IE: So there’s actually a film, Big Easy Express, of the Railroad Revival Tour you took last year by vintage train cars, with Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show?
Alex Ebert: Yes. And it was shot really beautifully. But in some ways, it’s really hard to look at a film like that, because it’s capturing a time that, for me, was so paramount in my canon of experiences. I mean, it’s a 2D representation of a three-dimensional experience, so it’s hard to know if anyone else will be able to understand how important that train trip really was. But I hope it inspires other people to chase childlike dreams, like jumping on a train with your friends and playing music.

IE: Any on-screen revelations that surprised you?
AE: Yeah. After I heard the monologue that I was doing, I realized that I sounded like Morgan Freeman, like a Southern Morgan Freeman. So I might have a career in narration some day.

IE: In stomping hymns like “Mayla,” “I Don’t Wanna,” and “That’s What’s Up,” your new Zeros album really taps into a gospel fervor.
AE: That’s my favorite way to sing, and my favorite energy, musically. I like a lot of energies, but the energy with which gospel is sung and delivered is, to me, the ideal way in which music has its most profound, healing effect. And as we became a band over the last four years, playing a lot of the first album [Up From Below] in concert, then playing these radio acoustic sessions in between, we really wanted to do a more meditative group effort, something a little more tender.

IE: The Edward Sharpe character you first created for a book was a preacher-like figure. And a preacher is the protagonist of Here’s closer, “All Wash Out.” What is his sermon?
AE: In that song, the preacher is stumbling away from the institution of . . . whatever. He’s walking away from whatever you’ve got, whatever institutions there are, and coming away with a single truth — that love is something to believe in and everything else will wash out in the rain. And something will be left standing, and it’ll be some sort of truth that we can all recognize.

IE: Did you get any spooky déjà vu vibes on those circa-1940s rail cars during the Revival tour?
AE: In some ways. But for the most part I was pretty overwhelmed the whole time. And that’s how it is a lot of the time for me — playing these shows and just feeling overcome with . . . I dunno if “gratitude” is the right word, or “thankfulness.” Or just awe that it’s happening. So it just felt good to be on that train, that’s all I can say. It just felt really, really magical.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ album Here (Community) arrives May 29th. They play Riviera Theatre (4746 N. Racine) in Chicago on May 24th with He’s My Brother She’s My Sister. Q&A by Tom Lanham.

With equal influence from The Allman Brothers and Jeff Beck as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, The Flyin’ Ryan Brothers offer a plethora of dueling guitars throughout Under The Influence. While the guys certainly have chops, the shred-heavy, jammy tendencies get redundant after awhile, but at least they interject variety between fierce licks and more laid-back grooves. (ryanetics.com)
– Andy Argyrakis

The worlds of melodic and progressive rock converge on Arion’s debut, A New Dawn Rising, though the trio’s been music making together in various incarnations for more than three decades. As a result, the project sounds tight and polished, recalling the likes of The Alan Parsons Project, Kansas, and Toto, wrapped crisply in the band’s co-production with Kevin Chalfant (707, The Storm, Two Fires) and mixing from Beau Hill (Alice Cooper, Winger). (ariontheband.com)
– Andy Argyrakis

Death Ships is an odd choice to name a band whose collection of 10 shimmering/jangly alt/pop/Americana songs on Circumstantial Chemistry are much more Midwest amber waves of grain than the dark, storm-tossed ocean variety. Being firmly produced, with assured songcraft and playing gives rise to infectious hooks throughout; and when all the guitars start cooking, the music soars like a Foo Fighters-infused-Wilco worthy of wider recognition. (facebook.com/Deathships)
– David C. Eldredge

Armed with a Midwestern roots rock ethos (think Cracker meets Wilco), Jeff Elbel + Ping turn in a batch of provocative songwriting and instrumental prowess throughout the Peanut Gallery EP. The project includes lyric-laden and instrumental versions of the same songs, but no matter what the format, these organic barnburners are sure to usher in both reflective and jubilant vibes. (marathonrecords.com/ping)
– Andy Argyrakis

The band name might come from a Caribou song, but the title of Hello Hammerheads‘ Greatest Hits LP and the presence of a revisionary, new-wave cover of “Can’t Fight This Feeling” suggest nefarious intentions. That these things all coalesce around Matt Ammerman’s Postal Service/Notwist-referencing bedroom-electro project will give his analyst plenty of starting points. Interviewing the girl who broke his heart might be a good idea, too. (mattammerman.com)
– Steve Forstneger

Spliced guitar parts, machine-gun drum blasts, chanted psychedelic metal, all spun on the backdrop of a warped White Zombie LP: oh, to be inside Kizer Von Lycan’s head. It’s difficult to decide whether the unrefined nature of the recordings enhance or betray the intent: brutal acts, by definition, lack rhyme and reason. But in music, perhaps there should be a higher standard. (reverbnation.com/KizerVonLycan)
– Kevin Keegan

Left Turn At Albuquerque’s full-length debut, In Broad Daylight, is noteworthy for the way guitarist Jeff Churchwell and keyboardist Sarah Scanlon weave their voices throughout melodic arrangements. At times, the folk-rock trio (bassist Joe Nemec is the third member) drifts into pretentious material like”Kaliedoscope,” but succeeds with clever C&W toe-tapper “Respectable” and the rapid-fire vocals of the band’s namesake track. (leftturnatalbuquerque.com)
– Terrence Flamm

There’s nothing wrong with A Feminist Manifesto, the most recent EP from Heather O’Neill. Unfortunately, there’s also nothing special about it. The Irish-born artist does a creditable job on all six tunes, but other than some unexpected brass on “Ballerina In A Bullfight” and a few nice turns of phrase on “Monique,” her efforts are neither moving nor memorable. (heather-oneill.com)
– Jeff Berkwits

When Quesne kicks off The Chicago Code with clips from the canceled police procedural, you kind of expect the 17-track outing to be an indictment of local political culture. But the first track’s about smokin’ ‘n’ drankin’. Then we get the first of four, unfortunate local sports anthems. Throw in Swizz Beatz-aping production, and by the time you crawl past the finish line, you can’t quite remember what happened — other than it was a mess. (reverbnation.com/quesne)
– Kevin Keegan

Artists will often do anything to get their music heard, but few have their pictures plastered on cans of chili. That’s just one of the many things differentiating Jessica Rae from the typical country music singer/songwriter. Another is her exquisite voice, exhibited most notably on the stirring “24 Hour Church (In Memphis).” Based on the 12 tunes on her self-titled debut, chili cans are the first of numerous places folks will soon be seeing her. (jessicaraemusic.com)
– Jeff Berkwits

Stone Black’s eight-song Villains Of Infamy would make a great soundtrack to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Lyrically, the themes (think golems, genies, and mummies) are covered in a storytelling (and at times clunky) vocal style, and since the band likes to jam power metal, a good portion of every song is instrumental. But the band’s chops carry it only so far, leading to repetitious riffage and, consequently, bloated song lengths. “Gorgons,” for example, riffs on for far too long. (stoneblackrocks.com)
– Jason Scales

Sunny Shadows, a duo comprising Pierogi and Circadian Bliss, offers eight epics brimming with ethereal vocals and lush keyboards on its debut, Coupled Lux Influx. A few tracks leave listeners drifting in space and the finale, “So So Mt. Fuji,” is dull and repetitive. The CD works best on songs like “Outlaw,” “On All Our Clouds,” and “Break In, Break Out,” where the synth beats are darker and more inventive. (sunnyshadowsmusic.com)
– Terrence Flamm

The eight-song (seven if one discounts 30-second one-off “Bill The Entertainer”) sampler Go Fun Yourself from sextet The Super Happy Fun Club is, quite simply, one of the most scintillating “unknown” debuts ever to grace this pair of ears. Obvious (but by no means negative) Green Day reference/comparison aside, the more nuanced production (excellent key flourishes, guys!) and vocal timbre also could be likened to, say, a more punked up Gin Blossoms graced with the mood of a less self-absorbed Strokes. The competency and quality of this entirely self-contained CD belies the band’s year-and-change existence. And if they can deliver the goods on stage, then Watch Out World (or WOW folks). (thesuperhappyfunclub.com)
– David C. Eldredge

A classic hard-rock ethos with a flair for the dramatic is the core of Thallium’s music. “I Will,” the opening track on the band’s six-song demo CD, uses slinky guitar grooves and the occasional cowbell highlight to accentuate powerful female vocals belting out a ballad-worthy chorus of “I will always love you.” The production of the bass on “No Idea” gives a nod to Tool, while “Threadbare” features a male vocalist. While the midtempo rock might not be polished enough for arenas, it would play just fine in a barroom. (sonicbids.com/thallium)
– Jason Scales

Damien Thorne worships at the throne of (post-Ozzy) Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. The band’s 14-track End Of The Game is vintage high-octane hard rock whose holy tenet is the more power-chord progressions there are, the better. The relentless riffage and gruff vocals to match largely stay on the appropriate linear track, as on “Fistful Of Regret,” but at times get bloated and bogged-down, especially on the verse parts of “Face Reality.” (damienthorne.com)
– Jason Scales

As its name suggests, Top Shelf Lickers is a color-outside-the-lines sort of band. These guys take a stab at numerous genres on their debut, Head First, like shifting tempos and points of view on the coed indie rocker, “Fall For You,” and mixing the 1950s with reggae on “No One Knows.” Sometimes the results are sloppy, but it’s hard to resist the DIY fun of the harmonica-driven garage rock of “Off My Mind” and the revved-up punk of “Mr. McShakes.” (reverbnation.com/thetopshelflickers)
–Terrence Flamm

No one can accuse Bil Vermette of rushing to complete an album. It’s been seven years since his last CD, but Galaxies IV, his new release, finds him exploring similarly spellbinding space-music soundscapes. Divided across two discs, the 16 lengthy songs, each with an evocative title like “Bodes Nebula” or “Hidden Cave,” radiantly recall vintage electronic bands like Tangerine Dream and Cluster. (facebook.com/bilvermette)
– Jeff Berkwits

The experience of a decade-and-a-half as a band has taught Vultures Are Lovebirds to stick with what they know. A cinematic romanticism floods Falling Out, instantly recalling Afghan Whigs minus the sporting misogyny — nodded to with their own composition called “Mr. Superlove,” which is not the Whigs’ esteemed cover of an Ass Ponys track. A lighter side rubs elbows with Gin Blossoms on “Just One More,” while opener “Never Say Never” provides an unexpected route to edgier Death Cab For Cutie. (facebook.com/vulturesarelovebirds)
– Steve Forstneger

Chuck Maurer’s What Rebel began as a cover band in a west-suburban basement and eventually felt confident to move into originals. Tracks like “Rise Up” and “Time Is Running Out” force commonplace riffs and chord changes through a cardboard amplifier, only to compete in the clasutrophobic mix with click-track vocal performances and A/B (sometimes just A/A) rhyme schemes. Clearly this is an act in its infancy — or maybe it’s several weeks premature. (reverbnation.com/WhatRebel)
– Steve Forstneger

With so many aged pop stars performing the Great American Songbook, it’s easy to dismiss Sometimes I’m Happy as yet another effort to rejuvenate hoary harmonies. Yet newcomer Amy Yassinger does something few old hands have accomplished: delivering genuinely fresh interpretations of classic tunes. “Slow Boat To China” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon” are standouts, but almost all of the 11 melodies are delightful. This is one artist who proves that what’s old truly can be new again. (amydoesjazz)
– Jeff Berkwits

Staring at the cover of Iron Maiden’s En Vivo! (UME) DVD — Bruce Dickinson exulting in front of what looks like Chile’s entire population — you get a vivid sense of metal’s enduring popularity, something dissected heavily in the book Metal Rules The Globe I reviewed in March.

But for how much longer will there be single bands who can draw an audience this size?

What brings this to my attention is the arrival, this month, of Rhino’s 20th-anniversary edition of Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power — the last great heavy album on which metal fans can reach consensus. After Vulgar — and I don’t know how anyone can blame grunge rock for this — it’s as if metal dropped a mirror that broke into a thousand pieces, all part of the same pane but very much separate and fractured. Korn’s self-titled debut helped launch nu-metal, which gained about as much acceptance among the brotherhood as Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Black metal began washing ashore and springing up in isolated pockets, but its chances for widespread acceptance were even more remote than death metal’s, and equally crippled by internal sabotage. Danzig and White Zombie’s retro horror groove metal dove headlong into industrial, connecting it with the Jim Rose Circus and Marilyn Manson, meanwhile Megadeth stumbled, Anthrax crumbled, and Testament’s Chuck Billy turned into Cookie Monster.

Vulgar represented a band who were henceforth immune to identity theft. Like with all great artists, if you stepped on their coattails, you were immediately denounced as a fraud; there was just no way to measure up to the real thing. But it was so magnetic. When Kiss tried to toughen their post-grunge image, they hired the same director who did “Mouth For War” for their “Unholy” clip. Frontmen started shaving their heads like Phil Anselmo. Diamond (not yet Dimebag) Darrell’s love for Dean Guitars revived the company despite the fact that the only person who could get away with playing one of those awful-looking (Chicago-born!) things was Darrell.

The lack of a successor, however, is distressing. We’ve pumped Mastodon’s tires thousands of times, yet even with Opeth in direct support they had trouble selling out the Riviera last month — 2,500 people. Look, I’m not saying that a ton of ticket and album sales validates any given music (anytime anyone suggests to you otherwise, ask them if they own “The Macarena” or “Who Let The Dogs Out?”), but the big shows mix segregated parts of the community, let you see the shirts of what a lot of people are into, and it’s just a different sort of entertainment. Yeah, there’s cachet acquired from seeing Baroness at Empty Bottle with 90 other people. But belting out “The Trooper” with 50,000 fevered Chileans? Yes, please.

