Although The Black Dahlia Murder has generally been described as a blend of melodic death meal with a heavy European black metal influence, the emphasis has been on traditional blast beats and rapid-fire riffs.

On its latest Deflorate (Metal Blade), however, the Waterford, Michigan quintet punctuates its brutally aggressive sound with stronger, brighter melodic strains. “Necropolis” and “A Selection Unnatural” highlight the dark complexity and twisted lyrical morbidity. Don’t expect the pummeling live show to be any less torturous, though. Drummer Shannon Lucas drives the rhythms with metronomic precision, as he pounds his kit with kinetic fury and relentless energy, and equally astonishing is witnessing vocalist Trevor Strnad shift his voice upside down from a guttural growl to searing, raspy howl in a flip of syllable. With an impressive history of festival appearances, TBDM has honed its live sound to mammoth, gut-wrenching proportions, so this is special opportunity to see it in an intimate club venue.

Obscura, Augury, and Hatesphere open.

– Patrick Conlan

When treated as concerts, televised band performances can be a mixed bag. It would be all too easy for artists to treat such a venture as little more than a promotional exercise, one that doesn’t “count” and ends up more phoned-in than anything. Which is what made last night’s Empires event all the more exciting, as the Chicago act was clearly playing for keeps at its “JBTV” soundstage event.

Performing behind the group’s just-released Bang EP, Empires took to a surprisingly plush studio stage, flanked by red curtains and blue backdrops, to deliver an impression-making seven songs. While Chicago has no shortage of guitar-driven rock acts, the group’s set last night proved Empires make use of warm tones in their songs the way few bands do, evident in the nocturnal and buzzing “Spit The Dark.” By comparison, other selections proved far more frenzied, seen in frontman Sean Van Vleet leading a fiery rendition of the band’s new EP’s title track.

Yet for all the group’s impressive guitar work throughout the soundstage set, it was drummer Ryan Luciani who proved to be the outfit’s not-so-secret weapon, a man possessed during “Bang,” while noticeably enhancing “I Want Blood” off 2008’s Howl. Between the strength of the group’s new material and the fire in their bellies even performing for a crowd 50 taping attendees, Empires stand poised to make big moves in 2010. With passion like this, it could very well happen.

– Jaime de’Medici

This will make you feel old: It’s been 18 years since House Of Pain’s “Jump Around” was a hit single. Eighteen years. Seriously! (It’s been 13 since Notorious B.I.G. was killed!)  So who cares about a HOP reunion now? This guy.

I still remember the day I bought Same As It Ever Was. I was staying with a friend at his grandmother’s in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Osky – for short – is a stinking cesspit of teenage despair in south-eastern Iowa. The only things for kids to do is fuck, fight, drink, smoke, swim, and go to the mall. Even so, that was a significant improvement over my hometown, as we had no shopping mall. Or outdoor pool, come to think of it. Anyway, it was a horrible three days of overflowing colostomy bags, bad breath, worse body odor, and detasseling corn. It was that Oskaloosa mall, though, where I bought Everlast, Danny Boy, and DJ Lethal’s second record, an album that, to this day, gets a fuckload of play in the Fisher home.

That home, if you wondered, is a luxurious – people tell me – four-bedroom, 3.5-bath condo in that building Oprah lives in. Winfrey’s more into HOP’s self-titled debut (we chat music while waiting for our drivers to bring the cars; Stedman only listens to “True Icelandic Black Metal” or some bullshit, she says) and probably for good reason: “Jump Around.” Those bagpipe samples still get played in Pringles commercials and sports arenas every day, but the thing is, House Of Pain did have a career after that song. 1996’s Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again was ignored by pretty much everybody (blame the awful title), but its predecessor, Same As It Ever Was, is certified gold, which defends the group against any one-album-wonder criticism. And of course, there’s always the “white rapper” thing. Pre-Eminem, white dudes in hip-hop were like black dudes in hockey: few and far between. House Of Pain weren’t the first caucasians to earn respect as “rappers” instead of “white rappers” (the Beasties, obviously), but alliances with Cypress Hill (Muggs produced HOP’s first two albums), Ice-T (Everlast came up as a member of Rhyme Syndicate), Divine Styler, and Gang Starr helped it appeal to audiences outside fraternity row.

The past is the past, though. The whole point is House Of Pain has reunited (technically the real reunion was on last year’s A Brand You Can Trust by La Coka Nostra, a hip-hop supergroup that includes all three HOPsters), and the 15-year-old Trevor, whose parents wouldn’t let him see the HOP/Cypress Hill/Funkdoobiest tour back in the day, will finally witness his favorite hip-hop group live in concert. I’ve already received my wife’s permission, even.

La Coka Nostra, Gza, Mass Hysteria, and The Come Ups open.

– Trevor Fisher

Solo singer/songwriter Kentuckians get semi-Appalachian on songs bemoaning the mining destruction of the homestate’s environment.

‘Cuz otherwise Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Not true. Still, you could probably launch tactical nuclear weapons in a 20-mile, bluegrass radius in Kentucky without finding someone willing to concede there are environmental issues afoot. The thrust of this spring’s Dear Companion is not only a shared love of regional roots music (though there’s plenty of that), but also a loathing of mountain-top removal (MTR), a controversial mining technique that’s doing all sorts of heinous things to people who live in mining regions. “Only A Song” pretends to dismiss activist music, though anyone who hears it — especially in the context of the album — will know better.

This is a separate ticketed performance from Tributosaurus, earlier in the evening. Also appearing Saturday the 13th at Schubas in Chicago.

– Steve Forstneger

Click here to download “Something, Somewhere, Sometime.”

Billy Corgan’s bassist Ginger Pooley has left Smashing Pumpkins to concentrate on raising a family, which creates an obvious void. Before you clamor for “D’Arcy!!,” Corgan’s going to the fans.

Because he found his drummer, Mike Byrne, this way, the Great Pumpkin will request audition tapes and materials to be sent via e-mail for bassists and keyboardists. Deadline for submissions is March 31st. Send to pumpkinsbass [at] gmail.com or pumpkinskeys [at] gmail.com. Note: Only musicians with video clips can be considered. Youtube.com type posts are perfect–that’s how Mike was found.”

Chris Otepka began Heligoats during his tenure in Troubled Hubble, an Elburn-based band whose reams of critical praise didn’t amount to much commercial success.

Though he now lives around the PacNorthwest, the TH sound is very much alive on Heligoats’ second Greyday album, Goodness Gracious. Where 2008’s The End Of All Purpose felt like a willfully disobedient Built To Spill album, Goodness relaxes and puts a lot of faith in Otepka’s hooks. Working with Chicago’s folk/poppers Ulysses S. Grant, the production is relaxed and lushed, unafraid to supplant crunchy, power-pop chords with a couple of acoustics. Otepka’s natural vocal timbre might lead some to believe this is another Long Winters album, though “Fishsticks” and the title track find them firmly in the company of I-5 neighbors Blitzen Trapper.

Robert Sarazin Blake and Amy Saraiya open.

– Steve Forstneger

Click here to download “Fish Sticks.”

By all reasonable accounts – ignoring the kinds of people who insist Mastodon’s Remission is better than Leviathan – High On Fire’s 2007 Death Is This Communion is its magnum opus. That’s partly because High On Fire is High On Fucking Fire and doesn’t bother with shit that doesn’t rule and partly because of the Oakland trio’s collaboration with Jack Endino, whose organic, epic, raw-but-never-rough production helped that shit rule even more.

Appearing: Friday, April 2nd at Lincoln Hall in Chicago.

HOF’s newest – fifth overall – album is an interesting proposition then because Endino doesn’t return. The group used a different producer on each of its past four efforts, so it’s hardly unexpected, but Snakes still sort of feels like a lost opportunity because of the switch to Greg Fidelman (who kiiiiinda sucked on the last Slayer, too). He doesn’t ruin the album, but his dry, punchless production and awkward, clumsy mixing – shame on you, too, Don Gordon – doesn’t do the material any favors. Frontman/guitarist Matt Pike is a bona fide Bad Motherfucker (it surely says so on his wallet), so Fidelman can be excused for bumping up Pike’s carton-of-Reds-and-bottle-of-Beam howl and enormous, genre-defining guitar in the mix some, but too often his fascination with Pike makes him lose track of bassist Jeff Matz and skinsman Des Kensel (a powerhouse and mood-establishing drummer) altogether. Recording 101: A power trio is only as powerful as each member of the trio.

But the thing is, Fidelman’s grandmother could have produced Snakes. Wouldn’t of mattered. High On Fire is on top of every aspect of its game right now. “How Dark We Pray” proves Pike, Matz, and Kensel’s songwriting continues to evolve; “Ghost Neck” proves Pike’s guitar can save them when it regresses; “Bastard Samurai” proves HOF can play slow(er) without sacrificing impact; and “Fire, Flood & Plague” proves sometimes it best to just go as fast as possible. Snakes has moments ( Pike’s blood-boiling “repelled” screams on the title track and the building intensity of “Bastard Samurai,” for example) literally capable of spreading goose bumps. Those are the times   you listen, lean back in your chair, close your eyes, and think “Holy shit.”

Does it have as many of those instances as “Communion”? No. But Communion could very well be a once-in-a-career album, so in this case there’s no shame in releasing a follow-up that’s only slighty less mindblowing. 

– Trevor Fisher

What can possibly be revealed about James Marshall Hendrix that hasn’t already been articulated? Electrified innovator. Arguably the greatest axe slinger of all time. A guitar god gone too soon. An indelible legacy that will live forever. But even the most exalted of rock icons needs a fresh coat of paint, and this spring Jimi gets one thanks to an all-star tour of retro rockers and new-schooled six-string heroes.

