As we'd hoped, the band members of Canasta have made it safely to Mongolia for their whirlwind tour [see previous], and they even found a brief pocket of internet connectivity in order to send in this quick update, and a photo.
The following comes from guitarist, Jeremy Beckford:
Though Chicago's own Smith Westerns barely played for an hour on a stage adorned with Happy Faces, they left an immediate impression on the audience and did what great bands can truly do, which is leave their fans wanting more instead of getting tired of the songs. In fact, as the set progressed to the end, the night culminated in complete audience wild abandon and the band did well to feed on this adoration and become even stronger on stage, lead singer Cullen Omori especially. The band perhaps made a breakthrough when they achieved an opener touring spot for Arctic Monkeys but, let's face it, Arctic Monkeys aren't half the band these Chicago lads are.
February offers mind-bending music and behind-the-scenes access to those who write and perform it. Meet a real live orchestral composer who moonlights as a DJ. Sit in on a rehearsal at Symphony Center or a master class in Evanston. Impress your friends by mentioning "the blackbirds" (really). This month, the boundaries of music are stretched into previously unexplored realms; bring an open mind, but for the love of all that is good and holy, turn off your phone or risk eternal shame.
Hear a great concert recently? Have a tip on an upcoming show? Talk about it in the comments.
The musical career of trombonist/composer/professor George Lewis looks very different depending on where you put your finger on the timeline. In the middle 1970s, he came onto the scene as a teenager in Anthony Braxton's first classic quartet, taking up the brass mantle from Kenny Wheeler. Wheeler's smoky, moody tone was a nice foil for Braxton's multi-directional compositional style of the time, but it also sounded sometimes like he had trouble with the fast charts. Not so Lewis, whose trombone lines dart and pivot, hummingbird-like, in the air around Braxton, speeding the group's development immeasurably. A few years later, Lewis' Homage to Charles Parker LP includes other unexpected elements, like Richard Teitelbaum's Moog synths and Lewis' own electronic processing on his trombone. Lewis' compositions at the time, like Braxton's, came from a personal, genre-less place, born just as much of jazz and improv as classical composition and experimental music forms. He was also one of the earliest jazz musicians to work regularly with computer-assisted composition and music forms.
Canasta prepares for their journey (photo courtesy the band)
Some bands tour via car, van or bus, but Chicago indie band Canasta is going to have to manage their upcoming tour with some planes and a convoy of trucks and jeeps. As part of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' Arts Envoy Program the band will be performing in Mongolia next week. They'll begin their tour on Friday, February 3, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and also play in Tsetserleg, Harhorin, and Arvaikheer, finishing up in Ulaanbaatar on the 12th. Canasta will play similar sets to what they usually break out for evenings at Schubas and the like, but admit that there might be some changes in their normal format. They'll not only give live musical performances, but also give workshops and lead jam sessions with the locals. Canasta is comprised of Matt Priest (lead vocals, bass, trombone); Elizabeth Lindau (violin, vocals); Jeremy Beckford (guitar, vocals); Brian Palmieri (drums); Ryan Tracy (keyboard, piano, bass, vocals); and Sarah Kneebone (piano, keyboard, vocals).
Perhaps some pre-trip inspiration can be gleaned from a song from their latest album:
While they're away, we've asked the band to live blog their experiences for Gapers Block's readers. Look for more from the band while they're in Mongolia (if they can find some wifi) and once they're back home.
In the middle of packing this week, the band's keyboard/piano player Ryan Tracy was kind enough to share his thoughts on the band's upcoming adventure.
It wouldn't be too much of an overstatement to say that British space-rock powerhouse Spiritualized owned the genre during it's heyday in the 1990s. 1992's Lazer Guided Melodies signaled that band leader Jason Pierce was going to continue to effectively mine the psychedelic vein of his former band, Spacemen 3. Spiritualized reached their critical peak with 1997's Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space, an album that dropped at a time when both Britpop and their particular brand of drone rock were big both here and abroad.
Spiritualized has made a few short touring forays over the last few years, but this outing has all the characteristics of a proper world tour. Chicago gets a not-to-be-missed club date at the Metro on May 3. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, February 4 at noon.
Say what you will about the Grateful Dead but few if any bands in the history of rock have engendered their level of fanatical devotion. Need proof? Look no further than the fact that Dead cover band extraordinaire Dark Star Orchestra has the truck to play two shows in Chicago in the next week, this despite the fact that kids born after legendary lead-man Jerry Garcia died are in high school and working on getting their driver's licenses.
Dark Star Orchestra, or simply DSO to those in the know, have made their bones by shadowing the fountainhead band through a slavish, completest knowledge of the original band's catalog, and shows which attempt to recreate particular historic shows song by song. Don't be fooled into thinking that they are strictly a nostalgia band, however. Any given DSO show looks remarkably similar to any late '80s or early '90s Dead show, with a mix of aging baby boomers and their teenage children who missed the circus the first time around. The band is comprised of virtuoso musicians who share with their fan base a wide-eyed love of the source material, and play to the level of that devotion.
Well, this explains Wilco's unexpected appearance in a recent Popeye comic strip: the band's latest music video is a black-and-white cartoon featuring Popeye, Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, Wimpy and Bluto. In it, Olive falls for Jeff Tweedy while Bluto and Popeye vie for her attention.