• Not that En Vivo! doesn’t have limitations. The energy, execution, setlist: beyond reproach. But it’s also Maiden’s third live set since 2005, a span that has as many best-of packages. Iron Maiden’s legacy division has kicked into hyperdrive, and it imposes a sense of automation and rigidity onto the collection. The band play their hits so flawlessly, you imagine that their concerts are interchangeable. Granted, it’s extremely difficult to lend a production this size much room for improvisation, and playing to such an audience pretty much demands you pitch down the middle. But it wouldn’t kill a group so distinguished and unique to show a little personality, especially with so little left to prove.

• Sleep often get named as one of the best metal bands of the last decade, but I don’t think Matt Pike (now of High On Fire) has the money to buy a party house with a balcony overlooking a swimming pool where the Dallas Stars can dent the Stanley Cup. (Such is life.) Southern Lord, however, have seen fit to reissue the band’s hour-long, doom-metal album/song, Dopesmoker, this month. Included will be an unreleased live version of “Holy Mountain,” and a new batch of artwork.

• On the 15th, Nachtmystium release a limited-edition 45, featuring a Chris Connelly‘d cover of Joy Division’s “The Eternal.” Mixing on the forthcoming Silencing Machine finished at Engine Studios last month with Sanford Parker producing, though neither song on the single appears on the full-length.

• Local duo Number None bridge the gap between screeching, blackened noise and Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music on the cassette-only Strategies Against Architecture. As Land Of Decay labelmates with Locrian, there’s some brinkmanship happening here that you might not want to be part of.

Trevor Fisher is taking some time off.

– Steve Forstneger

There’s something about hearing dir-ector Steven Soderbergh making a straightforward action film that immediately sent up a few red flags. First and foremost is the fact that Soderbergh has never made a straightforward film in his life.

No matter what genre he’s dabbling in, whether it be globe-hopping social drama (Traffic, Contagion), quiet morality tales (The Underneath, Out Of Sight), or his “Hollywood” flicks (the Ocean’s films), Soderbergh always seems to inject just a little twist in the narrative. Whether it’s a subtle character flaw or something as simple as holding a second or two longer than is comfortable on a reaction shot, there’s always an item that elevates his films just a little higher.

Unfortunately, introspection doesn’t work that well when bullets are flying and skulls are getting cracked.

The twist for Haywire is the gender reversal. Instead of the usual bad-ass male gun-for-hire out to right the wrongs and clear his name, we get former MMA fighter Gina Carano as the bad-ass gun-for-hire out to right the wrongs and clear her name.

Of course, it’s not really a twist at all, since there is a fairly decent roster of women in action flicks. But unlike, say, Angelina Jolie in Salt or Zoe Saldana in Columbiana, Carano is the first one who you actually have no trouble believing could kick someone’s ass without so much as getting a run in her tights.

Soderbergh hedges his bets by surrounding his first-time star with a cast of heavyweights. Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Douglas all have a hand in the double (possibly triple) crossing. And while Carano isn’t going to be swiping any roles from Cate Blanchett anytime soon, she fares decently and holds her own. After all, she’s not getting paid to do Tennessee Williams, she’s getting paid to break bones.

Unfortunately, after about an hour the film hits a brick wall, and Soderbergh has no idea how to restart. Surprisingly, he’s not served well by writer Lem Dobbs, with whom he collaborated on the infinitely superior The Limey. Dobbs’ script becomes hazy and unfocused, allowing for long sections of downtime on the way to a jarringly hasty ending.

The Blu-ray features a smashing-looking film transfer, and little else. There are extended segments of Carano’s fight training, as well as brief interviews with the men of the cast (sans Douglas) and little else aside from a digital copy.

The Sun Came Out: The Making Of The Album 7 Worlds Collide
Cinema Libre

In 2001, Crowded House’s Neil Finn put together three charity concerts called 7 Worlds Collide, which included Eddie Vedder, Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Radiohead’s Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien, and Lisa Germano.

In 2008, Finn assembled another lineup to raise money for the poverty relief organization Oxfam, this time with more guests, and also to record an album as well as the live gigs.

With the exception of Vedder, everyone from the 2001 gigs were back, plus Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt, and Pat Sansone, as well as KT Tunstall on board.

The Sun Came Out follows the group and their families in and out of the studio as they cull together 10 songs in three weeks.

The end result is, predictably, disjointed — as you would expect from a project with as many disparate voices working on their own songs. Yet it holds up as more than the sum of its parts.

If you live for fly-on-the-wall looks inside recording studios and into the creative process, Sun would be for you. If, like most people, you only hold a passing fancy for the tweaking and tuning of studio knobs, it probably goes on a bit too long.

However, the inclusion of the 2001 concert helps a lot.

– Timothy Hiatt

Red or white, Todd Rundgren? And which would you choose to sip while listening to the soothing singer/songwriter? Have an answer ready when hitting up the Chicago outpost of City Winery. New York’s staple will open its second location come August in the West Loop and, despite offering a Mediterranean-centric menu to 175 bar patrons and 325 concert attendees, the fruit of the vine takes centerstage. Literally. Stacks of French oak barrels will line the winery’s 30,000 square feet. This isn’t a Disney World scene-setting tactic; these babies will house the joint’s onsite-produced vino.

Dust and rubble accompanied owner Michael Dorf and 27th ward alderman Walter Burnett’s glass-breaking ceremony last month to celebrate the former food-distribution warehouse’s transformation at 1200 W. Randolph into old-world wine country (think exposed brick and wood beams) jazzed up with sleek embellishments. Dorf says the venue/event space is more supper club than rock outlet, for crowds inclined to uncork a bottle while seated at tables than dance. Rundgren, Suzanne Vega, and Shawn Colvin are already on the calendar, but we predict more eclectic names to fill nights devoted to music and comedy since nabbing Colleen Miller from her 17-year-tenure as the Old Town School Of Folk Music’s talent buyer.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, RIDDIM

Bob Marley died in 1981 at 36 — based on the two hours of Kevin Macdonald’s Marley, you’d think the reggae superstar continues to pen songs from a Kingston retirement home. It’s either a testament to Marley, the songwriter, Rastafarian, and political provocateur packing a lifetime’s worth of adventures into his short time on Earth, or the filmmakers’ quest to exhaustively examine the minutiae of his career.

With a dearth of footage available (the earliest photo to surface shows the singer at 16), the documentary relies on interviews with Marley’s wife Rita (who selected songs for the two-disc soundtrack), mistress Cindy Breakspeare, and original Wailer Neville “Bunny” Livingston. It would be easy to let Marley indulge its inherent Messianic complex, but the candor offered up in these one-on-ones helps rein it in, even in the midst of contradictory recollections of Marley’s personality. We get a collage of the man — a stubborn philanderer (he fathered 11 children with seven women) with the creative drive of an Olympic athlete — instead of a complete picture.

To a certain generation, Marley’s nothing more than a commercial for an exotic Jamaican vacation and a toking mascot. The film succeeds in stripping away the years of licensing deals that slapped his face on everything from T-shirts to beach towels. Although, the marketing gods surely ringed their hands in glee over Marley’s 4/20 release date.

– Janine Schaults

NOTHING COMPARES 2 U 2

All told, April was sailing pretty smoothly until blowhards Axl Rose and Sinead O’Connor set us on a collision course for the early ’90s. First, Rose laid out a bizarre, lucid, paranoid, self-righteous, and all-contradictory-bases-covered “statement” on why it just didn’t make sense for him to share a podium for five minutes as Guns N’ Roses got inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. And then he declined to be inducted at all. He wrote that the ceremony “doesn’t appear to be somewhere I’m actually wanted or respected.” Ah, yes. The ol’ “non-vite” from the HOF. He then edifyingly added, “God knows how long I’ll have to contend with the fallout.” Aw. The drama Rose has protracted over 20 years has been squished into the last 5 months for O’Connor: suicidal comments online, a hasty marriage, equally snappy separation, giving it another go, embrace of life, release of new album, 45-date tour scheduled, and then, on April 23rd, utter abandonment of her career, and canceled concerts. She then begged her fans for employment: “Must be Dublin or Wicklow based job and require love of people. NOT showbiz job.”

STACKS ON DECK

You have to wonder if Jim Marshall burned a little every time one of his customers cracked a drummer joke. After all, the inventor of Marshall Amplifiers — a musical symbol every bit as potent as the Les Paul — started his career behind the skins and originally opened a drum shop. Like all good businessmen, he saw a need that wasn’t being met, and met it: first, guitarists wanted him to carry their gear in his store, and then they complained to him that the best amplifiers made them sound too . . . good. When Marshall passed away, aged 88 in his beloved London last month, his legacy wasn’t one of progress or perfection: from a technical standpoint, you could even argue his amps were deliberately faulty because of their gritty tone. But revolutions are always a little messy, and his name was all over rock ‘n’ roll’s.

– Steve Forstneger

It’s been a few years since “Gear” reported on the new crop of commercial vans that could haul your gear and your bandmates. Since that time, Nissan and Chrysler got in the game. Here’s our wrap-up of this year’s models:

Nissan NV SERIES

Thumbing its nose at the iconic Ford E-Series and the Chevy Express, Nissan joined the commercial van business last year in the U.S.A. with its NV cargo model, built from the skivvies of Nissan’s Titan pick-up truck.

The rear-drive NV, with its body-on-frame traditional truck design, lists at a competitive $25,000. The NV1500 comes with a robust V-6 engine, while the larger NV2500 HD comes with a V-6 or V-8, and the NV3500 HD offers a V-8 and a raised roofline.

Unlike their gas-saving Asian and European counterparts and though gas prices are well north of $4 as this writing, Nissan is attempting to get in on Ford and Chevy’ market share with a big horsepower van, that churns out a meager 18 MPG around town. If you’re dragging all the band’s gear, including P.A., the Nissan may be the chariot for you. Details at nissanusa.com.

DODGE RAM C/V

Chrysler’s Ram truck division has tweaked an idea that it brought back in 2005: a fuel-saving cargo van, now called the Ram C/V, as a generic looking Dodge Caravan on steroids with solid window panels in the place of the rear glass and a reinforced low-level load area in the rear.

Though some critics have called this van an unimaginative and warmed-over family-mover, we think it makes complete sense considering pricey petrol and Dodge’ heritage as a heavy-duty truck maker.

Powered with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine transformed into 283 horsepower and 260 lb/ft of peak torque, the V-6 is matched with a six-speed automatic transmission and offers about 22 overall city and highway MPG.

The Ram division added a commercial-tuned ride and load-leveling suspension along with a heavy-duty radiator and transmission oil cooler as part of the package. With 144.4 cubic feet of interior storage, and a 1,800 pound cargo payload plus a towing capability of up to 3,600 pounds, this soccer-mom van with its HGH innards, lowest-in-class $22K MSRP, and gas-sipping fuel usage may make the most sense in the age of conservation. Details are at dodgeram.com.

Ford Transit Connect

Ford’s Transit Connect is the most Euro-styled of all the new vans and its design, like the Dodge Ram C/V, stresses fuel-saving ability verses a heavy-duty payload and towing abilities.

The downside of its four-cylinder engine — though more fuel-efficient than its competitors’ (23 mpg overall in city and highway hauling) — means its payload of 1,600 pounds is the lowest in its class. It features a 2.0-liter four-cylinder good for 136 horsepower and 128 lb/ft of torque. A four-speed automatic tranny sends that power to the front wheels.
Features include include 15-inch steel wheels, blind-spot mirror, rear privacy glass, and air-conditioning. Power Group option adds keyless entry and full power accessories. Like any vehicle, you can trick this Ford out with tons of options. The base price falls into a $24,000 range. And details can be found at ford.com.

News & Notes

It must be spring, because the 4 Amigos are back with their Chicago Guitar Show May 17th and 18th at the DuPage Expo Center in St. Charles. As in previous years, you can buy, sell, and trade at the show. Check their website for details: texasguitarshow.com.

That same weekend, Rebeats is hosting their Chicago Drum Show just down the street at the Kane County Fairgrounds. It’s a drum circle you can be proud of. Details can be found at rebeats.com.

– David Gedge

From bizarro Eddie and JoBo wreaking havoc at the auto show to John Tesh backing up a yellow-haired “Christoper Walken” crooning holiday tunes to a wacky “Jerry Lewis” performing with the Million Dollar Quartet, the “WGN Morning News” dances the line between news and entertainment.

The bits are the genius of producer Jeff Hoover. The Second City alumnus and former “Jonathon Brandmeier Showgram” producer/performer/writer found himself out of work when Johnny B didn’t renew with WLUP in 2001 — and watching a lot of TV.

“I remember watching ['The WGN Morning News'] and thinking, ‘These are real people having real conversation and I would like to have them as neighbors, maybe grab some beers with them,’” he recalls. “I was smitten with their chemistry and natural ability to bust each other up and break balls over bad tosses and cheesy news teases. I started calling into their ‘Voicemail Frenzy’ segment, and they started playing my messages and using some of my show suggestions.”

“We ‘discovered’ Jeff when he started calling into our voicemail segment — doing impersonations. He was just hysterical,” says co-anchor Larry Potash, who met with Hoover at a bar and found him to be surprisingly normal. “We begged — and then threatened — management to hire Jeff, and the rest is history.”