Appearing: Thursday, March 18th at Chicago Theatre in Chicago.

Enter Experience Hendrix, the biennial, multi-act bill that turns four this year, channeling its namesake’s genius through a marathon evening of individual snippet sets, one-of-a-kind collaborations, and an almighty jam session or two just to amplify the subject’s superiority. And we’re not just talking some questionable cover band, but a laundry list of remarkably authentic disciples, including Joe Satriani, Jonny Lang, Hubert Sumlin, Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, Doyle Bramhall II, the Isley Brothers’ Ernie Isley, Living Colour, Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Sacred Steel featuring Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas, plus The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band Of Gypsys’ Billy Cox.

“The tour itself is just a fantastic coming together of talent, focus, and heart from everybody loving the music of Hendrix helping bring it together,” says Satriani, a headliner in his own right. “It’s difficult getting people from all parts of the music world to play together and pull it off, but the thing I love so much about Jimi’s music is that even though it was written so many years ago, it’s continuously unifying. We’re all incredible fans on the tour and I think that magic hangs over everybody. It makes everybody pull together and complement each other the best they can, but quite frankly, we’re all interested in checking each other out as well. It’s a dream come true to be a fan and entertainer at the same time.”

Another major player in the mutual admiration society is 28-year-old Lang, who, despite his relative youth, has performed with The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Aerosmith. Even with all those highlights, he cites the Hendrix tour as the ultimate destination for his technical prowess and unmistakable charisma.

“The biggest thing I draw from him is just his sense of melody and his approach is so much different than a lot of guitarists,” Lang contends. “I obviously didn’t know him, but it seems to me like he approached it from a melodic side rather than just trying to play fast riffs. Aside from being a great virtuoso, he was a genius musically. You hear a lot of innovation in his melodies, especially for that time, and in the overall structure of his songs.”

While the majority of the artists were too young to ever collaborate with Hendrix or even meet him personally, Ernie Isley didn’t just know the man behind the music, but they lived in the same house from 1963 to ‘65, just prior to finding global fame. While it’s common knowledge to faithful fans, a lot of casual listeners might not realize Hendrix played guitar on tour for the Isleys during that time frame.

“Their guitar player at the time quit and my bother O’Kelly tracked him down,” recalls Isley, who was in junior high at the time and hadn’t yet joined the family troupe. “O’Kelly said, ‘Can you play something for me?’ and Jimi said, ‘I can’t because my guitar is in the pawn shop.’ So they went down to the pawn shop and got the guitar back, but it turned out Jimi didn’t have strings because he was broke. So O’Kelly got him strings and within three minutes, it was obvious he had the chops. So he came on board, but didn’t have a place to stay, which is when he moved in with us.”

Although Hendrix’s talents were undeniable, his actual instrument was a little scruffy, according to Isley, which prompted O’Kelly to buy him a new one. “Jimi asked for a white Stratocaster, O’Kelly said yes, and Jimi said, ‘Oh my God.’ So he virtually came into the house with a brand new guitar, he didn’t have to pay for rent, food, or laundry, and was just there like a member of the family. Of course the other guys hated him for it and they didn’t see him until rehearsal, but when he plugged in, they said, ‘Damn, he’s star of the band now!”’

After his jaunt with the Isley Brothers and several other short-lived stints ended, a move to London resulted in the formation of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and also allowed the leader to be consumed by a rock ‘n’ roll explosion. Besides meeting members of The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Cream, Hendrix also basked in the blues scene. In fact, 78-year-old guitarist Hubert Sumlin, best known for his tenure with Howlin’ Wolf’s band, can testify to that greatness firsthand, thanks to multiple impromptu performances.

“You know I love Jimi and I loved him from the first day I saw him,” Sumlin assures. “We met in London when [Wolf and his band] were playing Royal Albert Hall, and in walked Jimi straight to the bandstand with his earrings, big hat, and guitar. We were flying back to America the next day and Jimi came back with us on the plane and we did it again the next night at Radio City [Music Hall]. Wolf hugged Jimi, thanked him and said, ‘You’re all right. I hope you make a million.’”

An understatement, but a foreshadowing nonetheless as Hendrix quickly conquered the European market, later crossing over Stateside thanks to iconic appearances at 1967’s Monterey Pop, 1969’s Woodstock, and 1970’s Isle Of Wight festivals. Throughout, The Jimi Hendrix Experience cranked out Are You Experienced? (“Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe,” “The Wind Cries Mary”), Axis: Bold As Love (“Little Wing,” “Castles Made Of Sand,” “Wait Until Tomorrow”), Electric Ladyland (“All Along The Watchtower,” “Gypsy Eyes,” “Have You Ever Been To Electric Ladyland”), and, later, the eponymous Band Of Gypsys live album.

“So I’m sitting in study hall, sometime in 1967, and the guys near me are reading about the Are You Experienced? album in a magazine and see that Jimi played with the Isley Brothers,” Ernie recalls. “So everyone starts asking me about that and I say, ‘Not only did I know him, but he lived in my house!’ To which everybody asked, ‘Why didn’t you ever say anything?’ The truth was, no one ever asked and seemed to just soak up all the information from what they heard on radio or in magazines. So then someone asked ‘Who’s better, Clapton or Hendrix?’ and I said, ‘Hendrix, not because of what you hear on the records, but from what I heard him play without an amplifier.’

“I remember being about 11 with my math and social studies book on the dining room table while he was playing guitar as an ambulance went by and he tried to make a guitar sound to match it. I relate to the person and continue to relate in a different way than virtually anybody else because of him living in the house and my older brothers being in the business. I can still remember playing kickball in the backyard and them hearing him and the band in the basement starting up ‘Twist And Shout.’ We’d all look at Jimi, and even though he might not be looking at you, he’d hit a note, sustain it, look around like there was something flying around in the room, then catch it, pick back up where he was in the song, then look over at you and wink.”

On an academic binge, Satriani studied all the albums and bootlegs and came to the conclusion that Hendrix’s talent was absolutely inbred and nothing that could ever be trained, properly mimicked, or copied to any notable degree. “[Growing up] when Jimi’s music would come through the stereo speakers, I was transfixed and I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling the way I did, but it was completely cathartic. ‘What was that?’ It got me started on my own journey that day of who I was and what I was doing, which eventually led me to pick up guitar. Technically the guy was so innovative in what he did and his technique was so amazing. He sounded like he never practiced a day in his life and that he was playing completely from the heart, making it up as he went along and it felt like he was doing it just for you. None of it could ever be learned at a clinic. All the musical and physical talent was so rare — one in a million, really.”

– Andy Argyrakis

For more with Experience Hendrix artists, grab the March issue free throughout Chicagoland.

Bob Crawford thinks he holds the best job in the world — even if it means driving four hours through a sleet storm just to get home from band practice. “It’s been just phenomenal for me. I get to collaborate with two of the greatest songwriters I know,” he says over the din of shaky cell-phone reception and freezing precipitation beating on the exterior of his car.

Appearing: Sunday, March 7th at House Of Blues in Chicago.

His commitment to the call isn’t surprising — it seems those Avett Brothers run a tight ship. They gleaned this work ethic by observing their father manage a welding business during their formative years and transferred this discipline to their music. Adding bass to Scott and Seth Avett’s heart-tugging compositions when the trio formed in North Carolina, Crawford took some time to adjust to the protocol.

“Scott always tells people that when we first started out — we still do — we kind of run our band business the same way his dad ran the welding business,” he says. “So, it’s like that kind of idea of early-to-bed/early-to-rise and being on the job site when the sun comes up. In the early days of what we did, we would leave at 5 a.m. and no matter where we were we would get up at the break of dawn and make our way to wherever we needed to be. That’s just something I think that’s in their blood. I had to learn that,” Crawford admits.

The dedication to craft sustained the genetically inclined harmonizing, banjo-friendly power ballad-writing band through four independently released full-length albums and two EPs beginning 2001. Near-constant touring earned The Avett Brothers a rabid fanbase scattered across the country and cemented the group’s reputation as if not a live tour de force, then definitely a raucous good time.

Producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty) took notice and invited the boys out to his house in Malibu to woo them to sign with Columbia Records. “Rick has his ear to the ground. I think he found us on YouTube . . . and he sought us out,” Crawford explains. “He’s a very easy guy to meet — a very easy guy to talk to music about. He made us feel quite comfortable and very relaxed.”

Taking a meeting with Rubin and hunkering down in the studio with the legend for months (and for that matter making the switch to a major label) are two different things. When the band made the decision to take the leap, call Columbia home, and put the making of I And Love And You into Rubin’s hands — thereby relinquishing a fraction of its coveted control — the pressure was on.

“He doesn’t intimidate you intentionally, but for the first couple of days it was hard for us. I think you put this pressure on yourself because he’s there [and] you need to be better than you are. It took a couple of days to realize we just needed to be ourselves,” Crawford recounts. “I think that we all got better because of that. I think we are better musicians now than before we made I And Love And You and before we worked with Rick. But, it did take a little bit, I think, for ourselves to get in the mindset that he’s just a guy like the rest of us.”

Because (or in spite) of Rubin’s tutelage, The Avett Brothers’ major-label debut retains the band’s penetrating observations on the themes of family, romance, and the transition between the petty occupations of boyhood to the responsibilities of manhood. From the stuttering profession of affection in “Kick Drum Heart” to the resigned heart incapable of mouthing the three words people long for most in the title track, the album’s universal truths cause the listener to wince as if 20 Band-Aids are being pulled off at once.

