Review: Blair – Pluto EP (or) orange skies and purple flowers
Blair is a singer/songwriter from New Orleans, LA and her music is self-described as “Dolly Parton meets Radiohead meets Neil Young meets uptown New Orleans.” I’m not so sure about the Radiohead, but her soon-to-be-released EP Pluto is filled with soothing country-tinged indie-folk-pop tunes. She may be singing about the effects of Hurricane Katrina and (Read more…)
Featured in the Chicago Tribune
Not sure how many of you saw the article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, but both Craig from the blog Songs: Illinois and I were interviewed for (and prominently featured in) the article. It was called “New paths for e-music buzz” and can be found here or by clicking on the picture above.
Let go of your throat sweet throttle
I’m not sure that I ever mentioned how great it was to ring in 2007 while watching the Smoking Popes and Alkaline Trio at Metro. Well it was. I only bring it up now because I finally got around to ripping the songs from the limited edition split 7” we got for attending the show. (Read more…)
Page fourteen of the Sunday paper
Trumpeter Kenny Wheeler’s 2006 album It Takes Two! is an exercise is understatement and I have really been enjoying it lately. On the album, Wheeler is accompanied by guitarists John Abercrombie and John Parricelli with bassist Anders Jormin. The quartet weaves a gentle and understated jazz tapestry. And while Abercrombie’s and Parricelli’s instruments (both electric (Read more…)
Black coffee in bed mixtape
Here is a great set of tunes to accompany your morning paper and coffee routine. All these are straight from a (slightly modified) iPod shuffle and are sure to get you ready for what should (hopefully) shape up to be a beautiful spring day here in Chicago. I’m gonna go get a cup of coffee. (Read more…)
Review: The Field – From Here We Go Sublime (or) from the shores of stockholm
In the pre-dawn hours, lakes can be still with a glassy calm. As the sun rises a mist starts to lift. Traces of fragmented vocals sometimes percolate to the top. The looping ambient rhythms that lay just beneath the surface shift and swell as bubbling pulses slowly pound through the quietest din. This is From (Read more…)
An incomplete history of Chicago punk rock (vol. 19)
Easily one of the best, most influential, and most prolific punk bands in Chicago history, Screeching Weasel, also managed to be one of the most enigmatic and polarizing bands as well. There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to loving or hating singer and principal songwriter Ben Weasel. Even my wife (in (Read more…)
Review: Street Smart Cyclist – 7″ (or) look at the sky without looking through it
Where did Street Smart Cyclist come from (aside from Bethlehem, PA that is)? I simply can’t stop listening to the songs that make up their debut 7”. Literally. They’ve been on repeat since I first heard ‘em. The songs are full of everything that I loved about Cap ‘n Jazz and Braid. With a frenzy (Read more…)
Review: The Eames Era – Heroes And Sheroes (or) kicking chairs and the family cat
Can anyone resist the sugary sweet indie-pop of The Eames Era? I know I can’t. On their second full-length Heroes And Sheroes, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana band dishes out another generous helping of infectiously catchy female-fronted indie pop. This is due in large part to the sweet pipes of vocalist Ashlin Phillips which sound eerily (Read more…)