Hoover — who likens his time with Johnny B to earning a PhD in comedy — initially contributed to the show on a per-diem basis. He was hired a year-and-a-half later as a producer/performer/writer (and recently signed a new one-year contract).

Potash says Hoover injected new life into the show. “I think when he came . . . we had all just started having children. It had become more difficult to go out and shoot bits for the show, and our energy was running low. Jeff was the creative spark that really pushed the show to the next level.”

Hoover easily made the transtion from radio to TV — where things have to be clear to the audience from the start. “Radio is easier to be spontaneous,” he explains. “However, some of my favorite moments are when the unexpected happens on live television. Tracy Morgan flopping himself up on onto the anchor desk and lifting up his shirt and pushing out his stomach and yelling that he’s pregnant is still priceless to me.”

His primary co-conspirator on the show is local comedian Mike Toomey, who plays Eddie to Hoover’s JoBo. In one bit, the pair ask locals about what they’re thankful for — peppering their interviews with plenty of enthusiastic “yeahs” and auto-insurance plugs. Eventually, they run into the real Eddie and JoBo — who play right along.

“This past Halloween, we were on our way to do our annual remote at Fantasy Costumes with Ana [Belaval] and Paul [Konrad} listening to Eddie and Jobo on the radio," Hoover explains. "Mike and I always loved poking fun at their auto-insurance commercials. We saw these Abba costumes and thought this is just stupid enough to work, and I slapped on a goatee and made our appearance alongside Ana . . . Mike and I started posing like them from the commercial and doing the lines, 'Did you know you can get auto insurance over the phone?'

"It was a hit. We couldn't believe it. The real Eddie and Jobo got the joke, and enjoy their clown clones. I asked them to make a cameo in one of our skits and they couldn't have been nicer: 'Yeahhhhhhhhhh!'"

But Hoover's favorite bit was Tom Hanks' apperance on the show last year (that clip and many others are at WGNtv.com). "I had a stupid idea to have different people lined up in the hallway in different costumes that represented different chracters from some of his favorite movie roles," he explains. "As a surprise and with no rehearsal, Entertainment Reporter Dean Richards escorts Tom down the hallway and the first person he sees is me dressed as Woody from Toy Story sweeping the floor. Tom's smile became a laugh, and he riffed on each of us as he made his way to the studio.

"He made us look good by going along with the idea. He could have just said 'whatever' and kept walking to the studio while rolling his eyes."

While Hoover has a lot of freedom on the show, not every idea flies. "

He adds, "I have to keep in mind that this is still a news show. Sometimes it's easy to forget that fact: 'What do you mean we have to kill the burlesque dancing monkeys because there is a dog running loose on the Eisenhower?'"

And what about that line?

"There is a line between news and comedy," he admits. "It keeps moving like a jump rope. Sometimes we can double dutch and sometimes we get nailed in the crotchtorial [sic] region. I think we ‘get it’ better than anyone else in town. We’re not ‘The Daily Show,’ but we don’t have 78 comedy writers.”

It seems to be working. The show consistently beats its competitors in the adult demos between 7 and 9a.m. — including “The Today Show.” Hoover says most of the audience feedback has been positive. “However, there’s always a few boo birds on the branch that crap on our clown car: ‘Stop goofing around and give me the weather. We don’t want to see that idiot in a neckbrace make a sandwich with his feet.’”

He adds, “I think it’s weirder seeing our competitors try to have fun with the news. Their idea of having fun is showing first-birthday photos and crayon weather drawings.”

Potash agrees. “Media has changed so much in the last 40 years and yet, most shows are as predictable now as they were in 1972. We try to create an atmosphere of unpredictability. We cross the line now and then, but that’s more interesting than another segment where the anchors make a tuna casserole. We take the show seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.”

– Cara Jepsen

This article has been updated since it was originally posted.

Heavy South Siders Delightful Downfall — featuring Mike Kehoe, Joey Hammond, Nick Barelli, Alex Vincent, and Steve Eldridge — finished drum tracking at Chicago Recording Company in Chicago for Wild And Reckless after their recent sold-out show at House Of Blues. Radio programmer Tim Lamping of The Kat FM says “Fast-paced, aggressive hard rock with vocal harmonies are what really sets them apart.” The band formed last March and have been writing and playing shows ever since . . . Also at CRC, Chris Shepard and the team at American Mobile Studio headed down to South By Southwest in Austin to mix some shows at the Rolling Stone Rock Room. Videos can be seen at americanmobilestudio.com. . . . . Engineer Mat Lejeune tracked with Christian McBride and Sting at CRC’s Studio 4 . . . Veteran mixer Steve Weeder finished some tracks with Buddy Guy.

Eight-piece band River City Extension have released the new song “Welcome To Pittsburgh” in conjunction with a tour announcement. The track can be streamed or downloaded at paradm.co/pgh-cos. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Your Anger was produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Josh Ritter, Secret Machines, Gomez) at Engine Studios in Chicago. The album captures River City Extension’s collision of frontman Joe Michelini’s evocative, intensely personal songwriting and the band’s effusive/explosive performances, building small symphonies around a rock-band core with trumpet, cello, mandolin, and banjo.

Paragon Studios, Inc. in Chicago sent a shout-out to their friend and client Rachel Sarah Thomas (a.k.a. K. Serra) on the release of her new singles, “Somebody To Love,” “Radio Waves,” and “The Queen”. All are now available for viewing on YouTube. The tracks were filmed exclusively at Paragon and all music was produced and mixed in Paragon’s Studio A by K. Serra and recorded by chief engineer Joe Connors. K. Serra is currently on tour throughout the Midwest in support of her new music. Visit her at facebook.com/KSerraMusic.

At BobDog Studios in Oak Park: Treeshakers finished their CD 2.0 . . . The Hurtin Kind began recording their debut album, featuring power-pop and roots-rock songs by singer/rhythm guitarist Matt Rhodes and singer/lead guitarist Hugo Teruel, with owner and engineer, Bill Kavanagh providing bass guitar and Dan Kripke on drums . . . Dav Ero continued work on his upcoming project, titled Hamlet, The Vampyr, with Sandy Lee on vocals, Andon Davis on guitars, Dave Mathis on keys, Clyde “Lightning” George on steel drums, and Michael Panico on drums . . . Rozanne Gewaar continued work on a pair of new solo singer/songwriter CDs: one sung in Afrikaans and the other in English . . . The Welcome mastered their newest EP, Honey, Honey . . . Cheryl Tomblin put in some more work on her upcoming EP . . . Folk singer James Bourke recorded his newest EP with the help of guitarist Peter C Budd, drummer Eddie Grzyb, and Bill Kavanagh on bass . . . Ex-Pezband (and many other bands) guitarist Dan Wade digitized some 30-year-old band tapes.

Hey Studiophiler: To get your studio or band listed in “Studiophile,” just e-mail info on who you’re recording or who’s recording you to ed [at] illinoisentertainer.com, subject Studiophile, or fax (773) 751-5051. We reserve the right to edit submissions for space. If you’re recording in May, let us know. Deadline for June 2012 issue is May 15th. We need your news, you need us to print it.

Much has been discussed about the direction that blues will take as the genre enters the crossroads of redefining itself while the last of the Delta bluesmen pass away. The past few decades have introduced more rock into the traditional blues sound, but soul has always been a more devoted offspring. Detroit’s singer/songwriter/guitarist Quintus McCormick proves just how heavenly the pairing can be on his third release, Still Called The Blues (Delmark). Of course, there’s nothing new about blues/soul, but McCormick pumps it with such a vibrant doses of contemporary edge that he sounds like the second coming of Johnny Taylor fortified with new-school swagger.

The key to McCormick’s winning blend of riffs and melodies isn’t his expert guitar work or his gritty vocals, but his songwriting. The album’s 13 tracks boast seven that are originals, and McCormick stamps each with his soulful style while adding unexpected tones to the covers.

The opening track, the ridiculously catchy “I Gotta Go,” mixes a smooth R&B groove with some nasty blues licks for the perfect combination of both genres. This is followed by a funky cover of Bobby Rush’s “What’s Good For The Goose,” which McCormick makes his own with a slightly tighter delivery and an intro explaining “Back in the day, I used to be a player.”

The CD is full of highlights, but standouts include the title song and its hot guitar solo, the mellow, horn-spiced melody of “What Am I Gonna Do,” the surprisingly breezy and lovely “That’s My Girl,” accented with a flute, the tender blues ballad “Always,” and a soul-filled rendition of the Beatles classic, “Oh! Darling.”

Still Called The Blues covers all of the bases: there’s straight ahead blues guitar riffs, there’s good storytelling, and there’s soul-drenched vocals. Contemporary blues doesn’t get better than that.

Appearing: May 3rd at Buddy Guy’s Legends (700 S. Wabash) in Chicago.

Acoustic blues will always be the very essence of the blues continuum, so preserving and promoting the form is essential. Thanks to Music Maker Relief Foundation, a treasure trove of senior acoustic-blues musicians have new avenues for their music. Under the umbrella of preserving Southern culture and American roots music, this public charity supports and expands the professional careers of hundreds of traditional musicians. Boo Hanks is one acoustic musician whose fascinating technique graces many more ears than just the ones in the small North Carolina towns where he previously only played.

Piedmont or East Coast blues is Hanks’ specialty, and he plays with the mastery of an 83-year-old man who started playing guitar at 8. The style is named for the Piedmont Plateau region that runs from Virginia to Atlanta, and features the older “frailing” technique that uses the thumb to pick out the bass and the forefinger to pick out the melody on the treble strings. The singular sound that results resembles two guitars playing when in reality, it’s just a lone acoustic. For this reason alone, Buffalo Junction (Music Maker) — which will be released on June 19th — should be required listening for blues, folk, and musical history fans alike. But there are other reasons. There’s the genial accompaniment of Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Don Flemons supplying backup vocals as well as jug, harp, and bones on the 12-track album. The Chocolate Drops are also part of the Music Maker foundation, and Hanks has opened for the popular young acoustic blues/folk group.

Another reason that makes Buffalo Junction such an important offering is that after a life spent working in Virginia’s tobacco fields and playing at small Carolinan barn dances and other social gatherings, Hanks shares music and experiences that are slowly fading from history. All of the tunes are traditional country blues, dating back at least seven or eight decades. Yet, Flemons’ presence helps it cross generational lines.

The opening song, “Railroad Bill,” displays Hanks’ dazzling pickin’ skill immediately, with his traditional crooning adding even more texture. Most of the tracks reveal the hardscrabble existence of African-American life in the early last century as well as the requisite romantic escapades. A particular highlight is “Move To Outskirts Of Town,” where Hanks laments the hovering presence of another man: “I’ll tell you one thing baby/we’re gonna move away from here/I don’t need no ice man/gonna buy myself a Frigidaire/I don’t want no Heebie Jebbies always hanging around/it might sound funny baby as funny as funny can be/but if we ever have children? I want them all to look like me.” Flemons joins in with jug playing and at the end, and a round of collaborative laughter. The CD mines the pairing of Hanks’ expressive country crooning and Flemons innovative musicianship for a singular musical experience.

Curtis Salgado’s knockout soul vocals are unparalleled in any genre, and he showcases just how powerful they can be in his latest, appropriately named release, Soul Shot (Alligator). That he chooses a host of performers known for funky, soulful performances to cover — including George Clinton, Bobby Womack, and The O’Jays — is telling and indicative of the heavy soul focus. Socking listeners with a rousing cover of Bobby Womack’s “What You Gonna Do?” for the opener, there’s no faltering on any of the 11 tracks with the Clinton cover of “Getting’ To Know You” filled with hip-shaking, sweat-soaked funk and Salgado’s soaring vocals.

– Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

NTD Records’ HiFi Superstar continue to refine their power-pop hooks on their third long-player, One Hit Wonder. Maturing as songwriters and as tight as a band that performs nearly 150 shows a year, OHW mines the blueprints of early Elvis Costello (“Give Me A Try’), Cheap Trick (“Closer”), and the modern punk-pop of Green Day (“Lucky Day”), as well as cult Anglo bands of the ’70s and ’80s like T.Rex and The Wild Swans. Guitarist/vocalist Mike Paterson and drummer/vocalist Glenn Mikes’ spot-on harmonies add to their strongest collection of music to date. With Billboard and MTV chart entries for past music and seven years of staying power, there’s no one-hit wonders here. (hifisuperstar.com)
– David Gedge

Anti-Crew specializes in cross-genre hip-hop on its 16-track album, Foundation: Expansion Plan. The foursome’s live instrumentation is mixed with smooth rapid-fire raps and melodic crooning, a la Linkin Park, on “After The End.” A 311-ish reggae-and-rock fusion works on “One Time,” “Crucial,” and “Blur.” Showing more range, “Creator” plays up hip-hop bombast with loudspeaker vocal samples, and “Kurt Cobain” is a slick, beat-heavy track. (anticrewmusic.com)
– Jason Scales

Local singer/songwriter/comedian-wannabe John Kuczaj, host of the North Side’s “Acoustic Explosion,” decided it was time to try his hand at recording a full-length album under the moniker Atomic Shop. While his melodies are solid, his vocals leave a lot to be desired. A whole lot. His biggest strength might be in crafting song titles: gems like “I Wish My Girlfriend Was As Dirty As My Car,” “I Accidentally Wrote A Country Song,” and “Boy Band Beatdown” evoke more laughter than their actual lyrics. (atomicshopmusic.com)
– Carter Moss

Something traumatic involving a bicycle, brother, and freezing cold weather must’ve happened to Bedroom Sons‘ prime mover Chris Dertz, since they lie at the heart of each of the four songs in his DIY, from-the-living-room Father EP. In all, somewhat reminiscent of Creed, but fortunately less didactically strident. (facebook.com/bedroomsons)
– David C. Eldredge

Blues/poet Wes Heine’s Cousin Bones lives and breathes Chicago blues. But it also blows that description right out of Lake Michigan on its self-titled release by adding odd and eclectic influences ranging from Delta blues to rock to progressive/psychedelic to country. Heine’s scratchy, Marlboro-and-Jim Beam vocals are complemented by slide guitar, banjo, harmonica, and congas. The 16 lively tracks about getting drunk, getting drunk after giving plasma (“At The Plasma Clinic”), the lack of jobs and money, and the end of the world (again), reflect an accurate model of the current state of the American way and ultimately Cousin Bones’ world. The band often segues into spokenword set to twangy blues licks. Cousin Bones’ DIY approach to old-time blues with modern poetry elements is a fun and sometimes twisted listening experience. (myspace.com/cousinbonesband)
– Kelley Simms

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Doctaryn has the heart of a rocker but the voice and even album cover look of someone who’d fit better in the country scene (with a harmonica and piano to go alongside her acoustic guitar). Comparing her to Wynonna Judd would be kind, considering her vocal range is so limited, while a completely flat cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” does nothing to advance her confusing cause. (reverbnation.com/doctaryn)
– Andy Argyrakis

Drummer/songwriter/producer Paul Edelstein’s Passion & Perseverance was written and recorded from a drummer’s point of view with no set musical styles or boundaries on its 10 eclectic tracks. The CD is a conglomeration of rock, jazz, pop, prog, metal, blues, folk, and country, and all derive from Edelstein’s back catalog. No singer — and he doesn’t claim to be — but Edelstein’s songwriting skills and drumming prowess outweighs his vocal shortcomings. He proudly goes where most drummers are unable to go. (myspace.com/pauldrum)
– Kelley Simms

There’s plenty of groove throughout the psychedelic blues sounds of High Action on the Circle EP, but the three tracks contained therein are lacking in the hooks department. Though the foursome are certainly proficient instrumentally, they’d be best diving deeper into the catalogs of presumed influences like Santana or The Allman Brothers Band to get the hang of making more memorable material. (myspace.com/highaction1)
– Andy Argyrakis

Borrowing its title from a review in Time Out Chicago, Highball’s More Hooks, Less Polish easily lives up to the billing. There are plenty of rough-sawn edges to the rip-saw guitars on “Why Did I Pick You,” while the big, jumpy chorus ensures a heavy hook. The rocket-fueled pace of the album leaves no room for filler and each cut explodes right out of the chute. The devilish artwork shows Highball has the right attitude and swagger that perfectly matches its rough-n-tumble tunes. (highballchicago.com)
– Patrick Conlan

Year X, the latest release from JIP, has the feel of a band performing in a club. Occasionally, singer/guitarist Jim Gwynn’s material can be nondescript, as on “Hard To Change,” but along with bassist/vocalist Spencer Watson and drummer Brent Fatig, he impresses on energetic tracks like “Not Alone,” as well as the more intricate “Night And Day.” Grammy-nominated Tracy Bonham is a guest lead vocalist on “This Song Will Last Forever,” which she co-wrote with Gwynn. (getjip.com)
–Terrence Flamm

Singer/songwriter Dan Krikorian glides through the easy-going Americana of his third release, Windsor Blue, with help from a bevy of studio musicians. “Wait” sets the mood with a toe-tapping country & western arrangement, and Krikorian exudes a folksy charm on “Thief Like That” and the title track. “Quincy” is an elegant love song, while “New York City Day” sports a full-bodied production complete with horns and backup singers. (dankrikorian.com)
–Terrence Flamm

Losing Scarlet is like Evanescence’s and Flyleaf’s angrier older sister, who used to lock them in the closet and scream at them for hours. Frontwoman Jodi has some anger issues behind that sweet face, as she thrusts her passionate melodic vocals over the gut-punching guitar riffs. The eight tracks definitely lack some sonic variety, but if you lament hearing the same formula repeated, it’s not a bad sound to be stuck with. You’ll end up feeling you just got chewed out by a bitter ex-girlfriend — and liked it. (losingscarlet.com)
– Carter Moss

Elgin-based The Love Shots is the first band to attach itself to the term “deathwop.” Labels aside, the band is at least a unique blend of several influences, including doo-wop, early punk, new wave, and alt-rock. All of this makes its debut Crooner tantalizing ear candy, channeling Arctic Monkeys on some tracks, and the Ramones on others — but all of which are well-suited for the next iPod commercial. It’s a stronger and more diverse debut than many bands are able to scrape together, and shows promise. Long live deathwop! (theloveshots.com)
– Carter Moss

Lucrezio’s Storybook offers a striking convergence of buzzing crackle and glistening pop solitude. Songs like “Take Me Away” and “Tragedy,” which primarily feature Jennifer Lucrezio’s voice and graceful piano, will immediately resonate with Tori Amos’ fans. For our money, however, the more robust tracks have more staying power. “Every Word” is a super-charged rocker with thick, crashing guitars. “Dreamer” is a passionate, emotive ballad, as distant guitar washes over meditative piano and Lucrezio’s soaring vocals, before swelling into epic catharsis. (lucreziomusic.com)
– Patrick Conlan

Joe Moran never dreamed of a music career; he was a union mechanic who suddenly started playing guitar and writing songs for his newborn kids. Years later, his debut effort was birthed. Considering Moran played every instrument (except drums), and wrote and sang every note, Bird Herd represents a solid effort. Moran’s voice is subtle and honest, with hints of Dylan and Petty peeking through. While none of the 11 tracks are especially memorable, together they create a respectable collection of simple melodies and honest but not-too-deep lyrics. (audubonsavant.com)
– Carter Moss

With all the attention that “mall punk” received in its heyday, it’s hard to remember that there were guys spitting out snotty, wild-eyed, old-school punk. The Mushuganas‘ cleverly titled retrospective, Low In The Mid 90s (Premium Beer Can), is a rollicking, schizophrenic collection of B-sides, 7-inch splits, live cuts, and interview snippets. With 32 tracks, it’s a bit overwhelming for single-sitting consumption, but frenetic cuts like “Handsome And Beautiful” and “Her Boyfriend” will keep you coming back. (myspace.com/beercanrecords)
– Patrick Conlan

A bit all over the place — but in a good way — musically, Scientific Map’s second full-lengther swings from proggy-fusion to almost Hall & Oatesian-flavored pop/rock without missing a beat. Rust Belt Soul is held together mostly by the virtuoso guitar playing of bandleader Matt Hudson and tasty keys of Dave Holloway, and as a happy hacker, how can one not have a soft spot in the heart for a band that titles one of its songs “Vijay Singh?” (imaginarychicago.com)
– David C. Eldredge

Drawing upon classic rock, blues, jazz, funk, and psychedelic influences, Marcus Singletary delivers some broad and competent music on Smokin’. Singletary handles all vocals, guitars, keyboards, and theremin, while bassist Cliff Starbuck and ex-Doobie Brothers drummer Chet McCracken are featured, along with a versatile horn section. Together they lay down some funky grooves and have a solid foundation steeped in a “far out, man” range of influences, including an interesting version of Bob Marley’s “Misty Morning.” (facebook.com/marcus.singletary)
– Kelley Simms

The giveaway — apart from the byline and absence of Super Troopers references — that Trevor Fisher has been taking some deserved time off from IE has been zero babbling on one of three fronts: High On Fire, Superchrist, or Bible Of The Devil. Well, bonds of holy moly — Spaceballs, bee-yotch — have we a ding-dong-dilly of a dinger in “Mosh” this month!

Fisher, for those of you who’ve never met nor stolen glances of him at his monthly “Metal Up Your Tap” nights at Red Line Tap in Rogers Park (or now the Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, as well), isn’t physically imposing. His politics, fast-food choices, and geographically indifferent sports allegiances cast little shadow on his varied tastes in metal, though his obsessions all froth over the same goblet.

Bible Of The Devil return next month with their sixth album, and it may as well be their first. For The Love Of Thugs And Fools (Cruz Del Sur) rolls up its denim sleeves and throws in some pelvic thrusts that nod more to ’70s arena rock than bludgeoning black and death metal. Could they throw in a couple acknowledgements toward the last 30 or so years of human achievement? Yes. Would it behoove them? Nope. BOTD are exactly the kind of argument you make to people who stick to nostalgia acts: without them, there’s not much that’s current to make your memories worthwhile.

We’d like to think that Fisher’s imprimatur for Superchrist — another MUYT alum — reflects BOTD, but it’s probably more to do with his mancrush on frontman Chris Black. Black also fronts High Spirits, drums for Pharaoh, writes for Nachtmystium, and runs Planet Metal, which ticks all the boxes some columnists look for in a mate. Now that the band have joined “Mosh”-friendly record label Hells Headbangers for the new Holy Shit — well, let’s just say they’re dancing in the Fisher house tonight. (And, Superchrist release the album on April 28th at Ultra Lounge playing with Bible Of The Devil!) Disentangling this mess could take days (not to mention hours of therapy), but then we’d never get to a certain hairy-chested thunder-harbinger du jour.

Lemme first digress to mention that another IE scribe once misinterpreted a song title “Diet Of Worms” to mean a surreal dinner. It was actually an historical event, though it has nothing to do with the name of High On Fire’s new record, Mysteries Of The Worm. Despite his fondness for schlock and shit, Fisher quite adroitly preceded (in fandom) the rise of both Mastodon and HOF. High On Fire, the scion of Sleep mastermind (and Matthew McConaughey wannabe) Matt Pike, has outgrown Relapse for De Vermis Mysteriis (“mysteries of the worm”), which sees light via EOne on the 3rd. The whole release wraps its arms around a number of items with which “Mosh”’s normal author wouldn’t be comfortable: the track “Fertile Green” first debuted at Pitchfork, and the title explicitly honors HP Lovecraft, and we’ve never seen Fisher read a sci-fi novel since we’ve known him. But love them still he will. High On Fire join Slayer, Anthrax, and Slipknot on the 2012 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour that hits First Midwest on July 21st.

Though I hesitate to advance you toward fun offered by something called Wassup Xtra Magazine, we assure you that the missing “E” hasn’t been sacrificed in the name of effort. Their “Hell On Earth Metal Fest II” features Fashion Bomb, A Born Plague, Skinwalker, Impale, Orion Nine, Bleed For The Fallen, and Miles From Exile and also boasts some giveaways — all of which goes down on the 15th at Reggies Rock Club.

Despite having neither the time nor the inclination for a comprehensive overview, I feel confident in declaring that the offshoots of classic British metal bands (Fight, GZR, Bruce Dickinson, etc.) have a shoddy history. So consider my trepidation peaking when I was first approached about Primal Rock Rebellion, the unfortunately named collaboration between Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith and vocalist Mikee Goodman from Sikth. Smith’s checkered past already includes the daft decision to leave Maiden in 1990, which he then followed with an unheralded solo outing as ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project, which featured Zak Starkey). To his credit, Smith keeps Goodman in check on Awoken Broken (Spinefarm), and moves freely without a power-metal crutch. He clearly grew fond of Korn in the ’90s, and layers the tracks with thick, dissonant chords and overtones though has trouble distinguishing himself. What’s strange is how Goodman channels Sebastian Bach in parts, which further lends a post-grunge pop-metal feel to “I See Lights” and more, until he starts losing control and begins to rave. Congratulations on avoiding embarrassment, even if it feels every bit the one-off as ASAP.

Trevor Fisher is taking some time off.

– Steve Forstneger

There are two things with which Hollywood has a spotty record. The first is making decent films out of popular fiction. Notice I didn’t say successful films from popular fiction, but decent. The left coast can churn out films based on novels that rake in cash hand over fist, but they’re rarely ever up to the version on the printed page.

The second example of stepping on the third rail is when studios feel the need to remake foreign films for the U.S. market. Most of the time, the results fare even worse than a novel adaptation.

So you can imagine the trepidation over The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which hits both patches of quicksand in one fell swoop: an American version of the Swedish adaptation of the first book in Stieg Larsson’s blockbuster “Millennium” trilogy. Tall order.

Full disclosure: I have not read any of Larsson’s books. However, almost everyone I have talked to who has says the films handle the transition successfully. The main concern lies in how this version stacks up against the original. Good news is it’s just as good, and occasionally surpasses it.

The story follows disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who’s hired by aging businessman Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to dig into a decades-old family mystery. Blomkvist enlists the help of anti-social computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Roony Mara). Salander has issues of her own, as a ward of the state whose guardian is sexually abusing her, until she gets her revenge, that is.

The chief concern about the American version of Dragon Tattoo was how much they would water down the darker and more graphic elements of the Swedish version. Luckily, the producers had the good sense to ask — and pay — David Fincher to direct. Fincher’s resume (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac) reads like a virtual how-to when it comes to directing good old-fashioned gritty, disturbing darkness.

Also, unlike most Americanizations, Dragon Tattoo retains its Scandinavian setting, which leads to some curious accent decisions. To wit, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård uses his natural accent, Mara tries to adopt an accent — and pulls it off for the most part — while Craig doesn’t bother and uses his cumulative British. Granted, it doesn’t sink the film or anything like that, it just can be a little jarring.

The three-disc Blu-ray release comes packed with nearly four hours of immersive, behind-the-scenes footage including interviews and more. There’s commentary by Fincher, features on the casting of Craig and Mara, as well as on-set features that want you to believe they got it right — this time.

