Pre-Tour Rundown: From Iowa to Connecticut

Canasta's loading up the cars for a bunch of tour dates in the next week. I'll try to do some good road-blogging, but it looks like most of our time will be spent driving, sleeping, or rocking. Here's the rundown. (For more details on any of these, see Canasta's show schedule.)

Friday, October 17th - Papa's Corner in Ames, IA
My only familiarity with Ames comes from the part in Omnivore's Dilemma about the industrial corn complex. I'm expecting giant corn silos and an agricultural school. Oh, and I know that the street lingo for agricultural school is "ag school". At least it was back in New England. We didn't have real street lingo in New England, so we take what we can get.
Saturday, October 18th - The Industry in Iowa City, IA
My initial impression of it, based on the name alone, is that this is actually a miniature replica of the state of Iowa. Perhaps there is a neighborhood called "Little Des Moines" where you can get authentic... Des Moinesian food?
Sunday, October 19th - Schubas in Chicago w/ Pale Young Gentlemen, Bearsuit
Canasta's back at Schubas! With fun pop bands! We get to sleep at home! Team Chicago: if you're ready for more Schubas action, we're playing at 9pm. You know you can't get enough.
Wednesday, October 22nd - The Space in Hamden, CT (near New Haven)
The last time I went to Connecticut it was to the New Haven IKEA because Boston hadn't built their own yet. I am hoping that this trip involves fewer self-assembled bookshelves and more rock music. If that means I don't get my Swedish meatballs, oh well.
Thursday, October 23rd - CMJ Marathon in New York!
Arlene's Grocery - Show at 7pm, Canasta at 11pm - $10 for tons of Chicago bands
Canasta is sharing the stage with Brighton, MA again, along with a ton of other great Chicago acts that are descending on the lower east side for the gigantic CMJ Marathon. Even my non-hipster, non-staying-up-late, non-scenester friends have good things to say about Arlene's. I plan to eat cupcakes and pizza during a week mostly spent sitting in a carseat. The next time you see me, I will be fat. Fat fat fat.
Friday, October 24th - MilkBoy Coffee in Ardmore, PA (Philadelphia)
I went to Philadelphia on an 8th grade field trip, and I vaguely remember some animatronic Benjamin Franklin explaining the basics of democracy in a stiff and didactic presentation. Either that or it was a very bad production of the musical 1776. I've blocked the memory.

And then to top things off...
Saturday, October 25th - Solo Show at Uncommon Ground, Chicago
Welcome me home by coming out to the original Uncommon Ground (at Clark and Grace). I'll be playing a late solo show - 11pm - but if you're a fan of that nice Basia Bulat/Ingrid Michaelson vocal style, Jetty Rae will be coming down from Michigan to play for you all at 10.

My Impending Mid-to-Late Twenties Meltdown, with Music

I've spent another week tucked away from the blogosphere, so I thought I'd combine a few quick updates in a single post...

Canasta took a little field trip to Kalamazoo College on Tuesday to play at an outdoor welcome-week picnic/activities fair. Highlights: good root beer (which is, I guess, some sort of special thing in Kalamazoo? Can anyone vouch for this?); the speed limit in Michigan is 70 mph; also, it was our last outdoor show of the summer.

Friday's solo show at Cake Chicago was a lot of fun once we stopped watching Obama and McCain discuss how catastrophic the other candidate's foreign policies were. The Red Line Tap is next to (and owned by) the Heartland Cafe, the informal epicenter of progressive politics in Roger's Park (and possibly the entire North Side), and both were packed with debate watchers/hecklers. It was a weird way to get fired up for a show: on the one hand, it's therapeutic to watch the debates with other die-hard Obama supporters. On the other hand, Jim Lehrer is not much of a rock star emcee. I don't think he even tried to bring the rock. Not a good opening act at all.

Finally, last week I put up details about a very special birthday solo show happening on Tuesday, October 7th. The details are on the calendar as usual, but here's the teaser trailer:

• I am unveiling a new secret weapon. (Hint: I've been re-listening to a lot of Andrew Bird, Final Fantasy, and Patrick Wolf in the last month.)
  
• It's my first solo appearance at Schubas, which is my favorite live music venue in Chicago hands down. (Canasta will also be playing there later next month as part our CMJ tour.)
  
• I'll be opening for Portland-based Talkdemonic, who are in the midst of a huge national tour to promote their latest album, Eyes at Half Mast (which I'm listening to right now).
• Team LA will have a special, one-person "soft launch" at the show. (Who could it be???)