Setting up shop at the Document Room in sunny Malibu didn’t affect the album’s stoic mood. The abundance of Vitamin D failed to influence Crawford and his bandmates, who kept their heads down and noses buried in work. “True, you walk out of the studio to get some fresh air and you’re looking over a mountainside of the Pacific Ocean and it’s quite beautiful . . . but there was no pool time or martinis or daiquiris,” Crawford says. “But, Rick let us be ourselves. He was very conscious of letting us do what it is that we do that drew him to us in the first place. And the advice he did have and the suggestions he did bring up were effective in a lot of ways and they were very gentle.”

– Janine Schaults

For the full interview, grab the March issue available free throughout Chicagoland.

“This particular record is a funny one for me, because when I started working on the first songs, I kind of had lost hope in relationships altogether. I’m a bad boyfriend, let’s put it that way. But then, I kind of fell head over heels for somebody during the process, and I was documenting that process over the period of time working on the album. So for me, it’s really current and, because of that reason, it does have a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. But then again, it’s always the oncoming train, isn’t it?”

Appearing: Saturday, April 9th at House Of Blues in Chicago.

So explains Ville Valo of Finnish love-metal act H.I.M., in regards to his new and (comparably) optimistic outlook. It’s an almost-hopeful sentiment present on his band’s seventh album, Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice (Sire). It’s also surprisingly (and again, comparably) positive coming from a band with song titles like “Dead Lovers’ Lane,” “The Funeral Of Hearts,” “Join Me In Death,” and “Love In Cold Blood” and albums like Razorblade Romance and Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 in its catalog. But then, as Valo explains, Screamworks aims for more than just the group’s previous doom-and-gloom ambitions.

“For me, my goal was to make an album that would be somewhere between Depeche Mode and Guns N’ Roses, or Kraftwerk and The Cult, but having this pompous, baritone-voice fellow trying to be all Meatloaf, in between,” the frontman explains. “It was just kind of like a weird sonic sandwich, but I think that we brought . . . the European melancholy and the poetic sensibility into the more direct, straightforward, Foo Fighters-type of rock. That was the picture I had in my mind, and I think we succeeded extremely well in that. For me, it’s something really new, because I wanted the melancholy vibe still to have levity, and still to have this kind of punky, straight-in-your-face directness, which a lot of our stuff hasn’t — it’s been veiled and shrouded in mystery or whatever, vibe-wise — and I wanted this to be a bit more honest, and that could be interpreted as being a bit more poppy, as well.”

“Poppy” is a surprisingly accurate description for Screamworks. Only one song eclipses four minutes (by a full second) and, sonically, the material is forthright and immediate, with Valo describing the record as “a rock ‘n’ roll version of the danceable tragedy.”

It’s a description that easily applies to the electronic-tinged and morose “The Foreboding Sense Of Impending Happiness,” while the harder-edged “Like St. Valentine” would fit right in at modern-rock radio. Yet songs like the more pop-laced “Scared To Death” and power ballad “In The Arms Of Rain,” while instantly recognizable as H.I.M. fare, demonstrate an urgency and impact present in much of Screamworks and new to the group’s sound at large. No doubt the album’s newfound dynamic can be traced back to the band recording the album in Los Angeles, with production from Matt Squire (Panic At The Disco, Taking Back Sunday) and mixing by Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Weezer). And according to a Billboard.com interview from December, Screamworks is the first album Valo has written entirely sober, a fact that plays into the album’s heightened directness, as well. Yet the reason for the singer’s sudden sobriety was (unsurprisingly) far from a happy one.

“I’ve always written all the songs sober or having a hangover, but I wasn’t able to function or be creative if I was messed up, so basically, I was just getting out of my head at the end of each creative session, and I just kept getting worse and worse,” Valo admits. “My decision to stop being the rather weak party animal that I was, was the fact that I think that each individual, at one point, would get really bored of shitting and puking blood everyday. So that was kind of like the essential point: The doctors telling me that I’m going to have a heart failure if I don’t stop. I looked like a puffy, zombified version of the old me and, to be honest with you, I didn’t feel good. I think that the Bukowski mission I was on was well accomplished, but if I would’ve taken that further it would have destroyed the career or the passion, the number-one thing, which is music in my life.”

In addition to being a very real and dangerous threat, the frontman’s risk of heart failure is hugely ironic, given the heavy and repeated use of broken and battered hearts in H.I.M.’s lyrics and imagery. In fact, the group’s most recognizable aspect is its “heartagram” logo, a design that combines a pentagram and a heart. The irony was not lost on the singer.

“I think that musicians very, very rarely sing about the heart as a muscle,” he concedes when the comparison is brought up. “But yeah, it is [ironic]. And the first single from this album being ‘Heartkiller?’ So, you can find copious amounts of black humor in everything we do. And it’s good to remember, as opposed to taking yourself way too seriously.”

A surprising sentiment from such a somber and sordid soul. Yet with the retreat from excessive drinking and the time spent among sunny, palm tree-laden landscape of L.A., is it any wonder Valo sees a light at the end of the tunnel, be it train or otherwise?

“On a philosophical level, I think that the journey is way more important than actually getting there. I think that happiness is actually trying to get to happiness,” he states. “I don’t think that a psychological/mental/emotional equilibrium is heaven. That’s hell. Sitting on top of a cloud playing a harp for eternity, [is] definitely not my idea of paradise. That feels really repetitious and like a bad dream, so I think that happiness in itself for me is the fact that, I’m trying to go forward with the band, musically, I’m trying to become a better person, doing what I do, as everybody’s doing.

“You’re making your mistakes along the way, just to be able to make new ones the next day. It’s not necessarily a not-painful way of going about, but, then again, it’s very colorful and memorable, at least for me. So, I’d rather see in that light, than try to,” he pauses, declaring, “Oof — that just sounds terrible, to be happy all the time. You have to have the lows to appreciate the happiness, and vice-versa. You have to look down at the abyss, and nearly hop down into the abyss, to be able to appreciate the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.”

He continues, “I think successful comedians are the ones who commit the most suicides, and then the goth bands that sing about all dark stuff, they’re the ones that are the happiest, and enjoy the sunshine the most. I think we’re somewhere in between. So, I’m learning how to tie up a noose, but at the same time, enjoying my ice cream.”

– Jaime de’Medici

For the full interview, grab the March issue free throughout Chicagoland.

Hoosiers is one of the greatest psyche-up movies of all time. It’s interesting for this story not because of March Madness, but for how it compares to having a professional recording made. In a crucial scene, Gene Hackman’s character gives his green team a tour of the gymnasium where the state finals will take place. All the hard work and practice has brought them to a steel and concrete arena, where the baskets are 10 feet from the ground just like the home gym. There’s nothing to change, boys, just keep doing what you’ve been doing.

Don’t take that approach to recording. By all means keep practicing and putting forth effort, but even the most optimistic studio manager will tell you no two spaces are the same, neither are any two goals. And what exactly should you change? For starters . . .

“Change your strings and drumheads,” according to Dom Palmisano at Linder Avenue Recording. Soundscape’s Michael Kolar? “Your guitars restrung. For drums, a fresh set of heads.” Engine Room’s John Humphrey suggests, “If you’re a drummer, you want to make sure your heads are changed. Put new strings on the guitar.” Dave Banks at Energy Command . . . you get the point.

With more than 50 years of studio experience among them, Banks, Humphrey, Kolar, and Palmisano have seen it all. Even after stressing in pre-session meetings what’s important, artists still succumb to habit (sloppiness) or myth (the studio makes you sound better).

Of all the advice we culled from them, however, what stuck out was what might be considered poor marketing for the studios.

“The cost versus what you get,” pauses Humphrey, “learn what you’re paying for. Shop around and see what studios offer as far as what you’re trying to do, how you want to record, equipment, space, the whole package. Dollar for dollar what you get at different places is vastly different. It’s a shame to me when people come in and have paid the same or more for a lesser experience because they didn’t do their homework.”

Homework might rank among the reasons some musicians chose their craft, but Banks agrees. “What impresses me more than probably anything is the band that does its homework: does its research, talks to other studios, finds the perfect fit for its sound. I enjoy working with those because they’re more professional.”

Next on the list is to know what you’re doing. It seems obvious, but managing expectations might be the biggest responsibility a studio has. “Sit down and talk about what are you trying to get accomplished,” says Kolar, emphasizing that you want to share this with the studio as well. “What is the target audience and budget? The budget’s going to dictate all the answers. Then we can get real about what to expect to get done. If you’re just trying to get gigs with a demo, let’s rip and run. It doesn’t have to be Dark Side Of The Moon — just convey to a promoter you’re not going to embarrass them at their venue. If you want something to sell after shows, we’ll need to add a couple days.”

“I always get a guy, every week,” says Humphrey, “‘I wanna come in for an hour.’ What are you gonna do in an hour? It takes an hour to get in, get set up. That’s the biggest misconception.”

It’s a topic that gets these guys rolling. “If you’re talking about [expectations] the day you’re recording, it’s probably too late,” says Palmisano. I am someone who overcommunicates before people come in. A good studio can capture how you sound. Don’t try to prepare how you think you and your instrument will sound. Prepare as normally as you could.”

Banks adds, “People who come with beats often think, ‘I’ve got a five-minute song I can take care of in three or four takes. I’ve got a budget of $75 and can get done in an hour or two.’ Nuh-uh. You might be warmed up in an hour or two, and you might capture your tracks an hour after that, and then spend an hour or two editing. I think a lot of people have a misperception because of these tools now available to them like GarageBand, Cubase, or Sonar. They’ve got friends who have a microphone and they’ve seen them do it. They can get a mix that sounds like crap, but they can do it pretty quickly and figure someone with better stuff can do it even faster.”