The Descendants
Fox Home Entertainment

With films like Election, Sideways, and About Schmidt, director Alexander Payne has shown a knack for presenting seriously flawed characters, then giving the audience reason after reason why we should sympathize with them instead of hate them: sure they were obnoxious, but that didn’t make them bad people.

With The Descendants, Payne sands down the edge and gives us George Clooney as disheveled Honolulu lawyer Matt King. It’s a study of bad things happening to good people in paradise. King’s wife is comatose after a boating accident; his daughters are in full-blown teen-angst mode; he has to decide a land deal that could have enormous impact on his entire extended family; and he also found out that his wife was having an affair before her accident. “Paradise can go fuck itself,” King states in a voiceover.

While the supporting cast, especially Shailene Woodley as his eldest daughter, is strong, The Descendents reinforces the fact that Clooney has become one of the most fearless “A-list” actors working. That’s the intriguing thing about star power: when most people achieve it, they seem to spend the rest of their careers protecting the brand. Clooney, on the other hand, uses his to make choices that go out on a limb and stretch his talents every time.

The Blu-ray set is loaded with deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes extras, and several featurettes, as well as a digital copy of the film.

– Timothy Hiatt

IE: Now that you are a veteran of a supergroup, does that open up doors to a supergroup secret society?
Rebecca Cole: [Laughs.] Yeah! Actually, we get together with Chickenfoot every now and again for some beers. But no, we haven’t been indoctrinated yet. Maybe I should be disappointed that we haven’t received that invite.

IE: Had you thought about the connotation when you got into it?
RC: We hadn’t. It was sort of a surprise — it’s still a surprise to see that term associated with something I’m doing. When I think of “supergroup,” I think of The Highwaymen or million-selling artists coming together. Or something bloated, like Chickenfoot. I don’t think we’re either.

IE: What about Superheavy, Mick Jagger’s new group?
RC: We should totally be drinking red wine with those guys and flying on their jet. But no, we didn’t think about it. I don’t know if the term means something different now. We all were in different projects before, and now we have this new project. It’s flattering, in the spirit it means people are excited about your work. I hope that’s how it’s meant. [Laughs.]

IE: How did you even become a band?
RC: There was a film project that Carrie [Brownstein] was working on, and then she enlisted Janet [Weiss] and she enlisted me to do some instrumental songs. The three of us being in the room working together was pretty easy-going. A lot of work came really quickly on these instrumental songs. The director wanted vocals, so we sent a track to Mary [Timony] in D.C. and she sent it back. Listening to it, it was funny: “That sounds like a band.” There weren’t any blueprints for what we were doing. Mary came out a couple times, and we got together in a practice space. The happy surprise was it was actually that it was something we were excited about.

IE: From a personal standpoint, is this something you were looking for? Or has it interrupted the normal course?
RC: For me, the timing was awesome. I had quit my last band [The Minders] and finished my degree, which had taken years because I was trying to do it between tours and working jobs. So then I had my degree and I got a job, and I was really unhappy. It was paying good money and I had everything that should have made me happy as a “grownup,” but I realized — after a lot of soul searching — that the reason was I didn’t have people to make music with. It was shocking, because I had it for so many years that I think I took it for granted. So, when we started playing together, I had [already] decided to start making music again.

Wild Flag play Metro on Thursday, April 5th with Hospitality. The band’s self-titled Merge debut is out now. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

The Portillo’s Music Shell? President Obama flushed his Al Green capital down the toilet when he butchered the word “Lollapalooza” in his explanation for the G-8 deserting Chicago. “La Palooza,” as he coined it, certainly inundated the White House press office with “WTFF?” e-mails, along with purposefully incorrect syllable breakdowns of Coachella and Bonnaroo to even the field. British Prime Minister David Cameron got in on the action, and immediately dispatched VIP tickets so Big Boss Barry could attend the “reeding” festival in England this summer.

STRAT’D FOR CASH

The mixture of music and corporations makes people nervous — nothing new there. But with Fender Guitars, the nightmare returns. It first stepped on a rollercoaster when founder Leo Fender — due to his health — sold the company (the manufacturer of iconic instruments like the Stratocaster, Telecaster, and P-Bass) to CBS in the ’60s, which gave birth to the slur known worldwide as a “Japanese Strat.” Owned today by a private-equity firm, its overseers decided in March to file with the Securities & Exchange Commission for a $200 million initial public offering. (Gibson Guitars is a private corporation, which means its shares are not traded publicly.) Naturally, red flags have flown because corporations — by law — are obligated to make money for their investors, and when times are tough they cut costs. Half of the IPO money would be directed to pay down a $100 million loan; part of the company’s pitch is to invade the Chinese and Indian markets. Wall Street’s worry, however, is the continued decline of rock music in the United States, mocked by the sales growth of DJ and computer equipment.

WELL, THAT’S A (LOT OF) CHEAP TRICK!

Through an exclusive agreement with Popmarket, Sony’s reissue arm Legacy began releasing complete-album collections featuring such heavy hitters as Miles Davis, Judas Priest, John Denver, and Billie Holiday, though the one that naturally sticks out to us is Cheap Trick’s The Complete Epic Albums Collection. To some, the requested $100 bounty represents a bargain, since it includes 13 releases and counts the rare Found All The Parts EP among them. You also get 1998’s expanded Budokan, and scaled-down reproductions of all the album sleeves. To others, it’d be masochism to spring for anything including the press-savaged All Shook Up, The Doctor, and Busted. (A similar argument arose on the Popmarket page for a Lou Reed bundle, as fans weigh the risks of purchasing Metal Machine Music.) At least the ratio of good-to-bad isn’t as low as Robert Christgau’s rationale for agreeing to like Cheap Trick: two pretty guys, two ugly.

– Steve Forstneger

UNION JACKED UP

Molding eager unknowns into the next big thing on “The Voice” is just Adam Levine’s day job. The Maroon 5 frontman took a break from his mentor duties on the NBC reality competition to preen and prance for Rosie O’Donnell, Billy Dec, and a few hundred fawning fans (er . . . rewards members) in Union Station’s cavernous Great Hall as part of a four-city concert extravaganza hosted by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. The “Escape To Total Rewards” promotion on March 1st beamed in Lil Wayne from L.A., Mariah Carey from New York, and Celine Dion from Sin City via satellite between quick sets from Sara Bareilles (channeling Beyoncé on a “Single Ladies” better suited to a solitary night in than a wedding bouquet toss) and Levine’s crew. Maroon 5 flipped the formula by starting with the inescapable “Moves Like Jagger,” before seamlessly transitioning into the band’s string of radio hits that double as earworms. Not even a rattling train ride home can push out the remnants of Levine’s helium voice.

– Janine Schaults

If Joe Strummer, Thurston Moore, and Kurt Cobain can have their have their own signature guitars, why not Jeff Tweedy?

After its disastrous choice of awarding the mostly deceased Mama’s And The Papa’s with their own model, C. F. Martin & Co. has redeemed itself in our eyes by introducing a Custom Artist Edition, 00-DB Jeff Tweedy designed guitar in collaboration with Wilco’s Grammy Award-winning Chicagoan/frontman. The piece was unveiled at Musikmesse in Frankfurt, Germany in March. The limited-edition Martin will be built for only two years and will be available from participating, officially sanctioned Martin dealerships (including Tobias Music, Naperville Music, Guitar Center, and Guitar Works).

The 00-DB Jeff Tweedy Edition was inspired by one of the guitarist’s many Martins. It’s a traditional 14-fret “00 size” with a deeper body for fuller tone and a modified V-shape neck with long scale (25.4 inches). The top, back, and sides are all constructed from 100-percent environmentally friendly, FSC-certified mahogany and it features a unique mahogany sunburst top vintage style that Tweedy has long admired. The interior label of each instrument is personally signed and numbered in sequence. The guitar is Martin’s first Custom Artist model that is completely FSC Certified (with wood harvested from licensed, managed forests), an important distinction for both Tweedy and Martin.

Tweedy acquired his first Martin in 1998 while tracking (the recently reissued) Mermaid Avenue sessions, a collaboration with with Billy Bragg that supplied original music to song lyrics and unfinished songs by folk icon Woody Guthrie. For those recording sessions, Tweedy wanted an instrument that captured the dustbowl and WWII-era sound in which Guthrie was writing and recording music — hence he purchased a 1930s Martin 018. Since then, Tweedy’s collection has grown to include dozens of Martins, including his own 00-DB Jeff Tweedy.

“It has been such a privilege to work with Martin to design this guitar,” said Tweedy. “The shape and the aesthetic are based largely on my favorite go-to Martins that I have been using for years to write and record music. It is a huge honor to have my name associated with an instrument of this caliber.”

As you can imagine, the folks at Martin are as equally thrilled with his participation. “Jeff Tweedy has carried the torch of acoustic songwriting to an exciting place in contemporary music. He is a remarkable ambassador for Martin and has bridged generations of fans,” said Chris Martin, Chairman and CEO. “It is a pleasure to work with such a talented artist and to see this partnership reach a new level with the 00-DB Jeff Tweedy model.”

The fact that Tweedy got involved with this guitar project adds a little more collectability of the guitar, because you rarely see him involved with any commercial endorsements. MSRP is $2,999, a relatively reasonable price for a custom Martin. More info and interviews with Tweedy are at martinguitar.com.

While Jeff Tweedy has his endorsement deals near zero, Richie Sambora has no such filter. Let’s just say he’s given more than a few endorsements over the years .

This week, I mean . . . this year, five-year-old German-based Blackstar Amplification has announced that the Bon Jovi guitarist is now using its Series One 1046L6 and Artisan 100 amplifiers. Sambora states it short and sweet in his press materials: “From studios to stadiums, these are the amps I use.”

The folks at Blackstar — through their interpreters — have praised Sambora for his blessing. “We’re extremely proud to have such a high-caliber artist as Richie joining the Blackstar family. With 2012 marking our fifth anniversary, it’s great to see such a diverse range of guitarists choosing Blackstar. It shows how Blackstar amps cater for up-and-coming bands all the way through to legends such as Richie.” For information about the Series One 1046L6 and matching 4×12 cabinet, visit blackstaramps.co.uk. List prices for the amps start at $319. Blackstar is also offering 18 months zero-percent financing through retailers on their amps.

News & Notes

Our friends at Niles based Shure, Inc are doing a test run of Shure-sponsored Open Mic Nights across the country, and are holding two Chicago-based Open Mics on April 23rd and 24th at Lincoln Tap Room and Uncommon Ground. Because we have limited information at press time about this event we’ll direct you to its ad on page 5 of the digital issue. If this event is sucessful, Shure will add more dates to their Open Mic Nights later at a later date, so bring your instrument and be sure to participate. For more info visit www.shure.com/openmic

Speaking of Shure, Hix Music in Aurora is holding a In-Ear Earphone Monitor clinic on Tuesday, April 17th at their Aurora location.

Warwick Bass is holding a bass-guitar clinic with acclaimed bassist (and Jake Peavy look-alike) Andy Irvine at Naperville Music on Monday, May 7th.

– David Gedge

Both children and their parents love singer/songwriter Ralph Covert’s “Ralph’s World” indie-pop CDs.

Now, the Bad Examples frontman wants to wow both age groups with a “Ralph’s World”-based TV show, “Time Machine Guitar” (more info at timemachineguitar.com).

“With the TV show, we’re trying to create something that has the same sensibility to it, and also do a show that engages and activates the kids. I think that’s something that’s not done enough with TV,” he said during a phone interview, during which his 3-year-old son, Jude, interrupted him. “Our show gets kids moving and thinking and participating.

“The early ‘Ralph’s World’ videos have dancing kids that come along and dance with me. Every time I watch those videos with kids, the kids get up and dance along. Time Machine Guitar features four music videos in every show, and in the first one on every show we have dancing kids so we can have that same experience with kids.”

The clear guitar Covert plays on the show acts as a time machine that takes him and three puppet friends — a cat, dog, and a squirrel — on trips through history, where they’re exposed to different lessons and different types of music. In the pilot episode, they travel to 1785 in search of Benjamin Franklin — and end up meeting his mole.

Covert and his wife/business partner, Rita, have shopped the kids’ show idea around to Hollywood for nearly a decade before deciding to make the pilot themselves. “I have had deals that have gone all the way to a signed deal with a network and producer, and it fell apart before it came to fruition,” he says.

“The money involved in making a show is enormous, which is part of why the choices of both cable and regular networks are so safe,” he says. “There’s a lot of risk in going from taking the idea from in your head to where you can see it. That’s why I felt it was important to make the show: I was taking some of the risk out of it for them. ‘Here’s the show. Here’s what it’s going to look like. You can watch it for half an hour and decide for yourself: Do I suck or am I engaging?’ The proof is in the pudding.”

He continues, “If you look at the Chicago music and theater scene historically, and even some shows like ‘Oprah’ that came out of Chicago, they didn’t do it by asking permission. People here historically do it by having a great idea and pursuing it. For better or worse, that’s been my business plan with the music, so we might as well apply it to the TV show.”

At the urging of Bad Examples fan, friend, and Charlottesville, Virginia-based producer Erica Arvold, Covert shot the pilot there in January, using his own funds and $18,577 raised through a Kickstarter campaign.

Although he’s acted and written plays and musicals (he and G. Riley Mills‘ musical “The Hundred Dresses” is currently playing off-Broadway in New York), Covert says shooting the pilot was a stretch. “It’s been in some ways more stressful and challenging than anything I could ever imagine, because it required me to pull from so many different directions. When you’re standing on a set, and it’s your money paying for it, and a friend who pulled the production together got a lot of A-list film and TV people together, and you’ve got to go and act with these puppets, it’s something else. It’s exciting.”