The video for "Dawned On Me" off The Whole Love is the first new Popeye cartoon since the character's 75th anniversary in 2004, and the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years. Apparently the band's collaboration with King Features Syndicate was the brainchild of director Darren Romanelli. There's a website for the collaboration, wilcospinach.com, that offers a free download of a live version of "Dawned On Me," and also seems to hint that actual cans of Wilco brand spinach may be in the offing. Not going to hold my breath on that one.
I've already scrapped what I had written for this review twice. I started writing my first draft about Jack's Mannequin's frontman Andrew McMahon, where he's come since his years fronting Something Corporate nearly a decade ago and his effect on the Drive-Thru Records generation. Not long after I decided to start over, I came across this article, written just one day after I saw Jack's Mannequin play at House of Blues on Wednesday and took it as a sign that surely I'm not the only one that still remembers the golden era of pop punk.
Much like many of the bands that came from the same beginnings as McMahon--Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, Midtown--I can't help but feel that Jack's Mannequin has been overlooked because their California-sun-kissed songs' appeal to a polo-wearing, lite-beer-drinking college crowd. But as I watched Andrew McMahon--who's fronted two successful bands, written five albums, toured the world over before his 30th birthday and survived a bout with leukemia--on stage the other night, it's hard to think that he's not doing something right.
Somewhere between the time this reviewer saw Los Campesinos! at Lollapalooza play a side stage in the middle of the afternoon in 2007 and last night, the band seemed to have gain a much rougher crowd. Though their songs haven't gotten all that rougher, their pop songs with an edge now inspire moshing and crowd surfing, which seemed just as jarring as it was unlikely for fans who just wanted to hear the songs.
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has already confirmed a June 8 show at Wrigley Field playing the band's classic album The Wall, but let the rumor mill churn on. This official looking Live Nation tour itinerary floating around on Facebook puts jam rock juggernauts Phish in the venue for a July 4th and 5th double header. Before you resign yourself to having your hippie friends on your couch, remember there is absolutely no confirmation from anywhere at this point, but the team is away those dates.
Composer Marcos Balter heard something in the paintings of Cy Twombly. When asked by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) founder and flautist Claire Chase to compose a work based on any piece in the Art Institute's modern wing, he immediately selected Twombly's Return from Parnassus as his choice in his head, but kept mum, not wanting to sway Chase in her selection until they had both seen everything. When he and Chase approached the Twombly, she immediately gasped. "That's it!" Great minds....
Local, self-described "Ballroom Rock" dreamboats Blah Blah Blah released a new music video this week, and it's SO DAMN CHICAGO! Look! The Bloomingdale Trail! The Flat Iron! Reckless Records! Union Station! If January's got you hating Chicago, watch this video. It'll fix you right up.
It may be cold and dark and (occasionally) snowy, but there's nothing chilly about the warm sounds coming from Greensky Bluegrass. The band hits the stage at the Park West this Friday night, co-headlining with the ever-animated Chicago band Strange Arrangement. Greensky's latest album, Handguns, was released just this past fall (with an additional limited vinyl edition just made available recently). Check out five songs off Handguns below.
Last year's performances at Bonnaroo and Bumbershoot gained Greensky Bluegrass some more crunchy followers to their newgrass sound, and as a veteran of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, the band also brings in bluegrass devotees as well. Greensky's lineup includes guitar and banjo, but also dobro, mandolin, and upright bass (and occasional horns, even). The band is, at first glance, a quintet that could just as likely play a college quad as a mid-size major market venue like the Park West. A recent resurgence of olde timey music like that mastered by the Carolina Chocolate Drops or the Black Twig Pickers sets up newgrass pluckers like Greensky with a window of opportunity to get airplay somewhere other than college radio Sunday morning shifts. Even the multi-instrumentalist approach by bands like the Decemberists, Arcade Fire, or Fanfarlo speak to how Greensky's sound has room to stretch its legs these days, and gain audiences that can really fill a room. So if you're a fan of harmonies, exuberance, and sheer indie band touring fortitude, my best advice is to strap on your mittens and make your way to the Park West Friday night for what's sure to be a sweet warm-up.
Music starts Friday at 8pm. 18+ Tickets are $15 (plus fees) and are available online or at the door. Greensky Bluegrass will also be joined by Strange Arrangement and opener Chicago Farmer. The Park West is located at 322 W. Armitage Ave. (773) 929-1322.
The cab-ride discussion on the way to Congress Theater on Friday focused mostly on what sort of "stops" Sound Tribe Sector 9 would be pulling out for the first of their two-night "Great Cycle Spectacles" series, one that the band promised to be a "one of a kind performance celebrating a spectacle of music, art and imagination." My friends and I didn't quite know what to expect.
Photo by Mike Ferguson
I've seen some stuff in my days of concert going. I've also already seen this band a handful of times. So, I was a little skeptical that this would be anymore that just an average STS9 show--which, for the record, is one hell of a show.
Spoiler alert: if you've ever seen this band play live before, you knew what to expect. I can't stress enough that this is not necessarily a bad thing. The light show was pure eye candy--an LED backdrop shaped like an Aztec pyramid to reinforce the fact that these shows were indeed a tribute to the end of the world. The sets were still awesomely long--a combined total of close to three hours.
February offers mind-bending music and behind-the-scenes access to those who write and perform it. Meet a real live orchestral composer who moonlights as a DJ. Sit in on a rehearsal at Symphony Center or a master class in Evanston. Impress your friends by mentioning "the blackbirds" (really). This month, the boundaries of music are stretched into previously unexplored realms; bring an open mind, but for the love of all that is good and holy, turn off your phone or risk eternal shame.