The other point everyone agreed on was storage. Kolar recommends, “If your studio bill is paid-in-full, you’re entitled to leave with your masters. You’re gonna want to be sure to bring a hard drive or a 16GB thumb drive. All hard drives are a motor, and no motor lasts forever so back them up.” For that he recommends DVD or Blu-Ray copies.

Banks is surprised how unvalued the source files can be. “I can’t tell you how many bands get their final, two-track audio mix and don’t take the masters. I keep everything — I’m kind of a pack rat — but I urge everyone at the beginning to get an external hard drive. If the place goes up in smoke . . . ”

From there, Palmisano, Humphrey, Kolar, and Banks have laundry lists. Palmisano says not to leave personal gear behind, “It’s better to have, than to have hoped you did.” While Humphrey reminds to take advantage of the studio’s arsenal: “On the flipside, you have the under-assumption [the studio doesn't] have anything. That comes from frugal, barebones recording and they don’t realize you have vintage amps and, you know, a piano.”

Kolar’s a big stickler on the strings issue (“There’s no amount of $1,000 Austrian mics with super-clean top end that will put the sparkle back into a guitar like a new set of strings”) and underscores maximizing time in and out of the studio. “A band will be having trouble switching an amp from clean to dirty, and nine times out of 10 the guitar player says, ‘That thing’s been acting up for awhile.’ I start at $70 an hour. If it takes a half hour to get an amp to be unfinicky, that’s $35 you lost that could have been spent on a repair that will last you years, instead of me coming up with some Rube Goldberg fix in the studio.”

Banks drives home that the studio is not the stage. “Bands overplay. When you get to talking about what their parts are, you know, every time you hit a footswitch to change tones we do that on a different take. That click-over isn’t recorded. They think they have two guitars, a bass, and a singer. There may be 10 guitar parts by the time they’re done. But they think, ‘This is how we do it live.’ Too many bands don’t practice with a click track, and they wonder why their recording sounds sloppy or warped. They slow down, they speed up.”

And finally, there are the things that impress them. For Palmisano, “Singers who sing on key.” Humphrey? “I’ve had pro bands burn out 10 basic tracks in a day.” Kolar likes when “they have all their files and it’s all organized.” And Banks is for “the drummer who doesn’t overplay, and the bass player who is locked in with the drummer.”

None of them, for the record, insisted upon three passes before any shots.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: So after a long absence, you’re back in a big way, with a three-part conceptual piece Out Of Our Minds, an album, comic book, and 28-minute film directed by Tony Stone. But where in the hell have you been for the past six years?
Melissa Auf Der Maur: Actually, I’ve been real busy, I promise you. And first of all, I wanna explain that it’s been five years, not six, ’cause I was on tour for the entire year of 2004. So what happened in half a decade? I began to write what I thought would be a rock record that I knew would have a more visual/conceptual element to it, because I’d decided that I wanted to bring together some of my visual-art roots of the past and mix ‘em in with my music. Because I had sorta been hijacked by music for a decade, while I turned my back on my photography and all these other artsy things. But did I know the 21st-century beast was gonna become this? No. Not until halfway through the making of the record, when Capitol Records, my label at the time, began to melt. Budgets were being frozen, and I couldn’t go back into the studio until they told me I could. So I started to get very nervous about the music industry. And by the time that everyone I worked with at Capitol was fired in one fell swoop, I had already gotten my survival kit out. Legal affairs held up my half-finished record for almost a year, which was hellish. But I wanted to continue to create, so in that limbo, I met the filmmaker Tony Stone. And I’d had the idea for this film, so we just decided to go full-bore with it. So we embarked on this epic journey, even though it’s only a half-hour film — there really are car crashes in it, and lots of special effects like bleeding trees. So we were solar-powered, off the grid, living like pagans on and off for six months over the course of a year to make that epic movie. Then I wanted to continue expounding on it, so we started doing the comic book. And I also wanted to get back in touch with my roots as a Canadian independent artist, and that took a huge amount of brainwork, a learning curve for a girl who lived in the fantasy-Viking-creative side, who had to suddenly learn how to use a computer and make marketing pitches — because I’d decided that I wanted to be able to have my own artist-run production company. So it’s one thing to make a multi-media concept record, another thing entirely to become your own business. So that’s been the crazy last year and a half of my life. But now I’ve got my own MAdM Productions, and I’m the creator of music and film and whatever the hell I wanna make in the future!

Melissa Auf Der Maur’s Out Of Our Minds is available March 30th. Q&A by Tom Lanham.

Though beloved, The Dismemberment Plan’s breakup several years ago was greeted with joy by headline writers who had a field day with “self-fulfilling prophecy” jibes. With Wilmette’s Fall Out Boy on the brink, it’s open season again. (Given bassist Pete Wentz’s online logorrhea, credit the folks who waded through his rants to uncover this news.)

After the better part of a decade atop the emo heap, there’s trouble in paradise. No there isn’t. Yes there is. “I don’t know the future of Fall Out Boy,” Wentz Twittered. Then he told Rolling Stone, “It’s kind of like in the Midwest, when you start having snow days. The snow will melt one day. It will melt sooner rather than later.” Then, “We were just burned out, and we need a break.” Singer Patrick Stump is working on a solo album and sees things differently, telling Spin, “I’m not in Fall Out Boy right now. But one way or another, the band will always be around. Steven Tyler isn’t in Aerosmith anymore, but his gravestone will probably say something about Aerosmith.” Down, down, sugar they’re going down

Take Your Hat Off And Stay A While

Eleven days after the 1970 Kent State shootings, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young wrote, recorded, and released “Ohio.” Forty years later, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton shut the media and public out of a bipartisan budget meeting. Coincidence? It’s with the speed of the former and the privacy of the latter that Chicago’s “Closed Sessions” have begun. (Maybe.)

A collaboration between Omar Solis, DJ RTC EIC, and Soundscape Studios’ Michael Kolar, the idea is to grab hip-hop artists passing through town on tour (and some local folks) to select a beat in front of a video team and then go to work. The whole sequence is filmed, edited, then disseminated online via Rubyhornet.com, and the audio tracks come packaged as multimedia EPs. Participating artists so far have included Bun B, Rhymefest, Kidz In The Hall, and Big Pooh; the first nine-song issue comes out this month as a free download.

Capitol Crimes

They’ve had it better than most bands, but you couldn’t blame the members of OK Go for wearing a permanent expression of “You gotta be kidding me.” Under Capitol Records’ thumb after the middling success of their label debut, the Chicagoans made gold from lemons by producing their own music videos (“A Million Ways,” “Here It Goes Again”) and spilling them all over the Internet. Their career was salvaged with little help from their backers, and the band are hailed as pioneers in viral promotion.

And then major-label reality reared its ugly head again. In 2006, Google and the big labels agreed that videos can only be legally posted to YouTube and Myspace and not embedded wherever fans can post them — thus deliberately restricting promotion. (It’s the Stone Age with these people.) Minorly sympathetic but greatly undeterred, the band will give their new videos’ embed codes to any fan who asks, hedging, “Our label is unlikely to start suing us for putting our videos up,” as Damien Kulash told Rolling Stone. That’d be as dumb as suing their customers. Oops.

– Steve Forstneger

Holly Jollie Admitance

Consider a crisis averted. As classic bands dilute lineups but continue to tour, admission to the history books becomes a sticky issue. The Hollies‘ induction into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame could have sparked a peculiar situation as to which members would be on hand to accept the honor. So far, though, there’s no bad blood between the former and current Hollies as to who’ll be attending the event. It looks like Graham Nash and vocalist Allan Clarke, who founded the band but have been gone for years, will be there, along with Terry Sylvester, who replaced Nash in 1969 and left in 1981. No definite word on whether they’ll be performing. The current Hollies still tour throughout Europe with drummer Bobby Elliott and guitarist Tony Hicks as the only remaining original members. They’re performing at the London Palladium the night of the Hall Of Fame ceremony.

“The venues have been booked for the last year or so and are well sold, so unfortunately it’s not possible to reschedule the dates,” Elliott explains via e-mail. “Tony and I are happy for Graham to collect the awards on our behalf. We consider it a great honor to be part of the RRHOF and would like to thank all the folks who voted for us.”