At press time Covert — who, growing up, was a fan of Mr. Rogers, the Banana Splits, and “Get Smart” — was editing the pilot, which he plans to shop around to public, cable, and network TV.

“We got through the first big thing,” he says. “We have a worthy and exciting show on our hands. Now we need to find somewhere we can share it with people in a way that we can keep the magic intact — which is a great challenge to have.”

Covert is also gearing up for a Ralph’s World concert at the Old Town School Of Folk Music on April 22nd. “The Old Town School is where this started, with me, when I was doing ‘Wiggleworms’ before ‘Ralph’s World.’ It’s one of the most magical shows we do, because we get a chance to go back and stand on the stage where it all started.”

ODDS N SODS: Look for Sean “Diddy” Combs and Comcast to launch a new TV channel “influenced by the nonstop chatter of social networking” called Revolt next year. Magic Johnson and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez also have channels in the works . . . Robert Feder’s Time Out Chicago piece about radio’s irrelevance on the night of Whitney’s Houston’s untimely death was spot-on . . . RIP Chicago News Cooperative: we’ll miss you — really . . . We can’t decide whether we love or hate WGN Morning News’ brilliant (yet so wrong) “Eddie & JoBo” bits featuring Mike Toomey and Jeff Hoover . . . Anyone else underwhelmed by the new Trop-rock college radio format, which features acts like Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley? Decide for yourself at lewisu.edu/wlra/index.htm.

– Cara Jepsen

This version of the story has been updated since it was originally posted.

Scott Lucas is best known as the singer/guitarist for the two-man, Chicago rock band Local H. But recently, he has broadened his musical scope and greatly expanded his lineup, pulling together a collective of musicians — The Married Men — that currently numbers seven and includes violin, accordion, and organ. The result is quite different than Local H and a perfect fit for Lucas’ more personal, introspective songs. Reviewers have compared the band to American Music Club, The Waterboys, and Lambchop. Lucas calls the group’s evolving sound, “country-ish alt-rock for people who like metal.”

As they did with their first two releases, the Married Men engaged Andy Gerber (Smoking Popes, The Tossers, The Effigies) to produce their new LP, Blood Half Moon (due June 5th), and recorded it in their native Chicago. But instead of working exclusively in Gerber’s Million Yen Studios, they laid down the bulk of the record at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio, bringing in engineer Greg Norman (Neurosis, Pinebender, Russian Circles) to assist. And, to infuse just the right amount of heaviness, they turned to metal guru Sanford Parker (Yakuza, Pelican, Bloodiest) to mix it.

Kevin Lee & The Kings recorded basic tracks for a new album at Rax Trax in Chicago with producer Todd Jones and engineer Rick Barnes.

Originally released in 1971, Poems, Prayers & Promises introduced John Denver’s iconic songs, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Sunshine On My Shoulders.” It is now the third in a series of vinyl releases from Daytrotter, the only physical products in the site’s six-year history. Daytrotter is the popular website best known for their live sessions recorded at The Horseshack studio in downtown Rock Island.

The Poems, Prayers & Promises 40th Anniversary Edition will be released on April 3rd on limited-edition vinyl with new Daytrotter artwork by Johnnie Cluney. Digitally remastered from the original recordings, the album will also be available for download at digital retailers worldwide via Sony Legacy.

Mud Morganfield, the eldest son of Muddy Waters, came onto the Chicago blues scene scene nearly five years ago. His closeness to his father in voice, appearance, and mannerisms are inmpressive. Severn Records released Son Of The Seventh Son, Morganfield’s first national release last month. The CD, produced by Bob Corritore, features a great backing band consisting of Rick Kreher, Billy Flynn, Barrelhouse Chuck, E.G. McDaniel, Kenny Smith, and Harmonica Hinds and Corritore switching off on the harmonica chores

Mat Lejeune just completed recording and mixing the debut EP for talented young singer/songwriter Evan Meador. The EP was tracked and mixed at CRC’ CHicago in Studio Four. Dave McNair at Sterling sound will be handling the mastering duties . . . Lejeune wwas also recording vocals at CRC’s newly renovated 5.1 mix suite Studio 12, with Damon Ranger, frontman of Blackbox . . . Lejeune entered the final stages of overdubbing at The I.V. Lab with Chicago mainstays Cyclesomething.

Hey Studiophiler: To get your studio or band listed in “Studiophile,” just e-mail info on who you’re recording or who’s recording you to ed [at] illinoisentertainer.com, subject Studiophile, or fax (773) 751-5051. We reserve the right to edit submissions for space. Deadline for May 2012 issue is April 15th. After you mail your taxes, send us your news. We need your news, you need us to print it.

Eric Davis does not look like the stereotypical bluesman. His muscular frame is typically adorned in fitted tanks or vests, and his shaved head is always covered with his trademark bandanna. His arms are emblazoned with tattoos and his face with a goatee. He plays mostly original, rockin’ blues tunes, eschewing tired classics and standbys. “Guitar” Davis is not your mama’s bluesman, and that’s just the way he likes it.

Appearing: 4/6 at B.L.U.E.S. (2519 N. Halsted) in Chicago.

“I’m not trying to look like a bluesman; [blues is] what I play. I dress how I feel,” he explains. “The blues has always been in my heart, my approach is just different.”

That approach includes an energetic, playful stage presence and riveting guitar skills. Backed by The Troublemakers, Davis offers unexpected performances that meld blues with rock, funk, and R&B, topped with lots of fun. He’s been called the new era of the blues, and at just 40-years old — weaned on hip-hop as well as blues — he certainly represents a new generation.

As the son of noted drummer Bobby “Top Hat” Davis, a fixture in Chicago since the ’50s, one expects that his son would follow in the prescribed tradition.

Eric had other ideas. “I never thought I’d be a musician like my dad,” he says, despite playing behind Buddy Guy and filming a commercial with B.B. King before he was 12. Growing up in Bronzeville, he witnessed the masters in legendary clubs during his father’s gigs. “When I was little, I’d ask my father to take me to The Checkerboard or Theresa’s,” he says. “I’d watch Buddy Guy and Lefty Dizz perform. I didn’t know they were famous, I just liked what they did. Lefty would walk out into the crowd playing and Buddy would walk outside. I was in awe, watching them.”

He started playing the drums at 5, and by 10 he was good enough to play guest spots with his father. He never considered it his life’s calling, just something he could do. He played behind Junior Wells and Tyrone Davis, honing his skills until a bassist called Flash caught his attention one day. “I was hangin’ out at The Checkerboard after school, and I liked how Flash played the bass so I asked him to teach me. Buddy Guy came all the way from behind the bar and said, ‘Boy, you don’t want to play no bass. You want to play the guitar — that’s how you get all the girls.’ When he showed me that chord on his Fender guitar, that was it. I thought it was so easy. I was into the guitar after that.”

Davis was also into the streets. “I wanted to be on the streets. I was bad in school and the more shows my dad was away playing, the looser I got. I was running the streets with gangs, without any direction,” he says. He maneuvered his way into the position of high-ranking leader, but “even when I was gang bangin’ I’d go to the clubs to listen to the blues,” he says. “I was still too young to get in, so I’d listen outside or go to Maxwell Street.”

The turning point came when he was 19 and a good friend died. “He was like a father to me, he gave me my first job. Once he died, it made me more responsible. I worked at the hospital for seven years. I picked my guitar back up and started practicing.” He also started going to blues clubs every night of the week, often leaving to head straight to his 6 a.m. job “for four years straight. I went to the clubs every night to watch what people were doing and what they weren’t doing,” he says. “I don’t want to play ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ or ‘Down Home Blues’ or ‘Stormy Monday.’ I want to play other stuff and make it my own. You have to have fun with the blues. Everybody doesn’t want to hear just one kind of blues.”

That point is illustrated brilliantly on Trouble Makin’ Man (Young Blues). The album supplies an engaging mix of influences while still upholding the core mantle. Even more impressive, nine of the 10 tracks are original, plus an exceptional interpretation of Jimmy Burns’ “No Consideration,” complete with melodic chorus and R&B flavor. Highlights include the charging title track; “You’re Goin Down,” a mellow ballad with Latin undertones; “Days Of My Life,” a smooth blues burner; and “Pussy Cat,” the mistreated man’s anthem simmering with resentment and evocative verses.

After releasing his second album and playing several European tours, Davis is still surprised at his life as a musician. “I’ve been overseas four times in the last three years. I never thought I’d leave this country when I was on the streets,” he says. “My destiny was to be dead, strung out on drugs, or in the penitentiary. But the blues was always in me, it was just about how to get it out and when to get it out.”

Now that he’s getting the blues out, establishing his own sound has been key. Besides his influences of Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and B.B. King, Davis retains his street influence as well. “My rhythm and beats are influenced by hip-hop. My rhythm is on the upbeat, not the downbeat. It’s new school.”

Registration is open for the biannual Blues & The Spirit Symposium at Dominican University in River Forest. This year’s focus is on race and gender, and the events are set for May 18th and 19th, featuring panel discussions on the current state of the blues, “the lived experience of Chicago’s blues divas, cultural tourism, and blues and the intersection of blues and hip-hop.” Registration is $75 and limited. Visit www.dom.edu/blues or call (708) 524-6771.

“Chicago Blues: An Urban Experience,” curated by Barry Dolins, kicks off at the Old Town School Of Folk Music on April 29th with a celebration of Little Walter’s Birthday featuring Billy Branch & The Sons Of The Blues. The series continues every month through June featuring Frutland Jackson, Demetria Taylor, Sharon Lewis, and Theo Huff.

Finally, I’d like to share with a picture from Sugar Blue’s February 16th wedding at the Blues Foundation (reception was at Rosa’s). Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Blue!

– Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

IE: You’re currently on tour with Peter Case. Were there other occasions when you performed together since The Nerves broke up?
Paul Collins: Only once. I did some songs with him during an encore at one of his shows.

IE: Are you pretty familiar with Chicago?
PC: Chicago was a real mainstay for us [The Nerves]. In fact, we stayed there between tours. Do you remember La Mere Vipere? They threw a party for us. We played Huey’s, Ivanhoe Theatre, and B’Ginnings. Cheap Trick came out to see us.

IE: Some critics have said The Nerves could have been really successful if they’d stuck around. Do you ever imagine what might have been?
PC: When we broke up, I was devastated, but I never thought of it that way. It wasn’t until recently when I read an article where someone said, “Makes you wonder what would have happened if these guys had stayed together” that it really hit me. I’m glad I didn’t think of it that way before. I’ve had a great ride. For a bunch of kids who had no backing, it’s amazing the impact we had with just one EP.

IE: Have you and Peter kept in touch over the years?
PC: On and off. I’ve lived overseas so there were big chunks of time when we didn’t have any contact.

IE: Considering that you and Peter were in The Nerves, he was in The Plimsouls, and you were in The Beat, this show seems like a power pop fan’s dream come true.
PC: It’s power pop, but it’s more than that. It’s American rock and roll. At the time, everything was skinny ties, new wave, and power pop. I embrace [the label] now, but back then it hurt us. Radio stations would say, “Power pop? We don’t play that kind of music!” I wondered why people weren’t getting it.

IE: How will the show be structured?
PC: We’re still working on that. There are so many great songs, you could put them in a hat and just pick them. This is really two guys getting together because of the music.

IE: Is there any chance that you and Peter will do a CD together?
PC: That door is wide open. If the rock and roll gods are willing and we come up with a good batch of new songs, we’ll record them. Most definitely.

Paul Collins and Peter Case play Empty Bottle on March 25th. The Plimsouls recently released Beach Town Confidential, featuring a live performance recorded in 1983. Q&A by Terrence Flamm.

