Though the fest will take place outside of Boston, the band is making sure the weekend is filled with some Chicago love.

Among those included on the bill are Mavis Staples, whose upcoming album You Are Not Alone was produced by Jeff Tweedy, Wilco side projects The Autumn Defense, Pronto and The Nels Cline Singers, Deep Blue Organ Trio, On Fillmore and several audio/visual DJ sets by Numero Group.

Throughout the weekend there will be a comedy stage hosted by Todd Barry and on Sunday, Aug. 15 there will also be a special Jeff Tweedy solo performance, billed as “Solo Plus” which hopefully indicates he’ll be joined by some of the festival’s other artists.

Here’s the full schedule for the weekend:

Friday, August 13
8 p.m. – Midnight

The Books

Pronto

Deep Blue Organ Trio

plus

SOLID SOUND LAUNCH PARTY

featuring the audio/visual collective

The Numero Group

w/Special Guests

Saturday, August 14
1 p.m. – Midnight

WILCO

Mavis Staples

The Baseball Project

Bread & Puppet

Mountain Man

Vetiver

On Fillmore

Sir Richard Bishop

Brenda

plus

The Numero Group (DJs)

Story Pirates (Kid Friendly)

Comedy Cabaret Featuring

Hannibal Buress, John Mulaney, Kristen Schaal and Todd Barry

Plus

Weekend Pass to MASS MoCA featuring the Sol Lewitt Retrospective, Material World Exhibit, the kid-friendly Kidspace and

the Solid Sound Specific Nels Cline’s Solid Sound Stompbox Station • Glenn Kotche’s Interactive Drumhead Exhibit • Pat Sansone’s Polaroid Exhibit • Cassandra C. Jones’ – Video Installation • WILCO Curated Film Series • WILCO Poster Retrospective • Poster Printing Workshop • On-site Luthier

Sunday, August 15
Noon – 8 p.m.

Jeff Tweedy Solo +

Avi Buffalo

The Nels Cline Singers

The Autumn Defense

Outrageous Cherry

Deep Blue Organ Trio

plus

The Numero Group (DJs)

• • After only having acquired the service last December, Apple decided to shut down Lala.com with users being directed to iTunes.
• • Gaper’s Block had another great live review, this time of the Yeasayer, Sleigh Bells and Chandeliers show at the Metro from last Thursday.
• • Windy City Rock gave a fine review of the new album The Fakeout, the Tease and the Breather from the local group Canasta.
• • Greg Kot interviewed prog rockers Porcupine Tree prior to their concert at the Rivera Theatre last Friday.
• • NBC Chicago reported on the story of how local reissue label Numero Group ended up releasing a record originally compiled as a bootleg.

“Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow,” the first film compilation by Numero Group, will make its Chicago debut this Friday and Saturday night at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

For producer Michael Slaboch, seeing this labor of love come to fruition has been a long time coming and so far has garnered two sold out screenings at the 92Y Tribeca in Manhattan.

“The project took four years from first thought to the screening in New York City last weekend,” said Slaboch.  “The first two and a half years it sat on the dry erase board.”

Al Jarnow made short animated, time-lapse and stop motion films from 1969 through the mid 1990’s for “Sesame Street” and “3-2-1 Contact” but also created a substantial body of avant-garde experimental films that are also included on the DVD.

Slaboch reviewing one of Jarnows film strip at the Numero Group office.

“About a year and a half ago we met with Al for the first time and once he was on board, then we started to aggressively contact Sesame Workshop to get someone in their legal department to let us license the twenty-plus films from them.”

After finally getting someone there to get on board with their concept for the DVD compilation the rights were secured and production began.

“We headed out to Al’s house where we watched around a hundred 16mm reels to find the best prints of his independent work and some Sesame Street material, and we ended up putting 45 films on the DVD.”

In the spring of 2009, Slaboch and a four person film production crew spent three days in Northport, Long Island interviewing Jarnow the for a documentary that is included on the DVD and will be shown along with 15 of Jarnow’s films at the Gene Siskel Film Center this weekend.

Transcribing interview with Jarnow for documentary.

“We made a 30-minute documentary that deconstructs his creative process and also gleaned loads of ephemera for the 60 page book included with the DVD that has essays on Al and the 1970s New York City avant-garde film scene.”

Since 2003, the independent record label Numero Group has been turning out albums full of rare and forgotten music compiled from sources from across the world.