– Terrence Flamm

Hailing from Chicago, blues trio The Black Oil Brothers‘ sound is 100-percent pure Mississippi. The band’s debut, Long Way From The Delta, actually sounds like it was recorded right in the heart of it, with soul-stirring blues from start to finish. Don’t let their youth fool you: these guys are well-versed in their blues history, and have captured the sound perfectly from the harmonica solos and smooth harmonies, to the dueling acoustics and mandolins, right down to the old-school story-telling lyrics. (www.theblackoilbrothers.com)
– Carter Moss

The three-song Blue Balls is a hard-rocking new effort from the trio About Nothin’, with a title track that’s a ribald tale of a pirate who goes by that name. The grunge-flavored “Way Back” hits a bit closer to home, as a White Sox hat-wearing South Sider contends with hookers and panhandlers on his way to the liquor store. “One First Class Big Hurry” evokes Henry Rollins with its muscular arrangement. (www.myspace.com/aboutnothinpage)
– Terrence Flamm

Should they ever get hold of a copy, Hollywood music supervisors would have a field day with Where We Begin, the latest CD from Absentstar. Cuts like “Ready When You Are” and “At The Seams” are perfect for adding audio oomph to those emotional relationship moments TV and movie directors love to fashion. Listening to all 10 indie-pop tunes in a single sitting can get a mite maudlin, yet taken in two- or three-track doses the melodies are brilliantly sentimental. (www.absentstar.com)
– Jeff Berkwits

Cold Water Mystic is a first-rate party band, with the 14 tracks on Cooler By The Lake backing up this claim. It’s easy to forget that the reggae-infused rock isn’t coming from Long Beach or the Caribbean, but from landlocked Brookfield. The band nails the Sublime-light vibe throughout, even getting funky, a la Red Hot Chili Peppers, on “Tip Your Cup” and “Funk Yeah.” (www.myspace.com/coldwatermystic)
– Jason Scales

Transporting the club into your living room, DJ Leebo’s Adventures In Structures Chaoz — The House Soundtraxs Volume 2 is an electrifying slice of pulsating house and techno, overflowing with throbbing rhythms and tingling electronic accents. Huge, heart-heaving house beats, faux hand claps, and tumbling, squishy electric squiggles pound with insistent clarity in “The Donjon,” and Leebo guides a celestial tour in “Hartimes” as glitchy blips and beeps, backed with rolling, cut-up beats launch us into the stratosphere. (www.myspace.com/djleebohouse)
– Patrick Conlan

Singer/songwriter Sue Fink presents 12 polished songs on her third full-length, Thoughts At An Intersection. A variety of pleasant, easy-listening pop styles (from jazzy to country) are explored — all meant to highlight her gentle and at times vulnerable vocals. A host of talented musicians, providing everything from cello to piano, assist her in realizing her wistful, humorous, and serious observations about life. (www.suefink.com)
– Jason Scales

For simple, straight-forward pop, look no further than Gidgets Ga Ga. Opening strong with “Beki,” the broodier, more introspective “The Sorry Song,” and the bouncy handclapper “The Bomb,” The Big Bong Fiasco does, however, suffer from an overall homogeny after awhile, especially on a disc that’s 18 tracks long. That said, TBBF is as enjoyable of a pop record as you’re likely to hear. (www.myspace.com/gidgetsgaga)
– Dean Ramos

Conservationist/biologist Aldo Leopold is the muse behind the 18-song Great Possessions, a virtuosic folk-rock manifesto for tree huggers from The Giving Tree Band. A host of acoustic instruments — including banjo, fiddle, glockenspiel, and harmonium — creates a warm, organic aesthetic. Fun facts: the album was created with “100-percent solar energy” at the Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and 10 trees were planted for every 1,000 units sold to offset the pollution caused by shipping. Thankfully, the songwriting and musicianship is as solid as the environmentalism. (www.thegivingtreeband.com)
– Jason Scales

An undeniably catchy mix of metal and pop punk, Gypsyfly can without a doubt “rawk!” with the best of them, which is readily apparent on “You’re Gonna Get It” and the closing number, “The Day Night Ended.” However, this hybrid of genres doesn’t work for every track on Silver Or Lead. Ballads like “Don’t Worry” as well as the guitar-driven “Play With Fire” are just a couple of examples where the contrasts in musical ideologies are hardly a perfect match. (www.gypsyfly.net)
– Dean Ramos

Diane Marie Kloba pursues a more avant-garde sound on her latest solo effort, For You, Stranger, than she did as a member of The Silent Workers. At times, her spoken, childlike vocals and spacy arrangements get too cutesy as on the title track, but the sparse “For Inventors” has an intimate charm. “Skurf,” a spooky, guitar-driven instrumental adds a bit of fun, and “Keepable (Drum Experiment)” is an engaging indie-rock tune. (www.dianemariekloba.com)
– Terrence Flamm

Oddball rockers Let’s Get Out Of This Terrible Sandwich Shop are officially going out of business! Blame the economy or the band’s highly inaccessible sound, but after five years of playing pubs (and sandwich shops?) in the city, they are calling it quits, and releasing Everything Must Go! as a farewell gift — a collection of demos, live versions, and other random stuff. At least they are going out like they started: leaving fans slightly entertained and thoroughly confused. (www.letsgetoutofthisterriblesandwichshop.com)
– Carter Moss

Despite haunting tracks like “Hudson River Teenage Blues,” the “Don’t Go Back To Rockville” feel of the title cut, and the jazzy “Golden Record,” there’s ultimately something rather cold and un-emotive about this Lost Cartographers record. There’s a noticeable lack of passion that even makes the otherwise sweet and heartfelt “Love In the Morning” a rather uneventful listen. Still, the instrumentation and the variety of influences they’ve chosen to incorporate suggest promise. (www.myspace.com/thelostcartographers)
– Dean Ramos

With Good Advice, The Negligents nail that minimally rugged garage-rock sound to a T. This trio, led by vocalist/bassist Ken Negligent, hold an unmistakable youthful intensity but at the same time don’t come off as immature. Just check the standout single “Matter No More,” where Negligents kick things off by saying, “They say the salad days are coming back/I think I’m old enough to know better than that.” Consider this grown-up garage material. (www.negligents.com)
– Max Herman

Although catchy and sweet on such tracks as opener “Without Without” and bouncy and endearing on “Linda,” Roxy Swain’s New Love Designers unfortunately can come off a bit bland and generic as well, especially on “Duo Jet” and “Spread Eagle” when guitarist Tom Valenzano takes over vocal duties. On the other hand, though, much of New Love Designers seems tailored for adult alternative radio, an arena where the band would undoubtedly find the most success. (www.spadekitty.com)
– Dean Ramos

Soft Speaker’s seven-track Conditions is a solid collection of rock songs that convey an organic warmth. Finely orchestrated acoustic instruments provide this sound, with an occasional switch in vocalists to match the mood. “Barbershop Quintet” uses breathy vocals over a more melancholy tone, with “Mercury Park” — the opening track — increasing the tempo and energy in vocals and instrumentation. Closer “The Great Brick Mosque And I” breaks from the aforementioned aesthetic, instead relying on synth tracks and machine-like percussion. (www.softspeaker.com)
– Jason Scales

Not to be confused with the band of the same name from Tallahassee, Chicago’s Soft Targets is trekking forward with its third album, Don’t Put Out. Here, these songs are distinguished by oft-serious subject matter delivered with light-headed personality (“When The Apocalypse Comes”). Paired with its upbeat, lo-fi guitar-driven output and you get a non-depressing look at modern times. (www.soft-targets.com)
– Max Herman

Performing as Super 8 Bit Brothers, Tub Ring’s Rob Kleiner and Kevin Gibson proudly let their geek flag fly on Brawl, their full-length debut. Whether reminiscing about a classic Atari console via “2600 Refugee” or declaring “Goodbye Cruel World (Of Warcraft),” the pair melds decent melodies and smart lyrics with vintage, video-game-inspired electronic sounds. Not all of the disc’s 15 songs are entirely engaging, but enough make the grade to ensure a buoyant bit-pop journey. (www.myspace.com/super8bitbrothers)
– Jeff Berkwits

It’s not every day that a highly-lauded jazz pianist decides to take a detour to go start a rock band, but that’s exactly the story behind recent NIU grad Samuel Wyatt. The piano-based pop-rock on his debut, Welcome To America (recorded under the moniker Wyatt), certainly highlights his skills on the ivory, and the intelligent lyrics prove his potential as a bonafide songwriter. Wyatt’s debut is both fun and thoughtful, and might just be the perfect slap in the face to anyone who questioned his career choice. (www.myspace.com/wyattchicago)
– Carter Moss

Every critic should be so lucky to review an EP as absolutely pleasure-inducing as The Yearbooks‘ Have A Great Summer. While taking cues from such 2000s stalwarts as Death Cab For Cutie and The Strokes, the quintet aren’t content with merely aping those who came before. Instead, it seems as if they’re carving their own niche by crafting some of the finest indie pop/rock Chicago has probably heard in quite some time. (www.myspace.com/theyearbooks)
– Dean Ramos

photo by Cara Jepsen

Two of the nation’s coolest indie-rock outlets originate right here in Chicago. Both “JBTV” and CHIRP radio are staffed by volunteers who are more passionate about music than money. And both have launched 24-hour Internet stations.

The 25-year-old, all-volunteer “JBTV” will expand into a 24-hour, multi-genre online TV channel this month (at www.jbtvonline.com). And January saw the launch of the community-based Chicago Independent Radio Project, a state-of-the-art online radio station (Chirpradio.org) that one day plans to go terrestrial.

Program director Shawn Campbell, formerly of Loyola’s WLUW-FM (88.7) decided to form CHIRP in July 2007, “When it became apparent that there wasn’t going to be a station in Chicago that was 100-percent welcoming to community volunteers,” she says. She invited a dozen like-minded people to meet a local pub, and that became the CHIRP’s board of directors.

“For two-and-a-half years we didn’t have a station, just an idea,” says Campbell. “We were dependent on people coming to events and raising donations for something that didn’t exist yet. It told us that it was something the larger community felt strongly about and cared about.”

The station netcasts above a factory in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. “We literally built our facility from the ground-up,” Campbell explains. “When we came in there was a raw factory floor. Our team of engineers built walls, hung drywall, painted, and laid carpet. Volunteers put their hearts into the project.”

Now, CHIRP has 150 volunteers, including some 60 DJs who must play at least five new tracks and two local songs per hour.

Local music is a crucial part of the station’s identity, and bands are invited to send tracks to music director Billy Kalb. “We think that a really crucial part of what local radio does — and we consider ourselves a local station even though we’re on the Web — is to showcase local bands,” says Campbell.

There are also plans for live performances at the station and at local recording studios — as well as news shows. But all of that costs money. And, because the station is Web-only, license fees are paid per song, per listener. So the more popular it gets, the more the costs will rise.

“We’ve been really fortunate with fundraising,” says Campbell, referring to the station’s record fairs, benefit shows, and grant awards. But their biggest source of income is individual donations.