Rich Ryan (a.k.a. Richie Rich) brought in some heavy hitters to record his debut album From The Streets with his Chi-Town Blues Band. Featuring Grammy-winning guitarist Billy Flynn, Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, and pianist Barrelhouse Chuck and the Tommy Dorsey horn section, Ryan’s obvious love of traditional Chicago blues comes through as he channels Willie Dixon and Otis Rush on “Friskey Whiskey” and “Fat Cat Blues.” Ryan also finds his modern, funky side on “Blues And Money.” Like many blues vocalists, Ryan is not the most accomplished singer, but he overcomes his limitations with emotion, a knack for good blues storytelling, and his killer band. (chitownbluesband.com)
– David Gedge

On his The Astonishingly Odd Project, Molemen-backed MC Astonish doesn’t sound like the game is treating him like it once did. Tracks like “Lake Shore Drive” nearly land him on suicide watch, and everywhere else he sounds tired of dealing with chasing women, paper, and the grind. The production — mostly by Oddisee, Odd Couple, and Jay Vega — follows suit, with only the flicker under “Fill Up A Room” countering Astonish’s stiflingly heavy heart. (molemen.com)
– Steve Forstneger

Battlestations serves up new-wave arrangements topped with the consistently quirky vocals of lead singer/guitarist D Sullivan and his harmonizing bandmates on the nine-song The Unicorn. At times the gimmick wears thin, but other tracks, like the rapid-fire “No Gold In The Crown” and atmospheric “Cancer Vader,” prove to be worthwhile adventures. (www.battlestations.moonfruit.com)
– Terrence Flamm

Much more structured and methodical than their namesake sport, Beer Hockey bring it like they’d rather foment revolution than grab some brews after the game. Their four-track EP is a caustic addition to the realm of instru-metal post rock, with darting guitar lines, dry distortion, and relentless, pounding bass. Melodies and soft textures are the product of deliberate chord voicings on tracks like “Mercenaries,” and clean-tone sections are merely means to some fiery ends. (myspace.com/beerhockeymusic)
– Steve Forstneger

With an overt love of Brit rock and an underlying respect for soul, The Break’s Cold Elbows EP evokes elements of Oasis, The Who, and even hints of the Stax sound. Despite looking fresh out of high school, the foursome is mature beyond its years, not just in the influence department, but also when it comes to musical proficiency and harmony-filled chemistry. (thebreakband.com)
–Andy Argyrakis

This Welcome To Ashley/Pale Blue Dot collaboration sounds born of a sloppy, drunken makeout session that kept going even after it passed out on the barroom floor. Though tinged with Americana, The Buddies‘ real debt is to greasy rock ‘n’ roll and particularly — if you believe “A Lifetime At Best” — The Boss, though he never would have sanctioned the rocky injection of that second guitar at the end. The spirit of early Replacements courses through “All The Beer Is Gone,” while the rest of Fuck The Buddies could use a bath — in a good way. (candyappleandthebuddies.bandcamp.com)
– Steve Forstneger

The Chose In Few might be hip-hop’s new odd couple. Dreadlocked African-American rapper Rasheed Thomas teams up with plus-sized white MC Demented, and the result is a pleasant surprise. The duo’s Roots-influenced laid-back flows are fast and smooth through all 18 tracks like a late-night drive. All of this, deftly combined with simple but effective instrumental foundations and smart lyrics, Excuses Are Useless just begs for windows to be rolled down and heads to start bobbing. (thechoseinfew.com)
– Carter Moss

Christopher Morris is not in the massage business. His and The Cosmic Plethora Of Doom’s stock-in-trade is sounding like a warped record, a wavering, wobbling psychedelia that’s akin to stepping off a spinning merry-go-round after a couple slices of deep dish. Destroying The Cataclysmic Chrysanthemum raves of hauntings and paranoia, and Morris sings (and strums) these delusions as if they’re the montonous monologue of a heavily sedated mental patient. Indulgently and perhaps myopically idiosyncratic, it’d be interesting to hear the demos of these demos. (thecosmicplethoraofdoom.bandcamp.com)
– Steve Forstneger

It has been a few years since Deals Gone Bad released new material, but the ska band is in top form on its new “Far From Home”/”These Arms Of Mine” 7-inch. The A-side seamlessly swings from easy-going ska rhythms to Motown exuberance as lead vocalist Todd Hembrook sings about life’s ups and downs. On the flip side, the band brings a tropical element to Otis Redding’s “These Arms Of Mine.” Both songs are also available in digital format. (facebook.com/dealsgonebad)
– Terrence Flamm

Even Bigger lives up to its name with bruising, ballsy rock comprising crunchy, whiplashing guitars and a dual-vocal attack. Uptempo tracks like “Hinges” and “Christina” feature punkish flair and roaring energy. There’s a straightforward honesty in the gruff, howling vocals and an insistent vibe of playfulness in the lyrics about love (especially “Wrong Again”), familial relationships, and growing up. Kaboom! is steeped with energetic bite and lyrical wit. (evenbigger.bandcamp.com)
– Patrick Conlan

John Kolodij, a.k.a. High Aura’d, joins forces with Locrian’s Andre Foisy for an amazing split cassette on Stunned Records. Kolodij’s “Dusk Latitudes” builds through subtle progressions from a dreamy lullaby to heart-rending noise that would have Kevin Shields grinning with envy. By contrast, Foisy’s piece is dark, ambient drone, shuddering with tortured vocals that bleed into the menacing thunderstorm. This pairing makes the split both haunting and soothing, each 21-minute track mesmerizing in its unique exploration of texture and sound. (stunnedrecords.blogspot.com)
– Patrick Conlan

Blending remnants of the psychedelic era with a hippie-folk flavoring finds Jellybones recalling the likes of Neil Young or Roky Erickson throughout A Warm Banana Nut Muffin. Though the group excels with a penchant for imaginative storytelling, the limited quality of the recording doesn’t allow this particular disc to reach its full potential. (jellybones.bandcamp.com)
–Andy Argyrakis

Diane Marie Kloba doesn’t sing her originals so much as rhythmically recite/declaim her words against the sparest of mostly electric guitar notes/strums and percussion. While one hears Brill Building girl group or non-aggro punk essences, in the end the disc probably is more evocative of performance-art minimalism than the pop/rock canon. When she sings a lyric such as “I find there’s no need for an audience” in eponymous cut “I Am An Unknown Artist,” one is reassured that this CD isn’t really for everyone. (dianemariekloba.com)
– David C. Eldredge

After opening True Love Maze (Priceless Fool) with a string of competent but generic rockers, The Last Dark Show hits its stride mid-album. “Spare Room” is a pretty ballad leading into the stormy piano and yearning vocals punctuating “Keep Me”; these cuts are reminiscent of the passionate catharsis perfected by Snow Patrol. The section is followed by the sparkling standout, “Heart String,” with a pitch-perfect blend of chiming and acoustic guitar and crushing heartache. (thelastdarkshow.com)
– Patrick Conlan

Just like TV’s Matlock invariably cleared his clients’ names, rapper Matlock acquits himself well on the potentially damning 2707. A 15-track hip-hop work with guests galore, a new producer for each cut, and barely a crossover hook in sight, he seems to take pride in stacking odds against him. But whether the bangin’ “Blaze It Up” (featuring EC Illa and Psalm One) and “I Don’t Play That” or soapboxing “God Vs. Money,” Matlock brandishes a versatile, though commanding flow and sequences his producers’ contributions (including Mr. Green, Kaz One, and Custom) almost perfectly. As is typical with straight-MC albums, 2707 could always be shorter, but an episode’s not complete without a couple twists at the end. (facebook.com/matlockhiphop)
– Steve Forstneger

Alt/indie rockers A Minute Jack Forum from up in Madison deliver a fresh conglomeration of retro-rock influences on their debut full-length, Traction Blip. A blues-rock flavor mixed with twangy, modern country & western elements make up the song arrangements, which capture the mood and atmosphere of something dark and melancholic, yet uplifting at the same time. The songs have a familiar vintage or nostalgic vibe accented by subtle textures and moods with poppy guitar hooks. Some of the songs seem to drag a bit, but they soon turn into unchartered yet pleasing territories. (aminutejackforum.com)
– Kelley Simms

When he dropped his ‘09 debut, a little research had to be done to make sure Musikanto wasn’t a Turin Brakes side-project. Blessed with a souful, midrange voice and a gently quaking vibrato, he takes it easy on Sky Of Dresses with anonymously rustic folk pop. The shoe fits, and he’s best when on about prairie dogs and gravediggers, or when a piano base forces him off his strummy perch. A frequent partner of Will Phalen, Musikanto’s a singular talent who needs to put his days of weepy ballads and flirty duets to rest. (musikantomusic.com)
– Steve Forstneger

If a band is relying on a mere three-song EP to make an impression with its music, then it better make every note count. In the case of Mystic Soulz — it does. Nikki Gilbert’s lead vocals won’t blow anyone away, but her honest, straight-forward delivery aptly carries the band’s otherwise formulaic pop-rock sound. With catchy choruses and simple hooks, Mystic Soulz shows how to make a complete and convincing EP. (www. myspace.com/mysticsoulz)
– Carter Moss

Long-time founding member of “future folk” trio Sons Of The Never Wrong Bruce Roper makes his solo debut on Accidental English, which he sums up as “14 songs about young love, sung by an old man.” And know what? They are also 14 examples of smart songwriting excellence, with the entire disc alternating between exquisitely crafted sub-two-minute and three-plus-minute acoustic-pop gems that consistently hook the listener’s interest. This early in the year notwithstanding, it’s already a contender for the IE’s best of 2012. (sons.com)
– David C. Eldredge

In an analogy that might only otherwise work for Long Island’s hockey community or the blue half of Merseyside, metal fans are the sports equivalent of White Sox fans. There’s an inferiority complex that transcends their so-called rivalry with regional — or, in this case, cultural — opposition, coupled with a stilted pride about doing things the right way. I should know: I am one of both.

Metal proudly chestbeats its outsider status, but then feels snubbed when the mainstream refuses it major Grammys or festivals like Lollapalooza. Its proponents rarely acknowledge that rejection of consumer products and lifestyles pretty much guarantees that there won’t be enough sponsors to fund commercial radio or TV support. Its subgenres are hyper-dogmatic, but then rail against conformity. And then there’s the misapprehension that metal is metal, and nothing else is like it.

The editors and authors of Metal Rules The Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around The World (Duke University Press) — including Deena Dasein, a regular IE contributor — unite behind several theses that could easily be applied to hip-hop or punk: “Frequently misunderstood and maligned in its countries of origin, heavy metal music has . . . become a potent source of meaning and identity for young and no-longer-so-young people across the planet. These fans have stayed loyal to the music despite societal disapproval, occasional moral panics, censorship, and even government harassment and violence.” The intro goes on to argue how the Internet has furthered the cause, as if metal is unique. “Heavy metal fandom serves as a viable cultural and affective alternative for disempowered youths, one that is often just as critical of globalization’s tendency to bring with it crass consumerism, class divisiveness, and uneven development.”

In its purview, Metal Rules The Globe takes ethnomusicological and socioeconomic focuses; don’t expect retread interviews with Tony Iommi, Bruce Dickinson, or Max Cavalera. The value in the book — which, it cannot be stressed enough, is academic in nature — isn’t necessarily that it’s about metal. One section that details the efforts and folly in marketing genre nuances to Japanese fans raises a larger issue with the book. Anyone with a vested interest in globalization and music’s butterfly effect will find a wealth of information here. The natives of Easter Island tie attitudes about Chilean colonists to metal. Islamists see the music as Western imperialism, while some Nepalis use it as an escape from Hinduism. The issue isn’t what makes metal so exceptional, it should be how it’ just like most other music styles.

• Mid March sees the arrival of Lord Mantis‘ Pervertor on Candlelight. The band emerged as an offshoot of Avichi and Nachtmystium — you know, in that black-metal hub between the fringes of the western suburbs and DeKalb. But Mantis’ sophomore outing is a lot like its debut in that it pilfers what came before and spits out the bones. Pervertor is like opening a blast furnace: if you come away with minimal char, you’ll report back that you saw pieces of things — doom, black, death — but everything was on fire and you had to get out of the way.

• Everything about Nekromantheon seems doomed. The Norwegian trio sound exactly like Reign In Blood-era Slayer, so much that you can hear their blue jeans and denim jackets. I ranked 2010’s Divinity Of Death on my “Mosh” best-of, and I can’t ignore the new Rise, Vulcan Spectre (Indie Recordings), either. But, I thought, what chance would they have against real Slayer fans: the mongoloids who screech Slaaaaayer! at opening bands, brandish Third Reich tats, and carve the logo into their arms? A pretty good one, actually. You have to imagine, if there’s one band those guys would appreciate, it’s one who sound exactly like their heroes.

• IE immediately texted a marriage proposal to Vinnie Paul when he revealed that there will be a 20th-anniversary reissue of Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power this year. The treatment Cowboys From Hell got was nice and all, but that was a band still shedding their hair-metal skin. Besides enshrining the awesomest metal album of the ’90s, the Vulgar remaster will also include “Piss,” which was finished but left off the original. Paul claims that Pantera rarely wrote more songs than they intended to record, and “Piss” was tracked but eventually deconstructed and sold to future albums for its riffs. Whatever you say, fat man. Just gimme gimme gimme gimme. (Because of this, we’ll cut the Hellyeah drummer some slack for ending nearly every Facebook post “HELLYEAH!” As in, “I JUST MET STEVE MOORE! HELLYEAH!” or “I JUST FOUND A WI-FI HOTSPOT! HELLYEAH!”)

• If you forgot or didn’t know, we host our own photo page at illinoisentertainerphoto.com. On it are all our live shots from gigs, and contributor John Affinito has been up in the metal. Check it for Gigantour, Sebastian Bach, Machine Head, Uli Jon Roth, and more.

Trevor Fisher is taking some time off.

– Steve Forstneger

Is there a group of people more reviled these day than Wall Street brokers? The answer, of course, depends on whether the placard you have on your front lawn includes an elephant or a donkey. Oh sure, Congress is an easy target for the general public’s scorn, but let’s face it: there really isn’t a single member of that hallowed institution smart enough to make a believable film villain, right?

In the old days it was pretty cut and dried: good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were the ones trying to pull off the robbery, while the good guys were the ones trying to stop them.

My, how times change. In the current world we live in, things aren’t that simple. In a film like Tower Heist, we get bad guys trying to rob an even worse guy, with the good guys only making a token effort to stop them.

Ya following?

Ben Stiller plays Josh Kovacs, a building manager at a swanky New York condo development conveniently called The Tower. Kovacs is an amiable sort who honestly loves his job and wants the best for those who work around him. To that end, he entrusts the employee retirement account to the Tower’s most noted resident: top-notch financier Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). What Kovacs doesn’t know is that Shaw is on the cusp of being indicted for fraud, and there’s virtually no way any of the workers will ever see a dime of their pension.

After a coworker commits suicide because of Shaw’s actions, and upon learning that there may be $20 million hidden somewhere in Shaw’s penthouse suite, Kovacs hatches a plan to swipe it out from under the noses of both Shaw and the FBI.