With offices located in the lower level of a house in the Little Village neighborhood, the four person operation comprised of founders Ken Shipley, Tom Lunt, along with Rob Sevier and Slaboch epitomizes a do-it-yourself model.
The space is cramped, doubling as a stockroom with the walls lined with shelves stacked with albums that will be handled by the guys to fill orders around the globe.

“UPS knows this address very well,” Slaboch said while preparing a package for delivery to one of several Chicago record stores that carry the label’s releases.

Numero Group painstakingly researches, re-masters and repackages music that has been lost, forgotten or never heard.  They go to great lengths to do more than a simple reissue by including background essays, detailed liner notes, scores of images and any other relics available to create a complete story.

“The process of putting this DVD together has been very similar to making one of our records, in the sense that the memorable films speak for themselves but that’s not enough to warrant reissuing them for us,” said Slaboch. “There always has to be a story with one of our mainline releases, and luckily Al has a tremendous tale with great cultural importance.”

Examining Jarnow animation cels

In five years they have produced 34 CD’s, 21 vinyl LPs, 16 45s, eight 12 inches, and two sets of baseball-style trading cards of Numero Group artists, and promoted sold-out concerts featuring Numero Group performers and house band JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at the Park West and Lincoln Hall.

“We’re thinking about creative ways to share music, films, photographs, and stories with people through a physical form that they want to own and hold and experience and not just have it be a bunch of zeros and ones that they download.”

But the group’s ideas and aspirations are still expanding.

Numero Group branched out by creating the label’s first full size book of photography by Michael L. Abramson titled, “Light: On The Southside” that depicts nightlife on the South Side of Chicago from 1975 to 1977.

Looking at a test page for "Light: On the Southside"

Released last fall, the 132 page hard back book showcasing more than 100 photos from the city’s nightclubs also included a two LP set of 17 songs by Chicago blues and soul legends making it one of the most expansive releases for the label to date.

So does producing a DVD and a 132 page photography book signal a shift toward visual media for the label?

“Not necessarily.”  Slaboch said. “We just want to share and preserve things that we think are historically important and inspiring. Whether that’s photographs of South Side blues clubs, short films that tens of millions of people have seen but have no idea who made them, or compiling the entire output of Syl Johnson’s career up to 1972, it’s all the same to us.”

While their releases may not be soaring to the top of Billboard charts, the label is thriving and a variety of releases are planned for the coming year including the complete recordings of Syl Johnson from 1959-1972, a three CD set from the Boddie Recording Company out of Cleveland, and another installment in their Local Customs series this time focusing on the Beaumont, Texas Lowlands Studio.

But for Slaboch it’s about more than simply digging up old relics, for him the drive comes from, “Meeting the artists and learning more about their lives and what drove and inspired them to make their music and films or run regional record labels. Many of the people we deal with are significantly older than us, by 30 or 40 years and there’s a lot to learn from their lives and experiences.”

“Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow” trailer:

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“Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow” screens at 8 p.m. Friday Feb. 19 and Saturday Feb. 20 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, $10 tickets can be purchased via TicketMaster or at the theater box office (no service fees).

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Coming off the heels of their successful and sold-out performance at the Park West last April, the local independent label Numero Group will be taking it’s Eccentric Soul Revue on the road, starting with a show at Lincoln Hall this Saturday.  

The tour is being co-sponsored by Shlitz and will include many special guests at stops along the way.

Added to the roster from the Spring concert is local singer Linda Balintine, whose ultra-rare 45″ appeared on, Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label and Sharon Clark who was featured on the compilation, Eccentric Soul: The Yodi Label.  Another addition, Pastor TL Barrett and his choir  who are featured on the upcoming release, Good God! Born Again Funk, is slated to kick the show off with a song from the album.  

Returning to the stage are local soul legends Syl Johnson, Renaldo Domino and The Notations.  Once again Chicago’s own JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound will serve as house band delivering soul and funk grooves all night long.  Tickets are selling out fast, so tell your friends on the East Coast to get on the ball and check out some Windy City legends.