Campbell is “cautiously optimistic” that CHIRP will eventually launch a Low Power FM (LPFM) version of the station; the House Of Representatives passed a LPFM bill that would reduce the number of clicks required between stations, and give the FCC jurisdiction over further changes. The bill has bipartisan support and could pass the Senate later this year. Still, it would be at least two years before a LPFM station could obtain an FCC waiver and launch a station on Chicago’s congested airwaves.

“People ask, ‘Why bother? Nobody listens to radio anymore,’” says Campbell. “There couldn’t be a stronger message that people are looking for something more. It’s been so gratifying to see the comments coming from the public about how excited they are about the station.

“People have so quickly incorporated it into their daily lives. That’s what we wanted.”

Love is also in the air at “JBTV,” which is celebrating its 25th year as an indie-music showcase (more at JBTVonline.com). “Everyone here loves what they’re doing,” says owner and host Jerry Bryant. “We have a 99-percent volunteer staff. Everyone here has such a passion for the music.”

Bryant now oversees an 18-person team that will launch the 24-hour online network. The station will feature interviews, live performances, videos, and vintage gems from the “JBTV” archives as well as shows from other music genres. The main host will be former Q101 DJ Ryan Manno; Jenna Martinelli covering the local scene; MC/poet Jeff Baraka on the urban beat; and a punk show hosted by Lawrence Arms frontman Brendan Kelly and Red Scare Records owner Toby Jeg.

“We want to bring music programming back to TV, because there’s a serious lack of it now,” says new general manager Christian Piccolini, adding that the webcast will feature six hours of new programming each day.

“There are a lot of people on TV who do shows reading from a script that a writer produces,” he continues. “Everyone here will have a lot to do with their own segments,” and the genre hosts will have free reign to choose the music they play. They’ll also make use of Bryant’s state-of-the-art performance studio.

Bryant will continue do his regular show, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., Thursdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at midnight on Chicago Cable Channel 25, and Wednesdays at midnight on WYJS-Channel 62.

“This year is the start of a new decade, which is a perfect time to do this,” says Bryant. “There’s a whole new way of thinking, with the handheld devices, portable phones, iPods — there are tons of new opportunities for new media.

“Terrestrial broadcasting is great, but you’re really limited by your signal,” he continues. “With the Internet and wireless technology that’s out there, you can be anywhere and it sounds tremendous. When you’re on the Internet, you’re broadcasting to the ends of the earth.”

– Cara Jepsen

All the talk nowadays is about the big boys. Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, and Exodus are all touring together in some way, shape, or form, and rumors of a Big Four package (Dave Mustaine told Decibel magazine that Megadeth received an offer) continue to swirl. It’s easy, then, to get swept up in the hype and lose track of a band like, say, Kreator. But answer this: Who, of all the bands named and implied above, released a better record in the last three years than Kreator’s 2009 hunk of kick ass, Hordes Of Chaos (SPV)?

Certainly not Megadeth or Metallica. Exodus’ modern-day output is respectable, but nothing more, and Anthrax’s inability to put out a studio album in seven years disqualifies it from consideration. Maybe Slayer should keep Testament around once Tom Araya’s back heals, replace Megadeth with Kreator, and rip the States a new one.

Until then, Kreator has a nice little thing of its own going. The Hordes Of Chaos Part II Tour (Kreator, Voivod, Nachtmystium, Evile, and Lazarus A.D.) fucks up the Bottom Lounge Friday, March 12th. Fresh off announcing his band’s deal with Nuclear Blast, Kreator vocalist/guitarist/founder Mille Petrozza answered e-mail questions from “Caught In A Mosh” using the fewest words possible.

Mosh: The Hordes Of Chaos Part II Tour is very diverse. How much input did the band have in choosing its tourmates?

Mille Petrozza: We have input, but we also trust our management and booking agent. We all make suggestions and see who’s available.

M: Many of metal’s older generation confess lacking knowledge about younger counterparts, but judging from this tour, it isn’t the case with Kreator.

MP: The younger bands keep the scene alive! It is important to keep track on what’s happening in the underground, in my opinion.

M: Are you personally psyched about any of the bands onboard?

MP: I’m looking forward to all of the bands on the bill, but of course we have the closest relationship with Voivod, who [in 1987] were the first band that ever invited us to tour the U.S.

M: Being sons of our city, Nachtmystium is an intriguing choice for us Chicagoans. What does that group bring to the table?

MP: They seem to be a very good band with a vision. I like their music, and I’m looking forward to meeting the guys.

M: The band based part of this tour’s setlist on fan voting. Can you share any of the results? Anything particularly surprise you?

MP: We’ve had thousands of votes, and the surprising thing is that our taste is not that far off from what our fans like. There will be some songs in the set that we haven’t played in a long time.

M: Being an “elder statesman” of thrash, what are your thoughts on a possible Big Four tour?

MP: I don’t like all of the Big Four bands, so to me, big two would be enough.

M: So record sales, popularity, and critical acclaim aside, what four thrash bands should rightfully occupy a spot in the Big Four, in Mille Petrozza’s mind?

MP: Sorry man, I do not think in these categories. Any band that compares their music or their career to other bands lose a part of their integrity.

M: This being Kreator’s 25th Anniversary, and you being the founder, did you really think it would last this fucking long?

MP: Honestly, no. I live in the here and now and always have. So when I started I maybe thought about the next coming week. I never think as far ahead as 25 years. To me, time is an illusion anyway.

R.I.P. METAL HAVEN: An “Armageddon Sale” isn’t a good promotion for any record store, even one that specializes in grim, foreboding heavy metal. But the end hath arrived for Metal Haven. Save new releases, everything at 2003 W. Montrose is on sale. Discounts will increase randomly throughout March and April, and owner Mark Weglarz shuts ‘er down for good by May 1st.

“I let the [customers] dictate the closing of the store,” Weglarz explains. “As long as enough people came in to pay the bills then I would stay open. When I couldn’t pay the bills anymore, then I would close.”

Explanation? Weglarz can’t afford electricity if we can’t afford the new Destroyer 666. The Skulleted One first noticed declining numbers in 2004 and admits worrying the store wouldn’t even last the length of the three-year lease he signed when Metal Haven moved from Lakeview to its current North Center home in 2007.

Surprisingly, Weglarz isn’t bitter. Though maybe he thinks it, he never once mentions MP3s, downloading, pirating, or the motherfucking iPod. And in truth, downloading and pirating didn’t kill Metal Haven. Did they have an effect? Sure, the guy sitting at home stealing Peaceville’s entire catalog helped pound a nail into the store’s coffin, but most folks shopping at Metal Haven aren’t the kind to buy Autopsy’s Severed Survival anniversary reissue through iTunes. They wouldn’t even know how . . . and that’s meant as a compliment.

“The store is not directed at the casual fan,” Weglarz says proudly. “It’s for the die-hard fan, and what comes with die-hard fans is a loyal customer base.”

“It doesn’t take much to combine $3 cans of shitty beer with your collection of Southern Lord releases and put on a ‘Metal Night’ at some lame bar,” says Chris Black, Superchrist frontman and a former Metal Haven employee. “To open and operate a niche music retail store takes incredible persistence and dedication, not just to the music itself but to the fans. The fact that the store endured as long as it did is in turn a credit to the fans who supported it.”

For more than a decade, Metal Haven was a place honest-to-goodness heavy- metal fans could fraternize. A place where they, not we, are different. A place where you didn’t get the grow-the-fuck-up look from the Pitchfork-worshipping clerk for asking where Entombed is. A place that always had a stocked Manowar section. A place that dedicated shelf space exclusively to “brutal shit,” yet sold Celine Dion cassettes. A place you showed off like you owned the joint to out-of-town friends.

Here’s to a decade of being the most goddamned spoiled heavy-metal fans in this whole country.

Favorite Metal Haven Moments

Larry Herweg, Pelican: My favorite memory of Mark and his awesome shop is when I came in to buy records, as I often did for a time when I lived really close to the shop. He was pretty astute to what I liked — “Hey man, I got the new Decapitated, new Morbid Angel, Vader.” Then one day I asked him for Blind Guardian and Hammerfall CDs. He was stunned I was going the power-metal route! We laughed about it for a bit.

Chris Black: I have to say that April 13th, 2001 might have been the most important day in Metal Haven history. It was a fairly ordinary Friday afternoon until the Cianide guys came in on a mission. Other than acquiring some Autopsy reissues, their objective was to convince us that it was not only acceptable, but sometimes necessary, to have a few beers during business hours. If you’ve seen Cianide live, you know how persuasive they can be. We soon were seeing things their way, and the events of that April 13th marked the beginning of the fraternity atmosphere that characterizes the store to this day.

Kevin Connerty, Vicious Attack: Without question it would have to be the 6-6-2006 sale. I remember me and a friend showin’ up there, and as we were lookin’ for parking we saw this line out the door and down Belmont. Mark was dressed in a devil costume, and I tell you the sight of all those people brought me back to the days of the Rolling Stones [Records] meet-and-greets. We never did make it in to buy anything, but we waited in line for around three hours anyway, just for the hell of it.

Paul Kuhr, Novembers Doom: My favorite memory is simply coming across a CD at random that I had searched for for many years. Metal Haven was the source of underground metal. Period.

– Trevor Fisher

Although she didn’t hear secular music until she was a teen, Valencia Bey always knew she wanted to be a blues/rock diva. She grew up in Chicago but her musical chops were formed in the Mississippi Delta, where she’d spend summers with her grandparents. There, she absorbed the intricacies of gospel music that would transform into blues once it left the church.

Appearing: Friday, April 16th at New Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago.

