Our (fairly) regular roundup of Music & Arts related news from Chicago-based web media, featuring thoughts and insight from some of the city’s most dedicated writers.
- Review/Photos: CHVRCHES with XXYYXX @ Cabaret Metro 09/10/13
Like a sudden meteor shower in a starless quiet sky, CHVRCHES seemed to emerge out of nowhere. The Scottish electro-pop three piece is almost relentlessly fun and catchy but there are plenty of bands out there boasting such a quality that aren’t selling out much smaller venues. Their sudden popularity and ability to sell out The Metro on a Wednesday night after only a couple of EPs to their name (their first full length entitled The Bones of What You Believe will be released later this month) piqued this reviewer’s/photographer’s interest.
One item of variability amongst bands playing live is their stage banter and, interestingly enough, word had gotten around that this trio had some worthy and amusing things to say, especially lead singer Lauren Mayberry herself. However, most of the time, perhaps because the show was being filmed, the band stayed pretty focused on playing their songs, which was a little unfortunate in that it was difficult to gain a sense of the band’s personality.(Though Mayberry did express her,happiness to be back playing shows in Chicago.)
Another aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked is the amount of energy a young band like this seems to possess live when they are tightly grasping greatness and on the verge of a possibly epic career. The songs definitely sounded more solid live than on album with a nice pounding beat and the visuals of lights and an upside down lit up V did add some stage presence. It felt more heavy hitting live than the whimsy thisw reviewer was expecting. The double synths may have helped a bit too with this aspect. At times, this delivered just enough to heighten the appeal but often there was just too much style and not enough substance.
Overall, the real downfall of the evening was that though CHVRCHES is a fun and already accomplished sounding band live, they failed to live up to the excessive hype generated over them. Unlike Savages, whose live presence veers more towards the edgy and truly profound, the success of CHVRCHES seems more based in the fact that the band’s sound is just very accessible. They aren’t doing anything all that creative with their music at this point but it seems they don’t even need to in order to please more mainstream audiences everywhere.
CHVRCHES Setlist:
This reviewer would also be remiss if she didn’t mention the opener, producer/dj Marcel Everett who plays under the moniker XXYYXX. It’s impressive, to say the least, that Everett is only 17 but mainly because he is able to show strong creativity in the way he blends beats and samples quite effortlessly. Everett may be a laptop user and a knob twister but he’s also a great dancer and it was exhilarating to watch him move on stage, his form often silhouetted by hazy backlighting. The facial expressions one could make out suggested an intense Joy from his musical creations. Everett’s set showed all kinds of influences from drum and bass to techno to a more avant-garde “modern art” noise piece he said he created with another fan the night previously, which was easily one of the best tracks of the set.
- Wednesday Afternoon Diversion: Cute Puppy Howl
All together now: Awwwww! [ more › ]
- Linksomania: Clive Tanaka vs. Nicki Minaj
I rarely laugh out loud while reading The Chicago Tribune, but I found myself doing exactly that while scanning the news story this morning about “reclusive,” cassette-loving Chicago artist Clive Tanaka suing pop star Nicki Minaj for ripping off his 2011 track “Neu Chicago” with her massive 2012 dance-pop hit “Starships.”
“Reclusive” is one way to put it; “pseudononymous” is another. Tananka’s 2011 set of thoroughly modern spaceage bachelor pad music Jet Set Siempre No. 1 remains one of my all-time favorite Buried Treasures unearthed for Sound Opinions, and I listed it among the best records of that year in this space. I still have no clue about who this artist really is; Sound Ops producers Jason and Robin do, but they ain’t telling.
In any event, the Trib’s Jason Meisner informs us that “Tanaka, in a [copyright infringement] lawsuit filed under the name of his company [Tanaka Light Industries, USA], is accusing the Trinidad-born Minaj of stealing from his 2011 song…,” though the mystery man himself was unavailable for comment, the only personal info included in the lawsuit is the year of his birth (1976) and the fact that he’s a U.S. citizen, and his attorney claims he is “‘working on a new album and screenplay,’ possibly in South America.”
Whee! The best part of it all: The Trib re-posts the SoundCloud comparison of the two tunes on its website. (Tanaka originally posted it himself more than a year ago.)
These sorts of lawsuits are a dime a dozen in the music world, but there’s no denying that it’s particularly difficult to tell these two songs apart, or that Tanaka got there first. Here’s hoping Clive takes Nicki to the cleaners.
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Also pretty darn amusing is this video clip, shared with me by reader and local musician Terry Keating, of a super-Bonham fan with his own YouTube channel under the name Bonzoleum devoted to in-depth examinations of the rhythms of Led Zeppelin’s drum god pretty. He pretty much loses it because he’s in the presence of an actual Ludwig snare drum that Bonzo once owned… along with a fez and a (possibly never washed) T-shirt.
I realize I am one of only a dozen or so people, drummers all, who will appreciate this clip. But appreciate it I certainly did.
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Shifting from silliness to worthy causes, my good pal Anders Lindall asked me to help spread the word about an event at the Hideout on Monday (Sept. 16) bringing some of the coolest people in the music and food communities together to support the long-overdue legislation in Illinois granting gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry when it comes up for the next round of a stupidly difficult fight in late October or early November.
“Food and Friends Fundraiser for Freedom” will feature guest DJs (including Steve Albini and Rob Miller of Bloodshot Records), a bevy of baked goods from the likes of Bittersweet Pastry and Mindy’s Hot Chocolate, a silent auction of various tasty treats and an electric guitar (purchased at the Guitar Center on Halsted, which recently became the first in the country to unionize—who knew???) signed by the coolest artists to perform at last weekend’s Hideout Block Party, and much more.
The party starts at 7 p.m., and more info and tickets ($10 to $50) can be had here.
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Good cause number two: Sydney-by-way-of-Chicago singer and songwriter Via Tania has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money to finish the album that she started a while back with the Tomorrow Music Orchestra before the birth of her child and her move down under.
The video appeal on the site is as charming as these sorts of things come, but I also appreciate the frankness of the written pitch:
SO WHY SHOULD I DONATE? I’M BROKE!
I get it, I am, too! But if you can’t donate, perhaps you could help spread the word about the project? Someone you know who isn’t broke might just want to help out and then it would be like you donated it yourself . . . right?
P.S. A percentage of the proceeds after the goal is reached will be donated to the MUGSU.org.au, a Bangledesh textile factory collapse charity.
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Finally, on a much more somber note and in recognition of our generation’s “day that will live in infamy,” here is the episode of Sound Opinions that aired live on Sept. 18, 2001, featuring some unbelievably emotional performances by Wilco of songs from the then-still-to-be-released Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which suddenly took on new worlds of meaning a week after 9/11.
As the show’s founding producer Matt Spiegel just emailed me, “I remember standing in studio B with Jason [Saldanha], looking through the glass as [Jeff] Tweedy played the solo in ‘I’m the Man Who Loves You,’ and something about the ferocity of the guitar made me feel a lot better.”
That was true for all of us, Matt, and it still is. Listen again or anew for yourself on SoundCloud.
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