Next week's show in Windy City Times

Can you believe it's almost time for another show, Team Chicago? It seems like only three weeks and two days since we last saw each other, in the steamy underbelly of Lincoln Park. (It was really hot at Elbo Room that night. I think I sweated through my jeans. Rock.)

Well, Team Chicago, our next mission is to rock the sweaty jeans off of the queer (and queer-friendly) crowd at Cake Chicago, the Red Line Tap's monthly queer music showcase. It's Friday, September 26th at 9pm. If you want a sly method to invite some friends along, simply open up the latest edition of the Windy City Times, turn to their music column on page 29, and ponder, aloud, as if you were in a poorly-written play, "What on earth are we going to do on Friday the 26th?" Then, "accidentally" run a yellow highlighter all over the plug for next week's show. Your friends will never suspect a thing.

More details on my show calendar or at the Cake Chicago MySpace page.

A Little Elbo Room Preview For Tonight...

A little reminder for Team Chicago: I'll be playing at 9pm tonight at Elbo Room (2871 N. Lincoln). Here's what you'll be missing if you're not there:

• My favorite Frames cover, which was in regular set rotation back in Boston, is getting its Chicago debut tonight.
• A song with dorky, English-majory references to transcendentalism. (Huzzah!)
• A cute new T-shirt from Portland. (That's really why you people come to see me, right? My T-shirt collection? That's what I thought.)

Non-Chicagoans: if you are on Facebook, the August Monthly Mix giveaway is waiting for you.

Off to the Burbs

I'm off to the suburbs for the weekend for a songwriting retreat with the band. A good chunk of the new album is already in various stages of doneness, including a couple that are in regular rotation in our setlist now. In fact, we'll be playing two of them tonight at the Abbey Pub.

In the meantime, pretty up those Facebook profiles with blatant, shameless Ian-related promotion. Details at the end of this Monthly Mix post. (Really, you can tear yourself away from the new Scrabble for five minutes, and the new Scrabble isn't as good as Scrabulous was. RIP, my little copyright-violating distraction.)

Next week, get ready for my show at the Elbo Room on Tuesday (details) and some more frequent new content.

Revenge of the Monthly Mix

I'm back from Portland now and readjusting to the beloved humidity and flatness of Chicago. You know what else is back? The Monthly Mix!

But before we get into that, some show notes for Team Chicago. My next solo show is coming up a week from Tuesday -- that's August 26th -- and I've got a Glen Hansard cover with your name on it. (Yeah, you know who he is. No, you totally do. He's that guy from the Frames and the movie Once. Yeah, see, I told you.) Also, the ambient, lush and synth-looped stylings of Teletextile come back to town at the Bottom Lounge tonight at 9pm, so if you're avoiding the Air and Water Show, that's the place to be. And in Canasta-land, we're playing a show at the Abbey Pub next Thursday. Whew! Busy month.

August Monthly Mix Contest

Last month's poll elected "Riding in Cars with Boys" as the theme for this round of the Monthly Mix. So while I'm putting together a mix of my favorite songs about cars, or boys, or...riding(?) -- I have a new challenge for you readers. Even better, it's more fun stuff for you to do on Facebook. Here's how it'll work:

(a) If we aren't Facebook friends yet, add me as a friend. You can find me here.
(b) Put me on your profile in some way, shape, or form. This can be as simple as going to my ReverbNation player on my Facebook profile and adding a track or two to your own profile, or adding me as a favorite artist on Pandora or iLike (if you have those installed on your profile). I have a few examples on my own profile. Or get creative!
(c) When you're done with that, email me (or Facebook message me) to let me know so I can include you in the drawing for the Monthly Mix.
(d) In the first week of September, I'll randomly select a winner from anyone who's completed this month's challenge.

That's it! So go procrastinate some more on Facebook and share the indie-folk piano love at the same time.

Scenes from Lollapalooza, Friday

[This month's Monthly Mix winner was "Riding in Cars With Boys" -- details on what the giveaway will be coming soon.]

Friday, 2:15pm
Somewhere inside Grant Park, The Go! Team probably has their crazy backup dancers and recorder riffs getting started. I, on the other hand, am in the infamous one-hour line that has formed outside of Lolla. Getting through the entrance gate is akin to being stuck in four-lane highway traffic. The other side of the crowd appears to be moving faster than my side, but I'm sure that if I move over all movement will cease, and I will be stuck zig-zagging for another hour. The longest delay occurs as security dutifully searches our bags for reusable water bottles, outside food, and other sources of energy and hydration that would eat into on-site food and drink sales. Ironically, enough pot has probably passed through these gates already to record five Flaming Lips albums.