On her second CD, Coffee And Conversation (Brown Girl), the blues and several of its babies pump through the 12 tracks. From the driving blues of opener “Hello Sunshine,” to the jazz undertones of “Already Home,” and the rockin’ blues of “Steps To The Sun,” Coffee And Conversation showcases blues in its many forms. “My grandmother and mother referred to blues as ‘that raunchy music,’ but I realized that the structure of blues ands gospel were the same, just different lyrics.”

Still, her parents didn’t allow much secular music in the house. Bey heard mostly gospel mainstays like the Thompson Community Singers and Andrae Crouch and very little B.B. King and Z.Z. Hill. “We listened to a lot of gospel music. I heard it in church, on the radio, and at home. My uncle and his family had a musical gospel group in Mississippi and I’d travel with them to shows. I was surrounded by music and musicians and it all seeped in.”

By the time her older brother introduced the spectrum of popular music when she was 14, Bey had selected Tina Tuner, Patti LaBelle, and Nona Hendrix as singing influences and Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, and Curtis Mayfield as songwriting mentors. “I liked reading liner notes and lyrics,” she says. “I had been writing songs since I was 8 and I learned to rewrite and rewrite. I listened to all of these artists to figure out how they did it.”

Her biggest problem wasn’t figuring out how to write songs. Bey comes from a family of educators and her mother insisted that she couldn’t make a living playing music. Instead, Bey was expected to get her education degree. She refused and moved out to attend Jackson State University, majoring in music. While in college deep in the Bible Belt, Bey considered being a gospel artist and wrote spirituals and a gospel opera. She won a Christian songwriting contest in 2002 and was recruited by a gospel label rep soon after. But the agent left the label after a few months and nobody else at the company stepped in to sign her.

Not getting signed by a gospel label proved to be a good thing for Bey because she had secretly longed to play the guitar and sing rock, blues, and soul. “I always wanted to play but I didn’t see a lot of black women with a guitar growing up. It was always the men,” she says. “I will never forget my uncle sitting down to play the guitar after a long day on the farm. He got so much joy from it.”

Eight years ago, shortly after her uncle passed away, she was drawn to an instrument retailer, bought a guitar, and promptly signed up for lessons. “Once I started playing guitar, I really left gospel music alone. Mainstream gospel and Christian music are too limited for me. I want to sing other types of music.”

And sing she does. Graced with a husky, sinuous voice that recalls Oleta Adams, Odetta, and a little Joan Armatrading, Bey tackles bluesy laments, rock anthems, and soul ballads with relish. On “Young And Beautiful,” a rock ode to female self-awareness, she belts out the chorus with all the power of Tina Turner; on “I’m Falling (Again)” she glides over the blues tune with a fire that recalls Koko Taylor herself.

“As a child and a teen, when I imagined myself singing on stage, I imagined singing with Patti LaBelle and Tina Turner, Nona Hendrix and Grace Jones. They were my wild idols. I guess that was the rock chick in me, screaming to get out.” On stage, Bey combines the style of many of her idols, channeling blues divas and rock chicks with cascading guitar riffs and vocals that flow from sultry to pounding.

The deep emotions that inspire Bey’s music also drive her to offer options for music fans. “I don’t feel like someone who appreciates real music has a lot of options,” she says. “Who’s talking about the issues I’m going through about marriage, divorce? I feel like there’s a void in songwriting from a female point of view.” Bey focuses on providing that point of view for her audience as well as songs that flow from her heart. “I think artistry and simplicity is sometimes lost in popular music. You don’t have to have a lot of noise and bells and whistles to touch people.”

NEW RELEASE: Nick Moss releases his eighth CD, Privileged (Blue Bella), on March 16th. The album showcases a solid collection of blues grooves, with Moss’ original “Georgia Redsnake” a catchy standout. The release party is set for the 20th at Buddy Guy’s Legends.

– Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

The hip thing to do these days is to take all your anger and frustration about the stagnate economy, aim it at big business, and let the bile fly. All the cool kids are doing it, and rightfully so. Insurance companies make record profits only to jack up premiums to ungodly heights, and Wall Street gets billions tossed at them only to participate in a circle-jerk of executive bonus payouts.

So it’s no wonder the leviathans of business would be natural targets for the film world, which is where Steven Soderbergh comes in. Dipping in to his Oceans trilogy bag, he plucks Matt Damon to star as Mark Whitacre, a top level researcher at Illinois-based ADM, in the true story of the FBI’s investigation of price fixing at the agri-giant.

Whitacre, recruited by the feds to be their inside-man and lead snitch, happily cooperates with the government case. Eventually three top execs were found guilty, and the company paid out millions in fines and a class action lawsuit.

Yet Whitacre was not the selfless crusader he wanted the FBI to think he was, and the thought process behind his actions prove truly head-scratching.

First off, he had somehow convinced himself that his actions would elevate him to the chairman position of ADM, although the people who controlled decisions like that were the same people he was ratting out, and the company itself just might be brought down with them.

Then there’s the little matter of his embezzlement and check fraud schemes began before, and during, the FBI’s investigation which netted him around $9 million bucks. In the end, Whitacre was discovered, tried, and sentenced to more years in prison the the ADM execs he helped put away.

Damon again reminds us of his range, and he generally doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Although he’s become a go-to action guy, here he’s more William H. Macy in Fargo than Bourne.

A strong supporting cast doesn’t hurt either, with Scott Bakula and Joel McHale as the feds in charge, and Tony Hale (“Arrested Development”) as Whitacre’s put-upon lawyer.

The film itself is wonderful, but the Blu-Ray set is a huge disappointment. With all of the room for extras at their fingertips, the disc only comes with commentary by Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, a digital copy, and some additional scenes. Yet the subject matter cries out for more info. No, we don’t need a “making-of” feature, but we sure would like to know more about the real Whitacre, ADM’s schemes, and a host of other things that would give some insight into the world of corporate corruption.

In this economy, us mere mortals need that sort of thing.

Law Abiding Citizen
Anchor Bay

Almost as much as corporate malfeasance, the film-going public loves a good revenge flick. Too bad there hasn’t been one since Charles Bronson roamed the earth. Even if it’s the dreadful Taken, or about half of the Mel Gibson catalog, we just can’t seem to get enough of the righteous comeuppance.

Onto the stack of titles gets thrown Law Abiding Citizen, which finds Gerard Butler as Clyde, the perfect family man with the perfect family. At least we guess they’re the perfect family, we only see them for the first five minutes before they’re brutally dispatched. Best not to waste too much time gettin’ to the killin’ part. An assistant D.A. (Jamie Foxx) cuts a deal, and the head bad-guy gets a cushy prison sentence.

Flash forward 10 years, and its no more mister nice guy for Clyde. He sets the retribution radar to fix on everyone involved in the case. Oh, and as is often the case in brutal home invasions, the one left behind just happens to be a former government agent whose sole job for Uncle Sam was to figure out how to kill as many terrorist/dictators/despots as possible without leaving any trace.

So Clyde offs as many innocent people as possible, all the while spouting about “justice” at least 10 times in every conversation. Apparently, no one involved in the film has any sense of irony.

The Blu-Ray’s two discs contain both the theatrical release and a slightly gooier unrated cut, as well as a host of special features. However, after the bad taste left by the film itself, you probably won’t care.

– Timothy Hiatt

Old-timers will remember Tascam invented the home-recording studio with the original cassette Portastudio 4-track recorders back in the 1970s. Their new DP-008 takes the ease-of-use of those classic songwriting cassette recorders and aims to add the same portability and ease of use for new musicians. Unlike the lo-fi qualities of cassette machines of yesteryear, these feature digital sound quality, effects, and mixdown to bring home recording into the 21st century. Chosen as “Best In Show” at the NAMM University Roundtable 2010, both the music press and independent retailers praised the 8-track digital portastudio at the recent California trade show. “It’s a very portable, very small 8-track recorder that can be used for recording fast ideas or with a band,” said George Hines of George’s Music. “It has a built-in stereo so you can just bring it to rehearsals. And it fits in a guitar case. It’s that small. It breaks the price-point barrier [$449] for anything like it. Instead of needing a computer, here you still have something that’s very convenient and versatile.”

The DP-008 8-track Digital Portastudio records up to two tracks at a time from built-in mics or a pair of XLR inputs with phantom power for condenser. Songs are recorded on portable SD memory cartridges you can buy at Walgreens, Best Buy, or any electronic or music store. Built-in effects include reverb send and two-band EQ for each track, and a dedicated mixdown track is also available. Obviously, you can’t record your next album on a DP-008. But this is a great place to start making demos on an affordable recorder, without having to lug around your laptop. More information is available at www.tascam.com.

Vox
2010 Guitar Series Line-up

Vox is using its name in amplication to announce a major expansion of its roster of electric guitars. Debuting a selection of new solid-body and semi-hollowbody guitars with the SSC-33 Standard, solid-body, single cutaway SDC-55 Deluxe, solid-body, double cutaway HDC-77, as well as original Vox Virage guitar. Each guitar features the same inverse heel joint as the original Virages, deeply cut for free access to the upper frets, as well as Vox’s MaxConnect aluminum bridge. While the Virage relies on the proprietary Three-90 pickups, the new models are equipped with Vox CoAxe pickups. The pickups feature two modes (for entry-level models), and three selectable modes for clean, crunch, and lead tones (for upper-level models). Each guitar offers passive, analog volume, tone, and pickup-mode switching controls. All new models will be available April 2010 with pricing to be announced. Virage models are currently available at your local retailer. Visit www.vox.com for all the details.