Along for the ride of this little scheme is a group including fellow Tower workers Charlie and Odessa (Casey Affleck and Gabourey Sidibe), down-on-his-luck former Tower resident Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) as well as petty criminal Slide (Eddie Murphy).

The bad news about Tower Heist is that while it tries to be Ocean’s 11 for the 99-percent, there are simply too many plot holes and coincidences in the heist itself for it to be anything more than an Occupy fantasy.

On the bright side, the performances are spot on. Stiller has the tendency to try to be the funniest guy on the planet, and therefore goes so far over the top that he’s just overbearingly annoying. (Think Zoolander or Dodgeball.) He’s at his best when he relaxes the shtick and lets the character do the work. Here, he’s the perfect mix of workaday schmo with a simmering pot of justifiable outrage. Alda is also brilliant as the obvious Bernie Madoff clone, and Murphy finally returns to a role that lets him stretch out and be the Eddie Murphy we remember.

The Blu-ray features two alternate endings, a blooper reel, and an exhaustive “making of” feature entitled “Plotting Tower Heist” that includes just about anyone and everyone involved in the film.

Film: Features:

Styx: The Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Live
Eagle Vision

Paleontologists tell the tales of an era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and were feared as gods. These creatures would invade your territory and trample everything in sight, all the while making the most terrifying noise one could possibly imagine.

The era was the late ’70’s, and the people loved it.

Believe it or not there was a time when Styx was that marauding brontosaurus — laying waste to arenas throughout the land. Now, like many of their fellow antiquated brethren, they realize that they can go on the road, play two of their most famous albums from A to Z, and reintroduce themselves to a new generation. Rush has done it, as well as Metallica and Slayer, to name a few.

Unfortunately, the concept kinda runs aground with Styx, simply because the guy responsible for half the original material isn’t there. Sure, original album players Tommy Shaw and James Young are on hand to make it happen, but love him or hate him, Dennis DeYoung is nowhere to be found, and without him to carry the load on the songs he wrote, it might as well be a cover band. Mind you, it’s a good cover band, but it really isn’t the same.

– Timothy Hiatt

In time for Black History Month, Sony’s reissue imprint Legacy released Golden Gate Groove: The Sound Of Philadelphia Live In San Francisco, a sweetly nostalgic collection of O’Jays, Harold Melvin, and Billy Paul performances from 1973. Despite the bi-coastal anchors in the production, the show’s MC was Don Cornelius, who, at one point in the recording, ribs Kenny Gamble on stage for taking so long to produce the theme music for his nascent TV series, “Soul Train.” Of course, the disc’s timing is bittersweet for Cornelius, 75, who reportedly committed suicide in February. A South Sider, war veteran, and former policeman, he went down as one of the most important people in the history of black music and television. With his Barry White voice and collection of Bob Barker microphones, Cornelius set “Soul Train” on a path that would make it the longest-running, first-run nationally syndicated show of all time and became the principle avenue to cross-nationally market urban culture. If only he could have found peace, love, and soul for himself.

GROHL LIKES IT BOTH WAYS

Adele’s chart-dominance in 2011 precluded her six-Grammy haul last month, and this year’s awards were consolidated among a handful of artists: Chicagoan Kanye West took four, Foo Fighters nabbed five, Skrillex bass-dropped a treble, and — talk about inevitability — Alison Krauss became the most-awarded living artist with her 28th. (She surpassed Quincy Jones and is three-short of the all-time mark set by the late Hungarian conductor, Georg Solti.)

The show needed a spark, and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl seemed to take a swipe at electronic-based artists/producers (like Skrillex) in an acceptance speech: “It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].” Rockist traditionalists roared their approval, and were so elated someone finally said it that they missed Grohl onstage later with with electro heavyweights Deadmau5 and David Guetta. The singer later clarified his remarks, arguing his comments were more about the use of technology to wash out human imperfections and mistakes, and “I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I fucking love it), but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the ‘craft’ is equally as important, I’m sure. I mean, if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right?” There. Someone finally said it.

THE NAME GAME

Akoo, akoo: bo-koo. Banana-fanna bo-koo. Fee-fie bo-koo. Akoo! The World. Comiskey Park. Sears Tower. The Sting. O.K., maybe the Chicago Fire have successfully repelled the shadow of a predecessor. But the owners of Rosemont Theatre and Pancho’s (not to mention recent awning renovators at Memories (now Stage Bar) and McDunnas (now Ace Bar)) will vie to imprint new names upon a local public that just doesn’t have time to remember anything new. So, henceforth, Rosemont Theatre will be known as Akoo (bless you!), to highlight its partnership with Akoo TV, the country’s largest out-of-home television network (meaning they broadcast in health clubs, stores, etc.). The change of Logan Square’s Pancho’s to Township will probably feel fundamental to torta-munching regulars of the venue/restaurant. Chicago also receives yet another music hall, New York-based City Winery. Coming to the West Loop in July, the 300-seat venue/wine bar has lured program director Colleen Miller away from Old Town School Of Folk Music, the Chicago Tribune reports. It’s expected to battle Space, Lincoln Hall, and Park West for bookings.

ALBUM WE WON’T BE REVIEWING

The Shins: Port Of Morrow (Columbia)
As if the world needed more proof of The Shins’ inherent blandness, frontman James Mercer plugs Laura Veirs’ new album like this: “A brilliant record that anyone who loves good music will appreciate.” Yah.

– Steve Forstneger

Rumors that San Diego-based Taylor Guitars was gonna dip its big toe in the deep end of the amp business had us excited us to no end. Unfortunately, Taylor has made its ES Guitar Amplifier part of their limited-edition Builder’s Reserve series as a guitar/amp package (limited to 30 amps) called the Expression System. The news is a little disappointing, because it limits availability of a Taylor amp to the little guys. Hopefully the success of this amp this will encourage Bob Taylor and his comrades to make a guitar amplifier for the rest of us.

Designed by Taylor’s product development team over a period of several years, the ES marks a first for the company, matching Taylor’s ES series guitar to an amplifier of the same name.

The debutant is a 40-watt bi-amped speaker arrangement that offers an 8-inch custom Eminence poly-cone woofer for dynamic low end and a 1-inch textile dome tweeter to offer the exceptional highs. The bi-amp design enables the amp to reproduce the full, natural sounding bass of an acoustic guitar while maintaining crystal-clear highs. Working in conjunction with the volume, bass, and treble control knobs on the Expression System-equipped Taylor guitar, the amp features a simple volume control, reflecting Taylor’s philosophy behind the ES: “Your guitar, only louder.”

As mentioned earlier, this Builder’s Reserve edition of ES amps is designed to rival a beautifully crafted piece of art. Each is housed in a flamed-maple cabinet, with inset side panels of flamed-mahogany laminate that feature an elegant Pasadena Torch inlay crafted from maple and bubinga wood. The result is a extremely limited-edition collector’s piece.

As part of the special Builder’s Reserve set, the amp is accompanied by a matching Grand Symphony guitar (GSce) with a flamed-mahogany back and sides, capped with European spruce. Designed to showcase the impressive flamed mahogany, the guitar features a matching maple armrest and binding, fretboard, and peghead inlay of Taylor’s Pasadena Torch. The GSce also comes in a a cutaway body with Expression System acoustic electronics. Expect pricing to be in the upper bracket with only 30 amps in circulation. Details can be found at taylorguitars.com.

Yamaha
GL1 Guitalele

Available for the first time in the U.S,. Yamaha’s Guitalele is a miniature nylon guitar that looks and sounds like a ukulele, but features six strings and is set like a standard guitar tuned to A/D/G/C/E/A.

Chord fingering is the same for any normal axe, but now you lazy guitar-types can pretend you’re playing uke without the fuss of learning to play a uke. Yikes.

“The GL1 plays well and gives guitarists a fun alternative to their usual nylon-string guitar,” says Dennis Webster, marketing manager, for Yamaha Guitars. The GL1 retails for $140 and details can be found at yamaha.com.

Seymour Duncan
Fully Loaded Pickguards

Seymour Duncan is letting Fender Strat players hot-rod their tone and upgrade their electronics in minutes with a new series of Fully Loaded Pickguards. The Triple Rails Pickguard is tuned for those who play rock or metal using the high energy Hot Rails for Strat pickups, while the Classic Pickguard features a Custom Stack pickguard in the bridge, a Classic Stack in the middle and a Vintage Hot in the neck, giving you the sound of a traditional Strat aimed at classic rockers. The Bring Your Own Pickups Pickguard allows you to choose your pickup combination so that you can create the tone you desire. Install any combination of pickups in minutes thanks to the Liberator, which is installed in the Triple Rails, Classic, and Bring Your Own Pickups Pickguard and will allow you to change your hardware in minutes using only a screwdriver. The Antiquity Pickguard features an artfully aged look with true vintage tone and each is personally signed by Seymour W. Duncan. MSRP starts at $199 for your new hot-rod. More details can be found at seymourduncan.com.

News & Notes

Longtime friends of IE, Tobias Music in Downers Grove is showing off their all-new, expanded showroom featuring even more guitars with a “Happy Hour with Martin Guitars” on Friday, March 1st, and a second meet-and-greet and one-day sale with Taylor Guitars on Friday, March 30th. For details, visit tobiasmusic.com or call (630) 960-2455.

– David Gedge

In the 1970s, local radio legend Steve Dahl revolutionized talk radio with his raw form of radio verite.

Now, he’s breaking new ground by turning his “Dahlcast” podcast (at dahl.com) into a podcast network haven for personalities who are no longer on airwaves and deserve to be heard.

Subscribers who pay $9.95 a month (or $99.95 per year) can hear podcasts three times a week by Kevin Matthews and his alter ego, Jim Shorts, as well as a monthly interview show by former Q101 (WKQX-FM) jock James Van Osdol. At press time, Dahl was talking to rock legend Joe Walsh, sports talker Chet Coppock, and others. He also added a weekend archives show highlighting the best bits from his own storied past.

The podcast is not free or live like broadcast or satellite radio, but there are no commercials, or time/content restraints. Plus it can be heard anywhere, at any time.

We asked Dahl — who’s been off the air since 2008 and podcasting since 2009 — about the new network.

IE: When/why did you decide to turn the “Dahlcast” into a network?
Steve Dahl: I was always planning on adding more shows, but Kevin Matthews getting fired in Grand Rapids was definitely the catalyst for doing it now rather than later.

IE: You’ve always been on the cutting edge of digital/internet technology. Are there any innovations that have made this endeavor possible, where it might not have happened, say, five years ago?
SD: Smart phones really make the whole thing doable. We have both iPhone and an Android app, and I’d say the bulk of our listening is done via those devices. Of course you can just listen the old-fashioned way, too: on an iPod or just streaming from our website on your computer.

IE: I assume that the others record their shows at home, and do not commute to your basement . . .
SD: They send us the files via Yousendit.

IE: Why’d you want James VanOsdol to be a part of it?
SD: I think he’s talented and he’s a displaced radio person, so he meets my criteria for network status.

IE: Do you own your archives? How many years to you have?
SD: I own everything that I’ve ever done in Chicago.

IE: Are you serious about Chet Coppock?
SD: Yes, if we can think of a good concept for him. It’s not live, so some thought will have to be put into it.

IE: Any women on your wish list?
SD: I asked Wendy Snyder and her husband if they wanted to be a part of it and they declined. Come to think of it, they might not meet all of my criteria.

IE: Why not Kathy & Judy? They still have a loyal following.
SD: That’s an excellent idea, and I would love to talk to them about that.

IE: What does it feel like to be running your own “station”?
SD: I like it. My favorite part is letting people do whatever they want to do. No limits (except libeling someone). I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of something revolutionary, which is a feeling I’ve had before, but not in awhile, so that’s fun, too.

“JBTV” Goes Nationwide: Chicago’s longest-running independent music showcase was picked up by the NBC Nonstop Network on February 18th. Now, fans of new and independent music in major markets across the country can catch “JBTV” at 10 p.m. on the digital sub-channel. Smoking Popes, Rise Against, White Lives, Kill Hannah, 30 Seconds To Mars, The Menzingers, and Phantom Planet will all be featured in March.

“It is definitely our most robust opportunity to bring ‘JBTV’ to a national audience via broadcast,” says show creator Jerry Bryant, who has been dong the show as a labor of love for the past 27 years.

In recent seasons, “JBTV” added hosts such as Ryan Manno, Tobias Jeg, and Jenna Martinelli, and segued from a music-video show to a live-performance stage shot in Bryant’s state-of-the-art digital studio. “We want to continue to introduce people to new music first,” says Bryant.

But it doesn’t stop with the network show.

“We’re laying the foundation to transform ‘JBTV’ into a 24-hour radio, new media, and television network,” he says. “We believe very strongly in introducing music fans to exciting artists that don’t have a platform anywhere else, so we’re creating the platforms.”

Stream the developments at jbtvonline.com.

ODDS ‘N’ SODS: No word on whether Jonathon Brandmeier’s weekly NBC Nonstop Chicago TV show “Almost Live” has been picked up nationally . . . We’re sad to see the demise of scrappy little new-age mag Mindful Metropolis. The paper rose from the ashes of Conscious Choice in May of 2009. Publisher Richard McGinnis explained in a note to clients, “After 32 consecutive monthly issues, we decided to retire the title and move on to other endeavors,” and referred readers and advertisers to Natural Awakenings Chicago North and North Shore . . . Jim DeRogatis‘ riveting, meticulously-reported “Pop ‘N’ Stuff” blog posts about Lollapalooza’s sweetheart tax deals really do deserve a Pulitzer. Read them at www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis.

– Cara Jepsen