Friday, 4pm
My friend Maria has volunteered to stake out an area for three of us in the south lawn for Radiohead's headlining set. None of us really go to outdoor festivals very often, so the folly of staking out more than four cubic feet so early in the day is lost to us. Gogol Bordello takes the stage at 4:15 and makes me want to learn rock accordion. I am also grateful to be in a band with a violinist -- theirs is excellent and is sounding crystal clear, even from our spot right next to the soundtent.

Friday, 5:15pm
Mates of State were one of the first artists that came up on the Pandora station I created based off of The Crater EP. I'd never heard them before, and though I never would have pegged them as being similar to my music, they are a girl-guy piano-drum duo, and I'm a sucker for those. It's more pop than rock, but every once in a while I recognize a melody from only having heard it once or twice on the radio. With the amount of radio I listen to, your melodies have to be pretty damn catchy to stick out like that.

Friday, 5:45pm
I rush to the next stage to catch some of Grizzly Bear, who I first heard of as a friend of Owen Pallett's and member of Animal Collective. The stage is temptingly near a row of food, and Grizzly Bear is not punch-you-in-your-face dance-rock, so I start to stray towards the junk food, but I'm immediately pulled back as soon as I hear the refrain from their latest single: "My god that's not the way to treat a woman." (I'm trying to find the name of the song, but Google is giving my results related to women being mauled by bears. Anyone?) My latest songwriting obsession is how to craft a line that stands up to a lot of repetition, and this song nails it.

Friday, 6:15pm
I'm rushing back to Maria's little plot of land in Lolla-ville amid texts of "Oh my holy crowds" -- Bloc Party has brought out 95% of the shirtlessness that will soon fill Grant Park for Radiohead. In interviews, Bloc Party's frontman, Kele Okereke, has talked about the relative absence of overtly queer themes on their first album, but it still doesn't take more than five minutes of Googling to find mention of Okereke's sexuality. So while a lyric from "This Modern Love" like "Do you want to come over and kill some time/throw your arms around me" isn't an exclusively queer sentiment by any means, I like knowing Okereke is probably thinking of a boy when he's singing the ever-loving sweat out of it on stage (which he did). It's also secretly satisfying when groups of sweaty, shirtless straight boys are shout-singing those lyrics, as if they're ready to line up backstage for Okereke to sign their arm with a sharpie. Either none of these boys have heard of Google or there are a lot of rock-induced man-crushes here tonight.

Friday, 7:15pm
By the end of Bloc Party, a rational person would not see any additional room to move forward past the soundtent, but everyone in Grant Field is inching closer and closer to the stage. Maria has gone to the bathroom and essentially forfeited her position in sweatland for a higher vantage point behind the VIP cabanas. Text messages are delayed by about 15 minutes because of the local overload.

Friday, 7:59pm
I can almost make out Steve Malkmus on the other side of the field finishing the last note of his set when a synth drum riff starts from the mainstage. Damn, that's good timing.

Friday, 8pm
Let me tell you something about Radiohead. People in Chicago talk about their last performance here, in Grant Park in 2001, as if Jesus and Buddha were in attendance giving them an extra push. A lot of reports of Friday's performance have been a "meh" compared to the "wow" of 2001. I was actually in Chicago the summer of 2001, and I was on dorm duty for a bunch of high school campers in Evanston. One of my students, bless his heart, broke curfew to go see the concert, and called from the concert to convince me he was stranded in a cab downtown and not in fact enjoying Chicago's landmark musical event of 2001. He knew my brain would explode if I knew what I was missing.

Well, I don't care if Friday wasn't the legend that 2001 was. My brain still exploded. There were fireworks during "Fake Plastic Trees". It was awesome.

More Lolla coverage tomorrow. In the meantime, you can read Jim DeRogatis' Day 2 roundup, which gives a(nother) shoutout to Canasta. (Hooray!)

The Dodos at Pitchfork

[Housekeeping: If you're in Chicago on Saturday, Canasta plays Schuba's for free as in zero dollars.]

I spent a relatively infinitesimal amount of time at the Pitchfork Festival over the weekend, but I scored a free ticket to Sunday and can't say no to free live music. In retrospect, I feel silly for not spending the $35 on an entire day of music, considering how much money a single day at Lollapalooza is costing me next month (over twice as much), in addition to the normal street prices most of the food, merch, and beer vendors were charging. If it seems odd to fixate on the cost of the festival and its wares, it's not -- Pitchfork is, after all, the current flagship of the indie/hipster armada. (In the words of my favorite T-shirt from yesterday, "I listen to bands that don't even exist yet.") And if there's one thing that indie/hipster culture gets lampooned for, it's championing a non-corporate, do-it-yourself ethos that is, in reality, bourgeois and unaffordable (to put it lightly). Compared to a more mainstream street festival like the Taste of Chicago, it's admirable for the festival to resist the temptation to price gouge.