Saint Blues
Woogie Board

Welcome race fans! The Woogie Board, the first production electric washboard, arrives in partnership with Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. It was his father’s love of roots, blues, and folk that introduced Dickinson to the washboard, electrifying it and marrying it to traditional guitar effects. “The electric washboard, which is utterly Cody’s instrument, is a thing unto itself” Dickinson’s father – legendary 1960s record producer/father – Jim says. Saint Blues and Dickinson have taken this home-grown, roots instrument and made it a true gig-worthy axe. It is handmade in Memphis from solid mahogany and finished with a hand-rubbed tung oil. The Woogie Board features enclosed dual-Piezo pickups, with a three-way switch for pickup selection, volume control knob, and a high-quality output jack all housed in a telecontrol plate built into the leg. “The electric washboard is taking things to a whole new level. It’s never been done before, it’s completely unique, and there is tradition, so it kind of has all the makings of a juggernaut,” said Dickinson somewhat in jest. The Woogie Board is available to purchase through the Saint Blues site or at local retailers to be announced. Visit www.saintblues.com to get your fix.

B.J. Thomas was a country-flavored pop crooner in the era of the singer/songwriter. Still, Thomas’ ’60s classic hits, including the infectious “Hooked On A Feeling” and his seminal smash, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” made him a star.

Because many of his biggest hits boasted overtly pop arrangements, through the years, Thomas’ catalog is more associated with the cheesy pop of Burt Bacharach (who co-wrote “Raindrops”). Make no mistake, B.J. Thomas was a mainstream pop singer searching for hits, unlike the singer/songwriters of the era like Paul Simon and James Taylor, whose more personal songs explored and revealed -– and also topped the charts. However, looking back and more importantly, listening to Thomas’ legacy, a more serious, stylized artist emerges. 

From 1966-73, Thomas released eight albums on Scepter Records — I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Tomorrow Never Comes, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, Everybody’s Out Of Town, On My Way, Young And In Love, and Most Of All, and Billy Joe Thomas — and worked with some of the best producers (including Memphis’ Chips Moman, who produced Elvis Presley’s 1969 acclaimed From Elvis In Memphis, which included “Suspiscious Minds” and “In The Ghetto”) and songwriters (the likes of Bacharach and Hal David, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weils) of the day. 

Now all these are reissued on four CDs (each offering two full albums and bonus tracks) – and the results yield a mix of major hits (also “I Just Can’t Help Believing” and No Love At All”) and impressive cover versions all with the trademark B.J. Thomas imprint. Thomas was a singles artist, so offered here are various interpretations of contemporary songs and various genres aimed at the charts, rather than cohesive-themed albums designed for listening and absorbing. 

The best of these as a full listening experience, not surprisingly, are Moman’s and Bacharach’s work. Each producer played to Thomas’ singing strength – a smooth country vibe with a husky pop buoyancy. In fact, Thomas’ signature sound is similar to the pop/gospel/country fusion that Presley favored toward the end of his career. The Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head/Everybody’s Out Of Town CD includes a veritable vintage snapshot of the late ’60s, including Thomas’ hummable title song by Bacharach and David, and several deserving, engaging covers of “Little Green Apples,” “Suspicious Minds,” “This Guy’s In Love With You,” “Everybody’s Talkin’,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and “Always On My Mind.”

Throughout all eight releases, Thomas’ charismatic voice and laid-back phrasings are pleasingly featured on other defining originals and many impressive covers like “”I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Solitary Man,” “Hurting Each Other,” “Close To You,” and “Rainy Night In Georgia.” For  B.J. Thomas fans, these reissues probably are their holy grail. And it’s not too hard to hear why. The guy had the pop chops, and the people writing and arranging his songs knew how to craft and record a pop song.

B.J. Thomas made a cozy career singing “somebody done somebody wrong” songs, and 40 years later, his style endures.

– James Turano

For all the grumbling that Alkaline Trio have strayed from the rawer sound present on the act’s initial outings, the three-man punk outfit don’t seem to have any trouble getting bodies out to see them.

Appearing: February 27 and 28 at Metro in Chicago.

The group hit Metro this weekend for two sold-out shows in support of their latest effort, the just-released This Addiction. The record is somewhat of a return to form for the Trio, underplaying the over-polished power-pop sensibilities present on the group’s last few efforts (2008’s Agony & Irony and 2005’s Crimson). Instead, This Addiction plays it comparably straight, with short bursts of rough and repeating riffs propelling “Off The Map” and “Lead Poisoning,” while the group expand the formula on the synth-backed “Eating Me Alive.” Of course, die-hards are no doubt eagerly anticipating selections from the group’s early catalog.

– Jaime de’Medici

To many artists and music fans, Dr. Wax was a Chicago institution. While the local record-store chain lost two locations up North in recent years — one in Edgewater and the other in Evanston — the impact wasn’t felt quite like the announcement of the closing of its last branch in Hyde Park this month.

Dr. Wax’s connection with independent acts and its supporters alike is largely what built such a loyal following– it was the willingness to give lesser-known talent a chance to sell work even if they didn’t have a big distributor or label behind them. And often, it was simply a place to hang out.

Many of the same artists who were connected to the store throughout the years will help pay respect to the Dr. Wax tradition in a concert dubbed “A Final Goodbye.” The show brings a respectable mix of established and up-and-coming indie hip-hop/soul talent to the table, including jazz-leaning producer/MC Thaione Davis, true-school vets All Natural, and Atlanta-by-way-of-Chicago rhymer Rita J; U.K.-based vocalist Julie Dexter will also appear on stage.

Coincidently, Chicago will be saying goodbye to another South-Side great, JP Chill of WHPK-FM (88.5), who recently retired after years of spinning hip-hop and helping to pave the way for college radio locally; this concert is also a dedication to his influential contributions.

– Max Herman

Why is this man smiling? No clue. Singer/songwriter Rocky Votolato — if his work is any gauge — has lost just about every love-based battle he’s fought, something that hasn’t changed for True Devotion (Barsuk), out this week.

Maybe he’s itching to get out on the road, a chance to put a band behind songs that are packed with acoustic forlornness in the studio. Devotion fits neatly within his catalog drawer, which isn’t to say it’s depressing but even movie producers figured out that at some point Rocky has to win. Opening with a grey cloudscape of strings, the sky breaks only to reveal Votolato alone with his guitar on “Lucky Clover Coin.” “Fragments” and “Eyes Like Static” bring scrappy Rocky to the plate, a reminder of what Ryan Adams was like when he thought it mattered, and seem the likeliest candidates for The Replacements treatment live. But in times like these (fourth albums), you seek more than refinement of a craft. No one’s asking for Dark Side Of The Moon, maybe just a little less Dark Side.

Smoking Popes’ Josh Caterer opens.

– Steve Forstneger

Click here to download “Red River.”

It’s invoked to be provocative, but with an album as good as Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch) you almost wonder if Carolina Chocolate Drops have done their music a disservice by drawing attention away from it.

Purposefully exploring black, string-band roots, Genuine Negro Jig can very definitely be interpreted as a slap at white hipsters who’ve waded in these pools for years, and can also lead to charges of racism — not necessarily against whites, but, as a Newsweek article put it, insisting blacks have a downtrodden “authenticity” unavailable to the “overcivilized.” No matter your position, anything resembling bluegrass is generally attributed to white, mountain musicians and CCD faithfully dredge up an overlooked history. If any branch of Southern music has any attribute, it’s a mix of cultures.

It’s a discussion easy to offend and rife with peril, so you can see how easily it is to forget the music within. For their replication, CCD went with Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello) if you need proof they’re not militant about this. The album does Sarah Vaughn-like torch songs with “Why Don’t You Do Right?” and front-porch woodshedding (“Trouble In Your Mind”), yet they’re skilled enough to even make Blu Cantrell’s 2001 single “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)” feel like a period piece. The band sound a perfect fit for FitzGerald’s, so much you could probably paint a mural of the concert without having seen it.

They also play Sunday at Schubas.

– Steve Forstneger

Tinariwen are exactly the sort of guitar band who you feel could break Joe America’s skittishness toward “world” music, yet stand in their own way. The title of their fourth album translates to “companions,” which suggests an unfortunate, one-world Benetton pretense. If people only stayed to find out what’s meant by “one world.”

Heck, mentioning that Robert Plant and Bono are big fans is as much of a diss as a boon, just something for those fans to abide while begging for “Where The Streets Have No Name” a gazillionth time. But Tinariwen are slowly beginning to make headway — thanks somewhat to the rise of West African guitar playing in modern rock — by being insularly aggressive and sounding completely original. Granted, their desert rock (the members are former nomads; Tinariwen is the Tuareg/Tamashek word for “the deserts”) bears the hallmarks of Muslim chant though the dirty tones of their amplifiers picks up every gritty snap and pop, with elliptical, otherworldly licks enveloping your ears like a suffocating sandstorm.

And that’s not all.

Formed in the late ’70s, Tinariwen never set out to achieve fame but consolidate scattered, nomadic folk songs and incorporate their politics. Tribalism is still very real in West Saharan Africa, and Tinariwen’s people aren’t high on the list of priorities for those who govern Mali, Algeria, and Libya. So there’s an agitated resistance underlying Imidiwan, which begins by asking if the end of oppression and the onset of revolution are near. “Where there is a coward, find him among the men/With your eyes, let him know how little you respect him,” commands “Tenhert,” while “Tamodjerazt Assis” reads like something a Taureg Ian MacKaye would have penned for a bizarro Minor Threat. “Tahult In” is performed like an Arab Strap song, without any allusions to drunken, Glasgow weekends, and “Tenalle Chegret” gets to the heart without embellishment: “I’m ready to die, my rifle and I.”

– Steve Forstneger