The Numero Group Eccentric Soul Revue Tour:

Saturday Nov 7th
Lincoln Hall
Chicago, IL
Special Guests:
Linda Balintine, Sharon Clark, & Pastor TL Barrett
18+/Doors 8pm
Tickets: Lincoln Hall
–
Sunday Nov 8th
Crofoot Ballroom
Pontiac, MI
Special Guests:
Bobby Cook & Velma Perkins
All Ages/Doors at 7pm
Tickets: Ticketweb

–
Monday Nov 9th
Lincoln Theater
Columbus, OH
Special Guests:
Marion Black & The Four Mints
All Ages/Doors at 7pm
Tickets: Lincoln Theater and Ticketmaster
* No service fees with cash at box office*

–
Tuesday Nov 10th
9:30 Club
Washington D.C.
All Ages/Doors at 6pm
Tickets: 9:30 Club and Brown Paper Tickets

–
Friday Nov 13th
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Brooklyn, NY
Special Guest:
Missy Missy Dee
18+/Doors 8pm
Tickets: Music Hall of Williamsburg and Ticketmaster
* No service fees with cash at Music Hall or Mercury Lounge*

–
Thursday Nov 12th
Grand Ballroom, Manhattan Center
New York, NY
Special Guest:
Missy Missy Dee
All Ages/Doors at 7pm
Tickets: Grand Ballroom and Ticketmaster
* No service fees with cash at Mercury Lounge*

According to a post from their blog, send an e-mail to info@numerogroup.com if interested in giving them a hand for college credit or if simply curious about how a record label works.

Here’s a Youtube made by some previous Numero interns about their experiences:

Also, be sure to check out our review of Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul: Smart’s Place.

The residency will continue at its regularly scheduled last-Wednesday-of-the-month slot starting on August, 26  and September, 30.

From 10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Numero songs and other rarities and cuts recently transferred for upcoming release will be featured. A special guest is planned for each night, and all of the label’s catalog will be available for purchase.

Independent label Numero Group released its latest album from its Eccentric Soul series titled Smart’s Palace. This 19 track installment documents the Wichita, Kansas, soul scene from the late 60’s to early 70’s and features cuts from the Smart Brothers, Theron & Darrell, Baby Neal, Chocolate Snow, L.T. & the Soulful Dynamics, Fred Williams & the Jewels Band, Kenneth Carr, Tim Jacob and The Hard Road.

During it’s brief six-year history as a label, Numero Group has proven that great soul music doesn’t have to come from Memphis or Detroit. The album’s title, Smart’s Palace, comes from a club owned by the Smart family, which was the hub for soul music in Wichita. 

Fittingly, the album kicks off with a slow ballad from the Smart Brothers featuring Baby Neal called “I’m Not Ashamed.” The Smart Brothers band, consisting of sons of Smart’s Palace owners, is the primary force behind the horn driven “Barefoot Philly” and “I’ve Got a Funny Feeling,” which, along with the opening track, unfortunately contains canned crowd noise in effort to give them a live feel.

Probably the most intriguing tracks on the album are “A Day in the Life” and “Inflation.” The cleverly named mixed race group Chocolate Snow (partially made up of some of Baby Neal’s brothers) gives their take on Wes Montgomery’s version of the popular Beatles track “A Day In The Life” from Sgt. Pepper’s. The cut sounds very little like the Lennon and McCartney-penned original, but instead offers a smooth, fusion-filled and almost Santana-esque adaptation sans vocals. Psychedelic guitar solos play over grove driven organ lines making this the most head bobbing friendly track on the disc. The track “Inflation” uses the same instrumental take from Chocolate Snow’s “A Day In The Life,” but includes spoken word. With lines like “You mean to tell me you don’t have no jobs today/ Well you told me last week to come back this week/But tell me what I can do/I got a family to feed,” the word choice seems as pertinent today as it did in 1974. The vocal track over the funky background music gives this rework a Leon Haywood feel and could undoubtedly be sampled for a Dr. Dre song.

Takes from L.T. & the Soulful Dynamics, “Everybody Needs Someone” and “Crazy About You Baby,” evoke memories of AM radio but could also be backing tracks for today’s soul music superstar Sharon Jones. Fred Williams’ “The Dance Got Old” features the popular soul music “tighten up” technique, which is the band leader calls out an instrument one at a time for a solo. On “Let Me Be Your Christmas Toy,” Chocolate Snow takes a odd and poorly executed attempt at seasonal soul music proving why there aren’t many (any?) Christmas soul albums.

For a compilation from Wichita, Kansas, which offers some tunes that have never before saw the light of day, this album delivers a solid mix of rare soul. Not every song hits the mark completely, but the ones that do offer enough classic soul that would surely make the Smart family proud.