The folks I really went to see were the Dodos, a guitar and drum duo that had added another percussionist to their lineup for their Pitchfork set. As someone who plays either by himself or with five other people, I'm always curious to see how to achieve that full band, six-person sound with only two or three people. It's a challenge to the musicians to use every part of their body and brain, and in a weird way it appeals to the cheapskate in me who wants to fit an entire band into a Subaru hatchback. The Dodos' full-time drummer achieves a lot of this by being a polyrhythmic machine; the second percussionist was relegated to instruments that added timbre and texture (like a garbage can) but not a core beat. The guitarist had a tambourine strapped to his foot and a loop pedal at his disposal for layered vocals and, at one point, a full three-note chord built from looping a trombone on itself.

While you won't get the visual acrobatics from just listening to their album, it's still different enough from most other drum-plus-one offerings to warrant a listen: www.myspace.com/thedodos.

Homolatte Tonight

I know, I know. You're sitting here at work right now, scrambling for something to do. "How could I let another Tuesday night in the summer go to waste?" you're asking yourself. "Why do I always wind up going home, knitting, and falling asleep in front of Robot Chicken?" I don't know why, but I have the solution.

Tonight - 7:30pm - Homolatte at Big Chicks, 5024 N. Sheridan. It's free, but only for you.

And if you're looking for another blog to read (and who isn't?), check out A-Ville Daily, who were awesome enough to feature tonight's show on their site.

Weirdest Maybe Heckling Ever

I finally made it out to one of Jenny Owen Youngs' shows last night at Schuba's. She's been on my radar ever since she popped up on Pandora alongside Erin McKeown, with whom she shares some similar vocal stylings and a record label. She had a fairly small crowd for Schuba's on a Saturday night, but I'm guessing that the Old Town School's festival up in Welles Park was siphoning off a lot of her Chicago fan base.

I was expecting an intimate vibe because of the crowd size. I'm not even sure what I mean by "intimate"; any time you hear a small but good show described it's always "intimate". But it conjures some at least basic expectations: the performer will pull out funny anecdotes and rarely performed songs, the audience is adoring and supportive, everyone hugs at the end. Those elements were there in Jenny's set, but the audience part was... well, it was kind of weird and heckle-y. But at the same time it was clear these people were her fans, so it wasn't negative heckling. If Jenny was doing stage banter, two or three audience members would banter back, loudly, like "You sound great, you don't need to tune anymore" or "I would like a T-shirt", as if perhaps instead of watching Jenny at Schuba's, in their head they were on some sort of date at a coffeeshop or Korean barbecue. I guess that's intimate in a different way, but when you're standing in the audience, in order to talk to the performer you really have to shout like a drunken Cubs fan, which sounds aggressive no matter what you're saying and defeats any sort of "intimate" vibe regardless, unless you have masochistic fantasies about Cubs fans shouting at you on your coffeeshop dates. In the end some guy took off his shirt and threw it on stage, which I guess would fit into the whole Wrigley Field scenario I've detailed here.

I think my point is, at my show on Tuesday, let's use our indoor voices and if you have to take off your shirt, please fold it neatly and leave it at the foot of the stage.

On the road...

[Reminders: Vote for me in the I-Go contest and get your Amazon reviews up for the Monthly Mix contest.]

I'm up in Minneapolis with Canasta today for our 7th Street Entry show. I'll do a full "tour diary" -- for this one-day tour -- once we're back in Chicago, but so far the story points have been:

(a) Culver's, the only frozen custard chain I'm aware of, is at virtually every exit from Wisconsin to the Twin Cities. I haven't spent enough time in the midwest yet for the novelty of abundant frozen custard to wear off. It makes me giddy.

(b) Somehow mosquitos got, like, inside my sleeping bag last night. I was indoors.

(c) There's a queer coffeeshop in Minneapolis! And it's open right now! And there are other queer people awake and hanging out before noon! What's not to like?

Lazy Video Posting Day

Hey blogosphere, it's Saturday! Instead of creating new content on the internet I feel like just embedding content that other people have created. No commentary, no snarky comments, just a brief introduction. One housekeeping note: voting on the Monthly Mix closes tomorrow, and I know there are a lot more people reading the blog than have voted -- it's over there in the sidebar.

