Red Red Meat and Jim Becker at The Hideout 7/11/2008

Man was this a good show. It was Becker's first foray with his new group and while I can't ever say I'm surprised by how good anything he does is, I guess I was. For a first show, they were outstanding. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and with a finishing song that turned into a prolonged, beautiful, meditative drone worthy of Pelt.

Red Red Meat were amazing. Wish they'd played more off the first two albums, but what else would you expect an aged aging hipster to say? Listening to them was really a treat. It was especially interesting, now that we have had Califone to enjoy for the last 10 years, to hear how that music evolved out of the lurching RRM beast. Califone is at once more rootsy and more eclectic and I'm not sure how they've managed to pull that off.

Oh yeah. The pictures.

Orchestra Baobab, Chicago, IL 6/28/2008

Finally got a chance to see one of my very favorite bands ever in the whole wide world of favorite bands, and I'd pretty much given up on even having the chance. Thanks to Mayor Daley and the folks doing an excellent job booking the amazing run of free shows we've been having all summer down at Millennium Park. (No! NOT Blues Fest! The acts at the more civilized and infinitely more aesthetically and sonically pleasing Pritzker Pavillion across the street.)

Seeing a show there on a nice summer night is the best showcase I can think of for our amazing city, and it's one of the best reasons to live here that I can imagine.

The music was amazing and the city really put on a show as well.

Click the post title for the rest of my pics of the night.

Air and Kilometers

Have I said lately how huge is my love for Kaki King's talent and artistic bravery?

it's this









big.

Click here or the post title to see her cool new stop motion video.

Interview with QRT Magazine

My interview with QRT on CTD and the current state of the indie music biz. Digest with a grain of salt, and finish off with second and third opinions.

Friends of Red Red Meat

Nice post from awesome Chicago photographer Jim Newberry about the sudden mid-90's musical renaissance going on here, with Liz Phair, Urge Overkill and RED RED MEAT
all playing within a week of each other. A RRM reunion is huge news for many of us. Urge Overkill not so much. Been wishing them away since their second album and, like ring wraithes, it only seems to make them stronger. Working to confirm that Liz did in fact have to reunite with herself.

So, GO SEE this rare performance by RED RED MEAT at The Hideout on Thursday July 11. It's a warm up for their big slot at the SubPop 20th Anniversary Party in Seattle this weekend—a chance for them to kick off the twelve ten year old rust and see a bunch of old friends in one place. The entire SP20 festival is a huge benefit concert, and RRM have benevolently decided to donate their money to the Accelerated Cure Project, a group aggressively working on finding a cure for multiple sclerosis.

Califone grew directly out of the demise of RRM, so if you dig their wonderful craziness, time to find out the roots!

And speaking of mid-90's Chicago rock, MANTIS are also reuniting for a gig on Thursday, July 17 at Ronnie's, currently the local club most closely resembling their original stomping ground The Czar Bar, in all of it's Algrenesque glory. Rock on Gene, Dave, and Rian!

Trivia: In 1993, The Coctails held their record release party at the Division Street jazz club The Bop Shop. Who played the opening set for The Coctails at this coming out party for their genre bending, critic confounding, garage jazz album "Long Sound?" First correct answer in Comments gets a free copy of "Popcorn Box" mailed to their home. (CT employees and band members not eligible.)

Behold the Kaossilator

We've been trying to get our hands on a batch of these since we found out about it months ago. Korg has finally promised a new batch of them will appear sometime in early August and we damn well intend to have some to sell. Hopefully after we all buy ours there will be some left for the rest of you. We'll post a link for preorders on Saki later this week. What an incredible little box!

Carrot Top Records Sweet 16 Party

We don't have the order and dates yet, and we're still hoping to rope in another surprise or two to add to the fun, but after a lot of discussion we can now confirm the following:

Fri Sept 26 and Sat Sept 27 The Hideout Chicago featuring
The Handsome Family
Antietam
The Coctails
Megan Reilly
KatJonBand (Jon Langford of The Mekons & Kat Ex of The Ex)
Speck Mountain
The Bitter Tears
Lys Guillorn

Logistics, price, and exact running order of bands are all being worked on along with several harebrained ideas. We'll post more details as soon as we get them, both at the CTR News site and at The Hideout website. We can't wait! Big, BIG ups to The Hideout for allowing us to invade for a whole weekend. Truly the most gracious club owners on the planet.

Does Darth Vader Like Nashville?

On May 18, The Sadies played a special Sunday afternoon show at The Hideout. It was set up rather hastily to help put gas money in their van so they could get back to Canada in one piece after appearing at a benefit to abolish the death penalty the night before. The really great set included guest appearances by Sally Timms of The Mekons, Rich Sherry of Devil in a Woodpile, Rosie Flores of Texas, and Renaissance Man Jon Langford of The Mekons. Jon and Sadies were delightfully joined on a ripping version of his wonderful "Nashville Radio," sung way too fast for a Sunday afternoon, by a dancing Darth Vader, enthusiastically played by his youngest son.

The video is here and if it doesn't make you smile, you'd better check your pulse.

Make sure to click the Watch in High Quality button and when it's over BE SURE TO RATE IT. Darth Vader only accepts 5 Star Ratings, and we don't want him angry with us, do we?

DRM Manifesto

As much as I read and think about this stuff, which is most of the time—awake or asleep, I have no clue how this great article skated by me for the last year. It is a great piece by Moses Avalon, the nom de guerre of the music industry vet who wrote the 1999 book Confessions of a Record Producer that laid out major label music contract evils in a slightly less bombastic manner than Steve Albini's famous Maximum Rock and Roll article.

Sadly, and as much as I wish it weren't true, I think this big ship has sailed, and mostly because most younger kids just don't care any more. All they know is free music and they've now been able to develop other priorities that don't include mowing lawns, cleaning pools and babysitting for music money. Of course there is a subset of cool kids who get the whole self-supporting indie mentality. They love their vinyl and they support their favorite artists. Their friends do not. For the kids who are file sharing, and that's almost all of them, stripping DRM makes no difference because the free-floating MP3s they're trading are already DRM-free. Even better, they're FREE free.

If there is a free champaign fountain flowing 24 hours a day anywhere you might be, would it make you feel better about driving all the way to my house and then paying $40 a bottle if I promise to uncork it for you first? Didn't think so.

Is it possible that the next generation—the kids now in elementary school—may feel differently? I can't (yet) see the future, so I suppose so, but I can't for the life of me figure out what titanic event would cause that shift back to such a monumental revaluation of music after more than a decade of freefalling erosion.

Here's to the cool kids.

And Happy Birthday Deborah Harry!