Of course, I’m not talking about the sport, but rather the abrasive post-punk slash garage-rock outfit from Chicago.
Just back from last month’s SXSW, during which they opened for Thee Oh Sees, Football has finally released what I’m fairly certain is their first real studio recording.
“Set Them On Fire” is the name of the game, and it’s a good one. The track opens with concussion-inducing bass that quickly gives way to dirty guitars and rambunctious beats (via Jered Gummere of The Ponys/Bare Mutants). The refrain, “Set’em Up! Set’em On Fire!” is even sung with a sports chant-like intensity. Jam on “Set Them On Fire” below:
Austin’s annual South by Southwest music festival has been slowly releasing its list of bands traveling to the Lone Star state this Spring and, yes, Chicago is represented.
On tap to play the 2012 edition are sunny pop rockers Gold Motel, dancehall DJ Chrissy Murderbot, acoustic folker Musikanto, lo-fi ambient poppers U.S. Girls, and Chicago – by way of Philadelphia – dream poppers Mahogany.
What a weekend we have in store for you, Chicago. It’s a big one with both Wicker Park and Sheffield Garden Walk competing for your attention with great local and national acts like Wild Flag, Wavves, Soul Aslyum, Company of Thieves, Canasta, Archie Powell & the Exports and more rocking the two neighborhood fests. Not to mention Thee Oh Sees are playing not once, but twice this weekend.
The Empty Bottle is teaming up once again with Goose Island and I Am Logan Square to produce a new free monthly summer concert series to take place at the Illinois Centennial Memorial Column at 2595 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Starting June 26 and running until October 9, the Bottle plans to bring musical acts such as experimental rockers Califone, metal super group Bloodiest and San Francisco psych-rockers Thee Oh Sees to perform at its Sunday afternoon concert on the Logan Square monument.
All shows are free with RSVP and will take place at 4 p.m. The final show on Sunday, October 9 is slated to have a surprise mystery guest.
The Empty Bottle had previously staged a concert at the monument last October featuring Dan Deacon and Lightning Bolt.
Grab the Bottle’s monthly concert lineup after the jump.
Three still-waiting-for-that-new-Superchunk-to-show-up-at-my-door reasons to clean behind those ears and head over to the Lincoln Hall tonight…
1. San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees just keep on piling up album after 7″ after split after album. I’d tell you about their latest, but honestly even I can’t keep up. What I can tell you is that I saw them at Schubas around this time last year and was pretty mesmerized by Jon Dwyer’s spastic movements. Oh, the music was good, too. These guys lead the way in the neo garage revival. Just great.
Seeing Thee Oh Sees did nothing to diminish their unique mystique. Yes, they are regular folks and not the underwater dwelling subhumans I may have made them out to be in my review for Help. Even so, the combination of John Dwyer’s spastic antics (think Crispin Glover having an epileptic seizure) and Brigid Dawson’s cool, ladylike demeanor creates its own, different strangeness than what you get from their records.
Thee Oh Sees’ 2008 album, The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending, although steeped in 60′s garage and psychedelia, had a feeling of not existing in a particular time or place. The band sounded like they played underground, possibly underwater. Though their new album, Help, offers a similar sound to their previous effort, it does seem that the band has at least come up for air.
Are you ready for some Football?
Winter, eat your heart out.