BoingBoing has the explanation behind this wonderful waste of time (it gets really good around 8-9 minutes if you don't want to watch the whole thing):





And tonight, if you're not already committed to another neighborhood festival, Mucca Pazza are playing Division Street at 7pm. I haven't seen them yet, but good lord, they look fun:

Bad Metaphorical Puns

Well, live music in Chicago has a healthier prognosis at the end of this week. The promoter's ordinance has been stopped -- in its current form, at least -- and I played my first of many, many shows with Canasta last night. So many, in fact, that we are going to go up to Minneapolis on June 11th to let Team Chicago build up an appetite for our Pizza Fest appearance later that month. (Get it? 'Cause you'll be eating pizza while you listen to us? I know it's a really complex metaphor, there; this is why no one pays me to blog.) In the meantime, I have a solo show on May 29th which you can read all about on the calendar.

And by "read all about", I mean check what time it is and who else is playing. There's not really much of a narrative there that would require a lot of reading.

Last Week's Show Roundup, UL Show on Wednesday

Wow, did I really not blog all week? Someone e-kick my ass the next time I do that. I've been busy with lots of stuff this week -- like preparing for my show at the Underground Lounge on Wednesday -- so I'm just going to give some quick updates so none of you think I was abducted by Cloud Cult last night to paint watercolors for them twice a night. (Hooray for overt segues...)

Last night was the aforementioned Mason Proper/Cloud Cult show at Schuba's. I'm a big fan of any musical act that treats their live show as an audiovisual event, even if it's simply having a strong sense of chemistry and charisma on stage. They certainly have that component down cold. Cloud Cult is the only band I've ever seen live that featured four and sometimes five vocal parts on each song, and there's something about singing that forces band members to engage with an audience in a way that's often overlooked by a band's instrumentalists. But they also took some risks with their visual presence in the form of an art gallery-esque backing line that included video art projected onto a screen and two painters actually painting a watercolor from start to finish during the band's set.

I'm ashamed to say that I missed Mason Proper entirely. I've been feeling completely burnt by opening bands in the past two weeks, and usually Schuba's is a venue that books a handful of unlisted opening acts, so I was quite surprised to show up a mere hour after showtime to find Cloud Cult almost ready to go. Thankfully the room was also full, so I'm hoping a lot of people got to see Mason Proper's set, because their music was actually a good match for Cloud Cult fans, which is always a win-win-win situation (i.e. for both bands and the audience). Not every venue books with this in mind.

Ahem, speaking of which, my heart really went out to Teletextile on Thursday. I don't like to call out venues on poor booking -- it's just not professional, and it's not always the venue's fault -- but something did seem amiss with the bill. Teletextile was very ambient and melodic, probably best described as indie electronica. They were booked with (1) a band with four guitars ('nuff said) and (2) a post-punk/metal act. I just don't think it reflects well on the venue to throw together fans of such disparate musical styles.

And from a business standpoint, who's sticking around for more than one drink if you don't like the rest of the bill? Well, yes, alcoholics, but who else? The creepy old guy here by himself, that's who. Is that what you want, the creepy old guy club? No. No you do not.

Live! This Weekend! Other People!

Bands are starting to get out on the road again and coming to Chicago, now that frostbite is no longer a serious concern. (Not that I'm counting it out yet...) I'm looking for friend-dates to a couple of shows this weekend -- if you're in Chicago, email me and let's go.

Thursday the 24th, Teletextile comes to my 'hood for their first ever Chicago show. You all know how much I love chamber instruments in indie bands, and this band knows how to use them to replace your typical drum/guitar rhythmic textures. They're putting a lot of groundwork on MySpace getting the word out about the show, too, which you have to give them credit for.

Then, Friday the 25th, the Minnesotan Cloud Cult is playing two shows at Schuba's. The early show is supported by Mason Proper, who I covered here on Damper Pedal last fall when they were at KEXP's Chicago broadcast. You might need to buy your tickets in advance.

Thanks, Iowa.

Oy, where did this week go? I think it was buried under the snow that Chicago got. Snow, I tell you, people! I come from hearty New England stock, but this isn't pretty imported-from-Canada snow, this is like Iowa's leftovers. Thanks, Iowa.

My only news this week is that my show calendar for spring and summer (assuming those seasons will still happen) is finally starting to fill up. I have another show lined up at Lilly's on March 29th, three days after the big Oberlin reunion, so by then I should have detoxed from four days' worth of Elliott Ness and apple fritters. I'm also going to be playing the queertastic Homolatte series on July 15th. I'll post details over the weekend.

