeping the show moving — so they can also reluctantly add administrative skills to their resume. We caught up with Gavin Ellis Wilkinson from The Bears over the phone this week to catch up on the tour, and what we Chicago audiophiles should expect in the next few months:
By Jason Shough \ comments
It’s is a little after midnight on Friday, August 20. The Bears of Blue River, followed by Canasta – both extremely talented Chicago bands – just finish a pair of inspired sets at Lincoln Avenue’s finest cheese-and-noodle-serving musical establishment, Lincoln Hall.
Now, with four horn-playing musicians crammed onto stage left and four additional violin-clad musicians in reserve, things are about to get serious. Two guys with music composition degrees from Eastern Illinois University and two other rhythmically-inclined gentlemen who comprise the Champaign-Urbana-based headliner, Elsinore, position themselves on stage to celebrate the release of their new record Yes, Yes, Yes. Three powerful songs into the set , Ryan Groff, the band’s front man, lays down a most unlikely and awesome line to a crowd of about 350:
“We love you guys like the Beastie Boys loved their fans in the 90s.”
By Jason Shough \ 1 comment
When music is satisfying enough, it is rarely necessary to come up with endless comparisons to other similar sounds. Indeed, it’s often difficult.
It is difficult because at a point it becomes irrelevant. Taming that inner comparison-making beast is the most rewarding way to listen to Shelley Miller’s newest record, When It’s All Gone, You Come Back, which is enjoyable enough to discourage all brands of musical pinpointing. The album has a fervor that reveals its creator’s reverence for folk influences, a reverence used tenaciously with Miller’s personality to unleash a soft and hot originality.
By Jason Shough \ comments
Calvin Marty
Fake Shore Drive
Giant System Chicago
Lost In Concert
Outside The Loop Radio
The Deli Chicago
Underground Bee
Windy City Rock
WXRT
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