Speaking of shows, the Chicago debut is coming up in two weeks -- April 12th. It'll be the live debut of some of the material from The Crater EP, and it's been written up on Going.com. Going.com is another wonderful web diversion, for those of you who are reading this from the comfort of a flourescent-lit cubicle.

In closing, another win for Team Bucktown in Top Chef Chicago. Go Stephanie!

Live Shows Start Up Again, CD Baby Sales Start Soon

Hope you're all enjoying the Chiditarod links and crash course in street theater theory from Monday. After all of the excitement last weekend, it may seem like there is nothing to live for unless you are going to Austin next week. Well, you would be wrong, wrong and possibly too devoted to shopping cart racing. There's so much more going on in the coming months.

My first show in Chicago is on April 12th at 8pm at Lilly's - check the calendar page for the detes. It's cheap, it's early, it's in Lincoln Park (so no complaints from you red line folks!). Plus it'll be exciting, kind of like going on a first date after months and months of watching trashy gay romance flicks -- like the one where the Mormon missionary moves in next door to a gay waiter in LA, and they fall in love. Yes, it's exactly like that.

Also, holy shit I have lots of copies of "The Crater EP" in my apartment now! Several of them are traveling to Portland to (a) go onto CD Baby's website, and (b) go into the hands of master cover artist Josh Shalek, who in my head lives next door to CD Baby's warehouse because they have the same zip code. I don't know, is Portland really that big? (Portlanders, feel free to comment.)

Freak Heatwave Dangerous for Marathons, Rock Shows

Have the rest of you outside of Chicago really grasped yet what it is like for us to step outside in October in shorts and sandals? I'm from New England, where it's mandatory to wear a fleece and drink hot apple cider in October. Guess how much I want to do either of those things.

In addition to the heat ruining many people's marathons yesterday, it also seemed to sap the life out of matt pond PA at last night's Double Door show. Four out of the five band members had long hair - maybe 90's long, not 80s, but still - and there's no better proof than a hot, sweaty nightclub of how ridiculous long hair is. I think there were moments when the mop on Matt Pond's head actually showered the front of the club, as he swung his head back and forth in time and tried, really tried, to get excited about being covered in his own sweat. It's hard to excite the crowd when they are covered in your sweat and you ask them, "Do you guys ever have one of those nights... when you just want to go home?"

The band member with a short, sensible hair cut (Chris Hansen) looked like he was having a grand old time, and sung along with most of the songs, even though the mic he was singing into was connected maybe to a bottle of beer, or a pair of jeans, or something equally useless, since none of the great vocal harmonies from the band's recorded work were heard during the live show. I'm still not sure if Hansen was simply moved to sing into a dead mic, or if this was a technical glitch, but either way it sounded as if matt pond PA's songs were being covered by a band that was not matt pond PA. Everyone is allowed an off-night, though, so I don't want to go into great detail about the show. I don't really want to do anything in this heat, either.

KEXP in Chicago: Mason Proper

[Read the first two KEXP posts here and here.]

My friend and former bandmate, Matt, made the observation to me that bands transmit a certain vibe or attitude, which an audience absorbs and then emulates or retransmits to those around them. I'm convinced of this now, having stood in the same mix room with (roughly) the same staff for three different bands' in-studio performances during KEXP's trip to Chicago. Michigan band Mason Proper was second to last on KEXP's roster; I showed up around mid-day to a quiet Engine Studios, one which had already come down with a contagious sense of focus and concentration from the band in the studio: five rather quiet, mostly bearded, sorta-woodsy guys who looked like Weezer if Rivers had opted for University of Michigan instead of Harvard and then rented a houseboat.

KEXP's morning DJ and webmaster, John and Meredith (respectively), were working on their laptops in the lounge with a baseball game on. Cheryl was hanging out in the make-shift DJ booth -- a small room adjacent to the mix room with two laptops, a mic, and a mixer -- with the door open, just saying hi like I was there to mow the lawn. The mix room was eerily empty of KEXP fans, label reps, or indier-than-thou Pitchfork lackies. I think the whole staff had just come down from a sugar high brought on by a bag of Matt's Cookies, a local favorite here in Chicago that had been the only topic of conversation during the morning on-air breaks.

I, on the other hand, was still giddy from Beirut's performance two days before, plus the potential of having this performance all to myself. I inarticulately spilled some sort of music geekery out of mouth all over John and Meredith, who nodded in agreement that yes, Beirut rocks, and I scuttled off to the mix room because today was clearly not the day I had smart and witty things to say in front of people whom I've greatly admired for years and years. (Viva embarrassment!) Thankfully Shannon, one of KEXP's newer DJs, was also feeling giddy, since she had flown to Chicago almost exclusively for Mason Proper, and was in fact flying back next weekend to see them again. (She also interviewed the band for KEXP's blog.)

Why fly from Seattle to see them? Cheryl asked during their interview if they had any plans to visit the west coast and they said, "We just haven't found a way to get out there yet." (At which point someone in the mix room snarked, "They don't know about I-90?") Their major impediment is a large suitcase filled with what I can only assume is a custom-made synthesizer that their electronicist uses during the show, adding a level of texture that's simply not possible with traditional instruments. The band is dubious as to whether or not the suitcase will clear airline security, so for now this side of the country gets to keep Mason Proper to itself.

They would be worth a repeat performance next weekend, but it is only the beginning of show-mania for me. Coming up: matt pond pa tomorrow night (excellent lyrical folk rock) and Final Fantasy next Friday. At Schuba's! It's actually where Josh Ritter's first paid gig was, true story. According to him.

KEXP in Chicago: Beirut

[If you want to follow along at home, either boot up Beirut's MySpace page, where their full album is streaming, or go to KEXP's blog to get a podcast of their live performance yesterday.]

The atmosphere at Engine Studios had changed in the few hours I was gone yesterday. Cheryl was in the DJ booth now, doing the "mid-day" show (mid-day for Seattle audiences). John had switched into interview mode. The mix room was already standing room only, instead of we tired and destitute morning listeners who came in at 9. Beirut was already setup and doing a full-band sound check at 3:45. By "full-band," I mean drums, accordion, mandolin, violin, trumpet, clarinet, and... bugle? Not a french horn, but not a trumpet, somewhere in-between. Given my ignorance of obscure instruments, I would be horrible at "Iron Chef: Indie Rock". The point is, Beirut does not travel light.

By now, you've heeded my advice and started listening to the band. After the sheer size and oddity of the band's members, their most striking feature is the lead singer's (Zach Condon's) voice. It's the kind of voice that I imagine Condon woke up with one morning after suffering the throes of puberty (recently, by the looks of it) and immediately started singing. It's the kind of voice that makes other singers start learning an instrument. I was about to go home and start learning guitar (again), but I was consoled by the fact that his only instrument (that I could see) is a trumpet, which means he can't ever be singing and playing an instrument beautifully simultaneously.

It's fitting that Condon requires (or just prefers) this large carnival of middle school band instruments following him around. Condon did most of the vocal work, with occasional harmonies from the violinist, and yet his voice single-handedly (single-throatedly?) stood up to the enormous, lush sound coming from the rest of the band. Cutting through a wave of electric guitars and drums is one thing, but cutting through a horn section is another, especially when your voice is only a few pitches away from a low trumpet to begin with.

The band's flexible instrumentation also allows the band to perform a genre which I like to call "chamber rock." I don't know if the band would like me to call it "chamber rock," but it's a term I apply to any "popular" music (as opposed to the "classical" or "world" genres) whose songwriting relies on individual parts/instruments and the interplay between them instead of building layers atop a chordal/rhythmic instrument like a piano or guitar. It's by no means a recent movement, but there are many contemporary artists exploring chamber rock to one extent or another: Sufjan Stevens, the Decemberists, Final Fantasy (and, to some extent, the Arcade Fire), Belle & Sebastian, Magnetic Fields, to name a few. These artists and bands, like Beirut, tend to have a larger arsenal of songwriting techniques because their invention goes beyond lyrics, chords, and vocal melody -- which, if you can believe it, is all you need to copyright a song.

Tomorrow I'll be back at KEXP's broadcast for a local act, Mason Proper, with a post to follow.

KEXP in Chicago: Ha-Ha Tonka

I walked down the street this morning to an unassuming three-story, brick building with a solid black school bus parked outside. I pass this building on the way to the video store, and now I know it houses a sleek, huge recording studio (Engine) that I would kill small puppies to record in. The venerable KEXP is broadcasting live from the studio for the next three days, with a roster of up and coming area bands filling their schedule. This morning, I showed up for their first live in-studio performance by Ha-Ha Tonka, who I hope were the owners of the big black school bus. Otherwise my neighborhood has a very creepy child transportation problem.

If you're unfamiliar with KEXP, it's time to get on the bus (sorry, couldn't resist the pun). As Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie says in his station ID promo, it's "the only station that doesn't make [him] physically ill." If you're reading this blog, I probably don't need to tell you how awe-inspiringly diverse the indie music scene is right now in terms of the genres it's drawing on, lyrical content, or where in the country it's coming from (this morning's band is from Missouri - !!!). Sadly, with local radio stations being bought up faster than a Pabst special in Brooklyn, the only way to hear all of this new music (aside from getting your ass out to some shows) is via a handful of radio stations that have internet streams, KEXP being the best. (Really, I don't think any other radio station would argue with that.) It's this internet fan-base that has led to KEXP's ability to travel throughout the country and instantly have bands, fans, and a remote broadcasting setup, whether it's in New York, Austin, or here in Chicago.

So hopefully you've cued up their MP3 stream by now while you read the rest of this. Ready? Good.

I got into the studio while Ha-Ha Tonka was doing sound check with two engineers in the largest mix-room I will ever have the pleasure of standing in without paying through the nose for it. I grabbed a seat on the couch and felt sort of awkward at first -- after all, it's almost 9 in the morning, and I'm still getting used to this idea that there are other people out there that don't need to be in a cubicle every morning at 9. And for a moment I start rehearsing excuses in my head for why in the world I would be free right now, and not the conclusion most people would come to, namely: your husband's a lawyer, and you hang out with a radio station from Seattle. But eventually others start to trickle in while the band is finishing up sound check -- plus, I get to meet Cheryl, one of the DJs, who sounds exactly like how she sounds on the radio. I'm used to her being a disembodied voice in my kitchen while I'm cooking, but it's not that weird, because she technically is very close to my kitchen right now. I'm sure if she yelled loud enough, I had all of my windows open, and there was no traffic on North Ave., I could hear her.

Ha-Ha Tonka played a great set. Their vocal style reminds me of down-home Appalachian music, especially an a capella traditional tune they break out about halfway through. Their instrumental arrangements, though, are more straight-up rock with a tiny amount of electric folk or country. (Think barn-stomping Josh Ritter.) As they admit in their interview, they're a little green when it comes to radio performances, because they're flailing about and putting on a show despite being invisible to their main audience. It makes for a good first band to see, though. In a studio setting, it's all too easy to feel disconnected from the actual song that's being performed (or that you're performing), since the mix can change, individual instruments can be drowned or brought out, but the four people behind the glass today look like they're just playing a song together and having fun.

I'll be seeing a band called Beirut later today which I'm very excited about. Look for that post soon, and if you're near a computer around 4pm central time today, listen to the broadcast on KEXP's website.

Concert Calendar

I am so trying to avoid writing a post about the plane crash in Phuket, especially since there was a lesser publicized but no-less-scary dive boat accident near Koh Phi Phi a few weeks ago, as well as a capsizing near Phi Phi a few weeks before that.  Hey, who wants to read about music instead of accidents in Thailand?  No deathly monsoon season in Bucktown, no siree.

My concert calendar for early October is looking good so far; shoot me an email if you want to meet up at one of these:

Sunday, Oct. 7th: Matt Pond PA plays the Double Door.  The band caught my attention after a song called "New Hampshire" kept popping up on Pandora, and no one else will give New Hampshire any lyrical attention until Sufjan Stevens gets around to recording his New Hampshire state album at the age of 207.  I don't have many other homestate anthems.

Tuesday, Oct. 9th: Charlotte Martin plays the Double Door.  Her last album essentially picked up where Tori Amos left off at the end of 90s.  While Tori's writing returned to a more Little Earthquakes era sound, Martin's writing continues to incorporate electronica influences and classical-level piano chops.

Friday, Oct. 12th: Final Fantasy plays Scubas.  For my previous lip-service, see this older post.

And if that wasn't enough for one week, KEXP is broadcasting live from Chicago the week before that, which means three days of free music if you can get yourself unoccupied during the daylight hours.

Next Show: February 20th

If you're single, and Valentine's Day is making you think of massacres instead of romance, do I have some songs for you...

Tuesday, February 20th / Skybar
Songs for Singles: The Anti-Valentine's Day Show
featuring a more timely, less musical shout-out to President's Day

518 Somerville Ave., Somerville, MA 02143 (T to Porter or drive - lots of parking!)
Doors @ 7:30pm / Music @ 8pm / $7 cover / cheap beer

Also featuring new original material plus covers of Portishead, Final Fantasy, and The Frames, the best damn band in Ireland, because if you can't get into a drink-your-lonely-cares-away mood with a bunch of Irish rockers, what's wrong with you? And please keep bringing your friends - it was great to meet some new folks at the last show.

See you next week!